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G. Mario Fernandez

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G. Mario Fernandez

G. Mario Fernandez

 
 

Recent SF State political psychology graduate, former Napa Community College Student Body President, former Occupy Oakland volunteer

Salutations!

I’m Mario Fernandez, a Bay Area Native and a KPFA community listener for over 20 years. I am excited for the opportunity to be part of the Local Station Board. Programs like Hard Knock Radio and La Onda Bajita are part of this amazing institution that represents a community/culture that sits aside from mainstream media.

KPFA isn’t alternative news or music; it is community generated content. The KPFA motto is exactly the view from which I will govern: Listener Supported, Community Powered.

As a representative of the KPFA community, I will work to provide transparency for the process and sustainability of the station budget. Resource improvement for staff—paid & unpaid—is necessary to the improvement of the station in terms of technology and interpersonal relationships. For the community, the re-establishment of the program council would engender a stronger connection with the station and generate more grassroots content.

The time I have spent as a student-representative on numerous committees involved in various projects (e.g. Get Out the Vote drives, legislative visits, funding for higher education demonstrations, etc.) shows that I know the importance of strategic planning and the necessity of a proper budget.

YOUR support and power are the motivational forces of KPFA. My community empowerment comes from my involvement in local politics from Occupy Oakland to Black Lives Matter and recently the Save E. 12th St. Parcel and highlights my activism. The community support I elicit is part of what I am when I volunteer at Park Community Garden or assist with our neighborhood clean-up out near West Oakland. This is what you give KPFA and this is what you’ll get from me as your local station board representative: support and power.

Thank you to the United for Community Radio (UCR) group for their endorsement of my candidacy. Both mine and their views overlap for a more sustainable, responsible, and community connected station.

My endorsers include: Bruce Dixon, Black Agenda Report; former local station board members Chandra Hauptman, Cynthia Johnson, and Joe Wanzala; and, Marylin Langlois, Richmond Planning Commissioner.

Please feel free to contact me through the UCR (www.RadioUCR.com) website or my Facebook: www.facebook.com/awesomemario

In Solidarity,

G Mario Fernandez

Official Q. & A.

1.  In what ways are the station moving in a positive direction, that you would want to continue or perhaps improve?

KPFA provides amazing music and great a great perspective of national and international news not typical of mainstream media.  The station’s ability to now live stream is a great use of technology and shows its ability to evolve in the dynamic landscape of media.

 

2.  In what ways are the station moving in a negative direction, that you would want to stop or change? What changes would you work for?

Accounting process 1This station needs more emphasis on its respective communities and to engender more involvement with local interviews with locals and local events. KPFA also ought to have a more transparent and sustainable budget given that the station is wholly listener supported.

 

 

3.  What key experience, connections, skills or traits would you bring to the Local Station Board to advance the station’s mission?

I bring my passion and fervor for social justice and my community, my understanding of specific accounting practices, and my organizing/organizational skills. I have worked on political campaigns and have been a student-representative and leader at the local and state levels, so I am familiar with this type of representational setting. I recently graduated with my degree in Political Psychology from San Francisco State University, and I have been in involved in the Black Lives Matter movement and with Occupy Oakland. This is the type of work for which I am passionate.

 

4.  What ideas do you have for helping the station and the Pacifica Foundation meet the financial challenges currently being faced?

Of course, a sustainable and transparent budget would make it easier assess the fiscal future of KPFA, but there is at least one significant solution to this issue: fix the financial errors that cost KPFA the CPB grant. Constant on-air fundraising and the grant aside, the only other way to get the needed money to operate is to move beyond the airwaves and solicit our residents and listeners on the internet and in-person at local events.