Berkeley-Pacifica Radio members have no shortage of advocacy emails imploring them to sign things, un-sign things, attend meetings to make angry public comments and support this or that group going by this or that confusing name. Our hope is to deconstruct some of this mass confusion, and make it easier for listeners to hold accountable partisan efforts that do little to build and sustain the network.
On the legal front; the Save KPFA-driven receivership effort calling itself the Pacifica Safety Net, foundered in court with an abrupt dismissal of their petition to hand Pacifica’s assets over to a Rancho Cucamonga attorney. They have filed an amended complaint with the same set of grievances, but a new remedy: which is asking for some unstated amount of money from two particular individuals who lie at the heart of their factional grievances: Alex Steinberg and Grace Aaron. This makes little sense, as most of the grievances (which we broke down for you here) are actions of the national board by majority vote. Over 100 individuals have served on Pacifica’s National Board during the period cited in the complaint (2009-2020) and the National Board acts by a vote of at least 10 board members, not 2. And of course, no one serves on the national board for 11 consecutive years, with Aaron not having been a member of the national board from 2010-2015, or almost half of the cited period and Steinberg off from 2012-2015 (with one year of being prevented from voting at all during the boards exclusion of 3 WBAI directors from voting rights. Additionally, board members do not have individual liability for board decisions and Pacifica’s bylaws (including both suggested revisions) indemnify board members. Our expectation is that this sloppy filing, whose purpose is to feed factional wars, will meet with the same fate as its predecessor: abrupt dismissal. But always at a cost to the members.
The new PSN complaint seems not to have pleased one of the original 4 plaintiffs, Craig Alderson, who filed a request to be removed from the case, leaving 3 remaining plaintiffs: Donald Goldmacher, Christina Huggins (chair of the KPFA local station board) and director Andrea Turner. The Go Fund Me page where the plaintiffs seek money to support their cause has stalled at contributions of $3,400 and erroneously claims tax-deductibility for contributions when no federal tax-exempt status has been granted.
Meanwhile, the New Day group has shifted its focus from a new anti-democratic bylaws proposal to a jobs preservation program at Pacifica’s financially-stressed Los Angeles station, KPFK. Pleading emails have begged network members to besiege local and national board members with requests not to fire (sequentially) the general manager Anyel Fields, and public affairs hosts Ian Masters and Sonali Kolhatkar. The emails have not suggested how the station’s abrupt drop in income (a million dollar drop between 2019 and 2020) should be addressed. To the best of our knowledge, no expense reduction plans offered by either the KPFK LSB or the National Board proposed laying off any of these three people, so it is safe to say the intent of the appeals is mostly to stir factional passions.
But we do want to be clear about the scope of the financial problems at KPFK. It is estimated that expenses outstripped income at KPFK in December of 2020 by $115,000. It is part of the problem that the station’s marquee public affairs programs are not bringing in enough pledge drive revenue to support the station’s operations at its current size. According to reports issued by the KPFK LSB, December fund drive pledge totals for the programs in question were $43K for Background Briefing and $12K for Rising Up with Sonali. Extrapolating to a full year of 4-5 fund drives, that suggests that both shows bring in about $250K a year for BB and $100-125K for RUWS annually. Subtracting direct salary and benefits for hosts and producers, that leaves about $125-$170K at maximum annually to support the rest of KPFK’s $2.75 million dollars in expenses. It’s not a huge amount.
KPFK’s December payroll was met by other divisions in Pacifica, including $17K from the Pacifica Affiliates Program. KPFA also paid $25K towards KPFK’s December payroll, a fact that was not disclosed to KPFA members and local station board members at the January 9 KPFA local board meeting. This failure to disclose seems like a material breach of the duties of the KPFA board treasurer and while we are generally supportive of Pacifica divisions helping each other out when necessary, it should not be done secretively and without the knowledge of members. Especially when those members are being implored to speak out to save jobs at another station by paying for them.
A number of Pacifica station licenses will be coming up for renewal at the FCC in 2021 and 2022. While members should know that one purpose of the central services their station pays is for those renewals to be managed by technical director Jon Almeleh, with decades of dedicated service to Pacifica, there is an issue. One outcome of the disastrous October 2019 effort to shut down WBAI and pipe in California programming, was getting Pacifica’s long-time FCC attorneys tangled up in the mess that was eventually halted by the NY Supreme Court. Vernile’s unauthorized actions, (which were declared “ultra vires” or taken without the proper authority) apparently ran up such an extensive bill that even the unauthorized transfer of $80,000 of KPFA’s fund drive revenues was not enough to pay it, and the firm parted ways with Pacifica as yet more damaging detritus from the WBAI misadventure.
Amusingly (or maybe it would be comic if it were not so factionally pathetic), the Pacifica Safety Net lawsuit attempts to indict Aaron and Steinberg in the loss of Crigler’s firm, when in fact it was the direct actions of plaintiff Goldmacher on the Pacifica National Board in 2019 as a strong supporter of the WBAI misadventure that caused the parting of the ways.
So what can you do? We advise not getting revved up by emails imploring you to attack Pacifica and Pacifica governance. Do not give money to the Pacifica Safety Net effort. Do not sign the New Day bylaws petition and if you did sign it, you can remove your signature with an email request to [email protected]. Support the governance boards in their efforts to get income and expenses in proportion, because if they don’t, all the fighting is for nothing. If you have time, volunteer at your station. Even social media outreach you can do from your home can help quite a bit. Uplift programs you like and build their audiences. If you have friends, family or colleagues with financial resources or connections with charitable organizations, express the importance of Pacifica’s survival to you and encourage them to help out. If you are in California, write to your political representatives in DC and ask them to support Pacifica Radio’s applications for EIDL and PPP assistance designed to support nonprofits through the COVID state of emergency. There’s a few suggestions. There are probably many more. Be creative and be constructive.
Wishing you and yours a redemptive and fulfilling 2021. We all deserve it.
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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 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.
“DISCLAIMER: This is not an official Pacifica Foundation website nor an official website of any of the five Pacifica Foundation radio stations (KPFA Radio, KPFK Radio, KPFT Radio, WBAI Radio, WPFW Radio). Opinions and facts alleged on this site belong to the author(s) of the website only and should NOT be assumed to be true or to reflect the editorial stance or policy of the Pacifica Foundation, or any of the five stations (KPFA Radio, KPFK Radio, KPFT Radio, WBAI Radio, WPFW Radio), or the opinions of its management, Pacifica National Board, station staff or other listener members.”