Berkeley – Election update. As of press time, voting has been extended at KPFT in Houston and WPFW in Washington, DC until October 7th and at KPFK in Los Angeles until October 10th. Elections at WBAI and KPFA are closed. Continue reading The Return
Tag Archives: raul salvador
KPFA Ordered To Refund Bequest
Berkeley-In last night’s Pacifica National Board meeting, held in executive session, the national board voted to order KPFA to refund to the Pacifica Foundation national office the proceeds of one of two large bequests deposited into KPFA’s Mechanics bank account by then-IED Margy Wilkinson. One of the checks (totaling at least $400,000) was donated to the Pacifica Foundation. In the spring of 2015, the “Hall Trust bequest” was characterized as a restricted gift to KPFA, but information derived from a directors inspection convinced the board of directors the gift was instead left to the Pacifica Foundation and misappropriated for the exclusive use of the Berkeley station. The funds were not deposited into the national Pacifica operating bank account where they belonged. Continue reading KPFA Ordered To Refund Bequest
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.
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
The “Other” KPFK Financial Statement
Enclosed is a copy of an alternate KPFK financial statement issued by GM Leslie Radford to the local board on August 17th. Radford states she received the return from “the National Office”, so this document demonstrates the time stamp on the “double-booking of April and May income” said to be the cause of the surprisingly profitable income statement that confused the National Finance Committee on August 25th, is between August 18 and August 24th, after KPFK’s latest temporary bookkeeper was terminated for embezzling.
Two Credit Cards Are Better Than One
Berkeley -The severe financial distress at KPFK-FM, which resulted on Monday in an announcement by Margy Wilkinson-appointed general manager Leslie Radford of the immediate reduction of all KPFK employees to 50% work schedules and the layoff of three employees, has been accompanied by growing evidence of a year and a half of financial mismanagement of the station, Pacifica’s highest earner as recently as 2013. KPFK abruptly fired its second consecutive temporary business manager after finding out about monthly checks issued to an outside person by the business manager, along with unauthorized cash advances never paid back. The business manager was personally hired and trained by former CFO Raul Salvador to “fix” the accounting mess at KPFK in the fall of 2014, and per a motion passed by the national board in 2014, reported directly to Salvador rather than the station’s general manager. Continue reading Two Credit Cards Are Better Than One
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?
Pacifica’s CFO Resigns
Originally posted May 7, 2015
Berkeley–Pacifica’s chief financial officer Raul Salvador suddenly resigned on May 6, 2015 at 10:00am. The resignation is effective May 15th, four days after new Executive Director John Proffitt begins work on May 11th. Salvador’s tenure at Pacifica was stormy, marked by the Board’s decision not to move ahead with his permanent hire in January of 2014. The decision was reversed by the new incoming board a month later, leading to the departure of most of the national office accounting staff. Continue reading Pacifica’s CFO Resigns
Petition: Tell the Pacifica National Board to Protect Whistleblowers, Not to Punish Them
Originally posted May 2, 2015
On April 30, 2015, the majority on the Pacifica National Board (PNB) voted in closed session to remove Kim Kaufman, a Director from KPFK who has repeatedly tried to get the PNB and management to investigate financial irregularities and missing/incomplete information supplied to the California Attorney General.
The retaliation against Kim Kaufman by the PNB is one in a long line of incidents where people trying to draw attention to fiscal mismanagement at Pacifica stations have been harassed, fired, run off and recalled. Continue reading Petition: Tell the Pacifica National Board to Protect Whistleblowers, Not to Punish Them