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 in deficits, with revenues falling even as economies have been made to reduce the red ink. The resignations of a number of paid programming staff opens the door to a rejuvenation and refreshing of the program offerings to better correspond with the Pacifica mission, the necessity for greater community engagement and involvement, and responsiveness to the needs of a new generation of listeners more accustomed to the interactivity of social media. The station is wrapping up its fall membership drive on November 5. Generous donations are essential to enable the station to do the program development, promotion and outreach necessary to restore its capacity to serve community interests and air stimulating, uncensored public affairs, news and cultural expression. You can donate online at kpfk.org/donate.
On Saturday, November 13 at 4:00 PM PST, Pacifica Fightback, a national coalition of listeners and staff from all five Pacifica stations, will be holding a virtual national town hall via Zoom to address the pressing questions of how KPFK and its sister stations can revive their fortunes, and rebuild their audience and impact on all the pressing issues of our time. Preserving Pacifica as a democratic mass medium committed to free speech and meeting the social, cultural and educational needs of the community without corporate underwriting is an essential task in an era of growing economic inequality, a world-wide reckoning with racism, catastrophic climate change and the threat of a new cold (or hot) war.
Participants from all five stations will discuss the recently completed election process and lessons from it for running a participatory democratic election for listener and staff delegates next year as scheduled. They will also consider how Pacifica’s five stations can rebuild their audience, impact and financial base. Here’s the zoom registration info: Register in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUlfuGopzoqHtAfCD3JWZiVJ_J1fVTCEg-C
You will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
In related news, the KPFK LSB will be on the air with their third LSB dialogue with the listeners on Monday evening, November 15 from 9-10:00 PM (heard on 90.7 FM in Los Angeles or on-line at kpfk.org). Earlier that same day, starting at 4 PM, the LSB Programming Oversight Committee will meet telephonically, followed at 7 PM by a meeting of the Community Advisory Board (CAB), working towards a community needs assessment. The LSB itself will meet on Wed. evening Nov. 17 via zoom from 6-9 PM PST.
