Recent programming changes at Fairbanks' public radio station KUAC (89.9 FM) have drawn sharp criticism and the promise of collective action from angry listeners who have accused the station of bowing to pressure from right-wing state and federal politicians.

KUAC cut several programs, including the popular news program CounterSpin, the ecology program Living on Earth, the women's news program 51 Percent, and the "freeform" public comment period from borough assembly meetings. Two newly acquired shows will be broadcast daily to replace the cut programs: On the Media, a media and entertainment journal, and Marketplace Money, an economic news and advice show.

For fans of the hard-nosed CounterSpin, the Marketplace Money web site offers an introduction to the show that reads like a flashing warning light: "We won't nag. We won't make you feel guilty...we'll have fun. It's money, after all, that lets us snorkel in the Cayman Islands, drink a good bottle of wine, or spoil the ones we love."

Individuals who wrote and called the station to protest the changes received no official response, and decided to organize. The newly formed group is called KUAC Listeners Alliance, and represents about 400 people, so far.

Dan O'Neill, a Fairbanks journalist and member of the Listeners Alliance, said the group's main goal is to bring back both CounterSpin and the assembly comments period to KUAC. O'Neill said the replacement programming resembles what is available on commercial media outlets, and does not adequately replace the lost programs. "They've traded edgy and informational for bland and mainstream," O'Neill said. "CounterSpin was a smart, tough, critique of mainstream media, and it was replaced by a show that's friendly to business interests."

The political climate makes the programming changes suspicious, O'Neill said. "At a national level you have Bush installing partisans into NPR and PBS, and at the state level you have this ignorant statement from [Fairbanks Representative] Jim Holm that the legislature should control the content of public broadcasting."

Greg Petrowich, KUAC General Manager, said the changes were not motivated by political pressure, though he acknowledges that it may appear that way to the public. "We don't take the legislature into account," Petrowich said, adding that "independence" and "integrity" are two of the core values included in KUAC's mission statement, and that he takes them very seriously.

Listeners Alliance member John Davies, a geophysicist and former representative to the state legislature, points to the same mission statement in his criticism of the new programming. "The change was made to move towards the homogenous and middle-of-the-road, and it contradicts KUAC's mission," said Davies.

KUAC's mission statement begins with the declaration, "We tell stories that would otherwise go untold," and continues largely in that vein throughout the document.

The KUAC Fall on-air fundraising drive begins in mid-October, and the Listener's Alliance has begun collecting "conditional pledges": money that will only be given to the station if the Alliance's requests are satisfied. So far they've raised about $30,000 in pledges, and without a lot of effort, they say.

Davies said that as a longtime KUAC listener, it feels "awkward" to encourage people to make conditional pledges. "But," he said, "we got the feeling that the station just wasn't going to listen."

The Listeners Alliance also advocates the formation of a standing board of community advisors, which the station had in the past but has disbanded.

Petrowich agrees, at least in principle, with the idea. "We would definitely like to get public input," he said. "The challenge is to come up with something that's effective."

Asked whether he sees the possibility of a mutually acceptable compromise between the station management and the Listeners Alliance, Petrowich says that he's hopeful. "The two sides actually have a lot in common," he says. "Nobody wants to see KUAC damaged."

Comment on this story...