Thursday, April 03, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury

Letters

Don't let zoning dispute doom homeless facility

On behalf of the Southern Nevada Homeless Coalition, I wish to express our united concern that potential action by the city of Las Vegas may cost the community yet another program--the God in Me Ministry Transitional Living Facility, much needed by the homeless.

This is a small program but important to those who are assisted. This agency goes about its work without any publicity or fanfare. It has done this for 14 years from the same location, now found by the city to be unacceptable. It was not noticed all those years because it created no problems for the community. As a matter of fact, even the police would take homeless people in need to the program. It receives no public funds, depending on private donations to support its efforts.

In these times of extremely limited federal, state and local funding resources, this is the type of program that must be enhanced and supported. It asks nothing from the government but to be permitted to provide assistance to those in need.

We know the city, after all these 14 years, has found the program in noncompliance because of zoning. We clearly understand the government's responsibility in this regard. There must, however, exist some room for reasonableness, especially when weighing the benefits this agency provides to the community at no expense to the government.

--Gustavo Ramos Jr.,

Chairman,

Southern Nevada Homeless Coalition

MGM Mirage shows contempt for protesters

I attended an anti-war demonstration in front of the Bellagio back in January, at which time hundreds of middle-class, normal Las Vegans who care passionately about peace and justice had to contend with that hotel turning up the dancing-fountain music to twice the normal volume, in an attempt to drown out our speakers.

This past weekend I went to visit a group of young Las Vegans who were "fasting for peace" at the corner of Trop and the Strip, to help revive their spirits and make sure passing motorists knew what they were doing and why. My friends there told me that New York-New York refused to let any of the fasters enter the hotel to so much as use the restroom (although of course, on a Saturday afternoon thousands of scruffy tourists were doing same).

Will someone please remind the esteemed management of MGM Mirage who own these two hotels that, last we looked, protesting and standing up for the truth are at least as American as, well, losing your rent in their slot machines. Perhaps next time they'll cease their shameful performance and send out an employee with a friendly, patriotic smile and some bottled water, instead of obnoxiously trying to stifle dissent and mock our constitutional rights.

--Triton Hebbron

Pursuit of federal funds set KUNV's course

A friend clipped and sent the recent cover story on KUNV in the Mercury.

I just wrote back to him saying that I feel somewhat responsible for sending the station down the slippery slope of cultural homogeneity. While I clearly expanded the station's commitment to diversity and nurtured its position as a "community" radio station during my tenure as station manager from 1986-1993, I began the station's chase for money with KUNV's first public radio-style on-air fundraisers, funds from granting agencies and financial support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB).

It's the CPB support that troubles me the most in hindsight and in light of your article. CPB funds had strings attached at that time. In order to qualify for funding we had to expand from three full-time staff to five full-time staff over a three-year period. CPB was holding out the carrot of increased, unrestricted funds in order to encourage small stations to build staffing infrastructure.

Since CPB wouldn't (and shouldn't) fund such staff increases in their entirety, the station needed to seek funds elsewhere. Managers subsequent to my departure sought those additional funds through increased listenership brought about through homogenization of the program schedule.

In some ways, this makes sense. Commercial stations are successful because they "hyper-serve" their audience with niche formats and narrow playlists. (Folks seem to like that for reasons that still perplex me.) Nonprofit stations across the country like KUNV took a page from the commercial radio handbook and have been adopting the ratings-based mentality of their commercial brethren, much to the detriment of the mission of public radio, which doesn't make sense.

A few years ago, the ratings chase for public stations quickened. CPB started to require that stations demonstrate local support in terms of local fundraising and listenership in order to continue the flow of dollars from Washington. Their argument? They wanted more bang for their buck. Under heavy scrutiny from a Congress obsessed with cutting everything but the military (good thing, hunh?), CPB wanted to be able to argue that their funds were serving more Americans because stations were increasing their audience size.

And there you have KUNV's dilemma. In short, had KUNV not sought funds from CPB, the station might not be primarily a jazz station today. I'm not sure what it would be, but that was part of the charming character of the station.

Surprise. Whimsy. Cultural diversity. Educational programming. These may not be the means by which stations build large audiences, but they should be the yardsticks a community station licensed to a university should be utilizing to measure success.

--Rob Rosenthal,

Shunpike Audio,

South Portland, Maine