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Listeners speak out against KPFA Morning Show layoffs
Hundreds of listeners and subscribers have flooded Engelhardt and the Pacifica National Board with emails demanding that they reverse the layoffs of Morning Show staff. “As a KPFA listener, subscriber, and voter for over ten years, I am disgusted with this decision,” writes Arcelia M. “Aimee and Brian have been the voices my family has woken up to every morning, and those of Andrea and Phillip before. Our family connection to them is a vital part of our getting going as our days unfold. Brian and Aimee have aided my ten-year-old in her learning and knowledge base beyond the classroom. When she heard the news this morning all she could say was: ‘what is happening with KPFA?’ So I ask too, what is happening with KPFA?”
On Tuesday, the KPFA Morning Show broadcast an unexpected forum on Pacifica Radio’s move to fire the show’s staff and pipe in programming from Los Angeles. Pacifica Executive Director Arlene Engelhardt and Chief Financial Officer LaVarn Williams were invited on, as well as long time Pacifica National Affairs Correspondent Larry Bensky and Pacifica historian Matthew Lasar. The staff of the program challenged the claims of Pacifica management and opened the lines to listeners.
Hundreds of listeners and subscribers have flooded Engelhardt and the Pacifica National Board with emails demanding that they reverse the layoffs of Morning Show staff. “As a KPFA listener, subscriber, and voter for over ten years, I am disgusted with this decision,” writes Arcelia M. “Aimee and Brian have been the voices my family has woken up to every morning, and those of Andrea and Phillip before. Our family connection to them is a vital part of our getting going as our days unfold. Brian and Aimee have aided my ten-year-old in her learning and knowledge base beyond the classroom. When she heard the news this morning all she could say was: ‘what is happening with KPFA?’ So I ask too, what is happening with KPFA?”
“My husband and I have been sponsors for many years and donate hundreds of dollars a year to the station,” writes Karen S. “You are our primary charity. I feel that the way this move by the Pacifica Network was taken is not justified and would like to register my anger at this action. As another listener just mentioned, this is budgetary sabotage and I also feel that I, like the caller, have been laid off too.”
“We went through this 10 years ago and apparently Pacifica learned nothing from that experience,” writes Jorge M. “This is LISTENER-SPONSORED radio and you will see the majority of LISTENER-SPONSORS rise up and take you to task for this egregious attempt to undermine our LISTENER-SPONSORED radio station. See you on the picket lines.”
Several hundred listeners rallied outside of KPFA and Pacifica’s offices, holding signs stating “Why Kill the KPFA Morning Show?” and “Engelhard must resign.”
We’d like to thank all the many listeners who have let their voices be heard in opposing these cuts. The station belongs to you. You can continue to contact Pacifica’s Engelhardt by sending her a message. Her office number is (510) 849-2590, ext 208 and cell number is 510-402-9880.
Hundreds of listeners and subscribers have flooded Engelhardt and the Pacifica National Board with emails demanding that they reverse the layoffs of Morning Show staff. “As a KPFA listener, subscriber, and voter for over ten years, I am disgusted with this decision,” writes Arcelia M. “Aimee and Brian have been the voices my family has woken up to every morning, and those of Andrea and Phillip before. Our family connection to them is a vital part of our getting going as our days unfold. Brian and Aimee have aided my ten-year-old in her learning and knowledge base beyond the classroom. When she heard the news this morning all she could say was: ‘what is happening with KPFA?’ So I ask too, what is happening with KPFA?”
“My husband and I have been sponsors for many years and donate hundreds of dollars a year to the station,” writes Karen S. “You are our primary charity. I feel that the way this move by the Pacifica Network was taken is not justified and would like to register my anger at this action. As another listener just mentioned, this is budgetary sabotage and I also feel that I, like the caller, have been laid off too.”
“We went through this 10 years ago and apparently Pacifica learned nothing from that experience,” writes Jorge M. “This is LISTENER-SPONSORED radio and you will see the majority of LISTENER-SPONSORS rise up and take you to task for this egregious attempt to undermine our LISTENER-SPONSORED radio station. See you on the picket lines.”
Several hundred listeners rallied outside of KPFA and Pacifica’s offices, holding signs stating “Why Kill the KPFA Morning Show?” and “Engelhard must resign.”
We’d like to thank all the many listeners who have let their voices be heard in opposing these cuts. The station belongs to you. You can continue to contact Pacifica’s Engelhardt by sending her a message. Her office number is (510) 849-2590, ext 208 and cell number is 510-402-9880.
For more information:
http://www.KPFAworker.org
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As was pointed out several times of the Morning Show on Tues. November 9th,
the statements made on the website 'kpfaworker.org' are mainly the union's position.
There is no consensus on these issues among the unpaid staff. Suggesting otherwise is a misrepresentation.
the statements made on the website 'kpfaworker.org' are mainly the union's position.
There is no consensus on these issues among the unpaid staff. Suggesting otherwise is a misrepresentation.
Folks the feeling out amongst listeners is mixed. I thought the temporary replacement shows from KPFK were better than BET and Allison. I'm hoping we can even do better. I would suggest putting Democracy Now at 7am and a hard hitting show focusing on local activism at 8am. People should talk about what they want in the morning show timeframe, within budgetary limits of course.
There were not hundreds of people at the picket. It was the same hundred people that were there last week. About a quarter of them don't even have to travel. They are already there.
Of course listeners are sending emails. They don't understand what the heck is going on. How can they when anyone trying to explain anything gets shouted down and one hysterical charge follows another, most of them contradicting each other? You'd think the professional journalists would have some idea how to convey information.
Since they probably do have some idea how to convey information, it's pretty clear the intent is to confuse and panic people.
The question is in whose interests? Hard to believe it is the station.
It seems to me the issue is not that layoffs are necessary. Everyone sane and knowledgeable seems to concede that point. Even the kpfaworker shills have more or less given up asserting that their glue and sticks PDF solves all the financial problems.
So the real issue is *who* gets laid off.
And the rage and the anger and the sense of betrayal reveals that what happened wasn't what was supposed to happen. And what always, with no exceptions, has happened at KPFA. Which is that layoffs, program changes, cancellations, lack of access to opportunities and perks, lack of meaningful input into anything, always affect some of the population of people who work at the station - and not others.
This injustice is sometimes obvious and sometimes subtle, but it is always there and it has poisoned the atmosphere for a long time, creating the famously toxic working environment that spawns an endless series of lawsuits, confrontations and other disturbing incidents.
A union should stand for fair and equitable behavior and stop this kind of divide and conquer insanity, but in this case, sadly it doesn't. It will go to the mat for Brian Edwards-Tiekert and not blink an eye for Nora Barrows-Friedman, who incidentally is the stronger reporter of the two.
These layoffs, modest as they are, happened in the way nothing ever goes down at KPFA. Fairly. In reasonably close accordance with the seniority chart, instead of directed at the same eternal 4 targets, Hard Knock Radio, Flashpoints, the Apprenticeship program and the organized unpaid staff.
There are no other targets. No KPFA manager in a decade has dared to take any negative action against anyone else but the designated targets. Because *this* is what happens.
Pacifica is daring to be fair.
If you care about the station, let it heal. Keep supporting it and it will be fine and maybe much better than before. There is lots of talent there that can do excellent work.
KPFA needs fairness and it needs justice.
That is the way to peace.
Of course listeners are sending emails. They don't understand what the heck is going on. How can they when anyone trying to explain anything gets shouted down and one hysterical charge follows another, most of them contradicting each other? You'd think the professional journalists would have some idea how to convey information.
Since they probably do have some idea how to convey information, it's pretty clear the intent is to confuse and panic people.
The question is in whose interests? Hard to believe it is the station.
It seems to me the issue is not that layoffs are necessary. Everyone sane and knowledgeable seems to concede that point. Even the kpfaworker shills have more or less given up asserting that their glue and sticks PDF solves all the financial problems.
So the real issue is *who* gets laid off.
And the rage and the anger and the sense of betrayal reveals that what happened wasn't what was supposed to happen. And what always, with no exceptions, has happened at KPFA. Which is that layoffs, program changes, cancellations, lack of access to opportunities and perks, lack of meaningful input into anything, always affect some of the population of people who work at the station - and not others.
This injustice is sometimes obvious and sometimes subtle, but it is always there and it has poisoned the atmosphere for a long time, creating the famously toxic working environment that spawns an endless series of lawsuits, confrontations and other disturbing incidents.
A union should stand for fair and equitable behavior and stop this kind of divide and conquer insanity, but in this case, sadly it doesn't. It will go to the mat for Brian Edwards-Tiekert and not blink an eye for Nora Barrows-Friedman, who incidentally is the stronger reporter of the two.
These layoffs, modest as they are, happened in the way nothing ever goes down at KPFA. Fairly. In reasonably close accordance with the seniority chart, instead of directed at the same eternal 4 targets, Hard Knock Radio, Flashpoints, the Apprenticeship program and the organized unpaid staff.
There are no other targets. No KPFA manager in a decade has dared to take any negative action against anyone else but the designated targets. Because *this* is what happens.
Pacifica is daring to be fair.
If you care about the station, let it heal. Keep supporting it and it will be fine and maybe much better than before. There is lots of talent there that can do excellent work.
KPFA needs fairness and it needs justice.
That is the way to peace.
The Morning Show with Amy Allison was almost as boring as the previous Morning Show with Andrea Lewis. I listen to pathetic NPR news and then turn it off and listen to podcasts in the morning instead. After the big Take Back KPFA movement, (which I devoted quite a bit of time to) the listeners voted to air Democracy Now during "drive time" -- 7 to 9 am -- but for unknown reasons probably related to the byzantine internal politics of the station, that never happened. So many more people would listen to Democracy Now if it was aired during drive time instead of 6-7 am and 9-10 am, when it is now aired. Since KPFA is in the commercial radio part of the band, many who don't normally listen to KPFA will stumble on it just by station-surfing during drive time. If Democracy Now were on, these accidental listeners would keep on listening, because Democracy Now is a professionally-done, fascinating, thorough international news show. So playing Democracy Now during drive time would provide a powerful couterpoint to the perspectives of all the other radio news shows that everyone listens to. If KPFA workers, management, and volunteers took the station's political power seriously and responsibly, they would have been playing Democracy Now during drive time for the past 10 years. The station would have been speaking to the whole Bay Area, not just the confirmed progressives, and the Bay Area would have a more well-informed population.
Hey, pal. if you want something that's not addressing "confirmed progressives" you need look
no further than up, down, and all around. FOX fascists are flipping everywhere. Are you having
trouble finding them, Bubba? KPFA has a progressive mission, it don't owe squat to
Pacifica Central, or any FOX fascists! got it Ace?
no further than up, down, and all around. FOX fascists are flipping everywhere. Are you having
trouble finding them, Bubba? KPFA has a progressive mission, it don't owe squat to
Pacifica Central, or any FOX fascists! got it Ace?
I listen to the rebroadcast of Uprising most Saturdays, and have immense respect for that work Sonali Kolhatkar produces. The fact that she interviewed Brian Edwrds-Tiekert, and stated her displeasure at the use of her program to fill the void created by Arlene Engelhardt's dissolution of The Morning Show was nothing less than a coup, and yet another of Engelhardt's imperial management ethos.
Thank you, Sonali, I am happy to stand in solidarity with you!
Thank you, Sonali, I am happy to stand in solidarity with you!
Alan, I'm not sure if your comment was serious. But to clarify my comment--I'm not looking for "programming that doesn't address confirmed progressives". I want programming that DOES address confirmed progressives, and I want it to reach a wider audience--people who aren't already progressive. Do you see the difference? KPFA has a great spot on the dial where it would draw in more listeners if it had better quality programming during drive time, when a huge number of people are commuting and listening to the radio. KPFA should use that power well by airing Democracy Now for one hour, from 7-8 or from 8-9, whichever hour has the most listeners.
This writer has called Ms. Englehardt at her office phone (it is criminal to give the world her cell phone as this reactionary thug "KPFAworker" is clearly encouraging harassing calls) to thank her for ending the Morning Show, to move Democracy Now to 7 a.m., to have volunteer news bureaus in all 9 Bay Area Counties reporting during the open hours, and to make sure in the future that the ballots and candidate statements for the Local Station Board are mailed together so that the Thug Hallinan Gang is not elected, a gang that is clearly determined to destroy both KPFA and Pacifica with its thievery. If there are insufficient funds, then election deadlines will have to be postponed until there are sufficient funds.
As to the probably non-existent donors mentioned above, they should be told the annual payroll, including benefits, and the annual telephone bill so that they can contribute the entire sum immediately and get their tax write-off this year. Most of us do not make enough to itemize but apparently the rich swine who defend the millionaire Hallinan brothers, who alone could pay for the existence of KPFA and get a tax writeoff but currently contribute nothing, can afford to give lots of money to KPFA and get a tax write off.
The Morning Show never broadcast the serious news of the police beating and false arrest of a 10 year programmer, Nadra Foster, on KPFA premises. It was news worthy of broadcasting or writing about on Flashpoints, Hard Knock Radio, the San Francisco Bayview and the San Francisco Chronicle.
As to bragging about having Larry Bensky show his reactionary pus again at KPFA, here is the horrifying history of this Democratic Party mouthpiece:
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2010/11/09/18663753.php
One more item on the list in that article is as follows:
10. His ridicule of the fact of history that Nazis influenced the anti-Communist witchhunts of the 1940s-1950s as of course they were first and foremost anti-communist:
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2004/04/05/16762211.php
The Tuesday, Nov 9, 2010 assault on the listeners by the thieving thugs from the Morning Show who were no longer employees and thus had no business being there but were allowed on after the engineers in Berkeley and LA "coincidentally" called in sick so that the LA shows could not be linked to Berkeley, with their contant cutoff of the Pacifica defenders in the studio and cutoff of Pacific defender listener call-ins, was as far as I am concerned, a good reminder of the horror promoted by the armed reactionary gang, the Nazis, called Kristallnacht, Nov 9-10, 1938. Just as the Social Democrats joined with the Nazis to smash the left, so too does the Democratic Party and the Republican Party, both equally anti-Communist, join together to smash the left. It is the same capitalist agenda.
The Morning Show's format was so choppy in recent years, with news blurbs from the AP wire services every 15 minutes when they should never be head at all on KPFA, that it became impossible to listen to and I have not listened to it since Aimee Allison showed up. I hear she prasied Democrat Obama's drone attacks and the Morning Show had some Zionists promoting their genocidal agenda. It has finally ended. If you can, please attend the 4:30 to 6 p.m rally today at KPFA, 1929 MLK, Berkeley to save Flashpoints, Hard Knock and Full Circle. See
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2010/11/03/18663056.php
As to the probably non-existent donors mentioned above, they should be told the annual payroll, including benefits, and the annual telephone bill so that they can contribute the entire sum immediately and get their tax write-off this year. Most of us do not make enough to itemize but apparently the rich swine who defend the millionaire Hallinan brothers, who alone could pay for the existence of KPFA and get a tax writeoff but currently contribute nothing, can afford to give lots of money to KPFA and get a tax write off.
The Morning Show never broadcast the serious news of the police beating and false arrest of a 10 year programmer, Nadra Foster, on KPFA premises. It was news worthy of broadcasting or writing about on Flashpoints, Hard Knock Radio, the San Francisco Bayview and the San Francisco Chronicle.
As to bragging about having Larry Bensky show his reactionary pus again at KPFA, here is the horrifying history of this Democratic Party mouthpiece:
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2010/11/09/18663753.php
One more item on the list in that article is as follows:
10. His ridicule of the fact of history that Nazis influenced the anti-Communist witchhunts of the 1940s-1950s as of course they were first and foremost anti-communist:
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2004/04/05/16762211.php
The Tuesday, Nov 9, 2010 assault on the listeners by the thieving thugs from the Morning Show who were no longer employees and thus had no business being there but were allowed on after the engineers in Berkeley and LA "coincidentally" called in sick so that the LA shows could not be linked to Berkeley, with their contant cutoff of the Pacifica defenders in the studio and cutoff of Pacific defender listener call-ins, was as far as I am concerned, a good reminder of the horror promoted by the armed reactionary gang, the Nazis, called Kristallnacht, Nov 9-10, 1938. Just as the Social Democrats joined with the Nazis to smash the left, so too does the Democratic Party and the Republican Party, both equally anti-Communist, join together to smash the left. It is the same capitalist agenda.
The Morning Show's format was so choppy in recent years, with news blurbs from the AP wire services every 15 minutes when they should never be head at all on KPFA, that it became impossible to listen to and I have not listened to it since Aimee Allison showed up. I hear she prasied Democrat Obama's drone attacks and the Morning Show had some Zionists promoting their genocidal agenda. It has finally ended. If you can, please attend the 4:30 to 6 p.m rally today at KPFA, 1929 MLK, Berkeley to save Flashpoints, Hard Knock and Full Circle. See
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2010/11/03/18663056.php
For more information:
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2010/11/0...
Brian Edwards-Tiekert and Aimee Allison did bad radio. She stammered and fumbled repeatedly indicating she had not prepared for interviews. The pool of guests was shallow and predictable. The worship of Barack Obama was embarrassing (Aimee even bragged about being Facebook 'friends' with the Obamas) and indicated a lack of objectivity and a lack of concern for humanity - the latter was made all the more clear by Aimee Allen's YouTube video -- posted by her -- endorsing Obama's drone attacks on Pakistan.
It was a bad show and it wasn't about peace.
It was a bad show and it wasn't about peace.
GOOD RIDDANCE !!! Horrible radio and I don't feel dirty when I tune in to the morning show anymore !!! YEAHHHH
Gee BET, guess we found out who was gonna get "crushed" by the self imposed weights pressing down on presents given, didn't we, Pal?
Solid points:
Justice equals peace
the kpfa union should be promoting equality and justice
no real justice at KPFA when most of the unpaid staff does not have a real voice
letting kpfa heal and develop new talent
Pacifica stands for equality
Justice equals peace
the kpfa union should be promoting equality and justice
no real justice at KPFA when most of the unpaid staff does not have a real voice
letting kpfa heal and develop new talent
Pacifica stands for equality
Bingo. I heard her as she announced her disgust with the position that had
been thrust upon her. Her dignified ire should resonate for a long time.
I keep feeling, intuitively, emotionally, grumpily, and I'll just bet damned
accurately that there is an agenda in the Pacifica Foundation appartchikietus
that dreams of a Sally Forth liberalism that can be packaged, milked, and
with zero controversy be marketed. Then shall these apparatchiks have
their job security.
I'll bet it won't work out, however. The devil is in the details, that plus all the
devils in Berkeley who are itching for a fight with these jerks. Beats bingo.
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