Pacifica Foundation

Last updated

Pacifica Network
Pacifica Logo.jpg
Type Public radio network
Country
United States
Broadcast area
Nationwide
HeadquartersLos Angeles, California
Ownership
OwnerPacifica Foundation
History
Founded1946;78 years ago (1946)
by Lewis Hill and E. John Lewis
Launch dateApril 15, 1949(75 years ago) (1949-04-15)
Coverage
AvailabilityGlobal
Links
Website www.pacifica.org

Pacifica Foundation is an American nonprofit organization that owns five independently operated, non-commercial, listener-supported radio stations known for their progressive/liberal [1] [2] political orientation. Its national headquarters adjoins station KPFK in North Hollywood, California.

Contents

Pacifica Foundation also operates the Pacifica Network, a program service supplying over 200 affiliated stations with various programs, primarily news and public affairs. [3] It was the first public radio network in the United States and it is the world's oldest listener-funded radio network. [4] [5] Programs such as Democracy Now! and Free Speech Radio News have been some of its most popular productions.[ citation needed ]

Early history

Pacifica was founded in 1946 by pacifists E. John Lewis and Lewis Hill. During World War II, both of them had filed for conscientious objector status. After the war, Lewis, Hill and a small group of former conscientious objectors created the Pacifica Foundation in the town of Pacifica, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Their first station, KPFA in Berkeley, commenced broadcasting in 1949. By 1977, the network had added WBAI in New York City, KPFK in Los Angeles, WPFW in Washington, DC, and KPFT in Houston. [6]

FCC v. Pacifica Foundation

In 1973, one of Pacifica's stations, WBAI, broadcast comedian George Carlin's Filthy Words routine uncensored. Following a listener complaint, Pacifica received a letter of reprimand from the FCC, censuring them for allegedly violating broadcast regulations which prohibited airing indecent material. [7] The foundation took the matter to the U.S. Supreme Court in FCC v. Pacifica Foundation and lost in a 5–4 decision. This became a landmark moment in the history of free speech, and the case continues to define the power of the government over broadcast material it calls indecent. [8]

Governance

Pacifica National Board

Local Station Boards

In two years during a three-year cycle, subscribers and station staff at each station vote to elect the Local Station Board, as required by the Pacifica Foundation bylaws. [9] The local station boards have support and advisory duties for their station. They also elect members from their body to serve on the Pacifica Foundation's national board of directors. The full local station board meets monthly, and committees of the local station board meet on both regular and ad hoc bases.

Internal conflicts

1990s–2002

For most of its history, Pacifica gave each of its stations independent control of programming. During the 1990s, a major controversy arose over rumors that the Pacifica National Board and national staff were attempting to centralize control of content, to increase audience. The rumors included accusations that the board proposed changing the network's funding model away from a reliance exclusively on listener donations and toward a mix of listener donations and corporate foundation funding similar to that of NPR. There were also accusations that the Board was considering selling both KPFA and WBAI in New York City, which operate on commercial-band FM frequencies (94.1 and 99.5, respectively) worth hundreds of millions of dollars. [10]

This led to years of conflict, including court cases, public demonstrations, firings and strikes of station staff, whose common plight inspired creation of Radio4all.net to preserve what they saw as the original spirit of Pacifica. Many listeners of the individual stations, especially KPFA and WBAI, objected to what they saw as an attempt to tone down the overtly left-leaning political content on Pacifica stations. The controversy included highly publicized ideologically-charged disputes between grassroots listener organizations and Mary Frances Berry, a former chairperson of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, who chaired Pacifica's national board at the time. [11] [12]

The board eventually was embroiled in counter-lawsuits by board members and listener-sponsors and, after global settlement of the lawsuits in November 2001, an interim board was formed to craft new bylaws, which it did in two tumultuous years of national debates among thousands of listener-sponsors and activists, finally giving listener-sponsors the right and responsibility to elect new Local Station Boards at each of the five Pacifica stations. These local boards in turn elect the national board of directors. Aside from some minor changes, the same 2003 bylaws remain in effect today.[ citation needed ]

2002–2009

Pacifica National News director Dan Coughlin (director) was voted Interim Executive Director of the network in 2002 (the "Interim" was later dropped). The years of internal legal battles and financial mismanagement[ by whom? ] had taken a toll.[ citation needed ] In 2005, Coughlin resigned[ why? ], the network was still largely disorganized[ citation needed ], and Pacifica reverted to operating with an interim executive director for most of the year.[ citation needed ]

In January 2006, Pacifica hired Greg Guma as the next executive director of the Pacifica Foundation. By the end of the year, the Foundation had fully recovered its financial health and had launched two new national programs: Informativo Pacifica, a daily Spanish Language newscast, and From the Vault, a weekly program drawn from Pacifica's extensive audio archives. Pacifica also produced Informed Dissent, a ten-week series for the 2006 mid-term elections that drew from talent across the network. Guma left his post in September 2007[ why? ]. [13]

Pacifica's National Board unanimously chose former KPFA general manager Nicole Sawaya as the next executive director. Sawaya had been among the staff members fired by the national board in 1999 amidst Pacifica's internal crisis. Sawaya began her tenure as executive director in mid-November 2007, but abruptly changed her mind two weeks later. Pacifica historian Matthew Lasar said she "found the level of internecine dysfunction at Pacifica overwhelming, and fled her job."[ citation needed ] The Pacifica National Board spent the next several months negotiating with her, and Sawaya resumed her job on March 5, 2008. She resigned effective September 30, citing "dysfunctional" governance and "shoddy and opaque" business practices that had plunged the organization into a financial crisis. [14] [15] [16] [17]

Sawaya's departure was followed by major staff layoffs. In 2009, Pacifica Board chair Grace Aaron became interim executive director, former board member LaVarn Williams replaced Lonnie Hicks as chief financial officer, and the national office took control of WBAI in New York. Aaron appointed Williams acting GM of WBAI in May, and Hicks filed a lawsuit against the foundation alleging that he was dismissed because he is African American and a whistleblower.[ citation needed ]

Financial situation in the 2010s

On August 9, 2013, Pacifica interim executive director Summer Reese announced that due to financial problems, Pacifica-owned radio station WBAI-FM in New York was laying off about two-thirds of its staff, effective August 12, 2013. The entire news department was reportedly included in the layoff. [18]

After Pacifica's board of directors completed the 2016 board year with the exclusion of 75% of WBAI's board representation, it then moved to decertify Pacifica's 2016 board elections, which had been won handily by the independent faction not in power. The new 2017 board of directors replaced interim executive director Lydia Brazon with KPFT director Bill Crosier and reinstated WBAI's delegation.[ citation needed ]

On Friday, October 6, 2017, Pacifica lost a $1.8 million settlement over what they claimed was price gouging by Empire State Realty Trust (ESRT), which had been raising antenna rental charges for WBAI at 9% per year for the last 12 years under a 15-year lease WBAI signed in 2005 that did not expire until 2020. The rent was set at more than half a million dollars annually, which Pacifica claimed was approximately 4 times the current market rent for Midtown Manhattan antenna rentals. Pacifica Radio's WBAI has housed its transmitter on the Empire State Building since 1966. The 9% annual rental increases were facilitated by the destruction of the twin towers on September 11, 2001, which dramatically reduced space available for comparable antennas. The ruling encumbered all of Pacifica's assets including KPFA and KPFB in Berkeley, KPFK in Los Angeles, WPFW in Washington, DC, and KPFT in Houston in addition to WBAI in New York City but does not affect the assets of any of its affiliates. [19] On April 6, 2018, The Pacifica Foundation announced the settlement on a series of agreements that release WBAI, the organization's New York radio station, from a court judgment as well as the last two years of its lease at the Empire State Building as of May 31, 2018. [20] The Foundation later completed an agreement to relocate its transmission facility to a new site nearby.

On October 8, 2019, it was announced that WBAI's local operations were abruptly shut down. [21] Their programming was superseded by Pacifica Across America: a compilation of work from sister stations and other sources; Democracy Now! continued to be broadcast.

The 2019 WBAI shutdown was litigated in the fall of 2019. The New York State Supreme Court ruled in November 2019 that the WBAI shutdown by then-executive director John Vernile was executed "ultra vires" (without the proper authority) and ordered the station re-opened. [22]

Programs

Democracy Now!

A show that for years has been considered the flagship of Pacifica Radio's national programming is Democracy Now! , an independent news organization that covers democracy, human rights and justice issues, and questions the motives of U.S. foreign and domestic policy. Hosted by Amy Goodman and Juan González, this program is a compilation of news, interviews, and documentaries. Democracy Now! is heard and seen on more than 700 radio and TV stations across the U.S. including public-access television stations and satellite television channels Free Speech TV and Link TV. [23] WDEV, based in Waterbury, Vermont, is the only commercial radio station in the U.S. that carries the program [24] —even though it is also heard in north-central Vermont over Pacifica affiliate WGDR in Plainfield and its sister station, WGDH in Hardwick. [25]

In 2002, as Pacifica implemented its new listener-sponsor-accountability structure and as Pacifica and Democracy Now! settled outstanding disputes from previous years, Democracy Now! spun off with substantial funding from Pacifica to become an independent production.[ citation needed ]

Other Pacifica programming: 2000-2006

The Pacifica network, in addition to extensive community-based productions at its various stations around the United States, also featured a daily newscast Free Speech Radio News from 2003-2013.[ citation needed ]FSRN was a radio program founded by Pacifica Reporters Against Censorship, a group of mostly Pacifica Network News reporters who went on strike against the Pacifica board policies of the late 1990s. FSRN was primarily funded by Pacifica, and includes headlines and news features produced by reporters based around the U.S. and in scores of countries around the world. In September 2013, the board of directors of FSRN issued a lay-off notice to all staff, and confirmed that their last broadcast would take place on September 27, 2013. The board cited financial difficulties as the reason for the decision. [26]

In 2006, Pacifica added two new national programs: From the Vault from the Pacifica Radio Archives, a weekly program that thematically repackages[ when? ] archival material, making it relevant to contemporary listeners; and Informativo Pacifica , based at KPFK in Los Angeles, a daily Spanish-language newscast that includes reporters from the U.S. and many Latin American countries.[ citation needed ]

Initiatives 2007-2008

Recent programming

Local Pacifica stations produce[ when? ] many programs that are available to network stations and affiliates. These include: Sprouts , a weekly showcase of producers and stations around the network, often in documentary format; Explorations in Science with Dr. Michio Kaku, a weekly radio program on science, politics, and the environment; Dennis Bernstein's Flashpoints , a daily drive-time public affairs program; Against The Grain a progressive and radical commentary program; and many other regular programs.

Pacifica also produces [ when? ] a wide variety of special broadcasts, including live coverage of major U.S. Congressional hearings, national mobilizations against war, and other important events, such as the United States Social Forum. Special programs also include news documentaries, holidays and commemorations, and archival audio from the Pacifica Radio Archives.

Pacifica distributes program content via the Audioport system. [28]

Archives

The Pacifica Radio Archives, housed at station KPFK in Los Angeles, is the oldest public radio archive in the United States [4] documenting more than five decades of grassroots political, cultural, and performing arts history. The archive includes recordings of interviews with John Coltrane, James Baldwin, Lorraine Hansberry, and Langston Hughes, among many others. The Pacifica Radio Archives were featured in their own 30-minute slot on BBC Radio 5 Live's (now defunct) Up All Night program. [29]

Pacifica-owned stations

The Pacifica-owned stations are listed below in alphabetical order by state and community of license.

Note: All stations except for WBAI were built and signed-on by the Pacifica Foundation.

City of license/marketStationOwned since
Berkeley, California
(San Francisco Bay Area)		 KPFA–94.11949
KPFB–89.31954
Los Angeles KPFK–90.71959 [30]
New York City WBAI–99.51960 [31] [32]
Houston KPFT–90.11970
Washington, D.C. WPFW–89.31977 [33]

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Democracy Now!</i> American TV, radio, and internet news program

Democracy Now! is an hour-long TV, radio, and Internet news program based in Manhattan and hosted by journalists Amy Goodman, Juan González, and Nermeen Shaikh. The show, which airs live each weekday at 8 a.m. Eastern Time, is broadcast on the Internet and via more than 1,400 radio and television stations worldwide.

KPFA is a public, listener-funded talk radio and music radio station located in Berkeley, California, broadcasting to the San Francisco Bay Area. KPFA airs public news, public affairs, talk, and music programming. The station signed on the air April 15, 1949, as the first Pacifica Radio station and remains the flagship station of the Pacifica Radio Network.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WBAI</span> Pacifica Radio station in New York City

WBAI is a non-commercial, listener-supported radio station licensed to New York, New York. Its programming is a mixture of political news, talk and opinion from a left-leaning, liberal or progressive viewpoint, and eclectic music. The station is owned by the Pacifica Foundation with studios located in Brooklyn and transmitter located at 4 Times Square.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Frances Berry</span> American historian, lawyer and activist (born 1938)

Mary Frances Berry is an American historian, writer, lawyer, activist and professor who focuses on U.S. constitutional and legal, African-American history. Berry is the Geraldine R. Segal Professor of American Social Thought where she teaches American legal history at the Department of History, School of Arts & Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the former chairwoman of the United States Commission on Civil Rights. Previously, Berry was provost of the College of Behavioral and Social Science at University of Maryland, College Park, and was the first African American chancellor of the University of Colorado at Boulder.

KPFK is a listener-sponsored radio station based in North Hollywood, California, United States, which serves Southern California, and also streams 24 hours a day via the Internet. It was the second of five stations in the non-commercial, listener-sponsored Pacifica Foundation network.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">KTRU-LP</span> Radio station at Rice University in Houston

KTRU-LP is the college radio station of Rice University, a private university in south-central Houston, Texas, United States.

Lewis Hill was a co-founder of KPFA, the first listener-supported radio station in the United States, and the Pacifica Radio network.

Robert Morton Fass was an American radio personality and pioneer of free-form radio, who broadcast in the New York region for over 50 years. Fass's program, Radio Unnameable, aired in some form from 1963 until his death primarily on WBAI, a radio station operating out of New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">KPFT</span> Pacifica radio station in Houston

KPFT is a listener-sponsored community radio station in Houston, Texas, which began broadcasting March 1, 1970 as the fourth station in the Pacifica radio family. The station airs a variety of music, news, talk, and call-in programs, most ranging from center-left to far-left. Prominent persons who have been regulars on KPFT include science educator David F. Duncan and humorist John Henry Faulk.

WPFW is a talk and jazz music community radio station serving the greater Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. It is owned by the Pacifica Foundation, and its studios are located on K Street Northwest. The station’s slogan is "Jazz and Justice."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">KBOO</span> Listener-supported community radio station in Portland, Oregon

KBOO is a non-profit organization, listener-funded FM Community radio station broadcasting in Portland, Oregon. The station's mission is to serve groups that are underrepresented on other local radio stations and to provide access to the airwaves for people who have unconventional or controversial tastes and points of view. It broadcasts 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and has been on air since 1968.

William Marx Mandel was an American broadcast journalist, left-wing political activist, and author, best known as a Soviet affairs analyst. He was born in New York City.

Ian Masters is an Australian-born, BBC-trained American broadcast journalist, commentator, author, screenwriter and documentary filmmaker.

Law and Disorder is an hour-long United States radio program that broadcasts weekly from WBAI, part of the Pacifica Radio Network. The program focuses on legal issues. It was long hosted by Michael Ratner, President of the Center for Constitutional Rights, who died in May 2016; Heidi Boghosian, executive director of the A.J. Muste Memorial Institute; and Michael Steven Smith, a civil rights attorney and member of the National Lawyers Guild. Law and Disorder Radio is also syndicated on 24 terrestrial radio stations across the country. Law and Disorder began airing weekly shows in 2004.

Something's Happening is a long-format radio program airing four nights a week on Pacifica Radio-owned KPFK 90.7 FM in Los Angeles, California. Roy Tuckman created it in early 1977 and has hosted, produced, and engineered it ever since. Each night has a characteristic theme or subject, and all shows typically broadcast from midnight until 6:00 AM, Pacific Time. Most of the content consists of pre-recorded tapes of lectures, interviews, and rebroadcasts from other audio sources. There is the occasional live guest, usually at the very start or ending of the show. One segment, Radio Alchymy, is specifically produced for Something's Happening.

Grace Cavalieri is an American poet, playwright, and radio host of the Library of Congress program The Poet and the Poem. In 2019, she was appointed the tenth Poet Laureate of Maryland.

Flashpoints is a daily, politically progressive investigative news and public affairs program broadcast weekdays at 5 p.m. PST on Pacifica Radio station KPFA-FM (94.1) in Berkeley, California. The program is broadcast on Pacifica's national feed.

Nicole Sawaya was a Lebanese-American radio journalist who was the Executive Director of the Pacifica Radio Network.

Norman Lawrence Josephson was an American public radio producer. From 1965, he worked in the field of public broadcasting as a producer, host, station manager, engineer, teacher, writer, and consultant. His first show at listener-supported radio station WBAI in New York was influential in developing the free-form radio style of the 1960s and 1970s.

Utrice C. Leid is a Trinidadian American, former activist in the Civil Rights Movement, and journalist. She was the managing editor of The City Sun and general manager of New York radio station WBAI. In 2004, The Miami Herald wrote that she "prides herself on never working in the mainstream media during her 34 years of journalism".

References

  1. ↑ Lasar, Matthew (2000). Pacifica Radio: The Rise of an Alternative Network . Temple University. p. viii. ISBN   1-56639-777-4 . Retrieved February 22, 2012. Pacifica Radio liberal.
  2. ↑ "Progressive Radio". TuneIN. Archived from the original on July 16, 2011. Retrieved February 22, 2012.
  3. ↑ "History of the Pacifica Affiliate Network - Pacifica Network" . Retrieved December 31, 2020.
  4. 1 2 "Pacifica Foundation - Certificate of Incorporation" (PDF). State of California - Office of the Secretary of State.
  5. ↑ Meikle, Graham (2002). Future Active: Media Activism and the Internet. Psychology Press. p. 71. ISBN   978-0-415-94322-2.
  6. ↑ Pacifica Radio Archives page at American Archive of Public Broadcasting site
  7. ↑ Samaha, Adam. "The Story of FCC v. Pacifica Foundation (and Its Second Life)" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on April 19, 2011. Retrieved October 5, 2011.
  8. ↑ Collins, Glenn (June 25, 2008). "The Station That Dared to Defend Carlin's '7 Words' Looks Back". The New York Times . Retrieved February 23, 2012.
  9. ↑ "The Pacifica Foundation". pacifica.org.
  10. ↑ "Lasar (Matthew) Papers on KPFA and Pacifica Foundation". oac.cdlib.org. Retrieved September 26, 2023.
  11. ↑ "Free Speech for Sale?". The Village Voice . July 20, 1999. Retrieved July 10, 2010.
  12. ↑ "There's Something About Mary". October 12, 1999. Retrieved July 10, 2010.
  13. ↑ "Greg Guma Interview". Archived from the original on February 5, 2012.
  14. ↑ "Pacifica.org Nicole Sawaya Hired as New Pacifica Executive Director". Pacifica.org. Archived from the original on June 15, 2008. Retrieved July 19, 2008.
  15. ↑ "Sawaya quits [sigh]". LLFCC.NET. Retrieved July 19, 2008.
  16. ↑ "Sawaya unquits". LLFCC.NET. Archived from the original on September 5, 2009. Retrieved July 19, 2008.
  17. ↑ "Sawaya leaves Pacifica, publishes regretful critique". American University School of Communication. September 25, 2008. Archived from the original on November 26, 2010. Retrieved February 22, 2012.
  18. ↑ Ben Sisario, "WBAI-FM Lays Off Most of Staff", August 11, 2013, The New York Times.
  19. ↑ Court Protects ESRT's Lease Terms for Pacifica's Non-Profit WBAI Radio in NYC – Denies "Unconscionability" Motion, Common Dreams, October 6, 2017, retrieved January 11, 2018 For more information on what has happened since the October 6, 2017, court ruling, see What's Up with Pacifica Radio? WTF Pacifica?, Fresno, CA: KFCF, January 2, 2018, retrieved January 11, 2018
  20. ↑ "Pacifica Announces Settlement with Empire State Building and Empire State Realty Trust".
  21. ↑ Leonard Greene. Community radio station WBAI shuts down amid financial woes. Daily News (New York), October 7, 2019
  22. ↑ "NY Supreme Court Transcript Released | Pacifica in Exile". November 29, 2019. Retrieved December 31, 2020.
  23. ↑ Democracy Now!, January 16, 2019, retrieved December 31, 2020
  24. ↑ "Program Schedule". WDEV Radio Vermont. Archived from the original on August 31, 2008. Retrieved February 22, 2012.
  25. ↑ "Democracy Now!". Wgdr.org. Archived from the original on October 14, 2013. Retrieved July 30, 2013.
  26. ↑ "Free Speech Radio". Myemail.constantcontact.com. Retrieved September 24, 2013.
  27. ↑ "Winter Soldier 2008 Audio, Photo Archives from Pacifica Radio". KPFA. Archived from the original on March 31, 2009. Retrieved February 22, 2012.
  28. ↑ "AudioPort.Org - Latest Programs". audioport.org. Retrieved December 31, 2020.
  29. ↑ "FTV 214 Pacifica Radio Archives on the BBC". Pacifica Radio Archives. Retrieved December 31, 2020.
  30. ↑ "KPFK (FM) on air." Broadcasting, July 27, 1959, pg. 52
  31. ↑ ""WBAI (FM) given away." Broadcasting, November 30, 1959, pg. 58" (PDF).
  32. ↑ "Gift granted." Broadcasting, January 4, 1960, pg. 36
  33. ↑ "On the air." Broadcasting, March 14, 1977, pg. 38

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