(If you aren't a listener to KPFK, please listen -- 90.7 fm -- try the morning hours-- if you are a listener but not a donor, please donate!.)
If you are a listener / sponsor / donor to KPFK: IT IS THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN -- Time to vote for the KPFK Station Board Members. I know that it is a lot of trouble--to find your ballot--decide who to vote for and then vote, I know, but it is work which I hope that you will do. The Committee to Strengthen KPFK is composed of listeners and programmers who are trying to improve the quality of the programming & the finances on KPFK / Pacifica (here are the names of some of the committee members who have programs on KPFK, whose names you might recognize: Programmer/Endorsers: Maria Armoudian – Don Bustany – John Cromshow – Lila Garrett – Sonali Kolhatkar - Ian Masters – Terrence McNally – Shawn Casey O'Brien – Barbara Osborne – Henry Slucki – Roy "of Hollywood" Tuckman – Jon Weiner – Suzi Weissman – Roy Ulrich -- Non Programmers: Jan Goodman, Ed Pearl, Mansoor Sabbagh, and others.. We have recruited a number of excellent people to run, and have interviewed a number of candidates and have endorsed a slate of candidates. If you are trying to figure out who to vote for, we hope that you will vote for our recommendations. If you want to "just vote", here are my recommendations, in my recommended order. More detail about the candidates, my comments and comments from Carol Spooner, (a friend and one of the lawyers in the suit to save KPFK are towards the end.)
1. Lamont Yeakey
(re-elect)
4. Summer Reese
(re-elect)
5. Margie Murray
(re-elect)
I have listed the candidates in the order that I am planning to vote for them. This order was determined by a combination of my personal experience with the candidates, and what I thought would be particularly good for the board. Thus, I am voting for more women and people of color in the top half of my ballot, because I think that the board will be stronger, if it is composed competent people with diverse backgrounds. All of our candidates are strong, and I hope that you vote for all of them.
KPFK is a vitally important to our community and is worth in the millions of dollars. However, the number of people who vote in the KPFK elections is pretty small, which is why every vote really counts. I have been a member of 'THE COMMITTEE TO STRENGTHEN KPFK" & its predecessor groups for a number of years, and we have accomplished a few things during that time (see below) however, there is a lot more work to be done, and I beg you to vote and vote wisely in this election. Just prior to the last election, Pacifica was on the brink of mortgaging the KPFK building, but, because we won a majority of the seats, that threat was averted for the moment, but our finances and governance are still very fragile.
Just to let you know, There are two slates of opposing candidates, a few members of whom would be fine members of the LSB, and if you know them personally, and would like to see them on the board, please feel free to vote for them. However, some members of both slates have been terribly destructive (even to the extent that they have been barred from the station for physical acts and threats) so I am not sure why the good people have associated themselves their slate-mates), so please don't assume "good by association". It is interesting to me that so far I haven't been able to figure out who the "endorsers" or the "putter together'ers" of the other two slates are.
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& Here, for those of you who want to know, in more detail about what is happening at Pacifica, is a letter from my friend, and fellow attorney, Carol Spooner, who lives in the Bay Area, and really keeps up with what is happening.
Hi Again, Pacifica Radio Friends,
Elections are happening for the Local Station Boards (LSBs) at KPFA, KPFK, KPFT, WBAI & WPFW. I've been sending you my recommendations since the first election in the fall of 2003. . . .
You should receive your ballot by the end of August if you've donated at least $25 in the 12 months that ended June 30th. Your ballot needs to be returned (received, not postmarked) no later than September 30th to be counted.
Pacifica elections happen 2 out of every 3 years, when half the LSB members are elected for 3-year terms. In this election listener-members will elect 9 listener-representatives, and staff-members will elect 3 staff-representatives to each of the five LSBs -- using the "Single Transferrable Vote" proportional representation system. This means you have ONE VOTE and you rank your choices in order of preference. If your first choice is elected with excess votes a fraction of your vote is transferred to your next ranked choice, and if your first choice is eliminated for too few votes your whole vote is transferred to your next ranked choice -- and so on down the line. This is different from a "winner take all" type election where one slate with 50% + 1 of the votes could take all the seats, leaving 50% - 1 of the voters unrepresented.
Each LSB will then go on to elect 4 of their members to serve on the Pacifica National Board (PNB) for a 1-year term beginning in January.
For the past several years I've been writing about the urgency of getting Pacifica's finances under control. Sadly, this year is no different, it's just more urgent … Pacifica stations continue to lose listeners and lose money.
This past year Pacifica's new Executive Director -- Arlene Engelhardt, who came on board last December -- has done everything she can do to stop the hemorrhaging. She has replaced the station managers at KPFA, WBAI & WPFW. But getting the ship righted and bailed out is a race against time, and turning the ship around while it's taking on water is a dicey and uncertain operation. Pacifica's unrestricted cash reserves are exhausted … there are very few assets left but the buildings owned by KPFA, KPFK & KPFT & the 5 broadcast licenses, so unless the stations can raise enough cash to pay their month-to-month bills and meet their payrolls, Pacifica radio cannot go on much longer.
For some historical perspective, in 2001 -- the last year of the old self-selecting rogue board -- Pacifica as a whole lost $4.4 million. In the first 5 years of the "take back" (from 2002-2006) Pacifica recovered by $4.5 million as listener donations poured in due in part to the euphoria over the "take back" and also in response to the war in Iraq, and a $1 million unrestricted 1-time bequest in 2006. But over the past three fiscal years (from Oct 1, 2006 through September 30, 2009) the five Pacifica stations lost $3.5 million -- WBAI lost $1,509,605, KPFA lost $915,345, WPFW lost $675,042, KPFK lost $356,029, and KPFT lost $41,409. WBAI has operated at a loss every year this decade except 2003. (Source: Pacifica Auditor's Reports - change in unrestricted net assets shown in Statement of Activities by Division http://pacificana.org/filebrowser/National/Financials/Audits)
As payrolls and other expenses have gone up, listener support for the fund drives has gone down every year since 2006. (See Note at the end of this email for more details.) Things would be even worse were it not for a 1-time million dollar unrestricted bequest in 2006.
From 2004 through 2008 a coalition of PNB members from the "Justice & Unity" slate at WBAI & KPFK, and the "Concerned Listeners" (now called "SaveKPFA") slate at KPFA, with some supporters from KPFT & WPFW controlled the Pacifica National Board (PNB) and blocked moves to take corrective action -- their basic philosophy was: "If you'll leave our station alone, we'll leave your station alone." This had disastrous consequences as WBAI sank into insolvency, and KPFK, WPFW and KPFA began to slide as well, threatening the whole network with bankruptcy. Election slogans about "local control" are misleading in this situation -- they intend to block the financial controls that are urgently needed to save our stations.
Beginning in 2009 the balance on the PNB shifted in a positive direction -- the old CFO was fired, former PNB Chair Grace Aaron served as interim ED for 2009 (after Nicole Sawaya quit) -- and long overdue management changes started happening around the network. Those changes have been continued by the new ED, Arlene Engelhardt, and she needs the strong support of the LSBs and PNB to hold management accountable both for the programming and financial solvency of the stations.
So, what's going on here? Clearly, in radio, "It's the programming, stupid!" While necessary austerity measures including layoffs are being taken, and efforts are being made to collect more of the unfulfilled listener pledges, and experiments are being tried at some stations with controversial premiums of perhaps dubious worth -- obviously, listener donations must increase and that won't happen without programming that inspires more listeners to donate to support their stations.
While there are some excellent programs on Pacifica stations, overall the programming grids have become stale and stagnant over time. We may argue over our favorites and which programs need to go … but very little that is new & compelling has gotten on Pacifica air over the past decade. Every new station manager or program director who comes in quickly finds that she or he is undermined and sabotaged by the long-term staff if s/he tries to make programming changes beyond shuffling the deck chairs … and the LSB majorities have, for the most part, backed the staff up until recently. This is not surprising when prominent staff members have used their popularity -- and their allies in the community who depend on them for air time -- to endorse LSB candidates who will maintain the status quo. It is only in the last year or two that this has begun to change, and slim majorities have been elected to the LSBs and the PNB with the vision & backbone to support both real programming change and fiscal responsibility. This must continue with this election, or there is little doubt in my mind that Pacifica will not survive without selling either broadcast licenses or buildings in the next year or two.
To that end, I recommend the following candidates:
KPFK: I recommend Lamont Yeakey #1 ranked choice -- again for his exemplary work on the LSB the past few years. Please vote for the 14 candidates on the "Committee to Strengthen KPFK" slate www.CandidateSlate.org . . .
WBAI: I recommend James Ross #1 ranked choice for his exemplary attention to finances both on the PNB and the LSB over the past few years -- a sane and sober person who supports hard decisions when they are called for & is not into "grandstanding". Please vote for the following 12 candidates (shown in alphabetical order here, but use the ranking order of your choice): Arun Aguilar, Carolyn Birden, Stephen Brown, David Combs, Seth Goldberg, Andrea Katz, Jennifer Jager (write-in candidate, her name was left off the ballot), Kenneth Laufer, Teresa Palmer, David Peress, Matthew Reiss, James Ross.
Also, please do NOT rank any of the "Justice and Unity" slate candidates. They have been the downfall of WBAI for most of the past decade, and their presence on the PNB has also been destructive, blocking financial controls and management changes until it was (almost) too late.
KPFA: I recommend Tracy Rosenberg #1 ranked choice, as she has been an outstanding board member -- both on the LSB and the PNB --over the last few years, and Pacifica needs her kind of sense and sanity. Please vote for the entire "Independents for Community Radio" slate (http://www.voteindyradio.org/) -- ranking all 10 of these candidates (shown here in alphabetical order, but use the ranking order of your choice) so that if one is eliminated by insufficient votes your vote will roll over to the next in order of your preference.: Stephen Astourian, Naeem Deskins, Georgia Frazier, Monadel Herzallah, Cynthia Johnson, Hyun-Mi Kim, Janet Kobren, Tracy Rosenberg, Gina Szeto, Kate Tanaka.
Also, please do NOT rank any of the "SaveKPFA" slate (formerly known as "Concerned Listeners") who -- despite their fine-sounding statements and endorsements -- have been the slate blocking effective governance and management for much of the past 10 years (including opposing the firing of the station manager for failure to deposit a $375k check for several months, until the auditor discovered the money wasn't in the bank, so that the donor withdrew the check and put the funds into a trust fund that is not under KPFA's or Pacifica's control).Carol Spooner
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