No, it’s not *that* election, but the verdict is in on the 2016 Pacifica board elections. Preliminary results released today show resounding victories for the independent slates in New York, Los Angeles and Houston.
At New York’s WBAI, the Indy Caucus won 6 of 9 listener seats and 2 of 3 staff seats to sweep 2/3 of the available 12 positions. Elected listener delegates are Lefever, Laufer, Sagurton, Naegele, Ochoa and Makower with Johnson and Davis joining them as staff reps. The Siegel/Brazon-affiliated candidates who were elected were Salaam, Hammond, Roberts and Kilgour.
At Houston’s KPFT, Move KPFT Forward won 7 of 9 listener seats and 2 of 3 staff seats to sweep 3/4 of the available 12 positions. Elected listener delegates are Mark, Duncan, Krafka, Conkling, Williams, Hunter and Sinclair joined by James and Lamb as staff reps. McCary won a seat affiliating with both slates. The Siegel/Brazon-affiliated candidates who were elected were Casenave and Gartner as a staff rep.
At Los Angeles’ KPFK, the Committee to Strengthen KPFK won 7 of 9 listener seats and 1 of 3 staff seats to sweep 2/3 of the available 12 positions. Elected listener delegates are Song, Wong, Gomez, Childs, Kriegel, Marbach, and Reik joined by Lexa as a staff rep. The Siegel/Brazon-affiliated candidates who were elected were Pour, Virgo (who affiliated late in the election cycle) and Hernandez and Rice as staff reps.
Washington’s WPFW is the only station that has not yet posted election results, but with a large number of write-in candidates, their results will take longer to count.
The outlier was Berkeley’s KPFA where the Siegel/Brazon-affiliated Save KPFA slate took 5 of 9 listener seats and 2 of 3 staff seats for 58% of the available 12 positions. Elected listener delegates are Travis, Turner, Huggins, Crowell, and Williams joined by Wolinsky and Sawyer as staff reps. The United for Community Radio candidates who were elected were Tanaka, Wolfley, Scruggs, Vorhees and Alderete as a staff rep.
The robust independent victories at 3 of the network’s 5 radio stations provide a mandate for a change of direction in the governance of the nation’s only progressive radio network. Pacifica members weighed in decisively despite several incidents of ballot-stuffing and fraudulent voter addresses observed at the LA station – and worries that such activities might be more widespread throughout the network.
The preliminary results, assuming newly-elected DC reps maintain previous factional affiliations, will likely deliver a 10-10 split on the 2017 Pacifica National Board with the final two votes belonging to 2 affiliate directors who will be selected by the lame duck national board in December. Last year’s picks were controversial due to neither affiliate director having signed an affiliate contract for 2016 or submitting 2016 dues to be member stations of the Pacifica Affiliates network.
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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.