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KPFA Listeners Read Letters to Pacifica Executive Director Engelhardt Opposing Cuts
“Firing Aimee Allison on her birthday was as mean spirited as it was wrongheaded,” wrote acclaimed author Rebecca Solnit. “I was trained as a journalist at UCB and I know there is no substitute for people who have experience and skills in investigating, interviewing, sifting through the barrage of information we all face. The kind of polarized partisan forces now tearing Pacifica apart come at a time when progressives need good information and stable institutions. I fear for KPFA’s future.”
KPFA listeners, along with unpaid and union staff, read some of the thousands of heartfelt emails that have poured in protesting the decimation of the KPFA Morning Show and the “voluntary” departure of seven workers of color. The readings by the assembled crowd, standing out in the rain in front of the station, were broadcast live throughout the noontime hour on the program Living Room.
“Firing Aimee Allison on her birthday was as mean spirited as it was wrongheaded,” wrote acclaimed author Rebecca Solnit. “I was trained as a journalist at UCB and I know there is no substitute for people who have experience and skills in investigating, interviewing, sifting through the barrage of information we all face. The kind of polarized partisan forces now tearing Pacifica apart come at a time when progressives need good information and stable institutions. I fear for KPFA’s future.”
“By canceling the Morning Show you are not only taking away one of KPFA’s best show, but one of the main streams of revenue for the radio station,” wrote Fatima M. in her email to Pacifica Executive Director Arlene Engelhard. “In essence you have set up the eventual starvation and destruction of KPFA and you have no right to take away our show or our station.”
Bob Baldock, KPFA’s long time Public Events Producer, read his own letter to Engelhardt: “You have removed from KPFA a Morning Show team of hosts and producers that is unusually young, diverse, well educated, brilliant, overwhelmingly popular and clearly successful. Punto. Just consider that. You came recently from outside this listening area and far outside this northern California community of listeners and supporters. You barged in and insulted and injured a whole lot of folks you don’t know. This is not progressive. No sanctimonious rhetoric or confused motives can justify it. No blaming it on some dubiously contrived bureaucratic board can make it all right. It is not all right. Undo it. Put our excellent Morning Show team back to work. Do it before this station really does erode totally from lack of support, and you are left to live with the truly awful thing you have done.”
“Firing Aimee Allison on her birthday was as mean spirited as it was wrongheaded,” wrote acclaimed author Rebecca Solnit. “I was trained as a journalist at UCB and I know there is no substitute for people who have experience and skills in investigating, interviewing, sifting through the barrage of information we all face. The kind of polarized partisan forces now tearing Pacifica apart come at a time when progressives need good information and stable institutions. I fear for KPFA’s future.”
“By canceling the Morning Show you are not only taking away one of KPFA’s best show, but one of the main streams of revenue for the radio station,” wrote Fatima M. in her email to Pacifica Executive Director Arlene Engelhard. “In essence you have set up the eventual starvation and destruction of KPFA and you have no right to take away our show or our station.”
Bob Baldock, KPFA’s long time Public Events Producer, read his own letter to Engelhardt: “You have removed from KPFA a Morning Show team of hosts and producers that is unusually young, diverse, well educated, brilliant, overwhelmingly popular and clearly successful. Punto. Just consider that. You came recently from outside this listening area and far outside this northern California community of listeners and supporters. You barged in and insulted and injured a whole lot of folks you don’t know. This is not progressive. No sanctimonious rhetoric or confused motives can justify it. No blaming it on some dubiously contrived bureaucratic board can make it all right. It is not all right. Undo it. Put our excellent Morning Show team back to work. Do it before this station really does erode totally from lack of support, and you are left to live with the truly awful thing you have done.”
For more information:
http://www.kpfaworker.org
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The best news we have had from KPFA in a long time is Arlene Englehardt. I have listened to as many of the on air interviews as I could and every one is impressive. The best thing "KPFAworker" can do is stay off this website as the fans of this website are not impressed by your Thug Hallinan Gang at all. As Englehardt stated, the alternative to ending the current Morning Show was closing KPFA as KPFA was destroying the network with its ballooning debt. This was obviously planned by these Democratic Party operatives, as the Thug Hallinan Gang are openly members of the Wellstone Democratic Club and make a big thing about that. Their treasurer on the Local Station Board was Brian Edwards-Tiekert, an excellent position for covering up the expired $375,000 check. Keep in mind BET is far too young to be given the responsibility of being treasurer, being in his 20s and now perhaps at the most 30, still very young. And he now stays as a volunteer for Letters from Washington. One wonders who pays his bills. Anyone else his age would be moving on to bigger and better things, which he could easily do as he has been sitting at KPFA since at least 2003. Aimee Allison has an excellent resume and can certainly find comparable work elsewhere.
Here is more on what really happened:
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2010/11/18/18664455.php
http://supportkpfa.wordpress.com/
And the best writing award goes to Maggie Kaigler Armstead at
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2010/11/16/18664313.phpo
(The figures at the beginning by someone else clearly show the ballooning salary & benefits, better known as till-tapping or bleeding the treasury dry.)
Here is more on what really happened:
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2010/11/18/18664455.php
http://supportkpfa.wordpress.com/
And the best writing award goes to Maggie Kaigler Armstead at
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2010/11/16/18664313.phpo
(The figures at the beginning by someone else clearly show the ballooning salary & benefits, better known as till-tapping or bleeding the treasury dry.)
Insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results. The reality is that KPFA tanked from an institution with 4.2 million dollars in annual revenues to one that earned 3.5 million dollars in less than 3 years.
That is not success. That is catastrophic failure.
Had all these ardent emailers put their money where their typing fingers are, that would not have happened. Had the station attracted ANY new subscribers while shedding thousands, perhaps all these plaintive cries would have some resonance. Under the circumstances, they don't.
A station across the bay with a signal the size of a peanut compared to KPFA's has higher pledge drive receipts in the AM drive time playing Morning Edition.
Let's get real. Continuing on as things were was not an option for anyone with a brain in their head.
Change is always hard. But jumping over the side of a cliff while whistling is far worse and Arlene Engelhardt has the courage and the intelligence not to go along with stupidity because it is the easy thing to do. Too many managers for too long have been too afraid of exactly this kind of thing to take action.
KPFA would have gone under in less than a year. All by itself.
To those of you still carrying on about administrative fees - replace 20 hours of DN, 2.5 hours plus 35% of the news by FSRN, pay for your own insurance and audit, no premiums from the archives etc - turns that half million dollar a year loss into a three quarters of a million loss ... or more. And there are no other stations to loan you money the next time payroll can't be met.
It is time to stop the whining. Rebuild. And thank your lucky stars there is still a chance to do that. After losing another million, there wouldn't have been.
That is not success. That is catastrophic failure.
Had all these ardent emailers put their money where their typing fingers are, that would not have happened. Had the station attracted ANY new subscribers while shedding thousands, perhaps all these plaintive cries would have some resonance. Under the circumstances, they don't.
A station across the bay with a signal the size of a peanut compared to KPFA's has higher pledge drive receipts in the AM drive time playing Morning Edition.
Let's get real. Continuing on as things were was not an option for anyone with a brain in their head.
Change is always hard. But jumping over the side of a cliff while whistling is far worse and Arlene Engelhardt has the courage and the intelligence not to go along with stupidity because it is the easy thing to do. Too many managers for too long have been too afraid of exactly this kind of thing to take action.
KPFA would have gone under in less than a year. All by itself.
To those of you still carrying on about administrative fees - replace 20 hours of DN, 2.5 hours plus 35% of the news by FSRN, pay for your own insurance and audit, no premiums from the archives etc - turns that half million dollar a year loss into a three quarters of a million loss ... or more. And there are no other stations to loan you money the next time payroll can't be met.
It is time to stop the whining. Rebuild. And thank your lucky stars there is still a chance to do that. After losing another million, there wouldn't have been.
disappointing, and yet another indication of how the US left intelligentsia has separated itself from the concerns of workers, but she did write a very good book about Edward Muybridge, though
For more information:
http://www.amleft.blogspot.com
Could someone post the Rebecca Solnit post backing the Wellstone Democratic Club , I mean the '' KPFA Two '' !
BTW is brother David buying the Bullshit too ? I hope not . He's a good activist with a honorable record .
BTW is brother David buying the Bullshit too ? I hope not . He's a good activist with a honorable record .
As much as BET Brian Edwards Teacup and Save K-Mart for Democrats want it to be all about him and them, we know the issue and struggle for Pacifica/KPFA isn't new, didn't start with them and kpfaworker.org, and it's about so much more than the Life of Brian and The Morning Show.
As Adrienne Lauby says in her fine, illuminating commentary on the Friday 11/19 Pushing Limits program http://kpfa.org/archive/id/65459, we didn't organize and protest in (before/after) 1999 to save the station and Pacifica network "…. so KPFA could have a couple of celebrity hosts bragging about how much money they raise …The protest we held against armed guards and 24/7 piped in music are cheapened when the same sidewalks are used to champion this overblown cause …"
"The majority of staff, paid and unpaid, at KPFA have no say in what is posted on that website you hear promoted so heavily (kpfaworker.org) … most of the staff want enough paid positions to keep … daily tasks in order … produce regular programs … We want stable management policies. We do not want the same programs and hosts on air for decade after decade. We want training and integration so young people, people of color, volunteers of all kinds can bring new ideas and produce world changing radio. We want 90% less fighting and 90% more collaboration…"
"Can something this positive happen? What creature of power and grace could rise from the ashes of this sad public spectacle? … We still have a chance, we can strengthen Pacifica and haul this station back on the road, and the next chapter is already being written."
Many thanks to the beautiful, gifted Pushing Limits programmers - Adrienne, Eddy Yduarte, and all - for their clarity, courage and humor, and for helping preserve our collective dignity, sanity and hope. Same appreciation for last Monday's 11/15 Women's Magazine program hosts and guests (Arlene Englehardt, Maria Gilardin and Carol Spooner) http://kpfa.org/archive/id/65370.
Other independent KPFA programmers can and should get into it, although so far they've been mostly silent about these issues on-air, meanwhile organizing and rocking a volunteer/ people of color staff rally outside the station. As I understand it, they're reluctant to compromise their programs or face retaliation from the power clique hoodlums, spin masters and con artists, but we need to hear it from them.
I expect most listeners haven't been exposed to the mid weekday Women's show, the "asthmatic Amazon" Adrienne unedited, or the satirical "super megawatt Grover." Some of us have urged Pacifica ED Arlene Englehardt and CFO LaVarn Williams to preempt multiple time slots for clear, uninterrupted presentations/explanations. Without repeated, unbiased statements of facts and more creative representations of truth, including morning and evening prime times, the continuing core staff clique and CL/DP supporter disinformation campaign prevails, with the resulting divisiveness and damage to KPFA/Pacifica's credibility, listener support and finances. From this kpfaworker.org posting and their petition "I want my Morning Show back!" http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/kpfa-morning-show/, we see how they are misleading hundreds of supposedly educated, intelligent, progressive listeners. Fox News, Goebbels and (more to the point) Stalin couldn't do a better job.
As Adrienne Lauby says in her fine, illuminating commentary on the Friday 11/19 Pushing Limits program http://kpfa.org/archive/id/65459, we didn't organize and protest in (before/after) 1999 to save the station and Pacifica network "…. so KPFA could have a couple of celebrity hosts bragging about how much money they raise …The protest we held against armed guards and 24/7 piped in music are cheapened when the same sidewalks are used to champion this overblown cause …"
"The majority of staff, paid and unpaid, at KPFA have no say in what is posted on that website you hear promoted so heavily (kpfaworker.org) … most of the staff want enough paid positions to keep … daily tasks in order … produce regular programs … We want stable management policies. We do not want the same programs and hosts on air for decade after decade. We want training and integration so young people, people of color, volunteers of all kinds can bring new ideas and produce world changing radio. We want 90% less fighting and 90% more collaboration…"
"Can something this positive happen? What creature of power and grace could rise from the ashes of this sad public spectacle? … We still have a chance, we can strengthen Pacifica and haul this station back on the road, and the next chapter is already being written."
Many thanks to the beautiful, gifted Pushing Limits programmers - Adrienne, Eddy Yduarte, and all - for their clarity, courage and humor, and for helping preserve our collective dignity, sanity and hope. Same appreciation for last Monday's 11/15 Women's Magazine program hosts and guests (Arlene Englehardt, Maria Gilardin and Carol Spooner) http://kpfa.org/archive/id/65370.
Other independent KPFA programmers can and should get into it, although so far they've been mostly silent about these issues on-air, meanwhile organizing and rocking a volunteer/ people of color staff rally outside the station. As I understand it, they're reluctant to compromise their programs or face retaliation from the power clique hoodlums, spin masters and con artists, but we need to hear it from them.
I expect most listeners haven't been exposed to the mid weekday Women's show, the "asthmatic Amazon" Adrienne unedited, or the satirical "super megawatt Grover." Some of us have urged Pacifica ED Arlene Englehardt and CFO LaVarn Williams to preempt multiple time slots for clear, uninterrupted presentations/explanations. Without repeated, unbiased statements of facts and more creative representations of truth, including morning and evening prime times, the continuing core staff clique and CL/DP supporter disinformation campaign prevails, with the resulting divisiveness and damage to KPFA/Pacifica's credibility, listener support and finances. From this kpfaworker.org posting and their petition "I want my Morning Show back!" http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/kpfa-morning-show/, we see how they are misleading hundreds of supposedly educated, intelligent, progressive listeners. Fox News, Goebbels and (more to the point) Stalin couldn't do a better job.
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