Pacifica Archives are...Premiums are...Website has... WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON ?

  More ? SPANISH PROGRAMMING, and others kicked out.

More info has been gleaned and here edited, from: 
 
http://pacificainexile.org/archives/1973  July 2 2016 =
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LA Observed printed a leaked memo to KPFK staff from General Manager Leslie Radford. She "explained" that she was  clearing off the station’s  public affairs and arts section,  which aired between  8pm - 9pm.  These programs include  Indymedia On The Air, 
Deadline LA, 
Poets Cafe 
LA Theaterworks,
made effective July 11.    

These programs will be replaced with 5 hours of not yet defined programs, but these will be all in Spanish language only. This is a distinct move from the English listener audiences -  to one that has proven to be valued by some,  but also unable to provide sufficient funds to sustain even their own time on-air on KPFK radio waves - with all the expenses entailed of Spanish language programming.   

The breakdowns of what funds are received for each programs must be available for public view somewhere, or at least for KPFK donor-members, but it is not on the website and the LSB do not share the information they obtain.  It is presumably available from the Gen'l Mgr. or Business Director of KPFK, somewhere, somehow,   .... maybe... 

Ms. Radford did not specify the names or the subject matter of the  new programs yet,  nor who would be hosting and producing these new Spanish-only programs. So KPFK will now be broadcasting  exclusively in Spanish from 8 pm to 12
midnight every Mondays through Thursdays = 4 days/ week.  Then on Fridays there is a program in English that is slanted towards Latino/Hispanic/Chicanos also.

The LA Observed article was illustrated with a paper “on-air” sign - described as “makeshift” indicator - created by  the author/photographer Kevin Roderick. This looks like criticism indicating that the station is falling apart and poorly. 

Meanwhile, other stations are not doing the same.  Pacifica’s [Berkeley ] KPFA, [ New York] WBAI, and [Houston] KPFT  are ignoring the national board's prior [ June 2015 proclamation]
that each station must add 5 hours of weekday Spanish-
language programming.

Ms Radford insisted that  she is "being forced" to implement  what other radio stations nationwide are not.  Meanwhile, a
[KPFA unpaid staffer], who claimed to be  a management
confidante, posted on a Facebook page that “his under- standing  is that the Spanish language mandate is not going to be enforced”  or maybe at least at Berkeley’s KPFA.

Furthermore, Ms. Radford has apparently also received instructions from the LSB local board to restore the previously cut d own "Sonali Kolhatkar’s program Rising Up" to air for the prior schedule's 5-days a week and to also restore the "Something’s Happening" night program back to its full length - airing from 12 midnight to 6am.    

However, the Gen'l Mgr has instead insisted that the local LSB boards do not have any authority over programming.

A dispute appears to be in progress over who has authority or say-so over what and what else is causing KPFK to collapse or regress. 


Website is weird at times, and premiums orders unfilled too ?           huh ?  what is going on at KPFK ?  

 

(c) photosbyalexandria.com

see...holes in the land...in the air. KPFK is also eroding and yet beauty is not what results ...land is natural, KPFK is run by people who either cannot or do not do 'good business' and do not reveal their difficulties for others to assist or do more than 'give more money!" ... is this called a valuable media radio site or a hole, being blown away by .....

There continue to be ongoing problems with "our"KPFK’s website. Remembering always that KPFK is "Our Radio Station" paid for by all the donors, sustainers, subscribers monies paid year after year.  

Apparently, after the paid staff webmaster was laid off last September, the website became at times disabled and/or far from up-dated and without the needed information that most websites include, especially when paid-for by their members. 

So, it seems that during the beginning of KPFK’s June through July on-air fund drive, many website problems emerged. The station’s online “web store”, which is where paying-donors can also select premium gifts online, turned 'funny'.

It began when the fund drive started with describing KPFK as "a family run furniture store"  and then the categories of products were made available, they were unusual:  such as listing ... beer, wine, soda, mixers,  and spirits ??? Screenshots can be seen on the Pacificainexile.org website.[see link above]

 Even after these ridiculous mistakes were finally fixed on June 23rd, more problems still  remained. Then the established regular membership department indicated that the online inventory of gifts included many things that KPFK was not  prepared to fulfill ! what ? 

Promises of trade-premium-gifts that were not even available from KPFK, when offered on-air in trade for monies / 
donations  ?  

So Ms Radford indicated 2weeks ago, to her LSB local board that KPFK still had not acquired about the $77,000 in premium
gifts still then owed to the station’s donors. What ? How could any business practice, even not 'good' but 'fair' operate this way ? And KPFK is a non-profit business, by any 'other' name...

So, at maybe an average cost of $15 per premium, the backlog may then be as high as 4,000 unfilled orders.


           More about The  PACIFICA ARCHIVES

Currently, the industry magazine for public broadcasting, covered  the unfolding disaster happening - at the Pacifica Archives. This is  where at least 3/5th  of the entire collection has not yet been digitized and these then face physical
disintegration...maybe within a decade or so.

....." Both the Radio Preservation Task Force at the Library
 of Congress and the American Archive of Public Broadcasting
(AAPB) have withdrawn any staffing and funds procurement assistance to Pacifica after Brian De Shazor resigned as the Archives Director.
[SNIP]

Pacifica’s 5 radio stations, in addition to being delinquent on paying their shared service fees to the  Pacifica archives, [ fees which range from $1,500  to $4,900 a month] have to then decline to use the archive’s products - as their fund-drive premium gifts. These 5 stations have also pulled  needed CD/DVD duplication services away from the Archives as well."

More secrecy and lack of transparency has caused many loyal donors and members to worry and seek solutions that can best be determined by those who are leaving the Archives. There has been no mention of why DeShazor is resigning, nor his plans for the treasures he has helped preserve and accumulate under his directorship. 

There has been no public mention nor open discussion of who else can assist or replace the manager leaving and what all the prior employees of the Pacifica Archives did/ or plan to do/ to assist the demolition or sale of their hard work and results.

some outside Pacifica sites that speak to this are listed here:

http://current.org/2016/06/pacifica-radio-archives-director-resigns-after-pay-cut/  

Mention is made in above link about Brian DeShazor's time being reduced and salary also, as was all the Archives staff. 

A quote from above link says:

"The archives is one of the best centralized collections of media advocacy history by sound in North America, according to Shepperd. Last year, DeShazor discovered among the archives a recording from 1964 that is thought to be the only full recording of a speech by Martin Luther King, Jr....

"The Pacifica Radio Archives has restored thousands of historical recordings since it began in 1999. In 2013, it had only digitized one-fifth of its materials. Shepperd said that some of the tapes are endangered with a shelf life of only 15 years....“If they lose these archives, Pacifica has erased its own history,” Shepperd said."

another source addresses the issues too:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/19664526892/?_fb_noscript=1      =  Friends of Pacifica Archives 

This site has posts from DeShazor and other interesting tidbits that may add to the story being unraveled now.....

and then there is more to be read/ found here too:

http://wbai-nowthen.blogspot.com/2016/06/little-by-little-pacificas-last-gasps.html

and writes: "GM Radford has not indicated any intention to make payments and says she is pursuing an $80,000 loan to fulfill unsent premium gifts. "  

and the archives own webpage is here to read or write or pass on to those who want to be more than voyeurs and pacifists :

http://www.pacificaradioarchives.org/ 

comments or more information on any of these topics are available on this blog or pointing to where More and Updated information is exposed would help everyone else too. Please participate if you want to help create TRANSPARENCY and thus honesty, stability, sustainability and reliability too...plus  
keep KPFK on-air, more as it 'was' than it is be-coming'...undone.... duh..... 

(c) 2016 mj ....please excuse Google's blogspot formatting Glitches,  that refuse repeated  corrections.. "They"are in control, not authors here.