OUR VISION (in 2019)

What Makes Us Different:  We are members of KPFA, listeners and staff, who oppose the efforts of some current station board members to break‐up the Pacifica Foundation and operate KPFA as a stand‐alone station.

As KPFA and Pacifica gravitate farther away from the 1949 original mission of opposing all war, we need your vote to start re-organizing all five Pacifica stations to slow the march toward a state of perpetual war.

The false economy of eternal war concentrates wealth farther up the scale, leaving a growing disadvantaged population with less economic opportunity.

KPFA and Pacifica have the capacity to confront the war machine, as was proven when the stations contributed significantly to the end of the Vietnamese war and toll of death and distraction across Southeast Asia.

KPFA management canceling several programs, like Guns and Butter and Counterspin  that confront government policy makers is part of this devolution. It’s been accompanied by a steady decline in paying memberships.

As KPFA has evolved into a more neutral position of only reporting on global deterioration, it will take members making their feelings known to shift existing KPFA and Pacifica management back in the direction of regularly confronting self-serving lobbyists and politicians. As it stands now, KPFA could easily be confused with the voice of the Democratic party.

Please vote for Rescue Pacifica sponsored candidates in your top ranked positions to restore KPFA to the watchdog we need.

Here is what our recommended candidates will do:

  • Dispense with corporate wire services like AP and Reuters (Reuters literally helps ICE track undocumented immigrants through their corporate parent) in favor of using independent-only and alternative news sources.
  • Reach out to diverse community groups to help us make programming together that speaks to their issues, their way, instead of just having people on as guests. KPFA should have regular co-generated specials with groups organizing their communities to go deep on local issues.
  • Expand into video when appropriate. Digital cameras are easy and portable, bandwidth is cheap and sometimes you need to SHOW what you are describing. Clinging to parochialism about format is a recipe for failure. Content can be and should be multilayered and multimedia.
  • No censorship. Broadcasts that don’t match the mission statement and offend community standards should be dealt with in the context of community board or a program council that, free of workplace politics, can measure content against articulated goals and decide if it is found wanting. Abrupt hierarchial decisions just create nepotism, fear of upsetting the boss and self-censorship. Risk taking should be encouraged. We want to air things now that 50 years later will still be frighteningly ahead of their time. We did it once, and we can do it again.
  • Forget commercial underwriting. It’s a nice idea, but sponsoring a program means it belongs to the entity that pays for it. The programming has to belong to all of us.
  • Practice radical transparency about governance. Post all the votes with names in a place easy to find. Post the station’s budgets and actual results compared to the budget in a place easy to find. Report to the members like they own the place, because they do.
  • Keep the Pacifica Foundation intact. No one ever owned the very few pieces of mass media infrastructure not captured by six huge corporations and decided “eh, who cares, too much trouble”. A nationwide voice is impossible to replace and once lost, will never ever be reinstated. Care for public assets, value them and use them to make big trouble.

rescue-pacifica-logo-color-2-x-2-2 OUR VISION (in 2019)
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“DISCLAIMER: This is not an official Pacifica Foundation website nor an official website of any of the five Pacifica Foundation radio stations (KPFA Radio, KPFK Radio, KPFT Radio, WBAI Radio, WPFW Radio). Opinions and facts alleged on this site belong to the author(s) of the website only and should NOT be assumed to be true or to reflect the editorial stance or policy of the Pacifica Foundation, or any of the five stations (KPFA Radio, KPFK Radio, KPFT Radio, WBAI Radio, WPFW Radio), or the opinions of its management, Pacifica National Board, station staff or other listener members.”

20 thoughts on “OUR VISION (in 2019)”

  1. FYI, I just took the online elections survey and wrote these comments for the following questions:

    Question #2: The Rescue Pacifica slate addressed my misgivings about many of the station hosts’ drift rightward and away from a clear anti-imperialist orientation, eg support of Russiagate nonsense and the corporate Democrats, and of pro-CIA NGOs’ propaganda about Nicaragua, Syria, etc
    Why not allow real experts on the air, like Ray McGovern and Bill Binny?

    Question #5 I support KPFA’s independent voice, contrasted with the horrible mainstream media; but I’d like to hear more daily airtime given to left programs like Dennis Bernstein, Project Censored, and Counterspin. I’d like to hear more from Richard Wolff, too.
    The evening news is too much an echo of mendacious mainstream news sources, especially on international coverage. Ditto for Rose Aguilar’s new show, with so many guests similar to the ones she had on NPR

    Q #6 Too much of a shift to the right on international issues

    Q #7 As I stated above, devote more airtime to leftist and anti-imperialist voices

  2. Where’s more info on post-election activities? Are we waiting for Upfront or Maldari’s Sunday show to get the word out? Not everyone is addicted to social media, so please produce some updates and keep us in the loop. There were some victories in the last election, and there’s no information about next steps and how voters can support. Thanks for this effort so far.

  3. For a reply please see “Not a New Struggle” page footer.
    For further questions, “Contact” page might be a good choice.
    Word Press has limited options. We do want to engage with you!

  4. An apology –
    Sorry. folks, for the lack of communication these last months. The repeated delays of the last LSB election, followed so quickly by the start of the new election cycle, has thrown us for a loop. We have been working very hard to catch up and have had to neglect this site to do so. But the two elections have ended up in good hands, and are being carried out, thanks to the hard work of some.
    Coming soon: our candidates.
    Vote carefully if you are a member, so we’ll have the best possible outcome.
    — Mara

    1. Thanks, Mara, for all you’re contributing to get us up to speed. I’m feeling energized and confident after our last meeting and looking forward to our next moves. Best, Mantra

  5. Just read the above comments and am so glad to see someone calling for more air time for Richard Wolff.

  6. I’m concerned that the radio station supported by the public censors so much information about what we’re paying for. I want coverage about the decisions to change programming, the disputes within KPFA, and real, meaningful opportunities for candidates to discuss their relative positions. I’m also concerned that too many programs on KPFA are drifting rightward. If I wanted to hear Bill Maher, I would pay for HBO.

  7. I’ve just read Rescue Pacifica’s Vision, which is somewhat of a program, statement of actions that will be taken. I would like to have from Rescue Pacifica more information about the actions that will be taken. If RP has the votes on the KPFA station board, what will be done to increase the number of the station’s listeners? Maybe advertise on buses, in BART stations?

    What does RP want the PNB do about WBAI? Last I heard it was going deeper into debt and losing listeners. How about changing the Pacifica by-laws so that a badly dysfunctioning Pacifica station can be placed in receivership?

    1. Actually that is inaccurate, Ray. WBAI is the only one of Pacifica’s stations that increased its member numbers from 2018 to 2019. Went up 3%. KPFA declined by 8%.

  8. It is time to begin seriously gathering information on how Pacifica can become energy independent. we are in an energy revolution called “Distributed Energy”. This revolution involves the recent scale up of battery technology, renewable energy such as wind, solar and geothermal, and open energy trading by facilities acting as DERs (Distributed Energy Resources) on a transforming Distributed Energy Grid. Pacifica can literally own it’s own power generation and may even be able to provide power to others. The Board needs to seek presentations as to what is happening in energy so that Pacifica, with it’s huge footprint of resources use, leads in transition to zero emissions. This is in fact, the single most important undertaking Pacifica should be prioritizing.

    1. This is up my professional alley to a degree, and I have wondered at times whether Pacifica has ever even considered having a consultation with a renewable energy contractor about available roof or ground area on buildings it owns, as well as at transmitter sites where ground mounts and battery rigs might be a real possibility. What energy we could potentially produce, the initial and maintenance costs of this, and whether and how much potential savings are possible on outflows of our members’ donations to the utilities would be valuable knowledge indeed.

  9. I’m from NYC. I feel terrible about what’s happening to WBAI. The irony is that, at least in my view, the programming over the last like 9 months or so has gotten SO MUCH better!
    And it seemed like donations were increasing. I found myself listening more and more to BAI..What Pacifica just did (literally, it seems like overnight) is unconscionable. It seems not paranoid to think that Pacifica wants to destroy BAI so they can sell it. Very, very upsetting!

  10. I want to voice my support for the continued existence of WBAI. I live in NY state. WBAI is part of our community. By pulling WBAI off the air, those behind this at Pacifica did not show any respect for WBAI’s staff. Their actions also seem to indicate WBAI listeners mean little to them.

  11. What is RP’s position on how to make the national board meetings functional so that they are not just a yelling match between sides? I worry that if I vote NO on the referendum to change the bylaws that it will not result in a solution to the problem and better management. What’s RP’s strategy?

    1. Our belief is that rewarding planned disruptions with the eradication of diverse viewpoints is a pretty consistent loser strategy. That is what you are being asked to vote “yes” on. The boards don’t manage the stations, the managers manage the stations. Bylaws changes don’t cause station managements to change or to change course. What bylaws changes do is impact the ease with which the network can be broken up by those who wish to do so, against the wishes of the majority of the organization’s members. If you look at our tale of two frames page in the upper menu, it talks a bit about conflict and why it occurs. There are ways to minimize conflict, but usually our way or the highway isn’t it.

  12. Mark, as a Pacifica board member, I can also now report that after the WBAI take over failed, meetings became much more productive, to include a solution to the imminent tax auction of the KPFA studio building.

  13. I agree that if we give away the “democracy” it would be hard or impossible to get back. But if we’re now in debt for millions of dollars, how are we going to keep from losing it all?

    Dennis sitting in the studio broadcasting live is very dramatic, and may have inspired us to save the network in 1999. But now we owe $MILLIONS$. “We” don’t exist without the buildings, the antennae, and the licenses! What is your plan to keep them from taking it all away?

    1. We all know that bylaws don’t create money or pay back loans. So to begin with, you need to address your question to the people who want to establish themselves as the permanent unelected majority on the Pacifica board. Have *they* told you what their plan is? Have they said anything at all?

      I don’t think the word democracy belongs in quotes. It is a real thing and was fought for because the consequences of not having it were very serious. You may have thought it was “drama”, but it wasn’t. The network was about to be broken up and the assets reinvested in a string of small southern stations and Pacifica members were not going to have a thing to say about it. Placing the members in that position again is not something to be taken lightly.

      The reality is that the loan is for $3.2 million dollars. Pacifica’s assets total $10 million dollars in real estate and about $100 million in licenses. The assets far outweigh the debts. So “they” cannot take it all away. They can take one piece if the organization does not allocate funds to repay the loan. One good way to do that is to use estate gifts which are unexpected and unbudgeted windfall income. The five Pacifica stations received $1.9 million in estate gifts in calendear year 2019. Sadly only 15% of that was put towards loan repayment. If 100% were put towards loan repayment, the loan would have been 2/3 paid back already, a year before the repayment is due. Taking that approach in 2020 would likely provide a significant chunk of the loan repayment amount.

      Pacifica needs to grow if it is going to survive and shrinking by selling off pieces of the network as the bylaws proponents seem to be enamored with the idea of doing, is not how we execute on our mission. Our mission is to operate the radio stations Pacifica was gifted with, and to provide a forum for points of view that are excluded from mainstream media dialogue, especially anti-war and pacifist perspectives. We can’t do that if we shut ourselves down and turn off our own microphones. The donors who leave us gifts want us to keep on broadcasting and that is how their funds should be used: to pay off the loan so we can do exactly that.

  14. Thank you very much for that quick and reasoned response.

    My quotes around democracy were, i think, due to my frustration with the thought of losing this huge tool that we have, at the time we need it most.

    Thank you for explaining about the money. As usual, i’m just a listener (and donator), so i had no idea how much money was coming in and where it was going… because nobody has made it a priority to send out that information! Yes… paying off the debts should have been the first priority! And, you are correct that the “Yes” campaign doesn’t say anything about how they would deal with it!

    I was all set to vote “Yes” in desperation. Thank you for bringing me back to the basics. I’ll be voting “No”, and telling everyone i know to do the same.

  15. Too bad the early morning programming is hosted by radio “personalities” instead of radio “journalists.” Any way to get input on voting from Dennis or Davey ? Hoping for the best.

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