• Nomination Statement
• Candidate Questionnaire

My name is Bonnie Simmons, and I'm running for re-election to KPFA's Local Station Board. I really love KPFA, and I understand the importance of keeping our radio station healthy so that we can carry our message through our extraordinary blend of news, public affairs, music, and arts programming to a broader listenership. I believe one of the most important tasks before the Local Station Board in the coming year is to select good pools of management candidates for the station. We need a permanent General Manager and Program Director who are competent, supportive, and visionary. I like to think that, as someone who's been closely involved with KPFA for over 15 years, and as someone who has served as Program Director, Music Director, and Operations Manager at various other radio stations in the Bay Area(including free-form pioneer KSAN for many years), I'll know what qualities to look for, and how to recruit good candidates for these jobs. I plan to encourage the LSB to get involved in fundraising and outreach for the station much more effectively than it has thus far.

I've been involved with KPFA since 1990, when I first began hosting the Bonnie Simmons Show - currently airing on Thursdays at 8:00PM, and comprised of recorded music, interviews and live performances. Over the past years, I've taken on extra work for the station in a number of capacities: serving as a representative of the unpaid staff on Program Council, on the Unpaid Staff Organization Council, and, most recently, on KPFA's Local Station Board. For the past three years, I've served as Vice Chair of the LSB, and on several committees of the Board: Programming, Outreach, and Personnel. As an active member of the LSB's Personnel Committee, I helped develop and execute our first ever 360° performance evaluation of the GM, the first time in recent history that the station's staff, paid and unpaid, have been able to evaluate the General Manager. I worked on last year's national day of fundraising for the Pacifica Archives, helping to ensure that our network's tremendous legacy of music, cultural, and political programming is preserved for generations to come. I have also been on the National Programming Committee for three years, and this year I am serving as the Chair of the Pacifica Archives Committee.

I believe with my 35 plus years of experience working in radio, with musicians, and most recently as a festival production person, I bring to the Local Station Board an understanding of how radio works, and what good radio sounds like. I am also accustomed to successfully facilitating collaboration between large groups of people, many of whom may have opposing views on any number of subjects. If I am re-elected, I will continue to work hard to make things better at KPFA, and I promise to stand up for a KPFA in line with what its founders envisioned: a place where our news, public affairs, cultural and music programming can peacefully and creatively exist under one roof.

1. Why do you want to be on the Local Station Board?

I want to continue to help keep KPFA a great listener supported radio station. As commercial radio and television--indeed all media and more and more aspects of our daily lives--come increasingly under the control of a handful of corporations, it becomes more urgent that we dedicate ourselves to ensure the health and integrity of KPFA and the Pacifica Network. Having already served on the LSB for three years, I understand many of its foibles and feel that I serve a valuable function in being able to communicate well with both my fellow staff members and managers at KPFA as well as the Listener members of the Local Station Board.

2. How do you envision the Local Station Board working with the Pacifica Foundation, KPFA and the community?

The local station board should function effectively in two very important roles. First, as an oversight body: in reviewing the station's budget and participating in the hires of senior management, we help set the station's general priorities. Second, as a liaison to the community we serve: KPFA's Local Station Board needs to be more proactive about organizing community events and reaching out to people who don't know about KPFA yet, as well as responding to our current listeners.

3. How could the station better serve it's listeners?

First and foremost, by improving the quality of our programming, and making sure that it is relevant and is serving the Pacifica Mission. Second, by doing a better job of promoting our programming--KPFA does some phenomenal things on the air, but if we were to concentrate on more and better promotion, both on and off the air, we would better serve an even broader listenership.

4. Describe some actions you would take to increase the influence of the station in underrepresented communities and to increase the diversity of the listening audience?

KPFA's Local Station Board plays a role in forming a community advisory board charged with doing a community needs assessment--we should prioritize including people from those underrepresented communities so that we have input from a community broader than just those who already listen.

5. What sources of funding, other than listener donations, do you feel KPFA should solicit?

I think we need to carefully examine how we go about our regular fund drives - so that we can do the best job possible without listener donor burn-out. KPFA should also strengthen its tradition of raising money through community events-these events don't just make money for the station, they get us out, representing the station, and interacting with the people who listen to us. KPFA should make limited use of grants, and also I think it would be possible to investigate further use of our website for the merchandising of KPFA items and our fund drive premiums.

6. Please state briefly the skills, experience, educational background, work history, organizational affiliations, areas of community service, areas of interest and expertise that you would bring to the Pacifica network as a member of the Local Station Board.

I've been involved with music and radio professionally for 38 years. I worked at the Bay Area's legendary free-form radio pioneer KSAN for many years, starting out there as Music Librarian and Public Service Director, and then serving as a full time announcer, and Program Director. I have worked at a handful of other radio stations, all in the Bay Area, either as an announcer, or as Music Director. I've worked with musical artists and on music projects throughout my career, and for the past 5 or 6 years, I've become more and more involved in festival logistics and event planning--a skill that's come in handy in helping the station with some of its fundraisers.

I've served on several nonprofit boards, including the Board of Directors of the Center for the Preservation of Musical Culture, which housed the music libraries of Conrad Silvert, John Wasserman, and KSAN.

7. Do you anticipate missing any Local Station Board meetings due to family or job related problems or inadequate transportation?

No. In three years, including all the regular LSB meetings and LSB Executive Sessions, I was excused from one meeting in 2004, one in 2005, and attended all others.

8. On which Local Station Board committees are you interested in actively serving?

I currently serve on the LSB's Personnel Committee and Outreach Committee, as well as on the Programming and Archives Committees of the Pacifica National Board.