Signatures continue to roll in on the petition drive to recall KPFA board member Tracy Rosenberg, who also sits on the Pacifica National Board. We are close to meeting our goal, but we need your help TODAY to put us over the top.
Tracy Rosenberg is the architect of the destruction of KPFA’s Morning Show, a key ally of Pacifica executive director Arlene Engelhardt, and a prime mover behind efforts to illegally keep KPFA’s local representatives from taking their elected seats on Pacifica’s national board.
CLICK IMAGE TO DOWNLOAD & SIGN PETITION
To trigger a recall election, we need over 400 valid signatures from current KPFA listener-members — meaning people who’ve given at least $25 to KPFA in the past year. If you’re not sure if your KPFA membership is up to date, please give now at kpfa.org before you sign the petition.
We are required to turn in the signatures on paper — the old-fashioned way — so you need to print the petition, sign it and mail it. If you’ve already signed, then print a copy and sign up friends at meetings, events, and farmers’ markets.
Also, if you’re sitting on a signed petition, please mail it in now. We’ll be turning in our petitions shortly, and when we do, we want to have as strong a showing as possible. | MORE HERE
KPFA’s Local Station Board met July 16, and the main agenda item was a budget for the fiscal year that starts October 1. SaveKPFA-affiliated reps are pushing for a provision that Pacifica national lower the amount of money it extracts from KPFA, since Pacifica operates its offices rent-free out of a KPFA-owned building. However, this is not a popular proposal with those in control at Pacifica, including Rosenberg. | AUDIO OF LSB MEETING: part 1, part 2, part 3
If anything, Pacifica wants more of KPFA’s resources. Last month, Pacifica extracted an unbudgeted $18,000 from KPFA, a sum Pacifica is refusing to deduct from the amount it says KPFA owes it.
What’s more, Pacifica is now asking all of its stations to turn over their airwaves for two days of fundraising this fall, with all proceeds going to Pacifica. Those proceeds will be in addition to the 20% cut Pacifica keeps from KPFA’s fund drives, the 27% cut it takes from KPFA’s Corporation for Public Broadcasting grants, and the bills Pacifica sends KPFA for other “services” — such as the $51,000 Pacifica has already billed KPFA for the $400 per hour lawyers it hired to fight KPFA’s union workers.
Aileen Alfandary, co-director of KPFA’s News, explained to local KPFA board members on May 21 how top-down program changes have damaged the station. | LISTEN TO 4 MINUTE AUDIO CLIP
She asked the station’s board to require management to adhere to “evidence-based” decisions, and presented the graph at the right comparing hour-by-hour fund totals for the first two weeks of the recent fund drive to those a year ago (when the Morning Show was on 7-9am). Here’s an audio clip of Alfandary’s comments at the meeting.
Thanks to all of you who gave during KPFA’s fund drive. It was the longest in over a decade, but the projected shortfall was dramatically reduced in the final week as listeners answered a call from KPFAWorker.org (supported by SaveKPFA) to pledge in support of KPFA’s staff.
Morning fundraising averages per on-air host, KPFA spring fund drive
The entire shortfall came from a decline during the morning hours of 6-10AM, in the wake of the cancellation of the Morning Show and related program moves. “Year over year, fundraising during those hours dropped by more than $5,000 per day — $90,000 over the course of the drive,” according to a detailed analysis of pledges by KPFAWorker.org, “and likely would have dropped much more if KPFA programmers (and former Morning Show staffers) Philip Maldari, Mitch Jeserich, and Brian Edwards-Tiekert hadn’t stepped in to fundraise during those hours.”
Just published Arbitron ratings show that during the last 3 months, KPFA’s audience share has declined once again — a sign that listeners are tuning out. KPFA’s audience dropped from 139,200 in February 2011 to 113,100 in April 2011.
Unfortunately, during the last week of the fund drive, interim general manager Andrew Phillips unleashed an on- and off-air attack on the KPFA staff and listeners who were working so hard to raise those funds, calling them a “fifth column” which constituted an enemy within the station. Phillips was brought out from New York and installed by Pacifica’s Arlene Engelhardt as KPFA’s interim manager just 3 months ago. Here’s an audio clip, or you can watch a short video with excerpts of his performance from the board meeting captured on cell phone here or listen to the entire 4 hour recording.
Hourly average pledges during 8am "special programming" period of fund drive
Phillips, along with interim program director Carrie Core, was installed by Pacifica’s Arlene Engelhardt with no input from the KPFA community. Here’s the full story, including audio of Phillips and responses to his claims. (If you’d like to respond too, you can do so here.)
The SaveKPFA-affiliated majority on KPFA’s local station board wrote a letter to Phillips in April emphasizing the need to consult objective evidence, such as Arbitrons, in making programming changes. SaveKPFA has also presented management with its survey of nearly 1,000 listeners showing overwhelming dissatisfaction with Pacifica’s autocratic changes.
