Berkeley – Pacifica executive director John Proffitt has resigned less than a week after returning from a three week vacation.
Proffitt held the position for four months. Continue reading Coup Redux
Monthly Archives: September 2015
Lydia Brazon, Executive Director
Berkeley – Employees at KPFK, Pacifica’s LA station currently embroiled in arbitration with the SAG-AFTRA union, were startled when general manager Leslie Radford handed out “personnel action forms” on September 9th. In the signature line for the executive director, Lydia Brazon signed her own name, without changing the title or indicating she is not Pacifica’s executive director. An example is here. It has been cleansed of any personally identifying information to protect the employee who provided it. The employee in question, as with most union employees in the SAG-AFTRA bargaining unit, refused to sign the form. Continue reading Lydia Brazon, Executive Director
Open Letter To The Pacifica National Board Regarding Board Elections
The enclosed open letter was sent to selected press and the Pacifica National Board on September 13, 2015
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We, the undersigned local station board candidates in the 2015 election, call on Pacifica Radio to keep their commitment to the network’s donors and send out ballots for board elections now. It has been three weeks since Pacifica announced ballots would not be mailed. Continue reading Open Letter To The Pacifica National Board Regarding Board Elections
National Finance Committee Runs For The Hills
After meeting for all of 8 minutes to conclude they had no budgets, no update, and nothing they could think of to do, Pacifica’s national finance committee adjourned their meeting. Continue reading National Finance Committee Runs For The Hills
Grievances To Make Your Head Spin
Berkeley -“There have been so many grievances filed it will make your head spin” were the words of one of KPFK-FM’s two SAG-AFTRA union stewards on Friday September 4th, a week after the LA entertainment union stated it was taking Pacifica Radio into arbitration alleging union-busting and contract violations. The handling of staff reductions has been an unmitigated disaster, with laid off employees receiving notices days late with incorrect job titles on them, Pacifica not applying for promised workshare benefits until one day before all employees were shifted to half-time, and employer-provided cell phones shut off this week with no notification. Continue reading Grievances To Make Your Head Spin
The Disappearing Bequest at KPFK
The state of KPFK’s finances gets curiouser and curiouser.
This morning, KPFK GM Leslie Radford emailed that the $134,000 bequest from the Rosen Estate to KPFK, which she announced to both KPFK’s finance committee and local station board, does not exist.
Update September 8th: The bequest check was for $21,000 dollars. Received July 31st. Deposited August 13th. There is no explanation for why KPFK general manager Leslie Radford ran around for two weeks after the check was deposited declaring it was for $134,000.
Frontiers Mag: KPFK Airs Homophobic Rant As The Station Faces Financial Failure
September 2, 2015 – by Karen Ocamb
Since 1959, KPFK, the Pacifica radio station in Los Angeles, has broadcast a wide range of liberal and hard-left-leaning programming under the rubric of multiculturalism. KPFK, for instance, airs the only LGBT-specific broadcast in the Greater L.A. area—IMRU, produced by award-winning out journalist Steve Pride.
But constant rebellion doesn’t necessarily entail respect among the programmers and community board members of the commercial-free, listener-sponsored station, so Pride created a Hate Speech Prevention policy. It took seven months to pass, but the interim policy was in effect on Aug. 15-16 when KPFK aired an unchallenged homophobic rant in which a psychiatrist compared homosexuality to bestiality, among other offensive comments. Continue reading Frontiers Mag: KPFK Airs Homophobic Rant As The Station Faces Financial Failure
Alterna KPFK July Income Statement Number 3
After two wildly differing financial statements were issued by Pacifica in less than a week, a third version has now come out disappearing last week’s inconvenient surplus.
For good measure, the new statement changes the listener support numbers issued on August 17th for every single month from October 2014 to July 2015, sans one, and claims “double-bookings” in 9 of the last 10 months.
Continue reading Alterna KPFK July Income Statement Number 3