This appeared today (5/19/99) on the Grateful Dead usenet newsgroup... a good assessment of the Pacifica situation and how it affects us all:(  Dave

Bill Crowley wrote:

(this is Grateful Dead-related, keep reading) I'm writing to inform folks who listen to a Pacifica radio station what is happening with Pacifica and KPFA, the Pacifica station in Berkeley, California.  There are 5 Pacifica radio stations: Berkeley (KPFA, 94.1 FM), Los Angeles (KPFK, 90.7 FM), New York (WBAI, 99.5 FM), Washington, D.C. (WPFW, 89.3 FM) and Houston (KPFT, 90 FM) and what I have to say affects all the listeners of all of the above stations, not just KPFA.  First off let me say why this is Grateful Dead-related.

The Dead were always big supporters of KPFA.  Lots of the shows they did at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley in the 80's were broadcast live on KPFA as part of pledge drives and various band members would record messages
telling listeners how great KPFA was and to support it.  They may have even done Greek shows where ALL the profits went to KPFA (I believe I remember one around 1988).  But it goes much deeper than that.  Phil Lesh actually was a KPFA broadcaster in 1960 and/or 1961.  After hearing this guy named Jerry Garcia play banjo, Phil asked Jerry to come on to his show on KPFA and play.  Well the rest is history.  So folks, KPFA is where it all started in a sense.  The Dead supported KPFA because KPFA was (and still is) the only real alternative non-commercial electronic
media outlet in the San Francisco Bay Area (and maybe this is true for you folks near other Pacifica station).  So why am I writing?

Well if you haven't heard, there's a major dispute going on between KPFA and the one who holds KPFA's license, the Pacifica radio network. Pacifica hired a new Executive Director, Lynn Chadwick, on (or about) November 1, 1998 (about six months ago).  Having been there less than 6 months (and still under probation), she decided to fire KPFA's station manager, Nicole Sawaya, who was very popular with the listeners and the KPFA staff, which was quite a rarity in KPFA's history.  A quick funfact:  Pacifica gets 17% of KPFA's fundraising goal during each pledge drive (3 times a year) whether they meet the goal or not.

Apparently Nicole, unlike recent KPFA station managers who had preceded her, was too much of an advocate of local control of KPFA for Pacifica's liking so Lynn Chadwick, being new to Pacifica, decides to say "screw you" to KPFA's staff, listeners, and supporters and decides to not renew Nicole Sawaya's contract.  When one of the on-air broadcasters, Larry Bensky, who had been with KPFA for 30 years as well as a former KPFA station manager, had the balls to say on his KPFA show how wrong it was for Pacifica to bully KPFA around like this and to take away a very
popular station manager that a large majority of the staff and listeners liked, he also was fired (pretty amazing:  this person who had never worked for Pacifica except for six months decides she can fire someone who had worked at a Pacifica station for thirty years - this gives you an idea of the crowd I'm talking about).  The KPFA staff quickly united so that Pacifica/Lynn Chadwick couldn't pick them off one by one.  Each on-air KPFA broadcaster blasted Pacifica and the 6 member Pacifica board of directors on his/her show.  The KPFA staff  is staying united and continues to protest Pacifica's action on each and EVERY show (including Gans who is doing some heroic work in this fight on his show).

There have been some ominous changes at Pacifica lately.  About three months ago, they voted to change the rules on how someone gets elected to the Pacifica board of directors. Prior to that vote, each of the Pacifica stations had representatives on the board.  Another quick background fact:  Pacifica gets about 20 % (I believe) of their funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB).  By the way, the CPB is now headed by some guy who used to run the Voice of America, part of the US government propoganda machine.  This is the guy who now is the head of
National Public Radio (NPR) and the CPB which runs all the public television stations across the country.  I guess all the whining the Republicans and rightwing were doing a few years ago about how "liberal" NPR was and how they didn't want to fund the CPB paid off.  If you've noticed changes at NPR and your public television station in recent
years, you now know why.

Anyway, about four months ago, either the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) contacted Pacifica or Pacifica contacted the CPB and the end result was the Pacifica board of directors were claiming that the CPB said that it was illegal for Pacifica to have local reps on the national board and still get funding from the CPB (despite the fact that
this is completely bogus as it is stated nowhere in writing from CPB that this "rule" exists and despite the fact that Pacifica for decades has had local reps on their national board) .

Another funfact: there's been some signals coming out of the Pacifica board of directors in the last few years that they want to change Pacifica to make it more mainstream, more NPR-like, less of a real alternative, so they can get more corporate funding just like NPR.  So this new "rule" that pops up out of nowhere from CPB saying Pacifica can't have local reps on the national board is consistent with the wishes of the present Pacifica board of directors.  Just a coincidence? Believe that and I've got a bridge to sell you.  So the Pacifica board of directors, without a peep of protest against this crazy new demand from the CPB, voted to not allow the local reps to be on the Pacifica board of
directors.

How convenient!  They would no longer have to be accountable to the local stations so they could make their own rules, hire and fire who they wanted at each of the Pacifica stations, make whatever major changes they
wanted, all without ever having to get any kind of approval from the staff or listeners of ANY of the five Pacifica radio stations. They were now accountable to themselves only.  So (literally) a few days after this vote that took away any representation by any and all of the five Pacifica radio stations, they fired Nicole Sawaya, the very popular KPFA
station manager because she just wanted too much independence for KPFA and wasn't enough of a Pacifica kiss-asser.  With the changes they had just make, they could now do this without anyone having the power to say
boo because the board was no longer accountable to the five radio stations.  So what should we do?

If you are near a Pacifica radio station other than KPFA, you may not be hearing anything about this (aint the internet great!).  That is because Pacifica doesn't want the other stations to let their listeners know how they have changed the rules and taken away all local control and that the local listeners and supporters have zero power now.  They have imposed a gag rule on all the on-air broadcasters of the other Pacifica stations. I don't know how the other station managers are, but I know the one at the Los Angeles station, KPFK, has been a very good Pacifica brown noser
and has said he won't tolerate anyone breaking the gag rule about the new changes at Pacifica and their dispute with KPFA.  Let him know that you won't give any money to the station at pledge time as long as he is being a loyal Pacifica brown noser.

So what should you folks do who are in listening range of these Pacifica stations besides KPFA?  Let them now that you want your local Pacifica station to be accountable to you and that you are very upset about this taking of power from the listeners and staff of each of the local stations by the Pacifica board.  Tell the station managers you want your
station run locally, not by a power-hungry mob accountable to no one. Tell them you want there to be real DEMOCRACY at each of the five Pacifica stations and that you want the station manager to not be a Pacifica brown noser.  Tell them to end the gag rule so that this dangerous silence about what Pacifica is doing can be discussed openly on the air without punishment.  Let them know they won't be receiving your money as long as they refuse to fight this present Pacifica board of directors.

So why is this struggle so important to everyone in the United States? Because now that Pacifica has changed the rules and made it so local reps are no longer on the Pacifica board of directors, they really are accountable to one entity: themselves.  They can no really do whatever they want with the licenses of these five radio stations.  Radio stations today are worth millions.  They'd get millions if they were to sell KPFA's frequency to a big corporation like Disney (who runs ABC and ESPN) or Westinghouse (who is a military contractor and owns CBS) or General
Electric (also a military contractor and the owner of NBC).  And now that they have taken all local representation away, they can do whatever they damn well want to do.  And judging from recent actions, this present Pacifica board of directors has let it be known that they are accountable to no one but themselves and they will do whatever they damn want to do. And if people stop contributing, perhaps they'll just start taking advertising or sell these frequencies.  It's a reckless powerhungry group of people who have taken control of Pacifica and they just might ruin an amazing beautiful thing if they people don't get up and start fighting back.

So please get involved.  If you are near a Pacifica station (heck, even if you aren't since you benefit from a strong DEMOCRATIC Pacifica), send an email to savepacifica@hotmail.com and they will send some info and
keep you updated regularly.  Go to http://savepacifica.net (and book mark it) so that you can keep informed of our struggle to take back Pacifica from this horrible bunch that has stolen it.  At that website, you can get the email addresses of the people at your local Pacifica station and the Pacifica board of directors.  Together we can defeat these sellouts just like the staff at KPFA has united against Pacifica. Write your local station manager and tell them you won't give any money at pledge time if they are being accomplishes to this present Pacifica board of directors.
 Folks this is a crucial time.  We may lose all these stations with the present people in charge of Pacifica right now. We need YOU to make your voice heard.  The media in this country is a horrible joke, including NPR and CPB.  The ONLY decent major electronic media in this country is the five stations in the Pacifica network.  And we are losing them unless we can unite and fight this battle together. So just remember how far back the Dead go back with KPFA and why KPFA meant so much to the Dead and then get involved with this struggle to save this incredible media
experiment before it is compromised and maybe sold to the highest corporate bidder.  The work that YOU do just might be the difference in saving Pacifica and each of its five stations.  We (and the United States) can't afford to lose the only real alternative electronic media in the United States so GET INVOLVED!!!   :^)