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Why killing the Morning Show made no financial sense
The Morning Show was KPFA’s biggest fundraiser — raising three times what it cost to produce. Killing the show in November 2010 made no sense financially. Pacifica knew this: KPFA had sent charts detailing the financial contributions of the Morning Show to the entire Pacifica National Board five weeks prior to the layoffs. The truth is, Pacifica used KPFA’s finances as a pretext to eliminate its political enemies. | READ THE STORY HERE
Posted in Arlene Engelhardt, KPFA, Pacifica, Programming, budget, censorship, fund drives, labor, recall Tracy Rosenberg, union-busting
Tagged budget, fundraising, KPFA, KPFA Morning Show, Pacifica, tracy rosenberg
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LSB to Pacifica: stop stalling on general manager hire
One of the few powers KPFA’s Local Station Board (LSB) has under the Pacifica bylaws is to interview and choose a pool of candidates for the position of permanent general manager. Pacifica’s executive director is obligated, under the bylaws, to hire from the LSB’s pool. KPFA’s board interviewed and chose 3 highly-qualified candidates and forwarded their names to Arlene Engelhardt at the beginning of March. The response from Engelhardt? She has not hired any of them, or returned calls from KPFA’s board members. So this past weekend, LSB members felt they had no option but to pass a formal resolution asking … Continue reading
Posted in Andrew Leslie Phillips, Arlene Engelhardt, KPFA, Pacifica
Tagged Andrew Leslie Phillips, Local Station Board, Pacifica
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Pacifica hires nation’s #1 union-busting law firm, Jackson Lewis
News broke this week that the Pacifica National Board majority voted to hire a notorious anti-union legal firm, Jackson Lewis, which the AFL-CIO has named “America’s number one union-buster.” Pacifica is the corporation that owns KPFA. The nonprofit American Rights at Work notes that “under its polished veneer lies a for-profit union-buster…one of the oldest and largest” such firms in the nation. Jackson Lewis brags about helping employers maintain a “union free environment,” as well as mastering “concerns” with the Americans with Disabilities Act, including targeting workers who take medical leave. That’s according to sources cited by KPFAWorker.org, which published … Continue reading
Posted in Jackson Lewis, KPFA, Pacifica, labor, legal, union-busting
Tagged anti-union, Jackson Lewis, KPFA, labor, Pacifica National Board, Pacifica Radio, SaveKPFA
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Financial statements show that KPFA is still owed $1.4 million by Pacifica
At the March 3rd Local Station Board meeting, treasurer Barbara Whipperman and KPFA business manager Maria Negret reported serious problems getting documentation from Pacifica for “bill-back” expenses being passed on to KPFA. Each of the five Pacifica-owned stations, including KPFA, are obligated to pay 19.5% of their income to the network for central services. “Bill-backs” are in addition to that. Over the past 16 months, Pacifica has been receiving and keeping funds intended for KPFA, including grants from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, bequests, and stock donations — ostensibly to apply toward debt KPFA owes it. Often, KPFA doesn’t find … Continue reading
Posted in KPFA, Pacifica, budget, elections and governance
Tagged budget, KPFA, Pacifica, SaveKPFA
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This is what democracy looks like? Really?
Three-and-a-half months, and counting. That’s how long KPFA listeners have been waiting to vote on the recall of Pacifica board treasurer Tracy Rosenberg. As readers may remember, Rosenberg was one of the chief architects of the elimination of KPFA’s highly-successful Morning Show, and led efforts to illegally deny duly-elected KPFA representatives, who opposed her, their seats on the Pacifica National Board. Listeners submitted a recall petition on September 1 and, according to Pacifica’s bylaws, ballots should have been mailed between December 15 and 30. After months of stalling, Pacifica informed SaveKPFA last week that it has finally hired an election … Continue reading
L.A. Theatre Works booted off KPFA, but welcomed with open arms at sister station KPFK
KPFA’s sister station in Los Angeles, KPFK, announced it scored a coup by signing up the award-winning program L.A. Theatre Works to run every Sunday night. “We feel it is far and away the best radio drama show in the country,” KPFK’s interim program director Alan Minsky told the press. This is the same program that interim KPFA managers Andrew Phillips and Carrie Core removed from KPFA’s airwaves last fall, despite an outcry from listeners. They filled the time slot with two programs hosted by allies of Pacifica management, The Week Starts Here and TwitWit (actors reading a Twitter feed from … Continue reading
Posted in KPFA, KPFK, Programming
Tagged KPFA, L.A. Theatre Works, Pacifica, TwitWit
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KPFA donors file complaint against Pacifica with Attorney General over recall vote
Charging that the Pacifica Foundation has failed to follow its own rules in holding a listener-prompted recall election, a group of KPFA listeners has filed a formal complaint with the state Attorney General‘s office, which oversees California nonprofits. “It’s ironic and disturbing to see these tactics from a network founded to uphold progressive values of free speech and participatory democracy,” said Ying Lee, a longtime Berkeley activist and KPFA supporter. “Whatever their views on station politics, listeners should be outraged by Pacifica’s flagrant violation of its own bylaws.” In September, hundreds of KPFA members signed petitions calling for the recall … Continue reading
Posted in Attorney General complaint, KPFA, KPFA recall, KPFA recall vote, Pacifica, Tracy Rosenberg, censorship, elections and governance, legal, recall Tracy Rosenberg, recall election
Tagged Attorney General complaint, censorship, fundraising, KPFA listeners, KPFA recall, Pacifica National Board, Pacifica Radio, recall Tracy Rosenberg
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KPFA on the brink: pledge drive falls $125,000 short
The station ended its Winter Fund Drive one week ago, $125,000 short of its pledge goal. This is sad news for everyone who cares about KPFA, and it underscores the importance of change at Pacifica. Pacifica’s re-programming of 6-10 AM is behind the shortfall. Those time slots used to raise 40% of KPFA’s total pledges. Since the destruction of the Morning Show, that’s dropped by more than half. For a time, station management was able to offset the plunge by lengthening fund drives, but they’ve run into diminishing returns from that strategy. (This year’s Winter Fund Drive ran 24 days, … Continue reading
Democracy when? Still no ballots and paychecks bouncing
Still nothing from Pacifica on when ballots will go out in the recall of Tracy Rosenberg. As a reminder: Pacifica’s own rules for recall elections required it to send out ballots no later than December 30, 2011. That’s nearly 6 weeks ago! One thing Pacifica’s delay has accomplished (probably by design): it’s bought Rosenberg time to build a campaign machine, and for the Pacifica-imposed interim manager at KPFA to start using station resources to support her efforts. Thank you to those who have signed the online petition (over 1100 currently) or written letters to Pacifica demanding an impartial recall supervisor. … Continue reading
Posted in Arlene Engelhardt, KPFA, Pacifica, Tracy Rosenberg, budget, legal, recall Tracy Rosenberg, recall election
Tagged KPFA listeners, labor, legal, Pacifica, recall Tracy Rosenberg
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The high cost of bad management: longer fund drives
In his last newsletter, KPFA interim general manager Andrew Leslie Phillips released first-quarter financial figures for KPFA with little comment. One year ago, the station’s first-quarter results showed it better than budget by $237,000. This year’s figures show the station has fallen $60,000 short of budget in just three months. Yikes! The plunge is mostly due to a drop in fundraising during the morning hours. But the situation is actually much worse than it looks. SaveKPFA‘s analysis of KPFA’s fundraising calendar shows that the station made up from the fundraising plunge during morning hours by massively lengthening KPFA’s fund drives. … Continue reading
Posted in Andrew Leslie Phillips, KPFA, Pacifica, Programming, fund drives
Tagged KPFA listeners, KPFA recall, WBAI
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