KPFK loses another valued staff = Christine Blosdale

Here is re-posted information about LA's KPFK radio station - and is only to be found via the one reporter * in Northern California who has access to meetings and revealers - of what is never known nor heard , of course, 'on air'.

This information edited here is intended to INFORM the 'rest of us'  - who have donated many & many more $$$$$ - both recently and over the many years of loyalty - to the concept that KPFK represented. Then. No longer now. 

Any questions, comments can also be added to original posting site shown below.

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"... LA station KPFK is facing the imminent loss of its chief fundraiser, producer Christine Blosdale.

Blosdale, one of the KPFK employees whose severance benefits were reinstated in [and after the grievance was adjudicated ] in the SAG-AFTRA arbitration, has raised between 30% and 45% of KPFK’s revenues in the last three fund drive cycles and [has done so]  for many previous years with [her produced ] special fund drive programs. 

KPFK has been running fund drives [frequently occurring ]about every 60 days since [General Manager, Leslie] Radford took over and [still has been] barely meeting fundraising goals. 

" [Apparently] the station has no ready solution for a sudden drop in  [financial revenue]  receipts. In the station’s December 2016 fundraising effort, Blosdale’s programs raised $185,000 of $438,000 - or 42% of the total.

The LA station’s draft budget was approved by Pacifica’s financial committee with the draconian move of terminating all dependent child and spousal benefits for both full-time and part-time employees. 

The proposal would [thus] make KPFK the only unit in Pacifica that does not provide health coverage to spouses and dependent children of full-time employees. 

"The plan to cut [these] benefits would put Pacifica in default of the employer mandate of the Affordable Care Act  (commonly known as Obamacare) -- which requires employers of 50 or more employees to provide dependent child coverage up to age 26, for no more than 9.5% of an employee’s annual salary. 

"If any of KPFK’s employees seek alternate coverage for their children on the state exchange, penalties would be triggered against Pacifica. "The benefits cut would affect 6 full-time employees at KPFK - who are currently covering dependent children and another 3 employees covering spouses. 

"Employees include management, program hosts and administrative employees. All but one of the impacted employees filed the grievances upheld [and adjudicated] in the 2016 [union] SAG-AFTRA arbitration. "Pacifica may be vulnerable to [furhter expensive and unnecessary ] litigation alleging retaliation since GM Radford indicated the benefits were[ to be used] to “pay for” Radford’s 2015 contract violations.... which [amounts to]  assessed fees and penalties of $285,000. 

[on original site is a link where] "You can hear a summary reel from the finance committee discussion [there]."


edited here from *
http://pacificainexile.org /archives/2293   
posted  there Jan 6  20174

Note: emphases and [inserted clarifications] are not in original.

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these are lost ovens...dead ones.

Exposing and revealing what is actually affecting  - and also ruining, deteriorating, or making so dysfunctional Our Radio Station - the one we have worked so diligently to keep stable, and honorable [honest] -  is what this blog site does.

Concerns of the behind-the-scenes schenanigans are secret and hidden, of course, as is in other corporations, or governances and businesses.  So...To know what is falling apart BEFORE the fall is the only way for those INVESTED [as we donors are and have for so long been - devotedly, generously, sacrificially too ] is to try to keep some part of what is rotting within - from total decay.

"To tell the truth", as KPFK  has always claimed, and now still claims,  is merely a self-false-branding - by selling the image of KPFK's dealings as if... 'open, honest, trust-worthy'...but it is NOT what is occurring - in most of it's internal workings.  

These fake, cover-up pretenses, as it is  presented during fund drive  when begging for our MONEY... and as KPFK has continually been doing, must now be challenged and exposed.

Losing listener audiences and donors has been the ongoing DOWN slide for KPFK, and not just recently. The reasons for the dysfunctionality is many -  not limited to 1 person -  or 1 issue - or 1 lie told repeated - nor 1 cover-up. But many, ongoing and still happening now.

But nothing can be changed if real problems are kept under wraps and hidden - to those who 'own' or pay-for this radio station. 

Knowing  even some few of the events, & ploys, & management moves & errors  - & mis-takes - that still remain intact and repeat themselves, means that our Questions and Demands for honesty, openness and accountability be finally given. Maybe.

Calls to the General Manager, interim Program Director, Local Station Board members [24x] and  to those sent to Pacifica as "directors" [4x] can be made. 

Call: 1 818 985 2711  x 0 - weekdays during work hours.

Email the radio station at KPFK.org for names and email addresses.... and see the listing for "LSB" board members there at the main website.

Go to the radio station in person  - and ask to be given an opportunity to talk to management directly in No. Hollywood, [near Universal Studios].  Ask for an appt in advance, if that is possible. 

Or write a postal letter to the address and to management by names. titles found on their website. 

                                 www.KPFK.org 

All employees there, staff and volunteers and others WORK FOR THE WELFARE OF THE ENTIRE RADIO STATION'S stability & benefits -- and not for any faction, politically-slanted group, nor for any other non-local station organizations either.  

Management staff are suppose-to-be responsible and accountable to those who are the 'investors' / donors/ stake- holders -  those of us who contribute our hard-earned money to sustain the INTEGRITY this station. 

Do not let anyone who claims 'power or position' there to withhold access to stakeholder feedback or discussion, as necessary. 

Their 'public relations' has long ago been 'down the drain' [sewage drain].   

The station has no HR or PR or Development to get new funding, or other ordinary business practices necessary as depts or  personnel. And so it seems many at the station thus claim impunity and no accountability to anyone ... not even to those elected to their local board. 

Or...let them flail, fail, twist-and-turn-inside-0UT and be bankrupt.   To  be bought-out by others who have already planned for this event and are ready to take over this High Wattage Radio Signal [envied and desired by many other stations and usurpers]. 

Yes, they have been already waiting, salivating for that moment  = of a cheap-take-over [not a valued merger at all]. 

Or just listen and pretend "all is ok" until it is totally NOT.

whatever ...works for the majority of naive, or those un-informed KPFK donor-listeners. "Que sera, sera....."





(c) 2017   mmj

Comments about KPFK or Pacifica, elsewhere written, shared here:

1.  This was found at their WBAI focused  blogger's site [NY Pacifica's radio station],
and it pertains equally to LA's KPFK too :


"...if you actually listen to all those WBAI shows, to give this rating list, I am amazed at your willingness to numb your  mind with all those spoken-or-shouted words and promos...as each program at WBAI as KPFK are not mainly 'informative" but "promotional"...
 "all the while claiming to be "non-commercial"  as if promos, PR, & fake announcements lauded to seem to be "just giving you info,folks, nothing more here ...ha ha " 

"They are P.R. and promotional advertising [aka "marketing", selling, free media displays pretending to be "news" or "local listings of events"...LIES to cover up what is really done, not even covertly !     

"...why does no one ever confront or demand HONESTY from any Pacifica program for their biases, slants, propaganda, Trades in-kind if not for actual cash$$$ ?   
         

 "What was called "payola" and all Pacifica stations /programmers/ donors/members refuse to admit or remember was Illegal...is continually and openly being done [even w/o the actual cash dollars being traded].       

"Why is this denial allowed ?    

"Is "non-commercial" any different or same:  as what is constantly done at all Pacifica radio stations -  as they ARE broadcasting  "promotional" blurbs from their favored [cronies] "guests" and the faxed promo-blurbs and their own favorite groupies. 

"Why is this allowed w/o comment or supervision or admission of double-talk : 

we do what we say we don't do and we are lying about being 'non-profit' if we advertise even without dollars exchanged for on-air promos.     

"or what is happening ? please explain for the 'rest of us'. "

above was found & WRITTEN ON 

 http://wbai-nowthen.blogspot.com

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wonder if toy people talk like these various comments do too ?

        
2.             FOUND ON FACEBOOK : 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/299416906880267/           Dec 5 2016  this:

“Amy Goodman doesn't dare disclose the real details of how DN! was launched and owned by Pacifica, and she was just another employee. 

"Amy, and her radio partner Juan, led a national boycott and a smear campaign in order to remove the leadership of Pacifica so that Amy could walk off with full ownership of the program, years of archives, a 1/2 million/yr contract that lasted 10 years, and she never had to visit or report to Pacifica from that day forward.

"It was a scheme that matches many other white collar corporate ripoffs that she would otherwise report on! But since she was the architect and beneficiary, she'll never tell the whole truth of DN!, Pacifica or WBAI.” ….

”They thanked Julie Drizzen and their other co-hosts like Larry Bensky who they claim voluntarily and suddenly left the program to them.”    

                            and another: 

“From where comes this claim that KPFK had a $700,000 debt and now it does not?   I keep hearing [Gen’l Mgr] Radford and [her asst] Rice say this, but it's not true. $250K owed to the national office, $200K loss in arbitration, $100-150K to outside vendors in payables, $70K in back premiums -per Radford's admission - - there's your $700K. Nothing changed at all.” 

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3.       Oct 2016 posted on Facebook too
                           and this too : 

"KPFK is being gutted of the brain trust that operates the station by layoffs and buyouts. The MEMBERSHIP Department has been downsized from 4 full time equivalents to 2 1/2. I guess they DON'T WANT MONEY to come in nor to send our promised premium Thank-you Gifts. 

"Programming alone, and revolution alone does not make a station run…..the hostile work environment…. Our Production Dir. has left……because that's what you would do, doesn't mean that that's what we would do….”

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4.              and more....found on YELP : 

[see other KPFK Yelp reviews, there are 40 to date, show only "3 *" stars - a low level...a few new listener positive reviews, tho the star system a number of negatively critical ones with more than 'just discovered this !' acclaim.]
                                   and 

https://www.yelp.com/biz/kpfk-90-7-fm-north-hollywood    from 2014

 “New troubles emerge and information is still secretly hidden from the subscribers-members-sponsors of this non-profit but failing corporation. 

"The last begging drive with repeated recordings SELLING products over and over and over lasted 27 days in February 2014. Many of those who previously listened tuned out and away and found their education/ news/ revelations elsewhere instead. 

How easy was that ? too easy, unfortunately.

"Because KPFK before was a great source of unusual, stimulating INFORMATION -  not sales, prejudices, slants or rants mostly, we miss the older version. It was...and on a rarer occasion can still be a unique source for voices unheard elsewhere nor found easily in major media sites.

"The 'spirituality' or metaphysical lectures that played on KPFK regularly have gone stale, tho sometimes a revelation is heard spoken and played there, on RADIO, vs. having to search online on the net. 

"To be able to LISTEN TO RADIO vs. having to search or hear voices on-line is a big difference when multi-tasking, being able to keep eyes and hands busy on other tasks. 

"The occasional dissident, whistle-blower, or educated thoughtful academic, or an author interviewed, still is a good surprise- when it does happen, rarely now - and is stimulating. 

"That was more what KPFK *was* and could be, if only.....'they' could get their financial act cohesively together and make $ sense of their business.

 
"But the constant pleas, the repetitious exhortations of dubious products [including promoting fake gurus with  media that may or not be as promoted-advertised-publicized] and their ongoing need to claim a 'matching pledge we will lose if you don't send us your money right now !" 

"...those are not what listeners respond to and stay for nor remain loyal to open their pocket books or wallets either. 

"So maybe if things get bad enough and scary enough that KPFK and it's parent Pacifica Fdtn is actually [and it again seems to be there ]  failing, falling, breaking apart or going down financially, then someone there may take organization-Charge ! and reduce the dysfunctional infighting and factional-ization. 

"What is clearly needed is logically planned and diligent CHANGE into a more viable Radio Station business.... for Radio is a business by any other name, the same. 

"The ultra-left-so-called-liberals [ aka KPFK followers ] love to claim they are oh so altruistic and Righteous too... and they do not never ever engage in business, business being dirty business only of course. 

But these angelic ones are only are there to INFORM everyone of their own selected Right Views and Opinions -  that they prefer to brand as 'Programs'. 

"But non-profits are as prone to slants, biases, secrets and collusions as any other entity.....and KPFK is still keeping it's secrets in shame  - and to prevent it's payers from fleeing at the nearest exit. 

"But opacity and pretense will never get the station stable nor pay it's bills. And Change means stop repeating the same dysfunctional patterns of pretense-"democracy" or even claims of being valuable for being odd, different, hard-to-find-elsewhere. 

"Change may mean reality checks on how money is spent, misused, unregulated, and if reductions are necessary, to just do so... sensibly.        

"Can this radio station ever be fixed so it stops crumbling? huh ? We all hope so, but are not sure.”

(c)  btt 2017