Pacifica Fightback is a national coalition of listeners, paid and unpaid staff, local and national Board members from all five Pacifica radio stations, uniting across any previous differences to preserve and extend democracy, accountability and transparency at Pacifica by opposing the proposed bylaws revision, and urging a “NO” vote on it by both listeners and staff. That’s the necessary immediate step to enable us to move forward to solve Pacifica’s financial problems and reintegrate with the rising and urgent movements of today for community solutions to critical issues.
The revised bylaws would eliminate local station boards and local oversight of management and budgets, establishing in their place a permanent and self-perpetuating outsider majority of the national board with the power to change the bylaws as it sees fit.
They increase the cost of membership, disproportionately so for people with low incomes, eliminate diversity in representation at each station, and cut in half the vote necessary to sell Foundation assets, including station signals, buildings or the Pacifica Radio Archives.
They scapegoat democratic governance for financial problems that Pacifica faces without proposing any solution or strategy for dealing with those problems. They strip workers of representation, and prohibit any elected station directors from serving as key officers of the Foundation.
The bylaws revision would indemnify any and all current and former directors of the Pacifica Foundation in case of any lawsuits that arise from their actions as directors. This is potentially extremely expensive, and serves as a pardon for past damage done by Board members and a blank check for any future issues that cause litigation.
You can learn more about these and other problems with the proposed Bylaws revision, and about how we can preserve and extend democracy at Pacifica in the face of this threat, on the rest of this website.
You can reach us at pacificafightback@gmail.com if you have further questions or comments. You can also follow us on twitter @ForPacifica Pacifica Fightback for Democracy, or like and follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/PacificaFightback-for-Democracy-Accountability-100629658187564/
Today the Daily Californian reports that the KPFA real estate housing the station is headed to a March 20 forced auction to pay property taxes that went unpaid for years. Pacifica hopes to stave off auction and not have KPFA homeless or disappear. Many thousand$ owed. How could this happen with a 20+ member LSB, station staff, and Pacifica staff and board? So many people! So much talent! So little clarity.
Pacifica has again an interim executive director. I believe that is its 5th director in about 6 years.
This suggests the unwieldy structure, lack of responsibility or accountability, poor staffing, and lax LSB oversight is responsible. In other words, us. What new crisis or scandal will appear? Which will be the final nail? Intelligent, informed & decisive action is needed.
The interim ED, Lydia Brazon, who served unpaid in that position previously, is moving expeditiously to deal with the unpaid taxes problem that KPFA management kept under wraps til it was almost too late, and the problem is being cleared up. The tax attorneys she hired also assisted KPFK (which has paid its taxes regularly) to get their paperwork in for the “welfare exemption” for non-profits.
ADMIN: Thanks BTW for your thoughtful reply. National programming is a nice idea, but it is expensive to produce (regularly) and would have to add dollar value to network/stations somehow. Securing good local programming has a ‘paying’ audience would seem priority in Stage One of rebuilding Pacifica/stations.
LSB members seem to get elected because they have volunteered for station, are known to some listeners or in broader (activist) community, or state how they want programming and station cultural focus to be XY or Z. Very few cite or run on or offer specific methods they will correct finances, improve management, turnaround station health, have abbigger picture.Only when listener members/voters recognize that station in crisis and immediate skillful ileadership or intervention is needed, will members vote for ‘good government’ candidates (if any) and emphasize less what kind of music, worldview, news, talk or communities get air time. I think it unrealistic that member voters will be that discerning. We have some members of some LSBs who have been on for many many years that never stemmed the bleeding or institute better management. And they tend to not be deep pockets coughing up $10K+ gifts. Yet they get reelected because they run, can fill a seat, are known, or say some, politically cool things in candidate profile. LSBs (and PF Board?) now need more ‘turnaround’ technicians or pros than activists. Gee, that must sound like heresy.
I think anyone who looks at the dollars, staffing, legal issues, major events and the trending over time would have to conclude that the Foundation and many of its stations are at a severe crisis point. The only items I can think of in past 4 years that are positive are that the stations have mostly stayed on the air and the expensive, punitive WBAI transmission lease fiasco was resolved to a point that did not close WBAI nor spin PF into bankruptcy.
So, when in a crisis, certain elements are crucial to survive, and possibly revive:
– Clears lines of accountability, responsibility, authority and decision making.
– Access to all data and measures and analysis of them.
– Prompt and final decision making.
– Organization wide acceptance there is a life threatening crisis and all decisions are weighed as to how they address crisis points. Everything else, for now, is secondary or not on the list.
– Stop the bleeding out from pricey contracts, lawsuits, legal or labor issues: bring in the expertise for this.
Unfortunately, many of dedicated programming volunteers, underpaid staffers, LSB members, other volunteers and listener members and some PF Board members(?) do not recognize or accept this crisis situation and are understandably but unfortunately more passionate about programming, social change, internal or external politics or past wrongs or perceived threats or conspiracies against peoples’ radio. They don’t dwell or didn’t join up or stay involved to address debts in the millions or lead a hard long turnaround of station/network. So there is a huge passion, will, expertise, commitment, awareness gap. You could call it a mismatch of talents and skills for too many. Add to that a very slow, cumbersome, and prone to factions structure and leadership/management model and you have a recipe for disaster. The structure and the business model does not seem workable and there is no proposal from PF Board or LSBs it seems to work out way out of endemic crisis. And I’m not even mentioning personality clashes, competing leftist affiliations, station dynamics, or theoretical analyses or dialectics! Hence, we see come along now, in desperation at least, the draconian bylaws change proposal.
An obvious but never spoken question is well then, why not close down PF, let the stations be truly independent and self-reliant, but loosely affiliated, and let those locals so badly wanting local autonomy have it. The issues there are what becomes of PF debt: and assets and any outstanding legal cases, what is forced to sell to pay it, who get stiffed, what financial burden do member stations inherit, and do we really expect LSB or CAB members serving for political or cultural reasons to suddenly become successful
fundraisers and fiscal managers? Devolving Pacifica could generate massive legal fight and expenses and drag on over time. Imagine WPFW coming up with $4000-$6000 for its own annual audit. Hard to imagine. Well, no foundation grants then. So what is a workable model and culture not as severe and concentrated and ‘remote’ as bylaws change proposal? And who will lead it…skillfully?
The ability of PN and stations to attract, hire, train and retain skilled staff is questionable.
If they had the money.
Something has to give: either stations accept that a PF Board must have autonomy to decide things, since they ultimately pay or get stuck with stations’ bills and headaches, or the stations essentially break free and sink or swim on own. To be honest, I’m hard pressed to think of a single foundation in DC today that would fund WPFW given its precarious position, unclear finances, unclear listening audience #s, and leadership/management shortcomings. Pacifica’s books have a quirk: audit or 990 Report does not capture the multi-million, market rate, dollar value of stations’ real estate on the radio dial. We have massive assets not on paper. But we have significant debts and low revenue on paper.
So, the bylaws proposal will probably fail given the backlash against it. Then PF Board and LSBs: what is your specific, hard nosed plan and program to build a sustainable PF/network???? Assuming you’ll repel bylaws change proposal, N O W is the time to rally and come up soon with a practical and far-reaching ‘turnaround’ plan listeners, and maybe a few major donors, can get behind. The bylaws proposal going out to all members is alerting people to some kind of crisis. A door has opened. Listeners are looking in. Get ahead of the message and come up with plan and sell it, yes, sell it, to members and public. Please don’t say we’ve lasted 40 years, we have many vile enemies, we’ll always be In The Struggle to survive. That’s victim or poverty mindset. Take responsibility for the fiasco. Avoid blaming others.
Listeners want a clear plan for sustainability and growth, not skeletal existence. I want a truly progressive, non commercial radio station and hopefully, network: strength in numbers, opportunities if affiliates.. I want it on the FM dial (and Internet) for decades ahead. After that I care much less
given crisis, what specific programming, voices, personalities, get air. Be practical over pure, now to survive crisis. And please come up with a more efficient and affordable decision making structure. We lose the Pacifica FM radio dial “real estate” and it is gone forever.
Thanks for posting my inquiry about anonymous advocates. The proposed new bylaws are severe and counter to ultra-democratic structure and culture at Pacifica. But the core problem is that Pacifica, WBAI, and WPFW have been managed very poorly over past decade. Debt has been allowed by leadership and structure to balloon to many millions. The Pacifica house is in severe shambles. Hence the crisis and hence the draconian bylaws proposal: it really is a kind of receivership (by a proposed board of just 6-11 board members having a strong executive director aka executor) . WPFW & WBAI have wracked up debts, have zero reserves and cannot meet even a skeletal budget goal. The WBAI transmission tower lease was a near-lethal fiasco and example of poor management and skills.) In 2017 Pacifica had a deficit of $4.6M.! It’s total budget is only $10.5M That is a deadly debt load for any nonprofit of 44%! And there have not been reliable financial statements (or audits) from Pacifica in over 4 years. Pacifica lost its $1M CPB funding. And even failed to renew its state registration in CA: basic paperwork that threatened its (nonprofit) corporate status! Who is in charge? Who is responsible?
Fundraising drives (that hurt on air content) are more numerous, run longer and produce less revenue per day than before. Inability to attract and retain talented paid staff is a major problem. The business model and structure are broken and network is on life support. Yet the Board and LSBs do not have a plan, specific program, or the leadership to reinvigorate network. The many wonderful hardworking volunteer programmers and LSB members mostly have cultural, political, social justice focus and talents, but not fiscal management, legal expertise, or “turnaround” know how . So something drastic is needed. Too bad the bylaw reforms are so severe and concentrate power so much. Neither the Far Right, rogues with Pacifica, nor mega corporate media are to blame, though they are being blamed.
We created this mess through huge, unwieldy structure (over 100 volunteers have input and oversight of Pacifica!) , inability to develop something like consensus, aging support base, inattention to finances and management, fractious loyalties. Who actually is responsible to stop deficit spending and tackle crushing debt? OK Fightback people, what is your plan, program and skill set to grab ahold of Pacifica Foundation finances and save network? Listeners have not heard or read of anything specific. And so we reach this crisis point with severe bylaws challenge and power struggle. I want Pacifica to prosper.
Tim Siegel, thank you for this lucid account of Pacifica, individual stations and it’s history. I am an avid fan of WPFW’s jazz/music programming and would be devastated if it went away. But I’ve asked them for years why they can’t/won’t pursue foundation/govt/corporate support. I don’t listen to their day-time programming, so don’t know how much support those listeners provide to the station. But my guess is the prime-time morning/evening and weekend “jazz audience” is pretty much footing the bill. As one of them, I’ve gotten pretty weary of the number of pledge drives. Bottom line: their financial model is not working and needs to be changed if they are to survive. I hope they do, but I don’t believe they can rely on community fund-raising efforts alone, when they have such a niche audience. They need better management and oversight, period.
Pacifica has always been a topsy-turvy Foundation because the stations fund the Foundation rather than the other way around. There needs to be a concerted national effort for off-air fundraising by Pacifica as a whole to finance more of its own national initiatives and let the stations focus on paying their own bills. I got the KPFK LSB to agree to do fundraising for the station, but agreeing and actually doing are different. I got a Development Task Force created at KPFK to focus on off-air fundraising consistent with the mission, and recruited people with extensive social media and development experience, but the management wanted to just cherry pick individuals and not work with governance or a collective body on it. We also need training for boards, management and staff on well-designed planned giving programs, legacy bequests that need to be cultivated from long time supporters, again via a collaborative effort among governance, GMs and unpaid as well as paid staff.
I think anyone who looks at the dollars, staffing, legal issues, major events and the trending over time would have to conclude that the Foundation and many of its stations are at a severe crisis point. The only items I can think of in past 4 years that are positive are that the stations have mostly stayed on the air and the expensive, punitive WBAI transmission lease fiasco was resolved to a point that did not close WBAI nor spin PF into bankruptcy.
So, when in a crisis, certain elements are crucial to survive, and possibly revive:
– Clears lines of accountability, responsibility, authority and decision making.
– Access to all data and measures and analysis of them.
– Prompt and final decision making.
– Organization wide acceptance there is a life threatening crisis and all decisions are weighed as to how they address crisis points. Everything else, for now, is secondary or not on the list.
– Stop the bleeding out from pricey contracts, lawsuits, legal or labor issues: bring in the expertise for this.
Unfortunately, many of dedicated programming volunteers, underpaid staffers, LSB members, other volunteers and listener members and some PF Board members(?) do not recognize or accept this crisis situation and are understandably but unfortunately more passionate about programming, social change, internal or external politics or past wrongs or perceived threats or conspiracies against peoples’ radio. They don’t dwell or didn’t join up or stay involved to address debts in the millions or lead a hard long turnaround of station/network. So there is a huge passion, will, expertise, commitment, awareness gap. You could call it a mismatch of talents and skills for too many. Add to that a very slow, cumbersome, and prone to factions structure and leadership/management model and you have a recipe for disaster. The structure and the business model does not seem workable and there is no proposal from PF Board or LSBs it seems to work out way out of endemic crisis. And I’m not even mentioning personality clashes, competing leftist affiliations, station dynamics, or theoretical analyses or dialectics! Hence, we see come along now, in desperation at least, the draconian bylaws change proposal.
An obvious but never spoken question is well then, why not close down PF, let the stations be truly independent and self-reliant, but loosely affiliated, and let those locals so badly wanting local autonomy have it. The issues there are what becomes of PF debt: and assets and any outstanding legal cases, what is forced to sell to pay it, who get stiffed, what financial burden do member stations inherit, and do we really expect LSB or CAB members serving for political or cultural reasons to suddenly become successful
fundraisers and fiscal managers? Devolving Pacifica could generate massive legal fight and expenses and drag on over time. Imagine WPFW coming up with $4000-$6000 for its own annual audit. Hard to imagine. Well, no foundation grants then. So what is a workable model and culture not as severe and concentrated and ‘remote’ as bylaws change proposal? And who will lead it…skillfully?
The ability of PN and stations to attract, hire, train and retain skilled staff is questionable.
If they had the money.
Something has to give: either stations accept that a PF Board must have autonomy to decide things, since they ultimately pay or get stuck with stations’ bills and headaches, or the stations essentially break free and sink or swim on own. To be honest, I’m hard pressed to think of a single foundation in DC today that would fund WPFW given its precarious position, unclear finances, unclear listening audience #s, and leadership/management shortcomings. Pacifica’s books have a quirk: audit or 990 Report does not capture the multi-million, market rate, dollar value of stations’ real estate on the radio dial. We have massive assets not on paper. But we have significant debts and low revenue on paper.
So, the bylaws proposal will probably fail given the backlash against it. Then PF Board and LSBs: what is your specific, hard nosed plan and program to build a sustainable PF/network???? Assuming you’ll repel bylaws change proposal, N O W is the time to rally and come up soon with a practical and far-reaching ‘turnaround’ plan listeners, and maybe a few major donors, can get behind. The bylaws proposal going out to all members is alerting people to some kind of crisis. A door has opened. Listeners are looking in. Get ahead of the message and come up with plan and sell it, yes, sell it, to members and public. Please don’t say we’ve lasted 40 years, we have many vile enemies, we’ll always be In The Struggle to survive. That’s victim or poverty mindset. Take responsibility for the fiasco. Avoid blaming others.
Listeners want a clear plan for sustainability and growth, not skeletal existence. I want a truly progressive, non commercial radio station and hopefully, network: strength in numbers, opportunities if affiliates.. I want it on the FM dial (and Internet) for decades ahead. After that I care much less
given crisis, what specific programming, voices, personalities, get air. Be practical over pure, now to survive crisis. And please come up with a more efficient and affordable decision making structure. We lose the Pacifica FM radio dial “real estate” and it is gone forever.
“The stations fund the Foundation” ADMIN writes. But, unless I’m wrong, the stations are the primary source for the $8 million or so of Pacifica debt on its (2017) books. But yes, there is a natural tension between ‘central’ and stations and now also fractious splits between PF Board members, ex-members, staff. We don’t want splits to travel over to listener/member population.
I don’t like saying it, but assuming bylaw change challenge is repelled by voters, the state of PF/stations is so severe, so much on life support, that, gulp, should PF Board and LSBs not promptly rally and unite and come up with viable turnaround program, maybe a real, PF, not court, appointed Receiver is needed in 2020. One person with autonmy to only execute a hard nosed, time limited stabilization scheme. To get to a turnaround stage. This receiver could not pull off a turnaround program. That is drastic, but would be one clear prompt option. May stave off bankruptcy, court interference, dissolution or more challenges from pro bylaws change group. It may buy time or leniency with some creditors and regulators Assuming LSBs and station staff could stomach a receiver and his/her actions in an environment of high mistrust and suspicion. If this receiver scenario scares many, well then, PF Board and LSBs, please get to work.
I just voted YES to changes. Think it’s the only way out, sad to say. I’ve already lived through the “death” of DC’s other jazz station, WUDC, and don’t want to go through another. Hope that doesn’t happen, but rule by committee, while democratic, is pretty inefficient. And efficiency is what WPFW needs NOW.
The solution starts with programming that attracts listeners who are prepared to put some money down to support it. That should be easier, not harder, in the era of podcasts and vlogs and lots of people monetizing content on an individual basis. Speaking about KPFK, we need to restore a lot of the kind of programming that was more successful than what we are currently running. That includes a co-hosted morning magazine show that wraps around news, public affairs and cultural coverage of LOCAL artists, musicians, film-makers, along with LOCAL news about community based solutions so it’s not just a litany of woe. We need development task forces at each station to try to bring in for example retired development professionals who are prepared to provide some expert assistance pro bono to a non-profit institution like free speech community non-commercial radio. We need to pool the resources of the 5 stations, our affiliates and some other media partners to produce REAL national programming (not just syndicating cookie cutter public affairs shows) — using the talent pool in NY, DC, Houston, LA and the Bay to produce incisive investigative reporting and exposes that set the terms for national discussions and debates. We need to team up to plan regional (NY DC or SF LA-Santa barbara-San Diego) author/book tours with heavier hitters that can draw significant audiences that will help build our audience and raise funds off air. For example, Pacifica could host debates on pressing issues of the day, for example school privatization/charters; or a serious discussion of how to carry out a just transition to a sustainable economy, or how to wean the US off its addiction to war. We could devote a month at a given station to a protracted and deep discussion and investigation of a pressing social or economic issue, say homelessness and gentrification in L.A. and then culminate with a station sponsored town hall at a major venue where several speakers discuss solutions and best practices around that issue. Again build our audience back up long term and through ticket and or book/video sales raise significant funds off air. For L.A., I think we could plan a bilingual book fair (the LA Times draws huge crowds and many speakers to its annual festivalof Books in April — we could do one in November at gift buying season and make it a marketplace as well as a venue for significant dialogue and for indy publishers to reach a larger audience. We need a strategic planning at every station where management collaborates with governance and embraces and incorporates paid and unpaid staff in identifying the top priorities for stability and growth at the station and maches the skill sets we have or recruits the skill sets we need to a) improve programming b) increase listener engagement and community service c) increase development(fundraising) skills and develop methods for off-air fundraising d)fulfillment — identifying sources of low-cost, high-value premiums that we can use effectively in fundraising on-air that is based on our regular programming. I spent time a few years back when I was LSB treasurer lining up dozens of publications that were willing to provide no-charge to us subscriptions (print or digital) to their publication as a prmium for donating to KPFK. In it for them, a little big of a plug on-air when the premium is announced, and then the opportunity to convert the person who got the freebie into a permanent paid subcriber to the publication. In it for us, a no-cost premium that also has not fuflfillment time or cost to us because we would just turn the names and addresses over to them to send out the gift subscriptions. I couldn’t get them put into the premium pool until I did it myself; and then I couldn’t get the fund drive coordinators to buy into the idea of low cost premiums because they addicted to big ticket items. They cherry picked a few of the highest reputation publications, Ms., The Nation as “add-on” sweeteners for pledge to a few favored programmers and forget about the rest (of the premiums or the programmers). When I was on the National Finance Committee, we approved a loan from the Foundation to KPFT for $100,000 so they could buy a new transmitter before the FCC lost patience with their need for annual waivers to operate at low power and pulled their license. I got the NFC and PNB to agree to the provisos that the station had to come up with a plan for repayment, but also a plan for rebuilding the audience they had lost over the YEARS of low power operations — that is not to just rely on the strongest signal, but concretely identify who inthe community they were trying to attract, and how they would attract them. Never happened. We need boards with more teeth and more willingness to hold management accountable, but having an elected baord accountable to the listeners is the best way to achieve that.
I posted a comment yesterday that apparently was blocked by you. I asked for transparency: who is the Coalition? Why stay anonymous? We know who the bylaws change people are: they are listed in the proposal.
not blocked, just took a while to get to it, there’s a lot going on. It’s up now with a reply, and happy to dialogue further.
WHERE DO WE VOTE …?? YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY CORRECT …THEY ARE TRYING TO TAKE OVER PACIFICA JUST LIKE THEY DID NPR AND PBS !
If you were a member as of Jan 2, 2020, you should get an email tomorrow or a postcard shortly after directing you how to vote. Check your spam folder for something from pacifica or simplyvoting and if you don’t find it, contact the National Election Supervisor, nes@pacifica.org and let her know when you last donated and to which station.
I am trying to vote NO where to do it?
You should get either an email or a postcard from SimplyVoting (may say Pacifica) with a code to enter online or a way to request a paper ballot
Where is the voting option?
Again, you will get an email of post card from Simply Voting explaining how to vote. Many people want to request a paper ballot.
Glad to vote NO
These Anti-Democratic bylaws is nothing but disregard to free speech ,an insult to our intelligence.I say NO NO to your false claims “Bylaws”
It would be good to add some social media share buttons.
I vote NO
thanks!