KPFK SECRECY, TURMOILS, CONFLICTS, OPAQUENESS, and HYPOCRISY too ?

you may find this "too long" and "confrontive". Yes. it is. But  it is being posted as it was also sent to the KPFK management too ...as it is being also posted elsewhere to other KPFK stakeholders. Even if many of the radio station's payors are deprived of vital information that affects their investments and interests, we will find OUT and express our opinions courteously and yet intensely as well. We will not be left OUT...for long !

Summary:  KPFK is apparently again experiencing changes with  inside-hidden-competitions. turmoil, factionalizing conflicts and has denied it’s stakeholders and paying Public Members and Sponsors any participation or even being informed of “what is going on there ?”  The most recent LSB board meeting was very unusually filled with KPFK programmers, some staff, and many public members present, speaking to problems that most members did not have any information about and could not obtain.

Twice during that long 5 hr meeting, public comment time was used to directly ASK all in the room to clarify, state, explain to ‘the rest of us’ what was occurring and yet there was NO DIRECT HONEST INFORMATION given openly by anyone in the room to those ‘not in the know’. Five hours of maneuvering, conflicts, discussions and yet not one honest response to the question “what is happening inside KPFK ?” that brought out so many people to speak in behalf of staff or complain about staff or promote their own personal issues and causes. The Problem was never revealed nor stated. How could this be ? at Our Radio Station ?

KPFK management, staff and programmers [as is PNB and LSB also, boards of Pacifica & KPFK]   have continually LACKED in ACCOUNTABILITY to those who are the KPFK stakeholders [like shareholders are to other corporations. Denying accountability and revealing the  actual workings and problems of Their Radio Station. Denying  those actually pay for and work-for-free – thus “own” the nonprofit corporate station – those who pay from their $$$ earnings, work as volunteers – from any Information of what is occurring in inner conflicts and changes.

Lack of transparency:  Not the management, not the paid staff/ employees, not the elected LSB members are revealing the actual-real events that are causing turmoil and havoc INSIDE the station and it’s functioning.   Not the programmers [who may have a ‘gag order’ to say nothing on-air to the paying public that sustains the station ] nor the GM monthly report have mentioned what is clearly a very CONFLICTUAL ATMOSPHERE and culture at our Pacifica radio station in Los Angeles [worse be happening elsewhere, but who would know or reveal that either ?].

While it may be that those who receive salaries, and employment and the Programmers who  get [payola-like] benefits from having a program aired on KPFK  [ and so cling and grasp on to their programmer positions for as many years as is possible] are hiding secrets and conflicts that are disrupting and destroying Our Station, this is contrary to all the fake image and reputation that KPFK portrays repeatedly on-air as being open, transparent, truthful, and fair.

Apparently this is a pretense and not the actual reality of what we have believed, or wanted to believe, for so long.   Yes, all these are positions that have POWER they want to keep for themselves so do not inform others  of the shifts and dangers within KPFK bowels that may reduce their hold on to their own positions for themselves. A shame. A hypocrisy. A fake front. And apparently more so now.

Who Benefits there ?  All of the many many stakeholders, sponsors, and listeners are not the ones who whom all those benefits accrue. The management + staff + programmers + LSB + PNB are the ones who benefit in their own ways for themselves while producing some interesting programs for Listeners - not all of which are impartial, unbiased, unprofitable, or equally revealing of their sources.

Many programs continually and forcefully Promote and PR their guests events, sites and sales products/services.  Many programs appear to be sponsored elsewhere and are pretending to be “just giving unpaid-unprejudiced-altruistic information” to all who listen. Not quite true, if at all. 

This may not fit in the officially declared “Mission” [please see elsewhere for actual wording] either.  This may not fit in the CPB rules or requirements either. It certainly does not fit the branded-image presented to “the listeners” and continually stated and implied by the station’s externalized story.  The presentation is different and opposite to what happens inside the dysfunctional system that presents a false front to the public who sustains it.

What is that called?   Let us all tell the truth, now.

Commercialism ingrained and denied : False PR-advertising ?    Untruthful promotions ?    Secret doings and lack of honesty to those who are the stakeholders of KFPK ?       Lack of transparency + lack of accountability + lack of genuine sharing  + lack of openness  + lack of public membership participation = a hypocritical disingenuous system ?    For what intention ?

Secrecy : Is it for the  keeping those who are “in” in and those who are not “in” to stay out of even knowing what is happening “inside”? To protect the ones “in”.

Holier than they ? What is so new about this culture and way of operating as KPFK continually purports to be Better Than those in governments, corporations and commercial businesses who do exactly the same ?  Those not benefiting by paychecks or payola are excluded from even knowing what the conflicts and factionalisms are that are currently again disrupting the very functioning of KPFK. There is no indication of KPFK functioning any better or different than other corporations regardless of the intended branding and repeated exhortations.

Not transparent at all : Now it appears that there are major conflicts within the KPFK staff + management that is being kept SECRET except to those “in the know” and not to the “rest of us” who pay to support and maintain the radio station.  The entire system of KPFK is under covers, on-air gag orders apparently intended to keep secret and safe from sponsor-feedback. 

No changes or conflicts or plans are made audible, for the paying-public to provide their [varied and competitive] feedback and advisments. But the claims made from KPFK is the opposite, that they ‘are open and sharing information’ but only that which is carefully filtered to maintain a certain image only.

Lack of response-ability : Contrary to repeated claims of being responsive to it’s listeners/sponsors , many experiences of attempting to email or leave a voice-mail for a staff has gone totally unanswered, for years now. And the programmers never ever reply to emails tho their contact is apparently listed on the webpage. The staff positions on the website list and email and not until this recent GM has anyone Ever replied to an email of inquiry [not even a complaint ].

Always the same hiding inaccessibly behind KPFK doors ? And this behavior for many years continued. But KPFK claims to be accessible to feedback and to it’s funders + pledgers. There is NO ACCESS in to give suggestions, opinions, ask questions.  Not even an ‘automated reply’ of receiving an email to staff has been set up.

All the machinations, maneuvers that are taking place in the station are deployed while being inaudible and hidden. All the secret strategies and competitions are denied.   What hidden moves, changes of positions, shifts in programming, rules of station loyalty are occurring now, yet again ? 

Who are benefiting ?     And who are allying with whom ?   And who has more influence and how come?        Who are the ones  holding influence and POWER  ?     And who are being denied access to even basic information of the goings on there ?  Those holding management positions do not want input from outsiders because they want the POWER of being in  control and yet without that input they may have poorer decision-making and less cooperation from all involved.

Why are the stakeholders/ sponsors/ payers of pledges/ listeners all being denied any actual direct information of what may affect their own paid-for station ? Deliberately ? Why ?

Is this what KPFK is really about ? On the inside changes happen and on-air is mostly pretenses of Our Station and it’s major operations ?

If KPFK staff et al has ‘dirty laundry’  that is being hidden, then it is time NOW for everyone to ‘come clean’ and ‘wash it all OUT’… with the rest of those who support KPFK knowing what it is and how the cleaning out IS being done, or is it ?

Is KPFK & Pacifica self-destructing ?  the dirt, the competition, the conflicts within KPFK may be not the only ailing of the system, but the whole KPFK and Pacific systems may be dying because of their choking on their own inner toxins and lies. And the suppresions of information may be part of the hiding in SHAME of the problems and factionalizing that is breaking up any cohesion or unity in the organization.

All Silent at LSB meeting :  At the last January 2014 LSB bd meeting, the room was unusually overfilled with ‘public’ and programmers. In the “public comments” brief [90 sec] section 2x a direct request for direct information of what was occurring at the KPFK operations was asked. The infrequent ‘public’ and programmers spoke to their own alliances and desires for staff changes or whatever, all implications of something major happening but never a clear statement made of what the REAL PROBLEMS OCCURRING WERE.

None replied to the question, nothing was said openly by anyone, not even any elected-LSB members present. Even tho the question was twice asked openly and directly.  It was as if there was no question asked at all. No one responded directly.  Everyone pretended to not hear the Q.   The bypass and ignoring of the Question for clarification of what the pressure-people & groups were exhorting was notable and dismaying.   Implications, declarations, hints were blurted out with intense passion,  but no ACTUAL INFORMATION or CLARIFICATION was made in the 5 hour session ! 

What is going on inside KPFK ?   What is happening that all the rest of those sponsors, stakeholders, supporters and volunteers on the ‘outside’ do NOT KNOW ? Why are we all being denied, ignored, left OUT and made irrelevant to the happenings inside – those that again may endanger the station’s very existence ?

WHY ARE THE ONES WHO TRULY LOYALLY CARE ABOUT KPFK LEFT OUT COMPLETELY of even being informed, if not asked to participate, as we should ?

What is wrong here ? at KPFK’s inner workings…or is it really ‘working’ at all ?

The silence is deafening. KPFK may act as-if deaf and then it’s sponsors may do the same too.

No one should be spending more $1 to allow these unfair conditions to continue secretly.

Secrecy promotes and allows corruptions. Inequality and unfairness thrive under cover of secrecy and fake fronts.

sincerely written, with lots of hours of dedicated work, hoping to effect some change or improvements, if possible.

(c) 2014 MJ