Pacifica Foundation

Pacifica Network
Type Public radio network
Country United States
Availability Worldwide
Founded 1946
Owner Pacifica Foundation
Key people
 Lewis Hill, E. John Lewis, founders
Launch date
 1949
Affiliation WRN Broadcast
Official website
 Pacifica Network

Pacifica Foundation is an American non-profit organization which owns five independently operated, non-commercial, listener-supported radio stations known for their progressive/liberal[1][2] political orientation. Its national headquarters adjoins station KPFA in Berkeley, California.

Pacifica Foundation also operates the Pacifica Network, a program service supplying over 180 affiliated stations with various programs, primarily news and public affairs. It was the first public radio network in the United States and it is the world's oldest listener-funded radio network.[3] Programs such as Democracy Now! and Free Speech Radio News have been some of its most popular productions.

The Pacifica Radio Archives, housed at station KPFK in Los Angeles, is the oldest public radio archive in the United States, documenting more than five decades of grassroots political, cultural, and performing arts history. The archive includes original recordings of interviews with John Coltrane, James Baldwin, Lorraine Hansberry, and Langston Hughes, among many others.

The Pacifica Radio Archives feature in their own 30-minute slot on BBC Radio 5 Live's Up All Night program.

History

Early history

Pacifica was founded in 1946 by pacifists E. John Lewis and Lewis Hill. During World War II, Hill, as well as Lewis, filed for conscientious objector status. After the war, Lewis, Hill and a small group of former conscientious objectors created the Pacifica Foundation in Pacifica, California. KPFA in Berkeley commenced broadcast activities in 1949.

Internal conflict, 1990s–2002

For most of its history, Pacifica gave each of its stations independent control of programming. During the 1990s, a major controversy arose over rumors that the Pacifica National Board and national staff were attempting to centralize control of content, in order to increase audience. The rumors included accusations that the board proposed changing the network's funding model away from a reliance exclusively on listener donations and toward a mix of listener donations and corporate foundation funding similar to that of NPR. There were also accusations that the Board was considering selling both KPFA and WBAI in New York City, which operate on commercial-band FM frequencies (94.1 and 99.5, respectively) worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

This led to years of conflict, including court cases, public demonstrations, firings and strikes of station staff, whose common plight inspired creation of Radio4all.net to preserve what they saw as the original spirit of Pacifica. Many listeners to the individual stations—especially KPFA and WBAI—objected to what they saw as an attempt to tone down the overtly left-leaning political content on Pacifica stations. The controversy included highly publicized ideologically-charged disputes between listener organizations and Mary Frances Berry, a former chairwoman of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, who chaired the corporation's board at the time.

The board eventually was embroiled in counter-lawsuits by board members and listener-sponsors and, after global settlement of the lawsuits in November 2001, an interim board was formed to craft new bylaws, which it did in two tumultuous years of national debates among thousands of listener-sponsors and activists, finally giving listener-sponsors the right and responsibility to elect new Local Station Boards at each of the five Pacifica stations. These local boards in turn elect the national board of directors. Aside from some minor changes, the same 2003 bylaws remain in effect today.

Some history, 2002–2009

Pacifica National News director Dan Coughlin was voted Interim Executive Director of the network in 2002 (the "Interim" was later dropped). The years of internal legal battles and financial mismanagement had taken a toll. In 2005, Coughlin resigned, the network was still largely disorganized, and Pacifica reverted to operating with an interim executive director for most of the year.

In January 2006, Pacifica hired Greg Guma as the next executive director of the Pacifica Foundation. By the end of the year, the Foundation had fully recovered its financial health and had launched two new national programs: Informativo Pacifica, a daily Spanish Language newscast, and From the Vault, a weekly program drawn from Pacifica's extensive audio archives. Pacifica also produced Informed Dissent, a ten-week series for the 2006 mid-term elections that drew from talent across the network.

Guma left his post in September 2007.[4] The National Board unanimously chose former KPFA general manager Nicole Sawaya as the next executive director.

Sawaya was among the staff members fired by the national board in 1999 amidst Pacifica's internal crisis. Sawaya began her tenure as executive director in mid-November 2007, but abruptly changed her mind two weeks later. Pacifica historian Matthew Lasar said she "found the level of internecine dysfunction at Pacifica overwhelming, and fled her job."

The Pacifica National Board spent the next several months negotiating with her, and Sawaya resumed her job on March 5, 2008. She resigned effective September 30,[5] citing "dysfunctional" governance and "shoddy and opaque" business practices that had plunged the organization into a financial crisis.

Sawaya's departure was followed by major staff layoffs. In 2009, Pacifica Board chair Grace Aaron became interim executive director, former board member LaVarn Williams replaced Lonnie Hicks as chief financial officer, and the national office took control of WBAI in New York. Aaron appointed Williams acting GM of WBAI in May, and Hicks filed a lawsuit against the foundation alleging that he was dismissed because he is African American and a whistleblower.

A Timeline of the Coup

How the Dan Siegel/Leslie Brazon faction came to control the Pacifica National Board:<http://pacificainexile.org/archives/1817>

July 2012 – Former Pacifica ED Dan Coughlin (2003-2005) submits a secret bid for a lease management agreement for WBAI’s signal between Pacifica and Manhattan Neighborhood Network, the NY PEG channel he directs. The LMA proposal contains no independent facility for WBAI and would fold Pacifica’s NY operation entirely into Coughlin’s organization.

August 2013 – Pacifica opens up a formal RFP for a WBAI lease management agreement. There are six proposals in addition to Coughlin’s. The board talks about it for a long time, but never makes a decision.

September 2013 – KPFA-affiliated board member Margy Wilkinson and former corporate counsel Dan Siegel secretly incorporate the “KPFA Foundation” to scoop up KPFA’s license and maybe some others should they become loosened from Pacifica.

February 2014 – KPFA’s Margy Wilkinson declares herself the winner of a tie vote for board chair on the basis of a “fifth place vote” ranking when there were only two candidates running.

March 2014 – The board fires the executive director Summer Reese only 6 weeks after she signed a 3-year contract. Reese was pushing to get the audit done and cracking down on allegations of piracy at the NY station (and elsewhere throughout the network). Wilkinson appoints herself the new executive director. Corporate counsel Terry Gross, a famed attorney, resigns on March 25, stating the board majority did not respect his legal advice to them. Gross refused to pursue legal action against Reese and the national office occupation.

April-May 2014 – Reese occupies the national office until forced out by court order pursued by attorney Dan Siegel. All but one of Pacifica’s national office accounting staff resign after the court order. Initial complaint filed with the office of the California Attorney General by 8 former board members alleging wrongdoing, financial mismanagement, and bylaws violations. Dan Siegel is secretly retained as Pacifica’s lawyer by the board majority. Current independent board members also file suit in PDGG vs. Pacifica. Empire State Building returns WBAI rental checks, threatens them with eviction from their transmitter rental site and negotiations are reported to begin which to this day have not been completed. WBAI pays partial rent and accrues the remainder as debt in the amount of approximately $40K a month. The lease calls for 10% increases annually from 2015-2020. Pacifica files for possible WBAI transmitter relocation to the Conde Nast Building at 4 Times Square, but does not move there.

June 2014 – New board majority tries to amend the bylaws and vote down 9 of 10 amendments, all suggested by themselves. The only one they pass is one that allows them to try amending them twice a year instead of once a year. Wilkinson loots the restricted fund for the renovation of KPFK’s music studio to pay operating expenses. Pacifica misses June 30 audit deadline and forfeits at least $750,000 in 2015 CSG and NPPAG funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

July 2014 – Former board majority member Hank Lamb calls for booting Wilkinson for dishonesty and withholding documents from the board. His motion is never heard by the board. Wilkinson dispatches experienced radio station manager Richard Pirodsky from KPFK and installs the former facilities manager as the GM to “save money”. The first comments about “amputating WBAI” are heard from board members.

October 2014 – The “call center” imposed on the California stations turns out to be run by a Tea Party politician in Oregon. Pacifica accepts a $156,000 loan, later a gift, from Southern CA real estate millionaire Aris Anagnos, the employer of board member Lydia Brazon. Brazon handles the gift/loan and does not recuse herself from the board vote to accept the money. Wilkinson loots the restricted fund for Uprising’s Indiegogo TV campaign to pay health benefits. Independent board members lawsuit PDGG vs. Pacifica is abandoned due to lack of funds.

December 2014 – Bill Fletcher declines an offer to become Pacifica’s new ED. Pacifica’s 2013 audit enters its 13th month undone, now six months past the legal limit. The year goes by with no board election held. The California Attorney General initiates an audit of the Pacifica Foundation.

March-April 2015 – 2013 audit finally appears, 18 months after the end of the fiscal year. John Profit, a Texas NPR exec agrees to be the new ED and to start in June.

May 2015 – Siegel/Brazon board majority passes motion extending their own terms and those of all other delegates elected in 2012 from three years to four years, violating the Pacifica bylaws that any extension of the terms of delegates or directors must be approved by Pacifica’s members by ballot. WPFW moves to new rental digs on K Street, DC’s Lobbyist Row.

June 2015 – Wilkinson appoints Siegel/Brazon board crony and community college speech teacher Leslie Radford the new GM of KPFK on her last day over the head of incoming ED John Proffitt. CFO Raul Salvador quits. Wilkinson’s “notepad” from 2013 appears with a list of her fellow board members categorizing them as “us”, “them” and “workables”. Pacifica misses June 30 audit deadline and forfeits at least $750,000 in 2016 CSG and NPPAG funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

September 2015 – John Proffitt quits as ED after 4 months on the job and is replaced by Lydia Brazon. 4 KPFK music programmers quit on air decrying Radford’s destructiveness and the entire station’s staff is put on involuntary half time. Radford also lays off the KPFK webmaster and 4 unpaid music programmers depart in protest, including 3/5 of the station’s famed Global Village strip. SAG-AFTRA takes Pacifica to arbitration for labor violations. The secret 2013 filing of the KPFA Foundation paperwork comes to light. Election delayed a month because Pacifica says it cannot pay a $20,000 postage bill.

November 2015 – Board members talk about mortgaging buildings and former Dan Siegel employee Jose Luis Fuentes describes bankuptcy as “a beginning”. KPFA is asked to return a $400,000 bequest made out to Pacifica that KPFA’s GM signed for instead of Pacifica’s CFO and deposited in KPFA’s bank account. Emails released show Radford’s “security guard” Adam Rice, who she has made the station’s volunteer coordinator, is providing instructions about program changes to the GM. Rice is overheard talking about carrying guns on KPFK’s facility.

December-January 2016. The board majority consolidates its voting bloc by sequentially filling the two Affiliate Director board seats, thereby avoiding the even factional split of the bylaws-mandated proportional voting method. It is soon revealed that neither appointee is from a qualified Pacifica Affiliate station. Board majority members Cerene Roberts, Tony Norman, Adriana Casenave, Jose Luis Fuentes and Brian Edwards Tiekert return to the Pacifica National Board after voting to extend their terms six months earlier, joined by new members Wesley Bethune and Vinisha Patel-Adams who are also overstaying elected terms. Something’s Happening, the highest rated program on KPFK is shrunk to half its former time and is replaced by a program strip anchored by Rice that is premised on using profanity in the late night. KPFK rejects the board majority in an unprecedented landslide victory for the independents, but the rest of the stations end up with majority-affiliated or closely split boards, mostly due to having half their members overstay their 3-year elected terms.

Feb-March 2016 – Board majority insists on filling a NY vacant seat with last place finisher from 2012. When NY rebels, national board refuses to seat them on national board at all. New CFO is hired. 2014 audit now becomes latest audit ever. Two straight board meetings disrupted with music and noise-making in acts of civil disobedience. CFO announces that NY and DC stations may face liquidation and sale in as little as 60 days.

April 2016 – Two requests for injunctive relief are filed against Pacifica by members: one in California demanding board members whose terms have expired step down and one in New York demanding national board representation for WBAI-FM.

June 2016 – SAG-AFTRA wins union arbitration on all counts. against Pacifica including failure to consult, layoffs in violation of contract and withholding of severance pay. National Archives withdraws support of the Pacifica Archives after long-time director Brian De Shazor resigns. ED Brazon, board chair Tony Norman and treasurer Brian Edwards-Tiekert try to cancel an emergency board meeting called after CFO Agarwal said payroll won’t be met within weeks or months and there is no plan in place for when that occurs.

July 2016 – The board’s 4 minority directors convene two special meetings on the financial crisis. The Siegel/Brazonites attempt to cancel both, and then boycott them. The four minority directors are joined by WBAI’s 4 elected national board members who have been excluded from national board meetings for the entire year.

August 2016 – Pacifica loses director’s and officer’s liability insurance. A bridge 60-day transition policy with an insolvency exemption runs out October 11 2016.

September 2016 – CFO Sam Agarwal resigns, citing mismanagement. KPFK loses arbitration proceeding with SAG-AFTA and owes close to $300K in back pay and penalties. KPFA GM Quincy McCoy says the Berkeley station is “on the brink of collapse”. IED Brazon presents a one-page financial recovery plan. Armed guards return to Pacifica board meetings after Houston’s local station board brings in a police officer with a weapon to a meeting. Pacifica archival master tapes are being auctioned off on Ebay after Pacifica failed to pay rental fees on a storage unit.

October 2016 – Raul Salvador, former CFO, returns as a “consultant”. Pacifica board deliberately fails to stream meeting and willfully violates open meeting requirements. Resounding victories for the independent slates in NY, LA and Houston in Pacifica’s board elections.

December 2016 – The board majority votes to throw out the results of the 2016 board elections and have them “recounted”and declares newly elected delegates, any officers and national directors they elect and any business they transact is “provisional” until further notice. They follow that up by twice throwing out elections held at WBAI by the newly-elected delegates to fill the vacant NY slots on the national board. This is done to prevent NY independent directors from voting in the affiliate director elections, as if their votes were counted, the majority of the national board in 2017 would no longer belong to the Siegel/Brazonites. Election teller Terry Goodman publicly issues a tally including the votes of the disenfranchised directors and describes it as “more legitimate”. Former PNB director David Beaton is the winner with 7 first place votes of the 16 cast. Beaton is not notified by the board’s Siegel Brazon majority that he has won the election.

January 2017- The 2017 board is seated. 2016 officers Adriana Casenave and Janet Kobren declare themselves “acting officers” and prevent the 2017 board from selecting its own officers. Empire State Building files a lawsuit for $1.8M in unpaid rental fees. The California Attorney General calls in the Pacifica board for a meeting. IED Brazon and Siegel and Yee attorney Alan Yee conceal the meeting from the board of directors and attend with the outgoing 2016 officers. Tony Norman leaks the meeting (after it happened) to KPFA’s Bill Campisi, who makes it public. Dan Siegel registers the KPFA Foundation with the Registry of Charitable Trusts after designating himself as its chief executive officer and chief financial officer and Margy Wilkinson as its secretary.

February 2017 – The 2017 board preempts Casenave’s attempt to prevent the February 10th PNB meeting from going forward and terminates Lydia Brazon as interim executive director, appointing independent-affiliated William Crosier to replace her, ending the Siegel/Brazon coup after 35 months.

Ongoing conflicts: 2017

After Pacifica's board of directors completed the 2016 board year with the exclusion of 75% of WBAI's board representation and then moved to decertify the 2016 board elections which were won handily by the independent faction not in power. The new 2017 board of directors replaced interim executive director Lydia Brazon with KPFT director Bill Crosier and reinstated WBAI's delegation.

At the 02-10-17 Pacifica National Board (PNB) Meeting the newly formed PNB recognized the alternate tally for Affiliate Directors (which included votes of the disenfranchised WBAI delegation). This resulted in Efia Nwangaza being replaced, and also resulted in a lawsuit filed against the Pacifica Foundation by Efia Nwangaza, Board Member Adriana Casanave, and resigned Board Member Sharon Brown. Attorney Sharon Brown became a party to this lawsuit against Pacifica because of a determination that a political appointment, by Los Angeles County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl, appointing Brown as a Commissioner to the Los Angeles County Small Business Commission precluded Sharon Brown from serving as a PNB Director according to the Pacifica Foundation's Bylaws. Adriana Casanave is party to the lawsuit because of her admonishment by the PNB for dilatory behavior. [02/10/17 and 02/16/17 PNB minutes may be found at https://www.kpftx.org/archive.php][Lawsuit may be found at http://justiceunity.com/joomla34/index.php/component/tags/tag/lawsuit]

Initiatives

The broadcast was co-anchored by journalist Aaron Glantz and KPFA Morning Show host Aimee Allison.[6]

California Attorney General's investigation

The California Attorney General notified the Pacifica Radio Foundation's Board of Directors on December 17, 2014 that the Office of the California State Attorney General had opened a full and formal investigation into the actions of the Pacifica Radio Foundation in the persons of its Executive Directors, its Members of the Board of Directors, and other persons of the Pacifica Radio Foundation and its five member stations with respect to numerous alleged serious financial irregularities, failures to comply with California law governing nonprofit foundations, the Foundation's bylaws, and various other violations of law, and required the Pacifica Radio Foundation to provide full and complete documentation as to its financial affairs from 2010 until the present date before January 15, 2015 as the first phase of its investigations.

The California Attorney General called Pacifica's board in for a meeting in January 2017 and has demanded the filing of the delinquent 2015 financial audit by no later than August 27, 2017 and the replacement of restricted funds. The new interim executive director Bill Crosier has pledged to get the organization into compliance again.

Programs

A show which has for years been considered the flagship of Pacifica Radio's national programming is Democracy Now!, an independent news organization that covers democracy, human rights and justice issues, and questions the motives of U.S. foreign and domestic policy. Hosted by Amy Goodman and Juan González, this program is a compilation of news, interviews, and documentaries. Democracy Now! is heard and seen on more than 700 radio and TV stations across the U.S. including public-access television stations and satellite television channels Free Speech TV and Link TV. WDEV, based in Waterbury, Vermont, is the only commercial radio station in the U.S. that carries the program[7]—even though it is also heard in north-central Vermont by Pacifica affiliate WGDR in Plainfield and its sister station, WGDH in Hardwick.[8]

In 2002, as Pacifica implemented its new listener-sponsor-accountability structure and as Pacifica and Democracy Now! settled outstanding disputes from previous years, Democracy Now! spun off with substantial funding from Pacifica to become an independent production.

The Pacifica network, in addition to extensive community-based productions at its various stations around the United States, also featured a daily newscast Free Speech Radio News for over a decade. FSRN was a radio program founded by Pacifica Reporters Against Censorship, a group of mostly Pacifica Network News reporters who went on strike against the Pacifica board policies of the late 1990s. FSRN was primarily funded by Pacifica, and includes headlines and news features produced by reporters based around the U.S. and in scores of countries around the world. In September 2013, the board of directors of FSRN issued a lay-off notice to all staff, and confirmed that their last broadcast would take place on September 27, 2013. The board cited financial difficulties as the reason for the decision.[9]

In 2006, Pacifica added two new national programs: From the Vault from the Pacifica Radio Archives, a weekly program that thematically repackages archival material, making it relevant to contemporary listeners; and Informativo Pacifica, based at KPFK in Los Angeles, a daily Spanish-language newscast that includes reporters from the U.S. and many Latin American countries.

Local Pacifica stations also produce many programs that are available to network stations and affiliates. These include: Sprouts, a weekly showcase of producers and stations around the network, often in documentary format; Explorations in Science with Dr. Michio Kaku, a weekly radio program on science, politics, and the environment; Dennis Bernstein's Flashpoints a daily drive-time public affairs program; and many other regular programs.

Pacifica also produces a wide variety of special broadcasts, including live coverage of major U.S. Congressional hearings, national mobilizations against war, and other important events, such as the United States Social Forum. Special programs also include news documentaries, holidays and commemorations, and archival audio from the Pacifica Radio Archives.

Pacifica-owned stations

Stations are arranged in alphabetical order by state and city of license.

Note: All stations except for WBAI were built and signed-on by the Pacifica Foundation.

City of License/Market Station Owned Since
Berkeley, California
(San Francisco Bay Area)		 KPFA/94.1 1949
KPFB/89.3 1954
Los Angeles KPFK/90.7 1959 [10]
Washington, D.C. WPFW/89.3 1977 [11]
New York City WBAI/99.5 1960 [12][13]
Houston KPFT/90.1 1970

Pacifica Foundation Radio Board of Directors

  • Sabrina Jacobs (KPFA)—Vice Chair
  • Akio Tanaka (KPFA)—Secretary
  • TM Scruggs (KPFA)
  • Andrea Turner (KPFA)
  • Jonathan Alexander ([KPFK)—Chair
  • Jan Goodman (KPFK)
  • Grace Aaron (KPFK)
  • Mansoor Sabbagh (KPFK)
  • Adriana Casenave (KPFT)
  • Bill Crosier (KPFT)—Interim Executive Director
  • Robert Mark (KPFT)
  • Rhonda Garner (KPFT)
  • Cerene Roberts (WBAI)
  • Alex Steinberg (WBAI)
  • Kathryn Davis (WBAI)
  • Kenneth Laufer (WBAI)
  • Jim Brown (WPFW)
  • Nancy Sorden (WPFW)
  • Maskeelah Washington (WPFW)
  • Benito Diaz (WPFW)
  • Themba Tshibanda—Radio Uhuru
  • David Beaton—WSLR

Financial problems at WBAI

On August 9, 2013, Pacifica interim executive director Summer Reese announced that due to financial problems, Pacifica-owned radio station WBAI-FM in New York was laying off about two-thirds of its staff, effective August 12, 2013. The entire news department was reportedly included in the layoff.[14]

Summer Reese was hired as Executive Director and very shortly thereafter at Pacifica, she was then removed forcibly from her position. A lawsuit over her contract not being honored and her being thereafter excluded from Pacifica's network is still awaiting resolution by the courts. She had worked as an 'interim executive director' before about 1 year before being hired, and contracted, on to the full position.

Many other PNB members noted some upheavals of how Pacifica and all its radio stations were not being held accountable financially and how the New York station WBAI was not able to pay its debts and maintain its own operations.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Lasar, Matthew (2000). Pacifica Radio: The Rise of an Alternative Network. Temple University. p. viii. ISBN 1-56639-777-4. Retrieved 2012-02-22.
  2. ↑ "Progressive Radio". TuneIN. Archived from the original on 2011-07-16. Retrieved 2012-02-22.
  3. ↑ Meikle, Graham (2002). Future Active: Media Activism and the Internet. Psychology Press. p. 71. ISBN 978-0-415-94322-2.
  4. ↑ Archived February 5, 2012, at the Wayback Machine.
  5. ↑ "Sawaya leaves Pacifica, publishes regretful critique". American University School of Communication. September 25, 2008. Archived from the original on 2010-11-26. Retrieved 2012-02-22.
  6. ↑ "Winter Soldier 2008 Audio, Photo Archives from Pacifica Radio". KPFA. Archived from the original on 2009-03-31. Retrieved 2012-02-22.
  7. ↑ "Program Schedule". WDEV Radio Vermont. Retrieved 2012-02-22.
  8. ↑ "Democracy Now!". Wgdr.org. Retrieved 2013-07-30.
  9. ↑ "Free Speech Radio". Myemail.constantcontact.com. Retrieved 2013-09-24.
  10. ↑ "KPFK (FM) on air." Broadcasting, July 27, 1959, pg. 52
  11. ↑ "On the air." Broadcasting, March 14, 1977, pg. 38
  12. ↑ "WBAI (FM) given away." Broadcasting, November 30, 1959, pg. 58
  13. ↑ "Gift granted." Broadcasting, January 4, 1960, pg. 36
  14. ↑ Ben Sisario, "WBAI-FM Lays Off Most of Staff", August 11, 2013, The New York Times.

Further reading

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