I always appreciate when people utilize relevant song lyrics to reinforce a point they are making. Hence I enjoyed, during Saturday's heated Saving College Stations panel discussion on the last day of the NFCB's (National Federation of Community Broadcasters) 36th Annual Community Radio Conference in the Fillmore suite of the Parc 55 hotel in downtown San Francisco, when panelist Dorothy Kidd, quoted and gave props to Joni Mithcell's 1970 song "Big Yellow Taxi." "You don't know what you got til its gone," said the Save KUSF advocate & University of San Francisco (USF) media studies professor quoting the song's famous lyrics in reference to how she, as a listener/fan of the beloved SF college radio station, felt in the weeks and months since January 18th when  90.3FM got the plug pulled on it by her bosses at USF. 

"We don't need  technocrats to come in and control our station," continued the articulate and ever vigilant Kidd, who as a panelist at last month's SF Music Tech Summit similarly spoke out against the actions of the USF administrators. At Saturday's panel however she was directing her comments at fellow panelist (and seeming target of the entire discussion) Marc Hand of PRC (Public Radio Capital) out of Denver, CO whose company was instrumental in brokering the deal that paved the way for KUSF FM's demise.
 
Another panelist was WFMU New Jersey station manager Ken Freedman, one of the Save KUSF organization's biggest allies, who point blankly asked Hand how he could broker such a deal which he knew in his heart was just plain wrong and detrimental to the community's needs. Freedman was referring to the demise of KUSF and such other stations as KTRU FM - the Rice University radio station in Houston, TX that two months ago similarly had the plug pulled on it following a PRC brokered deal.  Panelist Duane Bradley, of Pacifica station KPFT, Houston, spoke on behalf of KTRU and noted that how Rice University's lame excuse for getting rid of the popular Houston college station after 40 years on the air was that they "needed the space to build a new cafeteria." Bradley also made the excellent point of how, when a volunteer run college or community radio station like KTRU or KUSF goes away for good, so too does the combined pool of irreplaceable resources of music programmers who are extremely knowledgeable of and passionate for the music they specialize in - so much so that they do it all for free.

of local, community radio - that some new pointers on how to get KUSF back on the FM dial might arise. Or at the very least that there will be a show of solidarity towards the unfairly ousted KUSF programmers from their fellow left of the dial broadcasters of the NFCB whose tag is, "We are local. We are global. We are independent, connected, and engaged." 

Since KUSF was abruptly pulled off the FM dial on January 18th, when the University of San Francisco (USF) management secretly worked out a deal with Public Radio Capital (PRC) replacing 90.3FM with an out of town programmed classical station, the ripples have been felt across the country by other college & small non-commercial radio stations who, particularly in this time of federal & state funding cutbacks and universities clamoring for ways to generate money, wonder if they might be next to get the plug pulled on them. The move by USF was not an isolated one but rather part of an increasing trend by budget challenged colleges across the country. While tomorrow's panel will focus on the events that went down at KUSF and KTRU (another radio station that got kicked off the air) its message of what to do when your station faces the chopping block is as much, if not more so, directed at those college/student stations that are still on air but could soon face a similar fate.

Last Friday afternoon's Save KUSF themed KUSF In Exile Amoeba Music San Francisco instore featured half-hour sets by six popular DJs from the recently ousted, much beloved San Francisco radio station. It was a history making event in which fourteen non-commercial radio stations across the nation all simulcast the WFMU New Jersey remote broadcast live. The event was also streamed on KUSFarchives.org with a live video stream on yowie.com. As DJs Schmeejay, Irwin, Harry D, Jantine B, Carolyn, and Stereo Steve spun vinyl sets, dropping in classic KUSF IDs in between songs, with myself and WFMU co-host Gaylord Fields MC'ing the event, California radio stations in the Bay Area, Davis, and LA, in tandem with radio stations in seven other states across the US simultaneously carried the broadcast both terrestrially and via their respective online streams. These stations included many left of the dial college stations fearful of a similar fate in this current economic climate in which universities have been selling off their FM stations for a quick cash fix with no regard to the importance of the role that their stations play in their respective communities.

In an act of solidarity with the Save KUSF movement and the legions of KUSF 90.3FM supporters still in shock over the sudden silencing last month of San Francisco's beloved freeform radio station, Amoeba Music San Francisco will join forces with New Jersey's WFMU radio tnd several other radio stations this Friday, February 18th, to host an all KUSF DJ live remote broadcast that will be on WFMU airwaves back east as well as streaming online on WFMU.org. KUSF DJs spinning music sets during the 3 hour instore that begins at noon sharp will include Irwin (Sleeves on Hearts), Carolyn, Stereo Steve, Jantine B, Harry D (In The Soul Kitchen), and DJ Schmeejay, who was in the middle of his popular Tuesday morning show, Radiodrome, on the morning of January 18th when the plug (literally) was pulled on the 90.3FM transmitter. 

The other radio stations who will be broadcasting the Save KUSF Amoeba instore include KXLU Los Angeles who broadcast on 88.9FM, WXYC Chapel Hill, North Carolina who broadcast on 89.3FM, KFJC 89.7FM, WCBN Ann Arbor, KVRX Austin, KALX 90.7FM Berkeley, WITC Cazenovia NY, WREK Atlanta, KRFP Moscow, Idaho and KZSU Stanford who, as any Bay Area radio fan already knows, are at 90.1FM. Each station will broadcast both terrestrially and on their online streams.

I've been attending the amazing WFMU Record Fair for the past four years, ever since I joined the unique freeform New Jersey radio station, and the one thing that is a given at this popular annual event is that you will always spot a ton of Amoeba bags floating around the weekend long event. This should not be too surprising, considering that both the WFMU Record Fair and Amoeba Music attract the same sort of person -- one who is extremely passionate about his/her music, and music collecting.  With hundreds of thousands of records and CDs (plus tons more stuff) being sold by over a hundred vendors at the expansive Metropolitan Pavilion venue in the Chelsea district of New York CIty, the three day WFMU Record Fair attracts people from all over the States and overseas who will travel to New York City just to attend this event. Many of these same folks will travel all the way to LA or the Bay to shop at Amoeba.

This time last year I reported here on the Amoeblog about the 2008 WFMU Record Fair, where Amoeba logo wearing music collecting fanatics included Nakajima, who had flown all the way to New York City from Japan specifically for the WFMU event. And at this year's event (Oct 23, 24, 25), which was "a success" according to WFMU Station Manager Ken Freedman, the instantly recognizable black record 100% cotton tote bags with the bright yellow & red Amoeba Music logos and store of origin's name were sighted all over the place.