fund drives

KPFA on the brink: pledge drive falls $125,000 short

by
Recall endoser Larry Bensky with KPFA's Antonio Ortiz & John Hamilton
Recall endoser Larry Bensky with KPFA's Antonio Ortiz & John Hamilton

The station ended its Winter Fund Drive one week ago, $125,000 short of its pledge goal. This is sad news for everyone who cares about KPFA, and it underscores the importance of change at Pacifica.

Pacifica’s re-programming of 6-10 AM is behind the shortfall. Those time slots used to raise 40% of KPFA’s total pledges. Since the destruction of the Morning Show, that’s dropped by more than half. For a time, station management was able to offset the plunge by lengthening fund drives, but they’ve run into diminishing returns from that strategy. (This year’s Winter Fund Drive ran 24 days, a whopping 50% increase from the length of the last Winter Fund Drive before the Morning Show was axed).

By any measure, the morning lineup that Pacifica imposed on KPFA has been a catastrophic failure. But instead of fixing it, Rosenberg, and the Pacifica managers she backs, are still defending it. They rejected over $63,000 that SaveKPFA raised to pay for the reinstatement of the Morning Show. They spent more money on lawyers to fight Morning Show co-host Aimee Allison‘s reinstatement than it would have cost to keep her on payroll for a year. And they’ll keep doing it until KPFA’s voting members call them to account.

The high cost of bad management: longer fund drives

by

In his last newsletter, KPFA interim general manager Andrew Leslie Phillips released first-quarter financial figures for KPFA with little comment. One year ago, the station’s first-quarter results showed it better than budget by $237,000. This year’s figures show the station has fallen $60,000 short of budget in just three months. Yikes!

The plunge is mostly due to a drop in fundraising during the morning hours. But the situation is actually much worse than it looks. SaveKPFA‘s analysis of KPFA’s fundraising calendar shows that the station made up from the fundraising plunge during morning hours by massively lengthening KPFA’s fund drives. In the 12 months after the Morning Show was cancelled, on-air time spent fundraising jumped by 19 days, a 30% increase. And time spent fundraising is budgeted to increase still further this year. By contrast, less than two days of normal fundraising would raise enough money to pay the salary and benefits of Aimee Allison, the only Morning Show staffer whose reinstatement Pacifica has managed to block.

This is a serious problem. Long fund drives are more than just annoying: they drive away listeners, which means, eventually, there are fewer people left to ask for money. Other stations — most notably Pacifica’s WBAI in New York City — have followed this path into a downward spiral. WBAI now spends one out of three calendar days in fund drives. Yet, in a signal area with three times the population of KPFA’s, it has fewer listeners, raises less money, and runs the largest deficits in Pacifica.

Donate to KPFA now!

by

Given how Pacifica is treating KPFA’s voting members right now, this is going to sound a little weird, but it’s still true: you need to give money to KPFA. Here’s why:

  • First, Pacifica will use any shortfall in KPFA’s fund drives as a pretext for more layoffs.
  • Second, your pledge is your vote. If you want a chance to vote in this recall election, or to run in next fall’s Local Station Board elections, you have to be a paying member of KPFA. (It takes a minimum of $25 per person per year to join.)
  • Third, KPFA — warts and all — is well worth it. Where else are you going to hear the Great Recession dissected by a Marxist economist? The social justice implications of scientific breakthroughs described by an theoretical physicist? A live broadcast from inside an Occupy demonstration? The world needs KPFA, and that’s why we’re in this fight — but KPFA still needs money to carry on.

PLEDGE FOR KPFA ONLINE at https://secure.kpfa.org/support, or pledge during your favorite show, and feel free to add a comment with your pledge.

If you would also like to support SaveKPFA‘s work to keep management accountable, please visit our online donations page.