Ian Masters writes about his experiences, reposted here for info re KPFK's internal mis-doings.

http://la.indymedia.org/news/2015/08/272704.php

reposted here also:  

"KPFK= more. Tired of the turmoil? we are too."

from another tired KPFK payor  August 18.2015

KPFK programmer of important political interviews and one of the only-4 paid staff programmers on the station expresses his concerns and reveals his experiences with the new Gen'l Mgr. Recent changes to reduce staff work time may be the final 'shoe to drop' that will break whatever all stakeholders liked and paid for at Our Radio Station - paid for by listener-stakeholders. Excerpts of his latest revelations and plea is below.

the "<snip> below may be irritating but the extra parts were excerpted  - to make the essential points more visible. Please contact Ian Masters at his website or write KPFK.org with your responses, questions or concerns.

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excerpts from Ian Masters' letter sent to many:

@KPFK -  an                        "Update:      Ian Masters and Staff Issues at KPFK                

 

KPFK looks sorta like this now......

 I had my meeting with KPFK's new GM Leslie Radford yesterday along with SAG/Aftra union reps Terry Guy and Christine Blosdale. It appears I am being scapegoated for the GM's disgraceful decision to hand over a complete weekend of KPFK's airwaves <snip> who she clearly approves of since she chose to ignore Margret Prescod and me who had begged her not to put him on the air.

I have been taken off the air for a week for mentioning his name at the end of Thursday's program when I announced that I was being preempted for a <snip>. This of course is a bogus infraction since the rule against naming names only applies to fellow programmers to prevent on-air sniping, not interlopers <snip>

But the larger issue is the edict that all staff are now on half pay for half a day's work. This means the place will quickly grind to a halt since the staff will either have to try to live on a 50% pay cut or get another half-day job which is unworkable.

Clearly the intent and effect will be to have everyone give up, <snip>   All this is going according to the plan orchestrated by the head of the "grassroots" faction now in control of the <snip>    in a revolutionary cleansing by "grassroots" volunteers from the "oppressed communities".

<snip>. ….have found a way to break SAG/Aftra's contracts by cutting the hours in half to force KPFK's workers to quit on their own. What is particularly telling is that the new revolutionary regime has absolutely no plans or any ability to raise funds while cutting costs beyond sustainability.      Their only suggestion was to sell a piano, but meanwhile  <snip>   [3 paid programmers]   the very "elite one-percenters" they plan to get rid of, <snip>

These bitter losers who have <snip>  ….constantly play the race card because they can't play the talent card.

Already the new regime is expanding the Spanish-language programming even though it is a complete failure which they justify by claiming they serve the millions of Spanish-speaking listeners in the southland. But their embarrassingly bad programming (with some noble exceptions) only brings in $25 per hour in fund drives, meaning about 100 out of the millions are listening.

And while the fault is not with the idea, but the execution, the worst of them is now effectively running KPFK and he just can't wait to axe the very people who are bringing in the only revenues. <snip>   Then when everybody has turned off and tuned out KPFK, the network's valuable assets will be disposed of by the very people who destroyed Pacifica. WE SIMPLY CAN NOT ALLOW THAT TO HAPPEN!

Already we have had a heart-warming response from hundreds of listeners along with offers for professional help and valuable information about the legal coup that led to the destruction of Pacifica along with the Byzantine bylaws that have crippled it.         

We are putting together a plan of action, a team of community leaders and a petition and I hope we can find a way to take some of the burden off me since, while I'm banned from KPFK, I still have to do the daily program that goes out to the affiliates and is available at ianmasters.com as well as keep you informed with these postings.    

Thank you and keep in touch as we find a way to rescue Pacifica and return it to its true owners, you the listener/supporters.     <snip>      Ian Masters        Save KPFK
http://www.savepacifica.com/       

Save Pacifica Radio · Los Angeles, CA 91604, United States"

(c) 2015   Bt.lk