The Pacifica Foundation is a 65-year old national progressive treasure in need of continuing attention and support. Pacifica’s flagship station KPFA in Berkeley, and four other stations KPFK-Los Angeles, KPFT-Houston, WBAI-New York, WPFW-Washington, D.C., are all owned by and under legal control of Pacifica Foundation Radio. Over 160-affiliate radio stations in the US and Canada carry various programs from the Pacifica Radio network. Continue reading Perspectives on the Crisis at KPFA and Pacifica Radio Network→
Report of the Executive Director to the Pacifica National Board by Summer Reese April 27, 2014
The following is my report on the status of major issues and concerns currently facing Pacifica Foundation Radio during the crisis that has been created by the actions of the board majority. The reckless and illegal actions of the majority have caused considerable concern to our many creditors, who are now uncertain about the organization’s stability and ability to meet its financial obligations over time. This has resulted in two collections actions being filed against the Foundation this month by creditors that were previously working with staff on payment of these liabilities. Continue reading Major Issues and Concerns Currently Facing Pacifica→
This month Save KPFA sent out a call to their supporters to attend the Local Station Board (LSB) meeting of Saturday, April 12th. And, from an article afterwards appearing on their website, one might get the impression that an impressive number of SaveKPFA supporters attended that day. Continue reading Where Are Save KPFA’s Grassroots Supporters→
For the last month we’ve been occupying the Pacifica National Office, barricaded in, 24/7, taking turns standing watch, resisting the rogue board. We’re KPFA listeners and programmers, United for Community Radio members, with help from our allies at other Pacifica stations.
The song changes, but the name remains the same: Save KPFA, formed in 1999 for the purpose of addressing the station’s needs vis-a-vis the Pacifica network of which it’s a valued part was a respectable organization in its own right. Savekpfa.org is a site whose current owners had little or nothing to do with those events of 15 years ago. Cleverly borrowing the name, they seek to reawaken the memories of that deeply unsettling conflict and to re-invoke the us-versus-them, station autonomy-versus-oppressive network paradigm. Continue reading Straight “majority” rule? Lewis Hill would be disappointed→
This is an except of a longer article. For the full text, click here.
Is the Pacifica Foundation Board Trying to Dissolve
the Foundation’s Five Station Union,
Place Each Station’s Broadcast License under Local Ownership,
Sell WBAI into the Commercial Marketplace and
Distribute the Proceeds as “Endowments”
to the Remaining 4 Stations?
. . .Ms. Reese has the unstinting support of 9 members of the PNB who have coalesced in the Pacifica Directors for Good Governance (PDGG) group, the plaintiff in the pending Alameda County Superior Court lawsuit before Judge Petrou. Their lawsuit seeks, among other things, to enjoin the Board majority from breaching Ms. Reese’s employment contract.
So, what (on earth) is really going on? It turns out to primarily involve “battle fatigue” on the part of a small group of aging baby boomers involved with Berkeley’s Pacifica station KPFA and their counterparts on the PNB, who have given up on the Pacifica Foundation’s union of 5 stations in one national network. A case in point is Carol Spooner. (See here for a statement from Carol Spooner in response to this article) Continue reading Summer Reese is the Pacifica Foundation’s Abe Lincoln→
The Pacifica National Board Majority announced the appointment of Bernard Duncan to be the disputed interim Executive Director in the first week of April, 2014. Board members report he was the only candidate and they did not interview him prior to the board vote. Some members of the board have never spoken to the person they “voted” to appoint. Continue reading Bernard Duncan: Disputed Interim Executive Director→
There are some people whom I do not trust on the Pacifica National Board (PNB), but I really think most PNB members and Local Station Board members (at least for KPFT), even ones who often vote differently than I’d like, want to do their best to help Pacifica. But it’s difficult to know how to vote, especially the first year on the PNB, being bombarded with so much misinformation and rhetoric. (Those of you not on the PNB may not realize the PNB members get way more than even what’s on these Pacifica e-mail lists.)
It often boils down to whom do you trust, especially the first year on the board, because there are plausible-sounding justifications for voting just about any way on any issue. Sometimes we make mistakes regarding the trustworthiness of various individuals. I’ve found that some people who are polite can’t be trusted, while some who misbehave regularly can be right. So you can’t determine trustworthiness by watching who’s polite and who isn’t.
With WBAI and WPFW in better (still not good) shape now, perhaps they’re afraid she’ll be able to direct more of her attention to the west coast stations, and that she’s going to clean them up, and lay off a few employee friends of theirs who the stations cannot afford to keep on the payroll, and maybe find some things they’d rather keep hidden (such as why the general ledgers at both west coast stations have taken a year or more to get reconciled so the audit can proceed). Continue reading Bill Crosier #2: Why Do They Want Summer Reese Out?→
Some people have complained about Summer Reese’s resume, or lack of some specifics they wanted to see there, or how it compares with certain other people’s resumes.I’ve seen her resume and I’ll say publicly is that I think what matters most (especially in the Executive Director job) are someone’s dedication to the mission, accomplishments, energy, ability to get things done, ability to negotiate, follow-through, understanding of finances and leadership, attention to details as well as the big picture, and (especially for this job) an ability to put up with and work in spite of an incredible amount of harassment and BS and an extremely dysfunctional governance. Continue reading Bill Crosier #3: Summer Reese’s Qualifications and Social Security Number→
