This email  came out of KPFK today.  It attributes GM Radford saying that KPFK, the largest radio signal west of the Mississippi, may go dark on October 1st. According to Pacifica’s financial statements, the station generated $2.7 million dollars in revenue through July 31st of this year, with an additional 19 days of fund drive in August.

From: <[email protected]>
Date: September 16, 2015 at 10:12:45 PM PDT
To: [email protected]>
Subject: Re: Pacifica Voting

The last two weeks I’ve been getting steady streams of extremely irate subscribers who say they can’t get through to anyone on the phone and that the station is committing fraud. Last week one woman was really pissed off about not getting her downloadable premium, and I told her I would personally take her info to the subscription room. People there just shrugged their shoulders, said everyone was mad and there was nothing they could do.

Today, another woman called who was fuming – again, couldn’t get through the phone system and said it was fraud. She said she got a premium a long time ago for $150, and after paying it off in three installments, KPFK kept on charging her bank account. She said she was a huge blogger and was going to go off on it, that her sister wrote for the LA Times, and she was ready to pounce, and that her husband was a lawyer, ready to go to small claims court. She said she would trigger these three options, and close her bank account within 24 hours if no one from KPFK called her.

X and I took it to the GM after the show. She looked totally out to lunch. She said, “Look, we can’t even make October 1st payroll, so the whole thing may be closing down. I’ve been making calls all day for money, but no one’s coming through, and no one can tell me they’re ready for a fund drive before that.” Kind of took my breath away.

**

A board operator at the station also reported  that they witnessed GM Radford in a tirade yelling: “This goddamned staff, I’m going to get all of these fuckers”.