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.
Board member Steve Brown elaborated on a public list serv: “Null simply wants the criminal behavior to be cleaned up, and if it is, he will no longer have reason (or grounds) to bring suit. But an internal cleanup by Pacifica prompted by the threat of Null’s suit may mitigate civil damages from (numerous) others as well as criminal fines and jail terms from various government agencies, including but not limited to the FBI, FTC, FCC, Justice Dept, US Postal Service, and the California AG. Yes, the criminal activities are that serious. Null does not stand to gain from his suit; it is not a “money lawsuit.” Unfortunately, I cannot publicize the particular criminal behavior being addressed. But in fact I have put the ED and PNB on notice about it numerous times, without response, long before Null became aware of it. I was about to whistle-blow myself, as I told (threatened) the board and ED, but Null’s suit, which will accomplish the same thing, relieves me of the embarrassing job of outing the management of the foundation on whose board I serve”.
According to the Eastern District of NY Civil Court, a judgement was entered against the Pacifica Foundation in Silverman and Silverman vs. Pacifica on November 12th. The judgement would be for legal fees incurred in 2008 in the defense of attorney Dan Siegel. Siegel, then the Pacifica corporate counsel, was appointed the interim executive director in the fall of 2007 and proceeded to fire national election supervisor Casey Peters and replace him with himself. Siegel held all three positions simultaneously. Peters’ stated in his 2007 report to the board that “Dan Siegel in his dual roles as corporate counsel and Interim Executive Director engaged in threats and manipulation to unlawfully control the outcome of Pacifica elections”. Peters’ detailed report on the firing can be found here. WBAI subscribers who did not get ballots in the 2007 election went to court to get them. Siegel refused to send the ballots and hired a NY firm to fight the lawsuit. He ran up approximately $65,000 in legal bills in his defense and lost the lawsuit.
Pacifica’s rogue board maintained an eerie silence after a reported meeting with auditor Armanino on the afternoon of Thursday December 4th. Nothing was said about it in Thursday evening’s national board meeting and then the scheduled Friday audit committee meeting and Tuesday finance committee meeting were both cancelled. The audit for the year ending September 30, 2014 was due to the State of California on June 30, 2015. Pacifica was declared ineligible for Corporation for Public Broadcasting funding in calender years 2014 and 2015 due to failure to submit audited financials and would have to submit audited financials for both FY 2013/2014 and FY 2014/2015 by June 2016 to restore eligibility for the annual public media grants. The network has no operating budget yet for the fiscal year that began on October 1, 2015.
The troubled board elections continue until January 4th in the New York, Los Angeles and Houston signal areas, with results expected from Berkeley later this week. The election has been, to put it bluntly, a mess and complaints continue to roll in (including some to this publication) from subscribers who either can’t get ballots at all or have ended up with two or three of them. The election process is loaded up with conflicts of interests as the election supervisor’s direct boss Lydia Brazon is a candidate, as is elections committee chair Bob Lederer and 5 other election committee members.
Unlike previous Pacifica elections when candidates and interested parties could observe vote counts held at local community centers or at the stations themselves, this year the ballots are being counted at an unknown location, possibly in Canada at Simply Voting’s Montreal headquarters or possibly at the Eugene, Oregon site to which ballots have been returned. Neither the election supervisor nor the voting company to date have revealed where the ballot count will be held or been willing to admit observers, should any be found at or were willing to travel to, the remote location.
Infrastructural breakdowns at KPFK continue at a staggering pace after the station reduced its entire work force to 50% time and laid off its webmaster. The station’s December fund drive was scheduled to begin on Monday, but could not because the station’s phones and internal wifi broke down. First day receipts on Tuesday came in at $17K, less than the previous fund drive’s $19K daily average. KPFK averaged $30,000 a day only two years ago. The station’s archives uploader has failed at least twice in the last month, with several programs permanently unavailable and others painstakingly uploaded manually (only 1 of the last 24 hours of programming is available at press time). On the website at kpfk.org, the Sojourner Truth newsfeed is broken, the site features the pledge thermometer from the *last* fund drive which concluded more than a month ago, and few premiums are available for online pledges. GM Radford announced she was leaving town for the fund drive’s beginning days in order to come to Berkeley and “work at the national office” for several days this week.
The technical mess is exacerbating subscriber losses in LA, as one frustrated former donor in San Diego wrote in to say:
From: Jonny Kent
Sent: Saturday, December 05, 2015 9:42 PM
Subject: listener support
Just want to let you know that I can no longer be a listener supporter since I can’t listen anymore. You win, you’ve finally managed to cut me out: I’m done, I can’t hear archives or streaming or the FM. No more $ or support from me, you are all on your own. That said, thanks for the memory, for a one time great station, maybe it is still great, how would I know? I wish you all the best. Adios.
As the LA station struggles for cash and prepares for a December 13th arbitration with SAG-AFTRA, Radford and the Siegel/Brazon faction continue to pursue the replacement of profitable programs with less profitable programs. The station’s union staff have already made some $150,000 in concessions and still debts have not been substantively paid down and the broadcast and digital infrastructure continues to deteriorate.
In the latest round, Siegel/Brazon-affiliated board member Chuck Anderson said “we” “absolutely do not want” to keep paid programmers, called overnight programmer Roy Tuckman “goy of hollywood” and said “we absolutely want him off the air”. Tuckman, who goes by the nom de plume Roy of Hollywood, runs KPFK’s overnight programming from Monday to Thursday midnight to 6am and is the only Pacifica programmer nationwide to substantively monetize the overnight hours. Anderson similiarly suggested “unplugging KPFK” when programmers Ian Masters (Background Briefing) and Sonali Kolhatkar (Uprising) were on the air. Radford obliged her faction by leaving notes on a conference dry erase board for Tuckman to find indicating plans to replace him from midnight to 3am with Radford’s roommate/mentor Adam Rice (a sample of Rice’s work complete with broadcast obscenities can be found here). KPFK fund drive reports indicate Rice has never brought in more than about $100/hr when DJ’ing. Such a change would negatively impact KPFK’s fundraising capacity. Tuckman produces some of the station’s highest Internet listenership numbers – often surpassing day time drive in the middle of the night.
Radford’s last report to the listener can be heard here. She mentions the new phone system (which then promptly broke down and delayed the start of the fund drive) and announces undefined program changes for January. Among other calls, there were requests for programs about science, pro and con opinions about small business underwriting, and a listener who spoke Spanish raising concerns about the quality of KPFK’s 9pm to midnight spanish language block.
At NY’s WBAI, documents detail 4,633 unsent premiums to listeners, the second time in the last 8 years that the NY station’s premium backlog has approached the 5,000 number. The number of unsent premiums is approaching half the number of current members. Fund drive numbers from the Fall 2015 fund drive show the station only grossing about $8,000 a day, approximately half of the anticipated amount and approximately half of the amounts raised two years ago. Program director Mario Murillo from the NY wing of the Siegel/Brazon faction, the Justice and Unity Caucus, made significant program changes in his year long tenure (now over) which seem to have dropped pledge drive revenues substantially.
One of the station’s finance committee volunteers made this statement on December 6th:
From: [email protected]
Sent: Sunday, December 6, 2015 3:54 PM
“Regarding WBAI management providing timely and reasonably accurate financial information, my thoughts are since the beginning of my tenure as a voting member of the Finance Committee, I have not seen it done. Most of the documentation provided the Finance Committee has violated the most basic accounting principles. The Finance Committee passed a motion early this year requiring that the General Manager provide certain financial information to the Treasury prior to any Finance Committee meeting. The requested information included but was not limited to the most current accounts payable. This information has not been provided consistently and when presented was either contradictory, incomplete and/or provided verbally. Putting aside all the other issues that Pacifica Foundation and in particular WBAI face with respects to say the infighting, program content, marketing and failure to follow through on delivering premiums to listeners the lack of or failure to follow clear and consistent Generally Accepted Accounting Principles via written financial policies and procedures is a glaring internal weakness that has made all other financial problems harder to address and/or solve. This issue goes a long way towards explaining why there are no audit financials available for the time period in question. What I have seen quite frankly borders on gross negligence and possible criminality. My perspective is based upon having been a Directors and Officers Liability Insurance Chief and/or Managing Underwriter for a couple of major insurance companies and having a Masters of Science in Finance having worked with both not for profit and major corporate enterprises. Respectfully, Noel Jameson”
Pacifica in Exile’s election recommendations for all four stations across the country can be found here. All of the endorsed candidates agree heartily that big changes are needed in the governance system including a comprehensive bylaws rewrite.
On November 8th, KPFA’s satirical Twit Wit Radio once again hauled out the truth serum. You can listen here.
Pacifica in Exile readers may write to the board at [email protected].
For readers who may wish to do more, any donor to a California-based not for profit organization like Pacifica may file a complaint to the open file at the Registry of Charitable Trusts at the Office of the CA Attorney General. Pacifica’s case number is CT011303. The form and instructions for filing may be downloaded here.
To subscribe to this newsletter, please visit our spanking new website at www.pacificainexile.org
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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.