Originally posted May 12, 2015

Berkeley-Board chair Margy Wilkinson, who deposed her predecessor in March of 2014 and then served as Pacifica’s interim executive director for most of the last 15 months (briefly interrupted for 90 days by Bernard Duncan who departed for New Zealand), pulled a last-minute fast one a day and a half prior to new ED John Proffitt’s arrival in Berkeley by appointing former board member and factional crony Leslie Radford as the new permanent general manager at Pacifica’s LA station KPFK.

The maneuver has thrown Pacifica into even more chaos (controversial CFO Raul Salvador quit abruptly less than a week ago) and incited an uprising at the LA station, where 57 staff members signed a letter objecting to the sleight-of-hand appointment. Signers include every single member of the stations paid staff but one and several prominent unpaid programmers. A public petition was also launched at change.org. No interim executive director at Pacifica has ever tried to make a permanent GM hire in the last 13 years.

Radford’s qualifications for the job, apart from being Wilkinson’s pal in the Siegel-Brazon faction, are undetectable. Pacifica’s press release referenced a position as an adminstrative assistant at a small Oklahoma theater association (see 990 here) in the late 80’s and teaching speech classes at LA area community colleges as an adjunct. Nothing in the press release indicated the three to five years of management experience in radio or related media listed as a requirement for the job.

Incoming ED John Proffitt would have been expected to fill the position and has not made a public statement about Wilkinson’s assumption of his authority while he was driving west to begin the position he accepted several weeks ago.

Pacifica is still reeling from the abrupt resignation of embattled CFO Raul Salvador less than a week ago, who gave less than two weeks notice on May 6th, saying he wanted to spend more time with his family. Salvador’s tenure was marked by workplace complaints, a year-long delay in independent audits that cost Pacifica millions in public media funding, and an investigation launched by the California Registry of Charitable Trusts in December of 2014.

At Los Angeles station KPFK, a new company credit card recently opened was abruptly closed last week after it was found to contain unauthorized charges of almost $2,000 at Ralph Lauren Menswear and Wal-Mart.

WBAI listener representative Steve Brown, who has stated he intends to file a complaint with CA’s Attorney General due to his inability to get itemized lists of Pacifica’s reported millions of dollars in debts, penned a letter to Wilkinson about the ongoing negotiations with the Empire State Building to reduce the cost of WBAI’s tower rental, now close to $500,000 a year and scheduled to increase every year until 2020. Brown’s letter objects to Wilkinson rejecting the pro-bono (free) assistance of New York real estate firm Himmelstein, McConnell, Gribben, Donoghue & Joseph in order to pay Oakland civil rights attorney Dan Siegel to negotiate with Empire, despite Siegel not being licensed to practice law in New York State and being a civil rights attorney not a real estate attorney, by trade.

Siegel’s last negotiation for Pacifica was the 2007 Democracy Now renewal, which was widely seen as a disaster for Pacifica as it promised 4% annual increases without any corresponding requirement for an increase in the revenue generated by the program. In fact the program’s revenues from Pacifica broadcasts plummeted by 35% and Pacifica ran up millions in debt when it could no longer afford to pay the $50,000+ a month distribution fees. Siegel has also publicly advocated for the sale or swap of the NY frequency and presented a theory of “organizational darwinism” namely that the financially weaker east coast stations should be abandoned by the network.

Brown’s letter also castigated Wilkinson for the last-minute Radford hire and the February 2014 re-hire of Salvador as CFO after his termination amid allegations of creating a hostile workplace and professional incompetence. Brown stated that “Mr Salvador had been explicitly terminated by the former board directly as a result of an extensive independent investigation into allegations of incompetence, sexual harassment, and creation of a hostile workplace”. Brown’s letter can be read in full here.

Incoming board chair Lydia Brazon flew up from Los Angeles to Berkeley on Friday to tour Pacifica’s Berkeley properties with a real estate agent to do an appraisal. Brazon’s actions were not authorized by the national board of directors, who were unaware of her actions as chair until notified by observers at the Berkeley station. Board member Janet Kobren, who was facilitating the appraisal, stated it was about the abandoned restaurant property at 1921 Martin Luther King Jr Way, which is vermin-infested and needs tens of thousands in structural work to come up to code and could only be sold at fire-sale prices due to its deteriorated condition.

A censorship controversy at Berkeley station KPFA shut down Saturday’s KPFA local station board meeting. Guns and Butter host Bonnie Faulkner was prevented from going ahead with a planned show discussing California’s childhood vaccination controversy. California Senator Pan’s SB 277 would eliminate the personal belief exemption some California parents exercise to send their children to school without the entire roster of childhood vaccinations. The bill has set off a huge debate in California and across the nation with many parents deeply opposed to the elimination of choice amid concerns about the safety and efficacy of some vaccines and the skyrocketing rate of childhood autism.

Program director Laura Prives vetoed Faulkner’s show, which featured the DVD Silent Epidemic and an interview with director Gary Null, who hosts Natural Living on Pacifica’s NY station WBAI. Prives’ explanation cited Null’s views on HIV, although that was not the subject of the censored program. Faulkner, whose programming often deals with highly controversial subjects stated it was the first time Guns and Butter had been censored at the Berkeley station in 11 years of broadcasting. It is highly unusual for a program director to interfere with the editorial independence of an established long-term public affairs host.

LA’s popular Roy of Holloywood penned a letter describing Prives’ action as “the worst case of ignorant censorship he had heard of in his over 50 years of Pacifica activism”.

Almost two dozen angry listeners besieged Saturday’s local station board meeting in Oakland’s Jack London Square and forced it into temporary adjournment over the Guns and Butter censorship. The board had planned to discuss a sweeping local news resolution prepared by the station’s community advisory board after several local town hall meetings, but after agreeing the resolution would appear on this month’s agenda, the agenda did not contain the item. The KPFA local station board does not plan to meet again until July. The meeting audio from Saturday’s meetings is not available.

Only 11 days ago, Pacifica’s board executed a McCarthy-style purge when it threw LA listener rep Kim Kaufman off the board for financial whistleblowing. Kaufman, who sent a package of supplementary documents to California’s Attorney General after noting several omissions in Pacifica’s response to the AG’s initial document request, stated she engaged in an act of whistleblowing.

Many Pacifica listeners and current and former board members were appalled by the rogue majority kangaroo court and expressed their outrage.  Some of their comments are affixed below.

Comments from Petition-Signers:

This action is just shameful and is a very bad sign for the future of independent radio when we need it more, and not less!

I used to be a substantial donor (>$1,000 a year, sometimes more) now I can barely get myself to join at the cheapest possible membership price because it is obvious that KPFA is rife with corruption. Why would I give more when I trust the board of KPFA no more than I trust George Bush to represent my values? In fact, I trust very few that remain at the station at all- I continue to believe whole-heartedly in D. Bernstein, M. Molina, W. Turner and Davey D – otherwise the sliminess is just too thick. We can all smell B.E-T a mile away. Yeech.

The current PNB is a clown show that should have closed on opening night.  Follow the money said the sage, and you will find the source of all malfeasance.

Everyone needs to speak UP!!! Those people have corrupted the PNB and are going to tear down everything from the inside out. Fight the POWER for the people!!!

I listened to the public portion of the star chamber proceedings against Kim Kaufman. The use of “conspiracy” in the allegations was particularly startling and disturbing for an organization that was founded on the defense and purports to be an upholder of civil liberties. “Conspiracy” is a charge that is used by the government to attack us and charge us with beliefs and thoughts that it wants to crush. I listened to the last PNB Finance Committee meeting, immediately before the private show trial. It is apparent that the “majority” is attempting to silence critics, cover-up misfeasance or malfeasance, and prevent PNB members from exercising due diligence in performing their fiduciary responsibilities to the foundation and the members. Joseph McCarthy must be chortling in his grave to know that his tactics and practices are alive and well in an organization that was founded to oppose him. Perhaps copies of McCarthy’s writings and speeches can be offered as premiums during upcoming fundraisers. They could be coupled with writings and speeches of Scott Walker as valuable and instructive tools for aspiring Pacificans.

This is beyond ridiculous, and moving into criminal behavior. Shame on the board for destroying a wonderful institution.

Just wrong on so many levels but what goes around, comes around, the irresponsible majority will have to answer for their shameful behavior and for Pacific’s sake I hope they are required to do so very soon.

How can this lack of transparency and power grabbing fit with the mission statement of Pacifica?

I am disappointed with the turn Pacifica has taken with the current majority on the National Board. Their dishonesty, lack of transparency and fiduciary responsibility, is jeopardizing the network.

The financial and other mismanagement of the Pacifica network by the current national board majority must be stopped. Retaliation against whistleblowers, in this case Kim Kaufman, is illegal and immoral.

Uncle Joe would be proud!

This is a fascist tactic used by the outsider faction that’s bought its way into control of Pacifica.

My name means light and that’s what I want from TTP to Pacifica.

This is interminable and insane.

I am so tired of this mismanagement of Pacifica, the stations and of the funds.  I have learned so much from this station for over 50 years and now I’m learning that even this bulwark of  freedom, democracy and people’s rights can go over to the dark side of humanity, greed, power and self-interest above all else.  Very sad.

Of all the places on the planet …. ??~?~???!?!!

We need more transparency, not less.

This illegal action by the 2015 Pacifica Foundation Board would cause McCarthy to smile.

It is beyond belief to hear that Kim has been thrown off the Board for giving the CA AG’s office materials requested in the course of an investigation. The listeners deserve better–but anyone who says so, it seems, will be banished.

That’s pretty funny coming from a group of people who lionize Julian Assange and Bradley Manning.

Pacifica in Exile readers may write to the board at [email protected].

To subscribe to this newsletter, visit www.unitedforcommunityradio.org.

###

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.