Firing of DJ Stirs Protest In Berkeley/Dead air, fans' rally oppose KPFA's move

ARTICLES ON ROBBIE OSMAN'S FIRING
AND THE PROTESTS ENSUING
JUNE 20-22. 1999

KPFA feud costs another DJ his job
Chuck Finnie
OF THE EXAMINER STAFF
June 20, 1999
©1999 San Francisco Examiner

Robbie Osman fired for reading statement

Listener-supported radio station KPFA lost another of its veteran on-air figures to a raging feud over management of
the 50-year-old beacon of leftist politics, social thought and the arts.

     Robbie Osman, host of the "Across the Great Divide" folk music show, learned Friday his weekly program had been
     canceled after he used the airwaves to read a statement about ongoing disagreements at the station and within the
     Pacifica radio network to which it belongs.

The cancellation followed the April 6 firing by Pacifica of award-winning journalist and talk-show host Larry
Bensky, who broadcast from KPFA.

     "I am writing to notify you that you have forfeited your access to the KPFA / Pacifica airwaves due to your
     prolonged statement on the air during your broadcast last Sunday, June 13," Lynn Chadwick, the station's acting
     general manager, wrote in a letter to Osman Friday.

"As you acknowledged, your statement last Sunday is in direct violation of Pacifica policy, and thereby grounds for
your removal," Chadwick wrote.

     Like Osman, Bensky had used the airwaves - 17 minutes worth - to criticize moves by Pacifica; specifically, the
     March 31 firing of KPFA General Manager Nicole Sawaya, whom both men had credited with bringing calm to the
     roiling politics of the radio station.

Bensky was bounced for violating a directive from Chadwick not to air stories or commentary about Sawaya's
dismissal because it was a personnel matter not a news event.

To protest the firings, some KPFA listeners have planned a demonstration outside the station's storefront office on
Martin Luther King Way at 11 a.m. Sunday, the time slot in which Osman's show used to air.

Unlike previous protests against KPFA management, the demonstrators this time intend to stick around a while.

"We are bringing sleeping bags and tents," said Jeffrey Blankfort, of Coalition for a democratic Pacifica. "Listeners
are outraged. This is going to be more than a picket. We are going to sleep-in."

Chadwick, who is also executive director of the Pacifica Foundation, with stations in Los Angeles, Houston, New
York and Washington, D.C., could not be reached for comment Saturday.

The broader dispute has raged long before the March 31 firing of KPFA's popular former general manager.

Listener and station activists are dismayed at the direction of Pacifica, wary that it is losing its radical independent
roots and devotion to progressive causes and free speech.

"This is another short-sighted and foolish move by Pacifica which is completely inconsistent with the organization's
traditions and practices and will only further exacerbate the conflict," Bensky said of Osman's removal.

Even former station managers are shaking their heads.

"It makes me and anybody close to Pacifica and KPFA enormously sad," said David Salniker, a former station
general manager and director of the Pacifica Foundation.

Salniker said the current management has failed to take advantage of overtures by friends of the organization to
mediate the disputes.

Activists organizing the demonstration Sunday are calling for the immediate rehiring of Sawaya as general manager.

     But they also want changes in the relationship between the station and the foundation; they believe too high a
     percentage of listener contributions are now going to support the Washington, D.C.-based foundation, instead of
     funding local and national programming.

Ironically, strife has had its rewards.

KPFA is listener-funded and operates free of corporate sponsorship and largely without government funding, which
is a point of pride and a source of political independence for the station.

During its recently concluded two-week subscriber drive, listener sponsorships shattered a record, reaching
$605,000, according to Blankfort.

     However, approximately 6,200 of 7,000 pledges came from subscribers who notified KPFA / Pacifica they were
     contributing under protest over the recent personnel moves and expressed support for the listener and station
     activists.

Osman read his statement on the radio last Sunday, he said, to set the record straight about the atmosphere at the
station in advance of a meeting of the Pacifica Foundation Board later this month in Washington, D.C.

In the statement, Osman accused Chadwick of planning to paper over the disenchantment in the Bay Area.

     "So I thought I'd steal a couple minutes and tell you what's going on," he said in his statement, the entire text of
     which is posted on the Internet at www.savepacifica.cjb.net. Osman said he took issue with a recent claim by
     Chadwick that peace was returning to KPFA. "It's not true. She is either lying to them (the governing Pacifica
     national board) or lying to herself."

In Bensky, the station lost perhaps its most recognized journalist / commentator, a 1988 winner of a prestigious
George Polk Award for his coverage of the Iran-contra hearings.

Perhaps most galling to the activists, however, is the prohibition of on-air discussion of internal personnel moves at a
station that through the decades has been synonymous with free speech.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Firing of DJ Stirs Protest In Berkeley
Dead air, fans' rally oppose KPFA's move
Stacy Finz, Chronicle Staff Writer
Monday, June 21, 1999
©1999 San Francisco Chronicle

For two hours yesterday KPFA- FM, Berkeley's leftist radio station, broadcast nothing but silence

--the first time that has happened in 25 years.

     Robbie Osman, the disc jockey who hosts ``Across the Great Divide,'' a folk music show scheduled to be on the air
     yesterday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., was fired Friday. Other staff members protested his firing by refusing to take his
     shift, and hundreds of people demonstrated outside to express their anger at the station's management.

Osman was terminated for using the airwaves to criticize the Pacifica radio network, a nonprofit foundation that
owns KPFA and four other stations in Los Angeles, Houston, New York and Washington, D.C.

For nearly seven years, workers and members of the foundation's board of directors have been involved in a
tug-of-war over the future of the Berkeley station.

KPFA supporters say the board wants to turn the station into another National Public Radio so it can attract
corporate donations. The motto among the new management, according to some, is ``Enough of this hippie s--.''

But many listeners and staff members do not like Pacifica's new direction and are afraid that the station will depart
from its outspoken and progressive roots.

     The station was started 50 years ago and described itself as the ``voice of the voiceless.'' Over the years, it has
     broadcast radical radio shows hosted by former Black Panthers and programs dedicated to gay and lesbian issues.
     Located at 94.1 on the FM dial, the station reaches as far south as Monterey and as far north as Mendocino.

     ``This is the most essential alternative media that we have,'' said Jeffrey Blankfort, a San Francisco listener and
     spokesman for the Coalition for a democratic Pacifica, a group of KPFA supporters. ``And unfortunately we have to
     protect it from its owners.

More than 400 employees and listeners protested the latest firing by picketing outside the station on Martin Luther
King Jr. Way. Many planned to camp out overnight for a ``sleep-in.''

     ``I've been listening for years, and I feel the station has been ruined in the last six months,'' said Mark Mason,
     referring to the firings of Osman and two other employees -- reporter Larry Bensky and station general manager
     Nicole Sawaya -- who spoke out against the changes.

Larry Bensky, an award-winning journalist and KPFA talk-show host, was terminated on April 6 and station General
Manager Nicole Sawaya was fired March 31.

``I plan to send e-mails and faxes to the board demanding that the three be brought back,'' Mason continued.

Members of the Pacifica board of directors could not be reached for comment, but have been quoted in published
reports as saying that it was not appropriate for employees to broadcast their grievances over the airwaves.

``I am at peace with what I did (criticizing the station),'' Osman said during yesterday's protest. ``There comes a
moment in your life that if you act with courage and with faith you seize the day.''

===============================================================================

KPFA demonstrators protest Pacifica Network's changes at station

Monday, June 21, 1999

(06-21) 16:30 PDT BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) -- A power struggle at an iconoclastic radio station spilled into the
street Monday with several people arrested after demonstrating in support of critics of the Pacifica network.

At least nine people were arrested for blocking a building entrance.

``They made it very clear that they wanted to be arrested. We kind of facilitated that process,'' said Berkeley Police
Capt. Bobby Miller.

The protesters were out in support of three KPFA-AM staffers, a former station manager who was let go in March
and two radio show hosts who were fired for criticizing Pacifica management on the air.

Longtime staffers maintain that Pacifica's board wants to give KPFA a more mainstream image so that it can attract
corporate donations.

     ``This is a 50-year-old institution that was started by conscientious objectors,'' said protester Mike Alcalay, who spent
     Monday night on the sidewalk outside the radio office to register his concern over the station's future. ``And it has
     slowly over the last two decades ... been depoliticized. It has finally come to the point where it no longer represents
     the mission.''

KPFA is the nation's first listener-supported station. It is owned by the nonprofit Pacifica Foundation which also
owns stations in Houston, Los Angeles, New York and Washington, D.C.

Pacifica Foundation executive director Lynn Chadwick fired volunteer radio host Robbie Osman after he made a
statement on his show a week ago Sunday criticizing Ms. Chadwick.

No replacement could be found for Osman's show, so the airwaves went dead during his two-hour timeslot Sunday.
Meanwhile, hundreds of people demonstrated in support of Osman outside.

     KPFA spokeswoman Elan Fabbri said Osman violated Pacifica policy, which forbids broadcasters from discussing
     internal personnel matters on the air. Broadcaster Larry Bensky was fired in April after his on-air criticism of
     Pacifica's refusal to renew the contract of former station manager Nicole Sawaya.

``Our airwaves are a very, very precious thing,'' Ms. Fabbri said. ``We need to focus on producing radio that . . . puts
the listeners as the top priority, not the people behind the microphone.''

===============================================================================

KPFA SILENT; PROTESTERS NOISY
Julie Chao
OF THE EXAMINER STAFF
June 21, 1999
©1999 San Francisco Examiner

     No one replaces fired host of folk music program

     Berkeley listener-supported radio station KPFA went dead for two hours Sunday in what a fired disc jockey called a
     stunning protest against station management.

Robbie Osman, longtime host of a popular folk music program, indicated KPFA staff silenced the station to protest
recent dismissals - adding that potential replacements showed solidarity with them by refusing to fill his time slot.

But management at the troubled station said it decided to turn the transmitter off and subject the audience to silence
for the first time in 20 years because it did not have time to find a replacement host.

On Friday, Osman became the third person in three months to lose a job at KPFA, the nation's first
listener-supported radio station and a champion of free speech and democracy for 50 years.

Although the air was dead inside the station, hundreds of supporters jammed the sidewalk outside its office on Martin
Luther King Jr. Way near University Avenue, just a few blocks west of the UC-Berkeley campus.

As passing drivers honked in support, the protesters waved signs and made speeches demanding mediation of the
dispute with management and reinstatement of Nicole Sawaya, the well-liked station manager let go March 31.

Although most of the crowd dispersed by midafternoon, about 10 longtime supporters and listeners set up a tent with
plans to camp out on the sidewalk possibly until Friday, when the Pacifica radio board meets in Washington, D.C.

The board sets policy for the Pacifica Foundation, which owns and operates KPFA and four other stations - in Los
Angeles, Houston, New York and Washington, D.C.

Pacifica Foundation executive director Lynn Chadwick fired Osman after he made a long statement on his show a
week ago Sunday criticizing Chadwick and the station's "gag rule."

     The policy forbids broadcasters from discussing internal personnel matters on air and has been invoked to dismiss
     Osman and award-winning broadcaster Larry Bensky, who was dumped in April after criticizing on the air Pacifica's
     refusal to renew Sawaya's contract.

"(Chadwick) has affronted the KPFA family in every way," Osman said Sunday. "Under her leadership, this is a
train headed for a washed-out bridge."

KPFA spokeswoman Elan Fabbri said Osman blatantly violated Pacifica policy.

     "Our airwaves are a very, very precious thing," she said. "We need to focus on producing radio that . . . puts the
     listeners as the top priority, not the people behind the microphone. Venting personal grievances on the air is not
     appropriate."

Where is halfway?

As for the larger dispute between KPFA staff and Pacifica management, Fabbri said Sawaya would not be rehired
but that management has made several attempts to negotiate with concerned staffers.

"We have been trying repeatedly to enter into mediation," she said. "We have had a tremendous show of good faith."

"Nonsense," countered Dennis Bernstein, who hosts KPFA's daily news show "Flashpoints." "There was no attempt
to even begin to meet us halfway."

     The two sides have also been at odds over management's decision in mid-May to hire a 24-hour security guard in
     response to bullets fired into the Pacifica Foundation's office the evening of March 31, the day Sawaya was
     dismissed.

KPFA staff members wrote a letter of protest to Chadwick, saying the guard was not needed, especially at a cost of
$10,000 a month.

Fabbri said she didn't know the cost but that she and other employees feel safer with the guard.

"They feel having a security guard not only provides security for KPFA and everybody there, it's a deterrent to
whoever may come in and try to attack us," she said.

Police probe shooting

Berkeley police are investigating the shooting as an attempted homicide, according to Fabbri, whose computer was
destroyed by the gunfire. Although no one was in the building at the time, an employee arrived 20 minutes later.

Fabbri also said a homicide detective asked for copies of close to 2,000 letters and e-mails of protest from listeners
so a police psychologist could analyze them for signs of violent tendencies.

Fabbri said the letters are being photocopied and will be delivered to police this week.

Bernstein said he was worried about the civil liberties implications of such a move. He and several other staff
members were disciplined in April for reading a statement protesting the termination of Sawaya and Bensky.

     Peter Whittlesey, a building construction consultant in San Rafael and KPFA listener for more than 35 years, was at
     home Sunday morning when he noticed the station went dead. He said he hoped to see stronger local control of the
     station.

"It's changed a lot of people's lives - in politics, culture and knowledge of community. It's one of the only sources for
that," he said. "I feel like if the trend continues, something will die nationwide, not just public radio."

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

14 Arrested In Protests Outside KPFA
Corporation faces threat of lawsuit
Charles Burress, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 22, 1999
©1999 San Francisco Chronicle

The battle raging over the pioneer broadcast beacon of the American left, KPFA radio in Berkeley, escalated
yesterday when 14 people were arrested for blocking the entrance to the station's controlling foundation.

At the same time, a coalition announced a pending lawsuit against the Pacifica Foundation, which oversees
50-year-old KPFA and four sibling stations across the United States.

Both sides seemed at a loss for predicting what will happen next in the crisis pitting Pacifica against its flagship
station, the oldest listener- sponsored radio outlet in the nation.

But events yesterday seemed to presage an increasingly rancorous state of siege.

After the blockaders were removed from the doorway, the half- dozen Pacifica employees inside were escorted by
police as they carried boxes out of the national office so that they could work at home.

Pacifica spokeswoman Elan Fabbri said they will return today to their protest-targeted headquarters, located next
door to KPFA on Martin Luther King Boulevard near downtown Berkeley.

     Hours after the arrests yesterday, a large group of protesters -- estimated by supporters at 200 to 300 -- carried
     signs along the block in front of the building, and a delegation of a dozen or so paid a surprise dinner-time visit to
     Pacifica's executive director, Lynn Chadwick, who had evacuated her Pacifica office and was in her KPFA building
     office.

     Berkeley council member Maudelle Shirek was among the group who tried to speak to Chadwick, but Chadwick left
     the office escorted by a police officer. The officer later led her out of the building into a waiting patrol car as some
     protesters booed from the sidewalk.

Also yesterday, a coalition of 16 members of local boards from Pacifica's three largest stations -- Berkeley, Los
Angeles and New York -- announced that they had taken the first step in suing Pacifica.

     They sent a demand-letter last week stating that Pacifica acted illegally four months ago by removing the power of
     local boards to name national board members, said the coalition's attorney, Dan Siegel of Oakland. The suit will be
     filed ``immediately'' in Alameda County Superior Court if Pacifica does not respond by Friday, he said.

     Yesterday's developments followed a demonstration by 400 people Sunday, which came on the heels of Friday's
     termination of programmer Robbie Osman. A 22-year volunteer, he was removed because he talked about the
     dispute on the air, the same reason popular commentator Larry Bensky was fired in April.

The station fell silent for two hours Sunday because other employees protested Osman's removal by refusing to fill
the 11 a.m. slot for his regular folk-music program.

     Although the conflict appears rooted in the shift in power from local stations to the national Pacifica administration,
     the catalyst for the KPFA crisis came in March when station manager Nicole Sawaya was terminated by
     Chadwick.

     Even though Sawaya was a member of management in a union workplace, KPFA employees have been virtually
     unanimous in demanding her return, saying she was ``the best thing that happened to the station in 25 years,'' in the
     words of 20-year KPFA newsman Dennis Bernstein.

     Police were called in yesterday by Chadwick, who made a citizen's arrest of the protesters. They were taken into
     custody by police in two segments: nine people who were blocking the door at about 9 a.m. and another five people
     at about 11:45 a.m. Those arrested, including Media Alliance executive director Andrea Buffa, were led away in
     plastic handcuffs and ordered to appear in court on misdemeanor charges of blocking a doorway.

``The hypocrisy is incredible,'' said John Sheridan, an artist who was among those arrested. ``This is free-speech
radio, and people are being fired for speaking about the fact they can no longer speak out.''

     Fabbri stressed Pacifica's ``long- standing policy'' against on-air discussion of internal station disputes, and said
     Bensky and Osman were removed only after they violated the policy several times and allegedly refused to meet to
     discuss it.

     KPFA employees and supporters say the policy was unwritten and vague, and accuse Chadwick and the national
     board of trying to usurp community control of KPFA, an issue that station workers say is a matter of public concern.
     Many employees have included brief remarks about the dispute on their programs.

Fabbri said recent meetings between Pacifica representatives and KPFA employees had been ``very productive,''
but said she was not sure what effect the events of the past few days will have.

On the lawsuit issue, Fabbri said Pacifica had to stop letting each local board name two of its own members to sit on
the national board after the Corporation for Public Broadcasting said such dual membership violates its rules.

     But Siegel said the local boards could still maintain a voice in the national board selection by being allowed to name
     two national board members who are not on the local boards. Fabbri said local boards may still nominate whoever
     they like. The selection will be done by the 16-member national board, she said.

Pacifica also says personnel and labor laws forbid public disclosure of the reasons for not renewing Sawaya's
contract.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Station chief blocked from building
9 KPFA PROTESTERS ARRESTED
Julie Chao
OF THE EXAMINER STAFF
Examiner correspondent Rob Selna contributed to this report.
June 21, 1999
©1999 San Francisco Examiner

Dead air replaces Sunday folk music show after host fired

Nine people were arrested outside Berkeley listener-supported radio station KPFA Monday, escalating the protest
against the station's management that included two hours of dead air Sunday.

     The nine were arrested after they refused to move aside to allow Pacifica Foundation executive director Lynn
     Chadwick to enter the building. Chadwick performed citizen's arrests and police said those arrested face charges of
     blocking a sidewalk and unlawful assembly.

The arrests were peaceful. They occurred after Berkeley police Officer W.H. Pittman failed to persuade the
protesters to unblock KPFA's front door.

Protesters said they will continue the demonstrations until several fired employees are restored to their jobs.

     Robbie Osman, longtime host of a popular folk music program, indicated KPFA staff silenced the station Sunday to
     protest recent dismissals - adding that potential replacements showed solidarity with them by refusing to fill his time
     slot.

On Friday, Osman became the third person in three months to lose a job at KPFA, the nation's first
listener-supported radio station and a champion of free speech and democracy for 50 years.

The board sets policy for the Pacifica Foundation, which owns and operates KPFA and four other stations - in Los
Angeles, Houston, New York and Washington, D.C.

Chadwick fired Osman after he made a long statement on his show a week ago Sunday criticizing Chadwick and the
station's "gag rule."

"(Chadwick) has affronted the KPFA family in every way," Osman said Sunday. "Under her leadership, this is a
train headed for a washed-out bridge."

KPFA spokeswoman Elan Fabbri said Osman blatantly violated Pacifica policy.

Where is halfway?

As for the larger dispute between KPFA staff and Pacifica management, Fabbri said Sawaya would not be rehired
but that management has made several attempts to negotiate with concerned staffers.

"We have been trying repeatedly to enter into mediation," she said. "We have had a tremendous show of good faith."

"Nonsense," countered Dennis Bernstein, who hosts KPFA's daily news show "Flashpoints." "There was no attempt
to even begin to meet us halfway."

KPFA staff members wrote a letter of protest to Chadwick, saying the guard was not needed, especially at a cost of
$10,000 a month.

Fabbri said she didn't know the cost but that she and other employees feel safer with the guard.

"They feel having a security guard not only provides security for KPFA and everybody there, it's a deterrent to
whoever may come in and try to attack us," she said.

Police probe shooting

Fabbri also said a homicide detective asked for copies of close to 2,000 letters and e-mails of protest from listeners
so a police psychologist could analyze them for signs of violent tendencies.

Fabbri said the letters are being photocopied and will be delivered to police this week.

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