Sunday, November 22, 2015

And down came the spider... (Pacifica Radio in Exile newsletter)



I post this newsletter regularly FYI. Other than formatting and image, the content is unaltered. —CA

System Breakdown 

Berkeley-The Pacifica Foundation, 19 months into a coup by the Siegel/Brazon faction, is starting to project its internal demolition onto on-air operations. In the past two weeks, LA station KPFK's website has collapsed at least three times, once for 4 entire days and the station fell off terrestrial broadcast, the website at www.pacifica.org went dark, the website at www.kpfa.org went dark, WBAI-FM aired the Progressive Radio Network's internet stream having misplaced its own programs, and the LA archives failed, storing only 15 of the last 132 hours of programming since 6:00am on Monday November 16th.

The network's financial audit for the year ending 9-30-2014 remains un-started, 14 months after the end of the fiscal year and 5 months after audited financial statements were due to the Registry of Charitable Trusts at the CA Attorney General. As of November 18th, the network's national finance committee was told the following schedules had still not been provided by 4 of the 6 units in order to start the overdue audit:

WBAI: a) Prepaid Expenses; b) Premiums Inventory; c) Accrued Expenses; d) Accrued Rent; e) Tower Rent Expense; and f) Office Rent.

KPFA:   a) Advances to Employees; b) Prepaid Expenses; c) Accrued Expenses Payables; and d) Accrued Vacation.

WPFW: a) Advances to Employees; b) Prepaid Expenses; c) Accrued Expenses Payables; and d) Accrued Vacation.

KPFK:  a) Account reconciliations for Main Checking Account, Restricted Cash, KPFK Video Project, Programming and Saving Accounts b) Prepaid Expenses; c) Advances to Employees; and d) Accrued Expenses.

After the Pacifica National Board voted on October 29th in executive session that a $400,000 bequest to the Pacifica Foundation had been diverted to KPFA's bank account, the Berkeley wing of the Siegel/Brazon faction (Save KPFFA) took to the Internet, newspapers and social media. They went so far as to accuse national board member Janet Kobren of "costing KPFA $400,000" in a widely circulated anonymous hit piece. The piece characterized Kobren's request for documents that supported the claim the gift was a restricted donation as "dirty politics". Local station board member and KPFA staffer Frank Sterling strongly objected to the vicious hit piece here. ED Margy Wilkinson can be heard defending her actions (including a verbal slip-up) here

Pacifica in Exile has made available a limited number of the 60+ pages of documentation available to board members. They demonstrate the will language and the check document mandate an unrestricted bequest to the Pacifica Foundation, and that KPFA's general manager signed estate documents instead of Pacifica's chief financial officer.

Another email exchange can be found here.  In it, dated March 23rd, the CFO, 19 days after his initial attempt to find out the amount of the bequest, is still trying to find out the amount of the check, and is told by KPFA's business manager she had booked it as an accounts receivable to KPFA on February 12th. This is 6 weeks prior to the deposit of the check, 26 days prior to the issuance of the check which is dated March 10th, and 2 weeks prior to the sign off on the distribution by KPFA's general manager as an officer of Pacifica Foundation. It also makes clear the vast amount of time available to instruct the estate attorney in how to write out the payee name for a restricted donation to KPFA as "Pacifica Foundation for the benefit of KPFA" or "Pacifica Foundation doing business as KPFA". The estate attorney made the  payment payable to the entity described in the will language exactly and precisely (Pacifica Foundation Radio) and KPFA staff added a "DBA KPFA" in pen to the name of the payee on the check to enable deposit.

At the time, the KPFA unit was experiencing serious cash flow difficulties and GM McCoy stated that payroll for April 2015 was "dicey".

In the local station board meeting held in Berkeley to discuss the decision about the bequest. Siegel/Brazonite Jose Luis Fuentes tried to frighten KPFA board members and any subscribers/staffers who may have been listening that "they" were going to sell of Pacifica's assets including the Berkeley property that houses KPFA and Pacifica's national office. The problem is that Fuentes himself, two days earlier, had been *insisting* that the national board pursue debt reorganization and the sale of assets. (The whole meeting, including the negative reaction to his proposal from board members in other signal areas, can be heard here).

So by *they*, Fuentes apparently meant *me*.

Fuentes' old boss Dan Siegel and ED Wilkinson set up a new California nonprofit foundation called the KPFA Foundation using Pacifica's 70 year old mission statement to re-house KPFA and Pacifica's assets under their sole control should the Pacifica Foundation file for bankruptcy or sell off assets.

In LA, Background Briefing host Ian Masters, one of the LA station's perennial money makers, declared his intent to take his program independent of KPFK. Masters says he has set up a nonprofit to support the program called the Full Disclosure Media Foundation and called current executive director Lydia Brazon and GM Leslie Radford, who was appointed by Margy Wilkinson, "incompetent ideologues". Masters says he needs to get away from KPFK "before it slides into bankruptcy". In 2013, KPFK had the highest listener support numbers in the five-station network at $2.775 million annually.

Masters mentioned "the deliberate and stated strategy of the "grassroots" faction to purge popular broadcasters off the air." (Grassroots KPFK is the LA wing of the Siegel/Brazon faction that took the board majority in 2014). His theory received evidentiary support from the last local station board meeting when Siegel/Brazonite Chuck Anderson characterized Masters, Uprising host Sonali Kolhatkar, and overnight institution Roy of Hollywood as racists, and suggested "unplugging them," in this snippet caught on Youtube.

In other LA news, GM Radford, who was appointed  by Margy Wilkinson on her last day, announced yet another board crony appointment, setting up local station board member Doug Barnett as the "volunteer operations manager". Barnett's Linked in profile reveals no radio, media or operational experience and the only work experience listed is as a clerk for 28 years. The station's chief engineer flatly declared Barnett was "not qualified" for such a position.

As the biggest labor crisis in Pacifica for fifteen years edges towards arbitration, the Siegel/Brazon leadership is awkwardly attempting to get out from under the 20+ grievances filed against them since Margy Wilkinson appointed community college instructor and board crony Leslie Radford, the manager of the LA station. Unpaid pension deposits that were due June 30, 2014 for the fiscal year ending 9-30-2013 were suddenly mailed to LA SAG-AFTRA members a week ago. The checks, which are no longer tax-shielded for retirement, arrived with no explanation of what they were, no indication if or how much in taxes was taken out, and were sent to just the union employees although the station's non-union employees are also entitled to the payments per California law.

KPFK's bank account was reported to be at $134K on November 16th,  10 days after the end of a fund drive that booked $607K in pledges. External accounts payables were still in excess of $160,000 and about $350,000 was overdue in interdivisional network services payments that are 9 months in default.

The troubled board election process, which has seen duplicate ballots, insecure online voting codes and ballots that have still not come to many a month after being mailed, took another turn when it was announced LA's election supervisor had disappeared a month ago, apparently continuing to receive paychecks. The case of the missing election supervisor was kept concealed, with the disappearance unannounced in reports to the board on the state of the elections. 

If you are a member and have not recieved a ballot, the replacement ballot form can be found here. Pacifica in Exile's candidate endorsements for all the signal areas across the country can be found here.

On November 8th, KPFA's satirical Twit Wit Radio once again hauled out the truth serum. You can listen here.

Pacifica in Exile readers may write to the board at pnb@pacifica.org.


For readers who may wish to do more, any donor to a California-based not for profit organization like Pacifica may file a complaint to the open file at the Registry of Charitable Trusts at the Office of the CA Attorney General. Pacifica's case number is CT011303. The form and instructions for filing may be downloaded here.

13 comments:

  1. Call me redundant, but the final act is being played out in California. Shows you how irrelevant to Pacifica WBAI really is now. From flagship station that would often bail out Pacifica and its stations with money to nothing more than a bleeding wound of a fellow traveler.

    What did I tell people months ago about The Factionalists? Every report is proving me so right that now Pacificans even realize The Factionalists are out to destroy Pacifica financially and bankrupt it. I told all of you.

    The one chance for avoiding bankruptcy at their hands (not other hands, but The Factionalists hands) is that they are so brazen and obvious now. Their plans have met the light of day. Maybe someone will investigate eventually.

    This isn't The Days of Our Lives but All That Glitters (1977)...

    SDL

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  2. hey u'all brotha's and sista's ..is it me , or does something about calling ron daniels a doctor , just seem WRONG.

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    1. It's not you. Daniels is a pretentious, glib guy with nothing new to say, a user stuck in a time when the arguments he makes had real validity. This is not to say that he is wrong on all points, but he is just echoing that racist crap and getting nowhere with it. I wonder why people like Daniels don't use their energy to affect positive change? Today's WBAI is not long for this world for many reasons, negativity being one of them—it's a treadmill for the likes of Haskins (they don't come much dumber), Daniels, the Mumia lemmings, et al. It isn't getting them anywhere, as we all can see.

      He can call himself "doctor," "distinguished lecturer," "professor," whatever fits his own delusions, there is more to pity than there is to admire there. That's how I see it.

      Delete
  3. Ron Daniels got a Phd from the Union Institute of Cincinnati, the same make believe school that gave one to Dr. Gary Null

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    1. It figures.

      Remember when BAI's mantra was "The University of the Airwaves"? Can you imagine what "The WBAI of Academia" would be like?

      Actually, I can answer the second question, for I taught in it: York College, of the City University of New York. It's where--you guessed it--Ron Daniels teaches and presides over all manner of "programs"?

      What's ironic is that most of the students--about three-quarters of whom are black--can see through his nonsense and know what a bully he is. On the other hand, the administration--most of whom are blacks from the Caribbean--defend him mainly because his "programs" and such bring grant money to the college. Plus, how many other colleges can say they have a former Presidential Candidate (Yes, he ran in 1992 as a seventh- or eighth--I forget which--party candidate!) teaching in their Political Science department? Yes, that makes York the equal of Harvard and Yale!


      The college, like BAI, puts up with folks like Dr. Daniels because it allows them to present a veneer of Afrocentricity. Meanwhile, the administrators who stick up for Daniels are disdainful of the students, most of whom come from lower socio-economic classes than themselves. And the faculty--most of whom are white or Asian--are too intimidated to call vermin like Daniels on their b.s.

      The few times I ever encountered him, he muttered the sorts of greetings you're supposed to exchange in polite society. But he never really acknowledged me. Oh, wait, I forgot: I'm a woman. I'm transsexual. And I'm white. Three strikes.

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    2. Thank you, Justine. To me, Ron Daniels' game is pretty obvious, but he knows better than to aim his rhetoric at anyone but the gullible black and PC handicapped white.

      It is interesting to see how big a role West Indians play in the reparations scenario, starting with Marcus Garvey, a clown figure who played emperor. When one looks at that broader picture, people like Ron Daniels can themselves rightly be seen as gullible—so we have the conned conning another generation. John Henrik Clarke, "sir" Hilary Beckles, "Dr. Ben" (Yosef Alfredo Antonio Ben-Jochannan) and other imaginative pseudo-historians are/were residue of the 1960s' Black Awareness movement, which was legitimate and important, but spawned these opportunists.

      WBAI has been made the soap box from which these fakers and their self-serving fairy tales are spread. Unfortunately for them, they have become so carried away with their revisionist tales that only those who move on the fringes of reality stay tuned. Slick talk, unsubstantiated resumé claims, adopted colonialist titles and self-published books are no longer convincing the vulnerable. To spew homemade scenarios to the few intellectually handicapped listeners that remain is to pull the rug from under one's own feet.

      Pan-African mishandling is the victim of the Digital Age and its inherent super communications.

      Delete
  4. I cannot take Bruva Ron Daniels seriously. He has a slave master's name. He needs an Afrocentric name.

    KGT

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    1. To take Ron Daniels seriously, on needs to suffer intellectual depravity. I remember the days when one could find coupons for university degrees and Phd's printed on matchbook covers.

      I have friends who have legitimate, hard-earned academic accreditation, but find no need to tag their name with it. My own formal education is a joke, but I don't listen to WBAI to make up for that.

      Perhaps I should—Donald Trump's "thousands and thousands" of New Jersey Muslims cheering on 9/11 is the kind of thing one can only learn from WBAI. :)

      Delete
  5. Daniels is a joke not even worth thirty seconds of my time. The guy has a shtick that reminds me of an old time pro wrestling manager gimmick. He probably poses in front of a mirror blabbing, "Let me tell you something, McMahon! The most highly distinguished Ron Daniels knows how black lives matter and my man, Ernie "The Big Cat" Ladd, is gonna lay the smack down! Tell 'em "Big Cat!"

    It's all a pastor's gimmick designed for self aggrandizement, political and, probably, financial. Truth be told, it fails on all counts when it comes to WBAI. The scum at WBAI don't care however, since, as I have said before, they are living on someone else's dime. I don't think we'll see an reality possibly hit until the day the electric gets turned off and there is no money to get it turned on again. The station will probably be hawked off before then as a premium, though.

    As for Trump, he knows how to grandstand for morons. However, remember this, a large number of Americans are politically immature morons who buy his crap. They also believe in faith healing, ghosts, holy water, Publishers Clearing House contests and all men being created equal.

    SDL

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    1. Bozos like Ron Daniels set black people back every time they do their cons.

      Apropos walking embarrassments, I just posted some extracts from Monday morning's Haskins disaster—he grows dumber and dumber and now he seems to have crowned himself leader of the pack. Notice how he gropes around for program ideas as he mutters to himself. Reimers is of course not listening and it looks like Murillo is history. Speaking of history, I think you will like the amazing glimpse Haskins gives us as he looks back on this day in 1170 BC! Most fascinating, however, is the scoop Mitchel Cohen handed him, a major breaking story from Benton Harbor.

      Amazing!

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    2. I don't believe Bruva Ron sets black people back every time they do their cons. His mark is guilt ridden white liberals whose heart bleeds with every white put down. He couldn't care less about those discriminating whites (said in a positive sense) who see through him and become more hardened every time they are bombarded with anti-white propaganda.

      KGT

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  6. so far on bai , not a peep about the downed plane over syria . Just the biggest story over night !
    bai's lead "news" story was updates on the eric garner case .
    haskins and pam managed to find the 3 people in france that are worrying about mumia.
    I think the "thinking" behind NOT mentioning relevant stories is that you will tune away to another
    station to find out what's really happening .
    so if that is true , bai must think that everyone that listens to them , is that they ONLY listen to them .
    which is a scary thought .
    which demomstrates how much they have their heads up their asses .

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    1. Actually, WBAI may be partly right in that there is a certain core audience that only listens to them and nothing else. Hence, that audience being so ignorant. Try and remember that WBAI lives in an alternate reality, and has a minuscule audience reflects that, or they'd make no money at all.

      SDL

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