Random Lengths, March 7, 1997

Random Shots

When some Defense Department official tells us killing people is really 'collateral damage" or some corporate suit says cutting down redwood trees really isn't bad for the environment many or us in Southern California have traditionally to KPFK (90.7 FM) for the straight scoop. I the listener-sponsored station institutes changes, we all may have to find new alternatives or be left without anything to turn to at all.

As a former staff member and long-time volunteer at KPFK, I have watched as profound changes in the nature of Pacifica and its programming, made behind closed doors, have provoked forming of grassroots organizations in Pacifica listening areas.

The Pacifica Accountability Committee (of which I am a member) was formed to demand accountability from those who take our money and volunteer labor while promising community-responsive radio. Unfortunately, at the moment Pacifica is moving not toward accountability, but toward an increased centralization of power and greater secrecy.

Beginning with their July 1995 meeting, Pacifica Board of Directors have made the meeting minutes confidential. Though the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) requires recipients of CPB funding (like Pacifica) to keep open books and hold open meetings, financial information on Pacifica has also been nearly impossible to come by. Grassroots radio activists in Northern California filed a formal complaint to the CPB concerning Pacifica's secrecy, but as of yet, nothing has come of it.

The same arrogance that drives their secrecy also apparently leading Paciflea to attack the unions representing their workers. Many supporters of Pacifica were stunned to learn that they used the services of the American Consulting Group (ACG). Long on the AFL-CIO's list of union-busting consultants, ACG's clients include TRW, RJR Nabisco, General Dynamics, Cola and Union Carbide. Pacifica Executive Director Pat Scott claims Pacifica used ACG for advice on changes in labor law (for which were paid $1,000), and that the arrangement since been terminated.

Pacifica may have stopped using ACG's services, but those services had gone well beyond advice. Under the name The Center for Human Resources, ACG sat in on 17 negotiating sessions between KPFK and the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE). With or without ACG, however, the union-busting activities continue.

Workers at three Pacifica stations (KPFK, WBAI in New York and KPFA in Berkeley) union representation. At KPFK, the contract negotiations have dragged on for more than a year with no end in sight. Management wants to reduce the collective bargaining unit by denying union representation to staff members who are heard on the air (like people in the news department). Another strategy is to have work formerly done union workers assigned to management or to temporary employees.

Pacifica is also trying to shrink the collective bargaining unit at the New York station, WBAI, where the union represents both the paid staff and the volunteers. Pacifica went to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to remove the volunteers from the unit. Last month the NLRB ruled in favor of the right of the volunteers to union resentation.

Pacifica is run by an executive director who is nominally accountable to the Board of Directors. The board is a self-perpetuating group, accountable to no one. The chair of the board has held position for 20 years and show no signs of leaving, even though he no longer lives in the United States.

There are viable alternatives to running commercial radio stations with a remote bureaucracy. Last July, I attended the first Grassroots Radio Conference in Boulder, CO. People from non-commercial radio stations across the country had gathered to discuss shared concerns and issues. Out of that conference came the folIowing statement:

"More than audio outlets, volunteer-based community radio stations are cultural institutions in their communities, reflecting the unique concerns and passions of the people who live there. With system of governance based on openness and collaboration, and diverse programming produced by volunteers and funded by listeners, these stations are cornerstones of participatory democracy, offering ordinary citizens the chance to exercise First-Amendment rights in a mass medium audiences the opportunity to directly support programming that is of importance to them."

In my opinion, all these issues come down one fundamental question: are we members community gathered around a radio station, or we passive "consumers of media"? At Pacifica we were supposed to be something more.