From "The Oakland Tribune"
May 9, 1997

BERKELEY - Annie Hallett got her first air time on KPfA, Berkeley's pioneering, listener-sponsored radio station, in 1948. She was 6 and part of a quartet of kids singing Pete Seeger songs and playing homemade instruments.

Almost a half-century later. Hallett is a member of Take Back KPFA, dissidents who want to return the FM station to its eclectic roots.

Across town inside the modernistic new headquarters of KPFA and the non-profit Pacifica Foundation, which runs the station and four others like it across the country, executive director Pat Scott and her spokesman, Burt Glass, scoff.

"Pat and the board and key members of the staff are in the middle of a big job of moving Pacifica and KPFA from a culture of amateurism and an anything-goes attitude to a new culture that emphasizes accountability and professionalism and draws a larger audience," Glass said.

"And, frankly, for some people like Take Back KPFA, the concept is threatening."

It was the eclectic nature of KPFA that made it such a community station, Hallett said.

"Now, it's like going to a bookstore where they only have best-sellers," she sald. 'You don't have any choice and a lot of it is mush."

This is a serious battle for the hearts and minds of KPFA listeners. Hallett and dozens of others have dogged Paciflca's steps since mid-1995, when KPFA abruptly dismissed longtime personalities and launched programs aimed at a broader audience.

After a particularly boisterous meeting, Pacifica closed its board meetings to the public, except for a brief public comment period. critics say.

Take Back KPFA complained to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which doles out more than $1 million in federal grants to Pacifica. That's a hefty share of the nonprofit's $8 million annual budget.

Now the corporation's chief auditor has sided with the dissidents.

In a 17-page report, Inspector General Armando Arvizu said Pacifica board meetings were not only closed contrary to federal law, but Pacifica also failed to notify the public in most instances that hoard meetings were being held.

Arvizu has recommended that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting hoard give Pacifica six months to clean up its act or face a cutoff of its federal grants. The board meets May 19 in Washington to consider the recommen- dation.

The inspector general also reported that Pacifica muffled the community advisory boards established for KPFA and the other Pacifica stations. He said the nonprofit foundation threatened community advisory board members with dismissal if they failed to support the new policies.

KPFA spokesman Glass said flatly that Arvizu got bad information.

"Our meetings are public and advisory board members can always speak to the Pacific board." he said. "The point about notification is worth looking at. Of course, it will be up to the board."

However, in Washington, Arvizu stuck to his findings.

" I have my sources and I stand by my report that executive board meetings are mostly closed," he said. In fact, I'm more convinced now than I was when I visited KPFA in March."

But Glass said, "This inspector general is a guy who is brand new to the job. In all due respect, when we go to his bosses these things will be cleared up."

Arvizu said," It's true that this is my first report for the corporation. But I've been an auditor for 15 years, the last five as assistant inspector general for the National Credit Union Administration."

Take Back KPFA members say they feel vindicated.

"I know those meetings are closed," said Take Back KPFA member Jeffrey Blankfort. "I have personally been excluded."

Blankfort added that Take Back KPFA is taking no chances. Pacifica meets June 13-15 at the Marriott Hotel in Oakland and dissidents are planning to file suit in federal court, he said, to force the board to open its meeting.

But Pacifica points out that the days in the 1960s and 1970s, when an explosion would rock Berkeley and everyone would tune in KPFA to find out which radical group blew up what, are long gone.

"We're going to hire more paid staff to do the news and do more things of higher caliber," Glass said. "These are moves we must make to survive and remain relevant in the 1990's."

"It's a move that rubs people from the old KPFA culture the wrong way and that's really what's going on here -- a fight for what Pacifica and KPFA will be in the future."

But Hallett contended, "It's mostly music after 5 p.m. these days on KPFA."

The station has lost touch with this diverse, very interesting community, she said.