Tag Archives: Something’s Happening

Pacifica in Exile Newsletters

Sunshine In Los Angeles

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Berkeley – A turbulent 21 months at KPFK in Los Angeles has come to an end with a change in the station’s general manager position made on February 27, effective immediately. Leslie Radford was hired in May of 2015 to be KPFK’s general manager by outgoing IED Margy Wilkinson on Wilkinson’s last day. The hire was against the wishes of incoming executive director John Proffitt, who was literally driving from Texas when Wilkinson made the hire. Proffitt had asked Wilkinson to allow him to interview the KPFK candidates, but she did not do so and hired Radford, a former Siegel/Brazon-affiliated national board member, to the KPFK job.  Continue reading Sunshine In Los Angeles →

Pacifica in Exile Newsletters

Proceeding With Things

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Berkeley-On July 28th, a second special meeting on finances was held, once again boycotted by the entire board majority, with an attempt to unliaterally cancel the meeting by board chair Tony Norman. You can listen to the entire meeting here,a highlights reel here, and read  a written summary of recommendations here.

The Siegel/Brazon board majority did attend the August 4th board meeting a week later, a meeting which which focused primarily on bylaws amendments, elections and disciplinary retribution. A highlights reel can be heard here. Among the subjects discussed:

After a two-year delay, New York station WBAI was re-licensed by the FCC, although the station’s lack of a local or toll-free telephone number since June 23rd place it in violation of broadcasting law (Section 47 C.F.R. 73.1125(e)). The Siegel/Brazon majority on the national board celebrated with Brazon announcing “The really good news is that WBAI has been granted their license renewal until June 1, 2022. That is really important in that it allows us to proceed with a lot of things (giggle) including negotiations that we have with debtors {sic} and so forth”. License renewal is what permits a sale or lease transaction of a broadcasting license. License renewal has no value in a negotiation with a creditor due to FCC prohibitions on using the value of broadcast licenses as collateral. Continue reading Proceeding With Things →

Pacifica in Exile Newsletters

A Crevasse, But No Bond

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Berkeley-In California, Alameda Superior Court denied Siegel and Yee’s motion to require the two listener-member plaintiffs in Yeakey vs. Pacifica to provide a $50,000 bond. The concise denial can be seen here and states: “The court concludes the plaintiffs are not required to post a bond because they have not pled any derivative claims”. Siegel and Yee have since filed a demurrer, yet another procedural feint that runs up Pacifica’s legal costs.Yeakey vs. Pacifica seeks to remove 7 directors whose three-year elected delegate terms expired in December of 2015 and 2 affiliate representatives who are not connected to stations currently affiliated with Pacifica. Continue reading A Crevasse, But No Bond →

Pacifica in Exile Newsletters

Witch Hunts Redux

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Berkeley-Houston’s KPFT, usually the quietest and smallest of Pacifica’s five radio stations, exploded into witch hunt mode this week after a dust-up about frequently absent board member Maria Elena Castellanos trying to “rescind” her resignation a month after submitting it. After the Siegel/Brazon majority in Houston supported the absurd claim, the board doubled down and proposed suspending 4 members of the independent faction for six months for sending emails advocating that Castellano’s resignation couldn’t be taken back a month afterwards per Pacifica’s bylaws – which state board seats become vacant upon the occurrence of a resignation. The targeted board members include Bill Crosier, the former president of the Houston Peace and Justice Center, George Reiter, a professor of physics at the University of Houston, long-time KPFT volunteer Teresa Allen and Prison Show producer Hank Lamb, a former Siegel/Brazonite who broke with the faction in July of 2014 after telling them to “cut the crap” and calling for Margy Wilkinson’s removal as board chair.
Continue reading Witch Hunts Redux →

Pacifica in Exile Newsletters

Striking Out Solvency

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Berkeley-At Thursday’s national board meeting, the majority spent most of the meeting passing a resolution instructing station management to “run their operations more productively” by such actions as calling credit card donors whose credit cards don’t go through and encouraging past donors to renew. Houston listener rep Bill Crosier attempted to amend the resolution to also address the content being broadcast. He proposed rolling back program changes in the last 12 months that generated less net fund drive revenue than the pre-change content. Continue reading Striking Out Solvency →

Pacifica in Exile Newsletters

Playing Organizational Darwinism

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Berkeley-The March 17th meeting of the Pacifica National Board was marked by virulent conflicts between members of the Siegel/Brazon majority as the philosophy of “organzational darwinism” begins to play out within the network. The majority members found solidarity in their determination to maximize their number of votes on the national board, but dissolved into bitter arguments about the network’s fiscal woes.  Continue reading Playing Organizational Darwinism →

Articles

Petition To Restore Something’s Happening

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On_The_Air

Restore “Something’s Happening” Hours

Hosted by Roy Tuckman

 

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

Please sign the petition here to tell the KPFK GM and IPD to restore Something’s Happening’s show hours.

 

Pacifica in Exile Newsletters

Landslide in Los Angeles

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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 →

Pacifica in Exile Newsletters

New CFO From State Department Funded NGO

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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 →