In the last issue of Change Links, we ran a piece about the issues facing Pacifica, partly in response to an opinion piece in the L.A. Progressive in which the writer had announced his decision to withdraw his funds and pledges from Pacifica. Michael Novick, author of the Change Links piece, understood that to mean the writer, and by implication the L.A. Progressive, were urging people to do the same. The writer [...]
Rest in Power Ronald Spriestersbach, 1928-2021 Ron Spriesterbach, who passed away recently at age 93, was a warm friend and good comrade, an anti-racist and anti-imperialist to the core and to the last. Ron is pictured above on the right with his comrade Reza Pour. Like Reza, Ron was a former member of the KPFK Local Station Board and active with the Grassroots Community Radio Coalition as a manifestation of his lifelong [...]
by Michael Novick, Anti-Racist Action-Los Angeles/People Against Racist Terror (ARA-LA/PART), KPFK LSB Chair 2021, 2022 Some people are advocating cutting off donations to KPFK and Pacifica., in particular to support the claims and efforts of New Day Pacifica. This is a counter-productive and destructive proposal. KPFK and Pacifica need and merit our support to maintain and build the independence and impact as democratic media of free speech, non-commercial listener-sponsored community radio, a [...]
THE FUTURE OF LISTENER-SPONSORED KPFK Change Links Exclusive: Interview with new KPFK General Manager Miquel Calçada Listener sponsored free speech community radio station KPFK 90.7 FM, part of the Pacifica Foundation, is a unique democratically governed media institution. After an extensive search, a new General Manager was recently hired and started his tenure in mid-September. Change Links got a chance to conduct this interview with him to give our readers more of [...]
by Michael Novick As Change-Links was going to press, voters in Honduras appeared to have elected the left candidate for president, ending 12-years of a coup-based conservative government (installed after Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton signed off on the overthrow of the elected president, Manuel Zelaya). According to Reuters, "Leftist opposition candidate Xiomara Castro raced to an early lead in the Honduran presidential election on Sunday, November 28, partial election [...]
by Michael Novick, KPFK LSB Chair The future of KPFK and Pacifica are up in the air, as newly-elected or re-elected Local Station Board members are to be seated in December here and at the other four Pacifica stations in Berkeley, Houston, New York and Washington DC. New general managers recently took the helm at KPFK and at KPFT in Texas, with big problems to overcome. The L.A. station has been mired [...]
by Michael Novick, KPFK LSB Chair The elections for listener and staff delegates at KPFK and other Pacifica stations, no longer threatened by a Bylaws replacement effort that would have eliminated elected local oversight of station management, finances and programming policy and fairness, are now underway. Listener-sponsor and staff members, in separate elections, will choose nine listener and three staff delegates to serve for three years on the Local Station Board (LSB). [...]
-Paid Political Ad - Vote for Grassroots Community Radio Coalition Candidates for LSB Defend Democracy, Diversity, Accountability & Community Radio! Money Out of Pacifica Politics - Keep Pacifica Whole and Committed to Peace, Justice & Self- Determination! Grassroots candidates are predominantly Black, Indigenous & People of Color, and majority women, reflecting the community. In alphabetical order: Deidra Bynum, Marisol Cruz, Fernando S. Fernando, Kelly Flores, George Funmaker, Rob Macon, Jack Neff, Michael [...]
by Michael Novick, Anti-Racist Action LA The outcome of the recent Bylaws referendum at Pacifica, allowing the Local Station Board elections of listener and staff delegates to go forward, is a victory for democracy, diversity, accountability and a commitment to mission-driven, community-based radio. The New Day bylaws change, according to the same rules that governed the previous Bylaws referendum, in accordance not just with Pacifica's existing Bylaws, but with the California Corporations [...]
Shallow Roots by Michael Novick [excerpts] I have shallow roots in the blood-soaked soil of Turtle Island. My father arrived from Bialystok in the '30s, in his teens. There are no Americans in my genes and my genes are in no Americans. My non-biological grand-daughter was raised in Europe and has become a Swede, married to a Swede, with two lovely Swedish children. I am glad she didn't have to grow up [...]
Dual Elections at KPFK in June Reveal Dueling Futures for Pacifica Radio by Michael Novick, KPFK Local Station Board Chair June 1 opens the regularly scheduled election process for listener and staff delegates to the KPFK Local Station Board (LSB), under the Bylaws that make Pacifica radio a unique democratically governed national media institution. June 7, a separate special costly election process begins on a revision of those Bylaws which, if it [...]
