Friday, October 21, 2016

Pacifica figures to ponder...


Posted by Tracy Rosenberg, snatched by CA:


A) September 30 Income Statement   


B) Central Services as of September 30


Notes on Income Statement Below:

Firstly, thank you Efren for cleaning up the $34K error in KPFK's last few financial statements which had a large credit where the credit card discount fees should have been.

Hopefully these notes will help with cleaning up this statement....

To go round the horn with brief questions/comments

1) WPFW

It seems bizarre that WPFW's off-air donations would have slipped from $105,000 in 2015 to $500 in 2016. That's quite a decline. Is this a bookeeping failure to separate off-air donations from on-air pledges or is there really a 99.5% percent decline in off-air donations in a single year?

Similarly, community events income has dropped from $24K to $0 (actually -$980 since there are event expenses) in a single year. Is this a record keeping failure or an actual decline?

As with several of the stations, there is only website income recorded in some months with many months having none at all. With WPFW, there is $0 from November to January, in March, and again from July to September.

The election supervisor's salary should be accrued for more than one month even if it has not been paid. There is only an accrual for the month of June 2016.

The cost of the station's ballot mailing should be accrued to the station, even if it was actually paid for by the national office this year. Each station's budget includes the cost of its own ballot mailing and if you don't accrue that cost to each staton, then you throw the budget to actuals out of whack. 

The assessment of $0 legal expenses is unlikely to be correct. The WPFW LSB lawsuit filed by Jared Ball, Benito Diaz, Robert Daughtry et al against Tony Norman, Pete Tucker and the Pacifica Foundation was dismissed after a court hearing in October of 2015 at which the Law Office of Reginald Richter appeared for Pacifica on 10-2. Presumably there were charges associated with the October appearance in court by the attorney. 

There are also two legal actions initiated by WPFW's current landlord, one in June of 2016 and another in August of 2016. They have been dismissed, but there are probably legal expenses involved. I'm not sure the PNB was notified about the two complaints filed, so the summaries online are attached.

There are a couple of random expenses missing including the July telephone bill, the August and September bank charges, July tower utilties. July-Sept premium expenses, premium shipping from Nov 2015-Sep 2016, and call center costs from Oct 2015 to Jul of 2016.

2) WBAI

Website income only recorded for one month, March of 2016. None recorded from Oct-Feb or Mar-Sept,

Community events income recorded at $-250 with $4,036 in expenses.

The cost of the station's ballot mailing should be accrued to the station, even if it was actually paid for by the national office this year. Each station's budget includes the cost of its own ballot mailing and if you don't accrue that cost to each staton, then you throw the budget to actuals out of whack. 

Consultant expenses are $85,000. That is a lot and a $23K increase from 2015 numbers. Does the station's local board know what these consultant expenses are for?

There is $4,400 in legal bills accrued to WBAI in August and September of 2016. What case are these legal bills connected to?

There are a couple of random expenses missing including leased equipment for Aug and Sep and storage from July-Sep. 

There is a $20,000 "programming expense" accrued to WBAI in August of 2016. What is this?

3) KPFT 

No website income recorded from Oct to March, in June, or August and September

The cost of the station's ballot mailing should be accrued to the station, even if it was actually paid for by the national office this year. Each station's budget includes the cost of its own ballot mailing and if you don't accrue that cost to each staton, then you throw the budget to actuals out of whack. 

I will not dispute KPFT's official $1 total for legal expenses in 2015. I hope you got your dollar's worth.

4) KPFK

The station lists no website income at all

The salary figure of $397K for September clearly is meant to cover the cost of the arbitration loss, which appears to be more than $200K and closer to $250-270K. Rather than lumping it all into "salaries", it would be a better practice to break the items up into back pay, severance pay, and penalties and record it accordingly in separate line items from current salaries.

The cost of the station's ballot mailing should be accrued to the station, even if it was actually paid for by the national office this year. Each station's budget includes the cost of its own ballot mailing and if you don't accrue that cost to each staton, then you throw the budget to actuals out of whack. 

KPFK appears to have accrued LES expenses for longer than it had an LES working.

KPFK is still being accrued for $3,600 in national board meeting and travel expenses when there was no national board meeting in October or November of 2015 and any expenses associated with the June 2015 national board meeting do not belong on KPFK's books.

Depreciation expenses went to a credit of $1,200 in June of 2016 and also seem messed up for 2015 with a figure of -$17K when the actual figure is $60K +/-

Programming expenses have dropped from $59,000 in 2015 to $434 in 2016. Is this possible? What was $60K spent on in 2015 that completely vanished in 2016?

No tower utilities in April

The big credit in credit card discount fees is gone, which is good, but the month of May 2016 has an entry of $78, which is not credible when every other month of the year is in excess of $3,000.

Caging costs are monthly and they are missing in October and February

5) KPFA

Listener support number of $621K listed for September is bizarre as no other month exceeds $420K. The entire value of the September fund drive was $620K and 100% fulfillment in half a month is unusual, to say the least. Most of the value of the previous fund drive which ended on August 4 is recorded in August with listener support of $268K (the drive raised about $300K). 

KPFA's fulfillment rate is 86% less about 5-7% for Fresno pledges, so the value of the September fund drive is about $500K in its entirety and the entirety takes a few months to come in. 

The cost of the station's ballot mailing should be accrued to the station, even if it was actually paid for by the national office this year. Each station's budget includes the cost of its own ballot mailing and if you don't accrue that cost to each staton, then you throw the budget to actuals out of whack. 

Tower utilties are missing for December and February

Caging costs are missing for October and April

Printing/Marketing - Sub Supplies is -$114 for the period July to September

Negative premium shipping expenses in March and September

Negative fund drive expenses in January, May and September. This category should include rollover call services from a call center and full call center services in September. 

6) PNO

Neither the national office nor the stations seem to have accrued the $38,000 payment to True Ballot that was reported to have been paid in August before the ballots were sent. Surely that expense needs to be on the books somewhere.

Audit fee accruals now total $193,000. This is considerably more than the audit estimates provided to the audit committee of about $100K and this now appears to be the most expensive audit in Pacifica's history. $90K additional beyond the $82K fee and $15K retainer was accrued between June of 2016 and September of 2016.

7) PRA


Entry for $-1488 listener support in September of 2016 seems odd. 

43 comments:

  1. "Does the station's local board know what these consultant expenses are for?"

    And whom are they and on what are they consulted?

    I also wonder how much has been refunded to people by credit card companies for non-delivery of premiums.

    Finally, why is the renting of the WBAI subcarriers to a Catholic station such a secret.

    SDL

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  2. "Ambassador Chris Stevens got what he deserved".
    Berthold Reimers 10-22-16 10:15 a.m.

    KGT

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    1. Yes, I heard that as I am listening to the Gary Byrd re-broadcast for a 3rd time. Reimers also kept saying to Byrd (who considers himself "African-American") "you Americans" this, "you Americans" that as he was making his pitch for listeners to donate money to Haiti. Reimers seems to have an inward animosity toward America, but he's here monetarily milking the system as much as he can y while he watches WBAI burn to the ground. Why would someone take a job as a radio station manager and hate to come on the air as Reimers clearly states he does? Reimers is "cutting his own throat" re-broadcasting this nonsense and his weak historical overview of Haitian history. Wes Craven's horror movie "The Serpent and the Rainbow" gives me greater visual insight into the social culture of Haiti than Reimers or John Henrik Clarke.

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    2. "Reimers seems to have an inward animosity toward America, but he's here monetarily milking the system as much as he can y while he watches WBAI burn to the ground"

      I think that goes for most of the people at WBAI, especially the SJWs.

      SDL

      SDL

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  3. Haiti got what it deserved with Hurricane Matthew and the Port-au-Prince earthquake.

    KGT

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    1. Now you are descending to the Reimers/WBAI level, KGT.

      Have you ever visited Haiti? I have and I met some wonderful, warm people. I was also ripped off, but that is to be expected in a country that impoverished. It happens every second in our own country.

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    2. And you were such a cheapskate you didn't pay the voodoo woman the $10 to get rid of your arch nemesis, Steve Post.

      SDL

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    3. Ha! I must have related that memorable incident, but I don't recall where or when—nevertheless, it's true.

      BTW, the old voodoo woman's little altar was created around a black Virgin Mary—there is a connection between and the Catholic religion, all the more reason to wonder why WBAI keeps secret its rental of a subcarrier to that sect.

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    4. I never visited Haiti, but some Haitians from East Flatbush ran up and down Eastern Parkway in 1991 yelling, "Hitler was right" and "Kill the Jews" and murdered Yankel Rosenbaum.

      KGT

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    5. Yes, you told the story about two years or so ago.

      WBAI rents both subcarriers to the station, one for Italian and one for Spanish language programming. My guess is that in the older days, having Catholic programming would have looked bad to the listeners. Now, the rental fee is money somehow hidden in the budgets. In fact, I wonder if WBAI even collects the rental fee. You know they are dumb enough to forget they even rent out the subcarriers. I just think it's a mystery that needs to be examined more closely.

      SDL

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    6. You sound like my mother.

      KGT

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    7. I've always found it funny how Christians blab about God's wrath on areas, yet it's the Bible Belt that normally gets hit the hardest in this country...

      SDL

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    8. @SDL It is one of many thing in Reimers' accounting activities that needs to be looked into. We did not rent to subcarriers in my time at WBAI, but there was a Catholic group (headed by a Jesuit) that monitored us and took every opportunity to complain to the FCC.

      @KGT Your mother sounds like a good woman.

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    9. I don't know if the SCA technology existed in the 60s. I know there was a small push for SCA in the 70s, but it went nowhere. Theoretically, it could have tripled the number of radio stations available, but the electronics industry didn't seem to make many SCA radios.

      These days, you can buy a modified AM/FM SCA enabled radio on ebay for $15 - $25, but it's not very interesting, as it's all foreign language programming, except for the "reading for the blind" station. I guess there must be ethnic enclaves that listen, or these stations wouldn't be on.

      Nothing wrong at all with renting WBAI's subcarriers, since they are basically useless technologically to an FM station. It's the mystery of it and the money that I want to know about.

      SDL

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    10. Subcarrier rental fees must be collected by the license holder by law. They are billed and collected by the Pacifica national office and are recorded in that section of the income statement.

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    11. Thanks for the info. Do any other Pacifica stations rent out their subcarriers? If so, to whom?

      SDL

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    12. Many thanks for the info. At $300K you have to wonder how many listeners the subcarrier stations have. I bet the Catholic ones on WBAI have more listeners than WBAI does.

      SDL

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  4. I've always found it funny how Christians blab about God's wrath on areas, yet it's the Bible Belt that normally gets hit the hardest in this country...

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    Replies
    1. "God" moves in mysterious ways. It exists only in millions of minds, has never been seen nor uttered or written a word, yet it is constantly quoted.

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  5. Why does Gary Null resurrect a discredited schmuck like Daniel Sheehan?

    KGT

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    Replies
    1. Why does he appear/dominate such a station as WBAI has become? Why does he give "air" time to Kathy Davis' psychobabble? I could go on....

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    2. If I remember correctly, Sheehan's Christic Institute had some ties with that nut Bo Gritz over drugs & CIA stuff.

      SDL

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  6. That Profit and Loss Statement .xls download appears to be a .pdf, so after download it needed to be renamed with the .pdf suffix. Hope this helps.

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  7. WBAI's "Equal Time For Free Thought" is on now pushing the book "Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome" as a premium. I find it amazing how people like Joy DeGruy and Tim Wise can make livings spewing this emotionally charged "intellectual" B.S.. I am black and have lived in different areas of the U.S. and it is my own people, including family members, who have given me the most problems and created all kinds of obstacles for me both privately and professionally. Ironically, "so-called" white people were the ones who have given me the most help. Hatred, injustice, class differences, racism, etc. exists amongst all racial groups.

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  8. Sorry to hear that people are hassling you so much. Hope it gets better.

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  9. Thank you. My hope is that things get better for everyone and people can begin to focus on the real enemies. I've known managerial and supervisory people (all racial identities) who've been fired from companies for being too competent because they were intolerant of mediocrity. For a person, like Reimers, who happens to be black and incompetent to remain unscathed by a mostly white Pacifica management suggests something sinister is invisibly afoot. I see Berthold Reimers and Tony Bates as Trojan Horses at this point.

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  10. Was that Paul Gorman? He sounds awful. He has a nasal stuttering halting voice which I couldn't recognize and whom I listened to every Sat a.m. for years. He either had a stroke or has Parkinson's d.
    KGT

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    1. I wasn't listening, but I am well familiar with Gorman, and he is not on my list of people to be trusted. It's a long story that I won't go into—suffice it to say that he did some very underhanded things to get airtime on WBAI. That was back in the late Sixties.

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    2. He was on Janice Coleman's show from 11-12 noon with her "genius" husband.

      KGT

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    3. He's lionizing Lex Hixon. I never heard him. I heard Lynn Samuels mention him. Is he worth veneration?

      KGT

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    4. I am listening to it now (archive) and I wonder what Janet would think of Gorman if she knew what a devious opportunist he used to be—and may still be.

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    5. I never heard of Hixon, but if he is being lionized by the likes of Gorman, Coleman and Samuels, I take it with a huge grain of salt. If Hixon was all they claim he was, I think we would at least have heard him mentioned by the deluded bozos of BAI.

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    6. Chris, I vaguely remember something about Gorman pulling a stunt at a WBAI staff meeting or something like that, maybe also some stunt(s) during the '77 fiasco. Basically, he was a company man. All I personally remember of him was a boring, rambling show I didn't pay much attention to.

      Hixon rings a bell from the late 70s, but I can't place what he did, if anything even memorable. I do remember the name, though. I'll try and remember.

      SDL

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    7. I can't completely agree with you about Lynn. I know all her faults, but she was fun and was the best fundraiser WBAI ever had except for Rothenberg with his Broadway tickets (I'd rather pay full price than get them from him) and Null with his brown and green mierda.

      KGT

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    8. Sorry KGT, I had the wrong Lynn—I was thinking of Lynne Stewart. :-(

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    9. Racism seems to have clouded your mind, whoever you are.

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  11. Well, Gorman foolishly played "The 7 Dirty Words" which was a selfish act of stupidity. I don't know why he wasn't canned right then and there.

    KGT

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  12. @SDL When Chris Koch pulled a fast one and tried to discredit the station, we—"the good guys" and a listener group rented the ballroom of the Diplomat Hotel for an open meeting where people could voice their views on what was happening to WBAI. We invited Millspaugh and his new cronies (Steve Post, Josephson, et al) as well as the entire staff to join us and speak out. We would be recording it and they could air it, as long as they did so in its entirety.

    A few days before the meeting I received a call from Gorman (whom I didn't know). He said wished to interview me for the Village Voice. I agreed and went to his apartment the next day. We hadn't gotten far into the interview when I began to suspect that this was a set-up by the station. I cut it short.

    On the evening of the meeting, I spotted Gorman seated in the front row, as close to the stage as one could get. He had his coat on his lap, obviously wrapped around something, so I approached him and asked what he was carrying. When he finally bared part of it, I recognized that it was one of WBAI's two portable reel-to-reel machines. I told him that he could stay, but we would hold on to the machine until it was over. He gave me an argument about "free speech" and all that jazz, so I told him not to worry, because we would make our own audio available (I had brought in my own B&O machine for that purpose.

    When Gorman continued to give me a hard time, I called on our security people to get him and WBAI's machine out of there. Flo Kennedy, one of our scheduled speakers, had made an arrangement for the Black Panthers to protect us! Gorman took one look at the two guys who approached him, and promptly left.

    I still have the tape of that meeting, in full, but I recorded it at the slowest speed and on four tracks, so I can't play it. It was quite an evening—Koch flew in from California and tried to make a dramatic moment, but it backfired when listeners started shouting at him. He and his WBAI entourage left with their tails between their legs.

    That's the short of it.... Gorman was offered a show, which I guess was his "payment". A slimy little worm he was, at least back in the late Sixties.

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    1. Yes, now I remember you mentioning this some time ago.

      I looked up Hixon but still can't remember anything about him besides his name. I guess I never found his show interesting enough to listen to, since I don't care for spiritual stuff. At least give me UFOs for some fun.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lex_Hixon

      SDL

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    2. Here's a link to 33 of his WBAI interviews:

      http://www.lexhixon.com/conversations-in-the-spirit/

      I think Gorman was in love, because I don't hear the saintly figure he describes.

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  13. The depths of Paul Gorman’s shallowness were and presumably still are effectively immeasurable.

    ~ ‘indigopirate’

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    1. I have not come across anything that belies your observation.

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