If you were a member of KPFK, listener-sponsored free speech non-commercial Pacifica radio in Los Angeles and Southern California, as of June 30, you will be able to vote for delegates to the Local Station Board, which has oversight over local management, budget, and compliance of station programming with the Pacifica mission.
Here is the timeline from the National Election Supervisor; there is also a local election supervisor for KPFK itself, whom you can reach at LES-kpfk2021@pacifica.org.
There is lots more information at https://elections.pacifica.org, and stay tuned for on-air “carts” (short recordings from each of the candidates, as well as informational announcements by the election supervisors). There will also be a series of prime-time candidate forums giving all the listener candidates for the 9 available seats on the Local Station Board (LSB) a chance to speak with and hear from the listeners.
There will also be a management report to the listeners on the air in August, as well as a show by the Local Station Board (candidates for re-election cannot participate to prevent any unfair advantage), as mandated by the Pacifica National Board, with about half the time on each broadcast spent taking and responding to calls from listeners.
The station has a new General Manager, Miquel Calcaçada, who will be arriving in August, but beginning his official tenure in September. He may participate in the August management report to the listeners along with the interim GM, Moe Thomas (subbing in temporarily from sister station WPFW in Washington DC).
- June 30 Record Date for Membership
- July Preparation of campaign materials (debates, forums, candidate carts)
- Aug 1 Finalize Membership Lists
- Aug 15 Ballot Phase Begins – Open election and campaign phase
- Aug 15 – Oct 15 Fulfill ballot requests and provide customer support
- Oct 15 – 25 Ballot data entry
- Oct 28 Simply Voting provides results to NES
- Nov 1 NES certifies and announces results
- December Local Station Board members take office
Questions?
Contact Renee Asteria Peñaloza
Email: nes@pacifica.org
Voicemail: +1(510) 993-0320
Introducing Miquel Calçada I Olivella, new General Manager for KPFK
by Lydia Brazon, interim Executive Director, Pacifica Foundation
Following the resignation of GM Anyel Fields, the KPFK Local Station Board elected a search committee to fill the position. The GM search committee and the LSB produced an extraordinary pool of candidates for me to choose from.
Miquel’s educational background includes Bachelor’s degrees in Law and Journalism, as well as a Master’s degree in International Relations and Public Administration from The Maxwell School, Syracuse University.
I believe you will see in the following from Miquel, why I regard him as being uniquely qualified to help fulfill the Pacifica mission, meet the needs of the station, listeners, paid and unpaid staff, volunteers, and the greater community at large.
“KPFK radio has great talent and enormous potential and I look forward to working in collaboration with all members to tackle current challenges. Lew Hill’s aspiration of independent media free from direct constraints is more relevant than ever before.
“As a multilingual professional, who has traveled to over 80 countries where local people shared their heartfelt stories of success and disillusionment, my approach to working with all people including staff, volunteers, board members, and listeners, is regarded as respectful and compassionate.
“I have 14 years of experience in public radio administration and production in Barcelona, and over 18 years of experience as an owner of two radio stations which grew from $0 to $9 million in value. Community engagement is key to growth and resulted in building listenership progressively over the years, most recently, at KOPN in Missouri.”
Pacifica welcomes Miquel to Pacifica’s family of stations, units and affiliates. Thank you for your continued support.
