KPFK is losing $$$ losing listeners, losing more

 Just reposting here from     http://pacificainexile.org/archives/2189  dated Oct 18, 2016:


The Financial statements released for the fiscal year that ended 9/30/2016, as documented, -  shows there is a KPFK listener support loss of $300,000, created between 2015 and 2016. 

This is the largest in the Pacifica network for the year.

As reported by the Pacifica National Office:

KPFK listener support  10/1/2014 to 9/30/2015: was

$3,000,802.  compared to:

KPFK listener support 10/1/2015 to 9/30/2016:  was

 $2,701,054.

                   - - - - - commentary- - - - - -

 

the price of a dying non-profitable radio station ?

 
The revelation of these figures by one reporter is the only one found-on-internet-now - the source of financial status and dealings within Our Radio Station - hidden from KPFK's stakeholders.

The on-air 'fund-raisers' -pleaders constantly demand for $$$, [for their own salaries and keeping up premises, equipment, etc.]  - as well as to repay what is owed from the SAG-AFTRA negotiation LOSSES - that were incurred by the same Gen'l Mgr. - who never gives stakeholders any actual, factual information or figures.

The on-air hints of "we may not be here" or such cues about possible insolvency - or whatever else is hidden about what strategies or schemes are locked behind the station's walls -  these hints are all in the form of scaring the devoted listeners to then "PAY UP !" -- again, and yet again.  

The scare has been ongoing for a very long time. So many listeners have Already Paid Enough and do not swallow the promos, the PR & the premium-offers repeated - boringly  - and even the same ones that were sold at other fund-raising sessions. 

So trust and believability is difficult to maintain or continue. There. At KPFK radio station. To retain and maintain any homeostasis - stability - financial viability.

Yes, it appears to be dire, and worse, and messy, and chaotic, and there seems to be no one person at fault or to 'blame' solely. Tho some have attempted to manage and then yet created a worse situation, by what seems quite apparent now.

Any donors who have been giving their earnings for long may be weary and tired by now. A few members may still be contributing  - out of fear of losing KPFK altogether otherwise -  or even having their favorite programmers eliminated from the schedule. 

No alternate plans [ A and B and C] of how KPFK as a radio station can continue or survive have been  revealed, or exposed, or even mentioned..... or even hinted at being existent.  

If there are experienced, reasonable, business-knowing-people at this radio station, they have not made good decisions, from what these results are. Why are they continuing to do more that deteriorates the organization ?  

Or have they really 'just' tried and failed ? ....and yet claimed their 'good intentions' [and taken their salaries, and benefits] was all they had to offer ? 

While no apologies or explanations are provided - to even help create some understandings of "what in the world has happened ??!! "  So far silence prevails. Or denials and blaming any one else at board meetings. 

Or the conflicted board meetings that cannot save or keep the ailing station upright ? 

All remains in a spaced out limbo, or like a cloud that dissipates and deforms and floats away... or turns into....dissipated space ?????  to become what ????  when ??? and how ?? By whom ????   

Is anyone who can untopple this station there ? any where ? 

(c)  2016 bt  

KPFK election results, Arbitration costs, Fund$$$

                 more- OCTOBER MONEY REQUESTS...

A KPFK Staffer wrote:   "October 2016 fund drive :  Tuesday Oct 4, 6:00 a.m. - Tuesday Oct 25 for a total of  22 days, expecting to raise  $25,000 day, to get  $550,000 total."

Somehow  when repeated recordings of "premiums" [sold, traded for money, 'gifts', by-any-other-word-it's-a-get- $$$- trade-off ] come on-air, it is worse than tiresome. The same pressured speech is irksome and irritating, even while the same words replayed plead proudly. 

There must be a better way to help the radio station survive financially, even though there is never an admission of how 'voluntary programmers' are compensated when they continually PROMOTE and ADVERTISE their guests, their guests' books, for-sale-items, and so called 'sponsored' events. 

The lack of financial support [elsewhere called 'sponsorship' as if there was no sale-return- trade done] of KPFK & Pacifica's radio stations may need to find a different 'financial model plan' or give-up the illusions that listeners will continue to send in their $$$ earnings just because KPFK, et. al is on the brink of bankruptcy or feeling the pinch of being poor [poorer than they were years before ? 

Who is to know the facts and actualities, never honestly exposed or revealed ?]

                             ++++++++++++++

 

 
                                        
          PACIFICA & KPFK recent ELECTION RESULTS

        Reposted election results come from: 
   http://pacificainexile.org/archives/2183#respond  
  = here are quotes with some editing included:

 “At Los Angeles’ KPFK, the Committee to Strengthen KPFK won 7 of 9 listener seats and 1 of 3 staff seats to sweep 2/3 of the available 12 positions. Elected listener delegates are [by last names] : Song,  Wong,  Gomez,  Childs,  Kriegel, Marbach, and Reik joined by Lexa as a staff rep. 

"The [opposing group]…-affiliated candidates who were elected were:  Pour, Virgo… and Hernandez and Rice as staff reps.”

“The robust independent victories at 3 of the network’s 5 radio stations provide a mandate for a change of direction in the governance of the nation’s only progressive radio network. 
 
"Pacifica members weighed in decisively despite several incidents of ballot-stuffing and fraudulent voter addresses observed at the LA station – and worries that such activities might be more widespread throughout the network.”

                            ++++++++++++++

Then another posting about ELECTIONS  - so are
                            ELECTIONS RESOLVED NOW ?

Just found information about recent elections for Pacifica’s PNB and LSB:

“Statements by election administrator Serpe on the elections.pacifica.org website indicate large numbers of new voters with fake postal addresses were allowed to vote in KPFK’s election. The two cases documented by Serpe cover 119 voters or approximately 5% of the total number of voters in the Southern California station’s election.

"Serpe states: “…a string of pledges were made at the KPFK website and paid through PayPal that were all attributed to different individuals at the same address 828 West Washington Boulevard, L.A. 90015, which is the office of SEIU Local 1877. "

"There were 71 such identical pledges at $25 apiece, all with the same postal address but different email addresses, for a total of $1775.”

"In a second incident Serpe states ….

"The complaint filed goes on “the paper ballots were received by the church. The staff person informed us that the people whose names are on the ballots are not members or staff of the church, nor are they known by her or others in the church who she queried.  "

"She also asked if the address of the church could be purged as being associated with these people, so that the church receives no more mail from KPFK. These people could still vote online, if email addresses were input into the system, making the unopened ballots unneeded”…

“Serpe and True Ballot are declining to disqualify fraudulent ballots. “
                                          
                              ++++++++++++ 
     
SAG-AFTRA ARBITRATION RESULTS IN KPFK $$$ LOSSES
        Re-posted information come from: 0ct 14 2016      
      http://pacificainexile.org/archives/2175    
      = with quotes and some editing here included:
 
“KPFK recently lost a large multi-grievance union arbitration with the station’s SAG-AFTRA bargaining unit after the new manager, Leslie Radford, imposed unilateral work hour reductions, fired two employees and denied severance benefits.

"The settlement amount is at least $200,000 and will include back pay to approximately 20 employees whose hours were cut, the re-hire of two fired employees and the payment of at least four previously denied severance packages.

"….issued on May 31, 2016, after two arbitration hearings were held on January 21, 2016 and March 22, 2016. This is what it says:

 “On December 30, 2015… {KPFK's General Manager} Leslie  Radford made references to potential bankruptcy filings and {changes in} asset ownership, as well as solvency concerns”. …..

the {arbitrator} ordered the Company to provide the information”. 

“The Company {represented by [a non-offically-appointed attorney -see link directly for all names not listed here] } complied. However, as of the date of the second hearing {March 22, 2016} the Company had still not provided a financial ledger”.

“The Company’s explanation was that its finances and information was essentially in disarray”.              p.8    
          
…….despite repeated requests, the Company simply never provided the financials, even to the date of the hearing.”      p.10….”

“KPFK’s current management ….GM & iED of Pacifica did not release a financial ledger in March of 2016 after being directly ordered to do so in January of 2016 at the first arbitration hearing.  The unofficial corporate counsel  represented the company {Pacifica} at both arbitration hearings in January and March of 2016”. 
 
[If this was not a legally appointed attorney and not confirmed by the Pacifica Board to represent that organization, how was that man legally allowed to Represent [yes, all stakeholders in Pacifica, which is a non-profit org is thus ‘owned’ by all donors/members- all those who have never been consulted - nor even informed about all these legal actions. ]

[Actions that not only affect the stability and finances of Pacifica, thus also KPFK, but why are all those important actions are kept secret and hidden from public view ? ]
 
"While assertions were made by KPFK’s General Manager, Ms. Radford, and the interim Exe Director of Pacifica stated that: “previous ED John Proffitt incurred the arbitration loss were incorrect.” ....while they were not providing publicly all the accurate or ‘corrected’ information.

“As the decision states, the arbitration loss falls squarely on the current [interim] executive director of Pacifica.”

….”the building that holds KPFK-FM and the Pacifica Archives at 3729 Cahuenga Boulevard in Studio City, CA  [has been ] appraised for sale value. The signed appraisal request can be seen at…”  
http://www.mediafire.com/file/es3c81c0evo1q8v/appraisal.pdf.

                               ++++++++++++
All concerns and questions should be directed to the KPFK general manager and LSB members, including the KPFK members who are then 'nominated' to also be more powerful on the national PNB board too. The list should be on KPFK.org or a call to the radio station at : 818 - 985 -2711 x 0 should have an office worker available to direct all queries and insure that members are not ignored, or left dangling by a thin string and then $$$-only-callers get a real-person-addressing them.

(C) 2016 mj
                 
                                

Pacifica Radio Archives are being....diss'd ? sold ? neglected ?

summary: KPFK radio station in North Hollywood bldg housed the Pacifica Radio Archives that saved, transcribed, sold, saved and honored audio from all 5 stations for many many years. Then Director Brian Shazor departed   a few months ago and.....”               

This is an edited [ & removed names ] reposting info from : http://pacificainexile.org/archives/2154  =

                      
                                  
 
In Tuesday’s national finance committee, contention broke out when, instead of actual news about the 50-year-old , unique, archival, reel-to-reel Pacifica recordings being sold off on E-Bay – this was after a storage container was auctioned for nonpayment !!!
  
Then a ‘Save KPFA’  person proposed asking for a shut-down and wanting to instead transfer monies from the Archives budget - for the network’s archives department. 

After much yelling at the Pacifica Nat’l Board meeting , the proposal failed on a 4-4 tie vote with even a KPFK Local board member and  voting it Down.

After the fragile state of endangered  Pacifica’s Radio Archives –  became a national media story in the last month, 19 Pacifica reel-to-reel archival master tapes appeared for sale on Ebay.com in the last two weeks.

 An anonymous source told the NY-based blog “WBAI Now and Then”  that the materials came from a 20-year-old storage locker in Rosemead, CA – and that had been maintained by the national office but
….it was auctioned off in the last year - due to non-payment of the storage fee. 

Pacifica’s income statements indicate the national office stopped paying any off-site storage fees as of 2015.

This storage container was formerly located in Rosemead, California – and it was maintained by Pacifica’s national office for over 20 years.

This storage unit contained thousands of tapes [in many formats, platforms] and old folios as well. 

The eBay seller was listed as  “Scoldguy11” - who says he is located in Watsonville, CA. 

He confirmed that he/she had purchased “an entire storage locker in Southern California”, before cutting off communications with the Pacifica member who had inquired.  [real names were not revealed by our available sources] 

The anonymous reporting source stated that “the tapes on ebay are unique and these are not merely copies already available in the remaining Pacifica Radio Archives collection”.
             
“A look at Pacifica’s financial statements indicate that off-site storage costs had been accrued to Pacifica’s national office division every year until Fiscal Year 2015 (which began on 10-1-2014) when the accruals mysteriously stopped… 

The anonymous source  also said that  “Pacifica’s National Office  failed to pay the invoice and ignored the late notices and alerts to auction the contents”.” 




                         
                00000000000000000000000

 NOTE:

There are no confirmations nor corroborative information coming from PNB or any of the national board members to the actual ‘owners’ who are the stakeholder/ donors to Pacific – those who financially have always supported and kept the Pacifica stations alive, on air, and housed, etc. 

Silence and secrecy is the usual way of hiding misdeeds or neglects, as in national political platforms also. Not much difference except the national-drama-debate all over media nd the names involved. 

Otherwise, same suspicious actions and hiding poor business practices or malicious stealings ? or simple neglect by Pacifica’s officers.           

(c) 2016 bt

Pacifica Radio Archives are being sold from storage ? Why ?

these quotes below are reposted from a NY Pacifica station focused site:

http://wbai-nowthen.blogspot.com/      

Chris Anderson's  sept 28  2016 post  there says:   

re PACIFICA ARCHIVES tapes and storage:

“Here's a follow-up on the e-bay sale of Pacifica tapes. It does not solve the mystery, but it contains a few details. My source is an informed source who wishes to remain anonymous. This is what I was told:

“  The storage unit is an old one, located in Rosemead CA, not visited in years, and never inventoried. Pacifica's National office was paying the bill, not PRA [Pacifica Radio Archives] , because this was not part of the $1,900 monthly PRA budget for the 4 units it does pay for. This is not PRA's fault, it's the National office having ignored invoices, alerts, warnings, etc. Understandably, the seller wants to make a profit as this is his business.

“Let's hope that someone can negotiate with him to donate it to a secure place with trustworthy custodians. It is highly doubtful that Pacifica can afford to buy these tapes back or—if reacquired—what it will do with them. The inventory is "several thousand tapes" and thousands of folios. 

"Most of the latter are digitized and available online for free at archive.org, but there are a number of sets PRA never found, so it would be valuable to review what is there and add any of the missing ones (mostly WBAI 1963-1967).  Sounds like a good thing for crowd funding or a rescue emergency grant.”

then a commentator wrote :
” The stupid thing is that these tapes could bring in money as materiel for writers and other researchers.”


and on Oct 1 2016 same the blog author posted this :

 “The Pacifica Archive tapes currently spotted on e-bay are still the subject of contention. Some are suggesting that the seller—who purchased them from a storage company—hasn't the right to put them up for sale, but Pacifica lost ownership when it failed to meet its contractual rental obligations. Thus the fault lies with the Pacifica National office. 

"Of real concern is the possibility of valuable as yet digitized aural documents becoming lost forever. There is no excuse for such neglect, but it reflects the lack of responsibility that continues to prevail within Pacifica.”





Comments can be made at WBAI commentator site or here, or both, or other.

KPFK struggles: Membership falls, Audits neglected, Archives plundered...more ?

The KPFK relevant information below has been edited and reposted quotes from  dated Sept 7 2016.  http://pacificainexile.org/archives/2164  

See that blog for other Pacifica updates. Information cannot be elsewhere confirmed or corroborated but the author there has dedicated revealing updates and has access to most of the information provided -- and no one website or blog apparently has any more specific or revealed updates of what is occurring WITHIN OUR RADIO STATION : KPFK -which is  paid & thus 'owned' by all KPFK donors/ stakeholders/   ~ shareholders / members.

This means it is Us, the donors that keep KPFK funded and viable = and it is Not : 
the paid staff -
nor  the paid management, 
nor the self-serving LSB,  
and certainly not  the dominating volunteer Programers 
[who  all refuse to admit or reveal their own rewards & benefits -- their  having on-air access, as media influence...and their promotions/ events/ guests  ... and all the PR they constantly do for the PROMOTIONAL benefits of others, too.]  

And :  the slants, biases, prejudices and opinions of these inside Our Station's are left-side-political-view-only Programmers who do Not present a balanced, nor fair, nor just views. Nor are they honest about their outside alliances either. Nor do they ever reveal what trades, payments, favors or exchanges are given and taken for their on-air programming either.




                   

the hollow hand that only seems to still hold all the On Air Radio power -- but now is just a broken part of what it was when KPFK was whole, vital, valuable, and  the station kept loyal members wanting to give more and stay tuned... but....now,it has become a broken piece of... 
 
                            Pacifica Archives:

 At the September 29 PNB Crosier asks to have iED Brazon  answer the following questions:

“1) What’s being done about the selling of Archives material on eBay due to non-payment of rent for storage units?...” [plus other concerns too]

“…Crosier’s information request was ruled “out of order” and no information was provided to the board of directors on any of the …inquiries by Brazon….


                                   Membership Slide: 

“National supervisor. Lynne Serpe, provided tentative membership numbers that indicated Pacifica’s nationwide membership had slid dramatically from 55,000 members nationwide in 2015 --  to 48,000 in 2016 -- a one-year decline of 15% “ !!!

After the Pacifica’s archives have become “ 19 Pacifica reel-to-reel archival master tapes appeared for sale on Ebay.com in the last 2 weeks. 

An anonymous source told the NY-based blog “WBAI Now and Then” the materials came from a 20-year-old storage locker in Rosemead, CA, that had been maintained by the national office and was auctioned off in the last year -2015-  due to non-payment of the storage fee.”   


                   PACIFICA'S CFO ? or what is he now ?

“…Friday September 30, former Pacifica CFO, Raul Salvador, showed up for work at KPFK in Los Angeles. “

KPFK’s Staff were not notified  in advance  nor were Pacifica’s board of directors.  No information has been provided about what the job Salvado hired to do, or is doing. Nor was it defined what his responsibilities are, to whom he reports  or what amount of money /salary  he is being paid... tho iED Brazon of Nat’l Board is said to have indicated …at a PNB meeting that Salvador is  now a “ consultant”.

Raul Salvador first worked for Pacifica in May of 2013 as the CFO, then was terminated in January of 2014. Again, he was rehired as the CFO after the 2014 political coup [ and then at behest of the …PNB]  -  he  had resigned in May of 2015. Salavador then worked for a few following months as an undefined or vague dutied  “consultant”.

Notes of importance during Salvador’s employment: 
“The severely past due audits that have cost $2.5 million in CPB public media funding began during Salvador’s period as CFO, as well as misappropriation of parts of the Material World Foundation grant  (in 2014), an Indiegogo campaign (in 2014), a bequest to the Pacifica Foundation (in 2015) and a credit card fraud incident where a Pacifica company credit card account Salvador replaced was not closed, and then used for $4,000 in purchases at Ralph Lauren and Walmart in Southern California…”

And  when Sam Agarwal resigned as Pacifica’s chief financial officer - in September after 9 months on the job.  Meanwhile, KPFK’s business manager position has been officially vacant since January 2016 and has not been occupied by any permanent employee for over 3 years.


                                Audits:             

“ Pacifica has lost $2.5 million in public media community service grants (CSG) since 2014 - due to 3 consecutive missed deadlines for the submission of audited financial statements : (in June of 2014, 2015 and 2016).

"In addition to the financial audits, the CPB requires a quarterly open meetings compliance report. Pacifica has been on open meetings probation for several years. A blatant flouting of the open meeting regulations,”  as happened just recently, would likely elicit yet another year of probation . 

"This would further delay any restoration of funding - even if the backlogged audits could be produced, as required."

It seems unlikely that the audit backlog is getting caught up, even now. Audit chair, William Heerwagon, reports that the FY 2014 audit is not finished or even “close to finished” and there are still several open items  - more than 2 years after the end of the fiscal year.

Prior “Auditor Armanino is still owed money” - fees that must to be paid prior to any audit  reports or data release….Pacifica’s FY 2014 audit, which iED Brazon has been claiming repeatedly for months that this was “finished” – but it was due to the State of California Registry of Charitable Trusts and to the CPB on June 30, 2015 – 16 months ago.  It is the latest audit in Pacifica’s history. …”


                         ARBITRATION RESULTS:
                              

Pacifica’s  own income statements corroborate this stop payment.  KPFK owes Arbitration results: 

  ….”KPFK recently lost a large multi-grievance union arbitration with the station’s SAG-AFTRA bargaining unit-“  because of the newly-appointed Gen’l manager, Leslie Radford, imposing sudden unilateral work hour reductions … & this GM fired two employees… and she then denied  their contracted severance benefits. 

“The settlement amount is at least $200,000  -which will include back pay to approximately 20 employees whose hours were cut,  plus the re-hire of 2 fired employees - and the payment of at least 4 previously denied severance packages.  Surprisingly, iED Brazon has not shown the final settlement agreement to the PNB [board of directors].

The  KPFK GM has accused her KPFK staff of “deliberately jamming the toilets with paper towels. She gave employees a “snow day” while the bathrooms were repaired and then locked.”  Her memo can be seen at Pacificainexile’s original post/ site.

Such antics, if true, reveal some juvenile pranks or anger acted out by either/both sides to their ongoing conflicts – GM and KPFK staff that has been diminished and eliminated, after years of dedicated work there.

(C) 2016  MJ