Tag Archives: #sag-aftra

Pacifica in Exile Newsletters

Maybe A New Start

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Berkeley – A new Pacifica National Board will be seated (or at least attempt to be seated) on January 26. After directors elections were completed at all five Pacifica stations, the 2017 station reps are Alex Steinberg, Ken Laufer, Kathryn Davis and Cerene Roberts from NY, Nancy Sorden, Benito Diaz, Maskeelah Washington and Jim Brown from DC, Bill Crosier, Bob Mark, Rhonda Garner and Adriana Casenave from Houston, Grace Aaron, Jan Goodman, Jonathan Alexander and Sharon Brown from Los Angeles and Akio Tanaka, Andrea Turner, Bill Campisi and Sabrina Jacobs from Berkeley.

Two affiliate directors were elected last December in a process marred by the board majority’s refusal to seat three directors chosen by New York’s newly elected delegates on December 14. At the urging of the sole seated WBAI director Cerene Roberts, the PNB threw out the NY election for PNB representatives in December using the excuse that the directors election was not specifically noticed on the kpftx.org meeting page.  Continue reading Maybe A New Start →

Pacifica in Exile Newsletters

Documents and Meetings In Hiding

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For Immediate Release

Documents and Meetings in Hiding

Berkeley –  IED Lydia Brazon has failed to respond to a directors inspection request filed by KPFK listener representative and attorney Jan Goodman requesting the final SAG-AFTRA arbitration results at LA station KPFK. Goodman’s request was filed on October 14. Brazon had not replied as of the close of business on Tuesday October 25, much less provided the requested information.  California Corporations code section 6334 provides every member of the board of directors the absolute right to inspect and copy all books, records and documents of every kind. Members of the board of directors have not seen the SAG-AFTRA settlement signed by Brazon and unofficial corporate counsel Dan Siegel more than a month ago. Until recently, they had not even known the amount of money Pacifica was responsible for paying and when it had to be paid.

Continue reading Documents and Meetings In Hiding →

Audio

Radford’s KPFK Shutdown

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In this clip from KPFK’s 10-16 local station board meeting, GM Radford threatens that if she is forced to pay for the SAG-AFTRA arbitration loss caused by her union contract violations in 2015, she will turn off KPFK’s repeater signals in Malibu, Santa Barbara and Ridgecrest/China Lake, turn off the station’s transmitter altogether from midnight to 6am, and turn off the air conditioning.

Board members suggested instead reversing Radford-initiated program changes that decreased revenue and provided documentation that the changes had cost the station at least $137,000.

Radford replied that programmers whose hours were removed, Roy Tuckman and Sonali Kolhtakar had “refused” to return to their old on-air schedules. Later in the meeting, both Tuckman and Kolhatkar responded in emails that they had not refused and would be pleased to resume their previous broadcast schedules and fundraise for the station.

Turning off the transmitter from midnight to 6am would likely violate signed rental contracts in effect for the use of the station’s sideband signals, besides angering the large overnight audience cultivated by Roy of Hollywood for decades.

Financial statements released for the fiscal year that ended 9-30-2016 documented a KPFK listener support loss of $300K between 2015 and 2016, the largest in the network for the year.

As reported by the Pacifica National Office:

KPFK listener support  10-1-2014 to 9-30-2015: $3,000,802.

KPFK listener support 10-1-2015 to 9-30-2016: $2,701,054.

The $137,000 projected increase in listener support would pay for 65% of the cost of Radford’s union violations. A return to the pre-Radford listener support numbers in 2017 would pay for them entirely.

Pacifica in Exile Newsletters

PNB Meeting Disrupted Again

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Berkeley – Ballots mailed for Pacifica’s 2016 board elections from the East Coast on August 15th. Pacifica in Exile’s candidate endorsements for all stations can be found here. You will find online voting instructions inside your printed ballot envelope. The voting period ends on September 30 at 11:59pm in your own time zone. If you donated, but don’t receive a ballot or for any ballot-related question at any station, you can contact King Reilly, a KPFK member who has graciously agreed to assist folks, at kingreilly@roadrunner.com.

For more on our endorsed slates of candidates, see the Committee to Strengthen KPFK, Move KPFT Forward, United for Community Radio (KPFA), and WBAI Indy Caucus websites. Continue reading PNB Meeting Disrupted Again →

Audio

Radford on SAG-AFTRA: It’s All John Proffitt’s Fault

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In this clip from the September 18th KPFK local station board meeting, GM Radford, whose salary cuts, layoffs and denial of severance pay actions in September and October of 2015 resulted in a $200,000 plus arbitration loss for violating the station’s SAG-AFTRA union contract, blithely proclaims her actions are not her fault at all and decides Pacifica should pay for her six-figure labor violations settlement. Continue reading Radford on SAG-AFTRA: It’s All John Proffitt’s Fault →

Pacifica in Exile Newsletters

The One-Page Financial Recovery Plan

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Berkeley – Ballots mailed for Pacifica’s 2016 board elections from the East Coast on August 15th. Pacifica in Exile’s candidate endorsements for all stations can be found here. You will find online voting instructions inside your printed ballot envelope. The voting period ends on September 30 at 11:59pm in your own time zone. If you donated, but don’t receive a ballot or for any ballot-related question at any station, you can contact King Reilly, a KPFK member who has graciously agreed to assist folks, at kingreilly@roadrunner.com. Continue reading The One-Page Financial Recovery Plan →

Pacifica in Exile Newsletters

Mass Layoffs Averted; Now What?

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Berkeley – Ballots mailed for Pacifica’s 2016 board elections from the East Coast on August 15th. Pacifica in Exile’s candidate endorsements for all stations can be found here. You will find online voting instructions inside your printed ballot envelope. The voting period ends on September 30 at 11:59pm in your own time zone. If you donated, but don’t receive a ballot or for any ballot-related question at any station, you can contact King Reilly, a KPFK member who has graciously agreed to assist folks, at kingreilly@roadrunner.com.

For more on our endorsed slates, see the Committee to Strengthen KPFK, Move KPFT Forward, United for Community Radio (KPFA), and WBAI Indy Caucus websites. Continue reading Mass Layoffs Averted; Now What? →

Pacifica in Exile Newsletters

Proceeding With Things

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Berkeley-On July 28th, a second special meeting on finances was held, once again boycotted by the entire board majority, with an attempt to unliaterally cancel the meeting by board chair Tony Norman. You can listen to the entire meeting here,a highlights reel here, and read  a written summary of recommendations here.

The Siegel/Brazon board majority did attend the August 4th board meeting a week later, a meeting which which focused primarily on bylaws amendments, elections and disciplinary retribution. A highlights reel can be heard here. Among the subjects discussed:

After a two-year delay, New York station WBAI was re-licensed by the FCC, although the station’s lack of a local or toll-free telephone number since June 23rd place it in violation of broadcasting law (Section 47 C.F.R. 73.1125(e)). The Siegel/Brazon majority on the national board celebrated with Brazon announcing “The really good news is that WBAI has been granted their license renewal until June 1, 2022. That is really important in that it allows us to proceed with a lot of things (giggle) including negotiations that we have with debtors {sic} and so forth”. License renewal is what permits a sale or lease transaction of a broadcasting license. License renewal has no value in a negotiation with a creditor due to FCC prohibitions on using the value of broadcast licenses as collateral. Continue reading Proceeding With Things →

Pacifica in Exile Newsletters

The Kool-Aid We’re Drinking

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Berkeley- Troubles continue at Pacifica’s archives following the announcement of long-time director Brian De Shazor’s resignation. Boston PBS station WGBH wrote to say they were withdrawing the American Archive of Public Broadcasting National Digital Stewardship Residency from Pacifica and would be removing their resident from the archives. Continue reading The Kool-Aid We’re Drinking →

Pacifica in Exile Newsletters

Los Angeles Arbitration

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Los Angeles Arbitration

Berkeley-A Los Angeles arbitrator has issued an interim decision in the conflict between labor union SAG-AFTRA and Pacifica Foundation. The arbitration began last fall after Margy Wilkinson appointed community college instructor Leslie Radford to be KPFK’s new general manager and Radford laid off two union staffers and cut the rest down to 50% pay. The interim decision affirmed the union on all counts and stated the labor union contract had been violated multiple times by Radford and Pacifica, including:

a. Not consulting with the union prior to implementing layoffs in violation of the bargaining agreement.

b. Layoffs of union staffers that were a violation of the bargaining agreement.

c. Involuntary pay cuts that were constructive layoffs and the denial of severance pay due to employees if they chose to leave KPFK’s employment in violation of the bargaining agreement.

ED’s Wilkinson, Proffitt and Brazon and GM Radford insisted attorney Dan Siegel had advised them they were not violating the SAG-AFTRA contract, but Siegel was unable to defend Pacifica against the union’s charges, which have now been upheld in independent arbitration.

Following the arbitrator’s interim decision, the parties will attempt to settle the remedies due to the workers and return to arbitration if they are unable to come to an agreement.

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Started in 1946 by conscientious objector Lew Hill, Pacifica’s storied history includes impounded program tapes for a 1954 on-air discussion of marijuana, broadcasting the Seymour Hersh revelations of the My Lai massacre, bombings by the Ku Klux Klan, going to jail rather than turning over the Patty Hearst tapes to the FBI, and Supreme Court cases including the 1984 decision that noncommercial broadcasters have the constitutional right to editorialize, and the Seven Dirty Words ruling following George Carlin’s incendiary performances on WBAI. Pacifica Foundation Radio operates noncommercial radio stations in New York, Washington, Houston, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay Area, and syndicates content to over 180 affiliates. It invented listener-supported radio.

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