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KPFA Staff has Refused to Implement LSB's Decicisions
Bill Mandel, scholar & longtime KPFA commentator says that the current situation there is not that the Local Station Board disrespects the staff, but that "the entrenched staff has no use for the democracy its broadcasts preach to the world".
Berkeley Daily Planet
Edition Date: Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Commentary: KPFA Staff Has Refused to Implement Local Station Board’s Decisions
By BILL MANDEL
Bob Baldock’s commentary in last weekend’s edition is astonishing. It is a combination of contempt of court and frank admission that the entrenched staff at KPFA has no use for the democracy its broadcasts preach to the world.
A court decision put an en d to the rule over Pacifica by people we at the station called the hijackers. It required the formulation of a new set of by-laws and elections to adopt them and to choose members of local station boards for each of the five stations. A remarkably large number of people had the patience to write those by-laws via endless e-mail discussions.
A great deal of negotiation went into formulating bases of representation of the various players (paid staff, unpaid staff, affirmative action requirements to assure full representation of ethnic minorities and women). It was only far-reaching concessions in representation that finally coaxed paid staff to deign to associate with the rest of us in the local station board, which differs from the previous local advisory board in that it has real powers.
But now the station board has dared to exercise those powers. It decided, fully two years ago, to make a time change that would give Pacifica’s proudest human product, Amy Goodman, access to prime drive time, requiring the Morning Show to move to the second best hour. The paid staff has simply refused to implement that, flat insubordination that merits dismissal in any union contract worthy of the name.
Now, for three months, the board has given the fullest imaginable hearing to the charges of those who want Roy Campanella dismissed as manager. At the end, the vote was totally surprising to board members opposing such action. They had thought, on the basis of its actions in various other respects, that the decision would be by something like a one-vote margin. Instead it was 15 to 5 to retain Mr. Campanella.
So now Baldock tells us that votes don’t count and powers will be ignored. Despite the existence of a manager found after a long and careful search, he says that “Essentially the same workers then being endorsed (in the huge demonstration and parade of 1999) are running the radio station now.” Among the 20 members of the elected Local Station Board who voted for or against Campanella’s dismissal, I recognize one n ame of an individual who can be classed as having been endorsed in 1999.
At the National Board meeting held in Berkeley in March, 2004, I, like all who were not members of that body, had two minutes in which to set forth a position, so I prepared my rema rks beforehand. The key sentence reads: “I believe the biggest problem facing the new National Board in accomplishing anything whatever, particularly in programming, is breaking the stranglehold that the senior paid staffs now have on the stations.” It won a standing ovation.
Bill Mandel was a KPFA broadcaster for 37 years.
Edition Date: Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Commentary: KPFA Staff Has Refused to Implement Local Station Board’s Decisions
By BILL MANDEL
Bob Baldock’s commentary in last weekend’s edition is astonishing. It is a combination of contempt of court and frank admission that the entrenched staff at KPFA has no use for the democracy its broadcasts preach to the world.
A court decision put an en d to the rule over Pacifica by people we at the station called the hijackers. It required the formulation of a new set of by-laws and elections to adopt them and to choose members of local station boards for each of the five stations. A remarkably large number of people had the patience to write those by-laws via endless e-mail discussions.
A great deal of negotiation went into formulating bases of representation of the various players (paid staff, unpaid staff, affirmative action requirements to assure full representation of ethnic minorities and women). It was only far-reaching concessions in representation that finally coaxed paid staff to deign to associate with the rest of us in the local station board, which differs from the previous local advisory board in that it has real powers.
But now the station board has dared to exercise those powers. It decided, fully two years ago, to make a time change that would give Pacifica’s proudest human product, Amy Goodman, access to prime drive time, requiring the Morning Show to move to the second best hour. The paid staff has simply refused to implement that, flat insubordination that merits dismissal in any union contract worthy of the name.
Now, for three months, the board has given the fullest imaginable hearing to the charges of those who want Roy Campanella dismissed as manager. At the end, the vote was totally surprising to board members opposing such action. They had thought, on the basis of its actions in various other respects, that the decision would be by something like a one-vote margin. Instead it was 15 to 5 to retain Mr. Campanella.
So now Baldock tells us that votes don’t count and powers will be ignored. Despite the existence of a manager found after a long and careful search, he says that “Essentially the same workers then being endorsed (in the huge demonstration and parade of 1999) are running the radio station now.” Among the 20 members of the elected Local Station Board who voted for or against Campanella’s dismissal, I recognize one n ame of an individual who can be classed as having been endorsed in 1999.
At the National Board meeting held in Berkeley in March, 2004, I, like all who were not members of that body, had two minutes in which to set forth a position, so I prepared my rema rks beforehand. The key sentence reads: “I believe the biggest problem facing the new National Board in accomplishing anything whatever, particularly in programming, is breaking the stranglehold that the senior paid staffs now have on the stations.” It won a standing ovation.
Bill Mandel was a KPFA broadcaster for 37 years.
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As a former listener of KPFA and a former political activist in the East Bay
I must say that since the professionalization of the Left the people have been left behind. Much might also be discussed regarding the role that the National Security State has in controlling the Left media by planting agents of influence inside of it.
I must say that since the professionalization of the Left the people have been left behind. Much might also be discussed regarding the role that the National Security State has in controlling the Left media by planting agents of influence inside of it.
Thank you to Bill Mandel for his excellent comments. The Local Board is elected by the listeners and must be respected by the staff. The resounding support of Roy Campenella sends a clear message to all those who can hear that the obstruction of the wishes of the listeners, who pay for the existence of the station, and for whom the station exists, cannot be tolerated.
Anyone who cares about KPFA knows it must spend its money wisely and raise it effectively. That means popular and worthwhile programs like Democracy Now must reach the widest possible audience. The most reasonable proposal I have heard is to have it broadcast at 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. daily, Monday through Friday. The Morning Show can be from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. and a new political information program can wake up us early birds at 6 a.m. Personally, I think Guns & Butter should wake us at least one of those hours as a rebroadcast of their 2 p.m. Wednesday program. The current political information programs at 7 p.m. can be broadcast at 8 p.m. If they do not have the time to be broadcast live, they can record them in a studio at 7 p.m. and broadcast them at 8 p.m. The current 8 p.m. programs are music programs, which by definition, are fillers, and can be integrated with the other music programs. We have nothing against music but the primary need in this country is political information from a radical, labor perspective, and the ideal is to have political information programs on KPFA 24/7/365. Of course, that is not feasible, but the point is, the political information programs are primary and urgently needed.
Flashpoints should also be rebroadcast either at 6 a.m. the next weekday or at 8 p.m. the same weekday. It is certainly packed with desperately needed information and there is absolutely no one at KPFA who can outdo Dennis Bernstein, its host, in fundraising.
As to the Morning Show, if we are going to have to put up with the two proud and profoundly ignorant Democratic Party stalwart hosts, Phil Maldari and Andrea Lewis, then they have to be told to interview socialists. We have a socialist party on the California ballot, Peace & Freedom Party, and their candidates should be interviewed in every election. Both Maldari and Lewis signed the list of shame "no confidence" in Campanella petition and Maldari was particularly vocal about defending his stupidity. Since Maldari has been there for decades and is probably old enough to retire, he should be actively encouraged to do so.
The weekends are filled with music programs when they should be filled with labor and socialist news and political theory programs. Guns & Butter is also an excellent news program and a good fundraiser, and could be rebroadcast on the weekends, sometime between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m.
We live in the most backward country in the industrialized world, not just economically with the highest infant mortality and lowest life expectancy in the industrialized world, but also politically, with the existence of the barbaric death penalty and the ever growing prison concentration camp system, the refusal to promote alternatives to fossil fuels on a national scale so as to end the global warming that caused the hurricane disaster this week in New Orleans, the failing school system, the non-existent national healthcare system, and the lack of an organized labor movement to put an end to the private profit system, which is the cause of all these problems. Thus, every minute of air time possible on KPFA must be devoted to providing political information and analysis so as to make possible organizing labor now.
Anyone who cares about KPFA knows it must spend its money wisely and raise it effectively. That means popular and worthwhile programs like Democracy Now must reach the widest possible audience. The most reasonable proposal I have heard is to have it broadcast at 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. daily, Monday through Friday. The Morning Show can be from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. and a new political information program can wake up us early birds at 6 a.m. Personally, I think Guns & Butter should wake us at least one of those hours as a rebroadcast of their 2 p.m. Wednesday program. The current political information programs at 7 p.m. can be broadcast at 8 p.m. If they do not have the time to be broadcast live, they can record them in a studio at 7 p.m. and broadcast them at 8 p.m. The current 8 p.m. programs are music programs, which by definition, are fillers, and can be integrated with the other music programs. We have nothing against music but the primary need in this country is political information from a radical, labor perspective, and the ideal is to have political information programs on KPFA 24/7/365. Of course, that is not feasible, but the point is, the political information programs are primary and urgently needed.
Flashpoints should also be rebroadcast either at 6 a.m. the next weekday or at 8 p.m. the same weekday. It is certainly packed with desperately needed information and there is absolutely no one at KPFA who can outdo Dennis Bernstein, its host, in fundraising.
As to the Morning Show, if we are going to have to put up with the two proud and profoundly ignorant Democratic Party stalwart hosts, Phil Maldari and Andrea Lewis, then they have to be told to interview socialists. We have a socialist party on the California ballot, Peace & Freedom Party, and their candidates should be interviewed in every election. Both Maldari and Lewis signed the list of shame "no confidence" in Campanella petition and Maldari was particularly vocal about defending his stupidity. Since Maldari has been there for decades and is probably old enough to retire, he should be actively encouraged to do so.
The weekends are filled with music programs when they should be filled with labor and socialist news and political theory programs. Guns & Butter is also an excellent news program and a good fundraiser, and could be rebroadcast on the weekends, sometime between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m.
We live in the most backward country in the industrialized world, not just economically with the highest infant mortality and lowest life expectancy in the industrialized world, but also politically, with the existence of the barbaric death penalty and the ever growing prison concentration camp system, the refusal to promote alternatives to fossil fuels on a national scale so as to end the global warming that caused the hurricane disaster this week in New Orleans, the failing school system, the non-existent national healthcare system, and the lack of an organized labor movement to put an end to the private profit system, which is the cause of all these problems. Thus, every minute of air time possible on KPFA must be devoted to providing political information and analysis so as to make possible organizing labor now.
Just listen to you people! Now you're trying to tell us that the workers at KPFA are agents?
If you study the history of COINTELPRO, it was the people who ran around accusing people of being agents who turned out to be agents themselves.
And what does Bill Mandel know about anything? I've caught his program a couple of times and he sounds like he doesn't really know that he's in a radio station. He may have been a good host back in the day but unfortunately he seems senile now and takes every chance to blow his own horn. It's pathetic. Did he even write the piece posted here?
If you study the history of COINTELPRO, it was the people who ran around accusing people of being agents who turned out to be agents themselves.
And what does Bill Mandel know about anything? I've caught his program a couple of times and he sounds like he doesn't really know that he's in a radio station. He may have been a good host back in the day but unfortunately he seems senile now and takes every chance to blow his own horn. It's pathetic. Did he even write the piece posted here?
Ditto to JR on every count.
There is an old saying that applies to Bill Mandel, forever:
He who knows, and knows that he knows,
He is wise, follow him.
At age 88, the clarity of his writing above outdoes most Americans, who can barely write a sentence at any age, much less an essay on the various twists and turns of a crisis at a non-profit listener-sponsored radical radio station.
His website, http://www.billmandel.net has everything connected with Bill Mandel and his book, Saying No to Power, is a must read. He is certainly a cat who has lived 9 lives!
At age 88, he is still physically able to be a host of a radio program and still has sufficient knowledge and memories to contribute to the discussion. That is extraordinary. He is obviously quite enthusiastic about his programs, a positive sign, but he could hold back a little and let the guest speak a little more. That is a minor problem; all hosts of all ages are constantly trying to balance the conversation time between host and guest.
The least any of us have who have not reached the venerable age of 88 can do is be humble and respect Bill Mandel's achievements and his continued contributions to the struggle.
He who knows, and knows that he knows,
He is wise, follow him.
At age 88, the clarity of his writing above outdoes most Americans, who can barely write a sentence at any age, much less an essay on the various twists and turns of a crisis at a non-profit listener-sponsored radical radio station.
His website, http://www.billmandel.net has everything connected with Bill Mandel and his book, Saying No to Power, is a must read. He is certainly a cat who has lived 9 lives!
At age 88, he is still physically able to be a host of a radio program and still has sufficient knowledge and memories to contribute to the discussion. That is extraordinary. He is obviously quite enthusiastic about his programs, a positive sign, but he could hold back a little and let the guest speak a little more. That is a minor problem; all hosts of all ages are constantly trying to balance the conversation time between host and guest.
The least any of us have who have not reached the venerable age of 88 can do is be humble and respect Bill Mandel's achievements and his continued contributions to the struggle.
For more information:
http://www.billmandel.net
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