“Is Pacifica Worth Saving?” – Commentary by Mitchel Cohen

This commentary was provided in response to an article “Is Pacifica Worth Saving” written by former KPFA news volunteer Matthew Lasar and printed in the Nation Magazine. The original article can be found here.

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Matthew Lasar has penned a self-contradictory, historically confused (especially when it comes to WBAI radio), and slippery* op-ed in the current issue of The Nation magazine. Because it was published in The Nation, that ensures that it will unfortunately have prominence in the same milieu on which WBAI radio relies for much of its funding.

Lasar’s article has already received some interesting discussion on various listserves. Some of us will be discussing the essay this Sunday, Feb. 22, at 1 pm in WBAI’s conference room at 388 Atlantic Avenue, 3rd floor, Brooklyn. If you’re in town, feel free to join us. Note: This is an informal meeting, not an official meeting of any body. Also please note: the elevator is not accessible for a few weeks longer, while the ground floor is being re-modeled to put in a coffee and wine bar, performance space, and an audio booth.

I and others will be writing commentary on this piece, and if you want to receive them please drop me a line.

*I write the word “slippery” to embody my frustration with Matthew Lasar’s slipping and sliding — sort of a bait and switch — from one allegation to his conclusions, such as they are, that really have nothing to do with what he’d just alleged.

I’ll give one minor example here of “slipperyness”, where Matthew jams together different criticisms as though there’s a cause-and-effect relationship between them, and let it go for now:

Matthew writes that “the network has for the most part financially abandoned Free Speech Radio News, a crucial daily news service for community radio stations across the country.”

I certainly appreciate FSRN. But if that really is such a “crucial daily news service for radio stations across the country”, then why is Lasar blaming Pacifica for causing FSRN to flounder and almost go under? What about all those hundreds of stations for which FSRN is, according to Lasar, so “crucial”? You mean those hundreds are not sustaining it?

And how about at least mentioning that “the network” repeatedly bailed out FSRN over the years, instead of framing FSRN’s difficulties as Pacifica having “abandoned” it? A little history, please.

One has to unfortunately read through Lasar’s commentary stopping and thinking about every word, because, as in the case above, he’s sliding in emotionally charged terminology along with some pretty obvious (and often wrong) “facts”.

For example, Lasar makes confusing pronouncements about “community radio” throughout his piece. He’s against it. He’s for it. If we don’t break out of that model we’ll get no funds. But we need to serve the community. But not the issues of interest to that community. Which is it? Look at NPR’s success, Lasar says — shockingly, without mentioning at all WNYC’s (NPR’s outlet in NYC) recent $11 million grant, or PBS’s funding from Exxon and the oil industry. Is that what he wants for Pacifica? Well, no. And then “yes”. And then “no” again.

One more quick example here. More loaded slipperyness. Lasar writes that “the politicized chaos led to lawsuits galore. According to one audit, in the fiscal year ending September 30, 2011, “legal fees” ran to $466,676 and “settlement fees” ran to over $71,000. For 2006, settlement fees came to $131,000; add another $150,000 for 2007.”

Yes, there are large legal fees. But what are they actually about, and are they the result of “politicized chaos” as Lasar claims? They’re not. Some of them are legitimate sexual harassment suits, brought on by extremely poor management and human resources supervision by the side that Lasar had endorsed over the years, and that began to be rectified under Grace Aaron, Arlene Engelhardt, and Summer Reese — much as I strongly disagree with other of their decisions. Then there are other legal expenses, like defending against the vile lawsuit filed by WBAI’s former Program Director Bernard White against Pacifica (which is being billed incorrectly and unfairly to WBAI, which did everything right, here). That one has cost over $200,000 for Pacifica to defend against — even though Pacifica’s defense prevailed and White’s lawsuit was thrown out of court in a VERY strongly worded judicial decision ripping Bernard White’s claims  to shreds.

To carefully review Lasar’s historical mish-mash, his running together of things that have little or no relation to each other, and his “solution-free” approach is an exercise in tedium.

My own view? Pacifica’s bylaws need to be revised but not discarded, and that can be done rather simply. Directors should serve terms of 3 or 4 years each, and not completely turnover every year (and the fighting that goes along with it). Lasar correctly compares that “process” to the film Groundhog Day, but in despair he offers no way to fix it, when it really is so easy — a formal amendment to the bylaws to do that, to make every Director’s term 4 years instead of one year. (It’s amazing to me that not a single Director to the national board in all these years has introduced that straightforward amendment, which should receive support across factional lines.)

He also posts wrong information here about the Directors themselves, but I’ll leave that aside ….

Finally, Lasar bemoans Pacifica’s current operating deficit of $2.17 million, “with liabilities leading assets by over $4 million. Much of this money is owed to Democracy Now!” Wow, sounds like a lot, especially to us poor and working class folks who measure such debts in individual personal terms. (Wring hands here!). Well, here’s what I say:

THAT’S CHICKENFEED when it comes to owning a radio network in the United States, and good management could easily reverse that debt in two years (on the outside) by advertising and promoting the stations’ best shows, especially WBAI, and expanding the listenership.

Throw in the fact that $2.5 million or so is owed to Democracy Now! according to Pacifica’s (expired) contract with DN! Amy Goodman has thus far been exemplary in not pressuring payment of that debt, no doubt appreciating the $550,000 the network provides to DN annually for the last 13 years for that great show. So, if Amy continues to not call in her chips (thank you, Amy!), Pacifica’s debt comes to under $1.5 million, a re-negotiable amount, despite the way that Lasar rather maliciously portrays interim Executive Director Margy Wilkinson’s comment that Pacifica owes debts to lots of people. (I’m sure Margy said a lot more than that about stabilizing Pacifica, but that’s the only thing that a biased Lasar chose to quote from her.)

What Lasar avoids is presenting solutions. I admit, it’s probably difficult for him to do that when he has such a confused analysis. And those solutions are, as I’ve said, really not difficult.

1) Advertize to promote the stations’ best shows, with an aim of doubling the listenership and membership, especially in New York City where WBAI’s signal atop the Empire State Building has the potential to reach 17.3 million people more who simply never heard of us!

2) Bring Pacifica’s internet and social media presence into 2015. Use the webpages to generate revenue. (There are many good proposals out there for doing this, including ads and underwriting on the websites (but not on the air!).)

Lasar writes: “There are too many people within Pacifica right now who cannot remember a day when they did not post a Facebook comment or send an e-mail attacking someone.” I think the problem is the opposite — there are too many producers who refuse to use the modern tools to build audience, and weak managements that don’t either require the producers to do this properly or provide someone on staff at the stations (and network) to guide them in promoting their shows, and the station.

3) Bring MORE community voices into programming, not fewer. Expand into large niche audiences like high schools, taxi cabs (especially in NYC). Restore the vibrant volunteer culture, the community, that has been indeed thwarted by all the fighting and that Lasar denounces because, he says, volunteers are “difficult to supervise”. No we’re not, if our supervisors have any smarts. (Lasar’s argument is used today to outsource some of the key community-building projects of the stations. And yet, he contradicts himself (again) by bemoaning the funds spent on doing that!)

4) Put resources into rebuilding the award-winning WBAI News Department, which NATIONAL (not local, as Matthew infers) tore to shreds, laying off the entire paid staff at WBAI. (WBAI used to have 35 or thereabouts paid staff members. It now has seven, including engineers.)

5) Introduce cross-faction amendments to the bylaws to improve the structure and governance.

6) Develop even further the good work of the Affiliates program. There are over 180 affiliated stations right now. That’s a HUGE national footprint for alternative, non-commercial coverage.

I could list a dozen more. My problem with Lasar’s piece is that he doesn’t do so. He ends with an admonition, to “pay attention”. Duh!, like no one has been doing that? Where’s he been? Oh yea, he himself chose a side in the faction wars. He needs to re-think his participation there, especially if he’s going to present “the” history of the Pacifica network.

Pacifica is incredibly important to hold onto and build, especially in this time of resistance to global capitalism, fascism, and the destruction of our planet.

To conclude (thank god!) ….

Matthew Lasar offers the dismantling of the network as one option in defining “success”, even though he doesn’t favor it (I think. Can’t tell for sure from his article.)

There are zillions of separate radio stations all over the map being podcast as well as broadcast over the airwaves. What makes the Pacifica network so important and different is the context in which it is operating, the capitalist-imperialist-planet destroying system, which invariably enters into the network in various ways, and we have to keep pushing it out and rescuing it from those forces, some intentional and some not. It’s the difference between an organ in the body — say, a liver — and the entire organism. While a body cannot live without a liver, the body (network) is far greater (in actuality, as well as in potential) than the sum of its parts.

For Matthew Lasar to pose the “creative disassembly” of the organism as a possible way to save the individual stations belies an utter failure to appreciate the reasons for why we spend so much time participating in the network, regardless of faction. When disassembly becomes part of a definition of “success”, it is both obscene and intellectually bankrupt. It shows absolutely zero understanding of the importance of the total organism, thinking that “well, at least we saved the stomach” — as though that would mean much of anything in this current world.

The thing to do is to do the opposite of what is expected within the rules of capitalism, just as Syriza is doing (thus far) in Greece. And that is, we should concentrate on aggregating more and more independent radio stations into the totality, more and more listeners, and not chop up that totality and trick ourselves into believing that that is doing anything worthwhile.

Mitchel Cohen
former Chair, WBAI radio Local Station Board (2008-2012)
and currently Coordinating Volunteers for WBAI

Veterans for Peace Sonoma County Supports the Morning Mix in Prime Time

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From Bill Simon, PhD
President, Veterans For Peace Chapter 71, Sonoma County
Statement: on KPFA

Sonoma County Veterans for Peace supports the continuation of the Morning Mix at KPFA in prime time hours.  The Morning Mix has been on KPFA at 8:00 A.M. for three and half years. They are men and women; black, white, and brown; and are gay and straight; radical scholars and labor activists; young, old, retirees, and  are all volunteers in service to the mission of KPFA.  We strongly support this type of community programming instead of a daily external show from LA.

Golden Gate Branch of the Letter Carriers Union Says Bring Back The Morning Mix

Golden Gate Branch 214 of the Letter Carriers Union adopted this resolution:

Reinstate the “Morning Mix” drive-time radio show –

Say No to Cuts in Labor/Community Programming on KPFA Radio

Whereas, KPFA Radio 94.1 FM, with a powerful radio transmitter, has been a megaphone for community free speech radio throughout northern California for over 65 years, and is the flagship station of the Pacifica Radio Network; and

Whereas, for the last 3 and a half years KPFA has aired a ground-breaking labor and community program called the Morning Mix – broadcasting at a time when more working people could hear it, during “drive time” from 8 to 9 AM, Monday to Friday; and

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Whereas, the rotating hosts of the Morning Mix radio shows on KPFA have featured the voices of Bay Area working people and their issues, to a degree not found on any other Northern California station with the reach and power of KPFA. This included regular reporting on labor and community struggles – about the postal workers’ fight against privatization; the concerns of teachers, dockworkers, transit and healthcare workers, and immigrant workers; as well as the community fight in the city of Richmond against toxic pollution by Chevron Corporation; and

Whereas, the Morning Mix provided regular announcements of Bay Area labor and community events, so working people could be aware of these activities and participate; and

Whereas, late in the evening on May 21, KPFA and Pacifica management abruptly, and without proper consultations, cancelled the Morning Mix and replaced it with a syndicated program “Uprising” produced in Los Angeles that does not cover Bay Area issues and events; and

Whereas, we need more local labor and community programming on KFPA radio, not less – especially since working peoples’ stories are almost completely ignored by the mainstream media. This program change is a tremendous loss for the radio listeners in the Bay Area.

Therefore be it resolved, that the San Francisco Labor Council calls on KPFA/Pacifica management to reinstate the Morning Mix drive-time radio show. We need more labor and community programs on the radio – not less!

And be it further resolved, that this resolution be submitted to other Bay Area labor councils for concurrence and action.

San Francisco Labor Council Resolution To Bring Back The Morning Mix

downloadAdopted June 9, 2014

Reinstate the “Morning Mix” drive-time radio show —

Say No to Cuts in Labor/Community Programming on KPFA Radio
Whereas, KPFA Radio 94.1 FM, with a powerful radio transmitter, has been a megaphone for community free speech radio throughout northern California for over 65 years, and is the flagship station of the Pacifica Radio Network; and

Whereas, for the last 3 and a half years KPFA has aired a ground-breaking labor and community program called the Morning Mix – broadcasting at a time when more working people could hear it, during “drive time” from 8 to 9 AM, Monday to Friday; and

Whereas, the rotating hosts of the Morning Mix radio shows on KPFA have featured the voices of Bay Area working people and their issues, to a degree not found on any other Northern California station with the reach and power of KPFA. This included regular reporting on labor and community struggles – about the postal workers’ fight against privatization; the concerns of teachers, dockworkers, transit and healthcare workers, and immigrant workers; as well as the community fight in the city of Richmond against toxic pollution by Chevron Corporation; and

Whereas, the Morning Mix provided regular announcements of Bay Area labor and community events, so working people could be aware of these activities and participate; and

Whereas, late in the evening on May 21, KPFA and Pacifica management abruptly, and without proper consultations, cancelled the Morning Mix and replaced it with a syndicated program “Uprising” produced in Los Angeles that does not cover Bay Area issues and events; and

Whereas, we need more local labor and community programming on KFPA radio, not less – especially since working peoples’ stories are almost completely ignored by the mainstream media. This program change is a tremendous loss for the radio listeners in the Bay Area.

Therefore be it resolved, that the San Francisco Labor Council calls on KPFA/Pacifica management to reinstate the Morning Mix drive-time radio show. We need more labor and community programs on the radio – not less!

And be it further resolved, that this resolution be submitted to other Bay Area labor councils for concurrence and action.

Our Last Day at the Pacifica HQ

70 year old former Marine Daniel Borgstrom testifying before the Oakland City Council about his tough economic situation and about being arrested twice in Occupy demonstrations.  2012. Photo: Brant Ward, The Chronicle

70 year old former Marine Daniel Borgstrom testifying before the Oakland City Council about his tough economic situation and about being arrested twice in Occupy demonstrations. 2012. Photo: Brant Ward, The Chronicle

by Daniel Borgström

In the 9th week of our occupation of the Pacifica HQ, on May 12th, the judge ruled against us, issuing a temporary restraining order against Executive Director Summer Reese’s continued presence at the national office. We’d already decided that in case of such an event, we’d evacuate, withdraw from the building. So about a dozen of us went to the Pacifica HQ and spent the rest of the afternoon and evening packing up, eating pizza, and discussing details of how we were going to move on.

This was a disaster, and nobody could deny it. I guess we were all in shock, though doing our best to not to show it. Some were consulting computers. Virginia Browning was improving a salad. Richard Uzzell was on the phone, presumably discussing this with other Pacifica National Board (PNB) members. I was taking brief notes, keeping a timeline as always. At one end of the table, Barbara Deutsch had placed a bouquet of lush green leaves; among them was perched a magnificent caterpillar, munching its way towards becoming a butterfly — a blue-winged Swallowtail.

Evacuations aren’t easy, and after most of us had gone home for the night, Summer Reese and her mother, Geneva, with the help of Richard Uzzell, and Barbara Deutsch spent the night packing, hauling stuff away, and putting the place in order. Everything we’d brought in during the last eight weeks had to be taken out — air mattresses, food, even vases of flowers, and the caterpillar too. More of us returned in the morning to help with whatever still needed doing.

The court had ordered Summer out, but didn’t specify the rest of us. So we probably wouldn’t have to rush out the door, and the staff might want us to be there that morning because with us present, disputed PNB chair Margy Wilkinson and whoever came with her would be less likely to act badly. So half a dozen of us stayed in the HQ, including Richard Uzzell (from KPFT in Houston), Sally Sommer, Steve Gilmartin, Virginia Browning, Aki Tanaka, and me.

Margy and Barbara Whipperman, the Local Station Board treasurer, came knocking on the door at 9 a.m. “Open the door!” Margy demanded, “Just open the door!”

Barbara Deutsch had placed a bouquet of lush green leaves; among them was perched a magnificent caterpillar, munching its way towards becoming a butterfly — a blue-winged Swallowtail.

We didn’t argue with them, we just let them wait outside for half an hour while we phoned the staff, who were considering quitting, but had consented to a meeting with Margy. The staff asked us to stay and witness the meeting. We calmly waited for them in the reception area by the door. I was glad to have Richard Uzzell, a Pacifica National Board director, here with us; he seemed to know or sense exactly what to do, how to handle each thing as it came up, inspiring confidence in the rest of us. Yes, we had lost, but it’s possible to lose with dignity, just as it’s also possible to win without much dignity.

The staff arrived at 9:35 a.m. and we opened the door, let everyone in, went to the luncheonette/conference room where Margy, Barbara and five of the staff took seats at the table while the six of us sat behind, witnessing the meeting which lasted about 20 minutes.

“I’m Margy Wilkinson, Chair of the National Board,” Margy introduced herself. Perhaps some of the staff had not before met her face to face, though they certainly knew who she was, as she had been bombarding them with emails and phone calls for the last eight weeks, from the day the occupation began. Margy and her group had also attempted several times to forcibly push their way into the building — which is why we’d installed a bolt across the entrance to back up the lock. Her ostensible purpose in this meeting was to persuade the staff to remain at their jobs and complete the financial audit which they were working on. Or it might have been just to get them to stay until they found their own replacements.

The staff diplomatically replied to Margy that they didn’t have any problem with her or anyone else, except for one person. “The only person we have an issue with is Raul Salvador. We want nothing to do with him.”

Raul Salvador is the CFO who was let go by the Pacifica National Board last year for incompetence and abusiveness. This year the new PNB which fired Summer Reese, had rehired Raul.

The staff told Margy that Raul was abusive and incompetent. A staff member had testified in court on May 6th that staff had to redo IRS forms filed incorrectly by Raul Salvador, and that he didn’t seem to understand basic financial information. She had also stated in court that in addition to their previous bad experiences with him, he’d been harassing them with emails and phone calls, threatening retaliation. Summer Reese had protected them, the staff person had told the judge. Unfortunately, the judge had now ordered Summer out, thus leaving them vulnerable.

Another source of information available to Margy was a report from an HR workplace investigation into allegations of Raul’s bad behavior. Actually, Margy was the only one who had access to the report since she’d seized it back in March, allowing nobody else to see it, not even PNB members. Nevertheless, Margy expressed surprise at the staff’s extremely negative reaction to Raul.

“We don’t know if you don’t understand, or don’t care,” they said to Margy.

“I do understand,” Margy insisted. “I do understand.”

“Raul is the elephant in the room. Until we address Raul [ . . . ]”

“He will not be coming in the door,” Margy promised them. “He’ll be working out of his home.” She explained that he’d only communicate with them through emails and phone calls. “Until things are resolved [regarding Raul],” she added.

The staff were less than reassured and they told her so. They were also unhappy that Margy’s new interim Executive Director, Bernard Duncan wasn’t there to speak for himself. “I don’t know what I came here for,” said one of the staff.

Margy told them that on the following day, there’d be a meeting with Bernard. Unlike Raul, Bernard is reportedly easy to get along with, but is apparently not a capable manager. He was previously the general manager of KPFK, the Pacifica station in Los Angeles, where he acquired a reputation for being ineffectual and conflict-averse. For example, on one occasion when it was brought to Bernard’s attention that the station business manager was running a business of his own on station time and with the use of the station’s computers, Bernard famously said, “I don’t want to know about it.”

To win a court action or even a court case is one thing, but to run a foundation is quite another matter,

Margy wanted to know how soon the audit would be done. “When are you going to give us the financial data?” she asked.

“It’s KPFA that’s holding it up,” the staff told her — as if she needed to be reminded. It had come out at the April 12th Local Station Board meeting (with Margy present) that the financial people at KPFA had not even reconciled their books for well over a year.

The meeting ended at 9:59 a.m., and the staff then held a private meeting of their own. The six of us wondered if perhaps we’d fulfilled our task, and that we might leave now. But the staff asked us to stay a while longer.

We sat around talking or not talking, thinking about the peculiar scene we’d just witnessed, commenting on how at one time or another during the morning, each of the women had been in tears at the very idea that Margy would try to force them to work under Raul Salvador again.

Why would Margy and her group hire someone for such an important position whose competence and managerial abilities are so clearly called into question?

A courier would be arriving with the payroll checks, and the staff wanted us to be there and make sure that the courier’s package was delivered straight to them, not to anyone else who might be in this office. The staff seemed to fear that Margy might remove their paychecks from the package in retaliation. As per the staff’s request, we sat by the door, intending to intercept the courier.  Actually, staff member Weiling was right there to receive the package as soon as the guy showed up, and after that most of us left. Richard and Aki stayed till both Margy and the staff left at 2 p.m. Several of us will have to return to the HQ on Wednesday to witness the next meeting, the one between the staff and Bernard, Margy’s new temporary Executive Director.

Margy & Co are proclaiming it a major triumph that the court has handed them control of Pacifica Foundation Radio. To win a court action or even a court case is one thing, but to run a foundation is quite another matter, and I seriously doubt that they’re up to it. Some of us are wondering if they even want to.

DANIEL BORGSTRÖM
daniel41@trip.net
http://danielborgstrom.blogspot.com/

April 2014