Pacific Time, the nationally distributed public radio program about Asian and Asian American affairs, is being taken off the air by San Francisco PBS station KQED.
SFGate has a story, but I first heard about it through Keith Kamisugi’s Facebook page.
I always thought Pacific Time’s mix of news from Asia and stories about Asian Americans didn’t always mesh. At Hyphen, our focus is Asian American subjects because that is the audience that is under served by the mainstream media. While there obviously is interest in Asia among Asian Americans, it always seemed to me that Pacific Time covered Asia to make the program more marketable to a non-Asian American audience.
KQED says finances are to blame for Pacific Time’s demise, and that some of the stories it covered will be aired in other programs. That may be a good thing, as one of the goals of diversifying the media is also to “mainstream” stories about under covered subjects rather than marginalizing them.
On the other hand, some stories Pacific Time would have covered may not get aired. Pacific Time was one of the few news programs around with an Asian American focus, so it is a loss. Pacific Time’s last show will air Oct. 11.
This post can also be found on Hyphen magazine’s blog.Â