RADIO DAZE
and
Labor/Management Responses

What the bejeezus is going on at our so-called progressive radio stations lately? KQED-FM, our longtime neighbors down the block, recently excluded the Bay Guardian from a Forum roundtable show on Presidio National Park's future, then said we weren't included because they're looking for guests who provide "quality, not quantity." (See "Privatizing PBS," page 9, and "How PBS Is Selling Out," page 25, Bay Guardian).

We've tried looking to KPFA-FM for the airwaves' remaining progressive voices, but we've found ourselves inundated with complaints by listeners and former employees about the station's mass firings, programming homogenization, and alleged union busting. Critics are condemning KPFA and parent network the Pacific Foundation [sic] (which owns a total of five listener-sponsored stations) for hiring the American Consulting Group (ACG).

According to members of the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America (UE) - which represents employees of KPFA and of Pacifica's KPFK in Los Angeles and WBAI in New York - ACG is notorious throughout several industries for being for-hire hatchet men specializing in the not-so progressive corporate arts of "downsizing advisement" and "union relations." In a promotional video a spokesperson boasts that ACG has been helping corporations "stay union-free since 1979." ACG's clients include TRW, Kraft, Nissan, Coca-Cola, Sony, Union Carbide, General Dynamics, Du Pont, and the Los Angeles Times.

Despite the fact that Pacifica stations often report on the transgressions of these companies, Pacifica executive director Pat Scott defends the foundation's hiring of ACG, as well as its programming and personnel moves. "The accusations are making a mountain out of a molehill," Scott told us Tuesday. "To my knowledge, ACG is an adviser on the latest developments in labor law. We have five powerful stations to provide information and analysis. It goes without saying that some of the former people are pissed that they don't have access to their toys anymore. But these are broadcast stations."

But critics say KPFA has crossed the same ethical and journalistic lines as KQED, and there doesn't seem to be any desire to turn back. 'The station that founded First Amendment radio is now violating every First Amendment right of its employees, along with the right of listeners to hear programs that allow all opinions to expressed [sic]," says Jeff Blankfort of the advocacy group Take Back KPFA. "If the station keeps moving in this direction, it'll be as formatted and mainstream as any FM station."

You can reach Ron Curran at ron_curran@sfbayguardian.com.

The two latest issues of the [San Francisco] Bay Guardian had stories trashing KPFA radio and the Pacifica Foundation. This follows many months, even years, of the Bay Guardian's oddly sanctimonious assaults on KQED and NPR. What's the deal? Why should a local weekly paper self-identified as progressive be so vituperative toward public radio? Why should Dole's strategies to repress the last channels of dissent find this kind of eerie assistance?

Both stories attacking Pacifica Radio carried accusations that were unsubstantiated and untrue.

In the first story, "Making Air Waves" [6/19/96], reporter Daniel Zoll unblinkingly presents Maria Gilardin's fanciful version of her banning from Pacifica. The fact: she was banned three years ago from Pacifica's facilities because of her violent behavior at a Pacifica National Board meeting in Los Angeles. (See eyewitness account and Gilardin's account of this incident on Banned and Slandered page.

In the very next issue of the Bay Guardian, Ron Curran's Naked Eye column [6/26/96] used the same National Enquirer tactics.

To clear the air: KPFA is not in contract negotiations at this time. Our employees have a contract with KPFA through March 1997. KPFA's union contract is the largest contract we have every year, with more than 45 percent of our $2-plus million annual budget going exclusively to staff salaries and benefits. Given this, and given that this money is derived almost entirely from caring listeners, it would be criminally irresponsible of KPFA and Pacifica to lack legal information on labor issues. KPFA/Pacifica is subject to the same state and federal labor laws as any other employer. We do not have personnel or human resources departments. The American Consulting Group (ACG) is on a $1,000-a-year retainer to the five Pacifica stations; its job is to provide station management with up-to-date, precise information regarding state and federal labor laws. ACG is a firm that provides this service to management, rather than to labor. Unions customarily consult with firms specializing in labor-side issues. ACG does not advise Pacifica in matters of union-busting.

KPFA employees enjoy decent benefits and working conditions: five weeks paid vacation per year (a rest much needed by public-media workers); 14 paid holidays, including May Day and International Women's Day; fully paid health and dental insurance for employees and their families; paid maternity/paternity leave; 12 sick days plus 5 paid training days per year; employer contributions to 403(b) retirement plans; child care allowances; and flexible work schedules. Management is in full support of our employees' right to union representation and our right to negotiate wages and working conditions with our employees.

The other two Pacifica stations currently in labor negotiations (KPFK in Los Angeles and WBAI in New York) are continuing to bargain in good faith with their locals and attempting to make agreements that ensure salaries, benefits, and optimal working conditions for employees. KPFA will do the same next year. Pacifica and individual station management will continue to sit at the table with their local unions. We will not negotiate these contracts in the press.

MARCI LOCKWOOD
KPFA general manager Berkeley

Ron Curran responds: Hell hath no wrath like a fellow member of the Left scorned. Look behind Lockwood's harsh rhetoric and you find no disputing of the facts I reported.

That there are credible dissident voices at KPFA and other Pacifica stations should be obvious to management. That a radio network founded to give voice to dissidents is railing against us for reporting their side of the story is disappointing.

To Free Pacifica's home page

We believe decisions about our stations should be made by the representatives of all the communities that have a stake in Pacifica, and should occur in an open, accountable, community-oriented process . . . something now lacking at Pacifica.