Tag Archives: wbai

Only One Faction Votes In New York

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Berkeley-The Pacifica National Board, which met on March 3rd for the first time in a month after two consecutive disrupted meetings on January 28th and February 4th, doubled down on their disenfranchisement of WBAI-FM. The board again prevented 4 NY directors elected on January 26th from participating in the meeting and insisted on their authority to seat the last place finisher from the 2012 election in the NY local board’s vacant seat, instead of the first runner-up from the recently completed election. The national board’s interference has brought NY to a halt as the national board attempts to undo the 13-11 independent majority elected by the voters in order to deliver the Siegel/Brazon faction a 12-12 tie.

In a particularly absurd twist, the national board spent more than half an hour elaborately constructing a rationale to give participation and voting rights to the 2015 Siegel/Brazon faction NY representative Cerene Roberts, while continuing to eliminate participation and voting rights for all of the 2015 and the 2016 WBAI representatives from the independent group that holds the majority on the WBAI local station board.  Continue reading Only One Faction Votes In New York

Flip-Flopper

 

In the February 9th, Pacifica National Board finance committee meeting, former Pacifica ED and board chair Lydia Brazon is heard insisting that “of course” members of Pacifica boards and committees get to stay on as voting members until they are replaced. The Pacifica National Board had its last two meetings disrupted because the Siegel/Brazon majority stripped voting rights from all the NY station representatives claiming neither the new ones nor the old ones could vote. If only Ms. Brazon had piped up with her statement at the national board meeting where her colleagues didn’t do what “we’ve been doing”. Twice. Continue reading Flip-Flopper

Mozart Meeting: Civil Disbedience

 

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BerkeleyThursday’s Pacifica National Board meeting turned into a Mozart sonata after the Siegel/Brazon faction insisted on preventing both the 2016 and 2015 directors from WBAI-FM from voting in the meeting. The music, which played for more than 40 minutes on the conference call line, was preceded by numerous objections to the board majority’s actions, which included trying to seat two affiliate directors self-nominated by stations without affiliate agreements to represent the 200 affiliated stations, refusing the seat four directors elected by NY’s delegate assembly on January 26th: staffer Shawn Rhodes and listener reps Bob Young, Alex Steinberg and Frank LeFever and refusing to allow the 2015 directors from WBAI to vote in their stead, leaving the NY station completely disenfranchised. A clip of some of the meeting can be heard here.
Continue reading Mozart Meeting: Civil Disbedience

Lockdown

 

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Berkeley-Within days of the seating of the new KPFK local station board after the landslide victory of the Committee to Strengthen KPFK, GM Leslie Radford and roommate Adam Rice suggested to staff members the LA station was in “lockdown” after banning volunteer receptionist (and one of the Committee’s staffer candidates), Allan Coie from the station. Coie, a retired attorney, stated the reasons for his firing were that he gave out the number of the Pacifica National Office to a caller and gave program director Alan Minsky listener complaints that were called in about the substituion of Something’s Happening in the M-Th midnight to 3am hours. Coie said Radford told him the listener complaints were “personal to her”. Rice then fired him and told him he would no longer be admitted on station premises. Continue reading Lockdown

Landslide in Los Angeles

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Berkeley-Pacifica’s 2015 board elections ended with a bang when the KPFK election delivered a huge supermajority (17 out of 24 seats) for the Committee to Strengthen KPFK/Candidate Slate group in a stinging rebuke for the majority Siegel/Brazon faction. The last time any Pacifica local board had a supermajority was more than five years ago. Continue reading Landslide in Los Angeles

Even Candidates Can’t Get Ballots

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Berkeley-Pacifica’s 2015 board elections are scheduled to end on January 4th, 2016 after being extended for as long as possible. The troubled process has been marked by many members having extreme difficulty getting ballots, which haven’t been received by as many as 25-30% of the network’s 55,000 members. Two stations, WBAI in NY and KPFK in LA may not have hit quorum yet, so members at those stations who haven’t voted are encouraged to look for online voting instructions they may have received on October 22nd, or fill out an immediate request for them at elections.pacifica.org. Pacifica in Exile’s candidate recommendations can be found  here. Continue reading Even Candidates Can’t Get Ballots

Zulu Sex Therapy

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Berkeley-Notes left on a conference room white board overnight at KPFK-FM in Los Angeles outlined GM Leslie Radford’s plans to replace the station’s longstanding and popular Roy of Hollywood overnight program Something’s Happening with programs on sex, therapy, and poetry labeled “Zulu” and “Friday Night Fights”. The contents of the white board can be seen here (picture below). While it isn’t clear why Radford would leave the information exposed except to create a hostile work environment, the proposed changes target the most lucrative of the station’s evening programs. The proposed change would reduce revenues, delaying if not finishing off entirely the station’s broken promise to SAG-AFTRA union staff that they would be returned to normal work schedules. Continue reading Zulu Sex Therapy

One Judgment and More To Come

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Berkeley-Long-time alternative health host Gary Null announced on WBAI’s air yesterday that there was a strong possibility he would soon be filing significant litigation against Pacifica Radio. Null did not mention the subject of the lawsuit, but referenced federal authorities and stated he was in possession of compelling evidence to support his charges against the national radio network. You can listen to his on-air announcement here. Continue reading One Judgment and More To Come

Board Elections Edition

 

 

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Berkeley-This edition of Pacifica In Exile is devoted solely to endorsements for the upcoming board elections. We will return to news and updates in a day or two.

Overview

In the year and a half since Pacifica in Exile began publication, the Pacifica Foundation has toppled into critical condition after a series of board coups, loss of Corporation for Public Broadcasting funding, an investigation by the California Attorney General of  accounting irregularities, the establishment of nonprofits by board members to privately secure Pacifica’s broadcasting licenses, and severe declines in membership and revenues. Under “volunteer” executive director Margy Wilkinson, the network could not complete timely financial audits, borrowed from and did not repay restricted funds, relied on temps who embezzled and “damaged” accounting systems, and hired an inexperienced board crony to lead its largest station and most powerful broadcasting signal in Los Angeles. Pacifica’s democratic system, put into place after Northern California subscribers petitioned the California Attorney General for membership rights, allows current donors to kick the board out. That time has come. Continue reading Board Elections Edition

Margy Wilkinson’s Pacifica Skids Off The Rails

News and Information about Pacifica Radio

Berkeley– 22 months after scheming to depose her predecessor and replace her with herself and secretly setting up a nonprofit corporation to scoop up one or more Pacifica broadcasting licenses or other assets, Pacifica’s lame duck board of directors is facing the consequences and moving to mortgage real estate. In a startling national board meeting last night, reality overcame fraudulent financial statements trumpeting a “profit” for the year and chirpy election propaganda from Wilkinson’s faction sent out just a day prior. Continue reading Margy Wilkinson’s Pacifica Skids Off The Rails