Al Jazeera's Status In the US Media
Al Jazeera English, the Middle East's largest media outlet, gets little attention in the US media market, and is actually has fewer subscribers to their satellite feed than Al Jazeera Farsi in the US. The news network has gotten a lot of attention for it's supposed anti-American coverage of the War on Terror, and at the same time praised by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by being, "real news" unlike American media. Their 24 hour news format has exposed the US's secret war in Yemen, by exposing the Yemeni government's supposed self-bombing, as actually being executed by US jets and later in wikileaks that the Yemeni administration had lied to the Yemeni parliament about allowing the US to do military operations in Yemen. Thus far, Al Jazeera has had difficulty getting affiliates in the US, but has signed on with Pacifica, a large radio network of community and public stations.
KDVS's Role in the Sacramento Media Market
KDVS 90.3 Davis is a student and community run radio station out of Davis CA, who 9200 watt range now covers and will soon cover a great deal of metropolitan Sacramento to reach the cities 200,000+ population. Always a leader in alternative radio, the Pacifica-Affiliate station has added Al Jazeera to it's programming schedule for and will be airing a half-hour news program at 8am Monday-Friday. The station will be the only media outlet, radio or otherwise, other than satellite that will carry Al Jazeera. Jerett Sierad, KDVS Programming Director, comments,
"We were unsure of Al Jazeera because they are a huge news outlet, similar to those we are the alternative to in the US, but after reading of their problems with getting demand in the US, and with the great coverage they are offering of the world-changing events in the Middle East, we decided taking on Al Jazeera would be unique for our market and in line with our programming philosophy."
Pacifica has distributed Al Jazeera to stations throughout major US cities and it's 24 hour a day broadcast is being testing in small TV markets. It's ultimate goal, of national TV syndication is still a long way away, and may be trapped in niche markets unless more outlets follow in KDVS's shoes and introduce their vital programming. All of Al Jazeera's programming can be live streamed at english.aljazeera.net or special ordered through satellite providers.
This will not displace any of our other news shows, Democracy Now! and Free Speach Radio News will continue to air at their regularly scheduled times.
