By Pacifica Members Evelia Jones, Nancy Niparko, Myla Reson, Will Ryan, Mansoor Sabbagh, Harvey Wasserman

 

The Failing, Obsolete, Entrenched (FOE) management at the Pacifica Radio Network has just hugely failed another in a long string of official audits, with shortfalls indicated in the millions of dollars.   

 

The FOE Pacifica shortfall casts more darkness on the fiscal future of the network, which under current management looks increasingly catastrophic.

 

But you can vote TODAY (JULY 7, LAST DAY!!!) for a new set of by-laws that can save the Network,

 

FOE Pacifica management is (of course) pulling out a wide range of dubious tricks to defeat the New Day Pacifica attempt to reform the network’s by-laws and install a workable management system.

 

The election ends TONIGHT midnight, July 7, just hours away. New Day campaigners expect to win, but worry about botched up voter lists on a grand scale.

 

The breaking news is that for the sixth year in a row, Pacifica’s independent auditors say there is “substantial doubt about the organization’s ability to continue as a going concern.”  A recent fund drive at KPFK Los Angeles has been fraught with failure.  

 

To try digging itself out of millions of dollars of debt, Pacifica management is now selling KPFT’s building in Texas.  The network also owns buildings in Los Angeles and Berkeley.  Given the FOE management’s profound dysfunction, its sinking listenership, and its inability to consistently raise sufficient money to keep operating, those buildings—-along with the network’s broadcast licenses—-the audit suggests that these buildings may also be in jeopardy.  

 

Only a change in management structure can save Pacifica.  But the FOE powers that be are doing all they can to kill the calls for reform.

 

Among other things FOE management has been limiting the New Day Pacifica reformers’ ability to run the audio promos they’ve made to inform listeners about which staff supports the updated by-laws they propose.  Issues have also arisen with New Day’s ability to send emails to the Pacifica subscriber list, as authorized in the current by-laws.  

 

New Day voters have also had trouble getting family ballots as allowed for at least 600 subscribers, a significant piece of the electorate.  At the last minute, provisional ballots were sent to these families, but whether they will be counted is still undecided.  

 

FOE lawyer Arthur Schwartz, who is paid with listener donations, has been exceedingly aggressive in promoting a NO vote against the New Day reforms.  

 

Schwartz has also threatened to kill the reform package if it wins among listeners/subscribers but falls short on a staff ballot.  Schwartz’s highly biased position is not valid according to New Day advocates, but reflects Schwartz’s extremely aggressive insider positioning against reforming the current by-laws.

 

FOE Pacifica’s shenanigans in the conduct of the election are also significant.  

 

According to New Day sources, 

 

At WBAI, Vote-No Pacifica management has allowed WBAI management to to use WBAI’s airwaves and mailing lists to push vote no and to pressure WBAI staff to vote no:

• The WBAI general manager and program director publicly endorsed vote no on the vote no website.

• WBAI aired 3 Vote No two-hour long programs since March that included both the WBAI general manager and Pacifica’s general counsel.

• The General Manager at WBAI Mailed six special Vote No mailers to the WBAI membership, since March, on Pacifica's dime, repeating the Big Lie (that New Day will close down WBAI, when New Day in actuality is fully committed to supporting and strengthening all five Pacifica stations, including WBAI and WPFW).

• Continues to air an onslaught of Vote No on-air promos and radio host on-air commentary since March. WBAI aired 37 Vote No advertisements in just one 24-hour period on April 7!

• Threatening WBAI staff with loss of air-time if they either don’t vote at all or don’t vote no. Last year the national election supervisor verified that WBAI management had sent an all-staff memo demanding to be given each staffer’s voting receipt showing they voted no. This year WBAI has been airing an on-air advertising pressuring the staff to vote no.

At WPFW, the Program Director endorsed vote no on the Vote No website, aired several vote no programs, and has encouraged staff to vote no.

 

Overall the entrenched FOE Management has run a vicious campaign of voter suppression while pulling out all the stops to stay in power and to keep their hands on the network's tangible assets, which they are now continuing to sell off (three years ago, they also sold a building in Berkeley, to pay off debts).  

 

Apparently FOE Pacifica has given up on trying to re-build the network’s listenership.  It has proven incapable of effective programming or fundraising and has thus begun to cash in irreplaceable pieces of the Pacifica infrastructure which have been built or bought over the decades.

 

How long will it take FOE Pacifica to now sell off the KPFA and KPFK buildings, and to cash in the licenses? 

 

Let’s not wait to find out.  Vote in New Day Pacifica for a chance to survive and thrive.  TODAY!!  BEFORE MIDNIGHT!!

 

 

By Pacifica Members Evelia Jones, Nancy Niparko, Myla Reson, Will Ryan, Mansoor Sabbagh, Harvey Wasserman