11/05/04

LC041105

Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times --

Reverend Cecil Murray steps down after years of steering Los
Angeles through turbulent times. His influence reached beyond
the pulpit into politics.

Reverend Cecil "Chip" Murray>> And the haves and the have-nots
can no longer peacefully co-exist. The middle class is
disappearing in America. Haves and have-nots. We're just
begging for an explosion.

Val>> And then, he's got an ear for talent and can lift an
aspiring musician from obscurity to celebrity. We go to KCRW to
meet Nic Harcourt.

All that and more straight ahead on tonight's Life and Times.

Life and Times is made possible through the generous support of
the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality
of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of
medicine, health, science and education.

And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg.

Val>> Whenever there was drama on the Southern California
stage, whether it be riots, police scandals or political
battles, this man played a major role. He is Reverend Cecil
Murray, head of First AME Church. Now Reverend Cecil Murray is
stepping off the stage, retiring as pastor of First AME Church.
Kevin Smith looks back at the career of this charismatic figure
whose work took him well beyond the pulpit.

Reverend Cecil "Chip" Murray>> "Come on in, please. You're
welcome into this place."

Kevin Smith>> Reverend Cecil Murray is so well-known around Los
Angeles that anyone who sings his praises these days is probably
just preaching to the choir.

[Film Clip]

Kevin Smith>> Ever since Murray arrived in 1977 to head the
First AME Church, also known as Fame, he's been a larger than
life figure urging calm after the storm of the 1992 riots,
ministering to the sick and the needy, spurring business
development in his poor community and holding court for
politicians, mostly Democrats, though prominent Republicans
sometimes visit as well.

Reverend Cecil "Chip" Murray>> I always thought that the black
minister especially should be an advocate for his people. He
should be there at the forefront fighting for the liberation and
stability of his people.

[Film Clip]

Kevin Smith>> During Murray's tenure, the First AME Church grew
from a sleepy congregation of about three hundred members to
more than 17,000. Celebrities often attend the services. The
First AME Church is serenely quiet when there's no service
taking place here. No music, no laughter, no tears. Shortly
after arriving in 1977, Reverend Murray articulated his vision
for outreach into the community, a vision for expanding the
ministry beyond the walls of the church.

The church's so-called campus in South Central Los Angeles
contains more than two dozen properties like the Cecil Murray
School for children from kindergarten through eighth grade.

[Film Clip]

Kevin Smith>> The campus also features low-cost apartments,
some reserved for AIDS patients and the handicapped, and the
Fame Renaissance Center to spur local business development.

Don Miller>> So what impresses me is this is not someone who
just talks and preaches, but someone who acts and someone who
actually then embodies these actions in very concrete programs.

Kevin Smith>> Murray became a household name for his visibility
during the 1992 riots following the acquittal of four white
police officers accused in the beating of black motorist Rodney
King.

Reverend Cecil "Chip" Murray>> "There are hot spots in the
city. We have been monitoring it and we will talk about how the
men who are present here must assist us tonight."

Reverend Cecil "Chip" Murray>> The fires were in the
neighborhood and we stood between the firemen who said, yes, we
will come to put the blazes out, but everywhere we go, we are
attacked. We said we will protect you.

Donald Miller>> At one level, he was telling us to stay calm.
On the other hand, though, Reverend Murray was telling us why it
was that this uprising was happening.

Reverend Cecil "Chip" Murray>> "A good verdict coming down from
a good jury, this good verdict that's good for nothing except
creating chaos, pitting us against each other, forcing us to
hate one another. Good for nothing, good for nothing."

Kevin Smith>> After the riots, Murray meant business. He
realized that South Central residents needed to spend more of
their money in locally-owned businesses rather than with
merchants who would take the money elsewhere. Major
corporations provided startup funds and the Fame Renaissance
Center was born. The second floor, called The Incubator, houses
small companies and entrepreneurs involved in entertainment and
multimedia, companies like ImajiMation.

[Film Clip]

Kevin Smith>> It's a computer animation business that's created
music videos and television ads for major clients, and developed
comic books and toys aimed at the urban teenage market.

Mark Davis>> We came to The Incubator to get a strong business
sense instead of just being an artist that, you know, starves
for the rest of his life. They help us. They have coaches that
come through every week.

Kevin Smith>> Like any prominent figure dealing with
controversial issues, Murray does have his critics.

Reverend Jesse Lee Peterson>> "See you then. Thanks for your
call. Thanks for tuning in."

Kevin Smith>> Reverend Jesse Lee Peterson, a conservative radio
preacher, claims Murray's actions promote himself and his
political allies more than worthy causes.

Reverend Jesse Lee Peterson>> Bill Clinton is a liar. He was
impeached. He cheated on his wife. He perjured himself. So
how is it that a man of God, Murray, supposedly a man of God,
will allow a corrupt person come into his church house and take
over?

Kevin Smith>> Peterson also chastises Murray for sending the
wrong message to young people.

Reverend Jesse Lee Peterson>> At one point, they were passing
out condoms in his church. If this man is truly called by God,
there is no way he would pass out condoms in the church,
especially to young people, because you say to them that you
don't need self-control.

Reverend Cecil "Chip" Murray>> And in life, you set all the
options in front of you and go, one option, preach abstinence.
Another option, preach abstinence and yet say, if you will not
abstain, at least use this condom to protect the populace from
you or others from you.

Kevin Smith>> Murray has never shied away from doing battle.
After growing up in West Palm Beach, Florida where his family
was active in the First AME Church, Murray joined the Air Force
for ten years during the Korean War era.

Reverend Cecil "Chip" Murray>> You learn discipline, exposure,
you get to see the whole world. All of that was good
preparation for the ministry.

Kevin Smith>> Murray then traded his pilot's wings for angel's
wings, earning his Doctorate in Theology from Claremont
University. Murray had tours of duty with the First AME Church
in Kansas City, then Seattle, before finding his calling here in
the City of Angels.

[Film Clip]

Kevin Smith>> Despite Murray's attention to business and
political activities, he still makes it a high priority to
comfort the afflicted.

[Film Clip]

Kevin Smith>> Patricia Coates, only in her forties, found out
that she has terminal cancer. The disease has made her blind
and she's unable to walk, but Murray convinced her that life is
still worth living.

Patricia Coates>> I feel that there's a lot of miracles out
there and I deserve one.

Kevin Smith>> Murray is stepping down because he's reached the
First AME Church's mandatory retirement age of seventy-five.
But Murray says his successor still faces enormous challenges.

Reverend Cecil "Chip" Murray>> The middle class is disappearing
in America. Haves and have-nots. We're just begging for an
explosion.

Reverend Cecil "Chip" Murray>> "Forget your sophistication for
the next fifteen seconds. Everybody go crazy! Let's go!"

Kevin Smith>> After Murray's retirement, a chorus of supporters
hopes the rollicking church services will carry on.

Donald Miller>> A lot of people look at First AME and what they
immediately think of is economic development, but there's a
reason that people come to that church. It's because of the
worship. I remember the first time that I went to First AME. I
couldn't sit still. Quite literally, when that choir started
singing, everybody started moving and I moved with them.

[Film Clip]

Val>> Reverend Murray's legacy is also visible in another way.
Just outside the church at the corner of 25th and Harbor
Boulevard is a new street sign that reads "Cecil L. "Chip"
Murray Circle".

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Val>> Well, you've heard of a no-points loan, but how about a
no-interest loan? That's right. You can borrow up to $20,000
for zero interest. Where? At the Jewish Free Loan Association.
They've been making these loans for the last hundred years to
those in need. It's run by Mark Meltzer and Evelyn Schecter.
The loans go for everything from medical bills, college tuition,
business startups, to helping victims of domestic violence and
even couples who want to adopt a child. Mark Meltzer is
Executive Director and CEO.

Mark Meltzer>> All of our loans are made with zero percent
interest.

Val>> And no fees or any of the other stuff?

Mark Meltzer>> No fees, no interest. People have to come to us
with a legitimate reason for the loan. It has to be an
emergency. It has to be given to people who are unable to
obtain the loan from another source, either from a family or
from a bank. It really is a very special kind of a service that
we offer to the community.

Val>> And the amount that they can borrow is up to $20,000, is
that right?

Mark Meltzer>> Yes.

Val>> At the most?

Mark Meltzer>> Yes, that's the most. Very few of our borrowers
really get that amount of money. We encourage people to take
less because we don't want them to have a great burden to pay
back to us. All of our loans require co-signers to guarantee
the loan. That's how we have had such success in collection.
You probably don't know this, but we have great success in our
collection. We write off less than half of one percent of our
activity.

Val>> That's amazing.

Mark Meltzer>> It truly is.

Val>> Because compared to a bank?

Mark Meltzer>> Banks write off ten to twelve percent, I
believe. That is --

Val>> -- in bad loans.

Mark Meltzer>> And bad loans. But we establish a relationship
with our borrowers. All of our borrowers meet with one of our
loan analysts, speak with them, and tell us their entire story
and we establish a relationship with them and that's what I
attribute to our great success in recovery of our money.

Val>> The fund started back in 1904. That's when ten
businessmen got together and created a lending pool of five
hundred dollars. The maximum loan amount at the time was
$25.00. In 1923, its president, Cesar Samuels, pledged $50,000
toward the fund. Since then, it's grown to more than five
million dollars in loans with the average amount being two
thousand dollars. Evelyn Schecter is the Fund's Chief Operating
Officer who says forty percent of their loans are to non-Jews.

Evelyn Schecter>> The Jewish Free Loan has always been a non-
sectarian business and we have helped people of all faiths. For
example, we helped the Native-Americans when the government
allowed them to come off of the reservations and many of them
came out to the West Coast. They came to the Jewish Free Loan
and we were able to help them establish themselves here. After
the Watts riot in 1965, a lot of the population had lost their
businesses and needed money to get started again, needed help
just generally.

When the earthquakes happened, including the 1994 earthquake,
people would line up outside the door and we were able to, that
first couple of days, give them cash really. So with a thousand
dollars in cash, they were able to walk out of here with money
so that they could buy the absolute necessities of life.

Val>> If you're loaning money at zero percent, some people
would say why don't you just make a grant? You know, it's
charity.

Mark Meltzer>> Well, you know, we like to think that we are
giving a person a helping hand in the form of a loan rather than
a handout and I think that people maintain their pride with a
loan. They know that they're coming in for a loan, and they're
going to pay it back. It is a responsibility that they take on
and they do pay it back. We don't believe in giving people
money in terms of a grant. That's more of a welfare type of
thing and our clients are people who are not on welfare. They
want to pay back the loan. They're having a glitch in their
lives of a financial need and they come in to us to solve that
challenge.

Val>> In a way, it instills more financial responsibility in
the long run.

Mark Meltzer>> Absolutely.

Evelyn Schecter>> And the people are amazing, and what many of
them do is make contributions to help other people do the same
thing.

Val>> After they've been helped.

Evelyn Schecter>> After they've been helped. Because what
happens, with an interest-free loan, what happens is the money
is repaid and then we have that money to lend to somebody else
and it keeps the money recycling, if you will, in perpetuity
which is very exciting.

Val>> So give us an idea of an individual who has started a
business as a result of the free loan.

Mark Meltzer>> Well, we have assisted people in the framing
business to start picture framing. We have assisted people in
food service of all kinds. We have assisted a seamstress who
has become a dress designer.

Val>> Really?

Mark Meltzer>> Yes, we have. We have assisted many kinds of
businesses.

Val>> Now what if they don't know anything about this? What if
it takes a lot of training?

Mark Meltzer>> Oh, that's a good question. Our applicants have
to show us and display an awareness and a knowledge of running a
business, especially our new American population. We try to
understand what they are going to do and we want them to
understand how to run a business. It's a delicate piece of back
and forth information that we have to establish before we can
make the loan.

Val>> Now if this is such a good idea, it seems like a lot of
communities in Los Angeles that are facing poverty and other
challenges could do the same thing. Couldn't they just get
together, pool their money and start something like this?

Mark Meltzer>> You know, Val, that's a very interesting
question. I would like to see some of the communities in Los
Angeles do just that and, in some cases, I have talked with
leaders in some of the communities to do that. It's a difficult
fund-raising issue. It's also a Jewish-based kind of thing. We
are taught in the Torah that we shall not extol interest from
the needy and that's one of our basic tenets and we believe in
that strongly. It doesn't transpose to other communities as
easily and because it is, within the Jewish community, a strong
fact of life, the Jewish community funds it and started funding
it years ago and people are aware of it in the Jewish community
and donate to it.

Val>> So it's more ingrained in your culture?

Mark Meltzer>> It is, it is. It's an educational process.

Val>> Mark Meltzer, with the Jewish Free Loan Association,
thank you.

Mark Meltzer>> Thank you so much for coming to see us.

Val>> And I hope you have another hundred years of lending.

Mark Meltzer>> I hope so. Thank you very much.

To send a comment or a question to our program, you can reach us
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Val>> These days, the music you hear on commercial radio is
chosen by big-budget campaigns and record labels. If you're a
small but talented musician, your chances of being heard on the
radio are next to nil. Enter Nic Harcourt. For the past six
years, he's been host of the popular radio program "Morning
Becomes Eclectic". As Vicki Curry tells us, Nic Harcourt has an
ear for detecting talent.

Nic Harcourt>> "Morning Becomes Eclectic. It's 89.9 KCRW. I'm
Nic Harcourt, your host for the show. It's Friday and we . . ."

Vicki Curry>> Nic Harcourt may be, as one critic says, the most
influential DJ in America, but it's an unlikely description for
the music director of a public radio station.

Nic Harcourt>> You know, we try to feature as much different
music and different artists as we can and give the audience an
opportunity to hear stuff they won't hear anywhere else. Most
of the music tends to be new and upcoming artists and bands and
pretty much in any musical genre. It comes from all over the
place, you know, whether it's from record labels or whether it's
from, you know, someone making it in their basement and pressing
out their own CD.

Vicki Curry>> Harcourt's daily program, "Morning Becomes
Eclectic", has become a proving ground for unknown artists.

[Film Clip]

Nic Harcourt>> We've been really successful in, you know,
picking some artists before the rest of the world caught up to
them, who've gone on to be really big.

[Film Clip]

Nic Harcourt>> We're the first station in the states to play
Coldplay. We're the first station to play Norah Jones.

[Film Clip]

Vicki Curry>> When an artist is played by Nic Harcourt, their
music is heard by some influential listeners.

Nic Harcourt>> Well, it's intriguing, you know, obviously doing
this type of show in Los Angeles because there's a portion of
our audience that are movers and shakers. You know, people who
can make decisions about songs being put into advertisements or
into, you know, television programs or into movies.

It's kind of ironic, when you really think about it, that this
little public radio station in the basement is providing the
soundtrack for, you know, a lot of these big commercial
ventures. I mean, it's so weird. You know, I get soundtracks
from movies that come into the station and people come to me and
say, "Did you guys put this together?" You know, it happens all
the time. I mean, it's flattering, you know? I just hope
they're all subscribers (laughter).

Nic Harcourt>> "The track that just ended is from "Quincy".
It's from a self-released album called "Also Known as Mary" and
it's on her own record label. . ."

Vicki Curry>> Harcourt is known as one of a handful of DJs who
can make an artist's career. It's a far cry from his last job.
His only prior radio experience was in Woodstock, New York, so
it was a big coup when he got the job at KCRW in 1998.

Nic Harcourt>> I walked into a job basically that everyone on
the air had applied for and didn't get. So when I came to Los
Angeles, I kind of kept a low profile for the first month or
two, you know. I didn't come in with any great plan of, you
know, changing anything.

Vicki Curry>> That didn't last for long. He's helped KCRW
expand its visibility through several different ventures beyond
the radio station.

[Film Clip]

Nic Harcourt>> You know, one of the biggest things that we've
done is get involved with shows in town by partnering with
promoters and fans and managers. The artists whose music we
play, we get involved in presenting their shows.

[Film Clip]

Nic Harcourt>> We do like, you know, three hundred shows a year
now, plus we do some now in New York and in San Francisco as
well for our dot.com subscribers. So that just happened. I
mean, it was basically me looking at the opportunity and knowing
that this is something that happens in radio and commercial
radio that KCRW had never done before and just using the
opportunity to help spread the word.

[Film Clip]

Vicki Curry>> Harcourt was the guiding force behind two special
concerts that have become annual events. The "Sounds Eclectic
Evening" happens every November as a fundraiser for the station
and "Next Up" is a free show featuring independent local
artists.

Nic Harcourt>> We've picked four artists who are not famous or
well-known, but they're either unsigned or, you know, on
independent Los Angeles-based labels.

[Film Clip]

Nic Harcourt>> We realize that, you know, we've plugged into
something with the audience which was people wanting to see
something different, you know?

Vicki Curry>> Harcourt also hosts a weekly program. Also
called "Sounds Eclectic", it's syndicated to some thirty public
stations nationwide. CDs featuring live performances from the
program help out in their pledge drives. And for those who
can't hear Harcourt on a local radio station, there's the World
Wide Web.

Nic Harcourt>> I mean, we have so many people listening online
throughout the country and throughout the world now. I mean,
people who send us money from different cities to subscribe to
the station. So, you know, it's helped create -- I don't really
like the word -- but a brand, I guess, that, you know, people
kind of recognize now outside of the station.

Vicki Curry>> That's what drives Nic Harcourt, his desire to
keep exposing audiences to new music, but what fans really want
to know is how does he decide what to play?

Nic Harcourt>> I can't tell you how. I mean, if I like it, it
gets added to our library, you know, and gets played on the
radio. If I don't like it, it doesn't. It's an instinctive
thing, you know. It's hard to quantify that. I mean, I guess
if I have to synthesize it down to anything, it's like if it has
lyrics that make me think or if it has a beat that makes me want
to tap my toes, then there's a good chance that we'll play it.
You know, every now and then, one of those artists will break
through in a big way and that's great and it's really
validating. But it's just as important to play the other stuff,
even if it doesn't, you know, go on to be huge.

Vicki Curry>> Harcourt and his fellow DJs look out for new
music, asking around and buying import records from other
countries, but much of it comes right to him. He receives about
four hundred CDs a week.

Nic Harcourt>> Maybe twenty of them might get added to our
library and, out of those twenty that get added to the library,
maybe eight of them will actually get air play. So it's a big
filtering process.

Nic Harcourt>> "And when we come back in the next hour, much
more coming your way, so please stay close for more "Morning
Becomes Eclectic".

Vicki Curry>> Despite the success of KCRW, few other stations
are willing to try out similar programming and so a public radio
station stands alone in the world of new music.

Nic Harcourt>> There's a lot of music out there that doesn't
get exposed, you know. There's a lot of music that we play on
KCRW not just on my show, but on our nighttime shows and on our
weekend shows, that doesn't get heard anywhere else. You know,
that's part of what we're here for. We're here to expose the
music, you know, that commercial stations don't pick up on.

[Film Clip]

Val>> As you can tell, Nic Harcourt is from England. He came
to the United States via Australia along with his CD collection.
And that's our program. I'm Val Zavala. For everyone at Life
and Times, thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.

Life and Times was made possible through the generous support of
the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality
of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of
medicine, health, science and education.

And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg.

Val>> Next time on Life and Times --

The people of Inglewood voted against a Wal-Mart, so why did the
city of Rosemead say yes?

>> Wal-Mart has a reputation that, within three years, half of
the small businesses will be gone. They can deny that, but
that's the history.

Val>> That's next time on Life and Times.