Urban Unrest

05 April 2005 | Community | Ernesto Aguilar

This will appear in the next Newsmongrel, but it’s a clarification to early readers:

After last week’s note on commercialism, I had a lot of great discussions with many of you on the issue. Thanks for the ideas and feedback. I needed to issue a clarification as well as an apology.

First, I’m very sorry if I put a scare into anyone. This is one of our most gray areas as far as KPFT and nonprofit law, and I know most of you have never received any substantive feedback on this topic. No one in particular is in danger. It’s just something we need to start thinking hard about.

Second, I needed to clarify the line begins and ends at money the programmer may take in as a result of an announcement or guest. Other than that, it’s good to avoid gratuitous shilling for products, goods or services (i.e. passionate guests going a little overboard in mentioning their websites; guests asking for listeners to call them personally, as opposed to answering questions on the air; etc.). Bands can still mention websites and shows. You can still read off your calendar of events (though you should also send yours to the Blueshound too: blueshound@houston.rr.com). Guests can still discuss the work they’re doing (but please reign them in a bit if it begins to sound too commercial). My encouragement is that hosts consider how to approach these things creatively so an interview doesn’t become a long ad. But you’re mostly still okay doing your usual great stuff.

Third, the money issue should be cleared up too. If you’re a programmer and promote on the air an event, product or service you’re involved in in which you personally or another entity you may be involved with, which is not a 501(c)3, will accept money, give me a call and let’s discuss. Although I’m still looking into nonprofit law to see where this falls, it’s potentially a conflict of interest that can be raised as a concern. How much is made, where the proceeds end up and such are not as important as the appearance of a conflict, and should be resolved. I’d much rather you brought it to my attention than a listener or disgruntled party doing so. This is merely the start of a conversation we should be having regularly. I am genuinely happy with the feedback, critiques, etc., and want to learn all I can from you.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!