By Jean Ponzi
KEEP KDHX ALIVE and LOCAL!
Say this in your best Monty Python voice: KDHX is NOT DEAD YET!
This column is sister to the environmental interview show, Earthworms, that I produced and hosted on FM-88 KDHX St. Louis Community Radio, from April 1989 until January of this year. I learned so much from hosting the show, as my volunteer community service. If you listened and got something good from Earthworms, THANK YOU!
Today, there’s an urgent opportunity for us all to give back to KDHX for what we’ve learned and enjoyed in so many ways, from so many shows, all produced by volunteers like me.
News about the apparent demise of KDHX has been intense. I hope you have also read reports about and from the League of Volunteer Enthusiasts, LOVE of KDHX. We are longtime KDHX DJs and show hosts, calendar producers and event outreach folks. We are working to keep our unique community radio station alive – and restore it to fiscal and cultural health, as a broadcast and, not only, internet service.
I’ve worked in LOVE of KDHX since 2023. Once again, KDHX gives much to me: learning community organizing, in a democratic structure (and a zillion hours of meetings), in cooperative efforts by a dedicated group of longtime KDHX volunteers. No heinous turns of events or discouraging headlines will stop our work to restore KDHX as a true community voice.
KDHX is NOT DEAD YET and LOVE of KDHX will turn this story around!
Efforts to negotiate with the handful of people controlling KDHX were stonewalled, so LOVE turned to The Law. Legal environment is where I’m learning now, in the thick of it. It’s time-consuming, expensive, and the cornerstone of democratic ways.
I bring my KDHX-grown eco-logical power to this work. Here’s how you can contribute.
- Keep the faith through the facts. Headline reports draw from PR agency output. They’re hired by KDHX current management to tell that version of the story, and as good at what they do as the PR pros who shill for Fossil Fuels. Producing Earthworms taught me how to decode and defang toxic communications. Knowing a message’s source can renewably fuel capacity to deal with it.
- Realize that what’s happening with KDHX is a local mirror of what’s happening in society overall. A very small, barricaded group of people, who believe they deserve control, is driving a narrative designed to discourage large groups of concerned people from taking action to keep and restore what’s valuable and vital for us all. Our local action to change this dynamic can strengthen and connect us to respond at larger levels in this kind of manipulative environment. KDHX alive and local will, in turn, support our larger work.
- Subscribe to the LOVE of KDHX Substack for weekly fact updates and action directions. Get to this from www.LoveOfKDHX.org, alsovia Facebook.
- Make a $$ contribution to keep KDHX alive for community service. If you can make a monthly commitment, that’s the best. It shows the Judge how our community is with KDHX for the long haul. It’s also affordable. Can you contribute $10, $25, $50 a month or more? Go to www.KDHXAliveAndLocal.org. Every contribution matters. Thank you!
- Tell your friends! If everyone reading this gets 10 friends to take action, our network of impact will grow like moss, one of the oldest, strongest forms of life on Earth.
- “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” – Margaret Mead
Thank you for reading – for listening – for joining this effort for LOVE of KDHX. And thanks to The Healthy Planet, another vital, delightful community service.
Jean Ponzi is a strong, longtime local voice for Earth. KDHXAliveAndLocal.org