KPFK has now also been exposed, partially, slantedly in the UK Guardian.

A recent UK Guardian article emerged about KPFK, that appeared to have been limited researched, and that mostly quoted the 2 most vociferous and angry full-time programmers, who have also had their time and salaries cut in 1/2. The article appears to slant With these 2, only, and does not mention by name nor interview any others also so affected.  Nor are any explanations for these management moves revealed or questioned there.

Selective comments to that article [see URL here below for the full version and the 60 then 'closed' comments that were allowed on Guardian website briefly]  are here reproduced to note  many concerns -  plus information the author neglected or was ignorant about - and to elucidate what has been and is still occurring  at Our Station Now.

Please read  the article, as it has been presented, to then find the selected comments below more relevant and expository than the author, Rory Caroll of LA,  was in his writing.

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/sep/10/pacifica-leftwing-radio-kpfk-wbai-financial-collapse

Here below are a few of the '60 COMMENTS' – as that section was closed by Sept 15 6 am

 

The story as written was obviously  biased and laudatory of only 2  of the programmers of KPFK affected by recent staff reduction of time [and 3 staffers were dismissed altogether]. 

The others affected in same manner were not mentioned nor interviewed. So the quotes here are mostly self-serving of Ian Masters and Sonali Kolhatkar with their anger  much displayed.  

Tho Lazar, who wrote a book years ago and an article months ago was interviewed, as if he were still part of  any the current affairs at Pacifica, tho that was not mentioned or noted to be so.  

It seems that being a book-author qualified his opinions and words vs. his being inside, knowing of the events occurring throughout the Pacifica or KPFK systems.

Please read the Guardian article with the awareness and  warnings that this is not an open-minded description of what all is happening in the network or radio station, or of  the very many sides of whatever the actual-factual stories are - that may not be identical at KPFK or at Pacifica, tho still the global exposure via the Guardian of this local radio station may resonate to others - located in less permissive nations [than is USA or UK even ] with media twists and turns there too.  
                                                                    

 

(c) 2015 photosbyalexandria.com 

as seen from some distance, the KPFK story seems fuzzy, unclear, unfathomable, and not as fragile as the radio station may actually be in now.......transparency is not one of the organization's virtues

SOME COMMENTS HAVE BEEN  SELECTED 

TO RE POST  HERE :

anne garrison :    Regarding this label "conspiracy theorist," are you saying that powerful people do not conspire to do terrible things. If so, I think you're deluded. Unsubstantiated allegations describes a real problem, conspiracy theory does not.

.....snip   

 ....., because only one person, Rory Carroll, wrote this. It did nevertheless sound like a Sonali Kolhatkar and Ian Masters editorial.

- - - - - -

indigopirate :    People with no power tend to see Everything as a conspiracy.  They also, as a rule, can't imagine how anyone who wields actual power, obtains power, or wields it.     Doubt me?

Listen to a Pacifica or a Pacifica station meeting some time – a bunch of people who couldn't organize a high school dance, passing motions, planning to organize a committee to investigate how to investigate how to plan a committee to discuss the scheduling of the next meeting...

It's impressive in an incompetent, sad, impotent sort of way.   Seen from that place Everything is a Conspiracy – of people who can actually organize, plan, cooperate, and do things.    Pacifica's problem isn't it's structure, it's its people.
- - - - --

Mario A.  Murillo : ....    BUT, I think Pacifica is not worth saving. The individual radio stations are indeed worth it, and we need to find ways to keep them alive independently from the stupidity, indeed insanity, that has become the Foundation.
snip

.... While Pacifica serves as an important, useful, perhaps academic example of independent broadcasting in a sea of commercial, militaristic muck, it is indeed a thing of the past. Its leadership for the past 15 years has already missed the train, and now they're permanently stuck in the terminal of irrelevance.
- - - - - --

indigopirate :    You're living in the past. There's this thing called the net, see, and these things called podcasts, and vidcasts, and a thousand other loci of information. Pacifica sees these only as a supplement to Radio.

Radio has a niche, no more, and a small one, increasingly shrinking.

Pacifica was founded in the early 1950s as I understand it – this ain't then, nor even the Golden Age of 1968.   Anyone with content has access to present it, and to easily network with others, over the net.   If they're bound to the past, well, then... they're bound to the past.  As is quite clear.

snip
At KPFK there are, on the record, unquestionable reports of fraud and embezzlement on the part of staff, including bookkeeping and accounting staff.

For quite a few years and still at present there is both at KPFK and the other units shambolic processes and 'discussions', with no discernible objective progress to date, as deadlines with California authorities, Pacifica's auditors, the CPB, etc, etc, continue to be missed by months if not years, with Pacifica's own auditors rebuking the individual stations and Pacifica as a network for their lack of anything even vaguely approaching tolerable accounting.

The plain fact is that no one knows where the money goes, under whose authority, of why.    Feel free to listen to the archived audio of meetings and it's quite clear.
- - - - - - --

pulllease :     These staff members are indeed one of the larger problems with Pacifica. They do seem very focused on bringing attention to the problems they helped create through their short-sighted, narrow-minded monologues.
- - - - - - - -

atillathegrape189 :  Decades ago WBAI offered a rich variety of programs and programming, much of it produced by people clearly dedicated to radio as a thing that mattered, as a unique art form worthy of their dedication and commitment, in any and all forms. It offered some of the best news coverage available...
snip

Then, with time, the place came to define itself simply as a voice of political advocacy. Listenership dropped. Its advocacy became more strident. Listenership dropped further. Quack health cures came to be used as fund-raising ‘premiums’ in what was clearly infomercial snake-oil fashion.

Listenership dropped further.    Factionalism became more extreme as self-defined political ‘leaders’ with no discernible following came to enforce their political lines.

Listenership dropped further.   The pattern varies a bit from station to station, but it’s similar at all levels in Pacifica.    The structural issues some point to and the various ‘coups’ and internal conflicts are symptomatic, not causative.

The very simple truth is that this is an institution that long ago ceased to matter to anyone or anything other than itself, which outlived itself and continues to exist, barely, as a refuge for its staffers from the real world, a zombie refuge of sorts – and no one cares, or listens, with good reason.

There is very little to mourn now, and there will be even less to mourn when it finally is sold off to various interests.      This is an institution, a group of people, with nothing to offer, and incapable of redefinition or rebirth.

Snip

.....ignore the greater part of the mission statement, which firstly calls for presenting the arts, broadly defined, then in turn on presenting philosophical discussion and debate between differing parties, and instead focused solely on its final portion, which calls for ‘accurate, objective, comprehensive news’ which in turn you’ve implicitly redefined as a clumsily amateurish propagandistic slant ranging from left to far left to farther left to conspiratorial lunatic left.

This is indeed an argument worthy of Pacifica in its present state.
Fatuous self-centered self-referential self-defined ‘logic’ and perspective.
Wonder why it is that KPFK and Pacifica have essentially no audience other than themselves…

It’s a mystery.       Or is it… a conspiracy!
A conspiracy to suppress The Truth!       Please…
- - - - - - - -

393393393 :       Intriguing conversation. I've been listening and sponsoring KPFK for over 45 years (scary, huh?). Consequently, I have actually heard the changes, back and forth, through the decades.
I think it is most useful to look back at the history of these stations and the original intent of listener-sponsored radio from a genuine left-wing perspective (as compared to the more modern terminology "progressive").

Especially, please examine the Pacifica Mission Statement.
snip
I do not think, however, that KPFKs' programming has come anywhere near fulfilling the Mission Statement for some time. There is way too much egocentrism, name-calling, vacuous shallow opinions passing for "analysis" in much of the afternoon talk shows, for just one example.

Snip

would add that a number of broadcasters are making their "names" and personal income off of the ops they have broadcasting on KPFK, whether they are paid or volunteer programmers. These are not only the "new-age" folks but even some of our prime-time programmers. (The term "journalist" has seemed to decline into a self-defined idiom).

Some of the best programming I ever heard on KPFK over 45 years was done by volunteers who consistently brought creative quality to the air and pushed the envelope of what radio can be. NPR owes a debt to Pacifica for this pioneer work.
snip

Once these radio frequencies are lost there is NO getting them back.
So let's fight to keep Pacifica and and all the stations but return them to fulfilling the Mission Statement...let's not be lazy and unwilling to be bothered because we do not fully understand what we have here and what we will likely not see again ever...or for a very long time.
snip

Mission Statement from the Pacifica Foundation website ( interestingly, this used to be a 3 page document...hmmm)    

  
"To establish a Foundation organized and operated exclusively for educational purposes no part of the net earnings of which inures to the benefit of any member of the Foundation.....

Snip

I think the KPFK programming has strayed in a serious and alarming manner.
But better to save it and to set it back on course than to just drown this baby.
- - - - - --

Britt Reid :       I stopped giving to KPFK for two reasons: 1) Their fund drives are endless. 2) Much of their programming no longer appeals to me, especially the "miracle cure" baloney they've been broadcasting.

Management needs to be open and honest with listeners. How much money do they need to balance the books? (In exact figures.)      If I'm going to give again, I need to know where my money is going - how much of it is going for payroll, for equipment, to pay off debt, etc.?
- - - - - - 

robbyevans :    This looks like another classic case study of what happens when "the left" tries to run anything: unrealistic idealism, followed by vicious factional infighting ("democracy"), demands for gift money to support the noble cause, with nothing but hot air produced.  Why not let it die with dignity?

- - - - - 

Indigopirate:    There has also been the recent disclosure that the Oakland firm of Siegel & Yee filed a ‘just in case’ creation of a new nonprofit to absorb the assets derived from the sale of frequencies should this be ‘necessary’. 

This particular detail was withheld from the public and from most members of Pacifica’s National Board, and when it was leaked, was characterized as simply a contingency plan should it be necessary to ‘save’ KPFA and/or Pacifica.

A Program Director at a Pacifica station once said, on the record, in a brief moment of candor with respect to the audience, that the ‘the station is *not* what people think it is.’ The stress on that particular word, ‘not’, was sharp, deliberate, emphatic, and of his choosing. This observation may, I think, reasonably be applied to Pacifica as a whole.

We all, both as individuals, and as organizations, fall short of our ideals.  Pacifica, however, has long been and continues to be an absolute and unalloyed disgrace.
                                    ####

NOTE:  The comment's author is listed as was on Guardian website.  Excerpts of comments are re-posted here- mainly when relevant to KPFK. 

Contact with those authors, and the UK Guardian article writer can be located there separately. 

Notice. Loss of a Professional Executive Director at Pacifica

"Pacifica executive director John Proffitt has resigned less than a week after returning from a three week vacation.   Proffitt held the position for four months. "


Notes: 

E.D. Proffitt  had just returned from a 3 week vacation in Europe, and had already been sidelined, his authority as ED  usurped - in being able to chose and hire the KPFK gen’l mgr - executed instead by a PNB member just a day before he was taking on the job. This could have been a warning move of his future inability to do anything to save the networks and radio stations: KPFK, KPFA, WBAI, one reviving in Houston,  and affiliates elsewhere too.         

What he was able to do, accomplish, be informed of and to exercise his “30 years working in business in radio” experiences ? That has just been declared worthless or not-needed. Others must be sure they have the expertise and know-how with legal assistances from those who have been eying possession of these stations.  

But:   Is this ethical ? Was he pushed or shoved or just made irrelevant ?  Was 'resigning" a polite way of saying the ones still holding most power at Pacifica could intimidate this man into doing the polite move to save their lawsuit funds from depletion  ?   

John Proffitt came to LA to the PNB meetings - 3 days in June 2015 - so some locals  here were able to see or meet him briefly. Hopes were high for a real professional to help improve and save the decaying processes - so apparent at all Pacifica stations -  especially those most fruitful ones : KPFK and KPFA. Now, there is no more hope possible. 

Apparently.   He was not needed.   
He  can no longer help Pacifica and PNB. Not even to save their face  - even by his doing the resigning – 
so maybe it was to save his own mental health?  Even if not admitted ?  Some stakeholders may assume so.

Or to relieve what physical stresses from this new job that obviously would hurt his health ?


Or did he just realized he had stepped deep into a vile snake pit 
[same as one in the classic old movie an just as scary too] . 

 

(c) 2015 photosbyalexandria.com         viboras outside of asylums

From what this man appeared to be in his short presence here in LA, the non-profit lost = a businessman who seemed to be able to stay calm, speak clearly, observe the fracas and still remain standing, and maybe even briefly offer his help.  Some thought it was not needed ? 
Did anyone insist he stay to do the work actually needed at Pacifica?  Or just lead him to the door because he did not fit in with those already 'in'  who aspire to more power ?

And maybe the Pacifica network has also lost :  lost it’s non-profit status with all the already noted shenanigans and ongoing manipulations -  that have appeared and been reported here and elsewhere - already. 

More is sure to come.     apart.    Tooooo bad.......    

UPDATED INFO:  At another blog was found  Proffitt's Sept 14  letter of resignation.... sounding very chummy and laudatory of others on PNB who may not have been cooperative with him - but it looked-like a nice gesture to make all look friendly and nice between them all anyhow. 

He stated therein that his last work or presence date may be Oct 15 or before, and no reasons for departure were mentioned, of course. No mention of what he had done or accomplished or what he attempted in his 4 month stay. He may have not realized what a snake pit he had been hired into and was glad to slip away ...maybe ? 

Note also that the prior hired Exe Director was Summer Reese, who was suddenly fired by committee PNB and under dubious conditions - that was after having been working as interim  ED for a few years before having the official position not as an 'interim'.

Then another interim ED was self-selected from KPFA's local board and PNB, who chose and  hired KPFK's current Gen'l Mgr herself  - just 1 day before Proffitt arrived to his job. During that interim ED, there was another temporary helper-  the just prior KPFK Gen'l Mgr - Bernard Duncan  [see 1. below]-  who quit station before his contract was completed- he lasted maybe a month or less ? 

Then Proffitt arrived on the scene, to be  quickly vacationing and then exiting Pacifica. 

What turnover and confusion there must be there - and that mixup spreads, infuses, and contaminates the radio stations under that torn twisted umbrella called Pacifica. How confusing it all has become...or was it always so ????

So  now and again, more suspicions and concerns over so many opaque moves and manuevers results - from such cover-ups - as also happen in big business corporations exits and mergers and even bankruptcies - But for public consumption only show a PR pretty face and hand shake - but under their facade are just bigger,& carefully covered-up disasters-  not for for outsiders to know or view.

To see Proffitt's letter reproduced or copied, see:    savepacifica.com  plus it contains views of what others opine. 

 
  1. refer to more info here: http://www.unitedforcommunityradio.org/?tag=bernard-duncan


(c) 2015   mj 
[

More Updates: KPFK employee + SAG AFTRA union + infightings and mo.....

Excerpted parts of an article from pacificainexile.org - only that pertains to LA's KPFK mostly are here reproduced below: 

September 7 2015 pacificinexile.org posted :     

       

                                             "Grievances To Make Your Head Spin"

"There have been so many grievances filed it will make your head spin" were the words of one of KPFK-FM's two SAG-AFTRA union stewards on Friday September 4th, a week after the LA entertainment union stated it was taking Pacifica Radio into arbitration alleging union-busting and contract violations. 

The handling of staff reductions has been an unmitigated disaster, with laid off employees receiving notices days late with incorrect job titles on them, Pacifica not applying for promised workshare benefits until one day before all employees were shifted to half-time, and employer-provided cell phones shut off this week with no notification. 

The SAG-AFTRA union says manager Radford's plan, as endorsed by local and national boards and faux-corporate counsel Dan Siegel, will work by attrition to force many, if not most, of the station's union staffers to eventually resign without severance packages- and having to contest unemployment benefits. After several months on half-time pay, Radford's 2016 "reorganization plan" would require employees to take on other jobs to move back into work schedules paying more than $25,000-$30,000 annually. 

No positions beyond 50% time are provided in Radford's document, so senior employees would have to bump their junior colleagues out of jobs to secure 80% or 100% work schedules at a living wage.

Pacifica last went to arbitration with a labor union in 2010-2011 after two people were laid off at KPFA with 5 NLRB complaints dismissed, one layoff upheld and the other reversed. Pacifica's position is much shakier this time with local operating deficits half the size, maximal impact to KPFK employees with shrunken paychecks for months with no reduction in job duties, a questionable use of the EDD Worksharing program as layoffs are not being prevented but are occurring at the same time with potentially more to follow, and the targeting of an employee with 11 years of seniority as the sole full-time layoff ....

Pacifica spent in excess of $150,000 on the 5 grievances and two arbitration hearings using KQED law firm Folger-Levin in 2011, so it is likely the half-time work reductions will save little to no money in the end, although they may achieve the goal of forcing many employees to quit voluntarily, releasing Pacifica from severance pay obligations.

The union's position in arbitration can only have been strengthened by the incomprehensible series of errors, omissions and mis-statements provided by Radford and Pacifica's national office finance staff in the past two and a half weeks. First, Radford confessed to staff that she terminated the business manager after discovering the temporary agency employee had been writing checks to herself and another unauthorized person for at least 8 months, completely undetected by former CFO Salvador.

Then the Pacifica national office issued three different income statements for KPFK within 13 days, with half-million dollar swings between the figures which were attributed to "double-booking" hundreds of thousands of dollars of income in nine of the past ten months.  You can download all three versions at the link provided above.

Finally, GM Radford after announcing the receipt and deposit of a $134,000 bequest from the Rosen estate here, and here, and here, backtracked on her written and verbal statements to KPFK's local station board and emailed Pacifica's ED, board chair, controller and "financial consultant, Raul Salvador" on September 3rd that "this was a huge and mistaken misreading on my part" and the bequest amount was only $20,000, not $134,000.

The email's recipient list is puzzling as Pacifica's financial staff, specifically the controller Efren Llarinas and financial consultant Salvador who was reported by Radford on August 17 to be replacing KPFK's business manager, should have had direct access to KPFK's financial records. 

Even more puzzling, PNB treasurer Brian Edwards-Tiekert posted on Facebook two weeks prior to Radford's email that the Rosen check was for $20,000, not $134,000, only to lapse into silence when shown Radford's written report to KPFK's local board stating the amount was $134,000. 

How Edwards-Tiekert was aware Radford's statement was untrue when Pacifica's controller, ED and financial consultant were not, and why he said nothing else for two weeks as Radford repeated her statement over and over again, has not been explained. Requests by several board members and members for a xerox of the Rosen check and deposit records have not yet been satisfied.

snip
In the larger financial picture, Llarinas, currently holding the position of interim controller, has stated to the national finance committee that he cannot verify the accuracy of the financial statements issued due to the failure to reconcile bank accounts. Llarinas suggested "centralizing" the finances. 

This is a more intense suggestion than that made by fomer ED Summer Reese in February 2013 when she proposed relocating Pacifica's 21 bank accounts scattered among 6 different banks .....same bank to reduce the networks annual bank charges. 

Reese's proposal was denounced by the Siegel/Brazon faction as a "power grab" and never voted on and the network has continued to run up in excess of $100,000 annually in bank admin charges and perform as many as 25 wire transfers a month between banking institutions to administer payroll, health benefits and network services payments.

snip 
"the interview that was broadcast on KPFK compared homosexuality ... and suggested an "epidemic" of African-American homosexuality was caused by "conditioning" among a series of disturbing statements that sought to incite anger at and pity for black queer people.

snip  
National Board members Cerene Roberts and Jose-Luis Fuentes burnt more than an hour of Pacifica's governance committee advocating for a re-arrangement of the meeting schedule to avoid an in-person meeting in Berkeley next year. 

The motion may or may not be taken up by the full national board, but the earnest effort probably speaks to the board's desire to avoid being confronted by CA members, who are upset about the failure to conduct the election and the unionbusting at KPFK.

KPFA's Twit Wit Radio satire touched on some of Pacifica's weekly news in their September 6th episode where a familiar-sounding voice comments that "It is next to impossible to privatize a solvent radio network." You can listen to the 30-minute episode here or at www.kpfa.org.
Pacifica in Exile readers may write to the board atpnb@pacifica.org.

For readers who may wish to do more, any donor to a California-based not for profit organization like Pacifica may file a complaint to the open file at the Registry of Charitable Trusts at the Office of the CA Attorney General. Pacifica's case number is CT011303. The form and instructions for filing may be downloaded here....." 
 snip   

 ( end of  above edited excerpts) 

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

the beauty of transparency is no where in sight --in any of the dealings, operations, finances, programming, advantages of those hidden within the station, and all else within OUR radio station: KPFK. a sad story. true. 

it just  continues the same as always before....

(c)

                   = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =                                           

NOTE: The only available revelations about what is occurring at Pacifica, KPFK, and the complications  at the 3 other radio stations are at the above site  pacificainexile.org and some parts may also be  reposted  on  laindymedia.org also.     

If any links don't function, plse cut and paste them instead. 

This work here is  to expoze...reveal..share... to make transparent some of what Else happens to Our still-paying-for Radio Station = that is  still sustained and broadcasting.

Tho there is a bad rumor that another long $$$ begging sequence will begin again -  Sept 21 which is only 5 weeks since last prolonged interruption of regular programming occurred. Yuk !

portions that are  not quoted  from other sources are (c) 2015    bt