The so-called “New KPFK” post-midnight weekday schedule will kick off on Monday January 11th. It turns out new may not be so new, as the first two hours consist of a bunch of old George Carlin comedy routines. After that, Radford’s roommate Adam Rice DJ’s for an hour. Continue reading Money Down The Drain
Berkeley– Pacifica has installed a new chief financial officer by the name of Sam Agarwal. The board moved quickly, making Agarwal the signatory for all bank accounts and vendor relationships within days of his arrival. Agarwal’s last full-time CFO position was with San Francisco’s Equal Access, a nonprofit that sets up media projects in developing countries. Equal Access, according to their 2014 annual report, was funded by the US Embassies in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the US AID – Office of Transition Initiatives, The US Department of State – Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, The US Department of State – Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement, The US Department of State – Middle East Partnership Initiative, The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Continue reading New CFO From State Department Funded NGO
Apparently wary of solvency, KPFK general manager Leslie Radford has changed midnight to 3am programming Monday to Thursday nights from the long-running and popular Something’s Happening hosted by Roy Tuckman a.k.a Roy of Hollywood. Continue reading KPFK Cuts Roy of Hollywood
Berkeley– Two national board directors nominated from Pacifica’s 200 programming affiliate stations have become the latest victims in the Siegel/Brazon faction’s machinations to keep a majority on the board in 2016 at all costs. Last week saw the nomination and appointment of a representative from Uhuru Radio, an Internet-only station operated under a Florida for-profit limited liability company called Burning Spear Productions. Uhuru Radio neither broadcasts nor distributes any Pacifica produced programming on their daily schedule. Last night, the board majority, over strenuous objections, appointed another uncontested nominee, this one from a station without any affiliate written agreement in place. In other words, nominated by a station that isn’t an affiliate at all. Continue reading Rules Are For Suckers
Berkeley-Pacifica’s 2015 board elections are scheduled to end on January 4th, 2016 after being extended for as long as possible. The troubled process has been marked by many members having extreme difficulty getting ballots, which haven’t been received by as many as 25-30% of the network’s 55,000 members. Two stations, WBAI in NY and KPFK in LA may not have hit quorum yet, so members at those stations who haven’t voted are encouraged to look for online voting instructions they may have received on October 22nd, or fill out an immediate request for them at elections.pacifica.org. Pacifica in Exile’s candidate recommendations can be found here. Continue reading Even Candidates Can’t Get Ballots
Berkeley-Notes left on a conference room white board overnight at KPFK-FM in Los Angeles outlined GM Leslie Radford’s plans to replace the station’s longstanding and popular Roy of Hollywood overnight program Something’s Happening with programs on sex, therapy, and poetry labeled “Zulu” and “Friday Night Fights”. The contents of the white board can be seen here (picture below). While it isn’t clear why Radford would leave the information exposed except to create a hostile work environment, the proposed changes target the most lucrative of the station’s evening programs. The proposed change would reduce revenues, delaying if not finishing off entirely the station’s broken promise to SAG-AFTRA union staff that they would be returned to normal work schedules. Continue reading Zulu Sex Therapy
Berkeley- In this astonishing clip, IED Lydia Brazon reports to the audit committee, 4 months after predecessor John Proffitt told the national board that “things were ready to go” and the 2014 audit would be “wrapped up in a month” that only 12% of preparatory audit schedules had been sent to the auditor as of the evening of December 15th. Listening to the two sets of sound clips side by side reveals the misinformation being provided to the board of directors about the long overdue financial audit which was required to be filed with the CA Attorney General on June 30, 2015. Continue reading 4 Months Further Behind
Below is a response by former PNB Director Kim Kaufman to GCRC (LA wing of Siegel/Brazon faction) claims about the state of KPFK in Los Angeles, the biggest fundraiser in the 5-station Pacifica Radio network only two years ago. Continue reading Truth Or Dare at KPFK: A Response to GCRC
Berkeley-Long-time alternative health host Gary Null announced on WBAI’s air yesterday that there was a strong possibility he would soon be filing significant litigation against Pacifica Radio. Null did not mention the subject of the lawsuit, but referenced federal authorities and stated he was in possession of compelling evidence to support his charges against the national radio network. You can listen to his on-air announcement here. Continue reading One Judgment and More To Come
In a candidate forum, Siegel/Brazon candidate Chuck Anderson said the station “absolutely did not want” to keep paid programmers, called overnight programmer Roy Tuckman “goy of hollywood” and said “we absolutely want him off the air”.
Tuckman, who goes by the nom de plume Roy of Hollywood runs KPFK’s overnight programming from Monday to Thursday from midnight to 6am and is the only Pacifica programmer nationwide to substantively monetize the overnight hours.
Anderson mis-stated numbers: 70% of KPFK’s budget is not for “paid programmers”, it’s for salaries as a whole including engineers, membership/subscriptions staffers, managers, IT, traffic etc. The station, when fully staffed, has about 9 FTE for paid programming, about 1/2 of the payroll.
