UpFront's Sonali Kolhatkar interviewing actor Jack Black about the KPFK Hero Awards
On March 6, KPFA’s winter fund drive wrapped up, finishing two days earlier than 2012’s winter fund drive — and raising $100,000 more. Thanks to all of you in KPFA-land who pledged, and a special thanks to those who helped out in the phone room. If you didn’t get a chance to, you can give to KPFA anytime online.
KPFA’s fund drives are still running longer than before Pacifica killed KPFA’s top fundraiser, the Morning Show — but the trend has started to reverse. The 7AM weekday program UpFront, co-hosted by former Morning Show staffer Brian Edwards-Tiekert and KPFK’s Sonali Kolhatkar, has become the station’s top fundraiser. Since UpFront‘s launch last May, KPFA’s fund drives have started consistently beating their goals. And now, they’re getting shorter.
Unfortunately, the situation elsewhere in the 5-station Pacifica network isn’t so bright. Days before the Pacifica National Board convened in New York City on February 22, news broke that sister station WBAI’s transmitting tower was about to be evicted from its roost on the Empire State Building, which allows the station to reach up to 75 miles in all directions, into four states.
Rent for the tower was $200,000 in arrears, and the landlord had begun eviction proceedings. In an emergency appeal, WBAI extended its winter fund drive by four weeks, while Pacifica set up a special transmitter fund. Those moves allowed WBAI to pay three months’ back rent, but $110,000 more will be due April 1. WBAI had been knocked off the air when Superstorm Sandy hit last October, but it got a reprieve after KPFA and the other stations raised over $180,000 for WBAI on a single day in November. WBAI has been racking up serious deficits for years, a casualty of high fixed costs and mismanagement at both the national and local levels.
More bad news hit the network on March 4, as Free Speech Radio News (FSRN) issued layoff notices to its entire staff, saying it would go off the air by March 15 if emergency fundraising efforts failed. FSRN is a worker-run newscast broadcast daily on Pacifica stations. Although it’s an independent nonprofit, the majority of its funding comes from Pacifica. To pay FSRN, Pacifica witholds a portion of its stations’ Corporation for Public Broadcasting grants — but lately, Pacifica has been missing payments, forcing FSRN to the brink.
At the March 9 meeting of KPFA’s Local Station Board (audio here: part 1 | part 2 | part 3) interim general manager Andrew Phillips announced that KPFA had advanced FSRN $35,000, which KPFA will deduct from its future payments to Pacifica. Thanks to that, plus grassroots support from hundreds of small donors, FSRN has raised enough to stay on the air while it looks for a permanent solution. Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! has issued an urgent call to support FSRN. You can help by donating to this valuable news service.
Has there ever been a Pacifica board more out of touch with KPFA’s listeners? Three days ago, the board’s lame-duck majority passed a McCarthy-like resolution to quash dissenters in the network.
Hundreds of listeners and staff wrote to members of the Pacifica National Board (PNB) earlier this month when the anti-dissent “loyalty” measure first came up, calling it a political witch hunt. (A sampling of the letters is here, and you can add your voice here.)
“Putting forward rules about ‘loyalty’ under the guise of financial duty is a trick that Joe McCarthy himself would have been proud of,” wrote listener Elly Larsen. “Stop the witch-hunting, get back to fixing the network, which is badly broken, or you’re going to lose the whole kit-n-caboodle with your juvenile power games.”
Drafted by allies of KPFA board member Tracy Rosenberg, the “loyalty” measure bans those who dissent from serving on local or national boards. Cloaked in references to “harmful or malicious behavior,” including “breaches of loyalty” and “fiduciary care,” its main target is the Morning Show 4 — KPFA board members Margy Wilkinson, Dan Siegel, Mal Burnstein and Conn Hallinan — who led a 2011 SaveKPFA campaign that collected over $60,000 in pledges to restore the KPFA Morning Show, after Pacifica claimed it cancelled the show for financial reasons.
A few of the hundreds of KPFA listeners who pledged to help bring back the Morning Show.
Hundreds of listeners gave pledges of support (not actual money) in that campaign, but Pacifica refused to accept them. Rosenberg’s allies then slapped the four SaveKPFA activists with a lawsuit demanding $800,000 in “damages” for the fundraising activity, which they claim is “disloyal” to Pacifica. The lawsuit is pending, but Rosenberg has been publicly proclaiming it as a win for her side.
“I am appalled and shocked to hear that 4 KPFA listeners, all of whom are much respected in the community, are being sued for $800,000 for their KPFA fundraising activities,” wrote KPFA listener Alan Smith to the Pacifica board, echoing many others. “It is clear whomever drafted [the measure] has no sense of history or progressive values and does not belong on the Pacifica board.”
“The idea that someone breached their fiduciary duties by raising money for the station – NOT self-dealing – is itself ridiculous,” KPFA listener Clyde Leland wrote to the Pacifica board. “The further step of making loyalty a qualification for service on the Local Station Board is worse. It is sickening anti-democratic moves like this that are tearing this station apart.”
The “loyalty” measure was tabled on a vote of 11-9 two weeks ago, but mysteriously appeared on Pacifica’s phone meeting agenda last Thursday, during which it was “taken off the table” and immediately voted on it (a violation of procedure). Nia Bediako, a delegate from New York’s WBAI, has asked that the record show that the resolution was not properly before the body.
Contempt for listeners, democratic process
“The measure displays a stunning contempt for the process and the KPFA listenership,” said Margy Wilkinson, former KPFA board chair and one of the station’s delegates-elect to the Pacifica board, who listened to the meeting online. “It was clear from the discussion that Pacifica’s own attorney had counseled against adopting the measure, and we know that board members had received many messages from listeners urging them to reject it.”
Supporters of the “loyalty” measure included Pacifica board chair Summer Reese, a KPFK delegate, who despite having not been part of the meeting, phoned in just before the vote to support it, making the count 10-10. Then, KPFT delegate Bill Crosier, serving as chair, broke the tie, making the final recorded vote 11-10.
Several board members who supported the measure are lame ducks whose terms have technically expired. In violation of Pacifica’s bylaws, incumbent board members had unilaterally extended their own terms by delaying seating of incoming PNB delegates until late February.
How much damage can they do in the next month? The anti-dissent measure was only one of several measures passed which will further undermine local control at KPFA and other Pacifica stations. Newly-elected Pacifica delegates may move to reconsider the “loyalty” measure and others when they are finally seated next month. We’ll keep you informed.
