From: roykpfk@webtv.net
Date: Mon, 22 Feb 1999 08:19:07 -0800 (PST)
To: harav1@juno.com
Subject: Pacifica Governance

Dear Rabbi Kriegel,

I am the senior staff member at KPFK, having been hired in 1972 and have been on the air since 1977.  I served as an occasional volunteer for about 10 years previous to being hired on staff and have been a grateful and active Pacifica listener and listener sponsor at KPFA and KPFK since 1959.

I have received awards from Associated Press and Armstrong in the past, but consider my most significant achievement to have been dubbed the person who has brought in more money than anyone in KPFK history -- by the late Mike Hodel.

Being a night programmer, I have successfully sought to remain insulated from the regular conflicts which occur among staff and management. However, with the upcoming governance changes slated to be voted on, I see an immanent destruction of this precious institution that so many of us, friends and enemies, have labored for so many years to create and sustain.  And the campaign for governance change is supported by a bed of lies or misapprehensions.

We are led to believe that unless the specific governance changes are passed, we will lose CPB funding.  This is not true.  According to CPB officials, there are many possible changes which can be implemented which would allow more local input into Pacifica policy.

We have been led to believe that before the current "five year plan" was put into effect, that KPFK was "left for dead."  This is not true.  Alan Fong, the last manager before Pat Scott took over control of Pacifica, oversaw several fund drives which went over goal.  And Alan had the affectionate support and respect of the staff, in face of political disagreements, before he was maliciously and underhandedly eliminated by Pat Scott.

We have been led to believe that the present administration has increased our listeniing audience.  This is not true.  When the current manager took over, we had a subscribership of about 14,000 people.  We now have admittedly 12,000.  And I recall in the past having 16,000 subscribers.

While our income has increased, which pleases me, it does have to be recognized that this increase has been by getting more money from fewer listeners.  And also the fund drives have become more and more "home shopping network" time, which we used to criticize in other stations.

My program, "Something's Happening" is the only program in the country which brings in serious income after midnight.  In fact, some other Pacifica stations do not even fundraise after midnight.  I am proud of my part in bringing in additional listeners and subscribers to KPFK, although my contribution to the fund drive has fallen from about 20% to less than 10% due to restrictions imposed on the show and my increasing inability to speak honestly and passionately from the heart about the station I have gratefully dedicated most of my life to.

The governance changes are objectionable and even reprehensible for several reasons.  The arguments for them are untrue.  The political push to enact them can be likened to the actions of a large SUV pushing its way through the traffic of compact cars.  And the motivations of the drivers of this policy are suspect.

I don't pretend to know the reasons for this attempted "takeover" by the executive committee.  I do know that if these governance changes do come to pass, we may lose one or two stations which may be put up for sale for a huge amount of money, 100 million to 200 million dollars.  If these governance changes had been put into effect a few years ago, we would now be operating without WBAI, the considration for sale of which was stopped by the local representatives who are set to be disenfranchised by the new governance rules.

This is exactly what happened to a station in Washington, KRAB, which was sold by the governing board,  to their individual  and personal profit.  I cannot help but notice the increased interest in Pacifica since its valuation in monetary terms.

I do know that under the latest administrations, the programming has come under central control for the first time and the new philosophy I have heard restated again and again is "everybody else does it."  This is NOT a motto for the pioneer in the field.  I feel the elimination of the Folio, the program guide, and the imposition of 20 minute "commercial breaks" and the organization of the "strip" programming model, and the second by second hyper-controlling of programming by someone sitting at a desk days beforehand is responsible for the drop in our listenership and subscribership.

However, these are "daytime" issues.  My night program has not been so manipulated and I have been allowed the traditional freedom which used to be given to every programmer, with the exception of being told not to broadcast Ralph Nader's Green Party acceptance speech  which I did anyway.
 

The commodification of programs is another dire consequence of this "new" and commercial philosophy.  Some of our greatest programs are NOT broadcast until fund drives, when they are partially presented.  I personally feel we should give with both hands, constantly, as our service to our listeners.  Gratitude may not pay off as handsomely as scarcity, but it is better for the conscience and more in line with our philosophy.

I also view with alarm the imposition of the rule against calling KPFK "free speech radio" -- a distinct break from our tradition and our mission in my opinion.  Add to this alarm is the change in the Mission Statement, after 50 years.

Whether these governance changes are being promoted for the personal financial benefit of the executive committee, for the destruction of community voices or as a takeover by a particular political philosophy or party; they are unnecessary and unwarranted, and embedded in a tissue of falsehood and misapprehension unworthy of this great institution.

Also, I am very apprehensive at another explosive and long term conflict which the passing of these proposed changes will bring about, to the delight of those who despise the messages of freedom and truth.  But those of us who have labored for decades to build this institution will continue to labor from the inside or the outside.   Many of us owe too much to Pacifica to abandon it to the mentality of secrecy, power politics, greed and undercover manipulation.

There is a campaign against the World Bank and its destruction of third world economies called "Fifty Years is Enough."  I fear this can be the philosophy behind the governance changes:  "Fifty Years is Enough" of free speech, of community representation on the broadcast spectrum, of troublesome truth, of minority representation, of anti war activism on the air and of the Pacifica Mission.  I would hope that the 50th Anniversary would be a time of rites of intensification, not of destruction of Lew Hill's vision for the search for truth and for sincerity on at least one station.

I ask with profound sincerity for you to vote to postpone the changes in governance until such a time as they can be discussed openly and freely among the friends and enemies who make up Pacifica.   This cannot endanger our CPB funding when the "non compliance" has existed for 12 years, and while our non-compliance in respect to open meetings and open books remains.

Sincerely,
 

Roy E. Tuckman
KPFK Programmer
roykpfk@webtv.net
WK: (818) 985-2711 ext. 221