And the winner is...

The following was sent to me this afternoon by Ed Manfredonia and posted on the WBAI-LSB-Public list by Frank Lefever. Frank's post was prefaced by this note from Mitchel Cohen. It is confusing, because Mitchel has long been Reimers' apologist as well as had serious clashes with Mr. Manfredonia. I cannot personally vouch for the veracity of this backstage drama, but the story it tells clearly has some basis in truth. For that reason, I put it on  the table, hoping that someone can shed more light on it and, perhaps, come up with some documentation.

So, let's hope listener-supporter Kainak-Daher receives the airfare owed her and thank those who share my strong desire to separate the wheat from the tare and clean up the Pacifica field.

Details of the "thank you gift" in question appeared on the WBAI website, December 29, 2015 (If you need to enlarge it, please click on the image below):

Chris,

I believe that this e-mail from Mitchel Cohen is very important and should be posted. The entire premium imbroglio is one Ponzi scheme. Just read the e-mail and read how WBAI cheats its listeners.

Thank you. Ed Manfredonia

_____________

FROM: Mitchel Cohen

SUBJECT: [WBAI Community Board] letter to WBAI 

I was forwarded this letter from a WBAI listener. I send it to you because this is a serious complaint about the way WBAI management does not prioritize its listeners, despite the extremely strenuous good will attempts by volunteers to reach out and assist them where possible. 

I am asking the CFO to gather the needed documents and issue a full report on the Gary Null paid retreats, because we have two sets of stories that are not even in the same ballpark, moneywise: WBAI management tells me that people call Gary Null's phone number to go on these retreats and not WBAI, and that WBAI has received no more than $8,000 from them. Steve Brown puts the figure at $28,000 from the last retreat and several hundreds of thousands of dollars over the last 2 years, and has provided some audio from 4 years ago but nothing recent that I've heard in which WBAI's number is the one to call. What's the truth here?

Since the costs are $2,000 apiece, these donations should be easy enough to track down and isolate.

I am also sending this to the Local FInance Committee and asking them to work with the CFO as to what's actually going on.

Thank you.

From: eloisebeyond 

Sent: Mon, Jun 13, 2016 2:45 pm

To Berthold Reimers and Andrea Katz:

Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Eloise Krainak-Daher. If my name sounds familiar to you it is because I was notified back in February of this year, after donating my hard earned money to one of your fund drives, by Andrea Katz, that I was the winner of the one week retreat with Gary Null in Texas. I understand that the station earned over $25,000 from that fund drive.

Weeks went by and NO ONE CONTACTED ME FROM THE STATION WITH MY TRAVEL ARRANGEMENTS OR DATES despite the fact that I sent several e-mails to both of you and left several phone messages. NO ONE EVER GOT BACK TO ME. Can you imagine my emotional confusion and angst after being notified that I was the winner and was never give my prize?? I was furious.

I finally contacted Luanne Pennesi. She connected me with Gary immediately and Gary Null PAID FOR MY ENTIRE RETREAT STAY out of his own pocket. I had to pay my own airfare, which I expect WBAI to refund to me. 

What the two of you committed in no uncertain terms is outright FRAUD. Your gross insensitivity to your audience is the main reason that WBAI is dying. It is sheer mismanagement and ABUSE OF THE LISTENERS and I, for one, will no longer tolerate this negligent behavior.

For starters, know that I and all of my friends, who were shocked to hear how poorly I was treated by WBAI management, will no longer be listening to the station, nor will we be donating ANYTHING to your fund drives.

Next, I am reporting WBAI and its management to the NY District Attorney, the NYS Attorney General and the Federal Trade Commission. Many of my friends and co-workers who listen to the station also told me that they paid for premiums and NEVER RECEIVED THEM. After what happened to me they are also going the the Attorney General and FTC with their concerns.

How unfortunate that the management of WBAI is this incompetent and intentionally negligent to its listeners. Shame on both of you for lying to and deceiving your audience.

Eloise Kainak-Daher

Clarification: The ESB rent problem.

Thank you, Ed Manfredonia, for the following submission. 

I would appreciate it if you would print this explanation as a separate post on your blog. I possess an MBA in Finance and had been a member of the American Stock Exchange. I made a market in derivatives- options and index options.

There appears to be a fundamental misconception of WBAI’s Income Statement. I must make a correction to R Paul Martin’s financial analysis. In his Treasurer’s Report Martin expounds:

Again, it must be noted that a significant amount of WBAI’s deficit is the result of the accrued difference between the Empire State Building (ESB) rent and the $12,000 a month that WBAI is actually paying. 

But here is the error. The rent for the Empire State Building is $55,000 per month. This sum of $55,000 must be entered as an expense on the Income Statement. Berthold Reimers is only paying $12,000 per month. This leaves a liability of $43,000 per month, which must be transferred to the Balance Sheet as an accrued liability, which is the rent owed.

This deficit for nonpayment of rent is approximately $516,000 per annum or $43,000 per month multiplied by 12 months. Please note that in a three year period this deficit amounts to approximately $1,548,000. But let us say $1,500,000.

That is an accrued liability of $1,500,000- just for the Empire State Building rent and this sum must appear on the Balance Sheet. And this sum of $1,500,000 does not include interest on the sum owed and penalties for late payment.

Thus a Balance Sheet and a Cash Flow Projection are meaningless because the numbers on the Income Statement are meaningless- actually fraudulent.

Since 2011 I have been pointing out that the financial figures are imaginary numbers and that these figures have nothing to do with the catastrophic financial situation of WBAI. It does not matter that the assets owned by Pacifica can be valued at $100 million; Pacifica (especially the jewel in the crown WBAI) is losing money on assets worth $100 million. Pacifica (and WBAI especially) does not know how to earn money on its assets. And the solution is not by selling Gary Null’s products.

Thank you. Ed Manfredonia

Little by little: Pacifica's last gasps?

Erasing The History of Pacifica

Berkeley- Pacifica Archives Director Brian De Shazor has announced his resignation from Pacifica Radio, effective June 30th. De Shazor's resignation provoked a strongly worded rebuke to Pacifica from Dr. Josh Sheppard, director of the Radio Preservation Task Force at the Library of Congress in Washington DC. Sheppard stated De Shazor's resignation forced him to retract a Library of Congress offer to apply for grant funding to support the archives and would amount to several hundred thousand dollars in potential lost funds. Sheppard went further, stating the Library of Congress would change Pacifica's status to that of an endangered archive and advised Pacifica management that "abandoning maintenance of the archive and the consequent degradation of these materials will effectively erase the history of Pacifica". Sheppard's full letter can be read here.  Pacifica had recently threatened significant cuts to archival preservation staffing. 

Discussions about the network's deteriorating financial position at the June 2 national board meeting led to attorney Jose Luis Fuentes, a former Siegel and Yee employee, denouncing his comrades-in-arms as "drinking Kool-Aid" and describing the network as a "gravy train". CFO Agarwal also weighed in saying flatly that he did not understand who was accountable for financial decision-making. Agarwal said he has placed the network's planned delegate election, which continues to solicit candidate nominations for 2017 board seats, on hold. You can hear the statements by Fuentes and Agarwal here.

CFO Agarwal also released a spreadsheet to the finance committee summarizing amounts owed by each unit for shared network services. The spreadsheet indicated current fiscal year debts of $50,600 from NY's WBAI and $106,500 from DC's WPFW. LA station KPFK still owes at least $140,000 from the June to September 2015 period. GM Radford has not indicated any intention to make payments and says she is pursuing an $80,000 loan to fulfill unsent premium gifts. 

Interim Exec Director Lydia Brazon announced at the June 2 meeting she had received an email "on the 31st" from KPFA general manager Quincy McCoy indicating neither April nor May network service fees would be paid timely by Berkeley's KPFA (an amount totaling $69,300) and the station had to "borrow money to make payroll". Brazon's declaration was strange, since KPFA concluded a three week fund drive with gross pledges of $628,000 on May 27th, 4 days prior to "the 31st". You can hear Brazon's announcement here. An inquiry to KPFA's local station board treasurer about how much was borrowed to make the payroll and the source of the loan did not get a response to date.

A motion by Houston listener rep Bill Crosier to take emergency actions to recover financial viability including the repayment of restricted funds, preparation for emergency work furloughs if needed, a board fundraising task force and operational assistance for the NY and DC stations, was tabled by the board of directors.

Even members of the Siegel/Brazon faction appear to have lost faith in the information they are receiving from Pacifica volunteer ED Lydia Brazon. Houston listener rep Adriana Casenave launched a directors inspection at all five Pacifica stations in the first week of June, demanding copies of:

1. Every single bank statement from every single bank account at all 7 of the units from October 1, 2015 to May 31, 2016;
2. The check registers for every single bank account at all 7 of the units from October 1, 2015 to May 31, 2016;
3. The list of bank deposit signatories for every single bank account at all 7 of the units;
4. Lists of every single foundation employee at all 7 of the units with hire date, job title, and rate of pay;
5. Payroll registers from all 7 of the units
6. A list of financial recordkeeping deficiencies reported by the audit firm with indications if, when and how they have been addressed by management.

Casenave co-sponsored a proposed bylaws amendments restricting directors from carrying out inspections using agents who are not members of a Pacifica board, but did not let that stop her from designating a Berkeley listener-member who was not a member of any Pacifica board to help carry out her inspection at KPFA. Pacifica's local boards will be reviewing the proposed bylaws amendment, which is contrary to California Corporations Code sections 6311-6313, in the next 6 weeks.

WBAI's fund drive concluded after 35 agonizing days with a minimal take of $280,000, barely 60% of the goal and covering only about 8 weeks of the station's operating expenses. Top fundraiser, unpaid host Gary Null, was kept off the air for most of the fund drive, a heavy contributing factor to the meagre $8,000 a day in pledges. Null made a statement on-air about his show being pulled from the fund drive, which can be heard here. A 2004 report prepared for the WBAI local station board surfaced earlier this week. The 80-page report contains dozens of thank you letters from a bevy of Pacifica managers and producers, as well as other public radio stations, for Null's hefty fundraising totals from the mid-80's to just a few years ago.

In a few host changes at the California stations, volunteer coordinator/security guard/Radford roommate Adam Rice threw in the towel on his hourlong perch during overnight profanity-thon Safe Harbor after only six months, handing it over to attorney Nana Gyamfi, one of the Uprising replacement hosts. Rice's announcement, punctuated with a "thank god" over being released from fundraising and hosting duties, can be heard here. At KPFA, anti-police-brutality organizer and actress Cat Brooks came on board as a co-host for the 7am Upfront program. Brooks was the campaign manager for former Pacifica board member and current corporate counsel Dan Siegel in his 2014 Oakland mayoral campaign. Siegel finished in fourth place.

In LA, GM Radford has her eye on dismantling the joint California news product, the Pacifica Evening News. Radford informed a KPFK staff meeting the Pacifica Evening News product was "reactionary" and she hoped to replace it with a KPFK-generated daily newscast.

One of the four music programmers who left KPFK in disgust after Margy Wilkinson appointed Radford manager of the LA station, former Melting Pot host Michael Barnes, has threatened legal action against Pacifica Radio if his name, program listing and reruns of his old shows are not removed from the KPFK website. Barnes' sayanora to KPFK is here. Despite the May 25th threat of legal action, Melting Pot remained listed as a KPFK program on kpfk.org as of June 11th.

A new podcast joined the small collection on KPFA's website, dubbed Area 94.1. The mystery podcast, a cowboy busted-dreams kinda thing focusing on a country music DJ with a tendency to alcohol-induced blackouts, turned out to be the handiwork of KPFA's general manager, a fact only revealed at the end of the podcast. The monologue describes an encounter between our drunken DJ (whose eyes look like "pissholes in the snow") and a community college student cum stripper with rosy lips, ample breasts and buttocks and a stuck-out tongue, who turns out to be lusting after the drunken DJ's son. You can listen to it here.

This publication's home on the Internet (www.pacificainexile.org) is starting a Resources page to provide easy one-click access to frequently searched-for and downloaded documents and files. It's still in the beginning phases, but about two dozen documents are now available, with more to come. If you have any requests for materials you'd like to see there or for posting, send to pacificainexile@gmail.com so we can develop the most useful page possible for those "looking for that thing" moments.

To subscribe to this newsletter, please visit Pacifica Radio in Exile's new website at www.pacificainexile.org

Voltaire was right.

Today's Morning Show was hosted by Laura Flanders, who leaves amateur-for-life Haskins in the dust when it comes to intelligence and broadcasting skills. She represented a somewhat refreshing departure from WBAI's racist approach when she came aboard a few weeks back, but she now seems to be joining the party line.

Listen to her rude handling of a caller who asked a question that many of us would like an answer to. This was no crank call, the lady is obviously familiar with WBAI and puzzled by the direction it has taken. Here is her call in its entirety, the hypocrisy of WBAI surfaces at the end.

Appropriate changes? That's a good one!

The state of the artlessness is gloomy.
Here is R. Paul Martin's WBAI Treasurer's Report.