By Ann Garrison, KPFA Unpaid Staff Council Member and Reporter/Producer
KPFA listeners seemed confused and disappointed when the station failed to preempt programming and broadcast live after the St. Louis District Attorney’s announcement that the Grand Jury would not indict Officer Darren Wilson for killing Michael Brown.
Continue reading No Indictment for Darren Wilson? Why Not Preempt and Throw Open the Phones?
By Akio Tanaka
[KPFA LSB Member 2006-2012]
Article as flyer: Peace to KPFA
Whenever there is a conflict, there is always an escalation in rhetoric, like when there was the divisive and inflammatory charge a few years ago that the Pacifica National Office engaged in union busting. We should avoid getting caught up in the rhetoric and address the real problems and concerns. Continue reading Bringing Peace to KPFA
Article from the Bakersfield Californian: March 28, 2011
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A wrongful termination lawsuit filed by one son of Cesar Chavez against another alleges various instances of malfeasance within an organization central to the legacy of the late civil rights and farm workers union leader.
But the legal action filed in Kern County Superior Court on Friday goes well beyond that, accusing the center’s executive leadership of various misdeeds — including potentially illegal behavior — ranging from retaliatory firings and age-based discrimination to nepotism. It further alleges that Paul Chavez refused to fire an unnamed former business associate accused of stealing $500,000 from the organization. Continue reading Background Info on Pacifica’s Controversial CFO
A comment posted in Current Magazine in April of 2014:
The Pacifica Foundation’s 1946 founding mission statement commits it to (in a small nutshell) delivering educational radio programming oriented to peace, social justice and conflict resolution, wide-ranging political, cultural and artistic expression, and to “the full distribution of public information”. Continue reading Cui Bono?
What’s Causing Static at KPFA: Money, Power and People’s Radio
(News for a People’s World 1993 by Nick Alexander)
Berkeley-KPFA, the nation’s premier listener-sponsored radio station is in the throes of a crisis that is at once political and administrative. Both sides of the conflict accuse opponents of resisting changes needed to fulfill station founder Lew Hill’s dream to fight for the rights of the marginalized, downbeaten and voiceless elements of society. At the center of the turmoil are a dispute over organizational hierarchy and charges that KPFA’s national board of directors is trying to create a left-leaning alternative to National Public Radio” (NPR). Continue reading Wayback Machine: What’s Causing Static At KPFA (Nick Alexander)
from “Z” Magazine, March 1994
Independent Radio’s Problems and Prospects
an interview with Peter Franck,
former President of Pacifica Radio
by Peggy Noton
with help from Curtis Gray
Peter Franck’s connection to KPFA, Pacifica’s Berkeley station, goes back to the 1950’s, when as a student leader in the new left movement at UC Berkeley and president of the campus student chapter of ACLU, he was interviewed by KPFA program director Elsa Knight Thompson. He did a monthly commentary on the station for a couple of years during the 1960’s, and in 1973 joined the local advisory board. Two years later he became a member of the national board of the Pacifica Foundation (the national board is composed of selected members of the local boards and in 1980 became president of Pacifica, remaining in this office for four years. Continue reading Wayback Machine: 1994 Interview with Peter Franck
Uzzell and Gray Get the Bird from Rogue Pacifica Board
At last night’s weekly meeting of the Rogue Pacifica Board, Directors Heather Gray (WRFG Atlanta) and Richard Uzzell (KPFT Houston) were given “the Bird”; that Board’s wildly popular award for trying to do the right thing. Continue reading On The Lighter Side: Richard Uzzell Reacts to Board Censure
by Daniel Borgström
On Tuesday, July 29th, I went to the Richmond City Council meeting where the council was to make a decision on a proposed expansion of the Chevron Refinery. The City Planning Commission approved the expansion, but with conditions that Chevron didn’t want to accept. So Chevron appealed it to the City Council.
Continue reading Chevron, the Richmond City Council and the Morning Mix
The enclosed planning notes were submitted by former PNB vice-chair and former chair of Pacifica’s election committee suggesting reforms for a cost-effective election process for Pacifica to repair the governance crisis caused by postponing and then refusing to move ahead with elections in 2014. Pacifica is likely to experience governance collapse at the end of the year, as several stations no longer have “runner-up” delegates left and would by default resort to self-perpetuating boards, ending the democratic experiment that began in 1999, after rumors of station sales were confirmed by the release of emails in July of 1999. Continue reading How To Have An Election
Originally printed in Oakland Local http://oaklandlocal.com/2014/06/kpfa-community-radio/
Reprinted in SF Gate
Is KPFA Community Radio Going Extinct?
With its recent street protests, office occupations, and renegade broadcasts, Berkeley’s community radio station KPFA (94.1FM) typifies what people mean when they use the word “Berserkeley.” However, these confrontations are not merely some beatnik brouhaha, but in fact represent an existential threat to the future of community radio, and implicate one of Oakland’s current Mayoral candidates, Dan Siegel. Continue reading KPFA Community Radio Going Extinct? by Eric James Anderson
