BAY AREA : Activists object to Navy as concert sponsor

by Joe Garofoli

Anti-war activists are asking San Francisco radio station KMEL-FM to remove the U.S. Navy as a sponsor of the annual Summer Jam concert in Mountain View, saying the station is "using hip-hop to promote the military to young people of color."

The high-profile event, set for Aug. 21, usually sells out the 20,000- capacity Shoreline Amphitheatre.

San Francisco’s Global Exchange, the group Code Pink: Women for Peace and two dozen other organizations are leading a protest at noon today in front of the San Francisco offices of Clear Channel, which owns KMEL and nine other Bay Area stations.

In the weeks before the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, Clear Channel — the nation’s largest owner of radio stations — sponsored "Rallies for America" in several U.S. cities. The conglomerate’s officials defended the events as supporting the military. Anti-war activists called them "pro-war" rallies.

The protesters allege in a letter they sent Clear Channel and KMEL last week that the Navy’s sponsorship of the concert was an attempt to "promote the Bush administration’s pro-war agenda."

Clear Channel spokeswoman Gabby Medecki downplayed the sponsorship.

"The decisions made for Summer Jam have all been made locally," she said, "including the decision to include the military, which has been a longtime sponsor."

In the Bay Area, Clear Channel also owns KQKE-AM, which carries the liberal Air America network’s talk shows, and KNEW-AM, home to conservative Michael Savage.

"I think the diversity of our stations here speaks for itself," Medecki said.

KMEL and Navy officials did not return calls and e-mails Monday.

Clear Channel officials said the Navy and other military recruiters had sponsored the Summer Jam concert for at least 10 of its 19 years. But activists are particularly concerned this year. Only one Bay Area music station has more listeners than KMEL-FM, according to the most recent Arbitron ratings. A Clear Channel official confirmed that roughly 40 percent of the station’s audience are people of color.

"For many people in these communities (of color), the military is an escape from the violence they see in their neighborhoods," said Jen Low, an organizer for the protesters. With several branches of the military not reaching recruiting goals and with public opinion polls turning against President Bush’s handling of the war, activists see an opportunity to show "the Navy is attempting to use any and all means to meet its goals," according to the activists’ letter.

They want KMEL to sever its "ties" with the Navy or grant "counter- recruitment groups equal access to the 2005 KMEL Summer Jam as that granted to the U.S Navy."

Medecki said counter-recruiters were welcome to have a booth at the event at Shoreline Amphitheatre for the same price other sponsors paid — $5,000 to $10,000.

Low said the organization didn’t have enough money to sponsor a booth, but it does plan to buy tickets to the show and do counter-recruiting inside.

E-mail Joe Garofoli at jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com.

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