A one-hour Progressive Radio Commentary special on Pacifica in 2015. Interviewees include national board members Steve Brown and Janet Coleman and former ED Summer Reese.
Tag Archives: wbai
Coup Redux
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
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
Secret Corporation and We’re Proud of It
This sound snippet contains the conversation at the KPFA local station board meeting on August 22nd about the secret incorporation of the KPFA Foundation by Margy Wilkinson at the office of attorney Dan Siegel.
Seems like the best excuse they can come up with for incorporating a new nonprofit to “capture” Pacifica’s licenses is to accuse others of doing (with no evidence) what they just got caught doing.
That’s what scoundrels do. Yell really loudly that everyone else is doing it too.
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
Majority on Pacifica Board Refuse To Discuss Secret Corporation to Acquire KPFA License
Berkeley – In a shameful display, the majority on the Pacifica National Board refused to discuss the public matter of the 2013 secret incorporation of the KPFA Foundation by Margy Wilkinson and Dan Siegel for the purpose of acquiring KPFA’s broadcast license. Continue reading Majority on Pacifica Board Refuse To Discuss Secret Corporation to Acquire KPFA License
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.
A Good Board Is A Secret Board
Berkeley – Seemingly uncontroversial proposals to videotape a regular public meeting of the KPFA local station board were met with opposition by the Save KPFA faction. Save KPFA-affiliated board member Mal Burnstein – just days after trying unsuccessfully to raise the minimum annual donation for Pacifica membership and voting rights from $25/year to $40/year – ranted in response to the videotaping request:
“The KPFA Local Station Board is not a public entity; it is therefore not covered by the First Amendment. and the First Amendment has nothing to do with what KPFA should or should not cover”. Continue reading A Good Board Is A Secret Board