Following former Pacifica National board member Carol Spooner’s commentary on what’s going on at KPFA, station programmer Brian Edwards-Tiekert contacted me, asking that I publish his perspective on the station. Edwards-Tiekert is a former staff representative to the KPFA Local Station Board, and was the co-host of KPFA’s Morning Show until Pacifica Executive Director Arlene […]
Tag Archives | KPFA
What’s the problem at KPFA? by Carol Spooner
At the request of KPFA programmer Peter Phillips, I am posting this public statement by Carol Spooner, former Pacifica National Board member. It offers Spooner’s assessment of why layoffs were necessary at KPFA. I am not sure whether Spooner will approve of this posting. In a separate statement, she has accused me of “Glenbeckian” distortions […]
Pacifica radio donations up, but board/governance costs soar
There’s good news in the Pacifica radio network’s latest financial audit. Listener donations to the five listener supported radio station non-profit rose in 2010 from their catastrophic drop of almost $4 million between 2008 and 2009. The donation total was $10,585,979 in 2010, up from $9,808,729 in 2009. That doesn’t compensate, of course, for the […]
KPFA will nix “Morning Mix” for Flashpoints and Hard Knock Radio
You need a score card these days to keep up with programming changes over at listener sponsored Pacifica station KPFA in Berkeley. About four months after dumping the KPFA Morning Show and replacing it with a volunteer lineup called ‘The Morning Mix,’ the station’s management says it is ending that experiment, too. Pretty much everything […]
Activating the Medium Festival explores Radio as Source Material for Sound Art
Radio doesn’t always begin and end with a broadcast over the airwaves. Sometimes radio transmissions are used by artists as another tool for creative expression. This year the arts organization 23five is curating the Activating the Medium XIV festival in San Francisco and will present several performances and radio broadcasts focused on the theme of […]
Doug Henwood’s Radio Days
Doug Henwood of the Left Business Observer is one of my favorite people in the world of arts, letters, and radio. A brilliant and entertaining critic of neo-liberalism, neo-conservatism, and neo-crackpotism, Henwood is the author of Wall Street and After the New Economy—the latter a remarkable analysis of the dot-com-bomb phenomenon. Doug is long associated […]
How to donate to KPFA without giving to the Pacifica Foundation
It’s never a dull moment over at listener supported radio station KPFA-FM in Berkeley, California. Here’s some of the latest poop: Former WBAI-FM Program Director Andrew Phillips is headed to become the station’s interim manager, following the resignation of the last guy (who lasted about a month). You can find a brief mention of Phillips […]
9/11 Truthers say support new KPFA Morning Show (but not too truthfully)
The new all volunteer KPFA Morning Show got a resounding endorsement from Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth this week. The group says its mission is to promote the idea that there is “sufficient evidence to conclude that the World Trade Center buildings #1 (North Tower), #2 (South Tower), and #7 (the 47 story high-rise […]
Radio’s Fall – Part One: No Money, Mo’ Problems
Editor’s Note: Radioactive Gavin has collected more than 300 articles on radio and digital music over the past 3 months for Common Frequency. This is the first of a series of seven posts he will be contributing in the coming weeks, looking back at the end of a rough year in radio. Conservatives crying “Defund NPR” […]
Hello new Morning Show; goodbye KPFA
You can always tell a true community radio politics junkie, because eventually he or she will open up a post with a line like the following: “This is the last thing I’m ever going to say about Pacifica radio.” Yeah, right. So let me put it a little more tentatively. This is the last thing […]