Safe Harbor’s attempt at a community conversation went terribly awry when the only caller in the hour-long program, Denise, said the program was getting on her nerves, called the hosts kids in a candy store cursing because they could, and said she would never donate to KPFK again. Continue reading The Only Call: Safe Harbor’s “Community Conversation
We the signatories, are petitioning KPFK’s General Manager Leslie Radford, Interim Program Director Alan Minsky and the Local Station Board to fully restore “Something’s Happening” show hours hosted by Roy Tuckman.
The station has received many complaints and distressing calls and emails from its listeners and subscribers expressing their dissatisfaction about recent cuts to the show.
The show was originally broadcast from midnight to 6:00am Monday nights/Tuesday mornings through Thursday nights/Friday mornings but since January 11th, only from 3-6 am. The show had the highest share from midnight to 1:00am , which is the percentage of radio listeners who are listening to the station. Roy’s program was the only post-midnight show in the entire 5-station Pacifica Network to raise a significant amount of support during fund drives , which no other Pacifica station has been able to do until this day.
Roy Tuckman has been working on staff at KPFK for 44 years after volunteering for the previous 10 years. He has been a paid programmer for 39 years. He is a staunch supporter of democratic media at KPFK. The station had no all-night weeknight programmer for the first 18 years of broadcasting until Roy was asked to try out the position in 1977.
Roy’s prize-winning show exemplified the spirit of the Pacifica mission and should be fully restored.
Respectfully,
King Reilly M.D. KPFK listener and subscriber
Berkeley-Pacifica’s 2015 board elections ended with a bang when the KPFK election delivered a huge supermajority (17 out of 24 seats) for the Committee to Strengthen KPFK/Candidate Slate group in a stinging rebuke for the majority Siegel/Brazon faction. The last time any Pacifica local board had a supermajority was more than five years ago. Continue reading Landslide in Los Angeles
As Safe Harbor grinds along into its third episode, Wednesday morning brought us sex education featuring stripper poles, a Section 8 stud and a sleepy phone booth guy. Continue reading “Sex Education Baybee” or “The Phone Guy is Falling Asleep”
On Day 2 , the student shrink presiding over Safe Harbor heard from KPFK’s listeners as he tried to counsel them to accept changes they didn’t like without a fight. Continue reading Shit, Goddamn, Fuck Yeah: The Revolt of the Listeners
Sounding a bit like stoned preteens with access to the liquor cabinet while their parents are away, the “new KPFK” premiered Safe Harbor last night in the time formerly curated by Roy of Hollywood in what used to be the most listened to late late night program in the nation’s 2nd largest radio market.
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
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-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
