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
Tag Archives: kpft
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
Rogue Radio
Berkeley – Despite receiving over $9.3 million dollars in charitable contributions between October 1, 2014 and May 31, 2015, Pacifica Radio has indicated that it is unable to pay a $55,000 outstanding bill to auditor Armanino LLC in order to meet legal requirements to continue operating as a licensed not for profit organization in the State of California. California’s Nonprofit Integrity Act requires all California charitable corporations with gross revenues of $2 million or more to prepare annual financial statements audited by an independent certified public accountant (CPA). The audited financial statements must be made available for inspection by the Attorney General and the public no later than nine months after the close of the fiscal year covered by the financial statement. Pacifica’s deadline was June 30, 2015. The radio network is in the middle of an investigation launched in December of 2014 by the Registry of Charitable Trusts at the California Attorney General’s office.
Empty Pockets
Originally posted July 1, 2015
Berkeley – In fairly stark terms, Affiliates Director Ursula Rudenberg addressed the national board and asked them to support a plan she has been developing for over a year for Pacifica to administer a group underwriting plan for the 200+ Pacifica affiliates (independent radio stations that partner with Pacifica – most of them already take underwriting as independent entities). Rudenberg told the board they could embrace the plan or face the erosion and end of the Affiliates program which she said was “no longer competitive”. Some snippets from the meeting were recorded by a NY-based listener and are available here. The national board did not embrace the plan. The NY listener characterized the meeting as follows: Continue reading Empty Pockets
Factional Lawyering
Originally posted June 25, 2015
Berkeley – The Pacifica National Board, after 15 months of ad-hoc legal consultation, is moving ahead with appointing a corporate counsel. Unfortunately, the fix appears to be in for the law firm of former board member Dan Siegel. Siegel and Yee has been an active factional entity within Pacifica for years, sending three of the firm’s employees to the KPFA local station board in the last six years as listener representatives with the Save KPFA group. Jose-Luis Fuentes, a Siegel and Yee associate from 2002-2014, is on the search committee appointed by the board, despite his 12 years of employment at one of the applicant firms. Continue reading Factional Lawyering
Citizen Arrests and the CIA: An LA Weekend
Originally posted June 16, 2015
Los Angeles – Pacifica’s National Board held one of its increasingly rare in-person board meetings in Los Angeles this past weekend, as LA station KPFK, the most financially successful Pacifica station as recently as 2013, contines its rapid free fall into insolvency. In May, outgoing IED Margy Wilkinson saddled KPFK with a community college teacher as a new general manager, Leslie Radford, whose only credential appears to be a few years as a factional fighter on the local and national boards. Continue reading Citizen Arrests and the CIA: An LA Weekend
Wilkinson’s Note Pad
Originally posted June 9, 2015
Berkeley- A note pad found on the floor at the Pacifica National Board meeting in November of 2013 and belonging to soon-to-be board chair and interim executive director Margy Wilkinson has been given to Pacifica In Exile. The note pad details strategic notes regarding the board’s in-person meeting, as well as notes from a few KPFA local station board meetings of the same period. A full scanned copy of the contents will be made available in the future, but some highlights from the national board section are below. Continue reading Wilkinson’s Note Pad
Uprising at KPFK
Originally posted June 1, 2015
Berkeley-Controversy continues to rage at Pacifica’s Los Angeles station KPFK-FM, after former board chair Margy Wilkinson appointed former board member and factional crony Leslie Radford as the new permanent general manager at Pacifica’s LA station KPFK, one day before vacating her position as interim executive director. Incoming ED John Proffitt was driving across the country to begin his tenure on May 11th when the hire was made. The manuever has thrown Pacifica into chaos and deeply depressed fund drive revenues at KPFK. As recently as 2013, KPFK was the network’s most successful fundraiser. Continue reading Uprising at KPFK
Is Broadcasting Community Events Selfish?
Originally posted May 23, 2015
Berkeley- Former Board chair Margy Wilkinson, who deposed her predecessor in March of 2014 and then served as Pacifica’s interim executive director for most of the last 15 months pulled a last-minute fast one a day and a half prior to new ED John Proffitt’s arrival in Berkeley, by appointing former board member and factional crony Leslie Radford as the new permanent general manager at Pacifica’s LA station KPFK. The maneuver has thrown Pacifica into chaos and incited an uprising at LA station KPFK. Continue reading Is Broadcasting Community Events Selfish?