The End Less Near – Pacifica Board Approves Loan

Berkeley – On the evening of January 18, the Pacifica Foundation board formally approved and accepted a loan put together by the organization’s members in Southern California to pay off a pending judgment to the Empire State Building and keep the organization out of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.

The member loan is a short-term bridge loan intended to pay off the judgment immediately and transition the organization into a 3-year line of credit that will follow.

The three to three and a half year timeline will allow Pacifica to explore several options to pay off long-term debts and finally get clear of the extortionate Empire State deal that swallows so much revenue without having to engage in fire sales, and retains the organization’s independence.

The board also approved the hire of Tom Livingston, an experienced public media executive, to take over the executive director position.

Editor’s note: Pacifica in Exile takes seriously the responisibility to keep the members informed and we are aware that many are both eager, and entitled, to know the terms and conditions for the loan series. We firmly intend to publish this information as soon as practible. Unfortunately, we have been convinced and have chosen to accede to, a request not to do so immediately due to threats from some parts of the organization who were deeply committed to a bankruptcy proceeding and the break up of the Pacifica network. We will publish as soon as it is viable to do so. We regret the delay. 

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Pacifica in Exile readers may write to the board at pnb@pacifica.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-sponsored radio.

8 thoughts on “The End Less Near – Pacifica Board Approves Loan”

  1. You are Extra than Ordinary, yes, again, and elsewhere too. Reporting helpfully.

    I am noticing that as we go into this era – year- forward we are more EX-POSE-ING in all areas, thus to the benefit of those who have been mis-treated and ab-used in secret before [and who may have complied with bad acts, but with threats, intimidations, punishments ].

    You have consistently here…. [as this is the 1 and only place to learn-stuff and where you tell some site – on the net about Pacifica and it’s tentacle stations ]
    you have revealed what the Stakeholders & Donors and thus Investors who maintain the Fdtn & radio stations Need To Know.

    And as you wrote, and has been repeated: NO one wants to be having their hard earnings, inheritances, $$$sharings used for legal fees, court costs, external extras, consultations due to financial mismanagements, or extra unnecessary expenses beyond the ‘normal’ maintenance costs… just to keep radio on-air.

    We thank you and appreciate your courage and reporting. Your work and dedication to both the sources:

    ll Pacifica, PNB, iED, some LSB’s and misc old-timer-people emails, those who get to decide or deride what has happened and what solutions can or have been Chosen. [vs. other ones]

    and “the rest of us” : who work, pay for, care, and want our local radio station to be financially stable and clear, reputable and not in debt just have to read here, as we apparently have no power nor voice in Pacifica’s radio station’s affairs, !

    thank you, again. And a statue or medal may be made and revealed [later] in your special honor [maybe, somewhere …] even if $ is not included.

    Q: Why are there no other websites with exposures like yours? only the Wbai one, who is copy-pasting your info at times, but where else does anyone Dare to Expose what happens to Our Radio Stations & that fdtn that controls them = to Explain and Share data & info ?

    thanks.

    1. You are very welcome. In answer to your question about why there are no other websites a) it is a lot of work b) I’d guess that the tendency towards retaliation from some sectors of the network is discouraging. It is a somewhat limited position to have enough access to an organization that is fond of opacity to be able to report, and yet far enough removed to be somewhat safe from retaliation.

  2. Just some questions, if anyone knows the answers:
    1) there’s nothing at the Pacifica National Board’s website. Does it ever make public the decisions it makes in secret?
    2) at this Th18Jan meeting, did it decide to authorise payment in full (or in part) to the antenna hire creditor, Empire State Realty Trust, Inc. (ESRT), or can the National Office do this without instruction?
    3) if the PNB doesn’t volunteer the terms of this alleged loan is there any way that they can be disclosed?
    4) “a 3-year line of credit that will follow”: so as not to recognise this as speculation, what is the evidence for this assertion?
    5) is Mr Livingston being paid?
    6) does anyone have any expectation that the PNB can make the culture change allowing the Pacifica Foundation (a) to raise the extra c. $2m to pay this emergency loan within whatever period of time, (b) to plan & raise the best part of an extra $5m or so to pay various debts, (c) to get the fiscal 2016 accounts audited by whatever date in February to allow it to keep its tax-exempt status for charitable giving, & (d), more generally, to get its financial affairs in order?

    All this is said not least because, whilst ESRT remain unpaid, the assets of PF can be seized by court order at any time. Wishful thinking always remains as it is.

    1. 1) No. The PNB has a very bad record of not documenting its own proceedings. One of the primary problems is that board resolutions get forgotten about
      within a year or two of them passing, so those who don’t like them usually just wait them out. They don’t get implemented and then nobody can remember
      what the heck passed. It could easily be fixed, but it never is.

      2) Pacifica’s National Office hasn’t wanted to pay the judgment. They have wanted to declare Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The board’s vote instructed them tp
      instead except the member loan and use it to pay off the judgment due.

      3) The evidence is the offer sheet from the finance company offering the approved line of credit with the terms. I would like to publish it, but have been
      told that I cannot do so. Eventually I will, one way or the other, but preferably without costing my source their banishment or expulsion from Pacifica, which
      is what sometimes happens.

      3) See above. I think this publication is your only hope and eventually this publication will make that choice. It shouldn’t be too mych longer.

      4) Yes.

      5) I don’t know what people expect. If people don’t want to lose the whole thing, those things will have to happen. Some people on the board are
      trying very hard to get those things done. Others are trying very hard to lose it all.

      1. Thanks so much for your detailed response. Just two follow-ups.

        The immediate focus is this: unless it has been kept secret, the New York creditor remains unpaid. After the 4Oct judgment the creditor expended effort & money to make submissions to all state courts where Pacifica has assets, so since 8Jan all assets are exposed to court seizure. So if Pacifica has agreed a loan with these Californians has it received the money? If not, why not, & when is the money likely to come through? And if it has received the money, why hasn’t the creditor been paid?

        The follow-ups, my questions #1 & #4:
        1) The minutes of the 18Jan meeting, such as they are, are now on the Pacifica website (but with no date of posting). The relevant minute is all of one sentence: “[t]he PNB voted to approve a loan of using the KPFK building as collateral in order to pay the Empire State Realty Trust summary judgment.” Perhaps it’s badly written, or perhaps it accurately describes the decision, but it doesn’t say ‘pay the judgment in full’. Big difference.
        4) The 18Jan minutes make no mention of “a 3-year line of credit” or of any financial arrangement other than the loan just mentioned. You say, in your 19Jan response, that this ‘line of credit’ is “approved”; this is presumably by the PNB, but when? I ask because there’s no mention of this 3-year thingy in any of the 14 PNB minutes published since the 4Oct judgment (minutes for the 25Jan & 1Feb meetings have yet to be posted). So are the minutes delinquent or has the 3-year thingy been approved or at least discussed?

        So please let me say thanks for doing this blog, especially as, unfortunately, one can’t rely on the Pacifica Foundation itself to keep listeners adequately informed of what is happening.

    1. See disclaimer in the article, Camilla. I do and I will disclose to you and the members as soon as I am able.

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