Save KPFA

A friendly, upbeat, standing-room-only crowd gathered for Saturday’s “Breakfast with the Morning Show.” (CLICK HERE FOR MORE PHOTOS). Attendees included Larry Bensky (former Pacifica National Affairs correspondent), Aileen Alfandary (KPFA News co-director), Aimee Allison (former co-host of the Morning Show), Brian Edwards-Tiekert (former co-host of the Morning Show), Mitch Jeserich (host of KPFA’s Letters & Politics), Ying Lee (long-time KPFA listener), Laura Prives (Morning Show producer), Agustin Ramirez (ILWU) — and an enthusiastic group of listeners who love KPFA and want to put it back on the right track.

After the breakfast discussion and local station board meeting, listeners took a giant check representing $61,200 in pledges over to KPFA and left it in the former Morning Show office (if you’d like, you can still pledge here). Even though the Morning Show was the station’s biggest money-marker, raising three times what it cost to produce, Pacifica management axed the popular, long-running show in November. “Listeners were stunned hear Pacifica executive director Arlene Engelhardt claiming that canceling the Morning Show and laying off its co-hosts was necessary to address KPFA’s financial problems,” said Arpi Kupelian, a KPFA listener. The move elicted thousands of letters of protest from the station’s supporters, many of whom are also concerned that the layoffs violated the station’s union contract. The community fundraising effort to return the show to the air has so far been ignored by management.

Casualties of the Morning Show’s cancellation also include several unpaid staff, such as labor programmer David Bacon. Bacon hosted one of the few weekly Bay Area programs reporting on labor. “Bacon is the premier labor journalist in the US,” said UC Santa Cruz history professor Dana Frank. “His program is of vital importance for all of us in the labor and social justice movements throughout Northern California.”

Bacon was travelling and couldn’t make the meeting, but the ILWU’s Agustin Ramirez attended to talk about the labor show. “David’s show is a crucial resource for organized labor, and we want it back on the air,” said Peter Olney, organizing director of the International Longshore Workers Union.

On Tuesday, February 8, the Berkeley City Council unanimously approved a resolution urging all parties in the Pacifica-KPFA confict to negotiate or mediate in good faith to reach a speedy solution to the labor dispute and other issues. | KPFA News report by Aileen Alfandary

Both KPFA listeners and staff patiently waited hours to speak before the council, and then urged it to take action. “It grieves me deeply that KPFA and Pacifica — which we need more than ever — should be fighting amongst itself,” said long-time listener Ying Lee. “The Morning Show was a commons for me and my neighbors,” 20-year listener Andy Jamieson told council members, before Pacifica decided to “fence it off, take away the Morning Show, and fire Brian and Aimee.”

Antonio Ortiz, a KPFA engineer and member of CWA, noted that the layoffs of the Morning Show hosts did not follow seniority. He said the union wants to meet with management, and wants “to make sure the contract is adhered to and our workers’ rights are protected.”

“We have a national director saying she’s making $80,000 worth of layoffs to save a $3.5 million institution while she’s happy to spend money on $400-500 an hour attorneys,” laid-off Morning Show co-host Brian Edwards-Tiekert told the council. “The money that our listeners pledged to support programs at KPFA is being spent by Pacifica to fight the union that represents the people who make those programs,” he added.

Pointing to Pacifica’s stonewalling, Berkeley mayor Tom Bates said: “One party has indicated a desire to negotiate and mediate and another party has not. They need to recognize that we think it is important for them to get involved. We tell the Berkeley Bowl to negotiate with labor, we ask Berkeley Honda to negotiate with labor, we ask the people down in the marina who have the Marriott Hotel to negotiate with labor. We’re asking all the parties to truly negotiate.” | Video of entire city council meeting; KPFA discussion begins around 3:40

Meanwhile, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed a resolution opposing the sale of KUSF, which has provided a wide range of public service programming for over three decades. Its owner, the University of San Francisco, has announced plans to sell KUSF’s license to commercial interests for $3.75 million.

Judge issues another TRO against Pacifica’s election tricks

An Alameda County Superior Court judge issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) against Pacifica on Monday, after the network was sued by a KPFK/Los Angeles member who alleged the Pacifica national board was trying to fraudulently re-run a delegate election it didn’t like.

Pacifica claimed that the election of KPFK staff delegate Rodrigo Argueta was flawed due to a ballot that combined both listener and staff representatives, but Argueta pointed out that Pacifica wanted to rerun only the staff portion of the election — the one he won. A TRO was also issued two months ago against Pacifica, when it tried to retroactively disqualify 3 KPFA staff members’ votes to change the outcome of an election.

Come meet Aimee Allison, Brian Edwards-Tiekert, Laura Prives, Aileen Alfandary and other invited special guests on Saturday, February 12 at 10am at the North Berkeley Senior Center (MLK Jr Way @ Hearst). Join us to show your support for KPFA’s workers and get the latest news, along with coffee and pastries.

Since the KPFA Morning Show was removed from the air, listeners have generously pledged over $60,000 to rehire the hosts via SaveKPFA’s PLEDGE TO RESTORE THE MORNING SHOW. Pacifica’s management has so far rejected that offer, just as it previously rejected the Sustainable Budget drafted by KPFA staff and backed by the local board and management. That budget cut Pacifica’s bureaucracy rather than damage vital programming.

Pacifica’s executive director Arlene Engelhardt rejected the $60K in pledges on January 20. Ever since, a group of listeners, including the chair of KPFA’s local board, Margy Wilkinson, has been trying to meet with Engelhardt to urge her to reconsider. On Friday, a 7-member listener delegation arrived at Pacifica’s offices for what they believed was a pre-scheduled meeting with the executive director about the pledges. They were told by Pacifica CFO LaVarn Williams that even though Engelhardt was in the office, she would not meet. Williams then repeatedly yelled at the listener group to leave Pacifica’s offices.

“Pacifica is ignoring the voices of the vast majority of its listeners,” said Wilkinson, noting the thousands of letters, petitions and phone calls to the network. After the Morning Show breakfast on Saturday 2/12, listeners are welcome to stay for KPFA’s local board meeting.

Berkeley City Council to discuss KPFA
Berkeley’s councilmembers are scheduled to consider a resolution on KPFA next Tuesday, February 8 at 7 pm. To write a letter to the council, please click here. In December, Pacifica’s Arlene Engelhardt refused to consider mediation of the Morning Show matter, as you can see in this clip (video | audio) of her responses to Mayor Tom Bates’ questions. Many eloquent speakers urged action, such as KPFA’s Brian Edwards-Tiekert (video | audio), but the council could not agree on a resolution. (You can find information about that vote here.)

Terminating the Morning Show is the likely a major cause of KPFA’s sharply declining listenership, reports San Francisco Chronicle blogger Zennie Abraham in a recent column. He cites radio industry statistics that show KPFA’s audience share down from 120,000 to 104,000 over the last quarter (his column, toward the end, also covers the local board issues).

Meanwhile, historian Matthew Lasar’s latest column examines the role of Peter Phillips’ Project Censored supporters in the replacement 8AM “Morning Mix” programming.

Election shennanigans continue
As we reported last week, KPFA/Pacifica board member Tracy Rosenberg is claiming that Dan Siegel, a civil rights attorney in Oakland and a station board member affiliated with SaveKPFA, can no longer serve because he’s a volunteer with new Oakland mayor Jean Quan. Siegel was also elected to Pacifica’s national board, but Rosenberg and her allies are denying Siegel that seat as well.

Calling it a “coup,” KPFA board member Matthew Hallinan notes, “This is a blatant attempt to do away with what’s left of listener democracy and local control. They are denying due process to an elected listener rep, falsifying records, and breaking all the rules in order to shift the balance of power in their favor.” Rosenberg and her allies have said they’ll hold a separate, illegally constituted KPFA board meeting next week to try to accomplish their goal.

In a similar case, an Alameda County judge recently issued an injunction against Pacifica for its attempt to remove already-cast votes and “fix” the results of the staff portion of KPFA’s local board election. And on Friday, the network was sued by a KPFK (Los Angeles) member who alleges the Pacifica national board is trying to fraudulently re-run a delegate election it didn’t like.