Pacifica’s Plot Against New York’s WBAI Fully Exposed

Dateline Berkeley October 13, 2019

THE TURN OF THE SCREW: WBAI’S ELECTED DIRECTORS PREVENTED FROM VOTING ON WBAI SHUTDOWN

(Courtesy of PacificaInExile.org)

Berkeley-Faced with an imminent loss on an after-the fact and in-secret Pacifica National Board vote to approve the shutdown of WBAI-FM, the perpetrators are changing the voters. During a closed session meeting on Saturday night, a letter was presented proposing to invoke conflict of interest charges against 75% of WBAI’s elected directors,who are charged with being the voice of WBAI’s 8,000 members on the Pacifica Foundation board. The charges of conflict of interest invoked Section 5233 of the CA Corporations Code which is about financial conflicts of interest. The 5233 accusation seeks to prevent three of WBAI”s elected directors from being allowed to vote on all matters affecting WBAI members indefinitely. The three votes being eliminated are unable to vote on whether or not they are eliminated, allowing a minority of the board of directors to “vote” to disenfranchise the majority and therefore win a series of votes they would otherwise have lost.

The vote on the Pacifica National Board is vital because the actions to terminate all of WBAI’s staff and turn the NY community radio station into a repeater can only be legally supported as an action of the licensee, which are the 22 members seated on the national Pacifica board. If the majority of the directors seated on the Pacifica National Board do not support the shutdown of WBAI, the action is not an action of the licensee.

The removal of voting rights is being applied to WBAI staff representative Shawn Rhodes because is WBAI staff, and WBAI directors Alex Steinberg and James Sagurton because they are plaintiffs in WBAI vs Pacifica, the request to the Supreme Court of New York to issue a temporary restraining order to halt the shutdown of community radio operations in the New York metropolitan area.

The voter suppression being applied to WBAI’s elected representatives for the second time in the last four years, removes the representative voting rights promised to WBAI members in Pacifica’s bylaws.

Article Three, Members of the Foundation, Section 5: Rights

All Members shall have all rights granted to them by law or by these Bylaws, including without limit the right to vote, on the terms and in the manner set forth in these Bylaws

Article Five, Board of Directors of the Foundation, Section 1: Board of Directors –
Eligibility, Number, Powers and Duties

The Board shall have equal representation from each of the Foundation’s five radio stations. The Delegates from the five Foundation radio stations shall each elect four (4) Directors : three (3) of whom shall be Listener-Sponsor Delegates and one (1) of whom shall be a Staff Delegate — for a total of twenty (20) “Station Representative” Directors, as set forth in Section 3 of this Article of the Bylaws.

The activities and affairs of the Foundation shall be conducted and all corporate powers shall be exercised by or under the direction of the Board.

When last we wrote, Judge Frank Nervo of the Supreme Court of New York had halted the shutdown of WBAI with a temporary restraining order in effect until October 18th, which the perpetrators were choosing to ignore. On Thursday, Judge Debra James upheld the portion of the TRO that prevented the termination of WBAI’s staff thus removing the putative reason for the takeover, but allowed Pacifica to continue to pipe in reruns and keep WBAI’s local content off the air, including local news and information and PSA’s and public affairs programs generated by New York community-based groups. The judge’s decision which is in place until a hearing on October 18th, was based on the rights of the licensee which is why the license owner has to put the matter to a board discussion and vote. The perpetrators have since moved to shift the case to the federal courts, invoking the Trump administration FCC under Ajit Pai as a potentially interested party.

The decision by the perpetrators is contrary to Pacifica’s mission which is to provide an outlet to the members of the served community – “In radio broadcasting operations to encourage and provide outlets for the creative skills and energies of the community” and removes all content by and about New Yorkers and New York and $1.378 million dollars donated by New Yorkers in the last year to support that local content and to maintain their voting rights in the affairs of the Pacifica Foundation.

So why is this happening? We know that at least here in the Bay Area, you have been inundated by e-mails claiming imminent financial collapse due to WBAI and elaborate claims that WBAI will destroy all the rest of the Pacifica stations if not stopped in their tracks right now. Is there any basis in reality for these claims? Not really.

The Pacifica Foundation organizes itself into the 5 station areas, an archives division and a small national office that mostly deals with accounting and regulatory compliance (and none too well). The only income the national office generates is from selling sidebands and collecting affiliate dues, an amount that totaled about $575,000 last year. In order to support additional operations and an executive director, the Pacifica national office collects “dues” from the fund drives of the five Pacifica stations, an amount that equals about $1.4 million dollars a year when the stations can afford it. They call this central services.

The Pacifica National Office, whose power stems from holding the station’s licenses by grants from the FCC, a structure set up by Lew Hill in 1946 before KPFA went on the air three years later, has over the years shut down stations including KPFA in the summer of 199. After that, its structure was overhauled to allow donors to the foundation to exercise control and theoretically prevent future shutdowns by being granted membership rights. Over the years, this tiny office has authorized expansive contracts indebting the five stations, including the two Democracy Now contracts which transferred over $7 million dollars of member donations to an outside nonprofit organization, and the Empire State building tower contract which indebted the five stations to paying another $8 million dollars to Wall Street. Not surprisingly, the five stations which all had decreases in their membership rolls from 2018 to 2019 except WBAI which went up by 3%, have defaulted on these obligations, with Democracy Now forgiving the last $1.8 million of contract dues in 2018 and the last $3 million of the Empire contract rolled over into a low-interest loan from a NYC-area foundation.

You guessed it. It’s another Pacifica contract. In 2019, Pacifica contracted with NETA to do accounting. NETA (National Educational Telecommunications Association) is a South-Carolina-based corporation that signs contracts to perform administrative services for public media companies. Pacifica’s national office signed a contract to pay NETA $35,000 a month or $420,000 a year. How was this new expense to be paid for? Pacifica said they would reduce their administrative payroll by $400,000 a year by jettisoning their in-house accounting staff.

Oops. Pacifica did not reduce it’s administrative payroll by $400,000. It did not reduce its administrative payroll by $1. In fact it increased its administrative payroll in 2019 by $162,000. Without a CFO or any in-house accounting staff, Pacifica kept an administrative payroll of $650,011 in 2019, exactly the same the $655,000 average over the years 2011-2017 when it kept a full-time CFO, controller and staff accountant on the payroll. Then Pacifica added this new $420,000 contract, bringing its 2019 national office payroll to over a million dollars, which is unprecedented over the past decade. That is why the national office has a cash flow crisis. Unsupervised overspending at the national level.

In order to conceal this from you, the perpetrators have been throwing around a bunch of false numbers about WBAI, claiming WBAI owes them $7 or $8 million dollars. Not in recent history. Without boring you all to death, the $7 million dollars represents the following: $2.5 million is the unpaid portion of the Empire contract that Pacifica signed, not WBAI, and is now in the form of a loan from a NYC-based foundation. $500,000 is the unpaid vacation, sick time and pension payments owed to WBAI’s employees under their SAG-AFTRA contract, which Pacifica signed. Of the remaining liability of “central services”, $3,582,000 million (of a $4,182,000 total) dates from 2014 or earlier or more than five years ago. WBAI’s unpaid central services from 2015 onward have been entirely paid by a generous bequest from a NY donor who gave a $900,000 estate gift, of which $583,500 was directly given to the Pacifica national office.

1977 – Working on WBAI phone lines

The national office’s cash flow problem is that they have run through the money WBAI gave them (which if they were smart they would have socked away to help pay back the foundation loan instead of spending it all), and now they cannot pay the contracts they signed.

In fact, the largest central services shortfall from the 2018-2019 period is from WPFW in Washington DC and before that in 2015-2016, the largest shortfall was from Los Angeles station KPFK, which also incurred a $295,000 labor settlement in those years for anti-union activities.

This is all easily discernible from basic forensic accounting, but the perpetrators are relying on shouting “squirrel” in order to justify their actions. Let’s look at the short-term costs of the WBAI shutdown:

Loss of $350,000 to $400,000 in fall fund drive revenue in WBAI, immediate payout of accrued vacation, sick and pension accruals to WBAI employees of approximately $400-$500,000, refunds of the first four days of BAI’s fund drive of $40,000, loss of monthly “BAI buddy” recurring donations of $20,000 a month, upcoming arbitration with the SAG-AFTRA union for lack of notice to the union of impending layoffs which costs a minimum of $50,000 for anti-union activities, legal costs for 3 hearings, with many more to go, of at least $40,000. Ongoing costs of $30,000 a month to operate WBAI as a repeater station without any donations from the now-fired 8,000 WBAI members.

Who spends $900,000 to get out of a cash flow hole?

Nobody, that’s who. So operating WBAI as a repeater station is not the long-term plan. The vicious joke is that “WBAI is worth more dead than alive”. Very true. WBAI is a commercially convertible license so its value as a commodity is huge and dwarfs the value of the rest of Pacifica’s assets combined. The problem for Pacifica is those darned bylaws and that darned mission statement.

There’s a reason why you got an email recently from the “Pacifica Restructuring Project” to change the bylaws to a handpicked board and give those handpicked board members wide latitude to change the bylaws as they wish with nothing more than 30 days notice. The elected majority of the Pacifica board of directors stopped that bylaws amendment last month. But now the elected majority of the Pacifica board of directors can no longer vote and the gold rush is at hand.

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Pacifica’s Raid on WBAI Stopped in Court

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: From Pacifica in Exile Tuesday October 8, 2019

Supreme Court of New York Stops Pacifica’s Attack on WBAI

Berkeley-In the morning, a crew of Pacifica Foundation board members led by brand new IED John Vernile, locked out the staff at WBAI-FM in New York and then fired them all, told the landlord to rent the space to someone else, and started piping in content from the West Coast over mid-Manhattan. In the night, the Supreme Court of New York told them to stop it and restored WBAI’s facilities, equipment, studio space, employees and control over the airwaves.

If this feels to you like a flashback, well there’s a reason for that. Two decades ago, the Pacifica Foundation locked out employees at Berkeley’s KPFA and started piping in content from Texas. At that time, the nonprofit’s board was united in their desire to teach KPFA a lesson and extract the millions in license value. Not this time. At least half of Pacifica’s elected board wasn’t informed, had no idea. and never consented. That’s probably why Supreme Court judge Frank Nervo (at home and in his pajamas) called a halt to things. This is what he said.

The Supreme Court of the State of New York has issued a stay and temporary restraining order enjoining the Pacifica Foundation from 1. Seizing any property files or equipment from WBAI 2. Terminating any employees of WBAI 3. Preventing WBAI from broadcasting it’s regularly scheduled programming. 4. Interfering in the business or orderly administration of WBAI pursuant to Section 1315 of the NYC Not for Profit Code and the Pacifica Foundation bylaws until a hearing to be held on October 18th.
The WBAI takeover followed immediately upon the collapse of a proposed set of new bylaws presented by the same folks who attempted to lock out WBAI, namely the KPFA board faction formerly known as Concerned Listeners, before they were formerly known as Save KPFA and currently known as United for Independent Radio. For the bylaws amendment petition, the name used was “The Pacifica Restructuring Project”. They were joined by a few board members from Texas and Los Angeles. The petition to the members sought to install six hand-picked people as a new self-selecting board majority that would perpetuate itself indefinitely with broad powers to further change the bylaws. The petition, which aimed to install the six by January of 2020, relied on the existing national board to open a bylaws amendment period and call another election. The board deadlocked at 11-11, blocking the petition until next year, and the proponents resorted to trying to kick one of their opponents off the board, KPFA’s Tom Voorhees (an action which is still scheduled for October 26th at KPFA).

Denied their hand-picked six to rubber stamp their actions, the group simply decided to go ahead in secret with the attack on WBAI with no board sanction. This secrecy meant that a number of things that needed to happen, didn’t: no meet and confer with the union prior to laying off union staff, no advance notice to employees and programmers, no notice to the landlord, and no consultation with the lender who holds as collateral studio buildings in LA, Houston and Berkeley.

Whether it could possibly be considered a sober plan no matter how carefully carried out is another matter. The lockout interrupted a fund drive in process that would normally book around $300,000. Laid off employees get severance pay and failing to meet and confer prior to layoffs results in a trip to arbitration. It probably wasn’t cheap to find a lawyer and dispatch them to Judge Nervo’s house in the middle of the night to argue unsuccessfully against the TRO. A repeater station still needs to transmit and WBAI’s 4 Times Square transmitter costs $12K a month. With no fund drive apparatus or staff and a program schedule of re-runs, where does that money come from? It’s unlikely to be the NYC audience whose programs were all cancelled. An organization so desperately broke that it has to cannibalize its own radio station can’t fly the IED and at least three board members to NYC and put them up in hotels to do the dirty work. It doesn’t really add up. Most WBAI’ers concluded the end game is a sale of the station license for the tens of millions of dollars it will get on the open market as a commercially convertible license.

Besides its role as a cash cow to provide a windfall to other 4 stations, are the finances at WBAI really that bad or that much worse than the other stations? Once the predatory Empire State Building tower lease Pacifica stuck WBAI with was ended, the answer is not really that much worse. You don’t have to take my word for it. Here is a profit and loss statement for 2018-2019.

It shows an operating deficit of -$227,000 including the internal transfers that Pacifica calls “central services” which are not direct costs, but payments to the Pacifica Foundation itself to support the national office. We want to be clear that in the end, all of the Pacifica stations are going to have to find a way to break even or the long-term prognosis is bleak. However, if every Pacifica unit that ran an operating deficit of -$227,000 or more was shut down, all the employees fired and the station turned into a repeater with every single local program cancelled, then the treatment would have happened to:

KPFK in 2007, 2013, 2014 and 2015

WPFW in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2016

KPFA in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013 and 2016

Only KPFT in Houston would be left standing.

In another ironic twist, the WBAI signal area in 2019 provided a generous bequest from the estate of a former WBAI fan of $583,500. A nice chunk of change that was left to the national foundation which promptly ratcheted up their annual spending from $1.82 million in 2018 to $2.49 million in 2019, an increase of $670,000 powered by that estate gift. Once it was all spent by national, they moved to shut WBAI down.

So what now? The Pacifica Foundation has been silent since the TRO was issued WBAI staff and programmers are meeting tomorrow to get themselves back up and running. WBAI members should support the station right now and show it with your words, emails and dollars. (Mail them checks. The Pacifica Foundation disabled the online donations system).  In other signal areas, please speak up. Your delegates are elected and you put them there to represent you so can tell them what to do and what not to do in your name. Each station has instructions for contacting the local station board on the website and they meet in public once a month. Democratic Socialists of America, who have a program on WBAI, are mobilizing to support the station in New York. In Berkeley, which is the most responsible for the attack on WBAI, there should be accountability with the listeners who elected these delegates.

Since this all just happened on 10-7-2019, plans are still being developed, but we are told there may be a press conference on October 8 at 9am at KPFA and speakouts are expected at the planned local station board meetings on October 19th and October 26th here in Berkeley. Other signal areas will likely also arrange some events. To be clear, about the last thing in the world our listener dollars should be spent on is Pacifica fighting WBAI in court. None of that makes the stations stronger, better, more engaging, more technically sophisticated, more politically pointed or more culturally rich. It’s our responsibility to back this misguided board up and make them support our stations, not destroy them.

If you value being kept up to speed on Pacifica Radio news via this newsletter, you can make a little contribution to keep Pacifica in Exile publishing . Donations are secure, but not tax-deductible. (Scroll down to the donation icon).

To subscribe to this newsletter, please visit our website at www.pacificainexile.org

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Started in 1946 by conscientious objector Lew Hill, Pacifica’s storied history includes impounded program tapes for a 1954 on-air discussion of marijuana, broadcasting the Seymour Hersh revelations of the My Lai massacre, bombings by the Ku Klux Klan, going to jail rather than turning over the Patty Hearst tapes to the FBI, and Supreme Court cases including the 1984 decision that noncommercial broadcasters have the constitutional right to editorialize, and the Seven Dirty Words ruling following George Carlin’s incendiary performances on WBAI. Pacifica Foundation Radio operates noncommercial radio stations in New York, Washington, Houston, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay Area, and syndicates content to over 180 affiliates. It invented listener-sponsored radio.

The Big Real Estate Skim

The Big Skim

How America’s Real Estate Empire Rakes in Billions By Driving Wealthy Foreigners into the U.S. As A Safe Haven From War And Terror

By Robert S. Newport, Jr.

It is totally fitting that Donald Trump is President of the United States, and will likely remain so for some time. Real Estate is Trump’s game, and as President, he is the head of the world’s largest real estate empire, the American Real Estate Empire. Using land stolen from thousands of Native American tribes, purchased from declining European monarchs, and taken as booty in wars with neighbors and other declining powers, the wealthy elite have figured out the biggest monopoly game on earth. They totally game it, and nothing can stand in their way, at the moment.

Realizing the ultimate scarcity of certain things like good land, beach front property, water, and the desire for safe and luxurious living, the elites have developed a “system” that guarantees their continued success. Here’s how it works:

Ever wonder why the U.S. goes around the world invading, bombing, and war-making on other countries? Do you really believe it is to bring “Democracy” or “Freedom” to other places? Look at it now through the eyes of the real estate empire. America begins by picking a target country. Usually, several countries are selected at one time. First might come economic sanctions. Squeeze the target financially, cut off banking opportunities, strangle commerce, etc. Think Venezuela, although many examples can be used. The wealthy elites in that country will realize that this is not a good situation, and it is time to hedge their bets.  They fear for their lives and for their families.  The may already have kids that are in the U.S. going to college, but at any rate, it’s time for them to start transferring assets to America.

Getting resident visas and putting money into U.S. banks is the first step. The next would be to buy a nice piece of property to hide out in until your home country settles down, which may be many, many years. So they go to New York, or Los Angeles, to Malibu, to Montana, and plunk down their hard earned currency to buy a palace for themselves. In many areas, around half of the most expensive properties sold are sold to foreigners. By saber-rattling, invasions, bombing, and other methods the U.S. Government scares the hell out of the elites of target countries. The doctors, lawyers, developers, oligarchs and criminals figure it out real fast. They have to leave their home country, which may soon be obliterated, and re-locate to the safety of the U.S. or Europe, where they can enjoy the remains of their wealth.

America welcomes them with open arms. The realtors are happy to sell them an overpriced mansion. With Trump and Obama keeping interest rates close to zero, the builders and developers can perform miracles. Take a look at some of the wealthiest areas, like Beverly Hills, or Brentwood, California.  The real estate boys have paid huge amounts to buy existing properties. Often, they tear them down. Then they build huge monstrous, even more expensive mansions, because they know that as long as the U.S. Government is captive to the real estate and banking interests, the flow of wealthy refugees will continue. If you have money, you will get in. If you are poor, keep out. And if you are poor and bring your kids, they may end up in cages without a toothbrush.

There’s lots of Hot Property in the L.A. area

The newspapers in L.A. And New York now make a big chunk of their money by selling ads to real estate interests who are selling these uber-mansions that are priced in the millions. The more countries America attacks, the more the wealthy elites of those countries flee to the U.S. with their cash. The result is a continuous cycle of money flowing in. The foreigners come from every country that has been attacked or sanctioned. And they pay through the nose to own a nice mansion in Brentwood or New York. The foreign policy of the U.S. seems to never change. Year after year, country after country, this scam continues. And our banks get richer, our real estate kings get richer, our mortgage brokers benefit, our contractors are employed re-modeling and fixing things, it is our only real industry. Manufacturing is gone. American elites and Real Estate Investment Trusts make their living selling land we have developed over and over, the prices now in the stratosphere.  What a great scam. And you really think Trump, the emblem of Real Estate, is going to be defeated?

You also may dream about peace in the middle east.   Forget it. Look to our partner called Israel. They are doing the same thing only on a smaller scale at the moment. Stealing land from the Palestinians and then building condos to sell to proto-Jews from places where they are “scared out of” due to mysterious swastikas painted on Jewish gravestones in Europe. Move to Israel where it’s “safe”. Wonderful condos going up soon in the Jordan Valley and Golan heights. And if the U.S. would only blow the crap out of Syria, Lebanon and a few other places, millions of acres of real estate can be developed.

A lot of conspiracy theories are now also existing about “Disaster Capitalism.” Maybe they are true. Has America figured out how to manipulate hurricanes and storms? Wipe out a country, like the Bahamas, then the real estate sharks can go in and buy up some good property cheap. Look at New Orleans. Did someone “blow the levees”? Huge areas were flooded. A lot of poor people who owned the properties were wiped out. The City then sent notices that the structures had to be demolished or they would be fined. Eventually they could lose their properties. More to sell at auction to carpetbaggers pouring in looking for disaster deals.. Buy it, build it, sell it for more, and get out. If it floods again, hit the repeat button. Suspicions are high about Puerto Rico. The U.S. pulled the plug on a lot of aid. This may mean that quite a bit of property will soon be available. Build some mansions on the beach. Maybe some Syrians or Venezuelans will come in and buy them. Maybe Trump will build a hotel. The sky is the limit for participation in the Big Skim. Millions of Foreigners are waiting in the wings. The American military budget continues to grow. America will continue to squeeze, to sanction, to threaten, to bomb. The world is a monopoly board for the rich real estate elite. And what a great time they are having!

The KPFK and Pacifica Foundation Financial Labyrinth

Update on Management and Financial Issues

by Kim Kaufman

KPFK Building Coming Up For Sale?

Pacifica is the last network of independent non-commercial radio stations operating in five of the largest media markets in the country. They are KPFK, Los Angeles, KPFA, Berkeley, WBAI, New York City, WPFW, Washington D.C. and KPFT, Houston, Texas. Many observers — and listeners — have written Pacifica off as a pathetic in-fighting mess as it has long been irrelevant in the larger media world. But the fact that this organization still owns and operates five very valuable radio licenses in major U.S. markets is worth taking a look at, especially from the financial aspect which is rarely exposed.

Since KPFK (and the other stations) are having another election for their Local Station Boards (LSB), what follows is information for anyone considering running, or voting, from a former KPFK LSB member. I will highlight some of the critical issues facing KPFK and Pacifica to consider.

This is also an update to KPFK and Pacific: A Quiet Coup from October, 2015 which detailed problems with the finances then — the lack of several years of filing annual audits to the CA Attorney General, the lack of adequate bookkeeping, etc. I advocated voting for one faction of new and returning former LSB members (which I had then been aligned with) to replace the other faction. They were elected and have had a majority on the local and national boards for the last three+ years. During this time, however, the financial picture has only gotten worse. Pacifica’s factional infighting is somewhat notorious but is the problem only the factions or is it something else?

As to my qualifications for addressing these issues, I was on KPFK’s LSB from 2009 to 2015 when I was termed out. I was, at different times, Treasurer of KPFK, on the National Finance Committee, Director on the Pacifica National Board (PNB), on the Audit Committee, on a Financial Recovery Audit Task Force, and other committees. I have been involved in and focused on the finances of KPFK and Pacifica for many years and in many capacities. I have written many analyses of budgets and actual income/expenses, been a whistleblower and advocated for transparency and honesty.

The main job of KPFK’s LSB is to approve yearly budgets from management and make quarterly reports on the station’s finances and to make sure the station is on solid financial footing. Good budgets are based on historical data and formulas that are specific to non-commercial radio whose revenue comes largely from on air fund drives. Management has not availed itself of those tools for the last two budgets and produced overly optimistic budgets. Nevertheless, KPFK’s Finance Committee brought the budgets to the LSB, which were approved with little to no discussion. The estimated $500,000 end of year surplus for FY2018 wound up being a ($67,000) deficit. This is a notable “mistake” but to date has never been analyzed by the Finance Committee.

Thus, the FY2019 budget repeated the same errors as were in the FY2018 budget. There have been verbal reports from the Treasurer, such as revenue was “better than the budget and better than the previous year.” But they have never been supported by documentation or actual data and were, in fact, false conclusions. This sort of statement is typical and shows a lack of attention and/or expertise that is needed for the required oversight duties of the board.

Because of decreasing revenue from KPFK’s on air fund drives, there are now various forms of desperate acts to raise money, most of which are forms of underwriting that violate FCC and CPB (Corporation for Public Broadcasting) rules. Underwriting is allowed and the FCC has specific rules that need to be followed but management is not complying with them. The Finance Committee has been made aware of these violations but have thus far not taken any action. Further, KPFK is misleading the public with programmers saying that KPFK takes no underwriting, it’s all “powered by the people,” etc. This is not true and has not been for about two years.

If there are discussions about the finances at KPFK going on, they are being made behind closed doors and not at either the Finance Committee or the LSB meetings.

Embed from Getty Images

This lawsuit of Empire State Realty Trust against Pacifica happened because of lack of oversight by the PNB.

In October 2017, a judge ruled against Pacifica and awarded ESRT [Empire State Realty Trust] a summary judgement of $1.8 million plus attorney’s fees. ESRT sued Pacifica in February 2016 to recover back rent and tower fees, interest and attorney costs. In the years-long dispute, Pacifica accused ESRT of price gouging and “holding the network hostage” with a contract that required WBAI to pay tower rent that increased about 9% per year. . — Inside Radio

Members and programmers from WBAI called ESRT “greedy capitalists” but Empire would not back down. In fairness to all of the involved parties, Pacifica voluntarily entered into the tower rental agreement with ESRT in 2005 with full awareness of all of its provisions for potential future rental increases.

On the PNB, there was dithering and inaction. Many secret and some public meetings were held, arguing between filing for voluntary bankruptcy or taking out a loan to pay off the judgment and the rest of the contract with Empire. The decision was to take out a loan. The argument against bankruptcy was that legal fees would be high — but the loan’s fees, legal fees and interest wound up being, by my calculations, about $900,000 or more, the same or arguably much more than bankruptcy would have been. Time will tell as to the real cost of taking out a loan.

Most elements of the reported 150 page loan agreement are still secret, with claims from the PNB there is a provision in the document that requires it being secret. Requests to provide that particular provision to the public have not been answered. While a press release about the loan is still on KPFK’s website, and easily found elsewhere on the internet, it is now forbidden to name the lender publicly.

This “Summary of the $3.7m Loan” was released to the public by the PNB. The figures offered in the Summary, however, are incorrect. It appears to be an early draft as the actual amountof the three year interest-only loan is $3.265 million and the adjustable interest for the first 18 months is $379,556. Pacifica could not get KPFK’s tower included as collateral because the US Forest Service, on whose land it sits, would not allow it. The tower was supposed to be used as collateral to borrow, and pay interest on, the first 18 months of interest payments.

Thus, two buildings adjacent to Berkeley sister station KPFA were sold to pay part of the ESRT settlement and the rest used for the first 18 months’ interest. One building housed the Pacifica National Office, with offices for the Executive Director, CFO and accounting staff. The other building had been vacant for a decade or so.

The CFO at the time resigned when the loan was signed, claiming the loan was in default because Pacifica could not provide any of the lender’s required financial documents, such as a current audit, profit and loss, etc. In a leaked document, Pacifica’s general counsel also weighed in on problems with the loan.

Pacifica must start paying the interest for the second 18 months starting October, 2019. It’s hard to see how Pacifica can come up with monthly payments of $21,000+, especially since KPFK is unlikely to be able to cover its own basic operating expenses going forward and will need help from the rest of the network, which has no help to give. There’s even less hope for paying off the $3.265 million balloon payment due March, 2021.

Those supporting the loan have made repeated claims that Pacifica can easily refinance for a better loan, that “a loan is not in default until a judge says it is,” and that the loan is secured by real estate only. This paragraph #4 from the Summary, however, shows this is false:

“[i]n addition [to the real property: buildings & land, three buildings housing radio stations KPFK, KPFA (Berkeley) and KPFT (Texas)], the Collateral includes accounts receivable, tangible goods, equipment, rental income, sales proceeds, contracts, intellectual property, furniture, cash and proceeds of insurance or sales — in short, virtually every real, tangible and intellectual property right in which Pacifica has an interest.”

This provision also includes the Pacifica Radio Archives. It’s much more than just real estate. Whatever the outcome of a potential default on the loan, lawyers will be involved — and Pacifica is required to pay legal fees for both sides.

It’s hard seeing a way to a refinance since Pacifica has not complied with requirements for the loan and has no way of paying the balloon payment in March, 2021 — unless they sell or swap one of the five licenses (which are under the jurisdiction of the FCC andcannot be used as collateral). The lender did not do its due diligence according to its own website. The mystery is: why did they lend to the obviously deadbeat Pacifica? The loan broker, Marc Hand, made at least $50,000 on the deal. Some speculate the loan has already been sold to a third party, see comment 3 of 3.

The idea of refinancing this loan they cannot pay back or pay the interest on, while adding more fees, interest, legal and brokers’ fees, seems like little more than a distraction to divert and delay the board from dealing with the realities of its insolvency and failing operations.

Some on the PNB imagined they could save money by outsourcing Pacifica’s accounting and not replacing the CFO. The new outsourced accountants have, as of this writing, produced nothing since their hire almost a year ago. Supposedly, an interim CFO was hired for three months in January but he produced nothing. The PNB just hired a new part-time interim CFO, an employee of the outsourced accountant firm. KPFK’s Finance Committee was told she was being paid “a small amount.” She was supposed to produce financial reports for the last two years by June but now it might be July.

Pacifica is also under investigation by the Department of Labor for violating ERISA laws, which has to do with pensions promised to employees of the five stations. This has been a problem for over two years and, as far as anyone in the public knows, is still unresolved and unpaid. Including penalties, this could amount to a large sum to be paid out.

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Pacifica has been trying to catch up on its late audits since 2014 for which Pacifica has been under investigation by the CA Attorney General. The current auditor has been working to complete the FY2017 audit since last fall (originally estimated to take three weeks). It was due to the CA Registry of Charitable Trusts June, 2018. The auditor finally told the audit committee he’s only been able to get about 50% of the documentation he requested and suggested they stop searching for more. He will finish what he has but it will be “qualified” which is auditor-speak for: there are serious problems. In this case, he can only audit what he has and the rest is undocumented and unknown. The FY2018 audit, due June 2019, will miss this deadline and will also be “qualified” for the same reason. Two qualified audits that say your organization is too messed up to audit is not likely to persuade donors, foundation grantors or the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to give funds to Pacifica. It’s unknown whether the CA Attorney General or the lender will accept them.

There was some anticipation that Pacifica would get current on its audits by this June and would again be eligible for CPB grants. That is not to be as CPB’s deadline for qualification is June. When Pacifica last received those grants, in 2012, it received about $1 million a year. Pacifica needs to get current on its financial reporting and compliant with other CPB requirements in order to be eligible for the 2020 cycle in order to receive funds in 2021.

Why the secrecy and obfuscation? Why the complete lack of financial oversight and fiduciary responsibility? Is it only incompetence?

In my earlier article, I wrote about the KPFA Foundation, a shadow corporation formed for the purpose of taking over the assets of Pacifica. Before that, in 2009, there was another secret 501(c)(3) formed for the Pacifica Radio Archives, supposedly to raise money (which never happened) but rumored that “in case” something happened to Pacifica, i.e., bankruptcy, the Archives could be moved into this non-profit. It was created by former PNB Chair/Interim Executive Director Sherry Gendelman with Matthew Lasar as Secretary. Lasar, a Pacifica historian of sorts, has advocated for breaking up the Pacifica network in alliance with the KPFA Foundation people.

After that came another secret effort from Berkeley by then-KPFA LSB chair Carole Travis who had been soliciting celebrities to join the board of “Big Tent Radio,” a nonprofit she claimed to be starting to acquire Pacifica’s assets after it “collapsed.” Attempts were made to get her to resign as she was clearly working against the best interests of Pacifica but no bad deed goes unrewarded at Pacifica and she remained on the local board, soon to be on the PNB.

There is presently another plan to break up the network from Berkeley, reports of a similar plan from Los Angeles, plus a long-time plan from one faction in New York. None of the breakup and takeover plans seem particularly viable but the absence of any other plan or even a discussion on how to pay back the loan, or interest payments, seems puzzling considering Pacifica’s precarious financial situation. Are they waiting for a sudden “shocked” awareness of financial problems and an orchestrated rush to “reorganize,” creating the opportunity for the licenses going to current favored board members with waiting 501(c)(3)s?

You can hear PNB Director Donald Goldmacher in this clip at a recent Strategic Planning Committee meeting suggesting selling off Pacifica’s assets (possibly to him and his allies around the network). He was recently re-elected to the KPFA LSB and is a long-time member of the Berkeley faction which created the KPFA Foundation, above.

Thus the sale of the Berkeley buildings and elimination of the Pacifica National Office and its accounting staff, which become unnecessary if the organization is going to dissolve, or privatize, itself into board members’ hands, and makes complete sense in this context. There’s no need for a permanent in-house CFO if there’s no intention of Pacifica continuing as a network. Further evidence of short-term planning: the outsourced accountants have a two-year contract.

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Pacifica just had another election for the LSB which ended in March. Those running for re-election were micro-managing their own election. It was delayed, disorganized, over-budget, and the public and members were not properly informed. A 10% quorum of membership is required and KPFK had an 11% quorum — but 9% of the ballots were blank ballots. There was a quiet campaign advising voters that if they didn’t want to vote or if they didn’t know who to vote for, to send in a blank ballot to help reach a pseudo quorum. Those who were asking the membership for election or reelection received so few votes that they amounted to a vote of no confidence. They did not earn even the 10% required votes from the membership.

But like Trump losing the popular vote or George Bush, arguably never legitimately elected either time, that will not stop these illegitimately seated LSB members from acting as if they have a mandate. They are planning a big rewrite of the bylaws. The Pacifica bylaws are terrible, complicated and, in places, contradictory. They were written by a “listeners” after the lawsuits of 1999–2002 were settled. A rewrite by another group of “listeners” will not be better. The problem is not the bylaws, or Robert’s Rules of Order, the problem is electing “listeners” without skills or knowledge of broadcasting, basic finance, management or anything related, and no record of success in anything except getting elected and becoming board members of a multi-million dollar media organization which has only shown consistent decline for the last 20 years under their stewardship. Some of these people have been in and out of Pacifica’s governance for two decades or more. Due to Pacifica’s current structure, it’s impossible to replace them in favor of competent people. Bylaws rewritten by them will only entrench them further.

The first line of The Pacifica Foundation Mission Statement is:

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.

Insiders love to toss the Mission Statement around but never remember that first sentence. The reason the federal government mandates that non-profits have outside, independent boards, and also why they’re under the jurisdiction of Attorneys General is that they are funded by public money. Boards are supposed to make sure the public’s money goes where donorsthink it goes. The main job of a board is to report to the public about its financial operations. Pacifica’s board cannot or simply will not do that. The idea of public service appears long forgotten within Pacifica. One might assume this is just run of the mill incompetencebut it seems way past the time we can blame the chaos only on that.

It’s no wonder the members of KPFK’s Finance Committee refuse to answer awkward questions dealing with the financial realities of the operations. The board members paint rosy pictures of how well they’re doing to “save Pacifica” but, in reality, KPFK is in extremely bad shape and declining. You can hear it in the increasing fund drive days which are not bringing in enough to cover their expenses. Nor is Pacifica, as a whole, faring any better under the present PNB than it was under the previous PNB.

Instead of focusing on finances and complying with federal and state regulatory agencies the favored subject of discussion by board members has always been programming. The ultimate prize for aggressive board members is to be able to control programming to suit their tastes and ideologies — from expected old guard Trotskyism/Marxism/Revolutionary Communist Party/anarchism (etc.) to Scientology with a few progressive Democrats and black or Latino nationalists in the mix. The boards hire weak managers who they can then micromanage and work to create their own patronage system by giving program slots or jobs to their friends and allies. The resulting mediocrity and lack of cohesion of the program grid is the result. It obviously drives away listeners and extends fund drive which only turn off more listeners. Now those PNB members making decisions are actually proposingprograms for the sole purpose of enticing funders. This shows a lack of imagination and any pretense of journalistic integrity. This is only the latest of ideas thought up by amateurs who have done little more than master the byzantine governance system of Pacifica to get themselves into these undeserved positions of authority. Look for sketchy health programs, celebrities and other unimaginative pandering unlikely to excite funders or listeners.

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For anyone still considering running for KPFK’s board, or any of the other stations, these are some of the bigger problems KPFK and Pacifica are facing. You will need to be a fighter with an independent mind because the entrenched board members of both factions are not really open to questions or open discussions, especially about financial matters.

The election information is here and the nominating deadline is June 30. If

you have skills, Pacifica needs you. But Pacifica doesn’t have a history of treating talented people well.

The sad irony is that just at the time this country needs a vibrant non-corporate media, Pacifica continues to make itself even more insolvent, unlistenable and irrelevant.

Kim Kaufman can be reached at kim.kaufman@att.net

KPFK Dumps “Democracy Now” From Prime Hour

World-Class Anti-War Show Gone From 9a.m. Slot

by Ed Murray

Amy Goodman, “Shadow Banned” from KPFK

The veil of “Shadow Censorship”, like that of Twitter, has even taken hold in the premier Pacifica Radio line up at Anti-War station KPFK in Los Angeles.  The station’s premier program on both foreign policy and progressive national issues has been removed from its 9 a.m. weekly spot.  It can only be heard if you get up really early, at 6 a.m.

Amy Goodman has been the main framework of the KPFK line-up for many years.  It could be argued that her  show, “Democracy Now”, has gone a long way to keep KPFK afloat. Her show is one of most popular progressive shows in the country.  Not only does this weaken the prime 9 a.m. broadcast hour, but it will hit KPFK’s bottom line, as Amy Goodman is one of the best “pitch” persons at KPFK, bringing in untold thousands of dollars to support the station over the years.  In addition, Goodman makes appearances in Los Angeles as KPFK sponsored events, bringing the station even more publicity and funding.

What is strange about this is that no notice was given to the listeners.  No vote was taken as far as can be determined.  Evidently the Program Director made the decision by himself.

Shadow Banning.  This is a method used by the large social media platforms to remove programs and individuals from the platforms without anybody knowing what is really going on.  The person or program is still there, it just can’t be seen by anybody else.  Twitter just admitted to “hiding” over 600,000 individual accounts.  This is pure and simple corporate censorship.  By “hiding” Goodman’s program at 6 a.m., before most folks are even awake in the morning, they are exercising a form of “shadow censorship”.  Her former 9a.m. time slot was in the key morning time that folks flip on their radios.

Anti-War activist Frank Dorrel has put out a statement on this sudden removal of Democracy Now:

I am totally against this change. If Democracy Now underperforms during a fund drive at the 9:00 AM time-slot, I would think it is because more often than not, you cut away from the show to have Christine offering some other product not associated with Amy Goodman. In my humble opinion, Democracy Now is by far the most important show on KPFK. Tom Hartman is no Amy Goodman, not at all. Not even close. He’s OK and I think his program deserves being on the station. I can’t believe you are making this change. So now Democracy Now will only be on KPFK at 6:00 AM. I would think this move will end up with less people listening to KPFK then before. Just one man’s opinion. I have been listening to KPFK since 1980. This is the station where I learned all about U.S. foreign policy, hence my film: “What I’ve Learned About US Foreign Policy”- www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdMWOjYuYwk&t=183s – which Amy promoted along with the anti-war book I publish & distribute: ADDICTED To WAR – during a fund drive many years ago and received over 100 orders at $200 per order. She did this with Jerry Quickly. I still get many orders for ADDICTED To WAR. I have distributed close to 240,000 copies since 2002.his.

This move comes after Pacifica station in Berkeley KPFA has removed another popular program, Guns and Butter.  They also purged the 17 years of archives for the show at the same time without notice.  This show also dealt with controversial topics.  The question is why Pacifica stations are going down the censorship road, “shadow banning” and outright removal of controversial, but popular programs.  Is Pacifica turning into another corporate authoritarian platform, removing the most controversial programs?  YouTube hired 10,000 censors to “police” and remove controversial videos.  Facebook has been caught censoring, as well as google.  In the last few years, around a billion pages, platforms, and individuals have been removed from social media.  This is the worst attack on Free Speech in the history of mankind.  A shame that the so-called free speech radio stations at Pacifica are going down the same path.

 

L.A. Times/Tribune Plot Foiled By Justice Department

Last Minute Anti-Trust Division Action Stops Tribune Monopoly Plans

by Ed Murray

Dateline: Orange County

As we reported earlier, the Los Angeles Times has some big plans to extend their newspaper monopoly to the entire Southern California region.  In a previous article entitled:  The Los Angeles Times, the Shameful Showboat of a Powerful Press Monopoly,  we wrote that the Tribune Company, owner of both the San Diego Union and the L.A. Times, was sneaking around the bankruptcy court hearings offering to loan the owners of the Riverside Press-Telegram and the Orange County Register 3 million dollars at no interest to tide them over for a while until the bankruptcy court held an auction, where they planned to buy up the Register and the Press Telegram.  Here’s what we said:

“Things have since become even stranger,  when the Orange County Register filed for bankruptcy late last year.  The same company also owns the Riverside Press Telegram.  So here comes the Tribune, now owner of the Times and San Diego Union, offering a 3 million dollar loan at zero interest rate to the company that owns the Register and Press-Telegram.  This would give them a crack at buying the two papers out of bankruptcy, and thus increase their monopoly over all of Southern California.  If that works out, the Tribune will own the Times, the San Diego Union, The Riverside Press-Telegram and the Orange County Register.  Any beginning psychic can see more layoffs, consolidated printing, consolidated news, and immense power over the entire Southland.  Oh, and the big hurt on real freedom of the press.”

Plot Foiled by Alert Anti-Trust Attorneys

Luckily for the entire population of the Southland, the Anti-Trust Division of the Justice Department was paying attention to all this.  Today, March 17, 2006, the Justice Department filed suit to block this outrageous monopoly grab by the Tribune Company.  Below is the complete Press Release from the Department of Justice:

******

JUSTICE NEWS

Department of Justice
Office of Public Affairs

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, March 17, 2016

Justice Department Files Antitrust Lawsuit to Stop L.A. Times Publisher from Acquiring Competing Newspapers

Acquisition Would Monopolize Newspapers in Orange and Riverside Counties in California

The Department of Justice filed a civil antitrust lawsuit today seeking to block the acquisition by Tribune Publishing Company, publisher of the Los Angeles Times, of Freedom Communications Inc., publisher of the Register in Orange County, California, and the Press-Enterprise in Riverside County, California.  Tribune was selected as purchaser of Freedom’s newspapers following a bankruptcy auction and will seek bankruptcy court approval of its acquisition on March 21.  The department is seeking a temporary restraining order to prevent the sale to Tribune from proceeding.

According to the department’s complaint, filed in federal district court in Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Times and the Register together account for 98 percent of newspaper sales in Orange County and the Los Angeles Times and Freedom’s newspapers together account for 81 percent of English-language newspaper sales in Riverside County.  Tribune’s acquisition of its most significant competitor would give it a monopoly over newspaper sales in each county and allow it to increase subscription prices, raise advertising rates and invest less to maintain the quality of its newspapers.

Bill Baer, Anti-Trust Div.
Bill Baer, Anti-Trust Division

“If this acquisition is allowed to proceed, newspaper competition will be eliminated and readers and advertisers in Orange and Riverside Counties will suffer,” said Assistant Attorney General Bill Baer of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division.  “Newspapers continue to play an important role in the dissemination of news and information to readers and remain an important vehicle for advertisers.  The Antitrust Division is committed to ensuring that competition in this important industry is protected.”

Tribune Publishing Company is a Delaware corporation headquartered in Chicago.  It publishes 11 major daily newspapers across California, Illinois, Florida, Maryland, Connecticut, Virginia and Pennsylvania.

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If Not Blocked, Newspaper Competition Will Be Eliminated

The Justice Department did make one small error in that in Los Angeles and San Diego, newspaper competition is already defacto non-existent and has been for decades due to the Times either buying up their competition or secretly financing certain owners of “competing” papers that won’t really compete.  If this bankruptcy sale goes through, the Tribune will “own” the Southland.  It’s not just the advertising revenue that is at stake, it is the cultural control and even more important, the political control.  Which candidates, for instance, will get “press coverage”, and which candidates will be endorsed by the Tribune political tribunal?  We sincerely hope that the Justice Department is successful in their efforts to prevent this press monopoly from going any further.

edmurray1955@aol.com

 

The Financial Mess Continues at Pacifica

Millions Lost to Mismanagement

by Uncle Paulie

Dateline: Los Angeles

The incredible financial mess continues at Pacifica.  Because they have blown the audit dates for 2 years and have lost about 2 million dollars in funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the network is danger of financial failure.  The new June 2016 deadline for filing looks like a repeat disaster, possibly blowing close to another million, despite hiring a new Chief Financial Officer, Sam Agarwal, who is facing an uphill battle to literally pry basic financial information from the stations.  Some of the Pacifica stations, like KPFK, do not even have regular bookkeepers at this point, and Agarwal has taken the financial records away from at least 2 stations, it was revealed by Fred Blair in his first KPFK financial report as the treasurer of the Listener Board.

Some serious financial information came out at the recent National Finance Committee, WBAI’s report, and the KPFK Listener Board meeting. Here’s a few bullet points:

—Only 2 of Pacifica’s 5 stations have full-time business managers.  This in itself is insane behavior of management.  They have been unable or unwilling to commit to straighten out the chaotic financial situation.

—Neither WPFW, Washington, D.C., nor WBAI, New York have had their draft FY16 budgets approved yet.  FY16 began on October 1, 2015. 

—The CFO said that cash flow is a major concern now, some stations can’t even meet the National Office’s payroll deadline and are critically behind on health care insurance payments, Central Services fees, and other expenses.

Empire State Building—The Auditors have concerns about WBAI’s rental agreement obligations to the Empire State Building.  This is for transmission antennae and is said to be around $50,000 per month.

—The CFO said that Pacifica should not count on getting Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) grants for four to six months because of the lateness of the audit. He said that meeting the short range cash needs for those four to six months would be a challenge. (And this may not happen if the auditors cannot get the information.)

—The CFO has not been able to even access all the bank accounts, meaning a lot of information is not available.

—WBAI winter fund drive after the entire month of February and an additional week is only 65% of projected budget.

—CFO has not been able to get ANY information from WPFW.  Financially he doesn’t know what is going on there.

—Pacifica has not sent the financial statements to the stations that were due in February.

—The amount of information that has been demanded from the auditors

is “overwhelming”.

Click on Box to view KPFK Treasurer’s Report.  Keep watching entire video as last part is a Supplemental Report by former Treasurer Kim Kaufman.

Former KPFK Treasurer Outlines Dire Conditions

Kim Kaufman, former KPFK LSB Treasurer issued the following report

This is a supplemental report to what you’ve just seen on the video

Kim Kaufman, former KPFK - LSB Treasurer
Kim Kaufman, former KPFK – LSB Treasurer

I have written elsewhere how Lydia Brazon’s majority has approved deficit budgets for KPFK totaling approximately $1 million dollars the last two years. But what’s really telling about this year’s KPFK budget is that the majority of fund drive days – almost 2/3s – come in the first half of the year. There’s mostly smoke and mirrors in the second half. I wonder if they intend for KPFK to be in business in the second half of this fiscal year which starts April 1.

As Fred said, there is a new CFO. His last job was at a San Francisco non-profit. It was largely funded by various state department and law enforcement agencies that are usually associated with regime change in foreign countries. It’s an unusual choice for Pacifica one would think.

The CFO has been at Pacifica for less than two months and said he hasn’t reviewed most of the station’s budgets – but suggested they may be unnecessary and can be replaced by “innovative thinking.” He can’t possibly be familiar with all our operations in this short time and yet he’s decided our business model is no good. And that he and Lydia, without informing the board, have put out proposals for alternate funding. But he’s not prepared to get into specifics yet.

Such “innovative thinking” may be underwriting as was discussed at the last National Finance meeting. This seems to me to be a straw man – a sham argument set up to be defeated. It seems odd that after two years of the national board majority claiming how fantastic they were doing because they were in charge, now suddenly, there’s a financial disaster with the only choice being presented is to take underwriting. And the board saying nothing while the CFO says publicly that listener support should be dismissed as reliable or even desirable.

The majority on the national board have already forfeited $2 million dollars in lost funding because of two late audits filed to the State of CA and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The CFO seems really fuzzy about the next CPB deadline which he seems likely to miss which will cost Pacifica another one million dollars in lost grants. It seems odd that making that deadline in June to make sure we get that $1 million dollars isn’t his highest priority.

This is a straw man because first of all, our audience is simply too low to be attractive for any serious underwriting. Any business that would be aligned with our programming is not likely to provide much financial support relative to our low listenership. It won’t bring in significant funding and in exchange, it will upset our listeners at the mere idea of this. But perhaps that is the point. Say no to this scary underwriting and the alternative is… wind up in bankruptcy court? Sell off a license?

But why is no one talking about the real choices? What real management and leadership would do with a radio network would be to improve the programming, which is what we do to serve the public which is why we have non-profit radio licenses in the first place. We would get a plan to do appropriate marketing. And we would clean up the sloppy or outright fraudulent accounting and business practices.

In KPFK’s case, we would ask why is there unqualified management making obviously bad decisions… like taking off KPFK’s most popular programs and replacing them with cronies? Or why did the GM fire the webmaster and allow KPFK’s website to degenerate to a non-functional mess? That has cost us thousands, if not tens of thousands of listeners who used to listen on-line, download shows – and donate through the website. Rather than underwriting, how about re-hiring the webmaster and getting back those listeners?

Lew Hill, the founder of the Pacifica Foundation, which owns the five radio licenses, was very clear in his writings. Popular programs would get listener support. Unpopular ones wouldn’t. This the integrity of listener sponsor radio. That’s why it’s a public service not a private broadcasting club. Why is the national board majority so allergic to talking about this? Why are they allowing management to drive away KPFK’s listeners? Who benefits?

Kim Kaufman

March, 2016

Supplemental Finance Report

Fund drives

As of Wednesday, the February fund drive total was: $261,469 after 15 days/ $17,431 per day. The budgeted goal is $600,000 for 22 days/ $27,272 per day. To reach the goal, the drive would have to be extended to 34 days (assuming per day doesn’t decline).

The budgeted goal for December was $400,000 at 15 days/ $26,666 per day. Two days were added. The pledged amount was $316,752 for 17 days/ $18,632 per day. Novick and the GM assumed in the budget the rest of the days of December would be “quiet drive days” to achieve the goal. That leaves the “quiet drive” magic dust to make up the $83,248 difference.

This February drive is the last drive in this half of the year. 102 fund drive days were budgeted for FY2016, 63 in the first half of the fiscal year (October-March). With the addition of 8 days already added, the total drive days are now up to 110 days with 71 in the first half, assuming no more days are added to the February drive (a not-likely assumption).

There are only 39 budgeted fund drive days in the second half of the year (April-September) at an average of $23,111 per day (an overly rosy number based on actuals). The rest of the listener support comes from 92 budgeted “quiet drive” days at $5,400 per day to raise about $500,000 in the months of April, June, August and September.

The LSB or Treasurer should ask management for the results of the quiet drive days in December. How many days did it run and how much was pledged/ paid per day? This was supposed to all go through the website. It does not show up in MEMSYS.

It’s important to see how realistic these quiet drive number are going forward. My estimate is the December quiet drive brought in something over $1,000 per day which falls far short of the $5,400 per day budget. December is historically the best month for this kind of pitch

This appears to leave a $400,000+/- gap in fundraising for the second half of the year for the quiet drive days, plus the much lower than budget per day $ in these first three drives.

The NFC approved FY2016 budget was created entirely by Treasurer Novick, iED/Chair/NFC rep Brazon and GM Radford on the NFC. An earlier draft was approved by the LSB majority with a $1 million deficit. This draft is an improvement but is still a severely deficit budget.

While I would not preclude a severe financial crisis before the end of March, it appears extremely likely after March.

Kim Kaufman

Secretary, Finance Committee

Former KPFK LSB Treasurer

February 19, 2016

Controversy Swirls Over Red Eden Graphic Novel

Publisher Denies Sen. McCain Used as Model for Earth Thug in Novel

McCain
McCain
Drex the Thug
Drex the Thug “Enforcer”

Greg Simay, Author and Publisher of Red Eden – A Vision of Mars, the graphic novel of Native Americans going to Mars to set up a new civilization and leaving behind the years of broken treaties, genocide, and reservation living, has denied that Sen. McCain was used as a model for the evil character Drex, who was the head henchman for Earth’s crime syndicate that invaded Mars to take over the new Native paradise. “There is a resemblance,” said Simay, on a vacation swing through Southern California, “but it’s only a coincidence”.

The charges came out because of Simay’s support of the Apache Stronghold in Arizona, where Sen. McCain secretly gave away National Park land to foreign mining corporations.  The area, known as Oak Flat, was protected land, but is sitting on a mountain of copper that has been a decades-long target of Rio Tinto an international mining corporation.  Simay has been on the radio with Wendsler Nosie, an Apache leader who is fighting the Oak Flat give-away.
Sen. McCain secretly attached a “rider” on to last year’s National Defense Authorization Act that totally went against Congress and did a “land swap” that traded 160 billion dollars worth of copper under Oak Flat for some desert land owned by the massive foreign mining company Rio Tinto.  The sad record of Rio Tinto includes being charged in lawsuits with genocide and crimes against humanity, bodes ill for the land swap deal, pushed into law by McCain.
Ron Johns, an editor on the Red Eden project, said that “six or seven years ago when we were writing and working on the project we didn’t know anything about Sen. McCain’s involvement in the Oak Flat deal.  But I really wish we had, because what he did was so evil, so despicable, that we could have used that as back story for Red Eden.  I can’t think of anything that would have been as much of a catalyst for the Native Americans to leave Earth and head to Mars to start over.  Really, it’s like the last straw in a 200 year rampage against them, broken treaties, banishment to desert so-called reservations, starvation, slaughter.  And now this Oak Flat thing, where McCain gives away something that even President Eisenhower said should be left to the Apaches and the public forever, untouched.  You can’t even  make up this kind of stuff in fiction, nobody would believe it,” Johns said.

As far as Red Eden goes, Johns said “In my opinion, McCain is a worse person than our character thug Drex in our story.  Can you imagine what would have happened if he had been elected President?  I’m now thanking God every day that didn’t happen!”

Mars Red Eden website, Click here.

Apache Stronghold, Click here.

Documentary on Rio Tinto Mining Co., “Coconut Revolution”, Click here.

posted by unclepaulie