Revolution #257, January 29, 2012
“BA Everywhere” Hits the Airways on L.A.’s Hip-Hop Mega Station—Power 106
As an early part of the BA Everywhere Campaign, a one-minute ad for BAsics, from the talks and writings of Bob Avakian, was played repeatedly on the mega station Power 106 in Los Angeles in the days leading up to October 22nd, the National Day of Protest Against Police Brutality. The ad, featuring a dramatic reading by the Reverend Richard “Meri Ka Ra” Byrd, KRST Center of African Spirituality, of the quote from Bob Avakian, “An Appeal to Those the System Has Cast Off,” BAsics 3:16, was played over 30 times during a 3½ day period. It was made possible by donations from contributors around the country.
This ad was being heard just as a new wind of resistance was coming to the fore—from the Occupy Wall Streets of cities throughout the country...in the deeply expressed anger everywhere over the execution of Troy Davis...from the prisons where over 12,000 courageously joined in hunger strikes throughout the California prison system...and on October 22nd when thousands took to the streets in cities around the country to Stop Police Brutality, Repression, and the Criminalization of a Generation.
Power 106 has over 2¾ million listeners to its largely dance-oriented hip-hop sound, attracting principally young Latino and Black people in the 18 to 34 age group. Airtime was also bought on the early morning Front Page program on KJLH, a station that attracts nearly 500,000 somewhat older, mainly Black listeners.
The reading of this quote was done with seriousness and compassion, capturing the spirit of Avakian’s call to those this system has cast off, forced to live “on the desperate edge,” whether in the prison dungeons or without work or even homes, to “become a part of the human saviors of humanity: the gravediggers of this system and the bearers of the future communist society.” It ended by letting people know the book was available at Amazon.com, as well as at Revolution online—revcom.us.
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