Originally posted August 10, 2014

Berkeley-As rumors of the intended sale of Pacifica stations have spread widely, members of the rogue majority (with the exception of Houston director Hank Lamb who has been upfront about his desire to sell off NY station WBAI), have insisted the rumors are untrue. But when given the opportunity to put their money where their mouths are, unelected board chair Wilkinson and treasurer Edwards-Tiekert declined. At KPFA’s local station board meeting earlier today, an advisory motion by United for Community Radio-affiliated board member Dave Welsh (former Ramparts editor and SF Labor Council delegate) requesting a policy “that under no circumstances will the broadcast licenses of the five stations that comprise the Pacifica radio network be put up for sale or lease”, treasurer Edwards-Tiekert substituted and passed a motion replacing it with a request to the national board to “to explore and prioritize all options and sell a license as a last resort“.

While Edwards-Tiekert has more verbal finesse than many members affiliated with the Siegel-Brazon faction, who in the past have referred to both East Coast stations as “toast”, and suggested WBAI be “amputated”, the rogue board majority’s reluctance to publicly disavow attorney Dan Siegel’s comments about “organizational Darwinism” suggests that plans to cash in on licenses remain in play. The station’s most lucrative licenses are the two commercially convertible licenses in the Bay Area and New York, although all 5 are worth tens of millions of dollars on the open market.

Members objecting to the board majority’s actions over the past six months can sign a petition here.

In 1999, board explorations of license sales drew the attention of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee of the CA State Legislature, the CA Attorney General and multiple lawsuits, which led to new bylaws that prevent the sale of any network license without the permission of the members.

The rogue board continues to refuse to hold elections to replace themselves.  Plans to convert to an online voting system to save $50,000 in printing and postage costs cannot be implemented until the board appoints someone to do the job. Former PNB vice-chair Bill Crosier applied for the job months ago and issued detailed plans for how to proceed, but cannot be hired. IED/IED Wilkinson’s elected term ended in December 2013, before she maneuvered a tied vote into the chairmanship of the board, engineered the firing of the executive director, and replaced her with herself.

A pending complaint to the CA Attorney General Registry of Charitable Trusts by 8 former board members can be found here (in a slightly updated version). The AG is responsible for California charitable compliance and can be asked to force the Pacifica board to run for re-election. Pacifica members can send a note to the AG here. 

 The fired-and-rehired-34-days-later CFO finally issued another stab at financial statements, but they are filled with problems. PNB treasurer Brian Edwards-Tiekert issued a defensive report casting blame for the reporting void on the departed national office accounting staff and the previous executive director (now 4 executive directors ago). The statement just came out and will undergo further review, but at first glance it omits several bequests and donations (including the $105,000 from Chevron remitted to KPFA, a large bequest to KPFK last fall, and $85,000 in bequests to WBAI reported by the WBAI GM), and contains no payments into Pacifica’s pension plan in the last nine months. LA station KPFK is without community events income, website income or development expenses for several months. Strangely, the statement posits that the network has posted an overall surplus of $106,000 for the year, which probably means numerous expenses have also been omitted. The statement can be seen here. 

The fired-and-then-rehired-34-days-later CFO has presided over a national office accounting staff that has largely fled in the past 2 months, with the majority of the accounting staff either quitting or going out on medical leave after an 8-hour mediation session did not resolve complaints dating back to 2013.

A number of donations by check have caused confusion within the network. A $105,000 check with a Chevron logo on it dated from April 2014 was left at KPFA’s printer, and caused distress to station staff who have recently undergone pressure regarding aggressive reporting on the Chevron refinery expansion in Richmond, CA. The check, according to PNB treasurer Edwards-Tiekert, represents the buyback of Chevron from a bequest of shares from an estate, but references to “80 shares” didn’t make sense as the approximate value of 80 shares of Chevon stock is $10,000, not $105,000. Requests for documentation of a donation of approximately 850 shares of Chevron stock have not been answered. CFO Salvador also referred to a check for $150,000 from an unknown donor, describing the check as being from “T Rowe Price”, the national mutual fund/investment firm. By policy, the Pacifica Foundation does not accept corporate donations.

The network’s overall condition has deteriorated in the past 8 months, with Houston’s KPFT unlicensable until its equipment is replaced (the station is on its 5th consecutive temporary authorization to operate at reduced power which expires in November), WBAI’s transmitter remaining unstably housed, the network lacking a corporate counsel, an audit that has not begun 11 months after the end of the last fiscal year, 2014 CPB funding deadlines missed in June, copyright violation cases on file at the FCC, and two external lawsuits, one from the Robert Half personnel agency (for accounting staff unable to work with the rehired CFO), and one from Pacifica Reporters Against Censorship, who produced Free Speech Radio News. The PDGG vs Pacifica lawsuit from the minority directors has continued all remaining matters until September 18th.

KPFA’s recent fund drive eliminated 65 years of community volunteer pledge drive rooms. KPFA GM Quincy McCoy said at the local board meeting that he didn’t really know how much corporate call center Comnet cost the station, but had heard figures between $30,000 and $60,000, which if true, represent a substantial reduction in the fund drive results. This means the station did not meet its fundraising goals, as it did not raise the goal to accomodate the additional expense. The GM also referred to “customer service problems” with the call center. It’s not clear why the experiment went forward with management confused about how much it cost.

Berkeley-based satirical sound collage Twit-Wit Radio, a 3-minute collaborative spoken word collage produced by noted theatrical director George Coates, continued to spoof the board-induced craziness on July 27th, with snippets of audio drawn from Pacifica’s actual board meetings.

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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.