Originally posted May 31, 2014
Berkeley – A complete update on the national Pacifica scene will be out shortly. In the meantime, here’s some of what has been going on and some suggestions for action you can take.
Francisco Herrera and Andres Soto jammed together Friday at KPFA on-air in KPFA’s studio and sang The Ballad of the Morning Mix. Have a listen.
Sign and share the petition to support the return of the Morning Mix to KPFA’s prime time.
You can also send an email to Free Speech TV general manager Jon Stout at jon@freespeechtv.org telling him that we can’t get the progressive word out by stamping out local voices. We’re thrilled Kolhatkar’s program is being picked up by their network, but we don’t want expansion to mean the obliteration of the grassroots – and neither do they.
Take a look at Peter Whittlesey’s open letter for inspiration.
The contention that this change is being made for financial reasons is a false flag. 10 years of fund drive reports from Los Angeles sister station KPFK document beyond a shadow of a doubt that the replacement program has had exactly the same financial performance at 8am in the morning as the local programs being replaced. See a fund drive daily report below from KPFK with Sonali’s program listed as raising $1500. 
KPFA unpaid staffer Richard Wolinsky published a comment on Facebook explaining the source of the temporarily inflated numbers being used to justify the programming change.
Richard Wolinsky: “Mark, I may be old but I still look good. Not a clone and not a crone. However, a couple of things. First, it’s common to lie about matches. ‘Someone just called in’ could be anything from someone calling in to Phil Osegueda saying, ‘hey, you think you could make a $500 match now?’ So, what do you say on the air? Not, ‘Oh, Phil thinks we can make a match.’ What you say is, ‘We just got the word that someone has called in and pledged a match of $500.’ I agree with Richard Devereaux. It’s kind of creepy, but people have been doing it since long before I arrived at KPFA. The truth is that if Dan Seigel hadn’t called in the match, it’s likely Phil and Brian would have agreed that Sonali’s program was good for use of the ‘match fund.’ Does the match make Sonali’s show look better? Yes 7 hrs · Edited · Like ·”
How many of the “match funds” that came in during different hours of the day were directed to the LA program during its trial run in the 3rd week of May has not been disclosed by KPFA.
Here is on-air audio describing one particular pledge from attorney Dan Siegel that was allocated to the 8:00am hour.
Siegel’s firm, Siegel and Yee, has an employee on the national board, Jose Luis Fuentes, who replaced his boss on the national board in January. Fuentes made the motion to fire executive director, Summer Reese a week after his arrival on the national board, and his firm is doing the rogue board majority’s legal work in the PDGG vs. Pacifica lawsuit.
A satirical look at the chaos at the radio stations and what the future holds amid rumors of a network breakup by the Twit Wits comedy troupe (produced by noted theatrical producer George Coates) can be found here.