KPFK's elections for LSB have few voters, so who represents us ?

this is a quote from the KPFK home page, and it sounds like people maybe DONT CARE... or just dont vote... or are jaded and alienated from their radio station. Why is this happening this way? How can the station sustain itself financially if there is such a lack of involvement or interest in the way the station is run and managed ? [ There was no date to that posting, as most items on the website are not easily identified. ]

http://www.kpfk.org/ as accessed on October 19, 2009.

"Over 17, 000 ballots were mailed out to our eligible KPFK Listener-Membership. LESS THAN 1,200 BALLOTS HAVE BEEN RETURNED! All ballots are due back to KPFK by Thursday, October 15th. [snip] Your vote is your voice... Even if you do not agree with our democratic election process... YOUR VOTE STILL COUNTS! Speak out by simply returning a blank ballot... It's THAT IMPORTANT."

from the main Pacifica site, here is what LSB duties are required as listed=
http://www.pacificafoundation.org/elections/the-candidates/lsb-duties.html



[All those who are finally elected should be held to account for how each and every one of them adheres and accomplishes those duties and responsibilities listed below, or else they must be reprimanded, put on temporary probation or then removed if failing in their responsibilities. It is not just an ego-trip of title but actual work accomplishment that MUST BE DONE WELL to remain 'representing' the rest of those who cannot be on the LSB themselves.


Also, members must inquire, go out to become informed about many many various communities, elicit information of relevant groups, and then attempt to fairly and honestly REPRESENT those views and needs to the rest of the LSB membership. Discussion and agreements come out of INFORMED members, not those who like to vent their own personal political slants and ambitions.


Any member who does not actually extend their base and input beyond themselves should be admonished and left without a vote since it may be only a '1 person vote' that is negligible and uncountable. Do not allow the LSB become a private club of people who voice only their own desires, while merely pretending to represent any other large group[s]...hopefully more than merely one group at that. ]

"Local Station Boards have the following duties and responsibilities:

• Actively reaching out to under-represented communities to help the station serve a diversity of all races, creeds, colors and nations, classes, genders and sexual orientations and ages. The Local Station Board is also directed to help build collaborative relations with organizations working for similar purposes.

• Assisting the station in fundraising activities.

• Conducting at least 2 Town Hall style meetings each year. These are devoted to hearing listeners' views, needs, and concerns. Performing community needs assessments, or seeing to it that separate "Community Advisory Committees" are formed to do so.

• Working with station management to ensure that station programming fulfills the purposes of the Foundation and is responsive to the diverse needs of the listeners (demographic) and communities (geographic) served by the station, and that station policies and procedures for making programming decisions and for program evaluation are working in a fair, collaborative and respectful manner to provide quality programming.

• Reviewing and approving the radio station's budget.

• Screening and selecting a pool of candidates for the position of Program Director at each radio station. The General Manager must make a hire from this pool of candidates.

• Writing annual evaluations on the job performances of the radio station's General Manager and Program Director.

• Screening and selecting a pool of candidates for the position of General Manager from which the Pacifica Foundation Executive Director (ED) must hire.

• Ensuring that the station works diligently towards the goal of diversity in staffing at all levels and maintenance of a discrimination-free atmosphere in the workplace.

These Local Station Boards also have the following national responsibilities:

• Electing 4 members to serve as directors of the Pacifica Foundation which manages the radio stations in New York, Washington, D.C., Houston, Los Angeles and Berkeley. The Local Station Board can recall these Foundation directors by a 2/3 vote.

• The Local Station Board also appoints from its own membership representatives to serve on the committees of the National Foundation which review finances, programming, governance and other matters essential to the operation of the network.

Each individual member of a Local Station Board should expect to attend monthly board meetings and actively serve on Local Station Board committees."

(C) 2009 kpfk00commentators.blogspot.com

Ambitous-wanna-be-repeaters' try to get back in - to be KPFK'S LSB membership some more

this is a reposting with a bit of editing to remove personal names in it from
http://la.indymedia.org/news/2009/10/231140_comment.php#231364



The winners of the recent elections for some new Local Station Board members have not yet been posted on the KPFK website, so suspense is still tantalizing most stakeholder's concerns about the future of "Our Station". The station does not belong to it's management, not to it's staff, not to the non-representative-of-the-whole-membership LSB members, nor the PNB nor Pacifica, the corporation, nor the unpaid programmers who gain other benefits from their work accessed on OUR air time. We all who sustain this radio ship are the actual upholders, owners, maintainers, and shareholders [without any certificates to prove this tho].


There would be no organization to manage, run, change, or accuse or desire, without those who pay up, pay often, pay regularly, pay with our generosity.


The station actually is owned by those who have for long or short time paid up their hard-earned savings and cash to sustain the whole entity - that is to speak up not just 'to us' but ' for us' all - without bias or prejudices. It belongs to the members and is shared with all the others who listen for free or work for paying our station or who occasionally go to meetings.

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[The PNB-LSB member who wrote an article strongly promoting her allies as candidates for the recent LSB 2009 election ] sounds like she is giving you her-story with selected comparisons to make HER point...everyone but her special group is in cahoots to ruin and sell out the KPFK station, of which she is only a small part.


She is ambitious too, tho not so stated. So her choice of preferred LSB mates is for her to get to be the ED or anything higher than she has so far been able to climb, while she is deliberately pretending to only question others, and while disrupting the work PNB attempts to accomplish. Go to a PNB meeting yourself and find out what is actual vs. what is carefully presented. A very dissentful and confusing process, helped by [this woman] herself.


[She] gives her version to sell a slate of people SHE wants in - to support her in her own chosen role. A smart woman and with the hope that Indy readers do not care or know the insides much, except to be anti-anything and oppositional to all establishments.To prevent the real current hard-workers that accomplish a subsistence level of living for Pacifica from continuing to do so.


How much easier it is to gain notorious power by positioning oneself as the rebel, the one opposed to those who do diligent work and obtain a position in management.


How much easier it is to disrupt, oppose, question, and accuse, to blame and create unrest, rather than to make positive changes and follow thru on diligent plans...to make the Pacifica stations live up to their financial as well as ideal goals.


To say it is only the minority groups that need to be represented at any Pacifica table and exclude everyone else w ho is not angrily decrying what they don't yet have, is a very slanted and easy place from which to COMPLAIN. And complainers feel powerful.. Tho they seldom contribute much at all. They do complain loudly anyway any where.


And Leslie is complaining, in her article above. Because she wants what she and her group want. Not because anyone deserves or has worked more effectively to obtain the privileges of on-air or management positions.


The slate has been advertising in what the members hope are sufficiently only LEFT sided local sites , carefully avoiding any "other" alliances, for fear they will be contaminated with what the LA or USA populations as a whole represent and contain. Anyone not angry enough and vindictive enough need not apply to work with these heavy-duty game players.


For in actual real-live LSB meetings, these are the same people who disrupt, continually dissent and question any and every motion proposed and generally keep all effective work from getting done. Deliberately. They see their role as being rebels and righteously claim that assumed HIGHER STATUS that they have not earned by other work of merit nor for the gain of KPFK or it's sibling stations either.


If the whole P system is cracking and falling down down down, unable to maintain it's buildings, equipment, staff [half are gone already ? ] and work for equality for ALL the peoples...not just those who select themselves as righteous or victims or accusers....then there will be some other kind of 'take over' or 'merger' and a big loss to all will occur.


This is not a prediction, but one scenario that occurs at other non-profit corporations, and Pacifica is one too. This is a concern that is never mentioned. Those who demand to be leaders are not necessarily experienced or equipped to be managers that effect positive results on such a grand scale as this one is.


Better to limp towards the next fully developed plan of action that will save these unusual radio stations than to be crumbling because the angry ambitious accusers of any current & past managements are not able to take on the heavy real-work roles that is needed.


Easy to win a measly little election where none of the LSB are representing anyone but their tiny group cohorts.

Easy to accuse others and malign those who have worked to assist improving the condition of KPFK and Pacifica, and other stations.

Easy to write words, as this is done here too, but how much more strenuous and difficult to do the daily practical actions to prevent failures from continually occurring.


And they have. And they may still, If this mean spirited group of candidates has won many seats.


We fear for our station and it's demise. But we will all be there silently standing to help bury it then.


R I P KPFK. maybe....."

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Other comments were listed on same Indymedia site as well, but seemed to say less than this one. To see the slants, biases, and promotions of the original article, please see that main article.


(c) 2009 kpfk00commentators.blogspot.com

KPFK former member makes some points here:

Below is a comment by an anonymous KPFK former member that bears re-reading here:
[see whole article with various comments besides this one at this site ]

reposted here from http://la.indymedia.org/news/2009/10/230955.php

"I agree - the pseudoscience is making me tune out"
by former kpfk member Thursday, Oct. 08, 2009 at 9:21 PM

Whenever I hear one of the new age health shows, like today's about homeopathy, I tune out. It's nonsense.


There are things that make sense, like some aspects of what Gary Null says, but then he goes on and on about some snake oil he's invented. I'm sure it's healthy, but the prices are like highway robbery. And he seems to be on a lot.


Instead of having shows where they say eat this and this and that, because a study said this chemical is awesome, and these ingredients contain the chemical, how about discussing the study?


Get specific about dosages, how it was administered, and the effects. Omit all that, and it's just a covered wagon medicine show.


Also, a while back, there was a lot of hype about The Secret. I saw the video. It was junk. It was hollow and selfish. After that, I tuned into KPFK a lot less.


Before The Secret, there was a lot of hype about Zeitgeist (and now the followup).


We're in a huge economic crisis. Where's the "Economic Crisis Show"? Where's the "Social Worker's Show" where social workers could tell people about social services.


There's a fight for healthcare. Where's the "Healthcare Show"? Where they deal with policy issues and political struggle for social medicine.


There's a bunch of ICE raids going on. Where's the "Immigration Issues Show"?


We are desperate for information and analysis. In this internet age, we need some simple titles that will come up in web searches, and lead us to shows we can download (and donate for).

[author to the above comment is not known]

Another unsubstantiated article of accusations against Pacifica staff...why now ?

"Wow, some [ article of which this is a comment to ] tinged with angry words [t]here ...but where are the substantiating sources for that info ?"

[= no references, no apparent fact checking noted in article, so is th is just another smear campaign? And why is this written anyhow ? & why now ? ]

Thursday, Oct. 08, 2009 reposted here from http://la.indymedia.org/news/2009/10/230955_comment.php#230978

these are some quotes of much written above to address here : [snipped from much more malignments and claims that remain unsubstantiated in that article ]

"Under the revised governance structure and bye law changes, a small number of listener-subscribers and staff elect biannually a 25 member Local Station Board. The logic of such “democracy” entails a tiny fraction of listeners electing a board with a great deal of power."

"...led by an unwilling reject of the Church of Scientology,"

"Since Aaron’s cabal has come to power, the financial situation has markedly deteriorated."
"...these positions have mostly gone to board cronies without even a pro forma gesture towards open hiring"

"Notwithstanding elements of farce and a descent into snake oil peddling, there is an enormous amount at stake in the struggle for the soul of Pacifica."

So here are our Questions and concerns from that article [too long to be reproduced here, but can seen on link above - that also contains others' comments as well ] :

" electing a board with a great deal of power."

There has been a big to-do about the LSB, getting voted on, or who gets to represent [no one anyone can name as] a legitimate KPFK group, and hoping to affect the programming or get a program of one's very own...

but it has also been questioned just how much "power" is given or available to the whole LSB, and how ineffective that group is, maybe mostly because of the intense factionalization, continual distractions, the rebellious outbursts that often interrupt any work presented. And all theo bstructions that keep it's own members from provoking dramas for their own image making rather than dedicating their energies to producing benefits for the station and it's management.


So the question of how "powerful" other than in name is to be explored, investigated and surely questioned seriously.

Then repeated references to the iED Aaron attempting to malign her by some extraneous label and describe her work as "led by an unwilling reject of the Church of Scientology". Does this mean she is not even qualified for that unpopular organization and it's believers ? Or that if she is a Scientologist, she certainly cannot belong or be rational and effective working for the stations ?

Or what does that reference intend anyhow ? And who is going to verify that this is current, or what the prior circumstances of her life was that now makes her unqualified or inept ?

Another great declaration: " Since Aaron’s cabal has come to power, the financial situation has markedly deteriorated."

Who has determined that she is in any way a cause or contributor to Pacifica's continual money troubles and not a solver or working to improve that forever-impoverished condition ? And is the word "cabal" a negative implication or a description of whom and what ?

It appears to be another attempt to demean, discredit and allude to Ms. Aaron's person and colleagues also.

Is that statement verified somewhere that was not included in the historical article above ? Does the public information of the financial condition mean it is to be kept secret from it's stakeholders and those concerned about the stations' stability ?

Or does this big implication only mean that the iED has so much power now, more than any ED just prior to her becoming a temporary one, that she alone can make and break Pacifica's banks? Huh ? Explain please, with actual direct causal facts, not just hearsay and rumor or deliberate malignments.

Let's get real here. Indymedia is hopefully not just a place to vent and rant and rage and hope someone else might agree and then act in your behalf.

Another statement : "these positions have mostly gone to board cronies without even a pro forma gesture towards open hiring"

Can this be shown, proved, verified ?
What are the rules for open-hiring at Pacifica ?
What does a manager do when there is no one yet visible who is qualified or hire-able permantly and the work needs to be done ?
Use a temp agency maybe ?
Or put up an ad on Monster Board ?
Or find someone to fill in until all can be done properly, knowing everyone who is not "in" will accuse and complain for sure, and loudly so.

The competition for any of these stressful positions is strong, and the in-fighting with accompanying stress must surely deter many qualified individuals from joining such wildly buffeted organizations.

And while there is much more to question and answer for above, this quote :

"notwithstanding elements of farce and a descent into snake oil peddling, there is an enormous amount at stake in the struggle for the soul of Pacifica."

So where can one find the "soul" of a non-profit NGO like Pacifica ?
How did a soul [however defined even in Wiki if need be] ever get into such a changing of leadership corporation ?
And how did it then evaporate or escape from it's cubby hole?
And the farce that is an eternal Pacifica drama - yes, that many enjoy without even paying their pledges to support this theater of the absurd- continues.

Here some of us agree that "farce.... struggle... " are more useful descriptions, meaning there is more drama and theatrics than actual working towards a goal in LSB and maybe other board or committee meetings. Many love and make provocations and shout-matches to produce these intense and involving theatrical experience.

Just like the old Greek dramas but in an odder modern version with ' any minority defined as victim to get an immediate defense' and so the next power-struggle for poorest victim to be saved' forms the basis for the next diversion from managing business that must get done.
To be sure, the battle for Pacifica is being fought on a ground not of our own choosing. The entire landscape of internal communications , in Pacifica and it's station, and from the author above, needs to be clarified, and made more factual. Or else everything said and written must be contested and questioned.

Some phrases above are well said and there is some agreement about the concerns of how and by whom all is handled.

Oh, yes, and thanks to author for not being hidden behind a pseudo-name, tho some of us who live locally and try to help affect and improve our local Pacifica station do NOT TRUST the individuals who fractionalize and vent and act-out in some angry ways those who do not just 'agree' and defer to their righteous views. [self-righteous to enhance some demanding very smart people who dedicate enormous amounts of time and energy to doing something for or against their preferred station

(c) 2009 akpfker

Pacifica's interim Exe Director is blamed some more...

this is a reposting from a comment on

http://la.indymedia.org/news/2009/10/230802.php [the full article to which this comment is addressed is " How Grace Aaron Came to Run Pacifica by Wachale Sunday, Oct. 04, 2009 An untold chapter on the tactics used by Aaron and her CTSK to win the 2007 election at KPFK that propelled her climb to controlling Pacifica Radio"] comment title = "this IS 2009, but some enjoying rehashing past history for ....their own benefits & glory ? "

When KFPK elections come around, accusations and past grudges explode into any available space, include or especially this one.

It seems that the hope here in this article is to malign, execute and remove those of a different political alignment and to then be able to coalesce and get-in their allies to win the elections - a way to get the friends of those of the writer to be elected, and give back favors to those who loves to malign others. What a stupid but very very common political ploy.

Maybe someone will hint that Grace Aaron, or Ken Aaron, or whomever is unwanted is having a sexual affair or a monetary problem too ? = that would be ideal to make a ruckus on extraneous innuendos to then be able to squeeze in the other "preferred" and selected people to the LSB, or PNB or staff position.

It is all about bad mouthing and accusing and finding fault and blasting it everywhere possible for the effect.

Make the black hole big so someone the malicious writer then can fill with their own [equally tainted but not yet revealed ] choice.

Why are there continuous accusations and hate articles on a person who was democratically elected by those who were her peers on the PNB to be a temporary positioned iEd ?

Why are there no articles providing any information about her qualifications, past relevant experiences, actual work performance currently at PNB or Pacifica, that could then provide actual info about her capacities... and surely there must be some positive comments to say of her. Does everyone else at PNB or KPFK agree that she is the main powerful destroyer and usurper of all the problems in these stations ?

Or is there a taint found in her gender, her racial coloring, her calm and mostly unprovokable demeanor that causes more meanness and bad words to be blown around about her ?

Surely, she is not perfect, nor even close to it. The question may be who else is actually of equal or similar qualifications available for that low price and that also has had the loyalty and willingness to work hard and responsibly with all the turmoils of Pacifica ....and stay stable in all it's multi-conflictual competitor-runnings for that temporary position.. and also what qualifies the detractors and personal attackers to judge her or anyone else they happen to chose ?

There is no sense of any justice, fairness, or equality ever present in most articles on this website - as extreme views and malicious accusations and threatening implications predominant. And when an article refers to a particular person, not a whole organization or movement, it seems to be to intentionally intend to destroy that person. For another purpose of course. Maybe even a competitive reason.

No, the iED does not need anyone in particular to defend her honor, as if anyone who has actually seen her ability to decipher what is going on in meetings that are or not according to Pacifica's bylaws or Roberts' Rules... or her abilities and behavior to note and comment on what is occurring in the argumentative board processes. So one may even be glad to have someone with her clarity and presence there to help move the process along and get some work done, aside from all the objections, divergings, and self-glorifiying gestures that prevail in those meetings.

The people who have currently produced chaos and left the LSB meetings in utter decimation and disruption are again running... to be able to do more ....of their outrage, their self-righteous provocations, and their disturbing the work that needs to be accomplished.

And no one outside these meetings who has NOT seen these actions would know what happens 'inside'...so they then might even vote for those that make the meetings highly dramatic but unproductive events.. Everyone wanting to be re-elected tries to sound so sweet and politically correct on the radio air blurbs. But they are not all helpful to Pacifica, to KPFK, or to the LSB. Not to improving what has turned into a negative falling-apart structure that may crumble our favorite station .For sure.

And no one running is stating WHO THEY ACTUALLY REPRESENT on the LSB besides themselves, personally, or not w/o big generalizations t of groups that cannot be verified. Why is this so prevalent ?
Why are Board members just speaking for themselves and an amorphous group that is not localized or meeting to form informed opinions and agreements ?

So with the freedom of anonymity, the ariters here, those who want to bring up 2007, 2003, 2000 or 1960 history and find only the bad & bad & bad things that maybe happened as They describe....and reades believe that the same surely MUST happen again, then all those connections made are of questionable validity. It is not his-story that must tell us all we need to know. It is our learning from current real life and participation and observation that would help us see and understand what is wrong, right, and where changes should be going to help the station.

Where is the proof of truth to the blaming of all the others who also were actually involved and actively participated in making whatever has been described that was not successful in the past ?

Why is only one main person blamed for it all, as if she or he were so over-all powerful, all by themselves.
This is unlikely and and an easy cheap shot.

Who do we believe and why bother voting at all if this is what happens at KFPK and Pacifica ? If it is all rigged up to the few "elites" of either 'side', and no one else has a chance, why is there so much conflict, turmoil, disturbances, changes in staff and positions, and so poor funding?

Is this a solicitatiion for a "coup"?
Or just a bad mouthing of whoever is the current person in authority, whomever gets there for another minute, then shift and it becomes someone else. Of course.

can it be that the fuller story that is hidden or not being told, here or elsewhere ?

why did Sean Heitkemper leave KPFK as GM after only 1 year ? What are the facts ?

Who was the GM when all the bad thing happened at KPFK in 2007 ? Who was the ED at Pacifica ? Who ELSE is responsible besides the one being accused above ?

narrow mindedness is also called......stu.......y.
How can anyone believe a one-sided limited blame-game story ?

(c) 2009 akpfker