KPFA

On Tuesday, December 14, both San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors and Berkeley’s City Council will consider resolutions in support of fair labor negotiations with KPFA’s staff and local control of programming. Can you take a moment to add your voice in support?

To see San Francisco’s resolution and email its supervisors, CLICK HERE. The meeting takes place Tuesday in SF City Hall starting at 2 pm (item is likely to come up around 4 pm).

To see Berkeley’s resolution and email its councilmembers, CLICK HERE The meeting takes place Tuesday in Berkeley Council Chambers, 2134 MLK Jr Way at 7 pm.

On behalf of our beloved station, thank you for your support. See you there!

Pacifica’s executive director told the City of Berkeley Commission on Labor that she did not anticipate any further layoffs at KPFA. It now appears that was untrue: more layoffs are imminent.

Thanks to all of you who have been responding to SaveKPFA’s pledge drive to restore the Morning Show and protect all locally-controlled programming. We’ll total the amount and present it to Pacifica management as part of a special fund. This pledge will go in its entirety to KPFA.  LEARN MORE: PLEDGE ONLINE | PLEDGE BY MAIL

Protestors also gathered outside of Pacifica headquarters today, World AIDS Day, to present over 600 signatures from AIDS organizations, doctors and others objecting to the network’s hiring of an AIDS denialist at its New York station, WBAI. Here’s a report from John Hamilton of the Pacifica Evening News.

More elected officials have signed the letter to Pacifica management, including State Assembymember Tom Ammiano and San Francisco Supervisor John Avalos. The letter notes that Pacifica’s actions “violate both the spirit and the letter of the democratic constitution of Pacifica’s unique experiment in listener-employee run radio,” and call on Pacifica to sit down with KPFA’s union and local supporters and “negotiate a collective solution that will be fair and accepable to all: cancel the layoffs and start over.”

Educators of all kinds — professors, teachers, researchers, writers and university staff — from around the nation are signing onto a letter of support for KPFA, which you can read here. If you’d like to add your name, please contact us.

Listeners at sister station KFCF in Fresno, which plays many KPFA programs, are also concerned, as this article in the Community Alliance newspaper documents.

KPFA’s local station board will meet on this Saturday, 12/4 at the North Berkeley Senior Center (1901 Hearst Ave, one block north of KPFA) starting at 11:00 am. This is the meeting at which the new LSB members will be installed. Please join us. Berkeley’s Labor Commission will meet about KPFA on Wednesday, 12/8 at 7 pm at the West Berkeley Senior Center (1900 6th Street at Hearst). We hope you’ll come and support KPFA’s hard-working staff.

Pacifica executive director Arlene Engelhardt vowed on air on November 9th that there would no more layoffs of KPFA staff, after she dismissed the staff of the Morning Show and created an uproar from listeners. However, KPFA staff have learned that more layoffs may be imminent at the station.

How can you help? SaveKPFA is sponsoring a PLEDGE DRIVE TO RESTORE THE MORNING SHOW and preserve locally-controlled programming. We’ll total the amount and present it to Pacifica management to show both your unhappiness with their latest moves and your commitment to support KPFA if they change course. If Pacifica does the right thing, we’ll bundle your pledges and submit them to KPFA as part of a special fund. Unlike pledges made during fund drives of which Pacifica gets a portion, this pledge will go in its entirety to KPFA.

CLICK HERE to make an ONLINE pledge | CLICK HERE for the MAIL IN version (PDF)

Elected officials “deeply concerned” about Pacifica’s actions

More than a dozen elected officials, including the mayors of Berkeley and Albany, city council members, a state senator and others, have written to Pacifica management to express their “deep concerns about the way in which recent program changes were made at KPFA.”

The authors write: “Why would the station’s best fundraising program be cancelled in the name of cost cutting? Was the move motivated more by political than financial reasons? One of the show’s hosts is a prominent and outspoken member of a slate that opposes the political faction that currently holds a majority on the Pacifica National Board. We are also troubled by the way Pacifica has disregarded the authority of the local station board in budgetary matters.” You can read the entire letter here.

Don’t forget to support KPFA’s locally-planned events, such as this November 30 talk with Chris Hedges, or KPFA’s 40th Annual Crafts Fair on December 11-12. All money raised at KPFA events go solely to KPFA (none to Pacifica).