From: owner-believers-digest@smoe.org (believers-digest) To: believers-digest@smoe.org Subject: believers-digest V7 #123 Reply-To: believers@smoe.org Sender: owner-believers-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-believers-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk believers-digest Thursday, July 17 2003 Volume 07 : Number 123 In Today's believer's digest: ----------------- WXPN cancels "Amazon Country" [WoodellDC@aol.com] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2003 10:58:57 EDT From: WoodellDC@aol.com Subject: WXPN cancels "Amazon Country" Apologies for the cross-posting. I called the station and talked to someone at Member Services, and it is true. Here is an email I got on the subject, which includes some ideas for working on this. Deb > ******************** > > SAVE AMAZON COUNTRY!!! > Longest running "Women's Music" Radio Show Canceled > by WXPN > > What has happened? > Amazon Country, an award-winning radio program > explicitly dedicated to > lesbian and feminist perspectives and music, has > been canceled with two weeks' > notice by its host station's management, after 29 > years as a mainstay of > Philadelphia's lesbian and feminist communities. > > Why is this a problem? > o Amazon Country, on the air since 1974, is the longest running "Women's Music" radio show in the country, and represents an important cultural legacy. o Amazon Country is a unique program in the Philadelphia area, and as such is the ONLY place in radio where lesbian and feminist lives and experiences are reflected. This is an under-served and under-recognized audience. In addition to providing a connection to lesbian and feminist music and culture, Amazon Country is a source of information about events and issues relevant to our communities. o Amazon Country provides an outlet in Philadelphia for musicians who rarely get air play anywhere else. Small performance venues and independent producers also rely upon Amazon Country to promote these events to their target audiences. Independent artists and small venues are increasingly shut out by commercial and corporate radio environments. Amazon Country represents the true spirit of community-based public radio. What is WXPN's rationale? o WXPN management has stated that they are interested in making more air time available for "family oriented" radio on Sunday evening. (Apparently lesbian/feminist families don't count!) Their new Sunday line-up will add an hour of Kids' Corner on Sunday evening (which runs 4 shows a week currently, M-Th), move the Folk Music show, and push Q-Zine to 11pm (an "adult" time slot?). o WXPN management claims that Q-Zine (a weekly Queer Arts and Culture magazine) addresses the same community and interests, although they acknowledge that they made this decision themselves, with NO dialogue or consultation with anyone in/of these communities. o Over the past few years, WXPN has moved to increasingly homogenous programming, eliminating some independent and unique programs and pushing others to the least desirable time slots in favor of promoting World Cafe and similar material. > Several years ago, WXPN tried to cancel Amazon Country, claiming that the audience was too small to matter. When a broad base of concerned listeners raised a fuss, they re-considered. It must be noted that for the past 5 years WXPN has not allowed the current host, Debra D'alessandro, to do on-air fund-raising during the time of the show, denying her the opportunity to demonstrate clearly that there IS an audience base for this show. Despite the fact that they dismantled Amazon Country's website, WXPN management has also prohibited Debra from announcing the termination of the program until the last show (currently scheduled for July 27th) in an apparent effort to silence dissent and avoid accountability to the community. WE MUST LET WXPN KNOW THAT THIS SHOW MATTERS, THAT WE ARE LISTENING, AND THAT WE ARE PISSED!!! Whether you are a regular listener, an occasional listener, an Independent artist, a lesbian and/or feminist, a supporter of Women's Music and Culture, or a proponent of truly diverse community-based public radio, we must join together to show a mass movement of support for the preservation of Amazon Country! > > What YOU can do: o Let WXPN know that you oppose this decision: - Call the station at 1-800-565-WXPN or 215-898-6677 and register your opinion. - Email the station at wxpndesk@pobox.upenn.edu - Write or stop by the station at 3905 Spruce St., Philadelphia, PA 19104. Which ever method(s) you use, ask to speak with or have your message forwarded to Roger LaMay, General Manager and/or Bruce Warren, Program Director. Be specific about what you value about the show and why you think canceling it is wrong. o Go to www.PetitionOnline.com/zon3953/petition.html and sign an online petition that will be used to show WXPN management how many of us are out here and care about this. o IF YOU ARE A MEMBER OF WXPN, make sure to express your outrage to Member Services at MemberServices@xpn.org . Make sure you let them know that you are a member. Consider whether you want to continue supporting WXPN given their current actions, and let them know what you think. Put "SAVE AMAZON COUNTRY" in the subject heading. Or send snail mail addressed to Member Services, WXPN.> o IF YOU ARE NOT A MEMBER OF WXPN, think about what Amazon Country (and all of what it represents) is worth to you and to our communities. Are you willing to pledge to join WXPN if they agree to KEEP Amazon Country on the air? (A year's membership costs $50.) If so, go to http://www.petitiononline.com/supp703/petition.html to sign a different petition than the one mentioned above. This is not a pledge commitment, but a statement of intention, and the kind of thing that may get the attention of WXPN's management. o IF YOU ARE FROM OUTSIDE OF THE PHILADELPHIA LISTENING AREA, let them know why you care. Be sure to mention if you are one of those people who listens to the show via live webcast. o IF YOU HAVE BEEN featured on Amazon Country, or helped or supported by tuning into this show, be sure to say so. o Other ways are being planned to bring attention to this issue. If you want to be notified about organizing meetings, opportunities for protest or action, send email to: SaveAmazonRadio@aol.com Organizers are setting up an announcement-only email list for this purpose, and will add your address to the list. (The list will not be given to anyone else for any other purpose.) If you have ideas of your own for ways to fight this, send your ideas and contact info to the same email address, and organizers will get in touch with you. o IF POSSIBLE, PLEASE KEEP US POSTED ABOUT WHAT YOU HAVE DONE BY SENDING COPIES OF YOUR WXPN CORRESPONDENCE OR BRIEF SUMMARIES TO US AT SaveAmazonRadio@aol.com === The further in you look, the further out you see... -- Sonia Rutstein === When you're generous in spirit, it comes back to you. -- Nicole Kidman HELP! owner-believers@smoe.org Send mail to believers@smoe.org Susan's CD's are available on your desktop at World Cafe CDs http://worldcafecds.com ------------------------------ End of believers-digest V7 #123 ******************************* ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------- -------------------------- This has been a posting from the Susan Werner believers-digest To unsubscribe send mail to Majordomo@smoe.org with "unsubscribe believers-digest" in the body of the message