Thank you - Leslie Radford, LSB rep - for again acting as the ONLY open LSB member - that some of us can learn from and respond to as needed. Where else is any such information being placed and posted openly ?
Your dedication and opinions are stated clearly and for the 'hidden audience of paid-up sponsors to KPFK' this Indy site is the main place where info may be disseminated. Wonder how many people do read these cries for help and unity ? Note how few of the same people write to respond here.
How difficult to know who else agrees with you, Leslie or does not and why... who are we ? ... the paying-the-price listeners that want to be more involved in the happenings [even if out-of-reach] at KPFK. Besides attending hours of LSB meetings, that is.
Could it be that Naomi Wolf's version that "Shock !" is the best way to insure compliance and a rushed vote - to take away liberties, to change mortgage-values, or to insure it will be 'too late now' to do anything after decsions are made ...by the em-powered-already-in-power ....even at humanitarian-imaged Pacifica & KPFK ?
The shock is the apparently-sudden realization that the KPFK building is the best or only way to get money out for WBAI's use [on the other side of the USA] in these financially disastrous times ...we are shocked to realize that the PNB et al. has acted so quickly in their own shock - they can do whatever they think is 'right' or 'best' -and blame the world's shocking $$$ circumstances for their mistakes ?
The shock is the 'immediate actions that MUST BE taken right now !! ' - or was it decided with not enough forethought or more research possible beforehand ? Or because we are ...again...and again.. in CRISIS... in crisis...again...of course. And we hear it every pledge drive year after year too.
By definition, in 'crises', there is not enough time, or resources, or willingness to include cooperation of all concerned, and the threat of extinction, and loss, and damage and of course, 'loss of jobs' [ which are the same repeated ploys used by mfg 'g corporations as well ] so KPFK is now also on another edge.
and to save a station - WBAI - or others too ? that has perhaps not been well managed before to arrive at that critical stage ?
and to have waited until the Edge emerges and then, of course, Shock has made instant reactions necessary ? No time to ask anyone for input or feedback now. Too shocking a time, so no time. No input. Not necessary now.
or is it the prior and continued opacity of Pacifica's problems so far - that makes it appear that the 'crisis' of other than our own KPFK's money problems seem to have arrived so suddenly to shock us here too now ?
I notice that very few, the same few KPFK-concerned people, write on this site to inform and question what is occuring at KPFK, even as the station struggles and tries to manage itself . And we have to trust that many smart people on our LSB are surely doing 'their best' - even if we dont see or know where they inform the listener-sponsors about their thoughts before even LSB decisions are immenent and made. Much less access PNB members.
These are the same complaints repeated here, but are still valid. Once the wall falls, the wall that holds up the KPFK mission and it's advertised claims, it will be a done deal, and more pledge money will be 'required' and begged for again.
Thank you for what you do.
The helplessness and hopelessness that extrudes from the ways OUR station has worked so secretly & left the rest of 'us' OUT of any meaningful conversations , leaves us wondering if it is now all gone, a done disaster, a dead herd of animals kicked to the side, a return to the non-shockable but paid-for sponsored radio station variety.
Oh, well, there is always NPR to listen to instead of KPFK, and blogs on the internet to share our concerns.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Response to LSB info provided on la.indymedia.org - a repost here
"Wow Leslie LSBer- thanks for info !"
Thanks for dedicating yourself to responding OPENLY here to questions asked so anyone everyone whomever happens upon this site can learn something more than anyone else at kPFK is 'suppose to say" out loud, it seems.
this means anyone, like Leslie, like YOU TOO, reader here, can ask, answer, question, debate and discuss... without disrespecting any person [tho organizations can be disrespected for their secretive policies and hypocricies ] and maybe be lucky to get some substantial responses.
The above info provided needs to be pursued and researched and utilized by MORE of us who CARE so much about KPFK ...and it's doings...since we spend hours and devote work to writing/ reading/ asking/ activizing ...all to IMPROVE what-is occurring...that currently seems to be Not Ok at this moment more than other times.
again, glad we asked.
glad someone answered.
let's more of us stop hating and diss'in and work TOGETHER , even if we start here, to reduce confict, eliminate hidden agendas and black holes, where info disappears... and find our PUBLIC COMMUNICATIONS replacing the elite-powered-secret-dealings-w/o-any-of-our-input.
thanks Leslie....we need more LSB members to respond OPENLY - as you do.
and if any other LSB members dont read this local open site, where do they get their Public Listener-Sponsor input from ?
again, question of who does each LSB member actually represent, not just presume to be a 'representative of' personally which may mean only being very subjective and limited in having other vital feedback and discussions with KPFK contributors ?
Remember, previously the LSB email cited above has not worked when attempted 3x previously, with receipt of a msg from the deamon about not being accessible...but, ok, we can all try it again and see if any one at all reads or responds..maybe.....
One LSB member has said: there was a "comments corner" for LSB people to know what public comments@kpfk.org might be of LSB concerns also. But the only site they could point to was the KPFK website link to "program comments" which says -if you want to know what that song was - implying that kind of info only was sought, or a question about a PROGRAM, ... not ask or qauestion the station's workings, dealings, firings, dismissals, financial problems, et al....
and when an attempt was made to make contact with LSB thru that site, nothing...silence...no contact was possible nor responded, even when addressed to LSB.
so we can try again, and again,
and hopefully not Give UP ...no matter how many false alleys that dead end with wasted time and effort happens. It has. It may continue. Some of us...many of us, may not allow that to happen, repeatedly.
never say 'die' until we are ready to totally throw the whole idea of what Pacifica claims away or create another version similar to it on the internet...w/o a big local radio station...if need be...it's all technologically happening....moving away from traditional media to what remains of free access on net....and then ?????
watch out, changes are a happening...not just the latest presidential election...more is also convoluting and shifting and pivoting and.......
Thanks for dedicating yourself to responding OPENLY here to questions asked so anyone everyone whomever happens upon this site can learn something more than anyone else at kPFK is 'suppose to say" out loud, it seems.
this means anyone, like Leslie, like YOU TOO, reader here, can ask, answer, question, debate and discuss... without disrespecting any person [tho organizations can be disrespected for their secretive policies and hypocricies ] and maybe be lucky to get some substantial responses.
The above info provided needs to be pursued and researched and utilized by MORE of us who CARE so much about KPFK ...and it's doings...since we spend hours and devote work to writing/ reading/ asking/ activizing ...all to IMPROVE what-is occurring...that currently seems to be Not Ok at this moment more than other times.
again, glad we asked.
glad someone answered.
let's more of us stop hating and diss'in and work TOGETHER , even if we start here, to reduce confict, eliminate hidden agendas and black holes, where info disappears... and find our PUBLIC COMMUNICATIONS replacing the elite-powered-secret-dealings-w/o-any-of-our-input.
thanks Leslie....we need more LSB members to respond OPENLY - as you do.
and if any other LSB members dont read this local open site, where do they get their Public Listener-Sponsor input from ?
again, question of who does each LSB member actually represent, not just presume to be a 'representative of' personally which may mean only being very subjective and limited in having other vital feedback and discussions with KPFK contributors ?
Remember, previously the LSB email cited above has not worked when attempted 3x previously, with receipt of a msg from the deamon about not being accessible...but, ok, we can all try it again and see if any one at all reads or responds..maybe.....
One LSB member has said: there was a "comments corner" for LSB people to know what public comments@kpfk.org might be of LSB concerns also. But the only site they could point to was the KPFK website link to "program comments" which says -if you want to know what that song was - implying that kind of info only was sought, or a question about a PROGRAM, ... not ask or qauestion the station's workings, dealings, firings, dismissals, financial problems, et al....
and when an attempt was made to make contact with LSB thru that site, nothing...silence...no contact was possible nor responded, even when addressed to LSB.
so we can try again, and again,
and hopefully not Give UP ...no matter how many false alleys that dead end with wasted time and effort happens. It has. It may continue. Some of us...many of us, may not allow that to happen, repeatedly.
never say 'die' until we are ready to totally throw the whole idea of what Pacifica claims away or create another version similar to it on the internet...w/o a big local radio station...if need be...it's all technologically happening....moving away from traditional media to what remains of free access on net....and then ?????
watch out, changes are a happening...not just the latest presidential election...more is also convoluting and shifting and pivoting and.......
Open Response from One LSB Member = repost from la.indymedia.org
[by Leslie Saturday, Nov. 29, 2008 at 12:50 AM
leslie@radiojustice.net ]
Do the LSB of KPFK represent a group[s] of listeners and seek their opinions before voting or making any decisions, instead of only representing their individual selves as seems to be the case now ?
We're elected by general election (and the electorate is only a smidgeon more than 10% of the listener-sponsors), so no one has a formal constituency, and we have very poor communications with the listener-sponsors or the listeners in general. Most LSB members probably operate from an ideology that they believe matches a group of listeners, but individually we have different degrees of contact with those groups.
Who does each LSB member actually represent ?
I'd say most LSB members consider themselves "representative of" a group more than they "are representing" a group.
Do they ever tell us about the size of groups they actually inform, ask, represent? ?
There's no mandate to do so, and no requirement that they represent a group.
What are the slants of those they represent ?
Politically, I think you'll find everything from left Libertarians to Progressive Democrats to academics to working class/socialists to a closeted anarchist or revolutionary. Not a nationalist in the bunch right now. We're religious, a-religious, anti-religious, and spiritual, and we're involved in the arts, charitable organizations, human rights groups, and social change organizations.
What are the ways listener-sponsors can have input to LSB members to be included, instead of just hanging out here ?
There's 2008LSB@kpfk.org. It reaches all but a couple of us (server problems). We have the rarely used http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kpfklsb_comments/ (although I don't know how many members check it any more), and just about every LSB member's email is widely available. When I wasn't on the LSB I used my (now defunct) rented web server to forward email from anybody to all the LSB members, but that was rarely used. At another point, I just collected LSB members' email addresses and had them as a group in my address book.
the way the LSB member was elected was by campaigning for votes but are these secret lists only they maintain and respond to... or are these voters then later ignored ?
"Secret lists" is a not exactly what's happening. When we're elected, we all have our own mailing lists and the lists of our friends and any organizations that choose to let us use theirs. There is one truly secret list: the email list of people participating in the Free Pacifica movement some ten years ago. A handful of people have that, and they use it for candidates they prefer, but it must be getting pretty dated by now. I don't have access to it.
Who decides who gets on the Pacifica National Board from LSB and what is the procedure for getting to move up there ?
PNB members are determined by a vote of the LSBs every January. It's the only true power the LSBs have. The Pacifica affiliate stations also nominate two PNB members.
and does it actually take hours and days and weeks of reading the bylaws and rules and all that small print to get generally informed about how KPFK & Pacifica too is actually run ?
No. It depends on the depth you want, but the Bylaws, etc. isn't the way to go. Start by following http://groups.yahoo.com/group/freekpfk, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/newpacifica, and http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kpfklsb. Then come to a few meetings, and if you have time the interest to listen, you can hear the Pacifica National Board meetings at www.kpftx.org.
does one have to be a quasi-lawyer to understand the legalities, meanings of cue words and phrases and the maneuverability of motions, language and ploys played out to have any input in what happens to OUR KPFK ?
huh?
No, but it helps. You'll pick up the trick by listening to objections to motions at the meetings.
we out here, who have paid-up generously at the long and last begging pledge drive have no information - just rumors - just allusions - to the use of the KPFK bldg being used as collateral for another Pacifica station in NY called WBAI - with the Pacifica National Board members making decisions about how to use the building that houses our resource and where our staff work. huh ?
[apparently THEY = PNB = own it ? huh?
how does that make sense ?
the whole group owns OUR building and we rent it here ?
or the Pacifica corp / organization owns it ?
or exactly who holds the deed, pays the mortgage, has title ??]
It's not our building--it was a donation to Pacifica, and the title is held by the Pacifica Foundation. We use it without charge. Right now, the plan is to mortgage the building to for $1M (far less than it's worth) to pay for various outstanding bills, do some programming changes, re-staff some national positions, pay for some promotion, and maybe hire an financial consulting firm.
And decisions are being made where ?
who is NOT PROVIDING THE LISTENERS any information, or any feedback to questions, or asking for listener-input
[no matter how wild or crazy, it is legitimate if we are the shareholder-sponsors of this thing called KPFK, whatever it contains] ?
Are decisions being made in Wash. D.C. ? in NY ? and then brought it in pretense of a 'discussion' that has no power to change what was already planned, decided and controlled elsewhere ?
Decisions are made in telephonic PNB meetings and with the CFO in Berkeley. Some speculate that there are a core of key players on the PNB who are concocting all this. I wouldn't know. Recently especially, by the time decisions get down to the LSBs (which are advisory anyway, and why aren't decisions going up?), they seem to be already made. But the LSB outcry seems to have slowed the loan process (we were told we only had until November 15, but the papers haven't been signed yet), and listener pressure can move small mountains. The email address to reach the entire PNB is pnb@pacifica.org.
And since we all over here dont - dont know s......t - about any of what is real, actual, occurring - and NOT in our name either - tho we thought we were part of the whole thing.....we are no thing, no way to have any opinion or say when we are not told what is occurring either.
Believe me, most of the LSB members who aren't on the PNB don't know what's going on, either. I don't know how much the PNB members know--if I knew how much they knew, I'd probably know what they know.
Where is the principle and essence of what Pacifica claims, what KPFK pledges and advertises...as 'we the people', ...as Free Speech [not hidden secret whispers ], ....as being in favor of egalitarian and open communications ?
what is going on ?
Hell if I know.
who else is going to tell us...the truth...finally ?
leslie@radiojustice.net ]
Do the LSB of KPFK represent a group[s] of listeners and seek their opinions before voting or making any decisions, instead of only representing their individual selves as seems to be the case now ?
We're elected by general election (and the electorate is only a smidgeon more than 10% of the listener-sponsors), so no one has a formal constituency, and we have very poor communications with the listener-sponsors or the listeners in general. Most LSB members probably operate from an ideology that they believe matches a group of listeners, but individually we have different degrees of contact with those groups.
Who does each LSB member actually represent ?
I'd say most LSB members consider themselves "representative of" a group more than they "are representing" a group.
Do they ever tell us about the size of groups they actually inform, ask, represent? ?
There's no mandate to do so, and no requirement that they represent a group.
What are the slants of those they represent ?
Politically, I think you'll find everything from left Libertarians to Progressive Democrats to academics to working class/socialists to a closeted anarchist or revolutionary. Not a nationalist in the bunch right now. We're religious, a-religious, anti-religious, and spiritual, and we're involved in the arts, charitable organizations, human rights groups, and social change organizations.
What are the ways listener-sponsors can have input to LSB members to be included, instead of just hanging out here ?
There's 2008LSB@kpfk.org. It reaches all but a couple of us (server problems). We have the rarely used http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kpfklsb_comments/ (although I don't know how many members check it any more), and just about every LSB member's email is widely available. When I wasn't on the LSB I used my (now defunct) rented web server to forward email from anybody to all the LSB members, but that was rarely used. At another point, I just collected LSB members' email addresses and had them as a group in my address book.
the way the LSB member was elected was by campaigning for votes but are these secret lists only they maintain and respond to... or are these voters then later ignored ?
"Secret lists" is a not exactly what's happening. When we're elected, we all have our own mailing lists and the lists of our friends and any organizations that choose to let us use theirs. There is one truly secret list: the email list of people participating in the Free Pacifica movement some ten years ago. A handful of people have that, and they use it for candidates they prefer, but it must be getting pretty dated by now. I don't have access to it.
Who decides who gets on the Pacifica National Board from LSB and what is the procedure for getting to move up there ?
PNB members are determined by a vote of the LSBs every January. It's the only true power the LSBs have. The Pacifica affiliate stations also nominate two PNB members.
and does it actually take hours and days and weeks of reading the bylaws and rules and all that small print to get generally informed about how KPFK & Pacifica too is actually run ?
No. It depends on the depth you want, but the Bylaws, etc. isn't the way to go. Start by following http://groups.yahoo.com/group/freekpfk, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/newpacifica, and http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kpfklsb. Then come to a few meetings, and if you have time the interest to listen, you can hear the Pacifica National Board meetings at www.kpftx.org.
does one have to be a quasi-lawyer to understand the legalities, meanings of cue words and phrases and the maneuverability of motions, language and ploys played out to have any input in what happens to OUR KPFK ?
huh?
No, but it helps. You'll pick up the trick by listening to objections to motions at the meetings.
we out here, who have paid-up generously at the long and last begging pledge drive have no information - just rumors - just allusions - to the use of the KPFK bldg being used as collateral for another Pacifica station in NY called WBAI - with the Pacifica National Board members making decisions about how to use the building that houses our resource and where our staff work. huh ?
[apparently THEY = PNB = own it ? huh?
how does that make sense ?
the whole group owns OUR building and we rent it here ?
or the Pacifica corp / organization owns it ?
or exactly who holds the deed, pays the mortgage, has title ??]
It's not our building--it was a donation to Pacifica, and the title is held by the Pacifica Foundation. We use it without charge. Right now, the plan is to mortgage the building to for $1M (far less than it's worth) to pay for various outstanding bills, do some programming changes, re-staff some national positions, pay for some promotion, and maybe hire an financial consulting firm.
And decisions are being made where ?
who is NOT PROVIDING THE LISTENERS any information, or any feedback to questions, or asking for listener-input
[no matter how wild or crazy, it is legitimate if we are the shareholder-sponsors of this thing called KPFK, whatever it contains] ?
Are decisions being made in Wash. D.C. ? in NY ? and then brought it in pretense of a 'discussion' that has no power to change what was already planned, decided and controlled elsewhere ?
Decisions are made in telephonic PNB meetings and with the CFO in Berkeley. Some speculate that there are a core of key players on the PNB who are concocting all this. I wouldn't know. Recently especially, by the time decisions get down to the LSBs (which are advisory anyway, and why aren't decisions going up?), they seem to be already made. But the LSB outcry seems to have slowed the loan process (we were told we only had until November 15, but the papers haven't been signed yet), and listener pressure can move small mountains. The email address to reach the entire PNB is pnb@pacifica.org.
And since we all over here dont - dont know s......t - about any of what is real, actual, occurring - and NOT in our name either - tho we thought we were part of the whole thing.....we are no thing, no way to have any opinion or say when we are not told what is occurring either.
Believe me, most of the LSB members who aren't on the PNB don't know what's going on, either. I don't know how much the PNB members know--if I knew how much they knew, I'd probably know what they know.
Where is the principle and essence of what Pacifica claims, what KPFK pledges and advertises...as 'we the people', ...as Free Speech [not hidden secret whispers ], ....as being in favor of egalitarian and open communications ?
what is going on ?
Hell if I know.
who else is going to tell us...the truth...finally ?
Friday, November 28, 2008
KPFK's secrecy slowly seeping out = a repost from la.indymedia.org
Finally, someone with info & courage tells us some more !
thanks Leslie [Radford LSB member] for being as open and informative and directing the rest of us peons of KPFK telling us of other places to read about info and what is actually happening to OUR station.
My [writer's] wish is this:
1. for you to continue to write also on Indymedia, as an article instead of a comment so that the conversations can be displayed and maybe, who knows ? read by those who suddenly latch on to this exposed great site Sometimes the comments are lost in the slew of new articles.
2. That those who read these articles and comments not necessarily identify or write words but somehow make themselves visible so we know that this site is accessible and utilized as a Discourse Locale for those who have no voice, no say, no power, no nutin but still do pay cash to KPFK regularly anyhow.
3. That KPFK would open up it's carefully controlled secret ways and inform the rest of US who live so dedicatedly for the growth and life of OUR RADIO station, and not think we need-not-know what they do or decide.... when we are worried, fearful, anxious, frustrated and angered by being so cleverly "left OUT" .
4. That the LSB of KPFK represent a group[s] of listeners and seek their opinions before voting or making any decisions, instead of only representing their individual selves as seems to be the case now.
Who does each LSB member actually represent ?
Do they ever tell us about the size of groups they actually inform, ask, represent?
What are the slants of those they represent ?
What are the ways listener-sponsors can have input to LSB members to be included, instead of just hanging out here ?
the way the LSB member was elected was by campaigning for votes but are these secret lists only they maintain and respond to... or are these voters then later ignored ?
Who decides who gets on the Pacifica National Board from LSB and what is the procedure for getting to move up there ?
and does it actually take hours and days and weeks of reading the bylaws and rules and all that small print to get generally informed about how KPFK & Pacifica too is actually run ?
does one have to be a quasi lawyer to understand the legalities, meanings of cue words and phrases and the maneuverability of motions, language and ploys played out to have any input in what happens to OUR KPFK ? huh?
thanks Leslie [Radford LSB member] for being as open and informative and directing the rest of us peons of KPFK telling us of other places to read about info and what is actually happening to OUR station.
My [writer's] wish is this:
1. for you to continue to write also on Indymedia, as an article instead of a comment so that the conversations can be displayed and maybe, who knows ? read by those who suddenly latch on to this exposed great site Sometimes the comments are lost in the slew of new articles.
2. That those who read these articles and comments not necessarily identify or write words but somehow make themselves visible so we know that this site is accessible and utilized as a Discourse Locale for those who have no voice, no say, no power, no nutin but still do pay cash to KPFK regularly anyhow.
3. That KPFK would open up it's carefully controlled secret ways and inform the rest of US who live so dedicatedly for the growth and life of OUR RADIO station, and not think we need-not-know what they do or decide.... when we are worried, fearful, anxious, frustrated and angered by being so cleverly "left OUT" .
4. That the LSB of KPFK represent a group[s] of listeners and seek their opinions before voting or making any decisions, instead of only representing their individual selves as seems to be the case now.
Who does each LSB member actually represent ?
Do they ever tell us about the size of groups they actually inform, ask, represent?
What are the slants of those they represent ?
What are the ways listener-sponsors can have input to LSB members to be included, instead of just hanging out here ?
the way the LSB member was elected was by campaigning for votes but are these secret lists only they maintain and respond to... or are these voters then later ignored ?
Who decides who gets on the Pacifica National Board from LSB and what is the procedure for getting to move up there ?
and does it actually take hours and days and weeks of reading the bylaws and rules and all that small print to get generally informed about how KPFK & Pacifica too is actually run ?
does one have to be a quasi lawyer to understand the legalities, meanings of cue words and phrases and the maneuverability of motions, language and ploys played out to have any input in what happens to OUR KPFK ? huh?
“Open Letter to KPFK's LSB” =reposting from la.indymedia.org
KPFK's local board members are voted in by some other listener-sponsors. But are any of those who send money regularly to support and maintain the radio station have a say about anything ? huh ?
Do the LSB of KPFK represent a group[s] of listeners and seek their opinions before voting or making any decisions, instead of only representing their individual selves as seems to be the case now ?
Who does each LSB member actually represent ?
Do they ever tell us about the size of groups they actually inform, ask, represent?
What are the slants of those they represent ?
What are the ways listener-sponsors can have input to LSB members to be included, instead of just hanging out here ?
the way the LSB member was elected was by campaigning for votes but are these secret lists only they maintain and respond to... or are these voters then later ignored ?
Who decides who gets on the Pacifica National Board from LSB and what is the procedure for getting to move up there ?
and does it actually take hours and days and weeks of reading the bylaws and rules and all that small print to get generally informed about how KPFK & Pacifica too is actually run ?
does one have to be a quasi-lawyer to understand the legalities, meanings of cue words and phrases and the maneuverability of motions, language and ploys played out to have any input in what happens to OUR KPFK ?
huh?
we out here, who have paid-up generously at the long and last begging pledge drive have no information - just rumors - just allusions - to the use of the KPFK bldg being used as collateral for another Pacifica station in NY called WBAI - with the Pacifica National Board members making decisions about how to use the building that houses our resource and where our staff work. huh ?
[apparently THEY = PNB = own it ? huh?
how does that make sense ?
the whole group owns OUR building and we rent it here ?
or the Pacifica corp / organization owns it ?
or exactly who holds the deed, pays the mortgage, has title ??]
And decisions are being made where ?
who is NOT PROVIDING THE LISTENERS any information, or any feedback to questions, or asking for listener-input [no matter how wild or crazy, it is legitimate if we are the shareholder-sponsors of this thing called KPFK, whatever it contains] ?
Are decisions being made in Wash. D.C. ? in NY ? and then brought it in pretense of a 'discussion' that has no power to change what was already planned, decided and controlled elsewhere ?
And since we all over here dont - dont know s......t - about any of what is real, actual, occurring - and NOT in our name either - tho we thought we were part of the whole thing.....we are no thing, no way to have any opinion or say when we are not told what is occurring either.
Where is the principle and essence of what Pacifica claims, what KPFK pledges and advertises...as 'we the people', ...as Free Speech [not hidden secret whispers ], ....as being in favor of egalitarian and open communications ?
what is going on ?
who else is going to tell us...the truth...finally ?
Do the LSB of KPFK represent a group[s] of listeners and seek their opinions before voting or making any decisions, instead of only representing their individual selves as seems to be the case now ?
Who does each LSB member actually represent ?
Do they ever tell us about the size of groups they actually inform, ask, represent?
What are the slants of those they represent ?
What are the ways listener-sponsors can have input to LSB members to be included, instead of just hanging out here ?
the way the LSB member was elected was by campaigning for votes but are these secret lists only they maintain and respond to... or are these voters then later ignored ?
Who decides who gets on the Pacifica National Board from LSB and what is the procedure for getting to move up there ?
and does it actually take hours and days and weeks of reading the bylaws and rules and all that small print to get generally informed about how KPFK & Pacifica too is actually run ?
does one have to be a quasi-lawyer to understand the legalities, meanings of cue words and phrases and the maneuverability of motions, language and ploys played out to have any input in what happens to OUR KPFK ?
huh?
we out here, who have paid-up generously at the long and last begging pledge drive have no information - just rumors - just allusions - to the use of the KPFK bldg being used as collateral for another Pacifica station in NY called WBAI - with the Pacifica National Board members making decisions about how to use the building that houses our resource and where our staff work. huh ?
[apparently THEY = PNB = own it ? huh?
how does that make sense ?
the whole group owns OUR building and we rent it here ?
or the Pacifica corp / organization owns it ?
or exactly who holds the deed, pays the mortgage, has title ??]
And decisions are being made where ?
who is NOT PROVIDING THE LISTENERS any information, or any feedback to questions, or asking for listener-input [no matter how wild or crazy, it is legitimate if we are the shareholder-sponsors of this thing called KPFK, whatever it contains] ?
Are decisions being made in Wash. D.C. ? in NY ? and then brought it in pretense of a 'discussion' that has no power to change what was already planned, decided and controlled elsewhere ?
And since we all over here dont - dont know s......t - about any of what is real, actual, occurring - and NOT in our name either - tho we thought we were part of the whole thing.....we are no thing, no way to have any opinion or say when we are not told what is occurring either.
Where is the principle and essence of what Pacifica claims, what KPFK pledges and advertises...as 'we the people', ...as Free Speech [not hidden secret whispers ], ....as being in favor of egalitarian and open communications ?
what is going on ?
who else is going to tell us...the truth...finally ?
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
KPFK slipping slippling into the past, not the "future" song
[[this is a reposting from www.la.indymedia.org from Leslie Radford, LSB member of KPFK 11/12/08
http://la.indymedia.org/news/2008/11/221843_comment.php#222040 ]]
DRAFT PROPOSAL for a response to hijacking KPFK
To: Lonnie Hicks, Pacifica CFO
To: Sherry Gendleman, Chair, and the Pacifica National Board
To: The Local Station Boards of KPFA, KPFT, WBAI, and WPFW
The KPFK would like to convey its displeasure and the reluctance of our listener-sponsors and staff to the Foundation plan to mortgage the KPFK building and to the lack of proper notice and consultation in the process of determining to risk the KPFK building to provide the network with short-term cash flow.
The KPFK building's market value is far greater than the value of the loan. Such an arrangement, especially in this economic climate, is an open invitation to the lender to foreclose at any opportunity. Pacifica has other holdings valued nearer to the $1M to be borrowed, and collateralizing any of these would offer less temptation to a lender to take the property in a default situation.
Our listener-sponsors and staff continue to reach our budget goals, even as our station absorbs the greatest loss of staff in the network. Now Pacifica is demanding that our listener-sponsors risk their capital investment as well. Without the safeguard of a repayment plan in place, the greatest burden for repaying the note will fall on those with the most to lose--KPFK staff and listener-sponsors.
If the Foundation insists on going forward, in spite of the strongest objections of the KPFK Local Station Board, to dismantle the security and operations of its strongest unit, then the KPFK insists on a contractual repayment plan. To that end, the KPFK Local Station Board herein amends its budget such that, beginning in February 2009, KPFK will pay no Central Service fees until 80% of the loan and interest is repaid from sources other than KPFK sponsors and donors, at which time KPFK agrees to pay the remaining 20% of the loan plus 20% of the
interest. The loan has been presented to us as a stop-gap to a cash-on-hand shortfall, so that beginning the repayment plan in February should be more than sufficient.
Further, we demand that Pacifica take up the long-standing recommendation of the Foundation CFO to develop a marketing and programming plan directed toward a younger and more diverse audience, and that this plan be implemented across the network within the time frame of the repayment.
We also demand that, from now on, Foundation staff and the PNB work transparently, honestly, and in good faith with local stations and station boards when negotiating the fate of the stations and bargaining on the goodwill
of local listener-subscribers.
What is happening to KPFK could happen to any of the stations, and we ask that other stations join with us in forestalling the Foundation staff and governance from raiding select station's resources to cover inadequate Foundation planning. This appropriation of station assets without notice and consultation sets a precedent that endangers every station in Pacifica.
Sincerely,
--Leslie Radford
+++++++++++++++++++
a commentary made also on indymedia by Sidestepper
KPFK slipping slippling into the past, not the "future" song
by sidestepper Thursday, Nov. 13, 2008 at 4:09 PM
No BAIL OUTS TO PACIFICA, or banks, or other financially deficiently run corps or instutitions !!!!
++++++++++++++
Now what do YOU THINK and what do you WANT TO DO about our KPFK being hi-low-jacked ?
http://la.indymedia.org/news/2008/11/221843_comment.php#222040 ]]
DRAFT PROPOSAL for a response to hijacking KPFK
To: Lonnie Hicks, Pacifica CFO
To: Sherry Gendleman, Chair, and the Pacifica National Board
To: The Local Station Boards of KPFA, KPFT, WBAI, and WPFW
The KPFK would like to convey its displeasure and the reluctance of our listener-sponsors and staff to the Foundation plan to mortgage the KPFK building and to the lack of proper notice and consultation in the process of determining to risk the KPFK building to provide the network with short-term cash flow.
The KPFK building's market value is far greater than the value of the loan. Such an arrangement, especially in this economic climate, is an open invitation to the lender to foreclose at any opportunity. Pacifica has other holdings valued nearer to the $1M to be borrowed, and collateralizing any of these would offer less temptation to a lender to take the property in a default situation.
Our listener-sponsors and staff continue to reach our budget goals, even as our station absorbs the greatest loss of staff in the network. Now Pacifica is demanding that our listener-sponsors risk their capital investment as well. Without the safeguard of a repayment plan in place, the greatest burden for repaying the note will fall on those with the most to lose--KPFK staff and listener-sponsors.
If the Foundation insists on going forward, in spite of the strongest objections of the KPFK Local Station Board, to dismantle the security and operations of its strongest unit, then the KPFK insists on a contractual repayment plan. To that end, the KPFK Local Station Board herein amends its budget such that, beginning in February 2009, KPFK will pay no Central Service fees until 80% of the loan and interest is repaid from sources other than KPFK sponsors and donors, at which time KPFK agrees to pay the remaining 20% of the loan plus 20% of the
interest. The loan has been presented to us as a stop-gap to a cash-on-hand shortfall, so that beginning the repayment plan in February should be more than sufficient.
Further, we demand that Pacifica take up the long-standing recommendation of the Foundation CFO to develop a marketing and programming plan directed toward a younger and more diverse audience, and that this plan be implemented across the network within the time frame of the repayment.
We also demand that, from now on, Foundation staff and the PNB work transparently, honestly, and in good faith with local stations and station boards when negotiating the fate of the stations and bargaining on the goodwill
of local listener-subscribers.
What is happening to KPFK could happen to any of the stations, and we ask that other stations join with us in forestalling the Foundation staff and governance from raiding select station's resources to cover inadequate Foundation planning. This appropriation of station assets without notice and consultation sets a precedent that endangers every station in Pacifica.
Sincerely,
--Leslie Radford
+++++++++++++++++++
a commentary made also on indymedia by Sidestepper
KPFK slipping slippling into the past, not the "future" song
by sidestepper Thursday, Nov. 13, 2008 at 4:09 PM
No BAIL OUTS TO PACIFICA, or banks, or other financially deficiently run corps or instutitions !!!!
++++++++++++++
Now what do YOU THINK and what do you WANT TO DO about our KPFK being hi-low-jacked ?
S.O.S. Save Our Station Now ! KPFK insiders = speak OUT to us all, please ! Drop those secret ways !
a few of US, KPFK workers, volunteers, contributors, Sponsor-Owners have heard bits and pieces of rumors, of strange disapearances, of missing staff, of the KPKF building being sold off or used as collateral for other people's debts...
and yet we cannot get any information at our 'low' level....
do you have any info you can share with us?
know anyone on LSB whose address can be shared so we can inquire further?
know anyone who is "talking" or "leaking" as there seems to be a GAG ORDER
or else the secrecy and dark holes we cannot see thru might be more visible ??
are you part of the conspiracy, getting-together-to-plan KPFK's life or demise or changes?
what are you willing to do to help Expose what we are left out of, deliberately being excluded tho we are called "pledge-$$$$-contributor-owners" of OUR KPFK STATION ?
anything ?
please share if you will, if you can...
also see articles found on www.la.indymedia.org about KPFK ..
..
where else is anything being written about what is happening w/o transparency and what is occuring under Other's / Insiders-Only Control ?
is it all happening without any input from those of us who have given tooooo much love, energy, time, money, heartfelt dedication and more to maintaining the morality of this organisation ?
S.O.S. save our station.....now ! tell us how....
and yet we cannot get any information at our 'low' level....
do you have any info you can share with us?
know anyone on LSB whose address can be shared so we can inquire further?
know anyone who is "talking" or "leaking" as there seems to be a GAG ORDER
or else the secrecy and dark holes we cannot see thru might be more visible ??
are you part of the conspiracy, getting-together-to-plan KPFK's life or demise or changes?
what are you willing to do to help Expose what we are left out of, deliberately being excluded tho we are called "pledge-$$$$-contributor-owners" of OUR KPFK STATION ?
anything ?
please share if you will, if you can...
also see articles found on www.la.indymedia.org about KPFK ..
..
where else is anything being written about what is happening w/o transparency and what is occuring under Other's / Insiders-Only Control ?
is it all happening without any input from those of us who have given tooooo much love, energy, time, money, heartfelt dedication and more to maintaining the morality of this organisation ?
S.O.S. save our station.....now ! tell us how....
Monday, November 17, 2008
S.O.S. - KPFK rumor or true?
Is Jerry Quickly leaving.....already ? You - this reader - please confirm what you know here someone ...anyone....please !
find out what you can and share the info & expose what is being secretly manipulated or negotiated at KPFK... and so all those who recently spent their dollars in the pledge drive but can have "nothing to say" about any dealings there can GET A REFUND NOW !
Rumor has been heard that Jerry Quickly of Beneath the Surface and one of the few Paid Staff people there [ we dont even know why he gets paid while others dont, but that's another question no one ever answers ] is "taking a leave of absence for 6 months"....
is this true? why is it happening ? is this in lieu of being fired ? or keeping a foot in KPFK's door for later ?
Is the KPFK radio station BUILDING BEING SOLD OUT AS COLLATERAL FOR A FAILING STATION IN NY ?
what is really going on ?
who knows anything to share?
who is collectivizing or uniting to HAVE A VOICE where our money and ears are ?
why is everything being closed behind iron doors with only brief little leaks emerging, like poison from under the door cracks ?
who is in charge there ?
Does the elected LSB have any power ?
Is anyone at LSB saying anything about what they are being confronted with ?
Is there a GAG ORDER in place and what enforces it ?
WHAT CAN WE DO out here in the ether world when we 'know nutin' and are powerless, help-less, and frustrated at being LEFT OUT COMPLETELY while shenanigans are going on [or else why hide all problems/ solutions/ possibilities and not engage some or all of US who pay dues to that station and just spent $1,000,000 collectively to keep it as OURS ????
S.O.S.
save our station,
but it is being stolen, corrupted, and exported to NY meanwhile we sit here in pretend-subservient-silence.
ugh !
the financial chaos of nations is out of our individual hands, and so are our contributions to our radio staion access to what was before called "free speech". It obviously aint free at all, but being sold away.
tell us what you know and where else to share info or blog and get TOGETHER
WE WILL NOT BE IGNORED OR DENIED. at least not me.
find out what you can and share the info & expose what is being secretly manipulated or negotiated at KPFK... and so all those who recently spent their dollars in the pledge drive but can have "nothing to say" about any dealings there can GET A REFUND NOW !
Rumor has been heard that Jerry Quickly of Beneath the Surface and one of the few Paid Staff people there [ we dont even know why he gets paid while others dont, but that's another question no one ever answers ] is "taking a leave of absence for 6 months"....
is this true? why is it happening ? is this in lieu of being fired ? or keeping a foot in KPFK's door for later ?
Is the KPFK radio station BUILDING BEING SOLD OUT AS COLLATERAL FOR A FAILING STATION IN NY ?
what is really going on ?
who knows anything to share?
who is collectivizing or uniting to HAVE A VOICE where our money and ears are ?
why is everything being closed behind iron doors with only brief little leaks emerging, like poison from under the door cracks ?
who is in charge there ?
Does the elected LSB have any power ?
Is anyone at LSB saying anything about what they are being confronted with ?
Is there a GAG ORDER in place and what enforces it ?
WHAT CAN WE DO out here in the ether world when we 'know nutin' and are powerless, help-less, and frustrated at being LEFT OUT COMPLETELY while shenanigans are going on [or else why hide all problems/ solutions/ possibilities and not engage some or all of US who pay dues to that station and just spent $1,000,000 collectively to keep it as OURS ????
S.O.S.
save our station,
but it is being stolen, corrupted, and exported to NY meanwhile we sit here in pretend-subservient-silence.
ugh !
the financial chaos of nations is out of our individual hands, and so are our contributions to our radio staion access to what was before called "free speech". It obviously aint free at all, but being sold away.
tell us what you know and where else to share info or blog and get TOGETHER
WE WILL NOT BE IGNORED OR DENIED. at least not me.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
KPFK is suppose to have a Community Advisory Board, but does it ?
Saturday, Oct. 11, 2008 [also written on www.la.indymedia.org]
Open Letter to KPFK's Community Advisory Committee [CAB] -and to the station's staff about lack of station's oversight of it's duties to inform all interested KPFK members about this required committee:
Open Letter to KPFK's Community Advisory Committee [CAB] :
[Repeated emails have been sent to the GM, to CAB at the KPFK station address and to specific individuals who were to lead this committee. There have been 3-4 prior requests for information from these sources with no responses from any one at all, leaving the impression that there is 'no one there' or 'no one who cares' to fulfill the obligations the station is required to maintain. The following is a copy of the last email sent again on 10/11/08]]
"This is a 4th Inquiry about the CAB meetings, with never a response from anyone at all to my prior requests for information. Is this personal discrimination ?........or sheer neglect and dysfunctional systems ?
"This is the 3rd month that I am inquiring and checking to find a CAB KPFK meeting and there is NO SPECIFIC INFORMATION given ...except this general blurb now on website, that was NOT posted there earlier. [Interestingly There is no indication of when it was posted either.]
"The KPFK Community Advisory Board meets the last Thursday of the month at 7:00PM at the KPFK Station All of these meetings are open to the public. "
"THERE IS NO NOTATION ON EVENTS CALENDAR [nor were there for Aug or Sept either ] that does list other meetings such as LSB. How is this possible ? Why is there no information given about specific dates, or if a meeting IS happening in this month of October [or August or September, when there was also NO responses at all from anyone to my questions about a meeting ]
"If there is a new chairperson, are they not responsible at all for insuring that alll KPFK people are directly and openly INFORMED so they can participate, unless that person has chosen to deliberately leave me out by refusing to respond ? [ Or is no one checking their listed "CAB@kpfk.org" email site ? which is not likely]
"This is a shameful and despicable neglect or sign that the CAB is not of value or is discriminatory but pretending to be inclusive. Whatever is Wrong with this committee or the station's oversight of anything that is 'required' but not happening properly or fairly, or it's chosen leaders, this persistence on my part to elicit information seems futile.
"The Public Corporation for Broadcasting may need to be notified about the absence of this committee's proper functioning or the station's staff chosing to ignore it's obligations.
"The main phone line listed on the website for CAB information is responded to by a person who said they did NOT KNOW anything about such a meeting, it's date or it's leaders.
"Why is this main KPFK phone number listed for information if none is available ?"
from a dedicated kpfker who refuses to just 'go away'
[Note: None of the emails below sent to same addresses at station have ever been answered in any way - the info therein may be relevant tho ]
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Date sent : Tuesday, September 16, 2008, 10:39 PM
This is an email that was never responded to by anyone, and is there a Sept CAB meeting happening ?
Please have the courtesy of sending a response. thank you.
- - - - - - - - - - -- - - - -
Date sent : Thursday, September 5, 2008, 12:28 AM
did you have an August CAB meeting ? I kept checking KPFK website and also indymedia and saw nothing nor heard about it happening or being cancelled. Yet I heard an on-air announcement about CAB to call front desk but w/o specific info. No one who answered phone knew anything about a meeting. What is happening ? Care to let me know if you have the time ? thanks
- - - - - - - -- -
Date sent Sept 6, 2008 :
I have written but had no reply to date, tho chairperson [and secretary ] may be too busy to deal with these type of inquiries. Also, I presume there were minutes written up, from the July meetings and then August one too....and I would like to know where these are posted for everyone involved with KPFK to be able to see and learn what is being done, discussed or planned.
In order to insure that a wide range of communities are able to attend and contribute,to know which groups are currently being represented, which are so far excluded or not in,which groups are desired, and who is doing outreach to groups in any specific ways ? It is important for this group to share what it is and how it works, to interest others, perhaps.
Can this also be shared information, outside of attending the meetings or only sent to those who actually were able to attend tha meeting ?
It may be possible that there are others too who cannot easily come to No. Hollywood on a Thurs night - for whatever reason - and would still like to not be totally excluded or out of the loop. I have already specifically informed other groups that are 'communities' and I am encouraging them to attend CAB as well, hoping to expand the ways that diversity can broaden the participation.
My concern is also that someone claiming 'representation of a group' may be limited to those who are regular KPFK volutneers/subscribers already. Maybe that is the exent of representation that CAB desires ? Please do not leave out the great majority of the 'other' populations that are also dedicated listeners and maybe potential sponsors of this station- to have CAB and KPFK to be a fuller & broader - creating "real representation' of even more 'communities' .
Some special programs may elicit followers who might not know but are needed to fill the diversity of interested parties advising the station as well. It is also important to know how "representation" is defined and accepted, so that not just personal points of views predominate. Anyone can say "I represent...."whatever age, culture, race, occupation, education, whatever and it may not be actual 'representation' but rather self- identification [including a their few special friends, or others] instead.
Is there some information that the KPFK receptionist is giving to anyone who does respond to the on-air general announcement, because when I telephoned, the person who answered did not know anything, not even that these gen'l CAB blurbs are being aired.
Please respond to my concerns and questions, or forward this email to whomever is willing to give us all more information about this CAB opportunity to do some good.
- - - - - - - --
[dead silence is not a good sign]
Open Letter to KPFK's Community Advisory Committee [CAB] -and to the station's staff about lack of station's oversight of it's duties to inform all interested KPFK members about this required committee:
Open Letter to KPFK's Community Advisory Committee [CAB] :
[Repeated emails have been sent to the GM, to CAB at the KPFK station address and to specific individuals who were to lead this committee. There have been 3-4 prior requests for information from these sources with no responses from any one at all, leaving the impression that there is 'no one there' or 'no one who cares' to fulfill the obligations the station is required to maintain. The following is a copy of the last email sent again on 10/11/08]]
"This is a 4th Inquiry about the CAB meetings, with never a response from anyone at all to my prior requests for information. Is this personal discrimination ?........or sheer neglect and dysfunctional systems ?
"This is the 3rd month that I am inquiring and checking to find a CAB KPFK meeting and there is NO SPECIFIC INFORMATION given ...except this general blurb now on website, that was NOT posted there earlier. [Interestingly There is no indication of when it was posted either.]
"The KPFK Community Advisory Board meets the last Thursday of the month at 7:00PM at the KPFK Station All of these meetings are open to the public. "
"THERE IS NO NOTATION ON EVENTS CALENDAR [nor were there for Aug or Sept either ] that does list other meetings such as LSB. How is this possible ? Why is there no information given about specific dates, or if a meeting IS happening in this month of October [or August or September, when there was also NO responses at all from anyone to my questions about a meeting ]
"If there is a new chairperson, are they not responsible at all for insuring that alll KPFK people are directly and openly INFORMED so they can participate, unless that person has chosen to deliberately leave me out by refusing to respond ? [ Or is no one checking their listed "CAB@kpfk.org" email site ? which is not likely]
"This is a shameful and despicable neglect or sign that the CAB is not of value or is discriminatory but pretending to be inclusive. Whatever is Wrong with this committee or the station's oversight of anything that is 'required' but not happening properly or fairly, or it's chosen leaders, this persistence on my part to elicit information seems futile.
"The Public Corporation for Broadcasting may need to be notified about the absence of this committee's proper functioning or the station's staff chosing to ignore it's obligations.
"The main phone line listed on the website for CAB information is responded to by a person who said they did NOT KNOW anything about such a meeting, it's date or it's leaders.
"Why is this main KPFK phone number listed for information if none is available ?"
from a dedicated kpfker who refuses to just 'go away'
[Note: None of the emails below sent to same addresses at station have ever been answered in any way - the info therein may be relevant tho ]
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Date sent : Tuesday, September 16, 2008, 10:39 PM
This is an email that was never responded to by anyone, and is there a Sept CAB meeting happening ?
Please have the courtesy of sending a response. thank you.
- - - - - - - - - - -- - - - -
Date sent : Thursday, September 5, 2008, 12:28 AM
did you have an August CAB meeting ? I kept checking KPFK website and also indymedia and saw nothing nor heard about it happening or being cancelled. Yet I heard an on-air announcement about CAB to call front desk but w/o specific info. No one who answered phone knew anything about a meeting. What is happening ? Care to let me know if you have the time ? thanks
- - - - - - - -- -
Date sent Sept 6, 2008 :
I have written but had no reply to date, tho chairperson [and secretary ] may be too busy to deal with these type of inquiries. Also, I presume there were minutes written up, from the July meetings and then August one too....and I would like to know where these are posted for everyone involved with KPFK to be able to see and learn what is being done, discussed or planned.
In order to insure that a wide range of communities are able to attend and contribute,to know which groups are currently being represented, which are so far excluded or not in,which groups are desired, and who is doing outreach to groups in any specific ways ? It is important for this group to share what it is and how it works, to interest others, perhaps.
Can this also be shared information, outside of attending the meetings or only sent to those who actually were able to attend tha meeting ?
It may be possible that there are others too who cannot easily come to No. Hollywood on a Thurs night - for whatever reason - and would still like to not be totally excluded or out of the loop. I have already specifically informed other groups that are 'communities' and I am encouraging them to attend CAB as well, hoping to expand the ways that diversity can broaden the participation.
My concern is also that someone claiming 'representation of a group' may be limited to those who are regular KPFK volutneers/subscribers already. Maybe that is the exent of representation that CAB desires ? Please do not leave out the great majority of the 'other' populations that are also dedicated listeners and maybe potential sponsors of this station- to have CAB and KPFK to be a fuller & broader - creating "real representation' of even more 'communities' .
Some special programs may elicit followers who might not know but are needed to fill the diversity of interested parties advising the station as well. It is also important to know how "representation" is defined and accepted, so that not just personal points of views predominate. Anyone can say "I represent...."whatever age, culture, race, occupation, education, whatever and it may not be actual 'representation' but rather self- identification [including a their few special friends, or others] instead.
Is there some information that the KPFK receptionist is giving to anyone who does respond to the on-air general announcement, because when I telephoned, the person who answered did not know anything, not even that these gen'l CAB blurbs are being aired.
Please respond to my concerns and questions, or forward this email to whomever is willing to give us all more information about this CAB opportunity to do some good.
- - - - - - - --
[dead silence is not a good sign]
Saturday, September 6, 2008
PACIFICA's Convention Coverages were Commendable !
A Letter written to Pacifica, KPFK, and others:
[As often as we - those who are not employed by Pacifica or it's stations - can & do complain, and request improvements & changes, and we can find problems that need exposure, here is also our balanced need and desire to also extend sincere thanks when exceptional results are heard ! Here goes ...]
A Huge Thank You all who created the spaces, the program slots, did the set up, planning and execution of the very vital and informative convention coverages.
Both conventions were full of relevant and unexpected commentaries. I was delighted and revitalized, listening intently to every singled aired show. This is the best way to keep listener-sponsors & volunteers loyal for a long time to our local stations [mine is KPFK].
Larry Benskey sounds so balanced, fair, clever, descriptive. He does good-reportering, never sounding too one-sided or too partisan. [Only a couple of other commentators in these coverages who made their own biased righteousness heard - while accusing others -were not as good.] By contrast those few made Sonali Kohatar and Larry Bensky sound even more professional and 'cool'. Sonali was so smooth and smart, performing on even a higher level than I've heard before, so that she sounded even better than when on her own local shows.
Covering the street scenes and dissenters was for some of us more important than the inside staged events. Tho I learned of the pre-emptive raids from Salon.com first, I was grateful and impressed to hear more coverage in audio on our radio station soon after.
Pacifica was the first and most extensive of any other "news" that I could find. [ NPR came in much later with more generalized coverage which included the branded code words that M$M utilizes to diminish anyone who was not officially invited "inside" - thus implying "they" are crazy, violent and bad.]
What else was on TV or radio was the type of interviewing that limits and biases the information sought - that was later heard & seen elsewhere, but our KPFK-Pacifica reporting was much more level-headed and thus trustworthy news. More full news also.
Our KPFK, here in LA, as one of the many stations who ran your coverage, was consistently more up-to-date informative, and sounding [sort of] neutral. The programs were providing voice and venue for many voters who otherwise would also be dismissed & ignored for lack of power and public coverage.
The "Democracy Now" programs' on-air time was extended and repeated. This was a gift to those of us far from the conventions and those dangers around them. These reporters were very directly involved inside and outside the conventions and had a prime spot from which to reveal the goings-on to us, the tuned-in public . These programs were extremely current and provided us [who are far away from the scene in-body-only] the dissenters' & protesters' experiences, as well as descriptive views of the fancier events on the 'inside' stages too.
I had to listen to both identical segments of DN with the same fascination and serious concern because one hearing was not sufficient. The events were so scary to our USA liberty [what's left].
I write here to inform those readers of Pacificana, who may not always hear directly from listeners, of our now re-attachment to our Pacifica stations. Some of us become estranged for all the dysfunctions and opaqueness that leave us 'out' of being able to help our favorite radio. Now Pacifica has again fulfilled one of the original stations' intentions - of being in the forefront and being fair - in covering all aspects of actual & urgent political happenings.
How many ways to say this, we who listen, now deeply appreciate all those who worked to make these conventions and the streets around them accessible via sound to us in far away lands [yep, far enough] ?
Thank you, truly.
[ and please share this with those who may not read this here directly]
One more insight I had:
While listening to the call-in section on 800# from DNC, I recognized a voice of a local KPFK volunteer - who may be also considered difficult by staff in some personality ways - and I heard him ask about the then- conversation of Pacifica reporters being limited to the assumption there were only 2 political parties for which to vote . To my surprise and delight, the reporters picked up on his request that 3rd parties not be excluded during this convention national-talk-time, and not just be segregated-out [ tho covered at different time, only]. The reporters continued discussing this unfairness of 2-party-group dominance to outsiders.
And I learned that a lone, small [stature] distant voice can elicit a bigger impact in our political conversations. I was proud of his call-in, and I was tickled that someone at Pacifica did not dismiss his concerns easily out of hand.
Here again was proof that every small effort and with strong good intention can occasionally create a big [national radio] effect. Wow!
[This was also posted at Pacificana.org.]
[As often as we - those who are not employed by Pacifica or it's stations - can & do complain, and request improvements & changes, and we can find problems that need exposure, here is also our balanced need and desire to also extend sincere thanks when exceptional results are heard ! Here goes ...]
A Huge Thank You all who created the spaces, the program slots, did the set up, planning and execution of the very vital and informative convention coverages.
Both conventions were full of relevant and unexpected commentaries. I was delighted and revitalized, listening intently to every singled aired show. This is the best way to keep listener-sponsors & volunteers loyal for a long time to our local stations [mine is KPFK].
Larry Benskey sounds so balanced, fair, clever, descriptive. He does good-reportering, never sounding too one-sided or too partisan. [Only a couple of other commentators in these coverages who made their own biased righteousness heard - while accusing others -were not as good.] By contrast those few made Sonali Kohatar and Larry Bensky sound even more professional and 'cool'. Sonali was so smooth and smart, performing on even a higher level than I've heard before, so that she sounded even better than when on her own local shows.
Covering the street scenes and dissenters was for some of us more important than the inside staged events. Tho I learned of the pre-emptive raids from Salon.com first, I was grateful and impressed to hear more coverage in audio on our radio station soon after.
Pacifica was the first and most extensive of any other "news" that I could find. [ NPR came in much later with more generalized coverage which included the branded code words that M$M utilizes to diminish anyone who was not officially invited "inside" - thus implying "they" are crazy, violent and bad.]
What else was on TV or radio was the type of interviewing that limits and biases the information sought - that was later heard & seen elsewhere, but our KPFK-Pacifica reporting was much more level-headed and thus trustworthy news. More full news also.
Our KPFK, here in LA, as one of the many stations who ran your coverage, was consistently more up-to-date informative, and sounding [sort of] neutral. The programs were providing voice and venue for many voters who otherwise would also be dismissed & ignored for lack of power and public coverage.
The "Democracy Now" programs' on-air time was extended and repeated. This was a gift to those of us far from the conventions and those dangers around them. These reporters were very directly involved inside and outside the conventions and had a prime spot from which to reveal the goings-on to us, the tuned-in public . These programs were extremely current and provided us [who are far away from the scene in-body-only] the dissenters' & protesters' experiences, as well as descriptive views of the fancier events on the 'inside' stages too.
I had to listen to both identical segments of DN with the same fascination and serious concern because one hearing was not sufficient. The events were so scary to our USA liberty [what's left].
I write here to inform those readers of Pacificana, who may not always hear directly from listeners, of our now re-attachment to our Pacifica stations. Some of us become estranged for all the dysfunctions and opaqueness that leave us 'out' of being able to help our favorite radio. Now Pacifica has again fulfilled one of the original stations' intentions - of being in the forefront and being fair - in covering all aspects of actual & urgent political happenings.
How many ways to say this, we who listen, now deeply appreciate all those who worked to make these conventions and the streets around them accessible via sound to us in far away lands [yep, far enough] ?
Thank you, truly.
[ and please share this with those who may not read this here directly]
One more insight I had:
While listening to the call-in section on 800# from DNC, I recognized a voice of a local KPFK volunteer - who may be also considered difficult by staff in some personality ways - and I heard him ask about the then- conversation of Pacifica reporters being limited to the assumption there were only 2 political parties for which to vote . To my surprise and delight, the reporters picked up on his request that 3rd parties not be excluded during this convention national-talk-time, and not just be segregated-out [ tho covered at different time, only]. The reporters continued discussing this unfairness of 2-party-group dominance to outsiders.
And I learned that a lone, small [stature] distant voice can elicit a bigger impact in our political conversations. I was proud of his call-in, and I was tickled that someone at Pacifica did not dismiss his concerns easily out of hand.
Here again was proof that every small effort and with strong good intention can occasionally create a big [national radio] effect. Wow!
[This was also posted at Pacificana.org.]
Thursday, July 31, 2008
KPFK non-responsive to any questions, queries, calls
Our concern about KPFK is always repeated =that there is almost NO information about what is happpenning there forthcoming anywhere locally unless it is gossip, rumor, conjecture or complaint,
and then only at the fund drives do the KPFK volunteers meet each other while on site .... a strange lack of community or continuity otherwise or other times...as far as we can find out...tho it would seem it should be otherwise, there is only a silent thud here.
And when KPFK was googled searched there is nothing more to find out, but that was how the Pacificana web site showed up way down on p 2 or 3 of google search - and it took a long & dedicated search to discover that one!... Actually, Pacificana informs more there than can be found in Los Angeles or newsgroups, or else these are so submerged that they are not popping into regular view.
Also the Pacifica's ED's momentary visit described there and the description of people she met briefly, ever so briefly at OUR radio station is contrary to what we experience here...so her postings were of more interest because of course her position would give her a total different response and effect and view...like from the top,...and we are at the bottom...'just a volunteers'.
The July 11 KPFK website post of the new GM was only up AFTER we had searched google repeatedly only to find it noted 7 days earlier elsewhere...but it was NOT on KPFK's website until the 7 day+ delay, and there is no notation of who or when it was put up anyhow...as if it didnt matter
...so it was up way late .and while www.la.indymedia.org = a local info source [the only other place, where we here write or ask or comment or complain just a little - about KPFK to each other] because no one from the station ever seems to read it or care or respond or change anything at all....
So the GM appointment was Not announced promptly, the days earlier when he took 'office'or even before that, like when he was finally selected for sure ...and the info on website is also very minimal, w/no pix, no comment from him, nothing else that we can know... so what is the secret being held close there ? why?
again....as someone else said, we cannot be listening 24/7 to hear [maybe] an announcement, maybe even a short blurb or hear him talk.[as of July 15 anyhow] ..he may have by now...but we also cant' take in that much and listen and then maybe 'miss it' and are told, well," 'we did it already...it is your fault for not knowing..." the usual passing on responsibility...
and the initial announcement being on Sonali's site instead of KPFK's site FIRST [even Pacificana copied it from there ! before KPFK put it up at all.] makes one wonder what connections she has that the other paid staff dont have... and the GM made a comment somewhere overheard that he thought her program somehow special or whatever words he used to elevate her program above others ???? huh???? has he listened to others too ?? was he just being polite because she interviewed him before anyone else had made a public announcement? Did she scoop this ? or was Sonali the only one willing to expose him ?
or What happened there? No info makes it all more suspicious than it probably needs to be. But that's what KPFK engenders and promotes - secrecy, thus more suspicion. Why is this happening ?
so it was all a bit strange, the order of how, when, who makes the prime announcement and who will see it ? or know? and who cares anyhow !!!!! right ? does this sound grumpy ?? well it comes with the futile search and not finding much.
We are still lured to trying to help improve/change/do something ! to keep KPFK from being the secret compartment closed enclave hidden agenda'd and totally non-transparent entity claiming "free speech" and openness and not displaying any.
Like all rebels, the KPFK programmers like to expose the "others" while in their own paranoia hiding themselves, excessively, fearfully. What strength can that be ?
Some of us recently attended the 2nd or 3rd meeting of a group called the "community advisory Board" required by Corp Pub Broadcasting =to give KPFK funds yearly....and already a few of us are already dismayed and discouraged by how this too goes.....dysfunctional is a positive description compared to the realities seen and experienced...so far
It is said that this group should have been in effect already for a few years now [how many ?] but had not been meeting, and had been 'advising'some years before ....and yet because it is required to exist and advise for the financesto flow into the station, so it is being started up again. With no good guidelines of who they advise ...what was ever advised before ? what is possible to do as an external group to help ? to help the station's community's to really have a bit of input in programming or elsewhre, though all internal-workings are so closely held for that staff/programmer sense of personal-political-individual power...or so it seems, so often and clearly so.
So we dont expect to know or do anything... BUT at least we believe in exposing problems and refuse go into addictive-people's denials....like alcoholics...the whole station's staff and even many long time programmers collude to keep silent, never answer emails, never answer phone call msgs. and are impossible to connect to directly. it just dont happen !
There are a few volunteers who work on site who confirm this also, to their own frustration, trying to be responsible to the KPFK listerner public, yet they dont understand and cant get anything or anyone to be more responsive - even while at the premises working there for gratis !!!
... nothing is confidential here... and it's noted that the KPFK website has requests 2 volunteers for 2 days of reception afternoon work...huh?so while the hope or assumption may be that the new GM will be somehow different or better, I already dont think they could do much even if they wanted to make the great effort to change the elephant's stripes...they will change him,the GM, not him change the whole teetering mega station. or rather the tightly held corporation...
and if a person has been on "a program for '25 years" as a programmer claimed and insists this gives them permission to keep on having their own special program, what does this also tell us ? entrenchment is what the programmers are all about...even within the great variety that does also exist, I admit and why I still remain loyal to the station.
if anyone at all is interested in what is happening at KPFK from the Outside, as there is no central channel of truth or sharing information, then again la.indymedia has some articles that can be searched and briefly reviewed...but who has time to do this ? who cares ?
yes, we can write and carry on, apologies to those irritated by these complaints, but these complaints repeat because we want them to heard, healed, changed and the station's secretive ways to be opened up to it's owners and sponsors and dedicated loyal volunteers, not just paid staff that are in divisive factionalized conflicts already...
that so many in LA listeners must know...or who cares ? whatever......
peace, maybe....
mary janie written on July 15,2008 8:04 pm PST
and then only at the fund drives do the KPFK volunteers meet each other while on site .... a strange lack of community or continuity otherwise or other times...as far as we can find out...tho it would seem it should be otherwise, there is only a silent thud here.
And when KPFK was googled searched there is nothing more to find out, but that was how the Pacificana web site showed up way down on p 2 or 3 of google search - and it took a long & dedicated search to discover that one!... Actually, Pacificana informs more there than can be found in Los Angeles or newsgroups, or else these are so submerged that they are not popping into regular view.
Also the Pacifica's ED's momentary visit described there and the description of people she met briefly, ever so briefly at OUR radio station is contrary to what we experience here...so her postings were of more interest because of course her position would give her a total different response and effect and view...like from the top,...and we are at the bottom...'just a volunteers'.
The July 11 KPFK website post of the new GM was only up AFTER we had searched google repeatedly only to find it noted 7 days earlier elsewhere...but it was NOT on KPFK's website until the 7 day+ delay, and there is no notation of who or when it was put up anyhow...as if it didnt matter
...so it was up way late .and while www.la.indymedia.org = a local info source [the only other place, where we here write or ask or comment or complain just a little - about KPFK to each other] because no one from the station ever seems to read it or care or respond or change anything at all....
So the GM appointment was Not announced promptly, the days earlier when he took 'office'or even before that, like when he was finally selected for sure ...and the info on website is also very minimal, w/no pix, no comment from him, nothing else that we can know... so what is the secret being held close there ? why?
again....as someone else said, we cannot be listening 24/7 to hear [maybe] an announcement, maybe even a short blurb or hear him talk.[as of July 15 anyhow] ..he may have by now...but we also cant' take in that much and listen and then maybe 'miss it' and are told, well," 'we did it already...it is your fault for not knowing..." the usual passing on responsibility...
and the initial announcement being on Sonali's site instead of KPFK's site FIRST [even Pacificana copied it from there ! before KPFK put it up at all.] makes one wonder what connections she has that the other paid staff dont have... and the GM made a comment somewhere overheard that he thought her program somehow special or whatever words he used to elevate her program above others ???? huh???? has he listened to others too ?? was he just being polite because she interviewed him before anyone else had made a public announcement? Did she scoop this ? or was Sonali the only one willing to expose him ?
or What happened there? No info makes it all more suspicious than it probably needs to be. But that's what KPFK engenders and promotes - secrecy, thus more suspicion. Why is this happening ?
so it was all a bit strange, the order of how, when, who makes the prime announcement and who will see it ? or know? and who cares anyhow !!!!! right ? does this sound grumpy ?? well it comes with the futile search and not finding much.
We are still lured to trying to help improve/change/do something ! to keep KPFK from being the secret compartment closed enclave hidden agenda'd and totally non-transparent entity claiming "free speech" and openness and not displaying any.
Like all rebels, the KPFK programmers like to expose the "others" while in their own paranoia hiding themselves, excessively, fearfully. What strength can that be ?
Some of us recently attended the 2nd or 3rd meeting of a group called the "community advisory Board" required by Corp Pub Broadcasting =to give KPFK funds yearly....and already a few of us are already dismayed and discouraged by how this too goes.....dysfunctional is a positive description compared to the realities seen and experienced...so far
It is said that this group should have been in effect already for a few years now [how many ?] but had not been meeting, and had been 'advising'some years before ....and yet because it is required to exist and advise for the financesto flow into the station, so it is being started up again. With no good guidelines of who they advise ...what was ever advised before ? what is possible to do as an external group to help ? to help the station's community's to really have a bit of input in programming or elsewhre, though all internal-workings are so closely held for that staff/programmer sense of personal-political-individual power...or so it seems, so often and clearly so.
So we dont expect to know or do anything... BUT at least we believe in exposing problems and refuse go into addictive-people's denials....like alcoholics...the whole station's staff and even many long time programmers collude to keep silent, never answer emails, never answer phone call msgs. and are impossible to connect to directly. it just dont happen !
There are a few volunteers who work on site who confirm this also, to their own frustration, trying to be responsible to the KPFK listerner public, yet they dont understand and cant get anything or anyone to be more responsive - even while at the premises working there for gratis !!!
... nothing is confidential here... and it's noted that the KPFK website has requests 2 volunteers for 2 days of reception afternoon work...huh?so while the hope or assumption may be that the new GM will be somehow different or better, I already dont think they could do much even if they wanted to make the great effort to change the elephant's stripes...they will change him,the GM, not him change the whole teetering mega station. or rather the tightly held corporation...
and if a person has been on "a program for '25 years" as a programmer claimed and insists this gives them permission to keep on having their own special program, what does this also tell us ? entrenchment is what the programmers are all about...even within the great variety that does also exist, I admit and why I still remain loyal to the station.
if anyone at all is interested in what is happening at KPFK from the Outside, as there is no central channel of truth or sharing information, then again la.indymedia has some articles that can be searched and briefly reviewed...but who has time to do this ? who cares ?
yes, we can write and carry on, apologies to those irritated by these complaints, but these complaints repeat because we want them to heard, healed, changed and the station's secretive ways to be opened up to it's owners and sponsors and dedicated loyal volunteers, not just paid staff that are in divisive factionalized conflicts already...
that so many in LA listeners must know...or who cares ? whatever......
peace, maybe....
mary janie written on July 15,2008 8:04 pm PST
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
What Fairness Doctrine, again ? lost it.....
No Candidate, No Fairness Doctrine and No Equal Time
[reposted here from http://pacificana.org/ ]
The New York Times ran an article about how certain African-American radio hosts were acting as cheerleaders for the Obama campaign, and contrasting that to past elections where talk radio hosts like Rush Limbaugh gave a boost to Republican candidates on their programs. How is it that these programs can take political positions without triggering requirements that opposing candidates get equal time? Under FCC rules, unless a candidate' recognizable voice or image is broadcast by a station, there is no right to equal opportunities. In the past, until the FCC abolished the Fairness Doctrine by declaring it to be unconstitutional, even without a candidate appearance, the station would have had an obligation to give both sides of a controversial issue of public importance, such as an election, free time to respond to on-air statements by an announcer. When the doctrine was abolished, stations were free to air pointed programs taking positions on issues, giving rise initially principally to the conservative commentators, and more recently to their more liberal counterparts such as those heard on Air America radio.
The abolition of the Fairness Doctrine also allowed broadcasters to editorialize, even endorsing candidates for political office without having to give the opponent of their favored candidate equal time, just like print media can do. Similarly, a station can take a position on a ballot issue, or on another controversial issue of public importance in their communities without having to provide time to those with opposing viewpoints - allowing stations to fully participate in their communities political life. Under the Fairness Doctrine, stations even had to give time to those with viewpoints opposed to parties who bought time on a controversial issue if the opponents could not themselves afford to buy time. The occasional discussion of reviving the Fairness Doctrine ignores these issues.
The one aspect of the Fairness Doctrine that has never been officially abolished is the Zapple Doctrine, a rule that required that supporters of a major-party candidate be able to get time to respond to broadcasts by supporters of the opponent, effectively "quasi-equal opportunities." The doctrine was argued by supporters of John Kerry in their request for equal time when Sinclair Broadcasting threatened to run the Swift Boat "documentary" during the 2004 Presidential election. Perhaps fearing that the Zapple Doctrine had continuing validity (or perhaps fearing bad publicity), the film was never run in its entirety, so no decision was released as to whether the Zapple Doctrine had continuing validity after the abolition of the Fairness Doctrine. Presumably, this policy, even if still valid, would not be applied to talk shows, as the statements of talk show hosts, while certainly biased and pointed in one political direction or another, rarely state outright "go vote for candidate X." Of course, any application of the Zapple Doctrine, or any reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine, would no doubt bring about a constitutional challenge to the regulatory scheme. Given the recent deference of Courts to the First Amendment rights of broadcasters, supporters of the reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine should get the message.
Monday, July 28, 2008
Repeatedly, when anyone is seeking information it is NOT on the website, not information about LSB and other KPFK meetings especially, and no minutes of recent meetings, no agendas, etc.
even the announcement of the new GM was well DELAYED 7 days after it was announced on Uprising and Pacificana websites....why the lengthy delay ?
the webmaster's excuse probably is "they didnt give it to me earlier"...which means he is NOT RESPONSIBLE for eliciting or obtaining important information that is to be given to the listener-shareholders of this station?
And if not, who is responsible ?
and why is the only the date and not the time of the posting up ? It might be interesting to find out the late hour of posting... every other posting at misc. blogs, etc. lists date and time...why is KPFK not doing so?
the recnet CAB meeting is now posted, without a date of when posted, or who submitted it. Should this not be included to be providing the INFORMATION freely that KPFK extolls?
Can someones please make some agreement that information is provided, not the minimum but the MAXIMUM and that it is requested, posted, provided without pulling everyone's teeth and hair out in having to request, to repeat search, to have 'outsiders' clamor for information that should be available on KPFK we bsite as it pertains to station's doings...
and if the webmaster is told he is only to sit passivelty awaiting what to post and has no say, tho he IS on the LSB and perhaps other committees so not so unpowerful that he need to use that "it's nt part of my job" excuse, we hold his RESPONSIBLE for requesting, and reminding whoever need be that the information is due to the pay-for-programs-audience...that is us.
and those who dont have a computer or are not so literate, they are left out, surely.... as there is no way to know without listening 24/7 if any announcements are made..
A space on the listing or event could be added that lists date & time an on-air announcement is made for those who dont and cant get online to search....repeatedly and with stubborn insistence to find out what is happening...as it takes that much...
the CAB announcement was not on website last week, and it is on now, but who knows when it came up to be noticed and to get people who want to attend to know about it ...
Much improvement needs to be made about the quality and responsibility of informing US, the sponsors and payees of this station and it's staff's salaries, plus all else, of what is occuring at the station, IN the station, and how it is run as well....secrecy and opacity is contrary to the station's stated ideals.
Please let us all know, with any means of feedback, that something improving is being done, not the usual silence that says no one cares, no may even read this email, no one responds to the efforts and suggestions given, no one ever calls back on voice mail messages left and 'the public' is so left out that we feel we are being pulled by a sled that has no driver, going down, down down, secretly and evasively.
Please correct this lack of informaton and please le tme know you have heard and cared eough to even do more than the 'automatic' reply that goes to spam rec'd as well.
On the website, right this minute, notice that last 'station board' minutes were for Nov 2007.....over 6 months ago, is that informative and up to date ?
Last "LSB resolutions" is for 2006....huh ? nothing has happened since then ?
Last financial reports are lists it as "2007' budget, a while back no ? uncurrent and therefore not very informative either.
Hey, the Program Council is just as outdated !!! they list the July 2007 meetings, a year ago ? nothing happened since then ? is this possible ? and their last "minutes" is dated 1/17/2006....wow....how unhelpful is that antiquated informaton.
WHAT IS WRONG HERE ? Who is responsible, of whoever are responsible, to provide up to date feedback of what is HAPPENING WITH AND AT THE STATION at least on the website as again, no intersted listener can catch by chance a announcement if it is ever made at all.
how hypocritical to claim to be relevant, current, up to date and providng "news" but not of itself...only about others that KPFK criticizes so easily, weasely too.
Shame on the management for allowing this to continue on and on so long... Excuses of not having money and staff is the usual, name any business that does not claim the same and KPFK denies their excuses but uses the same ones itself. Shame !
even the announcement of the new GM was well DELAYED 7 days after it was announced on Uprising and Pacificana websites....why the lengthy delay ?
the webmaster's excuse probably is "they didnt give it to me earlier"...which means he is NOT RESPONSIBLE for eliciting or obtaining important information that is to be given to the listener-shareholders of this station?
And if not, who is responsible ?
and why is the only the date and not the time of the posting up ? It might be interesting to find out the late hour of posting... every other posting at misc. blogs, etc. lists date and time...why is KPFK not doing so?
the recnet CAB meeting is now posted, without a date of when posted, or who submitted it. Should this not be included to be providing the INFORMATION freely that KPFK extolls?
Can someones please make some agreement that information is provided, not the minimum but the MAXIMUM and that it is requested, posted, provided without pulling everyone's teeth and hair out in having to request, to repeat search, to have 'outsiders' clamor for information that should be available on KPFK we bsite as it pertains to station's doings...
and if the webmaster is told he is only to sit passivelty awaiting what to post and has no say, tho he IS on the LSB and perhaps other committees so not so unpowerful that he need to use that "it's nt part of my job" excuse, we hold his RESPONSIBLE for requesting, and reminding whoever need be that the information is due to the pay-for-programs-audience...that is us.
and those who dont have a computer or are not so literate, they are left out, surely.... as there is no way to know without listening 24/7 if any announcements are made..
A space on the listing or event could be added that lists date & time an on-air announcement is made for those who dont and cant get online to search....repeatedly and with stubborn insistence to find out what is happening...as it takes that much...
the CAB announcement was not on website last week, and it is on now, but who knows when it came up to be noticed and to get people who want to attend to know about it ...
Much improvement needs to be made about the quality and responsibility of informing US, the sponsors and payees of this station and it's staff's salaries, plus all else, of what is occuring at the station, IN the station, and how it is run as well....secrecy and opacity is contrary to the station's stated ideals.
Please let us all know, with any means of feedback, that something improving is being done, not the usual silence that says no one cares, no may even read this email, no one responds to the efforts and suggestions given, no one ever calls back on voice mail messages left and 'the public' is so left out that we feel we are being pulled by a sled that has no driver, going down, down down, secretly and evasively.
Please correct this lack of informaton and please le tme know you have heard and cared eough to even do more than the 'automatic' reply that goes to spam rec'd as well.
On the website, right this minute, notice that last 'station board' minutes were for Nov 2007.....over 6 months ago, is that informative and up to date ?
Last "LSB resolutions" is for 2006....huh ? nothing has happened since then ?
Last financial reports are lists it as "2007' budget, a while back no ? uncurrent and therefore not very informative either.
Hey, the Program Council is just as outdated !!! they list the July 2007 meetings, a year ago ? nothing happened since then ? is this possible ? and their last "minutes" is dated 1/17/2006....wow....how unhelpful is that antiquated informaton.
WHAT IS WRONG HERE ? Who is responsible, of whoever are responsible, to provide up to date feedback of what is HAPPENING WITH AND AT THE STATION at least on the website as again, no intersted listener can catch by chance a announcement if it is ever made at all.
how hypocritical to claim to be relevant, current, up to date and providng "news" but not of itself...only about others that KPFK criticizes so easily, weasely too.
Shame on the management for allowing this to continue on and on so long... Excuses of not having money and staff is the usual, name any business that does not claim the same and KPFK denies their excuses but uses the same ones itself. Shame !
Friday, July 25, 2008
Saturday, May 31, 2008
WANTED...COMMUNICATORS helpers carers
Anyone out there ?
who wants to share their thoughts about KPFK?
who has concerns about what is happening at KPFK ?
who cares about the lack of transparency at KPFK?
who wants to know how KPFK functions or dysfunctions in the real world ?
who knows how to reach the Board LSB directly ?
who has a good suggestion that has been ignored or unheard by station management?
who wants to help make KPFK what it claims it is, but is not ...yet ?
who has attempted to communicate with KPFK but been ignored?
who has volunteered and found the functioning at station not effective or efficient ?
and so did not return to volunteer at KPFK again ?
who wants to HELP MAKE KPFK BETTER and 'well' [to recover from it's declining...] ?
who cares enough to have made attempts to help but then given up....till now ?
who wants to UNITE TOGETHER to form a "union" with others who want to help OUR station?
who is not malicious, angry, greedy, or venting and wants to share an honest opinion here ?
who is part of the KPFK KOMMUNITY that suffers from lack of working-togetherness?
who is offering to work, write, call, activate, activise, assist, coordinate in any way to reach
the station staff when a large enough group of KPFKers want some change ?
Join in.
Dont sit back passively, listening to what you dislike or feel insulted by, even on KPFK.
Dont allow 'them' == whoever dominates and excludes == from OUR airwaves relevant information & programs.
Dont let "that group" just 'win' and you just 'complain' from afar.
Dont fall shallow, fold, retaliate by bad-talk, or turn the station off completely.
Join in.
Join us.
Now.
who wants to share their thoughts about KPFK?
who has concerns about what is happening at KPFK ?
who cares about the lack of transparency at KPFK?
who wants to know how KPFK functions or dysfunctions in the real world ?
who knows how to reach the Board LSB directly ?
who has a good suggestion that has been ignored or unheard by station management?
who wants to help make KPFK what it claims it is, but is not ...yet ?
who has attempted to communicate with KPFK but been ignored?
who has volunteered and found the functioning at station not effective or efficient ?
and so did not return to volunteer at KPFK again ?
who wants to HELP MAKE KPFK BETTER and 'well' [to recover from it's declining...] ?
who cares enough to have made attempts to help but then given up....till now ?
who wants to UNITE TOGETHER to form a "union" with others who want to help OUR station?
who is not malicious, angry, greedy, or venting and wants to share an honest opinion here ?
who is part of the KPFK KOMMUNITY that suffers from lack of working-togetherness?
who is offering to work, write, call, activate, activise, assist, coordinate in any way to reach
the station staff when a large enough group of KPFKers want some change ?
Join in.
Dont sit back passively, listening to what you dislike or feel insulted by, even on KPFK.
Dont allow 'them' == whoever dominates and excludes == from OUR airwaves relevant information & programs.
Dont let "that group" just 'win' and you just 'complain' from afar.
Dont fall shallow, fold, retaliate by bad-talk, or turn the station off completely.
Join in.
Join us.
Now.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Come all Those Who Want to IMPROVE KPFK
We have found our place, to share positive news and to WORK HERE TOGETHER for an improved radio station - this one that we pay to exist.
KPFK has regularly had poor transparency and no access for communication with the staff, or board, from listeners & subscribers :::::those
who want to make suggestions,
who have genuine concerns about what is 'going on' ,
who want to POSITIVELY influence the station or LSB or programmers,
who want to HELP IMPROVE how the station is currently run,
who CARE ENOUGH to make efforts with sincere intentions only,
who want to COMMUNICATE together to work in unison,
who are NOT just malicious complainers or angry people,
who have good ideas and want them presented thru a group,
who are wanting to PARTICIPATE in the functioning of OUR RADIO STATION in ways beyond answering phones & sending in money...
HERE IS THE PLACE TO WRITE YOUR IDEAS, YOUR CONCERNS AND YOUR OFFERINGS TO HELP.
THIS IS AN outside-of-the-station-CREATED private & personal BLOG = = = for us to speak to each other openly, politely & conveniently. There is no heirarchy, but there is a msg. monitor .
Please SHARE your thoughts and wishes, and make offers of what YOU CAN DO TO HELP, besides demand that things improve. This is an activist, organizing tool.
Let's use it wisely and considerately.
Like a Union, we are the KPFcommentators-united ...
with the genuine desire to have a more equitable, transparent, relevant, responsive, & communicative radio station. We want a better KPFK. and Like other useful places, let's make this one worth sharing together !
add your responses here, please.
with caring & concern,
mary janie
KPFK has regularly had poor transparency and no access for communication with the staff, or board, from listeners & subscribers :::::those
who want to make suggestions,
who have genuine concerns about what is 'going on' ,
who want to POSITIVELY influence the station or LSB or programmers,
who want to HELP IMPROVE how the station is currently run,
who CARE ENOUGH to make efforts with sincere intentions only,
who want to COMMUNICATE together to work in unison,
who are NOT just malicious complainers or angry people,
who have good ideas and want them presented thru a group,
who are wanting to PARTICIPATE in the functioning of OUR RADIO STATION in ways beyond answering phones & sending in money...
HERE IS THE PLACE TO WRITE YOUR IDEAS, YOUR CONCERNS AND YOUR OFFERINGS TO HELP.
THIS IS AN outside-of-the-station-CREATED private & personal BLOG = = = for us to speak to each other openly, politely & conveniently. There is no heirarchy, but there is a msg. monitor .
Please SHARE your thoughts and wishes, and make offers of what YOU CAN DO TO HELP, besides demand that things improve. This is an activist, organizing tool.
Let's use it wisely and considerately.
Like a Union, we are the KPFcommentators-united ...
with the genuine desire to have a more equitable, transparent, relevant, responsive, & communicative radio station. We want a better KPFK. and Like other useful places, let's make this one worth sharing together !
add your responses here, please.
with caring & concern,
mary janie
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[This is an older post, repeated here for general information and as a source to also utilize for those interested in KPFK & other pacifica station's financial stuff...maybe..]
see http://pacificana.org/pacifica-financial-info
"Pacifica Financial Info 29 July, 2007 - It would be good to collect Pacifica's financial info here.
The 2006 audit is posted at kpfa.org. The previous year's audits and 990s going back to 2001 are posted here http://www.pacificafoundation.org/national/documents/task,cat_view/gid,1
Pacifica foundation is NOT keeping its financial reports up to date on its web site. But people who have this information could post it here if we had a place to do it."
[Where else is financial information posted for share-holders-sponsors-pledgers to see ? mj ]
[This post seems as relevant to other pacifica station doings as it may refer only to one of them... so it is reposted here to inform us all and may be helpful... notation by maryjanie ]
Planet Pacifica: Making Democracy Work from http://muckraker-gg.blogspot.com/
Posted by Greg Guma at 7/16/2008 05:11:00 AM
Excerpts from remarks at a KPFT planning retreat, January 2008
When rumors fly through the Pacifica Radio community or attacks get especially nasty, people often blame provocateurs and charge that the government is out to get radio’s voice of the people. There’s some basis for this suspicion. The FBI had Pacifica in its sights as early as 1958, and took a special interest in 1962 when former Special Agent Jack Levine gave KPFA an interview. Levine exposed the Bureau as a threat to democracy and a tool of J. Edgar Hoover, its vain and obsessed director. According to Mathew Lasar, who reviewed Freedom of Information Act files, the Bureau poked, prodded, and harassed the organization for years, even planting agents disguised as private citizens.
In the last decade, however, charges of counter-intelligence operations directed against the organization have been speculative at best, and occasionally excursions into free-range paranoia. When messages critical of program hosts or local activists are posted on Internet lists and websites, their authors – some long-time Pacifica members – are sometimes charged as accomplices in an alleged government conspiracy to destabilize the organization. Board members and station managers aren’t exempt from insinuations that they’re part of the plot.
Personally, I found no solid evidence of a government operation during my tenure as Executive Director. But even if a disinformation campaign was being pursued, it would be overkill. At this point, the Pacifica community is capable of destabilizing itself without a federal assist. Outside forces aren’t responsible for the current bylaws or listener activist distrust of staff, the slow response to the digital age, confusion about the basic mission, programming gridlock, financial decline, or misbehavior of board members and volunteers.
Part of the problem is the version of democracy put in place after Pacifica was “saved.” The five stations have about a million regular listeners. Of this total, about 10 percent make financial or volunteer contributions, qualifying them to participate in local elections. Of that total, little more than 10 percent actually return ballots. Due to proportional voting, it takes at most about 300 votes for election to a station board. In other words, LSB members draw their right to govern from less than one percent of the listeners. And in order to win, candidates often resort to negative appeals, especially charges that the process is corrupt and Pacifica isn’t democratic enough. In general, the elections tend to perpetuate an atmosphere of confrontation and suspicion.
They also take at least eight months to conduct, cost more than $200,000 each time, consume considerable staff and airtime, and lead to interminable legal disputes. Most non-profit boards recruit people with specific skills needed by the organization. Pacifica has replaced this with an election process that creates warring factions on every station board.
In the past, Board meetings have frequently featured rude outbursts and other disrespectful behavior. Roberts Rules of Order are often abused, becoming weapons of obstruction rather than tools to promote rational discussion. E-mails are used to spread rumors and promote debates of marginal relevance. In many cases, factional alliances manipulate the rules. Productivity suffers and questionable behavior opens the organization to legal liability. All this has the effect of alienating potential supporters or future board members.
Voting is not a panacea. It’s a mediated form of political engagement, and can sometimes divert energy from more effective forms of political and social action. Just because a group is elected, that doesn’t always mean it makes the best or even the right decisions.
Since the status-quo encourages competition rather than cooperation, a viable alternative would need to provide incentives for actively seeking common ground. For elections to be constructive, the process must reward helpful ideas rather than negative appeals. Pacifica might consider having some at-large, appointed board members, people who have needed skills and aren’t so entangled in the internal political struggles.
The organization could also benefit from some form of open-source governance, an emerging “post-national” approach that draws from the collective wisdom of a whole community. An open-source model could help de-couple setting policy from station management. A small step in this direction is to post all the policies – local, national, financial – in one accessible public registry and update it regularly.
The current structure is, in part, a form of grassroots democracy. As much decision-making as possible is granted to the lower geographic level of organization. This sounds fine, but means in practice that power resides with local institutions – the stations – and not with individuals. In contrast, participatory systems give people equal access to decision-making regardless of their standing in a local chapter or community. The question is who and what Pacifica seeks to empower.
In the digital age, people can listen to any station they want, at any time they want. They are no longer bound by geographic proximity or access to an FM frequency. Some way needs to be found for people who support Pacifica, but don’t work at or contribute to a specific station, to participate as members. They represent a vast untapped audience and certainly shouldn’t be viewed as outsiders. In short, claiming to have a democratic structure doesn’t end the discussion. The real issues are what form of democracy works best, and who is really a member of the community in this new era.
Beyond a fresh look at listener democracy, Pacifica also needs a serious review of its outdated mission statement, which currently adds to the confusion, and a radical overhaul of its bylaws. Perhaps being the loyal opposition, covering the stories that other media ignore, is the path ahead. But if so, where and how do dialogue and national programs fit in? Is it really a network or merely a convenient umbrella for local stations that basically go their own ways? Resolving such questions will help to determine the best formats and schedules to serve the mission and attract more listeners. It might even lead to less internal warfare.
Planet Pacifica will resume sometime in the future. A hyperlinked chapter list will be released soon. Keep in touch with Maverick Media for frequent updates on politics, perception management, alternative media, Vermont, and Pacifica today.
[any comments back to him or us here ? please be informative, not accusatory if possible. thanx mj ]
KPFK: The Price of Stifling Dissent
Posted by Greg Guma at 6/25/2008 12:41:00 PM
http://muckraker-gg.blogspot.com /2008/06/kpfk-price-of-stifling- dissent.html
In 1999, shortly after Lynn Chadwick replaced Pat Scott as Executive Director of Pacifica Radio, a new phase of its internal war began. Chadwick had begun her radio career as a volunteer at WPFW and served as president of the National Federation of Community Broadcasters for more than a decade, receiving the Edward R. Murrow Award for "transforming the organization into an industry leader." But her tenure at Pacifica was tumultuous, especially once the national board gave itself the authority to select its own members – supposedly in response to a Corporation for Public Broadcasting dictate – and major changes in KPFA’s format were attempted. This and subsequent heavy-handed tactics, including a lockdown and alleged union-busting, led to four lawsuits and large public protests.
At KPFK in Los Angeles, after Vince Ivory, a volunteer for 14 years and producer of a “community calendar” show, went to a demonstration outside the building, General Manager Mark Schubb sent him packing. Fernando Velasquez, a producer and programmer in both Spanish and English, got the same treatment for the same basic offense.
Freelance writer Robin Urevich was also “banned,” in her case for writing about Pacifica in an outside publication. She had been a Pacifica reporter for six years and recently won a Golden Mike Award for Best Reporting by a Network. One publication that printed her story was Toward Freedom, the magazine I’d been editing for the past half decade. After outlining the history of the conflict, she acknowledged that programming had become “more polished” in recent years, but argued that the overall atmosphere didn’t allow for dialogue, questions or creativity. She talked about a “siege mentality” in which critics were viewed as enemies.
“The station has paid a price for stifling dissent,” she concluded. “People who came to KPFK assuming they’d be able to report on issues they were passionate about are mostly gone. Newsroom conversation is less about issues and more about where to find a job at the very radio and television outlets that come under so much criticism on the station’s own airwaves. It’s next to impossible to encourage news and public affairs staff to question authority outside the station while suppressing disagreement inside. In short, the ‘world of ideas’ that KPFK promises in station promos is an increasingly narrow one.”
Schubb’s next move was to require that volunteer programmers, even those who produced shows at their own expense, give up at least partial ownership to the station. To remain on the air producers would have to sign what was called a “Y2K contract.” Many refused and had their shows cancelled, including Roz and Howard Larman, who had been co-hosting Folk Scene, one of the station’s most popular programs, for three decades.
For many Pacifica loyalists this was too much. But Schubb seemed oblivious, and further deepened the discontent by providing a tone deaf defense during an interview with The Los Angeles Times. "People use radio like an appliance," he said. "If they find something they enjoy listening to, they'll listen to it. It's a wonderful time slot. Whatever we put there, we'll find an audience."
Another alleged comment cemented his image as a manager out of step with Pacifica’s mission. According to Amy Goodman, it happened during a September 14, 2000 meeting with the network’s general managers. Schubb took the opportunity to repeat a criticism he’d been making for some time, Amy wrote in a memo. His view was “that audiences don’t want to hear graphic details of police brutality before breakfast, or as he said last year ‘before I have my coffee’.”
Schubb denied making the comment, but the news spread like wildfire. Until he was finally put on administrative leave and then terminated in January 2002, whenever picket signs appeared outside the station some of them usually included the image of a coffee cup.
Steven Starr, the Interim GM brought in to replace Schubb, was a New Yorker who had worked with L.A.’s Independent Media Center. This new, Internet and event-driven media model had emerged in 1999 during the Seattle protests against the World Trade Organization. The Los Angeles IMC was launched to coincide with the Democratic National Convention held in the city in the summer of 2000. By the time Starr was hired, more than a hundred IMCs had been established around the world.
His tenure included a strong fund drive and some promising changes. But he lasted only two months. His replacement was engineer, producer and station operations manager Roy Hurst, another interim choice. About four months later, however, Eva Georgia was selected as permanent general manager. Eva had developed and managed community stations in South Africa, and worked briefly in southern California. She was a woman of color with a compelling personal story and a talent for outreach.
The following year senior producer Armando Gudino became program director, a decision not without its critics. Folk Scene was brought back, though eventually moved from Sunday night to Saturday morning. Fernando Velasquez also returned, now as co-director of the News Department. Robin Urevich worked for a while with Free Speech Radio News and later returned to the station. The station’s broadcast installation on Mt. Wilson was completely rebuilt. And Sonali Kolhatkar, a former Cal Tech computer programmer and astrophysicist active in Afghan women and refugee groups, became host of the local morning public affairs show.
It sounds almost like a fairy tale ending. Unfortunately, Pacifica stories don’t have neat endings and are anything but predictable. To start, Schubb didn’t leave without a fight. Instead, he filed a lawsuit claiming contract violations, retaliation for alleged whistleblowing, and discrimination. The whistleblowing claims were based on a presentation to the Board in January 2002 during which he charged that grant money earmarked for KPFK’s transmitter was used to cover business expenses. In other words, he accused the organization of defrauding the grantor.
The contract charge centered on a policy in the Pacifica handbook. According to the organization’s personnel manual, he claimed, he was terminated without being allowed the benefit of “progressive discipline,” a gradual process during which he would have been given the chance to mend his ways.
But the most dangerous accusation was that he had actually been fired not because of his management record but rather because he was a straight white male. His evidence was a public comment by National Board Chairperson Leslie Cagan, who was on the search committee for a new WBAI general manager at the time. Cagan argued, “We don’t want to end up with five white men as our station managers. I have nothing against white men, but as a national organization, we cannot have five white men. I might add five straight white men, just to put it out there.”
Both Cagan’s comments and the process used to fire Schubb created serious legal exposure. According to research on California employment cases, every white male who had filed a reverse discrimination case in recent years won a favorable verdict. There was enormous pressure to avoid a runaway jury. Pacifica’s commitment to racial diversity in hiring might prove to be unpopular, especially since a trial would be held in Glendale, a white middle class area near the station. In reality, Cagan had no control over Schubb’s termination. But a jury might see it differently. Insurance could also be a problem. If Schubb’s lawyers could prove that any of his claims were the result of intentional conduct, coverage would probably be denied.
Despite all this, the case dragged on for two years. Pacifica and Schubb finally settled in February 2004. He walked away with a reported $325,000, less whatever he paid his lawyers. Pacifica’s insurer covered much of the total. The experience left the Board and management with tough lessons, especially that any comment made by a board member or manager – whether written or oral, and however offhand – could come back to haunt the organization. Part Nine of Pacifica Radio: A Listening Tour
[ from http://muckraker-gg.blogspot.com /2008/06/kpfk-price-of-stifling- dissent.html]
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There have a few meetings attempting to gather those KPFK listener-sponsor-volunteers who are willing to meeting monthly to fulfill the requirement needed to get the Corp Public Broadcasting annual dollars it so badly needs and wants.
The first meeting was a ‘dummy’ meet with only 6 people present and while CPB info was passed out, the question of what actual “advisement” could be given and to whom was clearly indicated as “not”, with the meeting leader repeatedly 3x saying “you have no power” in various ways.
The second meeting was also not publicly announced, but LSB and interim-GM and staff members knew about it and attended. Luckily someone posted summary of what was said and who attended on www.la.indymedia.org for the rest of KPFK members to see that it had already happened – past tense. Another posting on the same site gave actual information about the next [3rd] meeting. The article indicated that at the next meeting some were to conduct a survey of who they represented, et al.
This one was held at KPFK station room, with 18 present, an ‘interim-chair’ left over from unannounced meeting then ‘nominated’ another chair whom most in attendance did not know and did not refute, so he quickly became the “chair”. It was basically a meeting where each person ranted on about themselves as an introduction and nothing else was discussed or resolved. There was no agenda in sight. No report nor mention of any surveys was provided.
The next [4th] meeting will be on July 31,2008 again at the station. Some questions about who is ‘representing’ whom and what does ‘represent’ actually mean plus a slew of other relevant questions of definition of what could happen within that Board was sent to the Chair... who offered to send out those concerns to all participants for discussion at the next meeting.
Questions like = “What people are doing when they say "I represent" ?....is it their own personal background and friends they are representing or a particular organization ? One they just belong to or one that has agreed to give KPFK feedback about it's needs/wants/etc. ? How are representatives going to obtain the info/feedback/etc. from their groups they represent ? Everyone choosing to do their own asking others ? How many others? How small or large a group is really being represented, or subset or sect or what ? Who or how is it decided what is being represented and validly ?How little is too little
a survey/set ?
How legitimate is it to say "I represent: blacks, hispanics, feminists, homeless, unions, et al "? What does it really mean to say this and how is it believable ? [Ask 2-3 friends or cohorts ? is 4 enough ? ]
What deadlines are set for when a report or reply goes to CPB ?
Who in KPFK is this CAB advising ? The GM ? Who specifically ?
What is the process that all agree on what is advised/reported: Majority vote? All agreed? Loudest takes the lead? Ones closest to LSB get more pull? How ? Who?
Where are the prior reports, advisements in writing and who will copy and distribute these to be read to all CAB members ? Who will seek ,search these prior years reports out ? Not just last one, but more than 1-2 ? Is the information in these reports considered 'private' by management ? Are CAB members required to keep quiet about what they see & hear in these meetings?
Is it ok to talk together or to others at KPFK about what goes on ? Since everyone is invited to CAB for now , how long is that open invitation extended ? Who closes it ? Why ?
Can the summaries continue to be posted on Indymedia as Ken's were for the 2nd meeting ? Do you as chair review his notes for accuracies and fairness before they become posted or distributed ? Why is the 1st meeting I attended not being acknowledged at all as one ?
Who will be sending out the agenda to all who did turn in forms by email ?. There were 18 in room.
Do other members, those who will return for sure, get each others' info or should it be a personal decision for those who want to share with all or only a few chosen others?
These are real questions and of course we are concerned about....we are listeners who want to know and learn and know what we are getting into.... Are we continuing to invite more people to attend next session as maybe 1/2 may not return? Or not ? “
It is important that a wider community than those who attended the 6/26/08 meeting come together to inform the KPFK management of their feedback, their concerns, their wishes for further & future programming, and their views of how the station itself is run also.
There is some concern about the fruitfulness of these meetings – that they do not become just a face-saving pretense to listen to anyone but the ‘insiders’ who run the station with opaqueness and much secrecy, and that many ‘communities’ and segments of interested parties have some genuine input, now and later too.
To just form a “Board” to fulfill a monetary requirement and then no utilize it fully for what these people, even if continually changing people & groups, would be a loss...of opportunity to give KPFK relevant and authentic feedback and to help it fulfill it’s stated mission.