by Carol Wolfley
Live streaming with interactive media connections has been identified by members of United for Community Radio (UCR) as a key platform issue in the upcoming KPFA Local Station Board election. People involved in United for Community Radio have initiated and participated in the KPFA Live Streaming team. And, United for Community Radio supports greater community participation and increased visibility of real-time events live steamed to the kpfa.org website.
Janet Kobren is working to establish procedures for all Pacifica stations and affiliates to coordinate and consolidate live streaming on a national level. She is a United for Community Radio Local Station Board incumbent candidate, a Pacifica National Board member and the Foundation Secretary and a live streamer herself.
Janet and Local Station Board member Frank Sterling have persevered in support of live streaming at KPFA Local Station Board meetings. Frank is also a UCR representative. Both have faced strong opposition from Save KPFA-aligned program director Laura Prives.
The KPFA Live Stream Team is a group of live streamers, media specialists, street journalists and activists committed to providing up-to-the-minute news, public affairs and cultural events coverage through KPFA.org and KPFA-stream. They are volunteers who provide audio-video access in real time for smart phones, pads and computers. They want to provide regular live streamed material broadcast from KPFA’s website and/or archived as video on kpfa.org. These live on-the-spot broadcasts help those who want to follow what’s happening and what people are doing in the streets about all kinds of issues.
Archive of KPFA’s live-stream from the February 7, 2015 Oakland Rally for Real Climate Leadership, the largest anti-fracking rally in U.S. history.
The team defines themselves as part of community (local and global) actions, working in solidarity with others around the U.S. and the world.
Locally, the team streamed the 2014 Block the Boat and other Port of Oakland pickets to support ILWU Local 10 longshore workers to refuse to work Israeli ZIM line ships, and on May Day of 2015, covered the Port of Oakland shut down for Black Lives Matter. The team was at the Real Climate Leadership March, the “Shell No[3] ” blockage of the Port of Seattle and the May 24th Break the Curfew event at Oscar Grant Plaza.
The team is reaching out geographically and into diverse communities to help people participate in events through live streaming and social media. To get an idea of what larger scale live streaming resources look like, go to Global Revolution.
United for Community Radio and the KPFA Live Stream Team would like to see one-click live stream access on kpfa.org and to expand with much more real-time news on KPFAstream.
Please support this effort by voting for Janet Kobren, Scott Olsen, Sharon Adams and all of our UCR candidates in the upcoming KPFA Local Station Board Election.
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Carol Wolfley is a retired Berkeley U.S.D. teacher, does mediation and is a member of the KPFA Community Advisory Board and Outreach Committee.
Live Steaming graphic by Ron Mader