An Open Letter To The Pacifica Community
It is way past time to put our radio network under the leadership of people who know how to supervise the operation of radio stations. The post-coup situation cannot continue. Not for another day and not for another week.
The executive director position needs to be immediately filled with an interim director with sufficient experience not to endanger the licenses. The Pacifica National Board (PNB) has had applications for months from at least two individuals with decades of experience managing radio stations. One of them needs to be placed into the interim executive director position immediately.
Here are the events of the past week: They are alarming.
(And let’s be clear. Ebola relief is a good cause. What is totally unacceptable is engaging in unauthorized third-party fundraising, not sending in a waiver request until a random ex-board member alerts the FCC attorney, broadcasting on stations in NY and DC not covered in the waiver request , and broadcasting at multiple times not covered in the waiver request for KPFK).
The intent of the board chair and interim ED was to engage in third party fundraising without requesting permission from the FCC. No request for any of the 5 licenses was filed until Pacifica’s FCC attorney was notified. The request filed after the fact is a misstatement of KPFK’s activities. Pacifica is continuing to do 3rd party fundraising on WBAI and WPFW without notifying or receiving permission from the FCC.
This is not the fault of the programmers involved. Nor is it the fault of the general managers and the program directors involved, as they are supervised employees (although it would have been desirable to have sufficient knowledge of FCC regulations). The guardians of the licenses are the Pacifica National Board, acting through the ED and CFO they hire to operate the radio network.
Relying on ex-board members to avoid violating FCC rules is not a management strategy.
This is dangerous negligence.
Sincerely,
Tracy Rosenberg, KPFA Listener Rep 2007-2014. Director 2011-2014.
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a) Rules from the Federal Communications Commission (Section 73.503(d) for noncommercial radio station licensees on raising funds on the air for a 3rd party or unrelated nonprofit organization.
Here is a summary from the Communications Law Blog
The Commission’s rules (Sections 73.503(d) for radio and 73.621(e) for TV) prohibit noncommercial educational (NCE) broadcasters from engaging in on-air fund-raising activities on behalf of anybody but the station itself.
The Commission has historically waived that prohibition following “disasters of particular uniqueness or magnitude” – Hurricane Katrina, the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the 2011 Japanese tsunami and Superstorm Sandy come to mind as ready examples.
Stations seeking such waivers should prepare an informal request providing the following basic details of their fund-raising activity:
- the nature of the fund-raising activity;
- the proposed duration of the activity;
- the organization(s) to which fund will be donated; and
- whether the fund-raising activity will be part of the station’s regularly-scheduled pledge drive or fund-raising efforts
b) These are links to broadcasts on KPFK of Sojourner Truth (a public affairs program hosted by Margaret Prescod) playing on KPFK, Pacifica’s Los Angeles station, both in the show’s regular time slot and rebroadcasts at other times. The show also aired on WBAI in New York and WPFW in DC. Each of these shows is doing on-air fundraising for Partners in Health, announcing that 50% of the pledges raised will go directly to this agency for Ebola relief programs in Sierra Leone and Liberia.
Broadcast dates and times:
Friday October 3 at 7am on KPFK
Saturday October 4th at noon on KPFK
Sunday October 5th at noon on KPFK
Thursday October 9th at 3pm on WBAI
Thursday October 9th at 4pm on WPFW
Thursday October 9th at 5pm on KPFK
c) An email sent by former board member Tracy Rosenberg to Pacifica’s FCC lawyer John Crigler of Garvey, Schubert and Barer and KPFK’s interim manager Zuberi Fields on Sunday 10-5 at 11:46 am
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I hope you’re well.
This is a heads-up to verify that KPFK-FM secured an FCC waiver to raise funds on-air for an ebola relief organization, Partners in Health (Last Mile Health).
(The original document is stored here. Because the “relevant facts” are germane, the notification/request to the FCC on October 7th is reproduced here in its entirety).
**
October 7, 2014
VIA HAND DELIVERY
Marlene H. Dortch, Secretary
Federal Communications Commission
Office of the Secretary
445 12th Street, S.W.
Room TW-A325
Washington, D.C. 20554
Re: Third-Party Fundraising Waiver Request
Pacifica Foundation, Inc.
Radio Station KPFK(NCE-FM), Los Angeles, CA
Facility ID: 51252
Dear Ms. Dortch:
Please reply to JOHN CRIGLER
jcrigler@XXXXX
On behalf of Pacifica Foundation, Inc. (“Pacifica”), licensee of noncommercial radio station KPFK, Los Angeles, California, I hereby request a limited waiver of Section 73.503(d) of the Commission’s Rules in order to permit KPFK to solicit funds to help the nonprofit organization, Partners in Health, respond to the Ebola crisis. KPFK is conducting a fund drive that will end on October 22, 2014. As part of that fund
drive, KPFK proposes to air two one-hour programs related to the Ebola crisis each day during the fund drive. The programs are special editions of “Sojourner Truth,” hosted by Margaret Prescod. They will air four days a week, Tuesday —Friday at 7-8 a.m. and will be rebroadcast in
the time slots normally reserved for two weekly programs, Spot Light Africa, a news and information program about current developments in the African continent and Radio Afrodicia, a music program that features African and Afro-Caribbean music.
During these two programs, KPFK will solicit listener contributions to KPFK and, as a “premium” or inducement to contribute to KPFK, will commit to donate 50% of the contributions pledged during the programs to Partners in Health, a tax-exempt U.S. nonprofit organization that works to bring the benefits of modern medical science to those most in need and that trains health workers to provide basic health care.
Helping Ebola victims, preventing the spread of Ebola and educating the general public about health emergencies are central to Pacifica’s mission of engaging in activities “that shall contribute to a lasting understanding between nations and between the individuals of all nations.”
Although the Ebola crisis is now a health crisis in the U.S. as well as Africa and other parts of the world, it is of particular concern to the large African emigrant population that KPFK serves in Los Angeles. For this portion of KPFK’s audience, the Ebola epidemic has an immediate,
often personal impact as well as the broader interest in providing comprehensive prevention, care and treatment to all potential Ebola victims.
Because the Sojourner Truth programs will be aired during times that are not regularly scheduled and will benefit a third-party nonprofit organization other than the licensee, Pacifica, out of an abundance of caution, seeks a limited waiver of Section 73.503(d) to enable it to
conduct the fundraising activities described in this request from the date of grant through October 22, 2014.
**
d) The Problems
* Unauthorized 3rd party fundraising on KPFK on October 3rd, October 4th and October 5th
* Unauthorized 3rd party fundraising on WBAI on October 9th. No waiver request was made for the WBAI license.
* Unauthorized 3rd party fundraising on WPFW on October 9th. No waiver request was made for the WPFW license.
* Despite John Crigler’s presentation of the “relevant facts” to the FCC, the program was not rebroadcast at the normal time scheduled for Spot Light Africa on KPFK. Christine Blosdale fundraised during that hour on Saturday at 3pm. The letter sent to the FCC was a lie.
*Despite John Crigler’s presentation of the “relevant facts” to the FCC, the program was not rebroadcast at the normal time scheduled for Radio Afrodicia on KPFK. the host fundraised during that hour on Saturday at 4pm. The letter sent to the FCC was a lie.
* Despite John Crigler’s presentation of the “relevant facts” to the FCC, the program was rebroadcast at the normal time scheduled for three programs not mentioned in the waiver request: The Hutchinson Report, The Insighters and Background Briefing. There may be more. The letter sent to the FCC was a lie.
* KPFK’s report of fundraising totals to the local station board by the general manager did not report that many of the funds raised were not to be kept at KPFK. No notification was provided to the board of directors, the finance committee or any of the three involved local station boards of the 3rd party fundraising, nor were fund drive goals adjusted to account for the funds to be sent to another organization.