Long time KPFA staffer Kellia Ramares-Watson has an interesting piece in The Leftist Review on the present and future of Pacifica radio, which owns KPFA. Kellia worked for the News and Operations departments at the station for some time, but quit when cutbacks (in her words) “imposed by the interim GM at KPFA, under orders […]
I attended the National Federation of Community Broadcasters conference on Friday. No sooner did I wander into the main drag of the San Francisco event than I spotted KPFA’s beleaguered General Manager, Andrew Leslie Phillips, staffing a table. “Matthew!” Phillips cheerfully exclaimed after I introduced myself. “Got a lot of respect for what you do. […]
The man in charge of overseeing the election of board delegates to Pacifica radio’s five Local Station Boards (LSBs) has asked the network to end these contests once and for all. “Almost everybody agrees that the elections at Pacifica are too costly, time consuming, factionalized and factionalizing,” concludes Pacifica National Elections Supervisor Terry Bouricius in […]
As the troubles facing Pacifica radio persist without apparent end, I sometimes wonder whether the five station listener supported radio network should voluntarily dismantle itself—that is, transfer its licenses to five local non-profit entities. I am not the first person to suggest this. Community radio pioneer Lorenzo Milam more or less laid the idea out […]
My friend and noted radio historian Jesse Walker e-mailed me the other day. “Just found out that there’s a ton of back issues of the WBAI and KPFK folios posted at archive.org,” Walker wrote. “Did you know this?” He was referring to the Internet Archives, of course. I think I did know, but then I […]
It has been about eighteen months since Pacifica listener supported station KPFA (Berkeley, CA) dumped its Morning Show for a volunteer lineup called the “Morning Mix.” The move was very controversial and personally disappointing. Thus I was happy to see this press release (below) announcing a new show for the station’s seven AM slot, “Up […]
In a special meeting of the Pacifica National Board held on Thursday, April 26, Pacifica Executive Director Arlene Engelhardt dropped this long overdue bombshell. “I just am very concerned where we are going to come up with a quarter of a million dollars to run an election this year,” she told the Board. This is […]
The KPFA Worker website says that the Pacifica Foundation has retained the law firm of Jackson Lewis to manage some of its legal affairs. The foundation owns listener supported station KPFA in Berkeley, and four similar non-commercial stations in Los Angeles, New York, Washington, D.C. and Houston. “We see the entry of Jackson Lewis as […]
Berkeley, California based listener supported station KPFA did an interesting and informative program on the candidacy of libertarian Republican Ron Paul on Tuesday. KFPA talk show host, Mitch Jeserich, hosted the discussion on his Letters and Politics show as Republicans (including Paul) compete for favor in the Iowa Caucuses. [UPDATE 10:41 PM CST: Paul comes […]
In its normative helter skelter way, Pacifica radio is providing ongoing coverage of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Several weeks ago I posted a piece critical of New York station WBAI’s lack of live coverage of the activities in Zuccoti Park and elsewhere around the area. Since then ‘BAI has launched Occupy Wall Street Radio […]
