Pacifica in the 1990s
The history we live with
Maria Gilardin began as a volunteer in the KPFA news department in 1982. She was co-founder of the women's department and became KPFA's promotion and development director. In 1993, as the hijacker regime began its seven-year-long takeover, Gilardin was banned by the Pacifica National Board from all Pacifica stations. After losing her voice on KPFA she founded TUC Radio, a weekly national radio program on globalization, local resistance, and Native Nations.
In this account, written 2001, Gilardin mentions a group then known as "Save KPFA." That name was later stolen and appropriated by the very ones who collaborated in the hijacking of the station. Although most of the persons in this article are no longer at Pacifica, a number of them are, and along with some more recent additions, they form the current gatekeeper clique, today's "SaveKPFA." This is the history we are still living with in 2016.
Pacifica in the 1990s
by Maria Gilardin
June 2001
Jeff Blankfort and I were the recipients in the annual San Francisco Bay Guardian "Best Of" awards of 1999. Thus ended - we thought - a several year long period in which the efforts of Save KPFA and Take Back KPFA were belittled by Pacifica managers and certain KPFA staff members as the work of just two people.
The story of the early history of resistance to the long drawn out execution of Pacifica's dream, mission and reality includes the over 200 listeners who met at Berkeley's Ashkenaz to prevent the dismissal of the community programmers on KPFA in January, 1993. That gathering followed a tension-filled meeting, held in the pouring rain, (in what then was the empty office next to the station which later became Pacifica's headquarters). That January night, attended by more than 150 people, staff members, backed by supporters from the community, stepped to the microphone to denounce the regime of then general manager Pat Scott and with that energy, saved the 7-8 pm weekday programs for just another three years, and left Salniker with no choice but to remove Scott from the job. But as we will see later, she would come back with a vengeance Even though the cancellation of Living on Indian time, the women's, labor and Pacific Islander's, gay-lesbian programs and many more was protested by an even larger group of listeners, and this time, by some members of staff, they were not rescinded after the purge of August, 1995. The dismissal of Mama O'Shea and of Bill Mandel, in May of that year, also led to large demonstrations - but to no avail. And some key members of the paid staff sided openly with the management's decisions.
The group of people who early on saw the systematic nature of the shift in Pacifica was always fairly small. In an ironic clash of Pacifica National rhetoric and reality the early opponents of Pacifica were almost all African-Americans.
When Pacifica held its Spring Board meeting in February 1993 at Berkeley's posh Claremont Hotel a huge delegation arrived from KPFK in Los Angeles. One contingent represented the "African Mental Liberation" program that brought African history by African scholars to the air. It had come under attack for alleged anti-semitic remarks. The other group, also African-Americans, included Ron Wilkins, a former National Board member and host of a "Continent to Continent," a program on KPFK that dealt with current African history and politics. They carried banners into the meeting room with slogans such as: "Liberation radio, Yes, Plantation Radio, No!"
At that board meeting representatives from the KPFK contingent, Jeff and I, and WBAI program director Samori Marksman met. The atmosphere was one of defiance. Pat Scott had made herself so unpopular with KPFA staff that it seemed just a matter of time that she would be forced to leave. Samori, as he continued to do until his death, would personally protect WBAI with his negotiating skills, courage and strong personal sense of direction. Even if there had been a method of pulling it off, there seemed no desire or need to come up with a "national" plan of resistance. We wished each other luck and promised to stay in touch. Little did we know that the first purges were to begin only three months later.
One of the things that made me unpopular with the Pacifica National Board (PNB) was my insistence on access to the books. A friend had helped me analyze the annual reports of the previous four years and we found a disturbing trend. Pacifica had begun building an ever expanding central office, using funds from stations to increase the pay of national officers by several thousands of dollars each, while claiming in union negotiations that there was no money to adequately pay station staff.
Legal and consultants' fees were going up. The 990 tax forms showed $145,000 in fund-raising expenses for KPFA that were not explained. What were those expenses for?, I asked in my three minute presentation at the February 1993 board meeting. And why did Pacifica National change their accounting procedure to disguise the rising cost of management?
Unexpectedly the controller, Sandra Rosas, jumped up from her seat at the board table and shouted: "Are you accusing me of fraud?" I had not used the words. So her response seemed an admission. And today, eight years later, we still have not seen the books and she has been in charge all that time.
At the February '93 board meeting I was told that I had to wait until the next board meeting for answers to my question. And so I submitted my list with all the other public comment contributions to the board's chair, Jack O'Dell.
I sensed that something unexpected would occur when I entered the board meeting in Los Angeles in June of 1993 to pick up my answers. I found my questions had been omitted from the minutes of the public comment section. At the board table Pat Scott started whispering to David Salniker. Chairman Jack O'Dell, who had promised both Jeff Blankfort and myself that we would have time to make personal statements (in addition to reading prepared statements from Take Back KPFA, and the staff, respectively) adjourned the meeting before I was allowed to speak on the issue of Pacifica's faulty financials.
My shouted protest was drowned out in the bustle of people leaving the room. Later Pat Scott and Marci Lockwood claimed that I had blocked the door and kicked a board member. Dozens of people knew that that was untrue. A video taken by a former KPFK volunteer was later shown at La Pena . I could be seen standing to the side of the door with an armful of papers pleading with people not to leave.
Three days later I received a letter signed by Jack O'Dell banning me from all Pacifica stations for threatening the board with violence. Five others, including Jeff, Sue Supriano, (a long-time KPFA programmer), and Jeff, were banned from speaking at future meetings of the board. A letter to Chairman Jack O'Dell, requesting a hearing and the due process that Pacifica ostensibly supported, was summarily rejected.
In hindsight that was the beginning of an era of bannings and selective claims of violence with which to discredit the critics and to spin stories for the media or the courts.
As of this writing over 300 people have been banned from the five Pacifica stations and the numbers rising weekly at WBAI. The purges at KPFA in 1995, when more than 60 programmers were fired, many of them community activists, brought out more than 400 angry listeners at two successive meetings at the No. Berkeley Senior Center. With very few exceptions, staff at KPFA did not support the fired unpaid staff. It is no secret that Philip Maldari was among those in favor of the dismissals - he said so on the air.
Subsequently, in a move that turned out to be a serious mistake, KPFA's paid staff voted to leave the United Electrical Workers and join another union, the Communication Workers of America. To the dismay of the UE union members at WBAI they then voted to exclude the unpaid staff from the union contract while WBAI workers fought up to the NLRB to keep union representation for unpaid staff.
Those two actions created a rift between paid and unpaid staff that exists to this day. The paid staff also relinquished the influence that the UE contract provided in terms of the management of the station (managers had to take pay cut before staff would be laid off) and voted for the first time in KPFA labor history to sign a no-strike clause.
All along Take Back KPFA and listeners who were aware of the changes in the union contract tried to influence staff and shop stewards to stay in unity with WBAI and to not abandon the unpaid staff - but again, it was to no avail. In a surreal episode of parallel universes, most of KPFA paid staff made an appearance at the Pacifica National Board meeting in Oakland in June of 1997.
We had a huge picket line outside the hotel, and packed the audience for the public comment session. KPFA staff filed in, wearing new CWA T-shirts, and then filed right out again after Kris Welch said a few words about their contract negotiations. We ran after them and pleaded with them to stay. That session was extremely important, Mary Frances Berry was chosen as Pat Scott's successor. Roberta Brooks claimed that the board had already voted to exclude the LAB [Local Advisory Board] representatives from the National Board. Jeff Blankfort had taped that preceding meeting and was able to prove that she was mistaken, if not lying. It would take Pacifica National two more years to remove the LAB members.
To recount all major events up to today with this level of detail would fill the pages of the Folio. The examples above are simply there to make a point - or two. The most sinister aspect is the intent, planning, and criminal energy expended on this by Pacifica National. The plan to execute Pacifica and the method by which to do it was first outlined in the Strategic Plan of 1992; preparations took at least four years. The Strategic Plan began under David Salniker with Dick Bunce, (a former editor of the Socialist Review!) as the co-author with now departed Gail Christian, continued under Pat Scott to Mary Frances Berry, Lynn Chadwick, Bessie Wash and their numerous helpers.
What is frightening is that The Plan survived a changing cast of characters and was expanded into a Five-Year Plan which was crafted in a series of board meetings that were described as "retreats.". They all operated in the same fashion: centralization of the organization and of money, destruction of programming and of unions, firing and banning of staff, suspension of free speech, use of armed force, and the replacement of listeners.
If all this were reported from a Central American Country, or an African country, we would recognize it immediately for what it is: the wholesale destruction of a society, colonialism, imperialism, or structural adjustment; and we might see a national movement of resistance to these policies and of support of the people of that country. Applied internally we might use some of the same words to define it. The colonizing of the voice of Pacifica. But we do have a more exact term to use: counter-intelligence. If COINTELPRO was used against the American Indian Movement, the Black Panthers, the Anti Apartheid Movement, Earth First - why would we expect Pacifica to be exempt?
The situation reminds me of the story of the burning books told by Bertolt Brecht in exile. Brecht, whose own books went up in flames, wrote about the anguish of a writer whose books were left unburned by the Nazis. "Was I not also telling the truth, did I not show courage in face of suppression?" he has that writer say. "Why do you discredit me by not burning my books?"
Pacifica was certainly challenging power and some voices still do at KPFA and WBAI. It was certainly a deserving target for a COINTELPRO action and remains that today. If not for the present reality of some of the programming, then at least for the dormant potential to really be a voice of the voiceless, as intended by the founders.
All these elements are finally clear to see and recognized by most listeners and even by a large number of programming staff. I'm using the word "even" not because I want to be unkind. The people most acted upon, most targeted, most made collaborators in their own demise are almost always the last to recognize the pattern and its systematic nature.
The listeners however, even without knowing many of the details that the gag rule and the acquiescence to the gag rule by so many staff members for so long concealed from them, became alarmed by the programming and format changes. They also wanted to know where their money went and became furious at the abuse of funds and the prospect that those bent on destroying Pacifica, which includes almost all members of the Pacifica's National "unit" were so handsomely paid for their work.
You may agree with the line of reasoning so far but still not be willing to take the next step. You may say that Pacifica indeed was deserving to be targeted by a COINTELPRO operation but, since the most serious onslaught came while the Democrats held state power, during the Clinton years, it could not have been a government program since Democrats don't do such things.
The flurry of recent efforts to personalize the Pacifica National Board members, to meet with them and talk, is an expression of that mind set. The assumption that they are just misguided persons who will see the light if spoken to reasonably is promoted by many. What is overlooked is that the effort to initiate these meetings is made in most cases by the other side and that they are making any such events into political hay.
After Dan Siegel, the lawyer for the LAB suit, talked KPFK LAB member David Adelson into coming to Washington to meet with John Murdock, and his boss Daly Temchine, Ken Ford, and Bessie Wash; Pacifica National violated a promise to keep this meeting confidential by issuing a press release that hit the Houston Board meeting like a bomb shell, claiming "substantive negotiations" had occurred.
Pacifica's lawyer, John Rappaport, used the meeting in the hearing before the judge to issue a temporary restraining order to keep Pacifica books from being moved from Los Angeles to Washington. He told the judge that substantive negotiations were occurring, and that there was no need to stop the transfer of records. The judge denied the temporary restraining order. The books are now in Washington in the hands of a person hired by Pacifica National. He claims they are in such bad order that he needs to fix them.
Philip Maldari's meeting, in February 2001, with Pat Scott, David Salniker, Roberta Brooks, Jack O'Dell, Ying Lee Kelly, and Judge Jenny Rhine falls into the same category. He called for it without consulting with staff or the LAB. Apparently nobody else participated in it. To this day we are not sure what exactly was discussed because Philip has not reported to anybody except for the bare essentials.
Many KPFA LAB members have resisted even discussing this meeting on the LABs agenda. Vociferous voices came out asserting that Philip has the right to freely assemble and that it would be something like an inquisition to ask him to report to the LAB. The idea was floated that two LAB members should see Philip and talk to him. My name came up as a candidate for that delegation. I resisted it because I do not see the need for a filter. The report should be made directly. The listeners have a right to hear the report as well, directly. How would Philip ever be fairly represented if he was not speaking directly?
My sense of urgency around the issues of those two meetings comes from personal conviction that we are at a very crucial point in the battle with Pacifica. After ten years of skirmishes - most of which we lost - we may see the end of it all - probably even before the end of this year. The lawsuits, especially the listener's suit, have defined the issues in a sharp and clear light: This Pacifica National Board is illegitimate with only three exceptions, and the listeners have standing to demand the return of "their" network. Legally, ethically, and based on Pacifica's mission, the outcome in the courts should be a victory. However we can't be sure of that. In the pro-corporate neo-liberal world Pacifica is a potential danger to the status quo. The suit might set a precedent for other anti corporate suits. The famous, long disused question: "Quo warranto? By what authority?" that is part of the essence of the listeners suit and that was once a rallying concept of the populist movement, may not be allowed into the public discourse again.
So, sadly enough, we need to be prepared not just for victory but for defeat, at least in the courts. Of course that does not have to be the end of it by any means. We can still protect Pacifica. But we need to come up with a common strategy among all five stations and we need to put the question to the staffs at all the stations whether they want to be on the side of Pacifica National or with the communities they are serving. We don't even have to spell out in great detail what serving the community might mean. A few programmers are already doing an excellent job of it. If we manage to have truly open, democratic structures that will work itself out.
The problem in doing this is compounded by the fact that WPFW in Washington DC, which censors Democracy Now on a regular basis, and KPFT in Houston are Pacifica in name and in legal ownership only, having long ago become largely music stations--jazz in DC and Country Western in Texas. And in Los Angeles, General Manager Mark Schubb, backed by Marc Cooper, rules the station like a petty dictator.
The simple question, that seems too hard to answer for many staff members at KPFA and WBAI, is: will they stand up to Pacifica National? Will they refuse to be gagged, will they support their fired colleagues, will they go on strike? Are they willing to defend more than their jobs? Are they willing to defend Pacifica even if it means that they lose their jobs? How many are willing to recognize that all these potential sacrifices are really very small compared to the prospect of finding the SOLD sign pinned to the door one day?
And I guess the argument returns again to the question of how serious all this really is and whether or not there are just a few misguided individuals on the National Board who can be talked into seeing their errors.
Take John Murdock for example. How reasonable he sounded in the interview with Juan Gonzales. Is he the same man who just re-wrote the bylaws, making it possible to sell with ease not just one, but at least two of the stations, pocket a hefty commission for his services and disburse the funds donated by listeners to another organization? This is the blueprint for the "legal" dissolution of Pacifica, the administrative execution, far worse than previous schemes developed by Mary Frances Berry. She simply suggested to sell KPFA or WBAI or both, and buy a string of radio stations in the South. Murdock's position enables the end of Pacifica as an institution.
Far from abandoning the bylaws that elicited an overwhelming amount of thoughtful and spirited negative comments, Murdock, at this very moment, is moving forward with a "process" by which the LABS and station managers are ordered to take part in a discussion. They are made complicit in the re-writing of the most precious asset, the old bylaws of Pacifica, butchered and amended but with the basic premise that Pacifica needs to survive as an institution still intact.
Murdock's process focuses on changes or amendments to his new bylaws. LABs should not become complicit in a process whose outcome is preordained. And, on the topic of complicity, this same Murdock offered to Dan Siegel power sharing of 15 LAB and 15 nationally appointed members in their recent meeting in Washington, (an offer that was refused).
Revisiting for a moment Philip Maldari's meeting. The little we know about it is that the idea of a local management agreement for KPFA came up. KPFA staff who spoke to Philip briefly thought that his intent was to find a way to rescue KPFA from a collapse of the Pacifica system. Since Pat Scott put the deed to the building in Pacifica's name a rental agreement would need to be entered into.
In terms of supervision and control of staff and programming, I was told that Philip wanted to find out if there might be a way of making KPFA independent from Pacifica. The same staff members who gave me this information expressed surprise that Philip appears so divorced from the analysis of and debate over the role of the current Pacifica leadership as well as the role of the very people he is now asking for help, to have taken that step.
First of all any local management agreement is still just another way of destroying Pacifica. To take the strongest station away from the others has the same effect as a sale. It just does not look as brutal. By now the majority of the people organizing to protect "their" station are clear on the concept that Pacifica National is the adversary and that the five-station federation needs to be saved. Secondly the fact that the meeting took place at all confirms that none of the old guard ever went away. After having set in motion the events that now bring Pacifica to the brink of destruction, they are still partners in this game: Roberta Brooks and Ying Lee Kelly represent the tie in to the Democratic party as staff people for Ron Dellums. Brooks initiated the removal of the LAB members from the PNB. Jack O'Dell, once a member of the Communist Party, was dropped by Martin Luther King from his staff after John Kennedy, acting on the advice of J Edgar Hoover, told him to get rid of him. Somewhere along the line he had become acceptable to State Power and presided, in defiance of all term limits, as Chair of the PNB only to resign in 1997 in favor of Mary Frances Berry.
David Salniker groomed Pat Scott, while she served for several years on the Local Advisory Board [LAB], to become his successor when he moved up to become the Pacifica Executive director. He talked the staff into accepting her as manager when she caught herself in contradictions in her interview with staff and listed among her credentials the fact that she had helped dissolve the Berkeley CO-OP. When the KPFA staff finally succeeded in getting rid of her as manager, Salniker created a job for her as a lobbyist in Washington from which he was to later move her into the position of Executive Director when he took over directorship of the Tides Foundation.
Scott herself, probably the most hated manager KPFA has had, disappeared into the Washington circuit for almost a year and created her bonds with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). She returned to become the most destructive Pacifica Executive Director ever: In 1994, on the CPB task force, she brought down the heavy hand of the market on all recipients of CPB funding. Purges began at WPFW that same year.
In 1995 she fired KPFK management, and seized control of the books. She hired consultants and retained the services of David Giovannoni who continues to advise to this day, that programming needs to be mainstreamed in order to comply with the funding guidelines she and Lynn Chadwick voted for on the CPB task force.
In 1995 Pat Scott began the successful campaign against the unions at KPFK and KPFA, hiring the American Consulting Group, a national union-busting firm. The WBAI union took a principled stand and escaped. To this day Pacifica is following ACG's advice: The ACG instructs employers to make claims that staff and union members are violent - even if those claims are false, and to threaten or bribe people of color into collaborating with management. These techniques are laid out in their training film.
Also in 1995, Pat Scott finally felt strong enough to request major purges of programmers and whole programming departments at KPFA. She closed all finance committee meeting on the PNB to the public - in direct violation of CPB funding rules, and she issued the famous: "My way or the highway memo" announcing vast changes in management of the foundation, advising LAB members who disagreed to resign.
When Pat Scott had members of the audience removed from Pacifica National Board meetings later that year, an investigator from the CPB's Inspector General's office, Brian McConnville, looked into Pacifica's possible violations of CPB guidelines. 17 days after beginning the investigation, and after Pacifica's lawyer called his boss, McConnville was fired. After failing to get any satisfaction from Chair Jack O'Dell, Take Back KPFA filed a formal complaint with the CPB. Over a year later, on the eve of recommending defunding of Pacifica for numerous violations of federal communications law and CPB regulations, as he told Jeff Blankfort, the Deputy-Inspector General Mike Donavan, was fired as well, and his office would give us no forwarding phone or address. When the next Inspector General finally managed to come out with a critical report even that was whitewashed by the CPB Board that brushed its critical aspects aside and expressed confidence in the job that Pat Scott and Jack O'Dell were doing.
When Scott announced her retirement, CPB President Robert Coonrod, who formerly headed both the Voice of America and Radio Marti, praised Scott for the transformation she had effected in Pacifica. That Scott, who also admitted to having been a member of the Communist Party, had received a commendation from such a source, rekindled suspicions of a COINTELPRO operation.
Add to this the curious fact that the presence of two former members of the US Communist Party at the head of Pacifica, O'Dell as well as Scott, elicited not a word of Red-baiting from Capitol Hill. To borrow a title from A. Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, it seems like a case of "The Dog That Didn't Bark in the Night."
Former PNN news director Dan Coughlin's recent talk at a fundraiser for investigative reporting added a chilling new dimension. He said Lynn Chadwick would call the President of the CPB , Robert Coonrod "Uncle Bob" and she claimed that now that KPFA was in trouble the CPB would shell out some money to see the matter through. The "trouble" of course being the occupation of the station by police and the arrest of staff. Dan was careful to note that he did not know if that money ever came through but in the light of the earlier firings of CPB inspectors it is a story that makes sense in an eerie way.
If after reading this far, you still do not agree with my theory that this really is a government operation, I hope you will at least entertain the thought that the difference of opinion and intent, between listeners and much of the staff on one side, and the PNB and Pacifica National on the other side, could not be larger. Many new people have recently joined the battle for the survival of Pacifica recently and this ought to be our best time ever.
We now have links from station to station; we have eloquent speakers and we have a new, wider appeal to the public-at-large. But with the influx of new people there will invariably be many who were not witnesses to the systematic, long term dismemberment of Pacifica; who think it is just a couple of people gone mad or astray. Those of us who know the history have a responsibility to pass it on.
MARIA GILARDIN
June 2001
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for updates, reports & essays on KPFA/Pacifica,
please visit these websites:
UNITED FOR COMMUNITY RADIO
PACIFICA IN EXILE
ANN GARRISON, A KPFA REPORTER
LORDS & LADIES vs. the PEASANTS at KPFA
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KPFA 94.1 FM is one of five stations of the Pacifica radio network which are located in major cities across the country. The other stations are WBAI 99.5 in New York, WPFW 89.3 in Washington DC, KPFT 90.1 in Houston, and KPFK 90.7 in Los Angeles. There are also about 160 affiliate stations.
Vote for the UCR -- United for Community Radio
Labels: 94.1 FM, Concerned Listeners; (CL), KPFA Worker, KPFAworker.org, Pacifica Foundation Radio, Pacifica Radio Network, Save KPFA, SaveKPFA.org, UCR, united for community radio
Questions from a KPFA member
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United for Community Radio (UCR)
"I think now is an important time to say why NOT to dissolve Pacifica. I think even neutral folks are wondering about doing it." -- Virginia Browning, United for Community Radio (UCR)
In this essay Virginia responds to an email from a KPFA 94.1 FM listener-member who wonders about the course the station should take: Should KPFA accept underwriting? Should it break off from the Pacifica network?
Issues at KPFA & Pacifica
by Virginia Browning, United for Community Radio
Thank you for your email to UCR. I appreciate your thoughtful questions.
I'm "one of the UCR 9," Virginia Browning, running for the board. I happen to be answering the UCR's email, but the views below are only mine. I'll forward your email to the other candidates.
I started at a community radio station in Salt Lake City when I was young, when it was just beginning. It was very exciting. Opportunities were wide open to have quite radical viewpoints on the air in that somewhat conservative region. I interviewed Norman Solomon for example -- he had written about atomic testing, which was very relevant to Utahns.
In recent years, that station has started accepting underwriting. Like so many community stations across the country, KRCL, while it has a few progressive shows or parts of shows, is mostly music and not as progressive as it once was. Is this related to its now accepting underwriting? I don't know for sure.
If a small station starts to accept a nice steady significant amount of money from one entity, there is such a temptation to do the bidding of that entity in shaping the programming. Sometimes that can be informal, maybe only a comment or two. But there can be a huge temptation to simply cut out something that the donor doesn't like, especially if it seems kind of "marginal" (few people may care).
I know that there are differing points of view within the "United for Community Radio" group about underwriting. A number of us voted on this for a platform point. I didn't vote for this as a platform point, but more of us did than not. I have mixed feelings.
There are good people who think they can control how underwriting is handled. Maybe they can. The fact is, like so many wide-ranging conversations we could be having at KPFA, this one isn't encouraged to be had in a thoughtful, public way. Wouldn't that be great?
There are Pacifica affiliates, community stations across the country, who have presented a plan for Pacifica to be a kind of broker to find good "clean" underwriters and match them with the over 150 stations. I think very good people are behind this plan. However, the most recent version of this plan was but a sketch. It had almost no guidelines to ensure that the underwriting would not influence the viewpoints on the air. The Pacifica National Board voted not to accept this plan until details were developed. I agree with that decision.
I actually am interested to know how other stations handle this, especially ones who think they are doing it successfully. I believe one of the managers at KRCL where I started, is famous now across the country as a strong advocate for truly good, open, accessible, community radio. Last I looked, she just started managing a station in Moab Utah, which I noted DOES accept underwriting. I was going to write to her. I'd love to know more about the guidelines used by the stations to which you refer in your email.
As for breaking KPFA away from Pacifica: I'm not ready to go there. Indeed, Pacifica is in big trouble in many ways. Part of the reason however, is a hypocrisy of some of our local KPFA major players (some who have been on the national board for years) in advocating for draconian cuts at other stations and almost none at KPFA. Some of our opponents in this election at the same time were the ones who voted to saddle the New York station, WBAI, with a crippling contract for transmitting. New York to be sure has its own problems, but only when some allied with UCR were in power did New York finally get rid of some who were fairly actively destroying the station. There are still problems with the New York station, but I think there are other, even drastic, measures that could be taken before the ultimate drastic one of selling the New York license forever. Media is certainly changing -- radio is changing! But the potential for a radical network such as Pacifica could be is fairly unique. Internet? Sure! But who owns that, ultimately? I'm not ready to let go of the potential that Pacifica holds.
Some who want KPFA broken away have proven to me anyway that even if they had access to the millions of dollars they may think they would have with the sale of the New York license, that they would not use it to provide more equitable access to the air at KPFA to movements for change, but would probably hire more of their friends whom they think know radio better than anyone else.
Brian Edwards-Tiekert, for example, is an incredibly talented host and interviewer. Few can match his perhaps "innate" ability. However, I believe he has more radical perspectives on his show than he might otherwise because of movement from a community that he feels compelled to attend to. When the Occupy movement blossomed, he used his little power-spot for a sound-byte at Occupy Oakland of some facilitators saying "ok, now everyone stand up," and re-thinking something "ok everyone sit down." It was a soundbyte that signified nothing. But Brian, like 90-some percent of the national media at that juncture then opined "they sound like they don't know what they want." I attended some Occupy events. Friends who could attended even more. The stand-up/sit-down segment symbolized nothing except an opportunity for media to squelch a blossoming of hope. Many wonderful conversations occurred at Occupy events. Apex Express, a usually excellently-produced show run by volunteers at KPFA (who don't even get invited to regular KPFA staff meetings with Brian and his crew), produced another Occupy show that was a careful, artistic collage of many exciting times in the Occupy days.
Brian, for all his talent, would do well to use most of it to train other people. Otherwise, he and his group will use any excess money to hire paid staff and close out more community, unless pressured to do otherwise.
And the pressure is killing some of us -- it has NOT been easy to stand against these cronies, yet some members of our UCR group are still standing for more radical views than will likely be filtered in at a set pace designed by the other side if they get even more money to do their thing. I don't find this a winning formula for a better world.
Right now if you want to hear an alternative viewpoint about many of the countries in Africa which are being exploited at a terrifying rate, you will not hear them on the regular KPFA weekday news. You may hear them from Ann Garrison on the weekend news (unpaid staff), or by one of the hosts relegated to the 3pm or 3:30 weekday slot, or by Hardknock Radio or Flashpoints or Project Censored. KPFA pays for 2 corporate newswires and uses FSN news, an entity that brags about creating "Video News Releases" (VNRs) -- segments made to look like news but that are actually made by PR firms for corporate propaganda.
The above policy (the breakup of Pacifica) is the policy created by those who will benefit if Pacifica is broken up.
I agree about the fund drives. I know they could be much better. Again, a wide-ranging discussion by those who may have some great ideas could help with this. I'm sorry to bring Brian up so much, but he's a major player in the way it's done now, as you can probably hear because he's on a great deal of the time within each fund drive (and paid to do it).
Thank you for writing!
Again, remember, these are my views only. I'll forward your email to other candidates.
VIRGINIA BROWNING
November 2, 2015
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for updates, reports & essays on KPFA/Pacifica, please visit these websites:
UNITED FOR COMMUNITY RADIO
PACIFICA IN EXILE
ANN GARRISON, A KPFA REPORTER
LORDS & LADIES vs. the PEASANTS at KPFA
*** *** ***
KPFA 94.1 FM is one of five stations of the Pacifica radio network which are located in major cities across the country. The other stations are WBAI 99.5 in New York, WPFW 89.3 in Washington DC, KPFT 90.1 in Houston, and KPFK 90.7 in Los Angeles. The Pacifica network also has about 160 affiliate stations.
United for Community Radio (UCR)
"I think now is an important time to say why NOT to dissolve Pacifica. I think even neutral folks are wondering about doing it." -- Virginia Browning, United for Community Radio (UCR)
In this essay Virginia responds to an email from a KPFA 94.1 FM listener-member who wonders about the course the station should take: Should KPFA accept underwriting? Should it break off from the Pacifica network?
Issues at KPFA & Pacifica
by Virginia Browning, United for Community Radio
Thank you for your email to UCR. I appreciate your thoughtful questions.
I'm "one of the UCR 9," Virginia Browning, running for the board. I happen to be answering the UCR's email, but the views below are only mine. I'll forward your email to the other candidates.
I started at a community radio station in Salt Lake City when I was young, when it was just beginning. It was very exciting. Opportunities were wide open to have quite radical viewpoints on the air in that somewhat conservative region. I interviewed Norman Solomon for example -- he had written about atomic testing, which was very relevant to Utahns.
In recent years, that station has started accepting underwriting. Like so many community stations across the country, KRCL, while it has a few progressive shows or parts of shows, is mostly music and not as progressive as it once was. Is this related to its now accepting underwriting? I don't know for sure.
If a small station starts to accept a nice steady significant amount of money from one entity, there is such a temptation to do the bidding of that entity in shaping the programming. Sometimes that can be informal, maybe only a comment or two. But there can be a huge temptation to simply cut out something that the donor doesn't like, especially if it seems kind of "marginal" (few people may care).
I know that there are differing points of view within the "United for Community Radio" group about underwriting. A number of us voted on this for a platform point. I didn't vote for this as a platform point, but more of us did than not. I have mixed feelings.
There are good people who think they can control how underwriting is handled. Maybe they can. The fact is, like so many wide-ranging conversations we could be having at KPFA, this one isn't encouraged to be had in a thoughtful, public way. Wouldn't that be great?
There are Pacifica affiliates, community stations across the country, who have presented a plan for Pacifica to be a kind of broker to find good "clean" underwriters and match them with the over 150 stations. I think very good people are behind this plan. However, the most recent version of this plan was but a sketch. It had almost no guidelines to ensure that the underwriting would not influence the viewpoints on the air. The Pacifica National Board voted not to accept this plan until details were developed. I agree with that decision.
I actually am interested to know how other stations handle this, especially ones who think they are doing it successfully. I believe one of the managers at KRCL where I started, is famous now across the country as a strong advocate for truly good, open, accessible, community radio. Last I looked, she just started managing a station in Moab Utah, which I noted DOES accept underwriting. I was going to write to her. I'd love to know more about the guidelines used by the stations to which you refer in your email.
As for breaking KPFA away from Pacifica: I'm not ready to go there. Indeed, Pacifica is in big trouble in many ways. Part of the reason however, is a hypocrisy of some of our local KPFA major players (some who have been on the national board for years) in advocating for draconian cuts at other stations and almost none at KPFA. Some of our opponents in this election at the same time were the ones who voted to saddle the New York station, WBAI, with a crippling contract for transmitting. New York to be sure has its own problems, but only when some allied with UCR were in power did New York finally get rid of some who were fairly actively destroying the station. There are still problems with the New York station, but I think there are other, even drastic, measures that could be taken before the ultimate drastic one of selling the New York license forever. Media is certainly changing -- radio is changing! But the potential for a radical network such as Pacifica could be is fairly unique. Internet? Sure! But who owns that, ultimately? I'm not ready to let go of the potential that Pacifica holds.
Some who want KPFA broken away have proven to me anyway that even if they had access to the millions of dollars they may think they would have with the sale of the New York license, that they would not use it to provide more equitable access to the air at KPFA to movements for change, but would probably hire more of their friends whom they think know radio better than anyone else.
Brian Edwards-Tiekert, for example, is an incredibly talented host and interviewer. Few can match his perhaps "innate" ability. However, I believe he has more radical perspectives on his show than he might otherwise because of movement from a community that he feels compelled to attend to. When the Occupy movement blossomed, he used his little power-spot for a sound-byte at Occupy Oakland of some facilitators saying "ok, now everyone stand up," and re-thinking something "ok everyone sit down." It was a soundbyte that signified nothing. But Brian, like 90-some percent of the national media at that juncture then opined "they sound like they don't know what they want." I attended some Occupy events. Friends who could attended even more. The stand-up/sit-down segment symbolized nothing except an opportunity for media to squelch a blossoming of hope. Many wonderful conversations occurred at Occupy events. Apex Express, a usually excellently-produced show run by volunteers at KPFA (who don't even get invited to regular KPFA staff meetings with Brian and his crew), produced another Occupy show that was a careful, artistic collage of many exciting times in the Occupy days.
Brian, for all his talent, would do well to use most of it to train other people. Otherwise, he and his group will use any excess money to hire paid staff and close out more community, unless pressured to do otherwise.
And the pressure is killing some of us -- it has NOT been easy to stand against these cronies, yet some members of our UCR group are still standing for more radical views than will likely be filtered in at a set pace designed by the other side if they get even more money to do their thing. I don't find this a winning formula for a better world.
Right now if you want to hear an alternative viewpoint about many of the countries in Africa which are being exploited at a terrifying rate, you will not hear them on the regular KPFA weekday news. You may hear them from Ann Garrison on the weekend news (unpaid staff), or by one of the hosts relegated to the 3pm or 3:30 weekday slot, or by Hardknock Radio or Flashpoints or Project Censored. KPFA pays for 2 corporate newswires and uses FSN news, an entity that brags about creating "Video News Releases" (VNRs) -- segments made to look like news but that are actually made by PR firms for corporate propaganda.
The above policy (the breakup of Pacifica) is the policy created by those who will benefit if Pacifica is broken up.
I agree about the fund drives. I know they could be much better. Again, a wide-ranging discussion by those who may have some great ideas could help with this. I'm sorry to bring Brian up so much, but he's a major player in the way it's done now, as you can probably hear because he's on a great deal of the time within each fund drive (and paid to do it).
Thank you for writing!
Again, remember, these are my views only. I'll forward your email to other candidates.
VIRGINIA BROWNING
November 2, 2015
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for updates, reports & essays on KPFA/Pacifica, please visit these websites:
UNITED FOR COMMUNITY RADIO
PACIFICA IN EXILE
ANN GARRISON, A KPFA REPORTER
LORDS & LADIES vs. the PEASANTS at KPFA
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KPFA 94.1 FM is one of five stations of the Pacifica radio network which are located in major cities across the country. The other stations are WBAI 99.5 in New York, WPFW 89.3 in Washington DC, KPFT 90.1 in Houston, and KPFK 90.7 in Los Angeles. The Pacifica network also has about 160 affiliate stations.
Labels: clandestine KPFA Foundation, Concerned Listeners; (CL), KPFA 94.1 FM, KPFA Worker, KPFAworker.org, Pacifica Foundation Radio, Pacifica Radio Network, Save KPFA, SaveKPFA.org, UCR, united for community radio
United for Community Radio
What we stand for
United for Community Radio (UCR)
Platform for the KPFA Local Station Board (LSB) election-2016
KPFA and Pacifica are irreplaceable, strategic and transformative resources for amplifying the voices of millions who are overlooked, marginalized or silenced by corporate media in the face of police militarization, racism; and housing, health, water, economic, educational, and environmental depredation. We forge a vital radio station and network by balancing often difficult news reports with programming that heals and facilitates human connections.
as UCR members and LSB representatives we work to:
1. Insure Relevant Programming: through a listener and staff based program council with decision making power. Increase community-sourced, local, daily, prime-time programming and podcasts-addressing attacks on immigrants and people of color and discrimination based on race, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, age and disability. Assert a clear anti-war perspective.
2. Decrease pro-corporate perspective: Replace reading of mainstream media newsfeeds with attributed independent news sources including increased Pacifica network program sharing. Counter the influence of corporate political parties' monopoly on opinion.
3. Join the global media revolution:
- - - - Make KPFA radio segments searchable on the internet.
- - - - Provide current audio and video segments, podcasts and livestreaming on the KPFA website and social media resources.
4. Support all staff: Improve access to resources and training for unpaid staff and provide all staff, paid and unpaid, the right to unionize.
5. Responsible finances: Provide a transparent and sustainable budget that aligns spending with actual income: No corporate underwriting or advertising.
6. Strengthen the Pacifica Network: Participate in a network-wide accountability process to financially stabilize and democratize Pacifica and KPFA. We are committed to preserving the 5 stations, the national archives and our relationships with over 200 affiliates worldwide.
Here are the UCR (UNITED FOR COMMUNITY RADIO) candidates. Please vote for all of them. And, for more information, please visit the websites at the bottom of this page.
(Voting begins in August)
Marilla Argüelles — former President of Home Care Workers' Chapter SEIU, Local 616, editor of "Extracts from Pelican Bay," former KPFA Labor Collective member.
T.M. Scruggs — Executive Producer at TheRealNews.com, ethnomusicologist, Professor Emeritus, University of Iowa, volunteer for community radio stations in U.S., Nicaragua and Venezuela.
Kris Stewart — independent journalist and videographer.
Akio Tanaka — Green Party activist, former Local Station Board member.
Ramsés Teón-Nichols — SEIU 1021 Vice-President, current Local Station Board member.
LaTasha Warmsley — playwright and career counselor.
Carol G Wolfley — KPFA Community Advisory Board member, mediator/facilitator, retired Berkeley teacher, member of Berkeley Post Office Defenders, Transition Berkeley. Open Circle and Occupy Oakland.
Tom Voorhees — early-on KPFA volunteer transmitter engineer, 2014 volunteer of the year, National Federation of Community Broadcasters.
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for updates, reports & essays on KPFA/Pacifica,
please visit these websites:
UNITED FOR COMMUNITY RADIO
PACIFICA IN EXILE
ANN GARRISON, A KPFA REPORTER
LORDS & LADIES vs. the PEASANTS at KPFA
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KPFA 94.1 FM is one of five stations of the Pacifica radio network which are located in major cities across the country. The other stations are WBAI 99.5 in New York, WPFW 89.3 in Washington DC, KPFT 90.1 in Houston, and KPFK 90.7 in Los Angeles. There are also about 160 affiliate stations.
Vote for the UCR -- United for Community Radio
United for Community Radio (UCR)
Platform for the KPFA Local Station Board (LSB) election-2016
KPFA and Pacifica are irreplaceable, strategic and transformative resources for amplifying the voices of millions who are overlooked, marginalized or silenced by corporate media in the face of police militarization, racism; and housing, health, water, economic, educational, and environmental depredation. We forge a vital radio station and network by balancing often difficult news reports with programming that heals and facilitates human connections.
as UCR members and LSB representatives we work to:
1. Insure Relevant Programming: through a listener and staff based program council with decision making power. Increase community-sourced, local, daily, prime-time programming and podcasts-addressing attacks on immigrants and people of color and discrimination based on race, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, age and disability. Assert a clear anti-war perspective.
2. Decrease pro-corporate perspective: Replace reading of mainstream media newsfeeds with attributed independent news sources including increased Pacifica network program sharing. Counter the influence of corporate political parties' monopoly on opinion.
3. Join the global media revolution:
- - - - Make KPFA radio segments searchable on the internet.
- - - - Provide current audio and video segments, podcasts and livestreaming on the KPFA website and social media resources.
4. Support all staff: Improve access to resources and training for unpaid staff and provide all staff, paid and unpaid, the right to unionize.
5. Responsible finances: Provide a transparent and sustainable budget that aligns spending with actual income: No corporate underwriting or advertising.
6. Strengthen the Pacifica Network: Participate in a network-wide accountability process to financially stabilize and democratize Pacifica and KPFA. We are committed to preserving the 5 stations, the national archives and our relationships with over 200 affiliates worldwide.
Here are the UCR (UNITED FOR COMMUNITY RADIO) candidates. Please vote for all of them. And, for more information, please visit the websites at the bottom of this page.
(Voting begins in August)
Marilla Argüelles — former President of Home Care Workers' Chapter SEIU, Local 616, editor of "Extracts from Pelican Bay," former KPFA Labor Collective member.
T.M. Scruggs — Executive Producer at TheRealNews.com, ethnomusicologist, Professor Emeritus, University of Iowa, volunteer for community radio stations in U.S., Nicaragua and Venezuela.
Kris Stewart — independent journalist and videographer.
Akio Tanaka — Green Party activist, former Local Station Board member.
Ramsés Teón-Nichols — SEIU 1021 Vice-President, current Local Station Board member.
LaTasha Warmsley — playwright and career counselor.
Carol G Wolfley — KPFA Community Advisory Board member, mediator/facilitator, retired Berkeley teacher, member of Berkeley Post Office Defenders, Transition Berkeley. Open Circle and Occupy Oakland.
Tom Voorhees — early-on KPFA volunteer transmitter engineer, 2014 volunteer of the year, National Federation of Community Broadcasters.
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for updates, reports & essays on KPFA/Pacifica,
please visit these websites:
UNITED FOR COMMUNITY RADIO
PACIFICA IN EXILE
ANN GARRISON, A KPFA REPORTER
LORDS & LADIES vs. the PEASANTS at KPFA
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KPFA 94.1 FM is one of five stations of the Pacifica radio network which are located in major cities across the country. The other stations are WBAI 99.5 in New York, WPFW 89.3 in Washington DC, KPFT 90.1 in Houston, and KPFK 90.7 in Los Angeles. There are also about 160 affiliate stations.
Vote for the UCR -- United for Community Radio
Labels: 94.1 FM, Concerned Listeners; (CL), ICR, KPFA Worker, KPFAworker.org, Pacifica Foundation, Pacifica Radio Network, Save KPFA, SaveKPFA.org, united for community radio
SaveKPFA'S scheme to hijack Pacifica
A scheme to hijack Pacifica's broadcast licenses & assets
Documents registered with the California Secretary of State for a private “foundation” called the “KPFA Foundation” seem to be part of a conspiracy by “SaveKPFA” insiders to gain total control of KPFA (under the guise of protecting KPFA) and to “capture” its license in the event of Pacifica’s dissolution. Further, it appears to be an attempt to privatize the Pacifica Foundation for the benefit of a few instead of the many. These documents were recently uncovered by Pacifica's National Board (PNB) Secretary Janet Kobren, a United for Community Radio (UCR) candidate and whistleblower.
Here’s what was revealed:
In September 2013, PNB director, former PNB chair/interim Executive Director (iED) Margy Wilkinson registered the above named shadow corporation with the California Secretary of State at the address of Siegel & Yee, the law firm of former PNB director and current Pacifica legal counsel Dan Siegel. They kept this information hidden from the KPFA listeners, the Local Station Board (LSB) and the Pacifica National Board (PNB) until its discovery only recently.
In addition to usurping Pacifica's trademarked "KPFA" call letters, this shadow corporation also adopted Pacifica’s Articles of Incorporation that includes its Mission Statement. When asked to explain, Siegel and Wilkinson admitted that they created this shadow corporation to acquire the licenses and assets of Pacifica (estimated to be worth more than $100 million) in case Pacifica went bankrupt and/or was taken over by creditors or the government.
The establishment of this covert “KPFA Foundation” raises the question of whether some of the decisions Wilkinson made when overseeing Pacifica‘s finances during her tenure as interim ED contributed to the current disastrous financial state of the Pacifica Foundation and its stations. What might be considered gross ineptitude was so systematic that it appears to be an intentional attempt to bankrupt Pacifica and its stations, in order to gain control of KPFA from Pacifica via the “KPFA Foundation” At the very least, this constitutes a severe conflict of interest and ethical violation by Wilkinson and Siegel.
How does this relate to the KPFA Local Station Board election?
As a KPFA member, you will shortly receive a ballot to elect members to the KPFA LSB. This board not only sets policy for KPFA, it also selects four of its members to sit on Pacifica’s National Board. Right now, the Siegel-Wilkinson “SaveKPFA” faction has a majority of KPFA’s seats on this board. This election can overturn the “Save KPFA” majority of seats on the board and enable the new local and national boards to block their plan to hijack Pacifica's licenses. “Save KPFA's” Brian Edwards-Tiekert’s recent motion to get the KPFA LSB to overstep its powers and ratify the creation of the secret “KPFA Foundation” was stopped by UCR LSB members. But it could still be approved if the LSB majority stays the same in this election.
The United for Community Radio (UCR) candidates are committed to doing everything in their power to block “Save KPFA” from dismantling KPFA and Pacifica and walking away with KPFA’s licenses and assets.
Help Pacifica remain intact. Rescue KPFA. Vote for the UCR 9.
These are the UCR (United for Community Radio) candidates. Please vote for all of them:
Scott Olsen -- Iraq Veterans Against the War board member, ex-Marine, survivor of police raid on Occupy, licensed radio operator.
Janet Kobren -- Incumbent LSB member, Pacifica National Board Director and Secretary, 2010 Gaza Freedom Flotilla passenger.
Virginia Browning -- current LSB member, Pacifica Governance and Programming Committees; health care researcher, downwinder, longtime KPFA activist.
Don Macleay -- 5 years working for the Sandinistas, 19-year school volunteer, Green Party activist, former union organizer and shop steward Oakland.
T.M. Scruggs -- Executive Producer at TheRealNews.com; ethnomusicologist, Professor Emeritus, University of Iowa; volunteer for community radio stations in U.S., Nicaragua and Venezuela.
Marilla Argüelles -- former President of home care workers' chapter SEIU, Local 616; editor of "Extracts from Pelican Bay," former KPFA Labor Collective member,
Jeremy Miller -- Idris Shelley Foundation program director, S.F. No-Taser Task Force, host of Heterotopia on Mutiny Radio, independent journalist with S.F. Bayview newspaper.
Sharon Adams -- Attorney, past vice-president of National Lawyers Guild, Bay Area; instrumental in protecting undocumented persons from civil ICE detentions in Berkeley jails.
G. Mario Fernandez -- recent SF State political psychology graduate, former Napa Community College Student Body President, former Occupy Oakland volunteer.
UCR also supports Listener candidates Tom Voorhees and Richard Hart:
Tom Voorhees -- early-on KPFA volunteer transmitter engineer; 2014 volunteer of the year, National Federation of Community Broadcasters.
Richard Hart -- former natural foods store owner, Berkeley progressive activist, longtime (Pacifica) WBAI supporter.
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for updates, reports & essays on KPFA/Pacifica, please visit these websites:
UNITED FOR COMMUNITY RADIO
PACIFICA IN EXILE
ANN GARRISON, A KPFA REPORTER
SaveKPFA's GROVER NORQUIST SOLUTION at KPFA
LORDS & LADIES vs. the PEASANTS at KPFA
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KPFA 94.1 FM is one of five stations of the Pacifica radio network which are located in major cities across the country. The other stations are WBAI 99.5 in New York, WPFW 89.3 in Washington DC, KPFT 90.1 in Houston, and KPFK 90.7 in Los Angeles. The Pacifica network also has about 160 affiliate stations.
Labels: 94.1 FM, clandestine KPFA Foundation, Concerned Listeners; (CL), KPFA Worker, KPFAworker.org, Pacifica Foundation Radio, Pacifica Radio Network, Save KPFA, SaveKPFA.org, UCR, united for community radio
SaveKPFA‘s statements with UCR rebuttals
Statements & Rebuttals
UCR (United for Community Radio) comments on SaveKPFA‘s statement of principles:
SaveKPFA Statement:
Protect local control. In 2014, SaveKPFA led the effort that put KPFA back under the control of locally-hired management for the first time in 5 years — resulting in the recruitment of a talented General Manager, and a permanent Program Director hired by, and accountable to, KPFA’s elected local board.
UCR Rebuttal:
The Executive Director of Pacifica and sometimes the Pacifica National Board make the final decision on KPFA’s General Manager hires, out of a pool chosen by the Local Station Board. Pacifica is the parent organization of the 5 stations, holds the license and provides oversight. The paid staff, Save KPFA, and its previous incarnations like Concerned Listeners, have driven out most of KPFA’s General Managers for not agreeing with them 100%.
SaveKPFA Statement:
Ensure high-quality, progressive programming?. In 2010, Save KPFA campaigned to reverse Pacifica’s cancellation of KPFA’s most listened-to local program, The Morning Show; in 2012, we supported the launch of UpFront, restoring local programming to KPFA’s morning lineup.
UCR Rebuttal:
In 2010 Pacifica’s Executive Director had to step in because Concerned Listeners / Save KPFA were bankrupting the station by not cutting paid staff hours as all the 5 stations had been ordered to do 2-3 years before. Shortfalls in fundraising made these cuts necessary and obvious. Because most station expenses are fixed, wages are the only significant place to balance the budget. Morning Show staff were low on the seniority list and according to the union contract had to be laid off first. Save KPFA created a huge fuss on the airwaves, in e-mails and in complaints to the National Labor Relations Board. They lied to the listeners that the layoffs were politically motivated and talked hundreds of deceived listeners into hating Pacifica and opposing the layoffs.
When paid staff refused to replace the laid off Morning Show workers, volunteers stepped up to do the programming, creating the Morning Mix, much of it focused on local matters. Recently, the Save KPFA forces displaced these volunteers with their cronies.
SaveKPFA Statement:
Support staff and volunteers. SaveKPFA led the successful fight to reverse Pacifica’s 2011 hiring of the nation’s top union-busting law firm; SaveKPFA members have also raised money to update aging equipment in KPFA’s studios, and established a training fund for volunteer staff in KPFA’s budget.
UCR Rebuttal:
That firm was hired for its expertise dealing with a previous harassment lawsuit, not any labor issue. We run on listener support, not faction-related funding of their favorites. No one faction can claim credit for Fund Drive totals. Save KPFA does not value volunteers and trainees (unless they’re part of their faction), and pushes “professionalism” (paid staff). One of they most celebrated supporters, Larry Bensky, referred to volunteer programmers as “monkeys.” Years ago, this group destroyed union coverage for the unpaid staff by switching to CWA, a union which would not represent unpaid staff. The former union United Electrical Workers (UE) had covered unpaid staff as well for many years. They later attempted to destroy UPSO, the Unpaid Staff Organization, which the volunteer staff organized as a substitute. Most of KPFA’s programs and 70% or more of staff are unpaid volunteers.
SaveKPFA Statement:
Transparency and accountability from Pacifica?. SaveKPFA’s representatives on the Pacifica National Board are part of a new majority that has begun issuing regular financial statements for the first time in nearly three years, dramatically shrunk Pacifica’s deficit (from -$2.8 million in 2013 to a small surplus in the 12 months ending in June 2015), and rationalized (and lowered) the dues that stations like KPFA pay to Pacifica’s national office.
UCR Rebuttal:
This is an egregious lie. Save KPFA has proved incompetent at producing realistic income and expense figures for required yearly budgets and audits required by non-profit corporate law and CPB. Their gross incompetence seems a deliberate attempt to bankrupt KPFA and the Pacifica Network, as part of an attempt to grab the station for themselves. The “3 years” were 3 of their years in the majority on the KPFA board, with their incompetent financial officers and sabotage of the competent ones. Pacifica lost 2 million dollars in Corporation for Public funding because it did not keep up with required record keeping, among other things, and is being investigated by the state Attorney General for similar violations of non-profit requirements, possibly resulting in loss of non-profit status. Our auditors have refused to renew their contract with us KPFA.
Now we have discovered that members of the SaveKPFA faction have secretly set up a shadow corporation, the “KPFA Foundation”, which they say is to “catch” KPFA in case of bankruptcy – which they are seemingly trying to achieve in any way and as fast as possible!
This is why we urgently need you to vote them out now!
SaveKPFA Statement: Experiment with new shows; expand into new platforms. Under SaveKPFA leadership, KPFA budgeted for, and carried out, a re-design of its website that makes it more accessible on mobile devices–which is where more and more radio listeners are turning to get their favorite shows. KPFA has also started using its second signal, KPFB, to pilot 20 hours of programming per week from new, energetic producers.
UCR Rebuttal: The website was vastly neglected for years, under Save KPFA’s watch. Save KPFA disempowered the former democratically representative Program Council, which chose new programming and evaluated all programming. They choose new programs by hiring their cronies. They have spoken out against and even censored local, radical, youth, Black, and investigative programming, while claiming the Local Station Board has no role in in programming (but see the Bylaws, Section 7, Article 3, Item G - below). The new programming at KPFB was created by one staff member and the many apprentices and former apprentices who produce programming there.
SaveKPFA Statement: Reform Pacifica’s Byzantine Governance System. We believe Pacifica’s acrimonious boards have generated many of its problems. SaveKPFA participated in cross-factional dialogue talks this year, and now endorses the Pacifica Unity Pledge, which commits us to participating in a network-wide consensus-building process with the goal of making Pacifica’s governance system simpler, effective, smaller, and calmer.
UCR Rebuttal: The “acrimonious board” meetings are a result of Save KPFA’s blocking of any governance and positive change by the Local Station Boards. Their actions show they believe that boards have no right to govern, only the paid staff, as they have often said. The “acrimony” is the slim minority of United for Community Radio forces fighting to strengthen the station, network, and democratic governance. Democratic governance may be imperfect but it’s our only hope for real community programming and a range of left opinions on the air.
(Note: The Save KPFA faction has maintained that the Local Station Board’s main or even sole function is fund raising – which may be true of corporate boards of directors, but not that of a democratically run Pacifica.)
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Voting period: Oct. 15th - Dec.4th Vote online or by paper ballot
Local Station Board Election 2015
Please vote for all of these UCR (United for Community Radio) candidates:
Scott Olsen -- Iraq Veterans Against the War board member, ex-Marine, survivor of police raid on Occupy, licensed radio operator.
Virginia Browning -- current LSB member, Pacifica Governance and Programming Committees; health care researcher, down-winder, longtime KPFA activist.
Janet Kobren -- Incumbent LSB member, Pacifica National Board Director and Secretary, 2010 Gaza Freedom Flotilla passenger.
T.M. Scruggs -- Executive Producer at TheRealNews.com; ethnomusicologist, Professor Emeritus, University of Iowa; volunteer for community radio stations in U.S., Nicaragua and Venezuela.
Marilla Argüelles -- former President of home care workers' chapter SEIU, Local 616; editor of "Extracts from Pelican Bay," former KPFA Labor Collective member,
Jeremy Miller -- Idris Shelley Foundation program director, S.F. No-Taser Task Force, host of Heterotopia on Mutiny Radio, independent journalist with S.F. Bayview newspaper.
G. Mario Fernandez -- recent SF State political psychology graduate, former Napa Community College Student Body President, former Occupy Oakland volunteer.
Sharon Adams -- Attorney, past vice-president of National Lawyers Guild, Bay Area; instrumental in protecting undocumented persons from civil ICE detentions in Berkeley jails.
Don Macleay -- 5 years working for the Sandinistas, 19-year school volunteer, Green Party activist, former union organizer and shop steward Oakland.
UCR also supports Listener candidates Tom Voorhees and Richard Hart:
Tom Voorhees -- early-on KPFA volunteer transmitter engineer; 2014 volunteer of the year, National Federation of Community Broadcasters.
Richard Hart -- former natural foods store owner, Berkeley progressive activist, longtime (Pacifica) WBAI supporter.
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for updates, reports & essays on KPFA/Pacifica, please visit these websites:
UNITED FOR COMMUNITY RADIO
PACIFICA IN EXILE
ANN GARRISON, A KPFA REPORTER
LORDS & LADIES vs. the PEASANTS at KPFA
*** *** ***
KPFA 94.1 FM is one of five stations of the Pacifica radio network which are located in major cities across the country. The other stations are WBAI 99.5 in New York, WPFW 89.3 in Washington DC, KPFT 90.1 in Houston, and KPFK 90.7 in Los Angeles. There are also about 160 affiliate stations.
UCR (United for Community Radio) comments on SaveKPFA‘s statement of principles:
SaveKPFA Statement:
Protect local control. In 2014, SaveKPFA led the effort that put KPFA back under the control of locally-hired management for the first time in 5 years — resulting in the recruitment of a talented General Manager, and a permanent Program Director hired by, and accountable to, KPFA’s elected local board.
UCR Rebuttal:
The Executive Director of Pacifica and sometimes the Pacifica National Board make the final decision on KPFA’s General Manager hires, out of a pool chosen by the Local Station Board. Pacifica is the parent organization of the 5 stations, holds the license and provides oversight. The paid staff, Save KPFA, and its previous incarnations like Concerned Listeners, have driven out most of KPFA’s General Managers for not agreeing with them 100%.
SaveKPFA Statement:
Ensure high-quality, progressive programming?. In 2010, Save KPFA campaigned to reverse Pacifica’s cancellation of KPFA’s most listened-to local program, The Morning Show; in 2012, we supported the launch of UpFront, restoring local programming to KPFA’s morning lineup.
UCR Rebuttal:
In 2010 Pacifica’s Executive Director had to step in because Concerned Listeners / Save KPFA were bankrupting the station by not cutting paid staff hours as all the 5 stations had been ordered to do 2-3 years before. Shortfalls in fundraising made these cuts necessary and obvious. Because most station expenses are fixed, wages are the only significant place to balance the budget. Morning Show staff were low on the seniority list and according to the union contract had to be laid off first. Save KPFA created a huge fuss on the airwaves, in e-mails and in complaints to the National Labor Relations Board. They lied to the listeners that the layoffs were politically motivated and talked hundreds of deceived listeners into hating Pacifica and opposing the layoffs.
When paid staff refused to replace the laid off Morning Show workers, volunteers stepped up to do the programming, creating the Morning Mix, much of it focused on local matters. Recently, the Save KPFA forces displaced these volunteers with their cronies.
SaveKPFA Statement:
Support staff and volunteers. SaveKPFA led the successful fight to reverse Pacifica’s 2011 hiring of the nation’s top union-busting law firm; SaveKPFA members have also raised money to update aging equipment in KPFA’s studios, and established a training fund for volunteer staff in KPFA’s budget.
UCR Rebuttal:
That firm was hired for its expertise dealing with a previous harassment lawsuit, not any labor issue. We run on listener support, not faction-related funding of their favorites. No one faction can claim credit for Fund Drive totals. Save KPFA does not value volunteers and trainees (unless they’re part of their faction), and pushes “professionalism” (paid staff). One of they most celebrated supporters, Larry Bensky, referred to volunteer programmers as “monkeys.” Years ago, this group destroyed union coverage for the unpaid staff by switching to CWA, a union which would not represent unpaid staff. The former union United Electrical Workers (UE) had covered unpaid staff as well for many years. They later attempted to destroy UPSO, the Unpaid Staff Organization, which the volunteer staff organized as a substitute. Most of KPFA’s programs and 70% or more of staff are unpaid volunteers.
SaveKPFA Statement:
Transparency and accountability from Pacifica?. SaveKPFA’s representatives on the Pacifica National Board are part of a new majority that has begun issuing regular financial statements for the first time in nearly three years, dramatically shrunk Pacifica’s deficit (from -$2.8 million in 2013 to a small surplus in the 12 months ending in June 2015), and rationalized (and lowered) the dues that stations like KPFA pay to Pacifica’s national office.
UCR Rebuttal:
This is an egregious lie. Save KPFA has proved incompetent at producing realistic income and expense figures for required yearly budgets and audits required by non-profit corporate law and CPB. Their gross incompetence seems a deliberate attempt to bankrupt KPFA and the Pacifica Network, as part of an attempt to grab the station for themselves. The “3 years” were 3 of their years in the majority on the KPFA board, with their incompetent financial officers and sabotage of the competent ones. Pacifica lost 2 million dollars in Corporation for Public funding because it did not keep up with required record keeping, among other things, and is being investigated by the state Attorney General for similar violations of non-profit requirements, possibly resulting in loss of non-profit status. Our auditors have refused to renew their contract with us KPFA.
Now we have discovered that members of the SaveKPFA faction have secretly set up a shadow corporation, the “KPFA Foundation”, which they say is to “catch” KPFA in case of bankruptcy – which they are seemingly trying to achieve in any way and as fast as possible!
This is why we urgently need you to vote them out now!
SaveKPFA Statement: Experiment with new shows; expand into new platforms. Under SaveKPFA leadership, KPFA budgeted for, and carried out, a re-design of its website that makes it more accessible on mobile devices–which is where more and more radio listeners are turning to get their favorite shows. KPFA has also started using its second signal, KPFB, to pilot 20 hours of programming per week from new, energetic producers.
UCR Rebuttal: The website was vastly neglected for years, under Save KPFA’s watch. Save KPFA disempowered the former democratically representative Program Council, which chose new programming and evaluated all programming. They choose new programs by hiring their cronies. They have spoken out against and even censored local, radical, youth, Black, and investigative programming, while claiming the Local Station Board has no role in in programming (but see the Bylaws, Section 7, Article 3, Item G - below). The new programming at KPFB was created by one staff member and the many apprentices and former apprentices who produce programming there.
SaveKPFA Statement: Reform Pacifica’s Byzantine Governance System. We believe Pacifica’s acrimonious boards have generated many of its problems. SaveKPFA participated in cross-factional dialogue talks this year, and now endorses the Pacifica Unity Pledge, which commits us to participating in a network-wide consensus-building process with the goal of making Pacifica’s governance system simpler, effective, smaller, and calmer.
UCR Rebuttal: The “acrimonious board” meetings are a result of Save KPFA’s blocking of any governance and positive change by the Local Station Boards. Their actions show they believe that boards have no right to govern, only the paid staff, as they have often said. The “acrimony” is the slim minority of United for Community Radio forces fighting to strengthen the station, network, and democratic governance. Democratic governance may be imperfect but it’s our only hope for real community programming and a range of left opinions on the air.
(Note: The Save KPFA faction has maintained that the Local Station Board’s main or even sole function is fund raising – which may be true of corporate boards of directors, but not that of a democratically run Pacifica.)
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Voting period: Oct. 15th - Dec.4th Vote online or by paper ballot
Local Station Board Election 2015
Please vote for all of these UCR (United for Community Radio) candidates:
Scott Olsen -- Iraq Veterans Against the War board member, ex-Marine, survivor of police raid on Occupy, licensed radio operator.
Virginia Browning -- current LSB member, Pacifica Governance and Programming Committees; health care researcher, down-winder, longtime KPFA activist.
Janet Kobren -- Incumbent LSB member, Pacifica National Board Director and Secretary, 2010 Gaza Freedom Flotilla passenger.
T.M. Scruggs -- Executive Producer at TheRealNews.com; ethnomusicologist, Professor Emeritus, University of Iowa; volunteer for community radio stations in U.S., Nicaragua and Venezuela.
Marilla Argüelles -- former President of home care workers' chapter SEIU, Local 616; editor of "Extracts from Pelican Bay," former KPFA Labor Collective member,
Jeremy Miller -- Idris Shelley Foundation program director, S.F. No-Taser Task Force, host of Heterotopia on Mutiny Radio, independent journalist with S.F. Bayview newspaper.
G. Mario Fernandez -- recent SF State political psychology graduate, former Napa Community College Student Body President, former Occupy Oakland volunteer.
Sharon Adams -- Attorney, past vice-president of National Lawyers Guild, Bay Area; instrumental in protecting undocumented persons from civil ICE detentions in Berkeley jails.
Don Macleay -- 5 years working for the Sandinistas, 19-year school volunteer, Green Party activist, former union organizer and shop steward Oakland.
UCR also supports Listener candidates Tom Voorhees and Richard Hart:
Tom Voorhees -- early-on KPFA volunteer transmitter engineer; 2014 volunteer of the year, National Federation of Community Broadcasters.
Richard Hart -- former natural foods store owner, Berkeley progressive activist, longtime (Pacifica) WBAI supporter.
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for updates, reports & essays on KPFA/Pacifica, please visit these websites:
UNITED FOR COMMUNITY RADIO
PACIFICA IN EXILE
ANN GARRISON, A KPFA REPORTER
LORDS & LADIES vs. the PEASANTS at KPFA
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KPFA 94.1 FM is one of five stations of the Pacifica radio network which are located in major cities across the country. The other stations are WBAI 99.5 in New York, WPFW 89.3 in Washington DC, KPFT 90.1 in Houston, and KPFK 90.7 in Los Angeles. There are also about 160 affiliate stations.
Labels: 94.1 FM, clandestine KPFA Foundation, Concerned Listeners; (CL), KPFA Worker, KPFAworker.org, Pacifica Foundation Radio, Pacifica Radio Network, Save KPFA, SaveKPFA.org, UCR, united for community radio
Virginia Browning
This was written ten years ago. While some of it is dated, it is still an interesting biography of Virginia Browning, now (in 2025) a member of KPFA's Local Station Board (LSB).
UCR Candidate for KPFA's governing board, the LSB in 2015
Community activist with a life-long love of radio
Note: fellow candidate Sharon Adams has asked UCR candidates to write something short to give voters a better idea who we are. I think this is a great idea, but must say “I would have made it shorter, but I didn’t have time.” She brilliantly turned my less-whittled draft into this article. I’ll try to improve this when I have time, but here are some elements from my life and experience, mostly concentrating on political parts (some but not all of these, and versus for example my struggling against my “by ear” tendency to learn music theory – over and over and over….”)
by: Virginia Browning
As a teenager, I participated in anti-war marches and groups and actively campaigned for Democratic Party politicians. Later I attended caucus meetings to elect delegates the year Fred Harris ran for president. It was fairly easy to support someone to the left of the lesser evil in those days, because the Republicans were sure to win the state of Utah anyway. Why not vote your conscience? In environmental groups such as The Utah Wilderness Association I worked hard against the building of several massive power plants, and against destruction of much public land in Utah, often successfully. When community radio KRCL, a welcome burst of beauty blooming in Salt Lake City was launched, I got the required license, learned to use the board, mics, and other equipment, and did field and studio recordings, news editing, interviewing, and other broadcasting. I produced a weekly environmental show for a time with interviews and segments from hearings I had recorded.
I joined a few activists and became Volunteer Coordinator in The MX Information Center in opposing the basing of nuclear MX missiles in Utah and Nevada. This became a very successful organization. I met with Downwinders in that group, former conservative Utahns, many of them, who, having been basically bombed and maimed, or as survivors of family members murdered by the U.S. government in the above-ground and underground but leaking nuclear explosions drifting across the state (and country and world), were not quite as willing to allow these nuclear missiles into their midst as the government had counted on their being. I realized that the mountains around Salt Lake City had retained some of the highest levels of pollution from these tests. Members of my own family became ill or died, possibly from exposure they received as children to these high levels of radiation. But the line “we are all downwinders” in this corporate plutocracy organized for profit at the expense of health, is a line I find to be important and true.
I met Utah Phillips when I was 15 and immediately fell madly in love with him. He taught me something of the value of a trusted adult not taking advantage of such a crush, but was always so wonderful with young people in my presence. All his life he was very important to me.
After Fred Harris lost, I quit working for the Democrats but worked for Barry Commoner and whoever came after that, always exercising my right to vote (why not? don’t NOT vote – vote for SOMEONE. In this I disagreed with dear eloquent enchanting Utah Phillips.)
I joined Marxist study groups; I saw up close the discipline of members of leftist parties who joined trade unions in order to have conversations and move things to the left. Unfortunately, too often the Democratic Party ended up moving each of these to the right instead. And some of those dedicated members were treated badly when they failed to go along with every single precept or notion. I saw dedicated activists treated very hurtfully, some who had traveled across the country, changed their lives to create change. I saw that actual democracy is not easy, and that the temptation to grab power is ever-present in all organizations. Difficult as it is though, it is important to persist and try to achieve understanding.
When I moved to Berkeley/Oakland/Berkeley, I became aware of KPFA. I had adored working at radio (and listening to it), and considered applying for a job as there were some openings listed shortly after I moved. But I needed the security of a steady paycheck, and I thought – how can a community station guarantee living wages and benefits for so many paid radio people? KPFA always seemed to be struggling. I had not had the most stable upbringing and needed a sense of stability. Furthermore, I had seen how much good came from volunteer reporters and broadcasters at the radio station in Salt Lake City. The picture of becoming a paid employee requiring a steady paycheck and benefits year after year didn’t fit with my notion of a community radio station free to report on even unpopular subjects. Who would pay if the subject was not quite sexy yet? I had seen how many years it took, for example, for the MX Information Center to grow from a group of 6 or 8 to a mailing list of several thousand. And then it had only one paid employee, and I knew that sustaining more than that would have been very hard.
In Oakland and Berkeley, I have worked on various projects, including as past co-chair and member of STAND — Standing Together for Accountable Neighborhood Development — an alliance of community groups, residents and merchants that formed in response to the surge of high-density condo development proposals for Temescal, Rockridge, and other North Oakland neighborhoods.
While STAND supports new development and recognizes the benefits of sustainable, equitable, and responsible growth, its mission is to provide a voice for the thousands of citizens alarmed by the number, size, density, and impacts of these projects and to hold the City of Oakland accountable in identifying the full range of project impacts. With that group I worked painstakingly reviewing zoning proposed for the city and helping to develop a set of recommendations.
A KPFA-related note here: as with the local Berkeley groups currently working on concerns similar to STAND’s, (and as with honest reports about Africa or Syria for that matter not framed by corporate newswires), the KPFA news reported little to nothing about the many community meetings STAND and other groups held, despite their almost always being of great interest to community members. They were usually well-attended, but through no help from the KPFA news department, access to which remains opaque to most listeners still. UCR, United for Community Radio, is working to improve this type of coverage.
There was a wonderful flowering of hope at the beginning of the Ron Dellums mayorship in Oakland during which hundreds of dedicated citizens participated in task forces on housing, transportation, economics, etc. etc. Creative solutions were developed and presented, and some even used. I was on several of those task forces.
In recent years most of my activism has centered around KPFA radio. In the 90s many listeners became alarmed at what seemed to be a winnowing out of radical voices, and a kind of “progressive” but not too progressive aura. There has continuously been tension between those who literally have no wide-signal megaphone such as KPFA available anywhere else, including many homeless and poor folks, and those who want to sort of titrate in a few radical views at a time but basically appeal to comfortable ex-leftists who now support the rather significant paid staff financially. You can read more about the so-called “Healthy Stations Project” which I and many others credit with having helped to kill much of the radical nature in stations across the country.
I’ll try to write more about this period when I have more time.
In October 2011, my heart was lifted by the activism of Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Oakland. I joined with others in general assemblies and events, and haven’t given up on the idea that an even better version of this can re-emerge. Some of the conversations encouraged in the “G.A.’s” (general assemblies) were very wonderful, very touching. Activists I met then have continued to open public conversations and to work for a better world, including in Oakland’s versions of “Black Lives Matter”.
Before my own candidacy for the KPFA board, I worked hard for fair elections at KPFA (there actually have not been any fair enough yet) and to help set up forums for listeners to know who they would be voting for in the KPFA elections.
While of course I strongly urge you to vote for UCR (United for Community Radio) members only, I feel now that no election alone will likely protect Pacifica. The current situation is so life-threatening to the whole topple-ready network that some from historically opposed factions at KPFA, while retaining importantly different visions, have joined a project to keep parts of the network from being swallowed by the six owners of 90% of U.S. media. I and some from diverse factions network-wide have begun to explore new bylaws and new culture.
There’s more to say, and no time now to say it. But for now I’ll say this: Beware of this platitude that does NOT apply: “the museum of ancient hurts,” which I have heard used by our opposition in this election. It is a distraction from learning from history. As Utah Phillips said – history is still here, it didn’t go anywhere. People often need to process betrayals and damage before moving on. We must start with being honest about who we are historically and what we have stood for, and try to show respect for each other’s history and values, express clear agreements and disagreements which can only become clear when we are open about how we do disagree. Then we may begin to learn how to work together in ways necessary to Pacifica’s survival.
The very name of our opposition in this election is a name I and many others of us used together in the 90s. Now this narrow group has grabbed a good name and confuses listeners into thinking the banner they post on their website is their banner and stands for their values. In fact, many in the original group who carried that banner have and had values diametrically opposite theirs. When someone recommends against learning history, raise a little red flag or two…and do your best to learn some. It may be important.
Thanks for reading this. I know it’s hard to know who to vote for. All you can do is do your best. Pacifica is still a treasure.
VIRGINIA BROWNING
September 2015
Virginia Browning was one of the nine UCR (United for Community Radio) candidates for KPFA's Local Station Board (LSB) in the 2015 election. The UCR candidates in that election were: Scott Olsen, Don Macleay, Marilla Arguelles, T.M. Scruggs, Janet Kobren, Jeremy Miller, G. Mario Fernandez, Sharon Adams, and Virginia Browning. For more on KPFA/Pacifica and the election, please see other articles at this website and also at UNITED FOR COMMUNITY RADIO
KPFA 94.1 FM is one of five stations of the Pacifica radio network which are located in major cities across the country. The other stations are WBAI 99.5 in New York, WPFW 89.3 in Washington DC, KPFT 90.1 in Houston, and KPFK 90.7 in Los Angeles. There are also about 160 affiliate stations.
Labels: clandestine KPFA Foundation, Concerned Listeners; (CL), KPFA 94.1 FM, KPFA Worker, KPFAworker.org, Pacifica Foundation Radio, Pacifica Radio Network, Save KPFA, SaveKPFA.org, UCR, united for community radio
SaveKPFA's election fraud
Documents of the Cheating in KPFA's Board Elections
The Pacifica radio network, which includes KPFA 94.1 FM, is run by a listener democracy which was instituted after the thwarted "hijacking" of the 1990s. Local Station Boards (LSBs) are elected by listener-members. However, there has been cheating in every election at KPFA by a group now calling itself "SaveKPFA."
The articles below are reports and letters from the KPFA elections of 2007 and 2010.
The 2007 Election
Open Letter from the Committee on Fair Elections Bylaws & Rules Violated in KPFA Board Election of 2007
Dan Siegel at Pacifica Radio: excerpts from the elections report of 2007 by Casey Peters
Responding to Dan Siegel's intervention in the LSB election--letters from Virginia Browning and Steve Gilmartin
When Progressives Cheat --the KPFA election, 2007by Daniel Borgström
The 2010 Election
Pacifica Election Report 2010 by Renée Asteria Peñaloza
Documented violations & abuse of KPFA's air time
Disinformation & abuse of airwaves during the 2010 KPFA board elections by Felipe Messina
Bogus News Broadcasts by the bogus Save KPFA
Transcripts from September 30, 2010 For the Record by Felipe Messina
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for updates, reports & essays on KPFA/Pacifica, please visit these websites:
UNITED FOR COMMUNITY RADIO
PACIFICA IN EXILE
ANN GARRISON, A KPFA REPORTER
LORDS & LADIES vs. the PEASANTS at KPFA
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KPFA 94.1 FM is one of five stations of the Pacifica radio network which are located in major cities across the country. The other stations are WBAI 99.5 in New York, WPFW 89.3 in Washington DC, KPFT 90.1 in Houston, and KPFK 90.7 in Los Angeles. There are also about 160 affiliate stations.
Labels: 94.1 FM, clandestine KPFA Foundation, Concerned Listeners; (CL), KPFA Worker, KPFAworker.org, Pacifica Foundation Radio, Pacifica Radio Network, Save KPFA, SaveKPFA.org, UCR, united for community radio
Dead man endorses SaveKPFA
Dead man endorses SaveKPFA
by Daniel Borgström
Among SaveKPFA's most distinguished endorsers is Walter Johnson. According to an obituary in the SF Chronicle, the late Mr. Johnson was for many years the Secretary-Treasurer of the San Francisco Labor Council. He died on January 12, 2012. Obituaries in several newspapers, and also the Labor Council's website, confirm that reports of his death were not exaggerated. The man is dead. He's been dead for over two and a half years.
Dead men supposedly tell no tales, but in Chicago they've been known to vote, and here at KPFA we find them endorsing candidates. Miracles happen, not just in Chicago, and at KPFA, but elsewhere as well. I'm reminded of a small precinct in Ohio where George W. Bush received 4,258 votes out of the 638 votes cast. Bush won that election because so many people loved him and trusted him and voted for him -- not because he cheated. Bush wouldn't cheat.
Members of the SaveKPFA slate, which represents KPFA's status quo and gatekeeper clique, win votes because the station's listeners love and trust them -- not because they cheat. SaveKPFA wouldn't ever cheat. Well, maybe just a wee bit, but only on rare occasions -- such as during every single KPFA board election of the last ten years: two of the best documented examples are the elections of 2007 and 2010. There's also their decade-long history of financial irresponsibility which has pushed the station to the edge of bankruptcy, and before that, their participation in the pre-1999 hijacker regime. Their very name "SaveKPFA" is one they stole from their opposites, a group of people who worked for listener democracy at the station. So yes, SaveKPFA does have some very minor flaws, but other than their very consistent track record of over a decade, they are really very good, which must be why even the dead are rising up to endorse them.
DANIEL BORGSTRÖM
August 15, 2015
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UPDATE (Aug 16, 2015)
Walter Johnson wasn't the only dead person on the SaveKPFA endorser's list. Another was musician Jon Fromer. Neither of the dead men complained. However, not all of SaveKPFA's wrongfully listed endorsers are dead. When Diana Bohn (a live person and active supporter of United for Community Radio) discovered her name on the list of SaveKPFA endorsers, she did not remain silent. "[T]ake everything you read on the SK website with a grain of salt," she wrote in an article posted at the UCR website.
This is not the first time SaveKPFA's use of wrongfully listed supporters has come up. On this occasion, however, they quietly took their list down; hopefully to make some changes.
Labels: 94.1 FM, Concerned Listeners; (CL), KPFA Worker, KPFAworker.org, Pacifica Foundation Radio, Pacifica Radio Network, Save KPFA, SaveKPFA.org, UCR, united for community radio
to fire Siegel and expel Wilkinson
Motion to fire Pacifica's attorney and expel a board member for ethical violations and conspiracy against the foundation.
This motion was made at the Pacifica National Board (PNB) meeting of August 6, 2015
Dear Pacifica Supporter,
This is a follow-up to my recent email alert to listeners, entitled “A secret plot by 2 top executives to hijack the Pacifica Foundation?”
In that email I promised to place motions before the Pacifica National Board to censure and remove Pacifica Director Margy Wilkinson from the board, and to fire and sever all of Pacifica’s connections to attorney Dan Siegel and his law firm, Siegel & Yee. I have now drafted those motions and appended them below. They will be placed before the national board tonight, and include descriptions of the specific ethical breaches and violations of fiduciary duty to the foundation that make this action necessary.
Regards,
Stephen M Brown
sbrown13[ ]nyc.rr.com Director, Pacifica National Board
Member, WBAI Local Station Board
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1. Motion to Censure Margy Wilkinson by the Pacifica National Board
Wilkinson, Margy -- WHEREAS it was recently discovered that, on or about September 24, 2013, Margy Wilkinson (while serving as a director of the Pacifica Foundation) had conspired in secret with Dan Siegel (who was also serving as a director of the Pacifica Foundation) to create, file, and register with the California Secretary of State, a shadow corporation named “KPFA Foundation”; and
WHEREAS Wilkinson and Siegel named their shadow corporation “the KPFA Foundation,” thus intentionally and without permission misappropriating the call letters of KPFA Radio, a legally owned trademark of the Pacifica Foundation (then known as Pacifica Foundation Radio), and also intentionally misappropriating without permission, in its articles of incorporation, the exact wording of the Pacifica Foundation mission statement; and
WHEREAS Wilkinson and Siegel represented to the California Secretary of State that Dan Siegel was the legal agent of this shadow corporation, and that its legal address was that of the Siegel & Yee law firm, at 499 14th Street, Suite 300, Oakland, CA 94612; and
WHEREAS the purpose and intent of this shadow corporation, according to a public explanation by Dan Siegel, was to acquire the broadcasting license and assets of KPFA Radio from the Pacifica Foundation; and
WHEREAS the existence of this shadow corporation was hidden and kept secret from the Pacifica National Board, of which Margy Wilkinson was then, and is now, a member, and was also hidden and kept secret from the executive director of Pacifica, John Gladney Proffitt;
THEREFORE be it resolved that the Pacifica National Board censure director Margy Wilkinson for engaging in unethical behavior that breaches her duty as a board member and violates her fiduciary obligation and duty of loyalty to the Pacifica Foundation.
2. Notice of Intent to pursue the Removal and Expulsion of Margy Wilkinson from the Pacifica National Board
WHEREAS Margy Wilkinson, a director of the Pacifica National Board, has breached her duty of loyalty and violated her fiduciary obligation to the Pacifica Foundation by engaging in unethical behavior, including but not limited to the following:
A. While serving as a director of the Pacifica Foundation, on or about September 24, 2013, she conspired in secret with Dan Siegel, who was also serving as a director of the Pacifica Foundation, to create, file, and register with the California Secretary of State, a shadow corporation named “KPFA Foundation”;
B. By so naming their shadow corporation, she and Siegel intentionally and without permission misappropriated the call letters of KPFA Radio, a legally owned trademark of the Pacifica Foundation (then known as Pacifica Foundation Radio), and also intentionally misappropriated without permission, in its articles of incorporation, the exact wording of the Pacifica Foundation mission statement;
C. Wilkinson and Siegel also represented to the California Secretary of State that Dan Siegel was the legal agent of this shadow corporation, and that its legal address was that of the Siegel & Yee law firm, at 499 14th Street, Suite 300, Oakland, CA 94612;
D. The purpose and intent of this shadow corporation, according to a public explanation by Dan Siegel, was to acquire the broadcasting license and assets of KPFA Radio from the Pacifica Foundation;
E. The existence of this shadow corporation was hidden and kept secret from members of the Pacifica National Board, of which Margy Wilkinson was then, and is now, a member, and was also hidden and kept secret from the executive director of Pacifica, John Gladney Proffitt;
THEREFORE LET THIS SERVE AS NOTICE OF INTENT on the part of three Pacifica directors (viz: Steve Brown, Janet Coleman, and Carolyn Birden) to pursue the process, as set forth in the Pacifica bylaws and in Roberts Rules of Order Newly Revised, 11th Ed., to remove and expel Margy Wilkinson from the Pacifica National Board, a process that includes a 30 day notice of a Special Pacifica National Board Meeting with charges and specifications, for the purpose of allowing Margy Wilkinson due process to argue why she should not be removed and expelled from this board; after which the board will vote Yes or No on the matter of removal and expulsion.
3. Motion to sever all connections between the Pacifica Foundation, on the one hand, and Dan Siegel, the Siegel & Yee law firm, and any and all of its associates, employees, and affiliates, on the other hand.
Siegel, Dan -- WHEREAS Dan Siegel, while serving as a director of the Pacifica National Board, abetted and participated in the following secret and unethical behavior, including but not limited to the following:
A. While serving as a director of the Pacifica Foundation, on or about September 24, 2013, he conspired in secret with Margy Wilkinson, who was also serving as a director of the Pacifica Foundation, to create, file, and register with the California Secretary of State, a shadow corporation named “KPFA Foundation”;
B. By so naming their shadow corporation, he and Wilkinson intentionally and without permission misappropriated the call letters of KPFA Radio, a legally owned trademark of the Pacifica Foundation (then known as Pacifica Foundation Radio), and also intentionally misappropriated without permission, in its articles of incorporation, the exact wording of the Pacifica Foundation mission statement;
C. Siegel and Wilkinson also represented to the California Secretary of State that Dan Siegel was the legal agent of this shadow corporation, and that its legal address was that of the Siegel & Yee law firm, at 499 14th Street, Suite 300, Oakland, CA 94612;
D. The purpose and intent of this shadow corporation, according to a public explanation by Siegel, was to acquire the broadcasting license and assets of KPFA Radio from the Pacifica Foundation;
E. The existence of this shadow corporation was hidden and kept secret from the Pacifica National Board, and was also hidden and kept secret from the executive director of Pacifica, John Gladney Proffitt;
WHEREAS the above activities constitute an ethical violation of his fiduciary obligation and duty of loyalty to the Pacifica Foundation, both as a then-director of the foundation, and also as its legal representative, then and now, when he and/or his firm was hired to represent the foundation on various legal matters;
THEREFORE be it resolved that the Pacifica Foundation dismiss Dan Siegel and sever all connections between itself, on the one hand, and Dan Siegel and the firm of Siegel & Yee, and all of its employees, associates and affiliates, on the other hand, as expeditiously as possible, and with prejudice.
Labels: 94.1 FM, Concerned Listeners; (CL), KPFA Worker, KPFAworker.org, Pacifica Foundation Radio, Pacifica Radio Network, Save KPFA, SaveKPFA.org, UCR, united for community radio
The Patronage Culture at KPFA
. . . . they seem to be willing to play chicken with the fate of the entire Pacifica networkby Curt Gray
I am writing as a long time union member as well as a long time Berkeley resident. I am a member of local 510 Sign and Display, a union of workers who set up and dismantle tradeshows at the convention centers. I have been my union's past representative to the Alameda Central Labor Council.
I also speak as someone with long experience in local radio, and with a much varied experience in and around KPFA over several years. I was a volunteer programmer at KALX here in Berkeley for 15 years, creating different types of programming, as well as doing multiple other tasks that help keep a station running. I have been involved with KPFA as a listener activist since 1993, and was instrumental in the struggle that gave subscribers and staff membership rights in Pacifica, with voting and representation on a real local station board, where formerly there had been only a self-appointed advisory board.
I helped write the first election rules that allowed subscribers and staff to elect KPFA's local board for the first time. I was elected to and served on the local station board, and had a hand in changing the Pacifica bylaws to give the grassroots programmers and supporters of the 5 Pacifica stations rights as members of the Foundation. I organized a Labor Programming Collective within KPFA to try to expand Labor programming and get more labor activists involved in creating pro-labor programming.
What I am here to say is that the charge of 'unionbusting' is a smoke screen, a PR sales job. Nor is this a repeat of the events of 1999, another misrepresentation. Pacifica is not responsible for taking the Morning Show off the air, the removal of the Morning Show is being played as a pawn in an internal corporate campaign and coordinated job action that is a calculated violation of the union contract. Who is doing this and why?
For decades KPFA has been effectively owned and run by a culture of patronage and exclusivity that has resisted any 'outside' oversight. The patronage has to do with who gets or keeps a show, who gets a job, and who has easy access to the air. A particular clique of people both inside the station as well as influential people in the community benefit from and support and protect this patronage culture. The 'insider' clique that control the division of the spoils extends beyond the union membership, and puts it aims and interests above those 'outside' the clique, including union members. This 'ownership' clique that includes some but not all of the paid staff, some but not all of the unpaid staff, as well as well placed and influential supporters in the community, has had a disproportionate and unhealthy power over KPFA, and has viewed any other organizational form of authority within the station, including the elected station board, the station manager, the foundation board, the executive director, the Program Council, the unpaid staff organization, etc. as a threat that must be outmaneuvered or neutralized unless they are clearly in the back pocket of the clique.
When the Pacifica stations, including KPFA, made the subscribers and workers members of the foundation and started letting these broad constituencies elect station boards with powers of oversight for their stations there was resistance from the start, especially at KPFA. The new, elected station boards were no longer just advisory, but are real station boards, approving the station budget, evaluating and helping to select the station General Manager and Programming Director, and provide community input into station policy. It was inevitable that there would be conflict with the pre-existing patronage culture that had formally ruled the station for so long with only a self-selected advisory body with no real power but to act as a rubberstamp.
This is the real context of the current teapot rebellion of the Morning Show. The clique-that-calls-itself-KPFA is sick of dealing with elections and all the other reforms that came out of the struggles in the years after 1999. When you give people membership rights and elections that leads naturally to a change where subscribers and unpaid programmers on the station board start demanding accountability, transparency, and more community participation. And such basic progressive demands are a fatal threat to even the strongest patronage culture.
Using their control of the air and the good will of the majority of listeners who know nothing of the goings-on behind the scenes, the patronage protectors have managed to maintain a majority on the station board most years since the board became elected. So even after elections started they have kept control of the station, keeping the board from performing its oversight function, forcing out managers that were too independent and handpicking their own to run the station so as to not interfere with their prerogatives.
For the first forty years of its existence KPFA had very few paid staff. This began to change in the Eighties and the Nineties. In 1995 the unaccountable clique that was running Pacifica purged hundreds of unpaid programmers from several stations, and started a switch from a community based programming philosophy to a more, professional public radio style format that depended on many more paid programmers. Paid staff grew while the number of community members involved in creating programming was cut by half. The union that had represented both the paid and unpaid workers was dropped, the majority of paid staff voted to go with CWA, and the unpaid staff lost the representation and recognition they had had for decades. The patronage culture thought what Pacifica was doing was good for them and they were on-board as KPFA left its grassroots behind and grasped for the brass ring of public radio style careerism. Until the tables turned and Pacifica turned on them and kicked them to the curb just like the unpaid and the grassroots activists before them. It was only when members of the clique's charmed circle were losing their jobs that the clique sounded the alarm and that led to the lock-out and the events of the Summer of 1999.
To win the battle with the unaccountable Pacifica board in 1999 the Powers-That-Be at KPFA needed the community activists and unpaid staff on their side. And what the community wanted was democratic reform and membership status so that no unaccountable group could ever steal KPFA away from the community again. After a long struggle the Bad Old Pacifica board was defeated, and the bylaws were changed to give the stakeholders who supported KPFA a voice in the station. But the patronage clique saw the new reforms as just another enemy, and started fighting the reforms from day one.
After the struggle to save Pacifica and reform it, the number of paid staff started climbing again, as it had before the lock-out. The Powers-That-Be at KPFA managed to keep a majority on the local station board and the Pacifica board. The patronage culture kept swelling the number of paid staff, but the Afghan and Iraq wars kept the subscriber support up for a few years. As the peace movement started to lose traction, and more folks started getting their information from other sources on the internet, subscriber support started falling. But staffing numbers kept trending upward. In the last two years many public stations have had to cut their staffs, the other Pacifica stations have cut their staffs, and the Pacifica foundation has cut its staff. The patronage clique at KPFA has blocked mandated cuts, burned through the station reserves, and tried to encourage Pacifica to lay-off some less favored union members out of seniority order.
Now they seem to be willing to play chicken with the fate of the entire Pacifica network to draw a line in the sand about who 'owns' KPFA. This confrontation over the Morning Show has been cleverly orchestrated. They knew what they were doing when they burned through the reserve and placed two people with the lowest seniority in one of the most popular shows. They are being reckless, and putting their own interests above the whole community that depends on KPFA. The tail is wagging the dog, the clique has too much influence over KPFA and over the CWA local. It has fed the whole community, including the labor community, a false, self-serving line of BS, calling it 'unionbusting' The KPFA union contract calls for no job actions. By using so much time on the air to plead for their personal jobs, they were not doing their job of providing programming. They forced the hand of Pacifica with their on-air job actions. And they have used the union to keep the show off the air, by mandating that no union member would accept transfer to work on the program to get it back on the air. So Pacifica did not take the Morning Show off the air, the patronage clique did, using the union in violation of its own contract.
Don't drink the Kool-Aid, don't fall for the con. There are KPFA workers, both union and unpaid, who are against what the clique is doing but are afraid to speak up. They are endangering both the whole Pacifica network, and KPFA itself to protect a level of staffing that the station can not support. I don't know why these people are dragging KPFA to the brink of bankruptcy for their own narrow self-interest, but I ask, as a Berkeley resident and union member that the Labor commission and the City Council not let themselves be fooled by this false campaign.
CURT GRAY
December 1, 2010
ALSO BY CURT GRAY
Staying friends with the Crocodile by Curt Gray
--- --- --- --- ---
CURT GRAY was a founding member of the original 1993 Save KPFA which fought for listener democracy at KPFA/Pacifica. The name "Save KPFA" was recently appropriated by a very different group, the "Concerned Listeners" (CL'ers), who represent the patronage clique.
--- --- --- --- ---
financial data
10 Years of KPFA Finances in TABLE FORMAT
and, presented as a GRAPH, the same data:
10 Years of KPFA Finances GRAPH
*** *** ***
*** *** ***
for updates, reports & essays on KPFA/Pacifica,
please visit these websites:
UNITED FOR COMMUNITY RADIO
PACIFICA IN EXILE
ANN GARRISON, A KPFA REPORTER
LORDS & LADIES vs. the PEASANTS at KPFA
*** *** ***
KPFA 94.1 FM is one of five stations of the Pacifica radio network which are located in major cities across the country. The other stations are WBAI 99.5 in New York, WPFW 89.3 in Washington DC, KPFT 90.1 in Houston, and KPFK 90.7 in Los Angeles. There are also about 160 affiliate stations.
Vote for the UCR -- United for Community Radio
.
Labels: 94.1 FM, Concerned Listeners; (CL), KPFA Worker, KPFAworker.org, Pacifica Foundation Radio, Pacifica Radio Network, Save KPFA, SaveKPFA.org, UCR, united for community radio
- The Death of Sgt. Van Dale Todd, 101st Airborne
- Purging Board Members
at KPFA
Nov 16, 2024 -
Purges Continue
at KPFA/Pacifica
and Daniel Borgström - PRESS CONFERENCE
Sep 19, 2025
- The Long Drive, Step By Step
- Pushing on
- Traveling the back roads of western Utah
- Let's remember
the USS Liberty
- New Day Hijacks
the Pacifica Radio Network
April 9, 2025 - No Kings Day in Berkeley
June 14 2025
- 20 years of Revolution and Counterrevolution at Pacifica Radio -- at KPFA in Berkeley, CA., and affecting the Five Station Network
Virginia Browning -
How the seizure of a radio station in New York led to the seizure of $305,000 from KPFA
- Two views
-
Transcript
KPFA Local Station Board
CLOSED SESSION
of November 16, 2024
- Why I'm a Rescuer, not a Protector
- Three things are
February 17, 2019 - To Be Punished
for Protesting at KPFA?
- Till Sept 30th
KPFA LSB elections of 2024
- FAQ in response to falsehoods
- Which Way, KPFA?
- Lords & Ladies vs. the Peasants
at KPFA - Popcorn, Pizza and the Theater of Debate
- Peacewashing at KPFA?
September 13, 2023 - Ian Masters asked listeners to stop donating to KPFK in 2021
- The KPFA Board Election
- Charlie Manson
& his Enablers
- The Gaza Rally
of October 19, 2023
in San Francisco
also reports from others - Canada's Parliament:
Immersed in US/Nato Make-believe
October 9, 2023 - The BUDGET
that came in
from the Cold
- What's at Stake
July 6, 2023 - Bylaws Improvement Undermining
by Virginia Browning
July 2023 - KPFA's Programming:
- The Old Regime's Legacy at KPFA by Maria Gilardin
- Ann Garrison
on the ground in
Ethiopia - Mostly bad news
by Daniel Borgström
October 2022 - The Mythical Marksman of Dallas
- Our Waterfront Park is Perfect
-- Needs No Development
May 7, 2022 - I have a weird hobby
- The Berkeley Marina
Area Specific Plan (BMASP)
- Living the Cold War
March 1, 2022 - Why didn't KPFA defend its journalist?
August 2022 - KPFA election 2021
- "Shut up!"
- Ballad for a Scottish Bard
1924-2016 - Debunking the Debunkers at KPFA's LSB
- Defending KPFA's antiwar voice
- "Shut up!"
September 18, 2021 - Colin Powell
- Dear Listeners and Staff of all Pacifica stations and affiliates
- Passing through Afghanistan & Pakistan--lands of the Pashtuns
- KPFA's
Antiwar Voice
- Highlights from the KPFA LSB of May 15, 2021
- AT&T's 5G in Berkeley
- KPFA LSB of Jan 9, 2021
- Open Letter
Member of KPFA LSB
June 2020 - Good news!
March 2020 - “Three Cheers for the CIA!”
- The Ministry of Truth
- Clashing with the Past
- Tom Horn's
- The Legacy of two Gurus:
Billy Graham,
Charles Manson
- The Peasant War at KPFA
and the Bylaws Referendum
- Between the Minutes
January 11, 2020 - Magical Accounting at KPFA?
- Corporate funding for KPFA?
- KPFA's taxes unpaid,
building to be auctioned
- please Vote NO
- The Takeover of
WBAI in New York - Underwriting Pacifica:
December 26, 2018 - "Humanitarian" Propaganda
& KPFA - Censoring Bonnie Faulkner
from Roy Tuckman of KPFK - Guns & Butter banned
- The Onion Paper
- Problems & Prospects
of Pacifica Radio
- KPFA's "fake-news" pitch
- The fallacy
- Deliberate Dysfunction?
- A trip to Nicaragua in 1984
- Veterans oppose militarization of Berkeley Police
East Bay Chapter 162 - Veterans for Peace
East Bay Chapter 162
- U.S. Attack on Syria and the Threat of Nuclear War
- Introducing
- The Shithole Countries of Donald Trump
- Confederate leaders said it clearly:
--not for states rights - Mantra Plonsey
Rescue Pacifica - Daniel Borgström was elected to KPFA's LSB
- Three Green Party Members
- Chandra Hauptman's
Candidate Endorsements - 3 Rescue Pacifica candidates elected
March 2019 - meeting Maxie Jackson, Pacifica's Executive Director
- Armistice Day
Veterans for Peace
November 11, 2017 - The Wife of a fighter pilot in Viet Nam
- Veteran Occupiers 1971 & 1972
- Stony Brookers, Yale, & Kent State
- war, survival, guilt & choice
by Gregory Ross
Vietnam Veteran - Meeting the Berkeley Strangler in a Dark Alley
- A letter from Bodega Bay
October 11, 2017 - No Charlottesville in California
East Bay Chapter #162 - East Bay Veterans Petition Amy Goodman of DN
- 2 Sunday Morning Protests in Berkeley
Protest downtown against a rightwing rally
August 5, 2018 - Veterans for Peace,
East Bay Chapter #162
Democracy Now - Carta abierta a Amy Goodman y a Democracy Now
- The Triumph of the Necrophiles
- Better BadNews urges KPFA listeners to
- Marilyn Langlois
Rescue Pacifica - massacre & cover-up
- When Amy came to town
An interview by Ann Garrison - Veterans for Peace
on 6 April 2017 - whistleblowers & checkpoints
- Book Review by Ann Garrison:
- Homeland Security
- A Sighting
on February 1, 2017 - Election night Thoughts and Feelings
November 9, 2016 - Think Tank in Berkeley
December 13, 2016 - Veterans for Peace
- "Honk for Peace" every Sunday at Lake Merritt: ARTICLES
- Coming together in a time of crisis?
- Our memories of
Lake Merritt Neighbors Organized for Peace - "Clean Coal"
(black lung & sinkholes)
- a downwinder's story by Steve Wagner
- Veterans for Peace thank
- Pacifica Radio's Margaret Prescod & Askia Muhammad interview
- KPFA's Republican Activist by Daniel Borgström
Harmeet Dhillon is now endorsing Donald Trump - Peter Phillips and Mickey Huff,
- On the streets of Oakland, marching in solidarity with Charlotte, NC
- Report from
September 10, 2016
by Sharon Adams - Differentiators?
with reply by Mara Rivera - Our favorite programs
- United for Community Radio
KPFA board election of 2016
what the UCR stands for - AUDIO
- Daniel's Preface
- Pacifica in the 1990s
- KPFA: Radio Programs for the Community and Social Change, or for SaveKPFA's Staff Allies and their Jobs?
- audio
-- from KPFA's Project Censored; Guns and Butter shows - A coach who loses the . . . would be fired
- Following Pacifica in Exile?
- Pacifica coverage from the Green Party National Convention in Houston, Texas
- Report on the 2016
by John Torok - Virginia Browning responds to an email from a KPFA member
- When Berkeley in the 60s was taking shape
- Donald W. Duncan
- a poem for
by Ivan Argüelles - NYT tries to bury Bernie with biased reporting
- Bernie's African Immigrant Supporters
-
Quimby & the dog who herded cats
- censoring
- Hillary's Honduras Connection
April 12, 2016 - Steve Wagner Memorial
- Five Days in December 2014
- Bernie Sanders rally in San José
by Stan Woods - Penelope's Memorial
- Civil Disobedience shuts down a PNB mtg
- an exchange between
- A Scheme
-
Joe Hill & Lew Hill
by Bob English - Whistleblower Manning on Market Street
- audio
- Parliamentary Addiction: Roberts Abuse at KPFA's board,
- Pacifica in Exile
- Paris 1968, Oakland 2011 by Daniel Borgström
- Plaintiffs' Motion to Disqualify Siegel & Yee as Opposing Counsel
April 3, 2014 - Séance vindicates SaveKPFA's claim on $400,000
- To vote in KPFA's Board Election
- Virginia Browning’s
- “SaveKPFA” squanders $600,000
- Does the $400,000 bequest belong to KPFA or to Pacifica?
- Joe Hill's Last Will
- NLG Letter to KPFA
- SaveKPFA hit pieces
- The Value of Democracy at KPFA
- NLG Letter to KPFA
- Averting a financial disaster at KPFA in 2010
by Virginia Browning - Statements & Rebuttals
- Dan Siegel, Fiction Writer
- Daniel's recommendations
- SaveKPFA's election fraud:
- Iraq War Veteran
- soldiers once Whistleblowers, Occupiers, Activists;
Veterans for Peace,
Veterans Against the War Essays & Articles - JFK didn't send us to Cuba
- Staying friends with the Crocodile by Curt Gray
- Dead man endorses SaveKPFA
- Pacifica National Board motion
to fire Dan Siegel,
to expel Margy Wilkinson
Member, WBAI Local Station Board - a bad budget: the Minority Report of September 17, 2005 by Max Blanchet
A bit of KPFA financial history - Stealing Save KPFA: erasing history by Jeffrey Blankfort, Maria Gilardin, Curt Gray, Marianne Torres, & Sasha Futran
- UPSO
by Adrienne Lauby - Iraq War Veterans:
Scott Olsen & Kayvan Sabehgi -- casualties at Occupy Oakland Statement by Steve Morse of Veterans for Peace, October 2011 - Surviving Typhoon Louise
on Okinawa in October 1945
by Howard Keylor - Siegel: "You're suing me!" by Daniel Borgström
- Where were SaveKPFA's Grassroots Supporters?
- soldiers on Okinawa, 1945
by former Corporal Howard Keylor - Pacifica in Exile
- KPFA's Working Majority Gets Screwed by CWA Job Trust by Isis Feral
- The Patronage Culture at KPFA by Curt Gray
- SaveKPFA and the Truth are Seldom on the Same Page
by Richard Phelps - Scenarios of bankruptcy & sale of Pacifica stations by Steve Brown, WBAI
- Brian's famous email of Sept. 1, 2005
- KPFA's upcoming board election
- Don't look up
- Old issues that have not gone away
- video
- Transcript of JR Valrey's broadcast of February 6, 2013
- The CL in a Nutshell by Richard Phelps
- Veterans for Peace at Oakland's First Fridays
- Up one street, down another
- Saturday night war zone
- Barry Goldwater, Social Security & My Mother
by Daniel Borgström - AUDIO
- "Please don't ask any more questions about . . ."
Between the Minutes - Tracking the ZIM Shanghai
- St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch:
- Noir City
- Occupy the Farm documentary
- Canine Candidate Einstein
- Dan Siegel for Mayor of Oakland?
- Finding Spirituality & Revolution at Block the Boat Oakland
- SaveKPFA Cooks the Books
- A Blockade Diary
- Was the Israeli ship chased out of Oakland without unloading?
- How many marched for Gaza?
- Another View of the Blockade of the ZIM Piraeus in Oakland
- whether a number of laws weren't broken by the port administration?
- Blockading the Israeli ship
- My experiences at the Blockade the Boat North West!
- stopping the ZIM Piraeus from unloading
- Next ZIM Picket — Sept 27
- Block the Boat
- My Goals for KPFA/Pacifica
- Don't Nix the MIX
- Chevron at the Richmond City Council
by Daniel Borgström - Strangeloves & Globalizers the 25th Vigil at Bohemian Grove
- Resurrection of Care at Bohemian Grove
- a call to defend KPFA's Morning Mix
and an essay by Peter Phillips and Mickey Huff - about this website
- Our Last Day at the Pacifica HQ
- What's Really Happening at KPFA 94.1 fm: A Labor Perspective - 2010
- The Ordeal of Summer Reese and Pacifica Radio
- Siegel & WBAI
- paved with bad decisions: KPFA's Road to Hell
In 2008 Dan Siegel prevented the hiring of a promising manager - Cutting the Gordian Lock at Pacifica
- without due process
by Richard Phelps - lyrics
- The Battle of the Board at KPFA 2007
- When Progressives Cheat --the KPFA election, 2007
- Open Letter from the Committee on Fair Elections Bylaws & Rules Violated in KPFA Board Election of 2007
- A coup? or what? at Pacifica Radio
- Civil Suit
- KPFA & Pacifica
a strategic asset for social movements - SaveKPFA’s Quan Connection at Occupy Oakland
- Why are CWA and the "left" trying to take down KPFA? by Carol Spooner
- The 48th Day
- He walked
So we walked
Justice for Trayvon Martin - Is KPFA the Alternative Home Shopping Network?
- My Other Life
- The Magical Olden Days
- Bradley Manning's "apology"
- Well, let's do a head count, shall we?
- Laurence Shoup:
- The Death of Aaron Swartz The extraordinarily gifted and effective computer programmer and progressive activist who committed suicide on Jan 11, 2013
- shotgun incident
OPD confirms & exonerates - Brian Edwards-Tiekert endorsed cuts
- The Blame Game at KPFA
by Tracy Rosenberg - Thoughts on Our Campaign
and remembering
Les Radke
by Adrienne Lauby - Response
- Daniel's Recommendations
- "Help!"
- Democracy at KPFA/Pacifica--Why?
- Honor Veterans - Not the Wars!
- Bringing Peace to KPFA-Pacifica
by Akio Tanaka - What does KPFA's board do?
- SaveKPFA's Latest,
& responses from United for Community Radio - Tracy Rosenberg responds
to the recall - Occupy’s Stake in KPFA’s Board Election --a video
- We need to endorse Tracy Rosenberg
- Judge Halts Ballot Count in KPFA Recall Election
- "Me first" politics & financial irresponsibility
by Richard Phelps - The Magic Minutes of Mark Hernandez
by Richard Phelps - Why We're Voting NO
on the recall
by Bob English and Linda Hewitt - Kernighan's Tool Kit
by Daniel Borgström - My May Day Highlight: The loving embrace of Black Bloc by Isis Feral
- Oakland Occupies May Day by Daniel Borgström
- Occupying the farm below Albany Hill by Daniel Borgström
- videos of Forums on the Recall at KPFA Pacifia
Jan 30 & Feb 6 2012 - Stop the KPFA Recall! Let's keep Tracy Rosenberg
- a different story for this day
- Veterans for Peace supports Occupy Oakland
- High Noon & the West Coast Docks
by Daniel Borgström - A New Life – Papua New Guinea
by Andrew Leslie Phillips
iGM of KPFA 94.1 FM - The Story Behind the Charge
by Arlene Engelhardt - Occupying a House Auction
by Daniel Borgström - The Entrepreneur's Story, as told to Daniel on April 1st
- Occupy Oakland press release: police violence on January 28
- reflecting on J28, mass arrests in Oakland
- Occupy claims success in West Coast Port Shutdown of Dec 12, 2011
- The Documents: ILWU Local 21 Longview contract with EGT
- Comments on ILWU Local 21 Longview contract with EGT, LLC
by Howard Keylor - Notes from Occupy Oakland
2011 by Dave Welsh - The Port and the Plaza The raid that sparked the Nov 2nd General Strike in Oakland by Daniel Borgström
- Christmas Song for Occupy
by Kitty Costello - from Andrew Phillips, Mgr. of KPFA 94.1
- The Occupocalypse of Nov 14th at Occupy Oakland by Daniel Borgström
- Eight days in May Truckers closed the Port of Oakland
by Daniel Borgström - Whose Port? Police attack in the Port of Oakland on April 7, 2003, & Protesters response in weeks that followed
by Daniel Borgström - MoveOn.org--control freaks, or what? An incident in Oakland
- Dear Oakland City Council a letter from Virginia Browning
- The Triumph of the Necrophiles
A Critique of the Mechanical World View
by John Modrow - the crisis of insolvency at KPFA by Akio Tanaka
- "Save KPFA" Eliminates Rank and File Input in Managerial Evaluations by Tracy Rosenberg
- Petition Call for On-Air Fairness at KPFA 94.1 fm
- Report from the spring fund drive -- KPFA 94.1 FM
- Statement of Purpose by KPFA/Pacifica Action
- Port of Oakland pickets, shutdowns, & sit-ins: ARTICLES
- Our homes--Obama's gift to Wall Street by Daniel Borgström
- book review Rulers & Rebels: A People's History of Early California by Laurence H. Shoup
-
From the Jaws of Victory
a review by Howard Keylor - Pacifica Foundation vindicated on all labor issues at KPFA
- NLRB finds CWA complaints without merit--a memo from the Office of the General Counsel
- recent articles by Carol Spooner
"Russian Roulette," "Who runs KPFA," & more - Grumbling over the bedside manner of WBAI Program Director Tony Bates?
by Steve Brown - links Pacifica & Grassroots Radio topics, etc., including: Pacifica auditor's report for the year ended September 30, 2010
- Support Our KPFA & Pacifica! by Akio Tanaka
- Between the Minutes
scenes & sketches from KPFA board meetings
a series from 2006 to 2011 by Daniel Borgström - privatizers, corporatizers: ARTICLES
- The Middle East: ARTICLES
- watching those who watch us: ARTICLES
- False Reports about Underwriting
by Carol Spooner - History, Finance, & Business 101 --applied to KPFA
- email accusations, a comment by Brian Shiratsuki
- The "Gag Rule" critiqued by Terry Goodman
- Missing Comments from Mara Rivera
- Merrill Lynch no longer exists. Nevertheless … A report from Tracy Rosenberg
- Pacifica Radio Network carries Al Jazeera English
- Pacifica Radio Board Elections Terry Goodman critiques Matthew Lasar
- Brian Edwards-Tiekert rehired, spins "Victory" What really happened?
- Distortions & Factual Errors CL'ers' "facts" vs. reality at KPFA
- KPFA financial status & layoffs/bumps by Arlene Engelhardt & Carrie Core
- The Layoffs, by Terry Goodman
- Better Bad News--Reports on KPFA
- Chandra Hauptman: The truth about "Concerned Listeners-Savekpfa's" latest misinformation
March 3, 2011 - Do the bylaws apply to Dan Siegel? Memos from Carol Spooner & Richard Phelps
- Analysis by Tracy Rosenberg of KPFA 1st quarter financial report
- KPFA election report 2010 by Oriana Saportas
- Pacifica Election Report 2010 by Renée Asteria Peñaloza
- False History & Current Myths about KPFA & Its Union
- Morning Mix airs from 8-9 am on KPFA 94.1 This week's advance highlights
- Gaza Flotilla survivor runs for KPFA's board
- Save KPFA -- hijacking a legendary name
- KPFA Workers & Community step up, GM "Resigns" by Bob English
- A Disinformation Professional
- Siegel Stuff --after the minutes at the Jan 13th LSB, by Daniel Borgström
- Intimidation between the minutes March 7, 2010 by Daniel Borgström
- The Split Between the Minutes Dec 5, 2009 & Jan 11, 2010 by Daniel Borgström
- KPFA's manager attends a board meeting: March 14, 2009 by Daniel Borgström
- Between the Minutes: Scenes from Jan 10, 2009 by Daniel Borgström
- Between the Minutes: Scenes from June 14, 2008 by Daniel Borgström
- Between the Minutes--March 24, 2007 by Daniel Borgström
- NOTES from February 24, 2007 by Daniel Borgström
- Notes from January 13, 2007 by Daniel Borgström
- a 2001 article by Gregory Wonderwheel Still relevant today in 2010
"Please do NOT vote for Sherry" - The Gray-haired Forty: Sasha Lilley attacks listener democracy, disses listener activists
- The struggle for transparency at Pacifica by Richard Phelps
- Countering Kéllia: debating listener democracy at KPFA, by Virginia Brownng
- The Pacifica financial Crisis by Richard Phelps
- New Leadership in Pacifica Radio
- Disinformation & abuse of airwaves during the 2010 KPFA board elections by Felipe Messina
- Bogus News Broadcasts by the bogus Save KPFA
- Transcripts from September 30, 2010 For the Record by Felipe Messina
- Conn Hallinan Misinforms Doug Henwood: an intriguing email exchange
- Responding to Dan Siegel's intervention in the LSB election--letters from Virginia Browning and Steve Gilmartin
- Dan Siegel at Pacifica Radio: excerpts from the 2007 elections report by Casey Peters
- The Sorceress at Pacifica Radio by Daniel Borgström
- KPFA: Let's Get Real by Sasha Futran
- Statement re Dec. 5, 2009 by 13 members of the LSB
- Daniel's Recommendations for KPFA's board election 2010
- Daniel's Recommendations for KPFA's Board 2009
- Recommendations for KPFA's Board 2007
- KPFA's Election & Green Sunday
- Passing through Afghanistan & Pakistan--lands of the Pashtuns
- Afghanistan's Road Less Traveled
- Zarqawi's death, Bush's loss
- Dave's Middle East Study Group
- CRAWL SPACE--a dream-allegory of our times
- Moving to the San Antonio District
- The hit
- "Honk for Peace" at Lake Merritt--now in its 16th year by Daniel Borgström
- A brief history of LMNOP by Steve & Beth Wagner
- Honk for Single Payer by Linda Riewe
- Berkeley Daily Planet Under Attack by Marin Sanders
- "Honk for a New Deal"
- Yumi, a Japanese reporter, visits
- Photos at the Lake by Nils
- Bruce Bortin's video
- Vern and his contraption
- On the waterfront -- Oak to Ninth
- Oak to Ninth & Eminent Domain
- Oak to Ninth hearing of 3/15/2006
- History for Sale at Jack London Square
- Privatizers reach for our public lands
- Pitto's Place by Daniel Borgström
- Protesting BIO 2004 in San Francisco
- ILWU hold sit-in at PMA office April 12, 2011
- On the Line in the Port of Oakland Spring of 2007
- United Nations report on the 2003 police attack
- What caused the Port Chicago disaster? by Howard Keylor, retired longshoreman
- Pre-trial hearings of the Oakland 25
- SSA Marine--profile of a profiteer
- "Remember the shots? Return to the docks!"
- The unexpected ending of the case against the Oakland 25
- Port Protest 2007
- Picket war profiteers in the Port of Oakland on Saturday, May 19
- A letter from Bellingham --Port actions in the Pacific North West
- Port Activists from Puget Sound visiting Bay Area, will speak in San Francisco on Friday, March 28
- Ten years after the 1999 Hijack Attempt
by Richard Phelps, July 2009 - The "RAID" scare of 2009
by Daniel Borgström
SaveKPFA begins its attack on Pacifica - Insights & Experiences on the KPFA board
by Sasha Futran - The Best & the Brightest, at KPFA by Daniel Borgström
December 2010 - A Few Comments on the 2010 Financial Crisis at Pacifica by Max Blanchet
- Driving a Wedge by Sally Sommer, Dec.2010
- CWA kills the Morning Show --a revealing email, 11/10/2010
- Dangling off the Cliff: Commentary from the 2010 KPFA Crisis, by Adrienne Lauby
- Hate Week - November 2010 In the home of the Free Speech Movement, on Free Speech Radio, by Curt Gray
- What is at stake at KPFA? by George Reiter, Chair, Pacifica National Board
- A Response to KPFAworker.org by Akio Tanaka
- A letter to the Berkeley City Council by Steve Gilmartin, Nov 2010
- A letter from Arlene Engelhardt, Executive Director of Pacifica Radio, December 2010
- The Current Brouhaha at KPFA by Max Blanchet, Former LSB member
November 2010 - The Magic of Illusion, by Marc Sapir Ten statements about KPFA: some true, some false
- Playing the Union Card by Richard Phelps
- KPFA should learn from New Agers by Daniel Borgström
- On the Road Today letters & updates from Tracy Rosenberg, dismantling myths about the budgets & layoffs, Oct 2010
- What’s Happening at KPFA? by Carol Spooner
- CWA-KPFA collective bargaining agreement April 30, 2010
- STAND Mission Statement——— Standing Together for Accountable Neighborhood Development
- Key Zoning Points
- Reply to the glossy mailer
- STAND's response to Proposed Zoning Guidelines
- Design Guidelines for Temescal
- Appeal Points 4801 Shattuck
- Stop the Condo-Glomeration in North Oakland
- remembering Jim Ketola, Vietnam veteran, antiwar & labor activist
- Between the Crosses by Daniel Borgström
- Zwischen den Kreuzen
- Ask a Marine --at the recruiting office in Berkeley
- "Take us instead!" -- Grannies at the recruiting office on Valentine's Day
- My Four Years in the USMC
- Coup in Haiti, Corps in Haiti, Rally in San Francisco
- Support the Troops; Jail a Veteran
- Charges dropped against Vermont Peace Activist
- Our Country was Founded by Protesters
- January 2003: we said "NO"
- The Franklin St. Mass Arrest of March 21, 2003
- Point Richmond on September 9th 2003
- The Nov. 3rd rally: A spirited antiwar rally ended a bleak day in San Francisco
- "Daniel -- What a crock!"
- Is Karl Rove in Oakland?
topics include
- Occupy Oakland
-The fight for KPFA 94.1
- soldiers once
- Port of Oakland
- Privatizers, 1%
- Between the Minutes
- Lake Merritt
- The Middle East
- watching those who watch us
& more
* book reviews *
KPFA 94.1 Pacifica Radio under Attack
Between the Minutes
Listener Democracy: The long Struggle
violations & abuse of KPFA's air time
Cheating in past elections at KPFA
Miscellaneous
The Middle East
watching those who watch us
Life in the Bay Area
Sundays at Lake Merritt
Laura Wells--Green Party candidate for governor
privatizers, corporatizers
politicians of a bad sort
Port of Oakland: Attack of April 7, 2003 & follow-up
*** KPFA history: the cisis of 2010 ***
Temescal & North Oakland Neighbors
soldiers once
From 2003
From Way Back
Past Elections
Also in this Free Speech Zone
Dave's Middle East Study Group
Tae a Haggis: Poetry by Leonard Irving
Cuauhtémoc & me: a novel by Daniel Borgström
