CIPB Chapters -- San Francisco, CA

Organizer: Henry Kroll
Email: wgskroll@igc.org
Voice: (415) 387-9190
Chapter Website:

ACTIVITIES

CIPB—San Francisco is revving up for the Ready for PBS Documentary Tour. Along with the event planning, the chapter is reaching out to its local PBS station to propose programming and getting the message out to media Democracy activists at the Project Censored conference in late April.

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PREVIOUS MEETINGS

May 2001

CIPB San Francisco heal an organizing meeting on May 10th to host the "Ready for PBS Documentary Tour" in the fall. The chapter coordinator, Henry Kroll, is a long-time area public broadcasting activist.

April 2001

A working meeting of the Chapter was very productive. Two work groups, one designing the CIPB-Northern California local version of our flyer and the other working to approach managers of the area TV stations worked for over an hour on their separate projects. The last half-hour of the meeting was sharing the work each group had done and setting the time and place for the next meeting.

February 2001

A working meeting of the Chapter was very productive. Two work groups, one designing the CIPB-Northern California local version of our flyer and the other working to approach managers of the area TV stations worked for over an hour on their separate projects. The last half-hour of the meeting was sharing the work each group had done and setting the time and place for the next meeting.

November 8

A working meeting of the Chapter was very productive. Two work groups, one designing the CIPB-Northern California local version of our flyer and the other working to approach managers of the area TV stations worked for over an hour on their separate projects. The last half-hour of the meeting was sharing the work each group had done and setting the time and place for the next meeting.

October 4

Update from Henry Kroll: "With the many activities in San Francisco surrounding the recent national radio convention of the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) September 20-23, we had several opportunities to invite others interested. On behalf of CIPB, fliers for our group were distributed at Golden Gate University's panel on Media and Democracy as well as the Postal Workers Conference on Labor and Media. On Sept. 23, I also spoke on behalf of CIPB at the Board meeting of National Public Radio. I urged them to reverse their position of opposition to the FCC's new licensing process for LOW POWER Community FM broadcasters."
" For CIPB - Northern California, we hope to see you at the meeting very soon."

July 23

On Sunday, July 23, about 60 people gathered at the Unitarian Universalist church in downtown San Francisco to launch CIPB's Northern California chapter. The meeting was co-chaired by Daniel del Solar and Henry Kroll. Del Solar, a former public broadcasting station manager, is also a member of the CIPB national board. Kroll is a local public broadcasting activist and former Board member of KQED San Francisco. Ed McClarty, former Chair of the California Public Broadcasting Commission, also was on hand as was CIPB Executive Director Jerry Starr who had done five radio interviews and two book readings/signings in the area.

To start the meeting, Kroll asked everyone present to introduce themselves and articulate their primary concern about the state of public broadcasting today. All statements were summarized briefly on newsprint, to be included later as part of the record of the meeting. Participants were then treated to the local premier of the CIPB video, Put the Public Back into Public Broadcasting: If We Don't Do It, Who Will? Narrated by Mike Farrell, the film was produced by Globalvision who gave us the PBS series "Rights and Wrongs" as well as "South Africa Now." Globalvision's Executive Director, Danny Schechter, delighted everyone by showing up to share words of encouragement for the new venture.

Jerry Starr then summarized participant's major concerns (e.g. absence of diversity in public affairs, growing commercialism, etc.) and indicated how the CIPB national and local campaign would address them. Starr described various activities available to participants, like promoting alternative programs to local stations, nominating candidates to serve on station boards, inviting a CIPB speaker or staging a short conference on media democracy, putting on a "Banned by PBS" film program to recruit new members, raise funds and educate the general public, expressing public opinion on a variety of broadcasting reform issues pending at the FCC or in Congress, etc. He assured those gathered that history is clear: a small group of committed people can make a difference in promoting community responsive broadcasting.

Kroll, Del Solar and an eight member steering committee set the next meeting of the new chapter. Meanwhile, participants will consider what roles and activities they personally would prefer. The CIPB Training Manual How to Make Public Broadcasting Accountable to Your Community provides many useful examples. This website provides many annotated descriptions of radio and TV program series and documentaries suitable for broadcast on your local stations now.