Roberts, an African American, held form despite dangerous stomach ulcers and skyrocketing blood pressure, as members of his own community dunned him an "Uncle Tom," a "paint job" and a "Pacifica Negro."

The result was that anti-Semitism virtually disappeared from KPFK airwaves. But two weeks ago, it was Robert's turn to disappear. The 60-year-old general manager was asked to resign, along with the program director Lucia Chappelle, and assistant general manager Mary Fowler was given 30 days notice (her position was being eliminated). The word came from Pat Scott, acting executive director of the progressive, Berkeley-based Pacifica Foundation, which owns KPFK and four other stations.

So Roberts promptly sat down, matter-of-factly wrote out his letter of resignation, and within the hour was out of the building.

The news was unexpected for many Jewish listeners. "My sense was that things had gotten better at the station, at least in terms of our issues, so I was very surprised to see management go," said Jerry Shapiro, associate director of the Anti-Defamation League, Pacific Southwest region. "it's like they hired an African-American general manager to dismiss the controversial black producers, and once that was done, they asked him to leave."

Also puzzled was programmer Suzi Weissman, who had found Roberts polite and receptive when she complained about an interview with Professor Tony Martin of "The Jewish Onslaught" last year. "Why would Pacifica fire the only person who ever did anything about hate speech on the air? she wondered.

The Journal was unable to reach Pacifica officials for comment. However, Scott reportedly outlined the reasons for the forced resignations at a monthly meeting of KPFK's local advisory board recently. That the firings had comeon the eve of the new Republican Congress seemed hardly coincidental. Scott warned that the funding will likely be nixed to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting next year, so that Pacifica may lose up to 25 percent of its budget. She pointed out that KPFK has only a paltry audience or 150,000 to 170,000 listeners. "If we keep this up, with expenses escalating and our audiences declining, we'll be out of business by the turn of the century," she said.

To expand listenership, she said, KPFK leaders had been asked to augment multicultural programming and switch to a "strip program" format----one that features the same type of shows broadcast at the same time each day. But the staff had not acted fast enough, so they had been asked to go.

In an interview with the Los Angles Times, Scott also "cited past programs by African-American producers that were branded as anti-Semitic by the Jewish community." She said they were "potentially divisive and not helpful to the Pacifica Foundation's atated mission of "programming that promotes peace."

Perhaps Pacifica was blamong KPFK leaders for alleged anti-Semitism that has created animosity toward the foundation as a whole: In 1992 and 1993, for example, there was an outcry over an African Mental Liberation Weekend whose speakers blamed Jews for black slavery and more. Though producer-host Kwaku Person-Lynn was finally barred from the airwaves, the damage had already been done to KPFK's reputation. There were negative newspaper headlines, an ADL complaint to the Federal Communications Commission and Rep. Joel Hefly (R-CO) introduced and amendment that would have cut $1 million from the CPB---roughly Pacifica's allocation---had it not died in the Senate.

Roberts, however, was "irked" and "insulted" by the accusations. "Don't tell me I put anti-Semitism on the air, because I'm the one who took it off," said the broadcaster, a former college roommateof Jesse Jackson's who founded the minority training ptogram at KQED-TV in San Francisco. "Don't say I don't want diversity, because I have a long history of multi-cultural programming."

Roberts added that Pacifica wanted him to implement changes too quickly, without proper preparation, a move he felt was "doomed to failure" at a station with only 21 paid employees and more than 150 volunteer producers.

Former Program Director Claire Spark, who was herself fired in 1982, believes Roberts and Chappelle were put I a position where they could not win. "They were expected to turn out competitive, quality programming without the moneyto pay a highly educated, experienced staff." the volunteer producer said. "Both should be credited with taking back the station from the hatemongers, and I personally will miss them."

So what will be the outcome of the management changes for the Jewish community. Will the new temporary staff have enough experience to keep the hatemongers at bay? (Interim general manager Pamela Burton previously headed the Pacifica archives, while interim program director Gwen Walters is KPFK's former public affairs director.)

Most Jewish programmers believe the future depends on whomever permanently replaces Roberts and Chappelle. Nevertheless, one producer worried that many KPFK volunteers are rabidly anti-Zionist, and that Middle East programming is done only from a militant Palestinian perspective. He fears that Chappelle's pilot project, "Progressive Jewish Perspectives," may vanish from the airwaves.

Others wonder whether the nized Afrocentrist programmers, now in the midst of appealing their dismissals, will be allowed to return. Reportedly, the persistently queried Scott at the recent advisory board meeting, though Roberts believes they have little chance and that Scott vhemently opposes hate speech. Meanwhile producer Vince Ivory is convening a "Pacifica Accountability Committee," to challenge what he perceives as the foundation's autocratic ways.

As for Chappelle, ever loyal to KPFK, she seemed devastated during a recent telephone interview. The 42-year-old African American broadcaster says she is still getting over the "villification" she endured after the dismissal of the black producers last summer, for "where do you go when you're expelled from your race?"

Roberts, too, is saddened to leave KPFK, though at the same time he is "euphoric." He had planned to resign anyway, when his contract ended in March, since the work had nearly killed him.

"In July, at the time of the dismissals, I became very ill," explained the former offensive lineman for the Oakland Raiders. "I went to docyors all summer long, and spent my Labor Day vacation at home for 10 days in bed. Though I began to feel better, when the Pacifica [demands] began in late November, I was soom back in ulcer hell."