Originally posted July 6, 2014

Berkeley-The purges continue at Pacifica Radio. The latest victim is KPFK/KPFA interim general manager Richard Pirodsky, a 30-year radio operations veteran who was summarily removed from his position by the departing interim executive director Bernard Duncan, who executed Pirodsky’s termination in his last three minutes on the job. In the last week, the organization has seen the departures of the payroll and benefits manager, the administrative manager, the KPFK manager and the ED, with three of the four positions lacking a successor. This chaos creates a huge vacuum in an organization whose New York station is in crisis, whose public funding has been cut off, and which has not produced financial statements in months. Continue reading And Then There Were None →

Originally posted July 2, 2014

Berkeley-The last two days of the tenure of Pacifica Radio’s 3rd executive director of the year are passing with no replacement named. Despite a 3-hour secret session on Monday night, the Pacifica board majority took no action to transition the organization’s leadership, which will be basically be defunct through the July 4th holiday. The board also took no action regarding the latest missed deadline to begin the 2012-13 financal audit, which passed on June 30th without comment. The radio network has now missed all deadlines to submit annual financial reports for 2014 Corporation for Public Broadcasting  (CPB) funding. Continue reading Every Game They Play →

Originally posted June 28, 2014

Berkeley-The continued shuttling of the Pacifica Network’s legal business to the law firm of board member Jose Luis Fuentes has incited the rage of Texas listener rep Hank Lamb. Siegel and Yee, the law firm run by Oakland mayoral candidate Dan Siegel, his partner Alan Yee – the campaign treasurer for Oakland mayoral candidate Jean Quan – and former Oakland City Council member and failed 2012 candidate for Oakland City Attorney Jane Brunner,  has taken on 3 legal matters for Pacifica since the March 25th resignation of corporate counsel Terry Gross. None of them have been voted on by a majority of the currently-seated board of directors as required by California Corporations Code Section 5233, when a public benefit corporation enters into a contract which financially benefits a member of the board of directors. Continue reading Cut The Crap – Says Former Board Majority Member →

Originally posted June 24, 2014

Berkeley-Alarmed by the abrupt removal of community-based programming at their sister station up north, the local station board at KPFK passed a motion on June 18th to prevent program rearrangement at their Los Angeles station. The motion by staff rep Jim Lafferty, ED of the Southern California chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, states “No programs shall be rescheduled or canceled based on how much money they raise, every programmer shall have access to all fund-drive premiums, and programmers shall be allowed to select and add premiums appropriate to their audience to the general list. The iGM shall have a conversation with the programmers to explain the fund drive process and discuss the programmers’ concerns.” It passed by a vote of 10-1-2. Continue reading Help Needed →