San Francisco Board of Supervisors calls on Pacifica to negotiate in good faith

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved a resolution at its January 4, 2011, meeting urging Pacifica to resolve the dispute at KPFA in a transparent and fair manner.

Expressing concern that the termination of Morning Show staff has caused “great disruption at the station” and is “creating conditions that are undermining the democratic spirit of Pacifica Radio’s unique experiment,” the board called on Pacifica to seek mediation with the union, station board, and listeners to negotiate “in a transparent manner a collective solution that will be fair and acceptable to all.” The board also urged the parties to stabilize the financial situation of the station. Read the resolution here, and see details of the vote here.

Unhappy with the Morning Show replacement? Concerned about the direction of the station? Pacifica’s national board needs to hear from you. The next meeting of KPFA’s Local Station Board is Thursday January 13, 2011, from 6:00 to 9:00 pm, at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave in Berkeley (one block north of KPFA). This is the meeting at which representatives to Pacifica’s national board will be elected. Come make your voice heard. Notice and agenda are here.

Listeners support good programming

SaveKPFA has asked Pacifica’s executive director Arlene Engelhardt to meet with us about the more than $55,000 in pledges raised to RESTORE THE MORNING SHOW, an amount that would fund the show for the better part of a year. Nearly all of the pledges are from bay area listeners.

Engelhardt has claimed the out-of-seniority order layoffs of Morning Show hosts Aimee Allison and Brian Edwards-Tiegert were for financial reasons, and has told some listeners that if funding were available she would return the program to the air. We’ll report back shortly.

Activists are circulating a Fact Sheet on Boycotting the 8AM Show directed at those who might appear on it.

Meanwhile, after a nationwide campaign in which Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman was one of the spokespeople, Free Speech Radio News was able to raise over $75,000 in emergency donations, enabling it to continue production through the end of January.

Please also read SaveKPFA’s new Facts About KPFA’s Crisis for answers to several key questions about financial accountability and other matters at the station. Please pass it on to others by email or photo copy.

Fresno listeners are increasingly concerned about the KPFA situation. “The KPFA cauldron continues to bubble away, and as the heat rises in Berkeley it may be the people of the Central Valley who get burned,” writes professor and activist Gerry Bill in a second report about the issue in Fresno’s Community Alliance.

Help build a strong KPFA

Want a way to support KPFA without any funds going to Pacifica? All proceeds of KPFA’s local events go solely to KPFA. Check out this list of upcoming KPFA benefit events with writers, scholars and activists such as Richard Wolff, Amy Chua, Mark Stevenson, Russell Simmons, Tony Serra, Paulette Frankl, James Gleick, Robert and Dayna Baer, and Adina Hoffman. We’ll see you there!

And if you have friends who are KPFA listeners, please forward this newsletter to them. They can subscribe to it by writing us or visiting the mailing list signup on the right hand side of www.SaveKPFA.org. Thanks.