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KPFA-FM Building on the Auction Block: Press Conference
February 12, 2020 @ 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 7, 2020
KPFA-FM Building on the Auction Block Press Conference: Wednesday, February 12 at noon KPFA studio, 1929 MLK Jr. Way, Berkeley
KPFA Unpaid Property Tax Bill Hits $486,000; Alameda Tax Collector Schedules Public Auction
Berkeley – KPFA-FM management has not paid property taxes to Alameda County for the last six years for the station’s studio in Berkeley. As a result, the County Tax Collector’s office has announced its intention to seize the property for public auction.
Board members, staff and listeners are asking: Is this the result of incompetence or internal sabotage? The plan to turn KPFA into NPR-type programming was defeated in 1999, yet the rogue KPFA management has engineered a financial meltdown through deliberate fiscal mismanagement to force its hand once again. This has resulted in an imminent auction of the Berkeley building.
The engineered financial meltdown also explains why:
• There was a violent seizure of the WBAI studio in New York during a successful fund drive.
• There have been repeated failures to submit timely audits, causing a loss of CPB grants.
Tracy Rosenberg, former Treasurer of the Pacifica National Board warns that, “The situation is grave and serious. I hear the paternal ‘let management take care of it’, but that was tried and for seven years management did not take care of it. So the whole community needs to get KPFA out of this pickle.”
This same rogue management is attempting to substitute a new set of bylaws to take away the listener control won in 1999. KPFA Foundation incorporation papers secretly filed in 2013 by former Pacifica CEO’s Dan Siegel and Margy Wilkinson enable a bankruptcy judge to order the sale of the WBAI license and other station assets and operate KPFA under new anti-democratic bylaws. All 5 of Pacifica’s Local Station Boards overwhelmingly voted NO on the substitute bylaws.
In addition to financial mismanagement, Pacifica’s anti-war mission is under threat. KPFA was known for broadcasting often lone anti-war voices in the midst of “embedded” journalism and for stepping outside of the two-party political framework with in-depth analysis rarely found in mainstream media. Instead of following this unique and crucial tradition, KPFA has been regurgitating mainstream media arguments and management has canceled popular programs without due process: Guns and Butter, Twit Wit Radio, Discreet Music, WorkWeek.
But listeners are determined to keep KPFA true to its vision: In just a few weeks, over 500 people signed a petition to bring WorkWeek Radio back on the air, the ONLY labor show on KPFA.
Jack Heyman, retired member ILWU Local 10 told KPFA’s General Manager, “The ILWU has been a supporter of KPFA from the beginning. Work Week is the ONLY KPFA program which has consistently covered the developing crisis at the Port of Oakland, a critical fight for the ILWU. Please reconsider this drastic cut at such a critical time.”
As in Iowa, is what we see negligence or sabotage?
Contact: Riva Enteen (415) 424-8311, Steve Zeltzer (415) 533-5642
