Say "cheese!"

Did you in your wildest fantasy imagine that there is something called the Pacifica Strategic Planning Committee? Well, there is and its members met via their respective phone devices last Monday, April 23.

The main attraction comprised Pacifica's iED Tom Livingston and WBAI's manager for life, Berthold Reimers; the hope was that we finally might get a good look at their respective crystal balls. 

Did we? Here are the telling excerpts.... you be the judge.

Reimers on strategy

Livingston's questions and thoughts 

Fake fiction?

The below link is a brief excerpt from the April 18, 2018 KPFT LSB meeting. It does not contain earthshaking news, but it has a telling whiff of Houston discontent. It may be just the ongoing secrecy or lack of vital details, but many of us who care about Pacifica's future are beginning to lose the glimmer of hope that partially blinded us when we read the recently announced development in ESRT vs Pacifica. 

Some, like Kim Kaufman, received the news with due skepticism, pointing out missing details and wondering why there were vital omissions—documents, for example. After all, the veil of secrecy was supposed to have been lifted—Pacifica had readopted its long-abandoned policy of honesty. Or had it? Kim Kaufman's questions brought out the apologists and the Pacifica Radiowaves forum was buzzing like a dropped beehive.

I-told-you-so's clashed with don't-tell-me-so's and it was beginning to feel like the bad old times again, but Kim was making inroads in her quest for truth. 

You will get some idea of the current mood by listening to the KPFT LSB extract. Pay particular attention to DeWayne Lark, who predicts that bankruptcy will be declared by the end of 2019—that only draws a solo applause, but note that nobody is heard disagreeing when that same gentleman wonders aloud what iED Tom Livingston has done to relieve the Pacifica crisis and what he might have up his sleeve.

Perhaps this is an overreaction to perceived inaction, but I thought it worth bringing up. 

KPFT LSB excerpt.

Bogarting that joint....

Have We Been Gaslighted?

I don't think I am alone in wondering when/if there will be a positive change on and off WBAI's air. So far, the bane of BAI has replaced a couple of shows, oddly continuing to wallow in his old groove of minimal IQ, street-black-targeted armchair activism, shallow chit chat and see-thru propaganda. I hesitate to say that Bates deliberately insults intelligence, given that he himself seems to have but a modicum of that, but he clearly has not learned anything from stumbling down the path of poor judgement that endears him to Berthold Reimers.

He was on the right track when he reduced Michael Haskins' 5-day morning disaster to Mondays and Tuesdays, but he should have eliminated him totally. I have heard no details regarding the sudden departure of a silly twosome known as "the blacks", but it, too, was an improvement, and far more weeding remains to be done. The outlook for positive change, however, continues to be dim.

Contributing to the bleak outlook is a rumored consideration by the Pacifica National Board to not compound the current financial crisis by conducting the mandated, costly 2018 election. The reality, however, is that cancellation may well prove to be costly, even fatal. It will extend the stay of Board members whose term is about to expire. One of these members is Cerene Robertson—need I elucidate?

While the bylaws call for an election, the PNB believes that Pacifica's current situation will get the California AG's sanction to override the rules. Never mind that Pacifica has a history of ignoring its own bylaws.

So, with destructive, corrupt Board members staying on, the forecast for recovery remains gloomy.

On that note, let me end with further evidence of WBAI falling victim to ineptitude and neglect. The following audio clip is an air check from last Friday's Morning Show, and it really says it all. As mentioned above, Haskins—who likes to repeatedly ID himself as WBAI's "chief announcer, chief engineer, and guide"—lost the 6-8AM Friday time slot to a succession of hopelessly ill-suited hosts, the current one being Jerry Otera, who calls himself "Mista Oh." When he failed to show up for the 6 AM show, Haskins announced that he would be there shortly and proceeded to play some jazz recordings, interspersed with commercial spots for black events. This continued—with excruciating, but typical sound level bounces—for the next hour and fifty minutes. Then, Mista Oh finally popped up and offered six minutes of rambling, pot-laced gibberish, including a list of several guests whose expertise he had meant for us to hear. Note that he apologises to the guests, but not the listeners. He also announces that he will be back on this topic next year. 

Here in its entirety is Mistah Oh's unedited 

six-minute breakfast high. 

To be or not to be....

I vividly recall a time when WBAI regarded its listener-sponsors with respect. Not because they paid the bills, which they did, but largely for the independent thinking that made them keep us on the air. No, they were not all of one mind when it came to political and artistic preferences, but most of them possessed the kind of curiosity that demanded hearing all sides of an issue and honest evaluations of creative endeavours. I believe our regular listeners knew that our in-house produced reportages and reviews were independent whether we covered the Civil Rights struggle, the Vietnam War, or the most outré artistic expressions. We also aired non-topical material from the BBC, which was quality radio—uncontroversial except perhaps for the occasional highly avant garde music concert.

This is not the WBAI any of us wish to return to literally, but a fresh and intellectually stimulating  overhaul does not have to trample on the original principles of Pacifica nor alter the station's mission.

Sure, our paid staff of twenty-five and the numerous volunteers we attracted had differences of opinion, but we were united in purpose—WBAI was a true voice in the wilderness that we were proud to be a part of, and we took pride in working there. To most of us, the lure was participation in this remarkable experiment and the opportunity to provide a much needed alternative to commercial radio.

It was indeed meant to be an alternative rather than a replacement—we all acknowledged that there was also much good radio to be heard on either side of us. Being in the middle of the FM dial, our frequency, 99.5, was an ideal spot; My good friend, Lou Schweitzer, who gave WBAI to Pacifica, had a suggestion for prospective listeners: "On your way from NBC to CBS, stop in for refreshments." Many heeded that advice. 

Today, Alex Steinberg and Mitchel Cohen regard themselves as the "good guys", but one does not have to be a JUC faction member to play a big part in what is wrong with Pacifica. Stubborn leftovers from another era, they cling to an ideology that has long since been proven not to work. Instead of coming up with a new direction that incorporates the functional elements of the old Left (there were some, indeed), they want it all back…. They cannot get it into their clunky, old-fogeyish thinking that Lew Hill stepped into a new day and KPFA was not a plugged-in Marx device.

Alex and Mitchel have doggedly moored themselves to a rusty buoy, clinging to it with their goo of fantasy and waving a tattered red flag. It isn’t working for them, as one might expect, nor has anything bandied about by the current contingent of imaginary traffic cops—the stagnated afro-eccentrics whose flag is less tattered but even more effective in driving WBAI’s listenership numbers to the current nadir. This was not Lew Hill’s dream, as both these factions feign to believe. In fact, Mr. Hill could not have imagined his Pacifica being molested to the extent that it has.

Pacifica’s aim included several targets, not the least of which was commercial broadcasting’s perpetual telling of white lies, but lies are lies, whether you paint them red or black and when told routinely—as they are on WBAI—they reach deaf ears. It is laughable to hear Mitchel stand up for Berthold Reimers who, along with scammers like Tony Bates and Kathy Davis thrive on a steady diet of calculated untruths. Putting aside the criminality involved, their mindsets are the antithesis of the Pacifica Lewis Hill and his associates brought to life in 1949.

Steinberg and Cohen may think they are keeping up with the times, but—like Mimi (the bargain basement black), O’Brien (the Mumia mom) and a dozen other opportunists du jour, their expiry date is but a fading footnote. In redefining the term “community radio” and moulding it to fit into their respective narrow grooves, these vandals—whether driven by naïveté or selfish agendas—deny that principles and progress can move hand in hand. Berthold Reimers is the perfect pawn in this game, a fact that appears to be recognised on the PNB as well as local levels. Wearing his see-thru veil of lies, he covertly traipses along a path of conveniently concocted calamities and picks up an inflated paycheque month after month, year after year.

Now there appears at last to be hope for Pacifica, but it is—not unexpectedly—being challenged. So, the game goes on with the same cast and, one might presume, the same faction-based venom. Is anybody listening?

That’s the real question.

Chris Albertson
Former WBAI volunteer, staffer, manager.

A Ken Mills-Kim Kaufman dialogue

UPDATE: Scroll down for Ken Mills' response:

These are my responses to Ken Mills’s post. Ken is in quotes. —Kim Kaufman 

"The recent agreement between Pacifica/WBAI with the Empire State Realty Trust (ESRT) received praise in media coverage."  

The link above leads back to Ken's own coverage of this story. I haven't seen any "praise" in media coverage yet, only basic reporting on Pacifica's press release which, oddly, did not list the amount of loans which are $3.7 million and $500,000. (Plus at least $800,000 interest as best I can tell. The loan documents still have not been made public. Pacifica’s operating budget is under $12 million.)  

"In fact, the best reporter on the radio beat, Tom Taylor, said interim Executive Director Tom Livingston and Marc Hand from the Public Media Company should be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize." 

Let's not forget President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize and continued or started wars in - is it five or seven? foreign countries, plus a coup in Honduras. 

"That might be hyperbole but observers seem to agree that progress is being made." 

“Observers” should make their observations public so we don’t think this might be made up. I don't see progress but complete disarray. Unpopular, or merely inconvenient voices have been shut out, including Pacifica's CFO, (CFO Resignation letter), and Pacifica's corporate counsel. 

"These folks remind us of a bunch of Scientologists. They believe deeply in what they are saying, but, at the end of the day it is meaningless."

True statement. Grace Aaron who spearheaded this loan (and her husband, Ken, KPFK's Treasurer) are, in fact long time Scientologists. 

"Pacifca's rules are used to keep certain people in power." 

True. Nonetheless, they are the present rules that must be followed. What R. Paul Martin was pointing to: 

“All Members shall have all rights granted to them by law or by these Bylaws, including without limit the right to vote… on the sale, exchange, transfer or disposition of all or substantially all of the Foundation's assets; on the sale, exchange, transfer or disposition of any of the Foundation's broadcast licenses; on any merger, its principal terms and any amendment of its principal terms; on any election to dissolve the Foundation."

That means using a sale or swap of a radio license as possible means of paying back the loan is outside of the scope of the PNB to promise and, without being a lawyer, appears illegal. The public looks forward to seeing the documents to see exactly what is promised to pay back the loan, if anything. 

"Actually, all of these rules can be erased by the stroke of a pen.” 

True but, to date, they have not been and thus they are the laws of the land. 

“Pacifca's rules are used to keep certain people in power.”

True. But people who are so inclined will always find ways to manipulate rules if they perceive they will benefit and are dishonest. Look at Mitch McConnell’s refusal to bring Merrick Garland to the Senate for a vote for SCOTUS! 

“Perhaps Pacifica would be better off if they had only one committee, the National Board of Directors.”

Perhaps but CA state law requires Pacifica have an audit committee. (There is one but is non-functional.) It is time to stop blaming Pacifica’s bylaws, insane as they are, for the actions and decisions of the people who make the decisions. Whether one committee or 10, it or they would still be populated by the same incompetent and uninformed people. 

“Livingston and Hand… aren’t taking part in the… meaningless factions."

Of course they are playing factional games. My observation is that, like John Proffitt when he got to Pacifica, Livingston identified the three or four people who are driving their factional train and ignores everyone else. 

Livingston said in a public email, “The decision to seek a loan to address the ESRT judgment was made prior to the start of my time at Pacifica. All of the policy decisions regarding the agreements were made by the PNB.” I responded: “Are you suggesting you accepted this job to do the bidding of majority of Directors, wherever they lead you? One would have thought that you, as a professional with a long career in helping public radio stations, would show your independence and ask hard questions - before signing loan documents.” And further, “One would have hoped you were hired to offer informed advice and plans not just rubber stamp what the board wanted. After all, they are the ones who have put Pacifica in the dire situation it presently is in.“ Tom is factional game-playing at its worst and most destructive to Pacifica.  

As far as I can tell, Pacifica could not qualify for this loan either by having the appropriate financial reporting required or by any plan to pay back the loan. A six month waiver was given to Pacifica to complete the financial reporting required which includes: finish FY2016 audit, start and complete FY2017 audit, complete two pension plan audits and pay off the pension monies owed since 2015 (and is, at a minimum, $750,000 plus penalties which have not been calculated). Livingston was not able to say who told the lender Pacifica could accomplish all this by September. The CFO has stated it cannot be done. I do not believe it can be done, especially, as of May 4, with no CFO and no auditor.

Livingston said in a public email, “I believe I speak for the board that it is the strong hope that by improving Pacifica's programming and operating practices the organization can generate sufficient resources to be both sustainable and service the debt.”

My response was, “ Your statement is shocking. You signed a $3.7 million loan, with all of Pacifica’s real estate assets, including everything inside the buildings, plus KPFK’s transmitter and the Pacifica Radio Archives, both irreplaceable, only on a “strong hope”? Please see my 4/8 email where I asked if this was a predatory or “liar’s loan.” 

We’ll see who gets an “I told you so moment” as to the future of Pacifica. I’ll be happy if it’s not me but I do not think it will be those who are trying to put enough lipstick on this sad pig to make it look like a good deal for Pacifica. 

Kim Kaufman

Former KPFK LSB, Treasurer, 

Pacifica National Board, audit committee

Hi Kim -- I am getting caught up. I've got the flu and am moving at about half speed, sorry I didn't get them posted earlier.

You raise a number of important points and I can see where we have different views of the situation. This paragraph is a useful summary:

Perhaps but CA state law requires Pacifica have an audit committee. (There is one but is non-functional.) It is time to stop blaming Pacifica’s bylaws, insane as they are, for the actions and decisions of the people who make the decisions. Whether one committee or 10, it or they would still be populated by the same incompetent and uninformed people.

The key line is: blaming Pacifica’s bylaws, insane as they are, for the actions and decisions of the people who make the decisions.

My point is, if the bylaws are insane, get rid of them. Why let every person with a gripe impede the entire organization. KCRW, KPCC and event KXLU don't have these useless governance "rules."

You are correct when you say: Whether one committee or 10, it or they would still be populated by the same incompetent and uninformed people.

And because of the obstruction caused by these "laws" even a competent, qualified people will not be able to make the needed changes. So, get rid of the bylaws.

Respectfully, Kim, sometimes you and others seem to be cheering for Pacifica to fail. Perhaps then you can have your "I told you so moment."

There is no focus on the "common good," which is essential in nonprofit endeavors.

As a reporter/blogger who has no stake in the outcome, I hope Pacifica can either find a way to succeed or sell the stations to a noncommercial organization.

FYI, Ken.

Ken Mills' epilogue

_________________________

For authoritative news and opinions on the subject of non-profit community radio, I highly recommend subscribing to Ken Mills’ Spark News.

WBAI Treasurer's Report-April 11, 2018

April 11, 2018 WBAI Treasurer's Report

A touch of abatement

Since the agreement with ESRT was reached, the skeptics—having been lied to and kept in the dark for years, expressed an interest in seeing actual documents. The linked should give all a measure of...

Satisfaction

A Revealing Bates Selfie

The following was written by Tony Bates and posted April 2, 2018 in response to a comment by Alex Steinberg. Alex rightfully pointed out that WBAI "should not be broadcasting trash, even if some people find it intriguing." Bates, as you may know, pops up during fund drives and is responsible for some of the most outrageous distortions of afrocentric history and baseless medical claims. He and Kathy Davis were the disingenuous hucksters of Double Helix Water, which they said could cure cancer, autism and just about anything. That one was so glaringly fraudulent that he was forced to take it off the air, but he has since come up with several equally dishonest pitches and continues to underestimate the intelligence of the station's listenership, even as it all but disappears.

If you have wondered why the station features and encourages such shameless programming and why the audience exodus inspires endless repeats rather than cessation, this Bates selfie says it all. Let us hope that the good news announced by Pacifica yesterday will facilitate the firing of Bates as well as Berthold Reimers. WBAI needs professional, dedicated management, and there is no time to lose.

From the fumbling mind of Tony Bates. No attempt has been made to correct his writing.

That content will always sell.  It's specifically the content which large amounts of the Pacifica audience tune in to receive.  The problem is that those whom see themselves as the 'gatekeepers for the intelligentsia' don't see a value in the programming which our audiences value.  We're convinced that we know better than our audiences, therefore, like missionaries, we're delivering our stories and perspectives (as ancient as they may be) without concern for audience interest.  Most of our political perspectives are commonplace,  the same can be heard on NPR, CNN, or MSNBC.  Why tune into Pacifica to hear a poorly produced version of the same perspective, which is on NPR with better production values or seen on CNN with video?  We like the former "Air America" are becoming a mouthpiece for a Democratic Party which has moved  rapidly to the political right.

When I worked at WPFW, despite my protestations, the GM, who'd come from outside the network insisted to me that I become host of a new program I'd created, "Because you're the only person on this station who talks up to people, everyone else talks down to people."  It's a truism for Pacifica radio. (Read one of our email chains if you think otherwise.)  We're so convinced of our points of view, we air them whether or not the audience is interested, we'll air them even if no one is listening.  So instead of talking to the audience, we end up talking at the audience, that is the few still tuned in.

Recently, WBAI producer Geoff Brady, hosted a debate on geoengineering, a topic most in Pacifica positions of power or in 'gate keeping' positions would laugh at or dismiss.  Post broadcast, the debate has garnered more than 25,000 listens on Youtube alone.  Again this topic would be dismissed generally by the 'Pacifica Intelligentsia" and I use the term loosely, but the  audience is widely interested. 

100s of milliions of people are debating the 'flat-earth' topic  online.  The debate has become so overwhelming online, that Neil Degrasse Tyson has practically been forced onto late night talk show circuit to debunk  the theory multiple times.  On late night television millions more are exposed to the topic, which is big enough for Stephen Colbert, but not for Pacifica, we apparently know better, so we don't need to have that stupid debate.  It's the obvious 'missionary position, 'we'll learn these heathens yet...'. 

To be successful, we have to reach the audience WHERE THEY LIVE, rather than where we live.

Pacifica audiences tune in largely for TOPICS, not just perspectives, and intellectual discussions which can't be easily accessed in the mainstream media.  Tune in to our news coverage and note how similar our perspectives have become to the 'alternative mainstream' as well as CNN and MSNBC, it's the antithesis of Lew Hill's vision.  When we ask questions anymore, they are often based in the already created narrative of the mainstream story.  We are often parroting CNN & MSNBC.  We're losing audience because we've lost our way.

Here is a current example:

  

In the last week, David Hogg, Parkland, Florida school shooting survivor, completely changed his story about his whereabouts the day of the shooting. (See video below.)  Not altered... completely changed his story.  He now claims that he was at home when the shooting began, not on school grounds.  Rather, he rode his bike 3 miles from home to the school, arriving  before the news media and before the police.  Then sneaking past an active shooter, he joined his fellow classmates in hiding.

From my perspective this is news.  After all there was a national march based in part on this guy's reporting of the event just last week. 

One is left to wonder if any Paciica News Department finds this dynamic change in the story meaningful.  How have we become so homogeneous as a network, that none of our news departments, are even questioning  this huge anomaly in the biggest news story in the country?  

HOGG CHANGED HIS STORY ON CBS NEWS, but we're so caught in the narrative, we've neither noticed nor questioned it.  It's a failure of our duty to our audiences. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fk2vPHaVevg 

Interestingly, no mainstream media, from either side of aisle is reporting this story.  Oddly Pacifica has the same position as the mainstream media, we aren't reporting the story either.  So we have that in common.

If our plan is truly to draw and build audience, our product at the very least must be unique, because the Pacifica mission requires it and the audience demands it be so.  Their dollars, which we're no long seeing are speaking louder than our words.

Tony Bates

Programming Manager

WBAI 99.5 FM

388 Atlantic Ave

Brooklyn, NY 11217

Time to dump the parasites

As you may have noticed, Ken Mills' Spark News has been following the Pacifica crisis. Yesterday, the news was finally favorable, but the problems—though considerably reduced will not cease to threaten Pacifica until there has been a thorough internal cleanup. Of course, Mr. Mills is aware of that and I have highlighted two instances where he hits the nail on the head with astute observations.

1. "Pacifica still is dealing with a massive debt, dysfunctional management, listless programming and a very negative public image."

2.  "Does Pacifica exist to be the 'voice of the voiceless' or to be the 'voice of progressive politics' or does it super-serve a specific community?"

On the air, microphone-privileged like to refer to WBAI as the voice for the voiceless, but it has not been that in many years. Neither is it, strictly speaking, a platform for progressive politics, not even the new Left. The opportunists who now dominate the program schedule strive to serve "a specific community"—more accurately, they have chosen to aim their rhetoric at a very small segment of New York's black community, regularly resorting to propaganda and embroidered Afrocentric history.

A daily diet of such perfidious race-based—or downright racist—diatribe has sparked the dramatic loss that today makes WBAI insignificant and its listenership the lowest in its 58-year history as a Pacifica-owned station.

CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE

Adriana's last stand?

A Settlement, and a Valedictory

Tom Livingston presented a report as to the agreements reached, which were announced in a release earlier in the day:

Settlement with Empire State Realty Trust 

Covers all outstanding fees and penalties

Releases from contractual obligations through 2020

Ready to sign lease for transmitter at 4 Times Square

Lessor will capitalize and amortize cost of new transmitter

Loan from EJC

No payments for the first 18 months

Interest only for next 18 months

Loan Balance due in three years

Audit requirement waived for first 6 months

There was, unsurprisingly, general relief/enthusiasm expressed as to these comprehensive agreements.

Livingston emphasized that these agreements bought time but were by no means a ‘free pass’ for Pacifica, that revitalization and reorganization were of vital importance.

Time, presumably, will tell…

~ ‘indigopirate’

[Exit, Stage Left, pursued by a Wombat, two Land Sharks, and four Ducks]

Tom Livingston answers questions

Full meeting (2 hrs. 51 mins.)

Egg on faces?

April 5, 2018

For Immediate Release

Contact: Tom Livingston Tel: (510) 316-9783 Email: ed@pacifica.org

Pacifica Announces Settlement With Empire State Building and Empire State Realty Trust  

(New York) – The Pacifica Foundation announced today the settlement on a series of agreements that release WBAI, the organization’s New York radio station, from a court judgment as well as the last two years of its lease at the Empire State Building as of May 31, 2018. The Foundation is also in the final stages of completing an agreement to relocate its transmission facility to a new site nearby. The agreements and move will preserve Pacifica’s service to millions of people in the New York Metro area.

The settlement, announced by the Pacifica National Board, relieves Pacifica of a $1.8 million 2017 judgment for Empire State Realty Trust (the organization that operates the Empire State Building) and against WBAI and Pacifica, additional rent and penalties accrued since the judgment was issued, and any remaining obligations that would have incurred after May 31, 2018.

Funding for the settlement was provided through a loan from the non-profit lender FJC, which includes a reserve amount that frees Pacifica from making payments for the first eighteen months of the loan and interest payments only for the following 18 months before the loan matures after three years.

The pending agreement for the new transmission site at 4 Times Square will include purchase and installation of a new transmitter, which will replace WBAI’s current obsolete and failing 28-year-old unit. Capitalization for the transmitter will be provided by the new landlord, with the cost amortized over the life of the agreement.

The board also announced today the launch of a search for a new permanent Executive Director as well as a strategic planning effort, and a $56,000 gift from the estate of former WBAI supporter, Mr. Jim Krivo.

Board Chair, Nancy Sorden said, “These series of steps – getting a loan to resolve the judgment, release from the remainder of the lease, moving to our new site, and launching our search for a permanent Executive Director, are steps we are taking to give us the time to recover, stabilize, and improve our operations. This is our opportunity to return Pacifica to its place at the forefront of being a place to hear alternative, progressive, corporation-independent, and community-based voices of music, news, information, and inspiration at a time when they are desperately needed in this country and around the world. As a board and an organization, we are determined to take advantage of this opportunity and call for our communities and progressive people everywhere to join us in the effort.”

“I’d like to first thank the Pacifica National Board, for deciding on this approach and the enormous amount of work they put into it to get us to this point. Second, to FJC for providing this loan at a very difficult time for Pacifica, and third to the team of professionals that helped negotiate the settlement, secure the funding, identify and secure an agreement for our new transmitter location. I’d like to specifically thank our lawyers Sam Himmelstein, and John Crigler of Garvey, Shubert Barer , who represented us with ESRT and helped review and improve these agreements, as well as Marc Hand of the Public Media Company, who helped negotiate the settlement with ESRT and provided brokerage services with FJC. I’d also like to thank our community members, especially from our Los Angeles station, KPFK, who came through with additional loan money to close the gap for what was needed. And last but not least, our thanks also to our new current interim Executive Director, Tom Livingston, who recognizes our dedication and passion and knows how to help us to keep moving forward to get it done.” 

###

About Pacifica

Started in 1946 by conscientious objector Lew Hill, Pacifica’s storied history includes impounded program tapes for a 1954 on-air discussion of marijuana, broadcasting the Seymour Hersh revelations of the My Lai massacre, bombings by the Ku Klux Klan, going to jail rather than turning over the Patty Hearst tapes to the FBI, and Supreme Court cases. Those cases include the 1984 decision that noncommercial broadcasters have the constitutional right to editorialize, and the Seven Dirty Words ruling following George Carlin’s incendiary performances on WBAI.

The Pacifica Foundation operates noncommercial radio stations in five major metropolitan areas, operates the Pacifica Radio Archives with decades of historical audio, and syndicates content to over 300 affiliate stations. Pacifica invented listener-sponsored radio.

About Public Media Company

Public Media Company is a nonprofit strategic consulting firm that fosters innovative and sustainable local media in communities across the U.S. Over the past 17 years, Public Media Company has worked with more than 300 public media organizations in 49 states, facilitating more than $338 million in public media station acquisitions and impacting 80 million people, or 1-in-5 Americans. Public Media Company worked with a number of public television stations on the spectrum auction and launched and managed the innovative content-sharing and discovery platforms Channel X and VuHaus. The Public Media Venture Group is Public Media Company’s latest entrepreneurial effort that seeks to strengthen local public media stations and the communities they serve.

About FJC

FJC, A Foundation of Philanthropic Funds, is a 501c(3) public charity whose mission is advancing donors’ charitable goals and financial planning through creative and pioneering solutions including its non-profit Agency Loan Fund (ALF). FJC offers the ALF as an investment option to donor advised funds and to qualified tax exempt not-for-profit organizations. ALF loans have helped finance projects for public radio and television stations, the establishment of group homes for the disabled, classes for special needs children, programs at community centers for the aged, adult literacy programs, cultural institutions, and arts programs.

Open letter to Tom Livingston

Hi Tom – 

 

Some news of what the PNB has been doing behind closed doors for almost a year has recently been made public, although the secretive PNB still has said nothing. We now know: 

 

            The CFO is quitting and why

            The outside Auditor is quitting and will not do the FY2017 audit (due to the state of CA in June)

Pacifica general counsel’s legal opinion on the FJC loan

 

I have a couple of questions I hope you will answer:  

 

·         What are the ramifications of signing the FJC loan that is immediately in default since the financial requirements cannot be met? 

 

·         What is the status of the $2 million “friends of Jan and Jerry” loan? My understanding is that KPFK, KPFA and KPFT’s buildings, plus KPFK’s 110 watt transmitter on Mt. Wilson, are collateral for the FJC loan. What collateral is being used for the FoJ&J loan? 

 

·         When will the actual loan documents be made public? 

 

·         Why was the CFO and General Counsel not given the FJC loan documents in a timely manner to review before the PNB voted? 

 

On June 15, 2017, the PNB passed the following motion in closed session. [My bold for the pertinent part]: 

 

MOTION: LOANS, APPRAISALS AND EMPIRE STATE REALTY TRUST SETTLEMENT PARAMETERS

 

Be it resolved that:

Appraisals be obtained for the KPFA building, the Nakapan/National Office property and the KPFT

building, with the priority being the KPFA building.

 

Amendment: No settlement or loan will be finalized until a repayment plan is approved by the PNB."

 

[11Y – 6N – 2A: Amendment passes]

 

Motion as Amended

[8Y – 6N – 4A – 1NV: Motion passes]

 

Relative to the above: 

 

·         What is the repayment plan for the loan/s? 

 

I, and I’m sure others receiving this, look forward to your response. It’s way past time where Pacifica can remain silent about all this. 

 

Thank you. 

 

Kim

Former KPFK LSB, Treasurer, 

PNB, audit committee, personnel committee (including 3 manager searches)