Executive Director's Report to the Interim Pacifica National Board
Berkeley, California
June 21-23, 2002
As you all know, the new Pacifica Board and executive leadership
inherited a financial and administrative nightmare in January
of this year. The network had been looted and left rudderless.
Stations did not even have funds to buy a paper clip let alone
a pair of headphones and critical services like telephones
and postage were being cut off. Pacifica’s transmitters
were under threat, including KPFK’s historic tower on
the top of Mt. Wilson. With no chief financial officer or
controller, and chaos reigning in the national office, the
network was on the verge of financial collapse.
An independent financial review published in February reported
that Pacifica faced a 2002 calendar year budget gap of $1.5
million and a deficit of $4.8 million. Some stations were
facing serious working capital deficits. WBAI was looking
at a hole of $350,000 and KPFK $250,000. With only $11 million
in annual revenue, these debts posed a serious threat to the
organization’s survival. Bankruptcy was openly being
contemplated.
Today, five months later, the network stands alight with
the promise of a new day. The Pacifica Foundation has a balanced
budget and all of our stations are operating in the black.
Local stations now have authority over their own finances
and money that is raised locally is largely being spent locally.
The network’s overall debt has been slashed from $4.8
million to an estimated $1.5 million, a remarkable turnaround
in such a short time.
During this period, we pioneered a unique form of programming,
the Altercast, showcasing -- in a unique day-long, pin-wheel
format -- the talent and voices of all of Pacifica’s
five stations. The Altercast was unveiled earlier this year
when, in an inspiring show of network-wide solidarity, the
entire Pacifica community rallied to save KPFK’s transmitter.
I’m pleased to report that the KPFK transmitter is slated
to be at full power very soon, up from its weakened 8,000
watts to a full blown 112,000 watts. Many thanks to Pacifica’s
consulting engineer Don Mussell and to the entire KPFK staff
and community for this great achievement.
The financial turnaround, and the new collaborative spirit,
has occurred because of the commitment and talent of many
selfless and wonderful staff and community members. Indeed,
the entire Pacifica community moved aggressively -- and quickly
-- to deal with the financial crisis. At the national level,
the strategy was simple – cut costs and raise revenue
while at the same time maintaining financial transparency
and the integrity of Pacifica’s most important assets
– its five stations. National units took sharp cuts.
We rolled back on salaries for national management and general
managers. Wage cuts for top managers ranged from 33 percent
to ten and five percent for national staff and station management.
Unions and local staff around the system deferred pay raises
and everybody tightened their belts. Nickels are being treated
like manhole covers.
Tough decisions had to be made. On Feb. 15, we closed down
the network news operations and reorganized the Ku satellite
system, saving an estimated $1.2 million a year. Democracy
Now! took a 35 percent budget cut, the Pacifica Archives 20
percent, and the national office contracted sharply. A voluntary
lay-off package was initiated at Pacifica largest station,
WBAI in New York.
We stopped the golden parachute severances packages that
had been handed out to former staffers and executives. In
January, those claims and packages involving 21 staff totaled
more than $650,000. We reviewed Pacifica’s legal obligations
on those claims and thus far the network has only paid out
$140,000 to a handful of former staffers. We understand that
many people, quite rightly, feel that these packages were
immoral and unethical and nobody should be permitted to loot
the network like this. All of us agree. However, because of
legal liabilities, Pacifica had to make good on some of these
claims. In our estimation, it would have been more costly
to challenge the claims than to pay them out. In other words,
it was better not to throw good money after bad. This strategy
has enabled us to save half a million dollars.
We have also begun to deal with the eight large professional
service firms who claimed that Pacifica owed them some $2.2
million. There has been a payment of some $512,000 from Pacifica’s
insurance company to two separate law firms, Williams &
Connolly and Fulbright & Jaworski. Further, we have begun
challenging the bills from other firms and entering into prearranged
settlement plans with them. Thus far, we have managed to reduce
the claims from $2.2 million to $1.6 million, a reduction
of some 27 percent. No payments directly from Pacifica have
been made to any of these alleged creditors. However, we will
be paying out some of these outstanding obligations in the
very near future.
On the fundraising side, I am pleased to report that Pacifica’s
revenue has increased sharply over the last five months. Listeners
have rallied in extraordinary numbers to our call for support,
holding house parties, inviting friends and colleagues over
and then sending in to the national office dozens of checks.
In the New York tri-state area, there have been no less than
four separate fundraising events organized by listeners and
WBAI staff in the last several months. Again, many thanks
to those individuals and foundations who have rallied to Pacifica
at this critical time.
At the station level, we’re seeing record fund-raising.
Pacifica station KPFT in Houston, for instance, posted a record
winter fund drive of $390,000 smashing the old mark of $280,000.
WPFW in Washington, DC, just posted its largest every spring
fund drive in history -- $420,000. At WBAI, listeners pledged
some $900,000, an all-time spring fund-drive record and up
55 percent from the $580,000 pledged during last year’s
spring drive. Listeners at KPFK 90.7 FM in Los Angeles pledged
a record $618,000, up 45 percent from the previous year’s
spring fund drive total of $425,000.
And t Pacifica’s flagship station, KPFA 94.1 FM in
Berkeley, California, listeners pledged a spring fund raising
drive record of $621,000. The drive was capped by the largest
single day of fundraising in the station's 53-year history,
with some $104,000 pledged on the drive’s last day.
This spring’s fund-raising record follows Pacifica’s
highest ever winter on-air drive this past January and February,
generating nearly $3.5 million in on air pledges at Pacifica’s
five stations.
I am pleased to report that the national office has also
been aggressive in raising funds. The office spearheaded the
Save Our Signal day that raised some $209,000 and the April
20th day of programming that raised more than $40,000. June
19th, or Juneteenth, the network rallied once again to produce
a live 15-hour broadcast from coast-to-coast. All five stations
suspended local programming to air this historic national
broadcast from 7:00 am to 10:00 pm Eastern. More days of national
fundraising and national programming are slated over the next
few months, including one on Sept. 18th. We are also planning
a national mailing and telemarketing campaign. We anticipate
that all of these efforts should raise some $500,000 combined.
In recent months, the Pacifica national office has reactivated
many of our long dormant revenue generating sources, like
the Subsidiary Communication Authority (SCA) channels at our
five stations. Currently, of the 15 SCA frequencies available
to Pacifica, two are utilized by Pacifica stations, KPFA and
KPFK, and six are leased to private vendors. The current monthly
revenue from SCA contracts is $44K, $528K annually. Two of
the frequencies are just coming back on-line with the KPFK
transmitter project finishing and three others have leases
pending. If these leases are signed under the current terms
being offered, Pacifica would earn an additional $14.5K per
month. Still, the SCA market is very weak and revenues from
these lease have been declining in recent years. This trend
is likely to continue.
At the same time as raising revenue and tightening our belts,
we moved to strengthen Pacifica’s financial systems,
procedures and personnel. The introduction of two separate
financial software systems in the last year as well as new
budgeting procedures and the move of the accounting office
from Los Angeles to Washington, DC, left the entire financial
spine of the network in crisis. We hired a comptroller, two
station business managers, and restored financial authority
to local stations. In April, we gathered all the network business
managers in Washington, DC, for a three-day training in a
new software system. We are confident that our accounting
systems should all be up to date and fully operational by
in the next few months.
Though great strides have been made, challenges remain. Pacifica’s
FY01 audit needs to be completed. Further, central services
allocations, i.e., the financial picture between the stations
and the national office, needs to be clarified. That whole
relationship between national and the stations completely
broke down last year as the national management arbitrarily
raided station accounts to pay for exorbitant expenses incurred
by the Executive Director. We are still putting the pieces
back together and are hopeful that central services allocations
will be running normally in the next couple of months.
Pulling Pacifica back from the brink of bankruptcy is the
result of much hard work and sacrifices by many people. Interim
deputy ED Verna Avery-Brown and I would especially like to
acknowledge and thank the hard work of the national accounting
staff, led by interim Comptroller Yhasmine Bryan. We’d
also like to acknowledge the support, wisdom and experience
of KPFA interim GM Jim Bennett, and the entire KPFA community,
as well as that of WBAI GM Valerie Van Isler. Their insights
and commitment, as well as that of their staffs the communities
they represent, to the well-being of the national network
have been indispensable over the last five months.
When Verna and I came before you at the Los Angeles board
meeting, and in my previous board reports shortly after assuming
the position of interim Executive Director, two clear goals
were laid out. No. 1 was stabilizing Pacifica’s finances.
No. 2 was the process of reconciliation and reform at the
five Pacifica stations.
I’m pleased to report that all five Pacifica station
are working collaboratively and forging new relationships
with communities and Local Advisory Boards. New leadership
is being put into place – or is in the process of being
put into place – at each of the five stations. For the
first time in Pacifica’s recent history, there is a
participatory process for the change in leadership –
a process that directly involves the key Pacifica stakeholders
– paid and unpaid staff, union and management, Local
Advisory Board members and national board members, and listener
and community organizations. This process has led to the hiring
of a new GM at KPFK 90.7 FM in Los Angeles and a new GM at
KPFT in Houston. GM Search Committees are presently under
formation and working at WBAI, WPFW and KPFA in Berkeley.
The leadership and staffing transitions at the local stations
have, at times, been very difficult. But we have adopted a
clear policy of “Deactivation,” of taking the
gun out of Pacifica politics and spending the extra time to
resolve problems. We are pleased that the contestation and
acrimony that have characterized previous administrations
and transitions have been largely absent. This is because
the new reform leadership has been careful to approach issues
in a collaborative manner. We have forged real partnerships
with Pacifica’s unions and worked hard to resolve disputes
before they have festered and grown out of control. Mediation
and dialogue have replaced confrontation and conflict. I am
pleased to report that two union contracts have been signed
in the last five months – one with CWA at KPFA in Berkeley,
and one with AFTRA covering Pacifica National Programming
workers. We are also negotiating new AFTRA contracts for paid
workers at WBAI in New York and in Washington, DC. We will
be opening up contract negotiations with UAW who represent
unpaid workers at WBAI.
In the wake of last December’s legal settlement, Pacifica’s
Local Advisory Board are assuming a much more important role
in Pacifica’s governance than in many years. The national
office has worked hard with many of the GMs and LAB members
to develop a new spirit of cooperation in LAB-Station relations.
Still, many questions remain about the extent of LAB responsibilities
and the overall relationship between policy and operations.
Most of these issues will be hammered our over the course
of the next several months as new bylaws are written and adopted.
In the meantime, the LAB chairs, the national office and the
station managers are developing guidelines as to how the relationship
might move forward in this interim period.
Another key issue that has emerged during this period of
healing and reconciliation has been programming. How do local
Pacifica stations articulate Pacifica's mission in their day-to-day
programming? What are the structures and processes around
programming?
Last March, Verna Avery-Brown and I asked KPFA programmer
and former PNB board member Robbie Osman to form a commission
to look at Pacifica programming and the programming process
The Mission Commission was conceived as an way to enlist
the help of some of Pacifica's most thoughtful and politically
committed friends in our collective effort to examine how
decisions are made within Pacifica and to consider how the
way we make those decisions affects that we end up being,
what we end up doing, and how effective we end up being as
an agent for peace and justice.
The idea of the Mission Commission was based on the premise
that it would be helpful to enlist the help of more of Pacifica's
politically committed friends in our collective effort to
rebuild the network. More specifically, the idea was to develop
a mechanism for a structured examination of issues like how
decisions are made within Pacifica and how the way we make
those decisions affects who we end up being, what we end up
doing, and how effective we end up being as an agent for peace
and justice.
The need for this work is part of a broad effort within the
network to strengthen and where necessary reestablish ties
between progressive leadership and Pacifica. The old leadership
of the Pacifica Foundation had, over the course of many years,
systematically undermined every avenue (structured and informal)
of accountability, communication and reciprocal power within
the organization and between the organization and the communities
and struggles that it exists to serve. There is a need to
facilitate and encourage direct communication in the expectation
that that would help reestablish healthy and appropriate relationships
within the larger Pacifica family, and between Pacifica and
the broader progressive social change movements.
The name 'Mission Commission' was catchy but in the end it
created misunderstanding. Organizing a commission of well
respected and thoughtful friends from outside the immediate
Pacifica family was envisioned as part of the effort but was
not the heart of the project. As it happened, the difficulties
presented for several of the prospective participants by the
commission form and suspicion and resistance from some in
the Pacifica community of a group like this led to the conclusion
that other ways of accomplishing the work would be better.
The work is ongoing. We have been meeting with friends whose
activism in a wide spectrum of progressive efforts might otherwise
limit their ability to take part in the day to day operations
of Pacifica and our stations to ask for their insights and
active participation and to bring them closer to Pacifica.
We have held several useful and productive meetings on both
coasts and more such meetings are planned. And there are a
number of different options being discussed on how to move
forward. Foremost among these is convening a national programming
conference later this year.
Technical and Physical Plant
Because turnover in staffing will continue as the network
rebuilds, we need to remain concerned about pending and potential
inspections of stations by the FCC. Transmitter operating
logs, Emergency Alert System (EAS), public file updates and
proper postings are all items that if not in compliance could
cost Pacifica thousands of dollars in fines and additional
thousands in legal costs. The national office has encouraged
all stations to review their facilities using the FCC’s
Self-Inspection Guide.
At KPFA, bids are currently being received on new transmitter
and antenna. Half the funds for this project are from a grant
awarded to KPFA by the Public Telecommunications Facilities
Program, a competitive grant program of the department of
Commerce.
At KPFK, the transmitter install continues to make good progress
though there have been minor complications but nothing out
of the ordinary. The transmitters are in place but final connections
won’t be made until the HVAC work is completed. The
air handling units will arrive the week of June 17th. Once
the air conditioning is in place, the installation of the
transmitters will be complete and KPFK will return to full
power following required transmitter testing. Because of the
delay on the HVAC, Don Mussell will be completing the installation
at KPFK and unable to attend the board meeting in Berkeley.
At KPFT, the FCC has not acted on our construction permit
application to raise operating power to 100kw. Negotiations
on a leasing a tower site in Galveston are preceding. We anticipate
installing a translator in Galveston late this summer and
reaching an additional 300,000 people.
AT WPFW, the antenna installation is in need of immediate
replacement, though repairs may also be required to keep a
signal on the air. There have been a series of outages this
past spring and there is no back up antenna facility for WPFW.
The tower lease expires in October 1st. Tower owners with
a relationship with WPFW have proposed that WPFW move to their
site just north of Washington DC. The move hasn’t been
fully studied but it does give WPFW an option over its current
site if negotiations prove difficult.
At WBAI, there is a lot of new work going on at the Empire
State Bldg where WBAI’s antenna is located. More tenants,
especially television stations, are moving in due to the loss
of the WTC. There is the potential that changes in the installation
could have a negative impact on our operation. WBIA General
Manager Valerie Van Isler, Don Mussell and John Crigler, Pacifica’s
FCC lawyer, are monitoring the situation to insure WBAI’s
interests are represented in any new negotiations.
In other technical matters, the Pacifica national office
has begun to examine Pacifica’s web development and
attempting to coordinate the web work around the system. For
the first time ever, all of Pacifica web masters have been
talking to each other, exchanging ideas, philosophies and
strategies. There is a long way to go and, given the current
financial climate, there have been few resources available
to launch any major new web developments. However, for Pacifica
to move forward, the organization must actively develop a
robust web presence.
At the pacifica dot org site, we have begun preliminary work
by restructuring the current content. The entire site consists
of 2,862 web pages; with a total of 97,197 links (of which
25,112 are broken links, 44,821 are external links, and 27,264
are confirmed correct). Clearly, the site needs to highlight
the fabulous content of the Pacifica system. It also needs
to be marketed better, optimized for search engines, and we
also need to develop online progressive website alliances.
We’re aiming to organize a system, online and any other
way possible, to start brainstorming Pacifica wide about what
we want from our websites, how can we best reflect the Pacifica
Foundation online, etc. Ultimately, we want to pool together
the feedback and see how it all fits, i.e., what is technologically
feasible, what is financially feasible, what are our priorities.
All of us at the national office very much appreciate the
patience and work of the entire Pacifica community and the
interim Pacifica National Board. As we continue with our difficult
work of restoring Pacifica to financial health, and moving
forward with the reform process, please know that we do so
openly and honestly. We not only have an open books policy,
publishing our accounts on the web, but we have also sought
to inform the wider Pacifica community exactly what the issues
are that we face and how we are trying to tackle them. |
