Our Final Episode: Transcript

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About This Transcript: This text version of our radio show/podcast is created to make our content more accessible to all audiences. However, it may not be 100% accurate. Some things to keep in mind: The original audio is always the most reliable source. Some words or phrases may be transcribed incorrectly due to audio quality, accents, or overlapping speech. Speaker labels are our best attempt at identification. We welcome your feedback if you spot errors that affect meaning or understanding.

[00:00:00] Narration: Welcome to Voices of the Community. I am your co-host and associate producer, Eric Estrada. This is our final episode before we sunset the show. In this special episode, our guest host, Lila LaHood from the San Francisco Public Press, takes you behind the scenes with George and myself. We discuss how Voices of the Community was created, reflect on some of our most memorable moments across all our series, and share stories and answers from an audience Q&A.

This panel was hosted and recorded at KSFP's new studio space, and we owe a huge thank you to Mel Baker and the San Francisco Public Press team for hosting us.

[00:00:49] Lila LaHood: Welcome to the San Francisco Public Press. This is our first event in our new office in the Warfield Commons building at Market and 6th Streets in San Francisco.

I'd like to give a shout-out to CAST, the Community Arts Stabilization Trust, and KALW Public Media, which teamed up to purchase this building and then filled it with arts, media, and community non-profits. We are thrilled to be here recording this conversation today in our sixth floor newsroom. Let me introduce our guests.

We have George Koster, host and founder of Voices of the Community, and Eric Estrada, producer of Voices of the Community, which has aired on KSFP 102.5 FM in San Francisco since 2019. And KSFP is the community radio station associated with the San Francisco Public Press. And I'll say this upfront, George actually helped us launch and get the station funded.

We've been on the air since 2019, and we're very proud and pleased and happy to have this longtime partnership. So thank you both for being here today.

[00:01:56] George: Thank you, Lila. It's wonderful to see, to be hosted by Lila, Mel, and to see Michael in the room. I haven't seen Michael in a long time. And to go back to... We were just saying this conversation goes back about 10 years, having a radio station, so.

[00:02:09] Lila LaHood: Yep. So we are here today in particular to celebrate and reflect on six years of Voices of the Community as you prepare to close out this podcast series, which started out focusing on the work of nonprofits in San Francisco, and expanded to include conversations with a wider range of residents, change-makers, and thought leaders as a way to bring attention to and amplify solutions to local challenges.

So first, let me say congratulations to both of you for a fantastic run and nearly 200 episodes. And George, tell me about, what were you trying to do when you launched Voices of the Community? What was your initial idea, and where did this all come from?

[00:02:50] George: Well, I think it goes... My, my love of radio literally goes back to...

So back in the '60s, my favorite station in San Francisco was KSAN. That's when radio was owned by families. A lot of families owned radio stations or small companies. And I used to listen to KSAN, um, I grew up on a farm outside of Stockton, and you could s- you could get the signal at nighttime of KSAN. So I loved just music and the whole community that KSAN stood for, et cetera.

So I decided I really wanted to be engaged in radio, and when I was 16, I took my FCC Third Class operator's license. Mel could relate to this, 'cause that's the only way you could get on the radio. And my first gig, if you will, in radio was with the community college in Stockton, and then the University of Pacific had a station in Stockton which sat on an eight-story tower with this huge transmitter that people could listen to us from all over the valley, 'cause it was flat So that was quite fun.

And I d- I loved radio and the whole idea of storytelling. And so when I came back to San Francisco in 2010, 2011, I decided to go back to City College of San Francisco and work on a multimedia journalism certificate. And part of it was working on KCSF, and one of the class requirements for the certificate was to create your own radio show.

And that's when I met Mr. Estrada, AKA Chips. Um, that's his radio nickname. He was our station manager for the class. And I basically decided to create Voices of the Community 'cause I always felt like one of the missing components of radio or grassroots radio is basically grassroots voices. There are only so many grassroots radio out there.

It's low-powered FM stations across the country. And I really wanted to use the platform of radio to be able to tell stories of all of the amazing work being done in San Francisco. Been in San Francisco on and off since 1977, and I discovered when I registered for my city college class that I still had a student ID 'cause I couldn't register for the class.

And I went to the registrar and the woman was like, "Well, you still have an, a student ID." And I'm like, "Wait, that was like 1977." She's like, "Yes, it's right here." And no one believed that that was my student number. She's like, "Here's the best part. Because your number's so low, when the classes come up, you can get the class you want George,

[00:05:20] Lila LaHood: I love this.

Now I have to ask, what class did you take in 1977? Do you remember? Uh,

[00:05:24] George: filmmaking. Ah. Yeah. Yep. Okay. So

[00:05:25] Lila LaHood: yeah,

[00:05:26] George: a, a group of filmmaker refugees in '77, we made a film, used my rental house. I- it was classic, you know, living in San Francisco in your 20s. There was six of us in a four-bedroom house, and the house became our set.

And so over a period of five days, the whole house was a set. Our r- our roommates became production people, actors in the show. It was quite fun. And we shot on 16 millimeter black and white 'cause that's all we could afford.

[00:05:53] Lila LaHood: I love it. George, I, I don't wanna take us too far down this path, but tell us what happened between your budding sort of interest in film and then return to this creative energy with radio.

What did you do in between?

[00:06:04] George: Um, lots of stuff. When I lived here in San Francisco, I basically produced a v- a lot of shows, had an event company. I worked on the 50th anniversary of the Bay Bridge, went out to Caltrans and said, "Let's do something." I tried to create what was called the Festival of Bridges at the time, where we tried to do '86 and '87 bookended by the Golden Gate in '87 and started with the Bay Bridge in '86.

So I worked on that 50th anniversary. I did the finale 50th anniversary for the Golden Gate Bridge. I worked on Art Agnos' inauguration, and then just produced a ton of corporate events. That was kind of the closest you could get to, to doing theater. I, I loved theater when I was in high school. I made films.

There was n- we didn't have money in our school to actually have a radio station, but I produced eight millimeter films and was the stage manager, Eric can relate to this, in the behind the scenes at our, our theater in Lodi. Lodi, California was the high school. And I really just kind of fell in love with the whole idea of theater and storytelling, and it's really difficult to make money as a filmmaker and to try to raise money, especially if you're trying to do documentary films.

So my senior project at UC Santa Cruz was, it was a double bachelor degree in filmmaking and theater production and environmental law. So it was a whole documentary about the San Lorenzo River that runs through downtown Santa Cruz

[00:07:31] Lila LaHood: You have really done a lot of different things Yes ... but I can see the through line, especially with connecting with people and what's happening in the community, and really just that, that sense of engagement.

[00:07:40] George: So I just feel it's super important, and what I love about San Francisco Public Press and what we're trying to do with KSFP, and it's wonderful to see the programming fill up with more people, is to provide a public service. I mean, it's very difficult to get on terrestrial radio. Getting on KQED or KLW or even KPFA, it's really hard to do that.

What's wonderful about podcasting is that it's allowed people to become media makers, especially with the advent of the smartphone where everyone has a recording device. Back in the day, you had to have basically a Super 8 film per thing, and then you had to cement, and you're manually editing your film, and all that stuff can be done digitally these days, and it's wonderful.

So back to City College, going there to school, learning the craft of it, Eric was my mentor and guide in helping me put together the shows and learn how to use Adobe editing tools, which drove me crazy But, you know, he, he- I would be, like, trying to do the live show and broadcast things and edit and get it done at the last moment.

So, you know, it was a great opportunity to basically learn how to do, if you will, kind of documentary audio storytelling. And then our first... This is at the same time that City College was going through accreditation, so we had to fill programming, right? 'Cause that was your class project, so my class project, besides the show, was to actually create a series.

Our first series was a three-part on unhoused people. I did a whole show on how students at City College. People don't realize there's an actual department that helps students that don't have housing to get books, get food, get Muni services. And then that's when I engaged with Project Homeless Connect, and kinda led me down the path of doing a lot within our unhoused community, and what would you say, Eric, of our 190-plus, we probably have 30?

30 or 40 on unhoused?

[00:09:35] Eric E: Yeah, probably around 30, 40, maybe that.

[00:09:37] George: So it's become a, a, a real topic to try to provide that platform. And then we did, I did a five-part series on City College and the importance of City College. And I was talking to Lisa earlier just about the importance of City College and community college, and one of the big arguments is, you know, and was at the time in the accreditation, is community college a community asset where people have lifetime learning?

'Cause we did an entire show on ESL, and people don't realize that City of College of San Francisco had the largest ESL program in the state of California. Wow. So, and they were gonna close it down because of funds. And, and, or is your community college just a pathway to get to a state college or a University of California college?

You know, is it just basically what they would call a junior college instead of a community asset, where you can be a 70-year-old learning how to play music or go back and learn how to make a podcast or all those kind of skills that you wanted to learn and there's not many places. And growing up, you know, with a teacher, being married to a teacher, I just feel like education is one of the few ladders out of poverty still available for people in our community.

[00:10:48] Lila LaHood: Yeah. Eric, when George said he had this idea, what was your first reaction, and did you wanna get involved?

[00:10:56] Eric E: Well, the way that I kind of got involved with this was more, like, you know, George asking for my expertise of like, "Hey," you know, "how do I fix this and how do I make it sound better?" Because, you know, I recorded this in a room and I'm like, "Oh yeah, you know, you do this, this, this and this."

And then he was like Wow. And so when he brought me on, I was just, again, blown away by the storytelling aspect of it. I- it's something that I never really kind of gave too much emphasis or thought on. So when, again, he asked me, like, "Hey, do you wanna be a part of this? You know, I would love to have you on board, so then that way, you know, I can..."

You know, because the, the thing with, with podcasting and with editing and everything like that is that it, it takes a lot of time, you know? If you're not turning out an episode, like, every other, you know, week or every other month, it is a lot of work, and it is time-consuming. You know, you're sitting on one story, and you're like, "All right, that's done.

All right, now it's a month later. All right, now you gotta keep the series going." So yeah, I, I think that's kinda what just drew me into wanting to he- help George, was like, you know... It, for me, it was like, oh, it's a fun thing to get involved with. And again, it was, it's, the funnier part is that I'm kind of, like, learning about all these different topics through the editing.

Mm-hmm. Because it's something that, again, not to say that I would have never learned on my own, but it, again, it's funny that as I'm editing I'm like, wow, like, all of these topics that we're covering, like, they are real. They are tangible things that, you know, people are going through or people are struggling with.

So...

[00:12:30] Lila LaHood: Yeah. Talk about real. George, you and I had a chance to talk about Voices of the Community very close to the beginning, when you had produced 12 episodes, and so I went back and listened to that episode, and I have to tell you, it snapped me back in time to the spring of 2020 What was happening when we talked that first time?

And, you know, what, what do you remember about that time and your work on Voices of the Community in that era?

[00:12:57] George: Well, so that was, it was the beginning, you know, February of the beginning of, you know, COVID-19, and everyone decided we're just gonna shut down. And so, I mean, the beauty of technology, I mean, think about it.

I was working with my longtime friend, Susan Mernit, at Hack the Hood, and Zoom was one of our sponsors to try to do technical... We were, we were bringing youth together with small business to help y- you know, youth learn how to do digital marketing by building free websites for mom-and-pop businesses, for micro enterprises.

And we would try to convince people to get on Zoom calls with us to have conversations so that... 'Cause we couldn't afford to, like, go all over the place to meet people. And in March of 2020, Zoom became the magical instrument for everybody to talk to people without getting sick, right? So from my perspective, it became an amazing platform to conduct interviews from a room, right, where I didn't have to wear a mask, to someone else's room, and we could, you know, shift time, and didn't matter where we were or what time it was.

And it was this really great platform and opportunity to, to tell stories. So, uh, decided that I would, really wanted to do a whole program on how the pandemic was impacting our nonprofits and our small businesses, and then our local government in the form of local government services. So we did a whole show on libraries, for example, and the importance of libraries and how libraries have always been kind of civic centers.

But that was when we launched the whole series with Paula over at BVAC, a close friend of Lisa and myself, and she reached out and said, "Hey, we wanna... We're, we're talking about doing a, a TV show that we really want to focus on." And it was like I was thinking of the same thing. So I helped them produce the first 10 shows, which then became half-hour half-hour shows, two interviews per half-hour show per week- Yeah

which we were running as fast as we could to do that, and they became TV shows. So that was our kind of launch of the COVID-19 series where there's, what, 105 episodes? Yeah. That kicked off in March of 2020 and ended in January of 2023. And that was the, we ended it and then did a whole series on the impact of COVID-19 on arts, the whole arts sector, arts and cultural workers.

'Cause I worked at five theaters at the time, SFJAZZ, City Arts and Lectures, Herbst, et cetera. And everyone, 90% unemployment. Everyone got laid off, and people were able to get unemployment, and that's when the government decided that basically nonprofits could actually apply for small business loans. What an idea.

And, and so we did a whole series on small businesses and how the SBA help people, you know, get engaged in the support services. So, so the, the whole idea of the series was these nonprofits that are kind of invisible to us do all this work to support us, to support our community, to really provide, you know, a pathway forward for people, to keep people alive.

I mean, housing, we did a whole series on housing during the pandemic series because all of a sudden, you know, healthcare and housing was intersected. It always has been, you know? And so we'd have people on camera and on microphone say, "Housing is healthcare," right? And, you know, now we're able to put people in hotel rooms where before it was okay that they slept in a tent out in the street, right?

And it wa- it was just a really wonderful opportunity to use the, the platform and the microphone to, to share all of these stories, and that also really helped us focus in on, on the TV production piece of it. But distribution, as we've talked before, about how to... Once you create a show, and Eric's really right on, I mean, I- people ask me, like, you know, "Is it easy to produce a, a show?"

And I'm like, "Sure, if you got a couple hundred hours." Because it's easily that much time. 'Cause when you think about a show, you have to come up with what's the idea of the show? Who do I wanna talk to? Who, you know, is a person that's an expert in this? Then, you know, you're outreaching. So, th- Eric's been wonderful because he gets to do all the production piece of it.

That allows me the time to go reach out and produce, you know, a 12-part series on the city of Stockton, and Michael Tubbs, who's the first mayor to ever do universal basic income. And you know, it allows me to go out and talk and bring people in to the pipeline to produce the show. But once you've actually produced it, all you've done is capture the content, then you have to do all the post-production, which is where, you know, Eric's magic comes in.

[00:17:32] Lila LaHood: Yeah, George, you know, one thing that I think about is because you were talk- You know, I know when we, w- as I said, listening to that episode from six years ago, you had told me, you know, you were already familiar with a lot of the nonprofits you chose to profile and spotlight. What did you see in the ways that they adapted to and found their way through the pandemic that surprised you?

And I know you said, you know, a lot of them, you know, everyone was laid off and they took unemployment, but there were some that had to remain active or had to find different ways of doing business. What, what did you see that surprised you? What were some themes that emerged through all those conversations?

[00:18:06] George: Well, what was really fun within the arts sector was being able to talk to San Francisco Mime Troupe, and to say to San Francisco Mime Troupe, "You guys, have you ever thought about doing, you know, radio theater?" And, you know, the founder, Michael, who's the executive director, almost jumped out of his chair.

We had this whole conversation about m- you know, basically radio theater, and that's when I had the opportunity to bring the mime troupe and KSFP together so that the mime troupe created programs that got broadcast on KSFP. Then new friends at... So the, Karen, who's the, the stage manager at San Francisco Mime Troupe, also happens to be the stage manager of Z Space and slash Word for Word.

So then we reached out to the Word for Word folks, who also, same conversation. So then I put the Word for Word folks together with the mime troupe people, talking about how to do, you know, what they're doing, how they're doing it, and then they took Word for Word and created it into, into radio plays so that they could...

You know, so much of the production arts, you know, uh, space was trying to pivot to figure out, how do you create virtual productions? So k- you know- The, when you're sitting in a black box listening to or watching a live show like we are here, you know, the fourth wall is the wall out there that the audience is kind of looking in.

And so what's been wonderful about virtual production, and it really opened that fourth wall so that people could be brought into the room from any place in, in the world. So y- the idea of them pivoting where they're trying to figure out what are tools, what are ways that we could get our content out into the world, and they all really struggled to try to figure out how to do virtual production, especially in, in the performance art space.

Plus, they're still trying to raise money, trying to stay alive, trying to get grants. And then for so many of the social service, we did a whole series on, on food scarcity, 'cause that was one of the other, you know, one of the other things that, you know, people were struggling with is how to get food because you couldn't show up in person at a food pantry anymore.

So San Francisco, you know, Marin Food Bank was really trying to get volunteers to, to volunteer and pick up bags of food 'cause all of the pantries were closed. So, you know, I was delivering food. My wife was delivering food to dozens of families, families that she, you know, were part of her school. Lots of seniors that were locked up.

So they were all trying to figure out how to exist in a world where, you know, you can't really, you know, you have to be six feet apart, you can't talk to each other, but also how to pivot in a, in a financial way to try to get people engaged in supporting, you know, kind of the, all of these support services that are just there that now are, are, it's, you know, kind of a death-defying experience, right?

Either without these services, people are dying.

[00:20:57] Lila LaHood: Yeah. You know, it's amazing. As I said, thinking back to that moment and, you know, communities change gradually and you don't notice it at first, but when we see where we are here today and com- think back to that point in time six years ago, it's easy to see that the Bay Area has changed in dramatic ways, socially, economically, politically, you know, and definitely influenced certainly by national shifts.

[00:21:21] George: You know,

[00:21:21] Lila LaHood: you were having these conversations with, you know, different people and organizations all the way, and there were some, as you said, some, some themes that you explored intentionally. Did you see those shifts that have happened here emerging from the conversations you were happening with nonprofit, nonprofit leaders and others?

You know, were there any trends that you'd say you noticed early on before they accelerated?

[00:21:42] George: I, I would s- I mean, one of the common threads I think for people was really struggling to, to figure out how to create a pipeline of funds because everyone was kind of closed down, meaning that it was difficult to get in front of a foundation, right?

Were people there? How did you get in front of them, et cetera. And then a lot of the philanthropy also pivoted, right? They were, they were doing programmatic services, and you as a grant writer, along with Lisa, know this quite well, right? It's always about project funding. And, and they were trying to convince their funders so much about, like, general services, right?

General overhead, where, you know, you need to have funds to keep the doors open and lights on, and for people to show up and do the work, instead of just a project. So I think people were really trying to figure out that, and you could see that that theme has gone both in a positive direction, and I think in a negative direction.

And I also feel like there's a lot of the nonprofits that were really pushing back the foundations because every- you know, all these foundations are sitting on millions and millions of dollars, and then only l- you know, releasing a small percentage of their portfolio of funds, you know, each year. So they're really trying to figure out how to change the dialogue with the funders, I think to really see the true, you know, core services as something that are worth funding that aren't attached to an actual project and a project budget I also, I also noticed in a lot of the social organizations, they were really trying to figure out how to engage so much, so many people, you know, were working remotely, so you couldn't get people.

You couldn't have your big annual fundraiser, you know, et cetera. So they were trying to figure out how do you do a virtual fundraiser?

[00:23:28] Lila LaHood: Mm-hmm.

[00:23:28] George: Right? How do you raise funds by getting people that have been donors to you in a way that they could, you know, participate in a community, you know, from a virtual screen, for example.

And I would say the other piece of the puzzle was, was really, and, you know, we covered this in our Arts for a Better Bay Area summit, a really wonderful series, and I'll let Eric talk m- more about that because CAST, who did this building, was part of that series. We did a series with, with Arts for a Better Bay Area and BAVC and ourselves, which was a TV show and a radio show and an audio and a video podcast, but it was all about how the arts were trying to come back in, in the Bay Area.

And one of the things, um, you know, that, and Maria Jensen really hit it in her keynote, which is, you know, it was the doom loop. So I think so many, and I'm sure everybody in the room and listening, you know, it was the, the San Francisco doom loop because we were the poster child for dysfunctional city, you know, in the United States during the pandemic, and they still use it.

And so that was another piece of it is like, you know, how do you use, like it's the classic don't let a crisis, you know, go to waste. How do you use the crisis to actually r- reinvent? And so part of that whole summit and conversation was the reinvention, and then that led to our second season with Julie Baker and California Arts, or Californians for the Arts, where that was a whole summit on how arts was healthcare because they had started down the same pathway, but it's always been there as arts education, but now using arts as a, as a mental health services, as, you know, a, a health service where you can actually get a prescription for arts.

So I highly recommend checking out those two series because they're really wonderful opportunities to see the kinda intersection between art, social services, housing. We did a, a panel discussion on affordable housing for artists, for example, and Josh Simon, who is one of the founders of CAST, was part of that whole conversation.

And I, it, it, it was, it's really interesting just to see how all the stuff that we knew was there and what the pandemic did was just, I, I used to call it like this giant X-ray, right? Where, like, it was all kind of there, and then all of a sudden the pandemic, you know, turned the X-ray on you, just saw how horrible it really was, including, you know, the economic disparity, you know, in, in, in the Bay Area

[00:26:00] Narration: You are listening to the final episode of Voices of the Community. I am your co-host and associate producer, Eric Estrada. We'll continue our special look back at this incredible journey with creator George Koster in just a moment. But first, we wanna pause and send a heartfelt thank you to all of our previous donors, grant makers, and community partners.

Your generous financial support is what fueled a decade of independent storytelling, giving us the resources to make the invisible visible. We truly couldn't have done it without you. Still ahead, we have more memories, behind-the-scenes secrets, and a live Q&A with our audience. Stay tuned.

[00:26:39] Lila LaHood: On that happy note, well, actually, the segue is well into, nicely into my next question.

You know, talking about from more recent conversations that you had, you know, maybe in the, the last year or two, can you say anything about how AI might be affecting the people, organizations, and issues you focused on, you know, whether in the arts or education or public policy or social services? How, how much did that come up in your conversations, and what, what did you notice?

[00:27:05] Eric E: Well, I mean, the one instance where I can think of AI kind of coming up in the conversation was during that arts and culture series that we worked on with, uh, California Arts and Culture Summit, where again, it's like, you know, AI is... And what I've ne- been at least noticing is that it's always growing, right?

It's getting better. It's getting faster. It's getting... So I think, again, I- as far as where it was mentioned in that context of like, you know, it's, it's getting kind of scary as to how crazy and what it can do, right? But I think we have to, at least as people and may- maybe as, again, early adopters of AI, we have to kind of like draw the line in the sand where like it's where, not to say where we don't cross, but we have to draw a defining line where it says like, okay, like again, the best example I can come up with was in that panel they said AI art is literally scraping the internet and putting together images that were like pretty much stolen and collected, right?

And so I think, again, in certain aspects, again, we're still kind of learning, kind of growing with it and kind of understanding as to like what is artificial intelligence and what can it really do. So I think at least as far as AI goes, like I think that's the most, that's the more common trend that I've been hearing a lot of people talk about- Mm-hmm

is that it's just like, you know, in certain situations it's, you know, it's icky and it's gross, yes, you know. But again, I think we all have to come to an agreement of exactly, you know, is AI a tool? Yes or no? So yeah.

[00:28:48] Lila LaHood: So Eric, I have another question for you. Mm-hmm. You know, you produced nearly 200 episodes.

Which were the most memorable episodes for you, and why?

[00:28:58] Eric E: Oof. That's already a loaded question. That's a really good question. So I can s- definitely say, again, the second season of Where Arts Meets Impact definitely is one of the ones where I've had the most fun, because since we're making it into a TV show, we really had to like push The technical part of it in the sense of like, you know, going picture-in-picture.

That way people can see what's on the screen, and it's not just a wide shot that it's like people are struggling to... You know? So it's always those kinds of aspects at least that that is d- technically one of my favorite series to- that we've produced, is just 'cause, again, I- we were at that point just pushing every technical boundary that we had.

Mm-hmm. And then as far as, like, maybe audio, I would definitely say the COVID-19 series, only because, again, it just goes to show how if we use technology to kind of, like, again, aid us in the sense of, like, we were all in a situation where we couldn't be in the same room. We couldn't capture the quality that we could, right?

But, you know, with something as simple as an iPhone, an iPad, and a pair of a- air- AirPods, you know, you can really make amazing-sounding content. So. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:30:16] Lila LaHood: George, do you have any favorites, and what was special about those conversations for you?

[00:30:20] George: So many really wonderful favorites that are out there. I mean, the ones that come to mind for me is just the, I think the humanity, the people's experience with anybody in nonprofit land, especially people sitting in the room and people listening.

I mean, it's not a, it's not a, "Oh, I am gonna go make a lot of money and get a stock option by working in nonprofits." Not gonna happen. People do it because they really care. They, we, you know... So many of the stories we, we covered, and started so many of the folks that were our main storytellers were the founders, people who started something, you know, or they were mentored by someone who started it, you know, and have been there for years because it's something that they really truly cared about, that they, you know, felt like, "This is something that I feel like if I can do this work, I can make impact in my community."

So I, you know, I, I think that's a, a, such a common theme, whether it was food scarcity or it was small businesses, lots of small business people talking about, you know, like, how do you survive as a small business and pivot and constantly, you know, innovate. You know, or it's, you know, an artist who's like, "You know, I wanna do a show.

How do I get funding?" And back to your AI piece, the intersection there is how do you use it as a tool to help you be a, you know, a copywriter or a content creator. You know, it's, it's a wonderful, powerful tool, completely unregulated, and of course, you know, very, very, you know, scary in the what it can and can't do.

I love the latest stories where they jump out of the sandbox and go attack each other. It's right out of a science fiction movie.

[00:31:59] Lila LaHood: George, Eric, what do you hope people take away from Voices of the Community?

[00:32:04] Eric E: I think what I want people to take away from Voices of the Community is that, number one, there are real stories, real people kind of experiencing things that- I don't think a lot of mainstream, like, news or media does really talk about, right?

Like again, we did a, a few episodes about homelessness, and I currently know somebody that is going through all of that. And it is... If it wasn't for all of these amazing organizations like, you know, Compass Family Services and, you know, Simply the Basics, like, if it wasn't for these services existing, then it would definitely be 100 times harder to get where they are currently, you know?

And so that's, I think, what I want people to take away from Voices of the Community, is that these are... There are real people sometimes experiencing these real kind of struggles, but then there's also, you know, organizations that are really trying to, I guess in a way, you know, are for humanity, right? And trying to better people and actually really trying to do the work, you know?

And the other thing I also want people to take away from Voices as well is that there are a lot of, like, you know... A- again, I always think of it as, you know, the kind of g- David and Goliath story, right? We always, you know... Support your local businesses because, you know, those are the people that, you know, you want to keep around, you know?

There are, like, when we did the COVID series, th- there were so many local family businesses that I had no idea existed. And, uh, it's funny because again, you know, talk about, like, one of the people that we featured in the story was Grotto Winery, and they are literally a block away from my house. And I'm like, "Wait a minute That address sounds so familiar and I'm like, "Oh wait, that's literally a block away.

How did I not know that that place existed?" And so yeah, there's a lot of, again, organizations, a lot of locally owned family owned businesses that do need your guys' support and keep supporting them. Yeah, again, I understand that, you know, Amazon and all these other things make life more convenient. That's fine.

You- you're more than welcome to do that, you know, every once in a while I would say. But you know, again, if you wanna kind of, I don't wanna say earn your native, your San Francisco native card, but you know, go and check out all the mom and pop places that, you know, would love to have your business and I'm definitely, you know, 100% sure that they would love to have you, you know?

And they, they can, they know how to get down on food or whatever it is that they do. They know how to, they know how to do it well.

[00:34:49] George: I, I, I would say if you listen to our, our show, every show kind of has the same formula to some degree which is us telling we want y- we want you, like us, to discover, you know

So we come up with a topic or an idea. We want you to discover someone in our community that we've discovered and that we're telling their story and amplifying the story and at the end of every episode you're gonna be battered over your head by us saying, "You know what? We want you to get engaged.

Here's how to get engaged." And each episode includes, you know, an e-newsletter if we have your e-newsletter. Every episode takes you to a landing page, an episode landing page and in that episode landing page is basically, you know, a slideshow of all the people. There's a bio of each person that you're being introduced to and where they're from and there's background information on their organization and there's always here's how to get involved.

Here's how to get involved. Here's how to get off the couch, get out of your space, get off your screen and go engage in your community. Our community is only as good as we, you know, are as participants. So you know, if you want to see downtown come back, if you wanna see Mid-Market which we're in and Mid-Market is one of our series in our art series, you know, it's get out there and support those small businesses.

Go out and support a small theater group. Go out and, you know, basically take any friends or relatives that come to San Francisco to places that you've never been. So you know, we want people to think of the show as really as much a community resource and you can go to the shows and find out about things people are doing like Flower Piano, right?

It was just another really wonderful show and we interviewed the two guys that created Flower Piano and why and their love of playing piano outside and moving pianos, you know, out ami- you know, and their stories of being harassed and harassed for piano showing up in public. So you know, it's those kinds of storytellings, it's, it's Going back to when I first came to San Francisco, what I loved about San Francisco in the early days of being here in the '70s was it was a refuge for people from the rainbow tribe.

It was a place where you could be anything, anyone. It was, you know, what I love was the crazy, was, you know, and we still have it today. Sometimes, you know, we're next to the Tenderloin, and the crazy's a little bit dangerous for p- people. But, you know, it's still a city where, you know, there's all these multiracial, you know, pansexual, democratic, small D, trying to figure out how to live and work and come together.

And so the, at its core, Voices of the Community is us sharing your voices, the voices of the people that we live with, so that you can get to know your community more, support your community more, and engage in how to make it a better city. And that's, goes back to the idea of the doom loop. So if you believe in we're in a doom loop, then probably not the place to be.

But if you think the doom loop's a great opportunity to completely reinvent San Francisco, like after the 1906 earthquake, right? Or after the first, you know, dot bomb in 2000s. You know, we're now in another reinvention with AI, and you see all the stuff exploding. So, you know, it's us. It's up to us as a community to get out there and get engaged and participate and get to know people

[00:38:16] Lila LaHood: George, Eric, thank you, but we're not done yet.

We wanna give a chance for if anyone in the audience has questions for our guests based on what you've heard or just ideas that have emerged and you'd like to discuss what you've heard. And Rosie's got a microphone, so just raise your hand and she will come to you. Before I pass it off, and just to let

[00:38:35] Rosie: people think a little bit, I also have a question for everyone, and that is about listener response. You're such a community-oriented show, and I have my own experience hosting a radio show, and some of the most gratifying experiences doing that is when somebody listens to your show and tells you how much they appreciated it or something they learned from it that they never would've discovered otherwise.

Do you guys have any stories like that where somebody found a resource or a new favorite spot from listening to one of your episodes?

[00:39:10] Eric E: May I? So it's funny that you, you actually bring this up because there was one moment that I can s- share that I was doing... I do another radio show outside of Voices of the Community, and the funny thing is, is that it was regarding, like, one of the organizations that we did in, uh, that we did a profile on, which was the Gubbio Project.

And, you know, again, I, I'm just doing my show and then, you know, out of nowhere, I just hear, like, a bang on the door, right? And I'm like, "Oh," like, you know, "What, what's happening?" Right? I see that it's just someone sleeping there, and it's like, oh, well, you know, I don't want the, you know, police to... I don't want them to get in trouble with the police or anything like that.

So it was funny because I, again, I remember, I'm like, wait a minute, we did a profile on a resource here. So then, you know, I go back to George's page where we did the profile, and I get all of the information off of there, and then I said like, "Hey, look, I don't want you to get in trouble with the police, right?

If they come rolling down the street here, and then they see you in front of a doorway, right, you're gonna... it's gonna cause you problems. Here's the address for the Gubbio Project. It's a place where you can go. You can... You know, it's indoors. You can sleep. You're out of the rain, you know." And so that, again, is probably, like, one of those moments where it's like, you know what?

I'm glad that we did, you know, a profile on a, on a human resource that actually, you know, is like, oh, okay, you know, hey, if you can get to this address, right, they'll let you in, and they can, you know... you'll have shelter for a night, an afternoon, you know, whatever you need, you know? So yeah.

[00:40:46] Lila LaHood: Eric, that's a great story.

Rosie, thanks for asking that question. Do we have anybody else with questions?

[00:40:54] Micheal: W- we've been in a, what some have-- could qualify as a journalism doom loop for maybe the last 20 years. Being in communication with, with sources who are on the ground making change, I'm wondering the extent to which they-- you and they have conversations about the missing information that the, that they, that the community is-- the information the community is lacking in order to connect with change makers in the, in the community, in the nonprofit sector, in arts, in, in small business, and, uh, if, if there are just stories that are not getting out there because our journalism infrastructure has been hollowed out so much.

[00:41:48] Rosie: Do you wanna take that one?

[00:41:51] George: Thank you for the question, Michael. I would say that it's interesting because there are some folks that we've featured on the show, and I, I would use the Coalition for Homelessness as an example, where they do the Street Sheet, which is this really wonderful document that people who are unhoused, you know, it's their version of a newspaper, and, and people can get the hard copies and sell them if you...

You know, you'll see people making whatever they can in the way of, of cash by selling g- as a, in a sense, as a donation for it. And that's a, an example of, you know, Youth Spirits over in Oakland and Berkeley, which did a tiny village for unhoused youth. And unhoused youth is right up there just below unhoused seniors as the fastest-growing populations of unhoused community members in California, especially in San Francisco Bay Area.

So they wanted to tell their own story because they felt like no one, no one's covering them, no one, no one cares. So that was their version of y- of just total grassroots publications. It was also a really wonderful opportunity to see how they used the platforms for people to sh- to share their voices, right?

Like what, what you've done with San Francisco Public Press, what KSFP's trying to do, what Voices of the Community tries to do, is use whatever little platform we have to help people share their stories. You know, in Street Sheet, you'll listen... You'll be able to read someone's poetry, for example, or a story of one of their friends that died.

And I feel like so much of the media has been hollowed out, and some people would say, "Oh, it's because of Craigslist, because those want ads, you know? Now everyone's making money on want ads." But I, I also feel like the flip side of it is the, is all of these really wonderful publications like San Francisco Public Press, like, you know, Mission Local, y- where, you know, there's more grassroots newspapers trying to be the, you know, if you will, birthed from the community itself and more local.

But everyone feels like at this point, right, it's, it's corporate media and it's the corporatization and the monetization of content, which gets back to the idea of AI just sucking everybody's content down and not paying anyone for it. So I would love to see more people do some form of, you know, self-publication.

I think that's what audio storytelling has, has meant to me, where people can actually go out and tell their story. But I, but I feel like we, we do have... There is news deserts that are, people are trying to, trying to figure out solutions for, and that's why we need to keep supporting all these really gra- you know, wonderful grassroots organizations that are out there.

Without them, you know, we lose even another piece of our democracy.

[00:44:38] Audience: First of all, I wanted to say how grateful I am for this achievement, for George, for Eric. What you've done, it, it, if, you know, if for anybody that's produced, the body of work you've done is really amazing. So first I wanted to really thank you for that.

And then my next question is, so what's next?

[00:45:01] Eric E: Uh, well, at least for me, what's next is obviously since I won't be, you know, the associate producer for Voices of the Community, obviously it's, you know, looking for, you know, the next project or, you know, the next form of employment. I do have a few other things that I do. Again, I do a, a radio show here on KPOO 89.5 FM every Thursday, shameless plug, where again, you know, I do a lot of independent artist interviews and stuff like that.

I also, again, I just... It's just, the best way I describe it, it's just therapy for me in a, in a very cutesy way. You know, instead of paying X number of dollars for a therapist, it's just a place where it's like, "You know what, guys? You know, this is a story that's happening in the news. Let's talk about it," right?

"And I'll give you my two cents, and if you think I'm unenlightened or you think I have the wrong opinion, then tell me." You know? That, that's how the, that's how a dialogue works, right? Is, you know, that, that's pretty much what I have in the works. But yeah. Yeah, so I, I'm always... Not to say I'm always around, but yeah, you guys can catch me anytime, you know.

And if, if you love the music, you know, give me a ring on the phone call, on, on the studio phone, and I'll be like, "Cool. Awesome. Thank you so much. I appreciate it."

[00:46:22] Lila LaHood: And George, how about you? What's next?

[00:46:24] George: Well, first of I wanna thank, you know, Lyla, Michael, Mel, our newest addition, Lisa, you know, for, for hosting us tonight.

It's, it's been great. The opportunity to help create KSFP is, you know, you don't get many opportunities in life to create an FM radio station in the fifth largest or sixth largest radio market in the United States, where people can actually have a terrestrial radio station in a place like San Francisco.

So it was a really wonderful opportunity, and it was a wonderful opportunity for us to be able to have our show hosted here and broadcast, and to be able to tell all the stories, you know, that surround us around the Bay Area. And I think, you know, for folks out there listening and folks in the audience, the idea of media making, you know, back to hundreds of hours of work, but a big chunk of it, and everyone struggles in nonprofit land to do this, is to raise enough money to be able to tell the stories.

You know, it's so much over the last decade of, or so doing all these shows, it's been a lot of... I have never paid myself for any of the work. It's really a passion project for me and, you know, at this point we're gonna finish the show. Eric's gonna do his usual amazing programming, and y- all of our shows are gonna program through the end of December on KSFP.

And our other sister station, KPCA up in Petaluma, another really wonderful grassroots station for everyone listening up there. And, you know, kind of wrap it up, and I am moving to the EU in the fall. I've always wanted to spend more time outside of the United States, but I, I think one of the things I've taken away from the last six years is I've lost a lot of friends in my demographic, old college roommates.

I have two family members, actually three now, that are really struggling to stay with us, and I just feel like, you know, each day is a gift, so where do I wanna spend the remainder of time I still have left, and with whom do I wanna spend, and what do I wanna spend? So I really wanna see other parts of the planet and, and see how other people, you know, live and see where that takes me

[00:48:33] Lila LaHood: George and Eric, I-- well, George, I hope it's lots of time.

Never know. And, you know, thank you for both for speaking with us today. And, you know, we will continue airing episodes of Voices of the, the Community on KSFP through the end of the year. And, you know, an extra big thank you to you, George, as you and Carol prepare for your move.

[00:48:53] Audience: You know,

[00:48:54] Lila LaHood: as you said, you were really instrumental in helping us get the San Francisco Public Press, get the station off the ground, and get a significant grant funding from the James Irvine Foundation back in 2019, you know, when we were getting on the air, you know, broadcasting on 102.5 FM in San Francisco.

And now you are again stepping up and helping us launch an app for the station, which we plan to unveil in September. So for those who are listening, we're not quite ready yet to push it out there, but in just a few weeks, I think we're gonna be able to put it out there, and it's gonna be another way to share our great programming with many more people.

So thank you both for joining us. This was, this was a wonderful conversation.

[00:49:34] Eric E: Thank you.

[00:49:39] Narration: And that brings us to the end of our very last episode of Voices of the Community. We want to extend a huge thank you to Lila LaHood, Mel Baker, and the entire San Francisco Public Press team and KSFP for hosting this special farewell panel. We also want to express our deepest appreciation to all of our radio and television broadcast partners who have shared our series with their audiences over the years.

Most importantly, to our listeners here in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond, thank you. For the past 10 years, you've tuned in, engaged with our stories, and helped us shine a light on the people and organizations making a real difference in our neighborhoods. It has been an honor to share this space with you.

While the show is sunsetting, the work of these incredible community leaders continues. You can still explore our entire archive of past series and episodes by visiting georgekoster.com/voicesofthecommunity, or by searching for Voices of the Community on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.

On behalf of George Koster, Casey Nance from Citron Studios, myself, and everyone who has helped produce this show over the last decade, thank you for lending us your ears and for being the true voices of the community. I'm Eric Estrada from San Francisco. Take care, and remember, your voice matters.

Thanks to our CoProduction Partner

KCSF Radio is the student-operated radio station of City College of San Francisco (CCSF), functioning as a core component of the Broadcast Electronic Media Arts Department. Was broadcasting at 90.9 FM and is now streaming only online via platforms like TuneIn, KCSF serves as both a training ground for aspiring media professionals and a vibrant community radio voice. The station emphasizes being "Your Community, Your Radio," offering commercial-free, student-driven content in music, news, sports, and public affairs.

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