Update 10-9-2019 WBAI programmer Paul DiRienzo reports that WBAI programmers and staff finally made it back into their facility to discover that all of the computers had been removed, wires were ripped out from the inside of microphones and station’s emergency alert system had been taken. A WBAI programmer purchased a new one on a credit card. DiRienzo also reported that the hotel rooms the Pacifica operatives stayed in had been reserved “months ago”.

Update 10-8-2019. In a day of fast-moving events, SAG-AFTRA, the union that represents WBAI’s employees filed a complaint that Pacifica Foundation had violated Article XVI(a)(1) of the bargaining agreement by failing to provide notification to the union. WBAI plaintiffs then filed a complaint of contempt of court against the Pacifica Foundation for failing to comply with the 10-7 court order issued by the Supreme Court of the State of New York.

Berkeley-In the morning, a crew of Pacifica Foundation board members led by brand new IED John Vernile, locked out the staff at WBAI-FM in New York and then fired them all, told the landlord to rent the space to someone else, and started piping in content from the West Coast over mid-Manhattan. In the night, the Supreme Court of New York told them to stop it and restored WBAI’s facilities, equipment, studio space, employees and control over the airwaves. 

If this feels to you like a flashback, well there’s a reason for that. Two decades ago, the Pacifica Foundation locked out employees at Berkeley’s KPFA and started piping in content from Texas. At that time, the nonprofit’s board was united in their desire to teach KPFA a lesson and extract the millions in license value. Not this time. At least half of Pacifica’s elected board wasn’t informed, had no idea. and never consented. That’s probably why Supreme Court judge Frank Nervo (at home and in his pajamas) called a halt to things. This is what he said. 

The Supreme Court of the State of New York has issued a stay and temporary restraining order enjoining the Pacifica Foundation from 1. Seizing any property files or equipment from WBAI 2. Terminating any employees of WBAI 3. Preventing WBAI from broadcasting it’s regularly scheduled programming. 4. Interfering in the business or orderly administration of WBAI pursuant to Section 1315 of the NYC Not for Profit Code and the Pacifica Foundation bylaws until a hearing to be held on October 18th.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Saturday September 28, 2019

It’s Not Free Speech Radio Anymore

Dear Readers – It has been a long interval since Pacifica in Exile has published. Like many of you, we were relieved when Pacifica was able to avert catastrophe in the wake of the Empire State Building disaster. It seemed like the Pacifica National Board was in saner, stabler hands by 2018. After many years of regular bulletins and long hours of assembling the documentation that accompanies these reports to you, it was time for a break. But recent events have changed that assessment. It is necessary once again to inform you of things you won’t otherwise be told. Understand that the news is not good. In between the unsettling reports, Pacifica’s finances are in bad shape. I hope you will consider, to the extent that your resources allow, increasing your financial support. But with financial support comes accountability, and it is time for that as well. Every time you open your pocketbook, you can also open your mouth and put a stop to things that are happening that should not be. Please do both. 

Berkeley- When a nationwide uprising hit Pacifica Radio in the late 1990’s, it adopted the mantle of saving “free speech radio” from a takeover driven by beltway politics and powered by a lack of democratic accountability and transparency from a self-selected board of directors. That board, while grappling with real questions like shifts in the media landscape, technological innovation, and the balance between grassroots volunteer-driven community media and professionally produced strip programs that would be competitive with NPR-style offerings, chose to hunker down and embrace totalitarian tactics to strip the communities that built and owned these stations from any say in what would happen to them. They were sent packing in 2002. 

17 years later, it is fair to say that the democratic model has done good things and bad things. It has protected all 5 stations, and none have been sold off for scrap metal. The stations remain non-commercial and free of ubiquitous corporate sponsorship. All of them have at least some volunteer corps making content for the love of it, and voices are still heard on Pacifica that get play on very few other mass media platforms. Despite the episodes of boardroom Game of Thrones, the network has continued to exist when much more well-resourced media platforms have curled up and died. But there’s no doubt that all the challenges inherent in the questions on the table in 2000 have not been met and the stations have been slow in embracing technological innovation, jumping on the latest currents in alternative thought and culture, incorporating young people, and expanding programmatic content. This slowness has led to the loss of listener-members and contraction instead of growth. Changes are in order. But they can’t happen without you speaking up now. Because in the absence of transparency (which this publication’s absence aided and abetted), all the wrong things are going down. That’s why transparency matters. It’s a tool so you can make things right. Here’s some stuff that needs to be straightened out. 

Berkeley – The printed ballots for the 2019 Pacifica local board elections were mailed on January 18, 2019.

If your local station has your email address, then you will receive an electronic ballot to save the trees and postage dollars.The online ballot will hit your inbox on Wednesday, January 23rd. 

If you get an online ballot but would prefer to vote by paper ballot because you hate computers, like pencils and do not trust online voting, you can send a request to [email protected] for a paper ballot to be mailed to you and your online ballot will be voided. If you get a postal ballot but would prefer to vote online because you love computers and hate stamps, you can also send a request to [email protected] and then an online ballot will be emailed to you and your paper ballot will be voided. Pacifica is using a professional election service, so your online ballots are secure and your selections will not be known by any Pacifica-related personnel. 

Please vote so Pacifica can make quorum and not have to spend extra money to extend the election period. 

Berkeley – We’ve sent out more than a few Pacifica election schedules, but things change. In this case, what changed is people. The new national election supervisor is Renee Asteria Penaloza, who did the job back in 2010, and will be doing it again this year. She replaces Alma Vizcaino, who will remain the local election staffer in Houston. With the change in personnel comes one last change in the election schedule, which we’re pretty confident will be the final version. So here we go:

The record date for the election is November 19, 2018. What that means is that in order to be an eligible voter in the election, you need to have made at least a $25 donation to your station by November 19, 2018 or in the preceeding 12 month period. 

The final candidate list was posted as of January 7, 2019. So if you would like to get a head start perusing the choice of candidates at your station, you can do so at Pacifica’s elections website. As a listener-member, you can only vote for candidates in the listener-member category. Similarly, if you are on Pacifica’s payroll or are a regular volunteer programmer, then you can only vote for the candidates in the staff-member category. 

Ballots will be sent on January 18, 2019. If your local station has your email address, you should receive an on-line ballot on that date. Keep an eye out for it. If your station does not have your email address, then a ballot will be mailed to you on January 18 and will arrive at your residence later in the month. 

Berkeley-Despite our best intentions in sending you the election schedule, things shifted, and so we have to once again send out a schedule.

See below for the current schedule.

***

December 26 – Membership data for ballot printing to the printer/mail house by midnight Dec 26, 2018

January 7 – Election period start  – Ballots sent to eligible members. A paper (physical) ballot will be sent to eligible listeners for whom no email address is available on their membership record. An electronic ballot will be sent via email to eligible listeners for whom an email is available.

February 11 – Election period end. (If quorum is not reached by this date, the NES will extend the election per Pacifica Foundation Bylaws. All other dates below will be adjusted accordingly.)

February 12 – Ballot count starts.

February 25 – Election results announced***

*Note* – As you’ve noticed, Pacifica in Exile had ceased regular publication earlier this year. The reasons for that have been multiple and have included increasing demands on the time of the editor, the change in Pacifica leadership and resolution of the Empire State Building obligation, and the financial stress of maintaining the publication schedule on a largely uncompensated basis for multiple years.This edition is being published due to problematic occurrences at KPFA. We will try to resume publication periodically when circumstances warrant, as we can. It is noted that the quality of conversation and availability of information suffers in Pacifica in Exile’s absence and we regret that. This issue will be largely KPFA-centric, but we believe the matters involved bear on and have significance for all the stations in the network. – Editor

Berkeley-At a contentious and surprisingly crowded KPFA local station board meeting, scores of people turned out to object to the station’s sudden kiboshing of 17-year public affairs and analysis show Guns and Butter. The meeting had been previously billed as a “town hall”, but as the meeting actually unfolded, it became clear the reason for 90% of the attendance was the abrupt cancellation of Guns and Butter. (Quaintly referred to by KPFA board member Andrea Turner as the “reduction” of the program.”). Guns and Butter, came on the air in 2001, one of the first programs greenlighted by KPFA’s community-based program council that existed in those years. Guns and Butter, then hosted by Bonnie Faulkner and Kellia Ramares, and for the last decade, solely by Faulkner as an unpaid staffer, had a charter statement to bring to the air deeply alternative voices it was hard to hear elsewhere, with an emphasis on the intersection between economics and politics, and what are often called conspiracy theories, including non-mainstream versions of the events of September 11. The show has *always* pissed people off, and faced significant opposition from KPFA’s News Department and some program hosts at the get-go, and has regularly spurred controversies. It also has one of the largest and most dedicated audiences of any program in the Pacifica Network.  Continue reading June Comes After May and Guns and Butter Goes Away →