A ray of hope?

At the start of the meeting, all the children left the room leaving the adults to play. And here is the result...

February 11, 2017

Pacifica Foundation Appoints New Executive DirectorTo Grapple With Financial Challenges

Berkeley— The five-station Pacifica Radio network opted for change in 2017 by removing Lydia Brazon, the interim executive director since 2015 and replacing her with 2010-2012 and 2016-2017 Director William Crosier.

The change comes as the network faces an un-precedented political situation in the United States, which is reeling from the assault of the newly elected Donald Trump administration on constitutional freedoms and governmental assistance programs. Pacifica's alternative news, information and cultural programming provides perspectives rarely heard in mainstream media and features the voices of artists, activists and public intellectuals.

The network, founded in 1946 in Berkeley, California, faces an increasingly acute financial situation, with litigation recently filed by the Empire State Building for unpaid transmitter tower rent for station WBAI, and an investigation in progress by the California Attorney General's Registry of Charitable Trusts over delinquent financial audits.

Crosier commented: “Pacifica's mission of alternative educational broadcasting is crucial to the future of this country. I will do everything in my power to ensure the Pacifica Foundation's survival until I can hand over the network to the care of a new visionary leader. I thank my colleagues on the Pacifica National Board for their faith in me. I know we have serious challenges ahead, but I look forward to working together with Pacifica staff and volunteers to catch up on the things we've been neglecting, and guide us to a better place”.

Crosier holds a master of science degree in bio-medical engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington and thirty-five years of experience in the development of computer-based electronic and electro-mechanical hardware and software systems for biomedical research. He is a long-time radio aficionado and the former Chair of the Board 
and President of the Houston Peace and Justice Center.

The Pacifica National Board made the change on Friday evening during a national teleconference. Outgoing director Lydia Brazon had held the interim position since October of 2015.

PNB meeting re audit delinquencies.

Here, from last night's (Feb. 10, 2017) open PNB telephonic meeting is a reaction to two letters that threaten Pacifica's tax exempt status. A self-inflicted, negligence-based situation brought on by the Foundation's failure to submit audits for 2015 and 2016. 

Typically, the delinquency has been known to the PNB since the deadline passed, but the warning letters had been swept under the rug until discovered and made public by an unnamed person. Here is an audio of the discussion that took place prior to the PNB moving into an "executive session" and slamming the door.

This is not exciting stuff, but the gravity of the subject warrants your time—I have edited out the roll calls, etc. that took up the first half hour of the meeting. If nothing else, you might find it interesting that the auditor have yet to be paid for their work on 2014, and refuse to continue unless that bill is taken care of. It's about $32,000 and Bill Crosier (the sanest member) who brought this important matter up, mentions that the auditing could cost as much as $200,000. 

One wonderful idea is to have the five stations raise the money next month... bear in mind that WBAI is currently in the first week of another four-week fund drive. I can hear it now: "The current fund drive has been pre-empted so that we can bring you another fund drive" For comic relief, I bring to your attention the time-keeper who can't keep time!

Pacifica's non-profit tax exempt status threatened.

PNB eloquence

It's fund raising time at WBAI. On the air, Maggie Prescod tried to sell those 15 copies of the Robeson package that she has been pitching for over two years, the Bates-Davis team had another go at curing cancer, Ron Daniels attempted again to sell himself, others had pirated music to move from under the counter, I think there was a $400 trip to Hackensack, etc. Not much of anything seemed to be working, however, but we were told that the station is strong and on the upswing. Sound familiar?

As planned, nothing was accomplished. R. Paul Martin suggested, daringly, that the ESB arrears (over 1.4 million and growing faster than a Wonderbread™ kid) needed to be discussed, but the Board would have none of it. So, that's pretty much what they got.

Our friend Indigo captured a 13-minute essence, which you can hear here as you, too, wonder where the money went.

________________________ 

Why would the Finance Committee have anything to do with Finance?

R. Paul Martin moves to have some discussion of the possible financial impact of the possible California Attorney General’s stripping Pacifica of its tax-exempt status, and of the possible financial impact of the Empire State Building’s suit for ~$1.4m+.

This is ruled as outside the authority or mandate of the National Finance Committee.

He appeals the ruling of the Chair, and is unanimously voted down.

All is silent, all is well in Pacifica Land.

~ ‘indigopirate’

PNB Finance Committee meeting (first 13 minutes)

An anonymous suggestion...

It is no secret that Pacifica has been driven to the periphery of ruin, where it is precariously balanced, ready to plunge into oblivion at the mere gust of further mismanagement.

This is not a result of bad economic times, a New York storm, or shifting public taste—it is more accurately due to years of ineptitude and greed, spurred on by a corrupt, scheming faction of the PNB and LSB cohorts. It is a take-over game led by California manipulators and sanctioned by pseudo armchair activists. It is clear that this unlikely cabal is willing to sacrifice WBAI and other Pacifica-owned stations in order to achieve their goal.

As the game became clearer and the programming shifted into low gear, some alarmed Pacifica supporters remained faithful while the majority simply tuned out. This has resulted in the lowest listenership ever measured.

Many suggestions have been sent to the manager, Berthold Reimers, but he does not even acknowledge receipt of them. Calls are neither answered nor returned, and fundraising stale fundraising infomercials (most are deceptive, some even criminal) have become a steady diet.

The following was received as a comment, but it occurred to me the writer and Pacifica would be better served if it were posted on the main body of this blog. On-air callers with criticism (constructive or otherwise) are likely to get abused and disconnected, but your observations and suggestions might reach them if published here, a spot that many WBAI people—including "management"—read. —Chris Albertson

UNKNOWN WRITES: 

Since Pacifica has been a horror show now far longer than its period of true greatness [and on behalf of the dwindling number of those who remember that period, let me assure the doubters that it was truly great], the solution to this has been obvious, though evaporating, for some time. Sell WBAI [though it will garner maybe 20% of what it would have even ten years ago] and yes, even KPFA, which sit on commercial frequencies and would get a nice pile of cash, and turn Pacifica's sights on a website that would gather progressive broadcasts and writings worldwide and be a source of podcasts, also available worldwide. Such a site would have an enormous audience and influence and unite progressives not just in the United States, but around the world, at a time when they are under attack everywhere whether by Trump or LePen. To waste this money on a dwindling audience in areas circumscribed by an FM signal is ridiculous, especially when at least two of those signals would create a debt free Pacifica with the power to be a worldwide influence, and bring people from countries worldwide together and not just Brooklyn & Crown Heights. It would also mean freeing Pacifica from the sad connections to the Gary Null and Voids of this world. The technology is available for video as well and at costs that make the pouring of dollars into the antiquated technology of radio a tragic waste spent merely for the sake of nostalgia for the year by year smaller number of us who awaited the Folio each month and the joy of the most intellectually consequential radio stations of their day. It is time to move on, but I doubt you can reach agreement at Pacifica on anything, much less a radical reworking in technologies as new as FM was when Lewis Hill [Louis Schweitzer?]* gave a gift so recently and horribly abused as WBAI. 

* I added Lou Schweitzer's name, thinking that the writer may have made a common mistake.

Apropos that ESB hookup...

I was strolling down memory lane the other day when a yellow postcard caught my eye...

CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE