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New Programs, Old Squabbles as KPFA Turns 60
KPFA-FM will celebrate its 60th birthday this week, and the Berkeley public radio station that was the nation's first listener-supported outlet is still the proudly lefter-than-left Bay Area institution that thinks National Public Radio is too conservative and isn't shy about calling itself "radical."
KPFA-FM will celebrate its 60th birthday this week, and the Berkeley public radio station that was the nation's first listener-supported outlet is still the proudly lefter-than-left Bay Area institution that thinks National Public Radio is too conservative and isn't shy about calling itself "radical."
But the station founded by pacifist Lew Hill is still bogged down by behind-the-scenes bickering, a distraction that some say hinders KPFA from reaching more Californians.
Still, this week KPFA will introduce new programming that aspires, as interim Program Director Sasha Lilley put it, to "step into the breach" of regional news coverage created by the consolidation of many mainstream publications. The station will begin a statewide 6 p.m. newscast with Pacifica sister station KPFK in Los Angeles, in an effort to link the stories of the financial crisis from around the state.
Also this week, it will start KPFA Interactive on its kpfa.org Web site, which Lilley said "will allow listeners to post their audio and video clips, their questions and comments about what is on the air," as well as news about local issues.
Never far from a discussion about what's going on at KPFA is a conversation about what's really going on at KPFA. And everybody connected has an opinion. And a theory.
Much in the way that the Irish talk about "the Troubles," station employees and supporters still wince when discussing "the crisis" of a decade ago when employees were locked out of the station and dozens were arrested during a dispute with management over creative control. Now, even with the KPFA portion of the Pacifica radio network financially healthy - the station building is debt-free and has a healthy six-figure reserve - KPFA faces a new set of crises.
N.Y. station's debt
The more immediate one can be traced to the financial problems at WBAI-FM in New York, one of its sister Pacifica stations. WBAI owes the foundation at least $800,000, according to Pacifica's interim chief financial officer, and that could eventually affect KPFA. "If one station is not healthy and is not meeting its obligations," said interim CFO LaVarn Williams, "then funds generated by other stations would have to be used. That isn't happening right now, but it could be really, really soon."
Ninety percent of KPFA's budget is supported by listener contributions, and 10 percent comes from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
The longer-term challenges facing KPFA are similar to those facing the mainstream, corporate media. While KPFA's programming is among the most diverse on the dial, its audience isn't much different than the one reading mainstream newspapers: middle-aged, white and middle-class. And shrinking.
Boost from Iraq war
KPFA saw a spike in listeners during the early days of the Iraq war when audiences were searching for more critical analysis of the Bush administration and news of the anti-war movement.
But since then, station management says, an audience of about 200,000 listeners a week has shrunk to about 150,000. And while the progressive blogosphere - including sites such as Daily Kos and Huffington Post - has exploded in the past five years, the listener-supported station described as a progenitor of the interactive progressive media boom has not.
"Your target audience is not listening to you," said Larry Bensky, who worked at KPFA for 40 years until retiring two years ago. Bensky said the station's infighting had become "so preoccupying" when he worked there that "my job was getting in the way of my work."
Challenges of most media
"KPFA is like a lot of media institutions - it is challenged by the sheer number of platforms available to get information," said Matthew Lasar, a UC Santa Cruz lecturer and author of "Uneasy Listening: Pacifica Radio's Civil War."
Broadening the audience, particularly among younger listeners, is a challenge at KPFA, said Lilley, the interim program director. "The answer to that is programming," she said. "I don't think the answer is dumbing down our politics or trying to appeal to the center. Our strength is our radicalism. That's why people come to KPFA, because we're providing something they can't provide elsewhere."
Change produces protests
But while Lilley said the station needs to evolve and bring in new voices, change "is tricky." Any programming change, even to a program with low listenership, brings howls of protest. "The left does need to be an arena where people argue things out in passionate ways," she said. "But KPFA has become a place where change is hard to make."
Part of the reason, said author Lasar and others, is that there are fewer progressive, public radio outlets on the dial - and even fewer with the reach of KPFA, which at 94.1 FM can be heard in one-third of California.
"If there were five KPFAs, there wouldn't be that problem as much," said morning news show co-host Aimee Allison.
Approach to police deaths
Still, the core of KPFA is the sort of counter-media-culture style of reporting that has long distinguished it.
After the recent shootings of four Oakland police officers, its hosts and news programs extensively reviewed the parole system and gave airtime to the family of Lovelle Mixon, the man accused of the killings, exploring the factors that affected his life.
In March 2008, KPFA drew larger-than-usual audiences when it pre-empted its lineup to present three days of coverage of the Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan gathering outside Washington, D.C. There, former U.S. service personnel and Iraqi and Afghan civilians gave their impressions of the war that were far more critical than seen in the mainstream media. In February, KPFA produced a five-part series on the financial meltdown called "Capitalism and its Discontents."
Producer's arrest
Shadowing these accomplishments is another instance of staff turmoil. In August, Nadra Foster, an unpaid producer at KPFA, was injured by Berkeley police officers after refusing to leave the station. Police say that at least six officers used force on Foster to arrest and remove her. The incident inflamed a divide between the station's many volunteers and its management.
Through all of this, the station's on-air staff and its supporters profess a deep bond to the station and to the progressive ideals it aspires to.
"It is still the best place to get the progressive slant on the news of the day," said Aileen Alfandary, the news co-director who has worked there 30 years - including the day she was arrested during "the crisis" of 10 years ago for trespassing, as she said with a smile, "at my place of employment."
But the station founded by pacifist Lew Hill is still bogged down by behind-the-scenes bickering, a distraction that some say hinders KPFA from reaching more Californians.
Still, this week KPFA will introduce new programming that aspires, as interim Program Director Sasha Lilley put it, to "step into the breach" of regional news coverage created by the consolidation of many mainstream publications. The station will begin a statewide 6 p.m. newscast with Pacifica sister station KPFK in Los Angeles, in an effort to link the stories of the financial crisis from around the state.
Also this week, it will start KPFA Interactive on its kpfa.org Web site, which Lilley said "will allow listeners to post their audio and video clips, their questions and comments about what is on the air," as well as news about local issues.
Never far from a discussion about what's going on at KPFA is a conversation about what's really going on at KPFA. And everybody connected has an opinion. And a theory.
Much in the way that the Irish talk about "the Troubles," station employees and supporters still wince when discussing "the crisis" of a decade ago when employees were locked out of the station and dozens were arrested during a dispute with management over creative control. Now, even with the KPFA portion of the Pacifica radio network financially healthy - the station building is debt-free and has a healthy six-figure reserve - KPFA faces a new set of crises.
N.Y. station's debt
The more immediate one can be traced to the financial problems at WBAI-FM in New York, one of its sister Pacifica stations. WBAI owes the foundation at least $800,000, according to Pacifica's interim chief financial officer, and that could eventually affect KPFA. "If one station is not healthy and is not meeting its obligations," said interim CFO LaVarn Williams, "then funds generated by other stations would have to be used. That isn't happening right now, but it could be really, really soon."
Ninety percent of KPFA's budget is supported by listener contributions, and 10 percent comes from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
The longer-term challenges facing KPFA are similar to those facing the mainstream, corporate media. While KPFA's programming is among the most diverse on the dial, its audience isn't much different than the one reading mainstream newspapers: middle-aged, white and middle-class. And shrinking.
Boost from Iraq war
KPFA saw a spike in listeners during the early days of the Iraq war when audiences were searching for more critical analysis of the Bush administration and news of the anti-war movement.
But since then, station management says, an audience of about 200,000 listeners a week has shrunk to about 150,000. And while the progressive blogosphere - including sites such as Daily Kos and Huffington Post - has exploded in the past five years, the listener-supported station described as a progenitor of the interactive progressive media boom has not.
"Your target audience is not listening to you," said Larry Bensky, who worked at KPFA for 40 years until retiring two years ago. Bensky said the station's infighting had become "so preoccupying" when he worked there that "my job was getting in the way of my work."
Challenges of most media
"KPFA is like a lot of media institutions - it is challenged by the sheer number of platforms available to get information," said Matthew Lasar, a UC Santa Cruz lecturer and author of "Uneasy Listening: Pacifica Radio's Civil War."
Broadening the audience, particularly among younger listeners, is a challenge at KPFA, said Lilley, the interim program director. "The answer to that is programming," she said. "I don't think the answer is dumbing down our politics or trying to appeal to the center. Our strength is our radicalism. That's why people come to KPFA, because we're providing something they can't provide elsewhere."
Change produces protests
But while Lilley said the station needs to evolve and bring in new voices, change "is tricky." Any programming change, even to a program with low listenership, brings howls of protest. "The left does need to be an arena where people argue things out in passionate ways," she said. "But KPFA has become a place where change is hard to make."
Part of the reason, said author Lasar and others, is that there are fewer progressive, public radio outlets on the dial - and even fewer with the reach of KPFA, which at 94.1 FM can be heard in one-third of California.
"If there were five KPFAs, there wouldn't be that problem as much," said morning news show co-host Aimee Allison.
Approach to police deaths
Still, the core of KPFA is the sort of counter-media-culture style of reporting that has long distinguished it.
After the recent shootings of four Oakland police officers, its hosts and news programs extensively reviewed the parole system and gave airtime to the family of Lovelle Mixon, the man accused of the killings, exploring the factors that affected his life.
In March 2008, KPFA drew larger-than-usual audiences when it pre-empted its lineup to present three days of coverage of the Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan gathering outside Washington, D.C. There, former U.S. service personnel and Iraqi and Afghan civilians gave their impressions of the war that were far more critical than seen in the mainstream media. In February, KPFA produced a five-part series on the financial meltdown called "Capitalism and its Discontents."
Producer's arrest
Shadowing these accomplishments is another instance of staff turmoil. In August, Nadra Foster, an unpaid producer at KPFA, was injured by Berkeley police officers after refusing to leave the station. Police say that at least six officers used force on Foster to arrest and remove her. The incident inflamed a divide between the station's many volunteers and its management.
Through all of this, the station's on-air staff and its supporters profess a deep bond to the station and to the progressive ideals it aspires to.
"It is still the best place to get the progressive slant on the news of the day," said Aileen Alfandary, the news co-director who has worked there 30 years - including the day she was arrested during "the crisis" of 10 years ago for trespassing, as she said with a smile, "at my place of employment."
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Answering the SF Chronicle article
New programs, old squabbles as KPFA turns 60
Joe Garofoli, San Francisco Chronicle, 04/13/09
This article trivializes the conflict at KPFA, which is not mere “squabbling”. It is about the relationship of the station to the community, and as such, whether the station is going to survive.
Besides being the 60th anniversary of the founding station, it is indeed the
10th anniversary of the reclaiming of the station from a group in cahoots with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s plan to remove the teeth from public radio in the guise of professionalism. The stations did not cooperate with the corporate type restructuring being pushed by an alien national and local management, and the Pacifica corporatizers discussed selling two of the most powerful and recalcitrant stations, KPFA and WBAI. Our station was shut down, occupied by a manager from Texas, the transmitter altered, and high priced “security” guards trashed station equipment.
The listeners rushed to the aid of the station, and it was saved for the community, partly through a set of lawsuits. Finally, new bylaws ensuring the democratic governance which was to put the listeners in control of the stations. An elected governing board of 18 listener reps and 6 staff reps, chose its reps to the national board of the Pacifica Foundation – the parent body which oversees 5 local stations in different states. With an elected local station board – the LSB – meeting monthly, a station General Manager (GM), A Program Director (PD), a semi-democratic Program Council (PC) (which predated the settlement), and organizations representing paid and unpaid staff, the station was to be run collaboratively with the listeners having a voice.
What actually happened was that a small group of mostly paid staff refused to follow the decisions of the LSB, which had 25% staff representation, and the PC, which had 60% staff representation. They also pushed out two General Managers who were not 100% under their thumbs.
These staff had inordinate influence on the election of listener reps, as the voices listeners knew and loved. In addition, their unwillingness to allow KPFA governance issues on the air and otherwise available to the voting listener members made it difficult to have the informed electorate needed in a democracy.
Larry Bensky is a prime actor – he often denigrated the LSB elections and democratic governance on his program, and endorsed his choice of listener candidates to his followers who depended on his opinions. He formed a slate of listener candidates called “KPFA Forward” to counteract the popular “People’s Radio” slate, and more recently helped morph this slate into the so-called “Concerned Listeners”, a well-connected group with ties to the Wellstone Democratic Club, which now features 2 of the Hallinan Brothers, and has brought the influence of money into the LSB elections.
So what?
So what that the Concerned Listeners control the LSB with a slim majority, block progressive measures, and have downgraded the LSB’s monthly meetings to every other month?
So what that they constitute 3 of the 4 local reps to the Pacifica National Board (PNB) – have all the elected officers on the LSB, support a compliant GM, who illegally appointed another CL faction pillar Program Director, who stopped the functioning of the Program Council and does not take their input?
Do we/should we care about their derecognition of the Unpaid Staff Organization (UPSO), their blocking of event announcements by community organizations, the arrest of Nadra Foster?
The Pacifica network is insolvent, the listener base aging and letting their listenership and support drop. This is the face of the crisis at KPFA and Pacifica
and is a direct result of autocratic governance.
The CL faction delegates to the PNB (national board) colluded with the New York Station WBAI’s financial and programmatic irresponsibility. They allied themselves with the corrupt faction which took over that station, fired favorite programmers (like Robert Knight), lost listeners in that most populous region, allowed the theft of resources, could not meet its fund drives, lied about their financial situations, etc. etc. The PNB abdicated its financial and mission protection responsibilities to control this situation, and our own KPFA PNB reps deliberately abetted this, for reasons of cronyism – so now the entire network is in jeopardy.
An increasing lack of community involvement – which is a requirement for all public broadcast stations – is also responsible, alongside programming deficiencies, for the decreased listenership and support. The “gag rule” of the corporate raider days is partly still in effect in that very little is done to have an educated listener electorate. Democratic participation is downgraded through the destruction of the Program Council, the Unpaid Staff Organization, the cutting of LSB meetings. The concern is not for unrepresented communities who would support KPFA into the future – as a “Voice for the Voiceless”.
Note that:
*The Saturday youth program was removed from the air for a minor infraction
*Poor Magazine’s program had its time cut
*There is no Black community issues program, as recently noted in the SF Bayview
*There is little time spent on other localities and their concerns within our listening area
*The unwillingness to put Democracy Now into the prime drive time spot has deprived us of a new segment of working people as supporters
Also symbolic is the big 60th Anniversary bash costing $300 to attend!
For the listeners to be the support they were in 2000 when we took back the station, they must feel involved. Besides the factors mentioned above, the lack of information on governance leaves many hopeless and disgusted, instead of understanding the possibilities for a solution.
My advice: stay as informed as you can, keep up your membership to save our station and give yourself a vote in the upcoming LSB election - $25 minimum or 3 hours of volunteer work will give you a vote – and vote down the Concerned Listeners anti-democratic slate.
The Ranked Choice Voting system we use will always allow minority representation, so make sure they are a minority!
New programs, old squabbles as KPFA turns 60
Joe Garofoli, San Francisco Chronicle, 04/13/09
This article trivializes the conflict at KPFA, which is not mere “squabbling”. It is about the relationship of the station to the community, and as such, whether the station is going to survive.
Besides being the 60th anniversary of the founding station, it is indeed the
10th anniversary of the reclaiming of the station from a group in cahoots with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s plan to remove the teeth from public radio in the guise of professionalism. The stations did not cooperate with the corporate type restructuring being pushed by an alien national and local management, and the Pacifica corporatizers discussed selling two of the most powerful and recalcitrant stations, KPFA and WBAI. Our station was shut down, occupied by a manager from Texas, the transmitter altered, and high priced “security” guards trashed station equipment.
The listeners rushed to the aid of the station, and it was saved for the community, partly through a set of lawsuits. Finally, new bylaws ensuring the democratic governance which was to put the listeners in control of the stations. An elected governing board of 18 listener reps and 6 staff reps, chose its reps to the national board of the Pacifica Foundation – the parent body which oversees 5 local stations in different states. With an elected local station board – the LSB – meeting monthly, a station General Manager (GM), A Program Director (PD), a semi-democratic Program Council (PC) (which predated the settlement), and organizations representing paid and unpaid staff, the station was to be run collaboratively with the listeners having a voice.
What actually happened was that a small group of mostly paid staff refused to follow the decisions of the LSB, which had 25% staff representation, and the PC, which had 60% staff representation. They also pushed out two General Managers who were not 100% under their thumbs.
These staff had inordinate influence on the election of listener reps, as the voices listeners knew and loved. In addition, their unwillingness to allow KPFA governance issues on the air and otherwise available to the voting listener members made it difficult to have the informed electorate needed in a democracy.
Larry Bensky is a prime actor – he often denigrated the LSB elections and democratic governance on his program, and endorsed his choice of listener candidates to his followers who depended on his opinions. He formed a slate of listener candidates called “KPFA Forward” to counteract the popular “People’s Radio” slate, and more recently helped morph this slate into the so-called “Concerned Listeners”, a well-connected group with ties to the Wellstone Democratic Club, which now features 2 of the Hallinan Brothers, and has brought the influence of money into the LSB elections.
So what?
So what that the Concerned Listeners control the LSB with a slim majority, block progressive measures, and have downgraded the LSB’s monthly meetings to every other month?
So what that they constitute 3 of the 4 local reps to the Pacifica National Board (PNB) – have all the elected officers on the LSB, support a compliant GM, who illegally appointed another CL faction pillar Program Director, who stopped the functioning of the Program Council and does not take their input?
Do we/should we care about their derecognition of the Unpaid Staff Organization (UPSO), their blocking of event announcements by community organizations, the arrest of Nadra Foster?
The Pacifica network is insolvent, the listener base aging and letting their listenership and support drop. This is the face of the crisis at KPFA and Pacifica
and is a direct result of autocratic governance.
The CL faction delegates to the PNB (national board) colluded with the New York Station WBAI’s financial and programmatic irresponsibility. They allied themselves with the corrupt faction which took over that station, fired favorite programmers (like Robert Knight), lost listeners in that most populous region, allowed the theft of resources, could not meet its fund drives, lied about their financial situations, etc. etc. The PNB abdicated its financial and mission protection responsibilities to control this situation, and our own KPFA PNB reps deliberately abetted this, for reasons of cronyism – so now the entire network is in jeopardy.
An increasing lack of community involvement – which is a requirement for all public broadcast stations – is also responsible, alongside programming deficiencies, for the decreased listenership and support. The “gag rule” of the corporate raider days is partly still in effect in that very little is done to have an educated listener electorate. Democratic participation is downgraded through the destruction of the Program Council, the Unpaid Staff Organization, the cutting of LSB meetings. The concern is not for unrepresented communities who would support KPFA into the future – as a “Voice for the Voiceless”.
Note that:
*The Saturday youth program was removed from the air for a minor infraction
*Poor Magazine’s program had its time cut
*There is no Black community issues program, as recently noted in the SF Bayview
*There is little time spent on other localities and their concerns within our listening area
*The unwillingness to put Democracy Now into the prime drive time spot has deprived us of a new segment of working people as supporters
Also symbolic is the big 60th Anniversary bash costing $300 to attend!
For the listeners to be the support they were in 2000 when we took back the station, they must feel involved. Besides the factors mentioned above, the lack of information on governance leaves many hopeless and disgusted, instead of understanding the possibilities for a solution.
My advice: stay as informed as you can, keep up your membership to save our station and give yourself a vote in the upcoming LSB election - $25 minimum or 3 hours of volunteer work will give you a vote – and vote down the Concerned Listeners anti-democratic slate.
The Ranked Choice Voting system we use will always allow minority representation, so make sure they are a minority!
We are 100% volunteer and depend on your participation to sustain our efforts!
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