"Big Ruckus at Free-Speech Radio Station After Boss' Ouster"

It started with the general manager getting axed and ended with three shots being fired through the windows.

No matter how you cut it, Wednesday was a night to remember at free-speech radio KPFA in Berkeley.

Here's the story:

KPFA is one of five listener supported stations run by the Berkeley-based Pacifica Foundation.  Over the years, Pacifica has become a bastion of both free speech, and progressive reporting and politics.

In recent years, however, the staffers and volunteers have felt they've been getting squeezed as more and more money and resources are siphoned off to support the foundation's growing bureaucracy.

This week, things boiled over when popular station manager Nicole Sawaya didn't have her contract renewed and was shown the door "effective immediately."

The word is, she wasn't enough of a "team player."

To say that staff members were shocked would be an understatement.  But they were even more shocked when word came down not to talk about it.

Not a smart thing to say to free speechers.  No sooner than you could say "Birkenstock", the news department bucked the bosses and went on the air with the story.

David Gans picked up on the cry on his popular "Dead to the World" show, urging listeners to phone and fax in their protests.

Later that night, someone took a couple of shots at the Pacifica Foundation quarters, shattering one window and putting a bullet hole in another. Luckily, no one was hurt.

Although Pacifica spokeswoman Elan Fabbri declined to discuss Sawaya's removal, she was eager to talk about the gunshots.

"It's hard to believe that it was just a coincidence," Fabbri said, adding that the shooting "was the real story here."

Staffer Philip Maldari, who has been designated to speak for the other side, said that he was equally shocked by the shooting and that "we are totally appalled that anyone would do anything like that."

Next up in the saga:  A noon rally today at the station to protest the manager's firing."