In the midst of a national economic decline, Pacifica, the original listener-supported radio network, has been experiencing its own financial and organizational meltdown. As Executive Director in 2006 and 2007, I was in a unique position to identify many of the dilemmas facing this important progressive media organization. This article chronicles my experiences and efforts to avert a crisis, continuing a narrative begun last year and reporting on recent developments. To read previous installments, see links at the end or look for Planet Pacifica: An Inside Story at Maverick Media.
Part Three of Real Life on Planet Pacifica
The first in a series of long overdue discussions about Pacifica Radio’s national programming also took place at the Board’s March 2006 meeting. For the occasion I had invited program directors from the five sister stations to join other managers and staff at the board’s big table.
The question, obviously, was how it could be done. Since the “Save Pacifica” days the stations had retreated to a local approach, but not many people thought it was working. The only way to have more national broadcasts was to talk to all the stakeholders, KPFK’s GM Eva Georgia advised. And the trick was to “get buy in.”
Everyone agreed with her basic proposition. But the devil was in the details; specifically, how to generate new shows and get them on all Pacifica stations. As the discussion proceeded, it became increasingly vague and polemical. How about shows on the direction of the network, or an annual production calendar, or using the upcoming elections as a starting point? What about shows that combined talk and music? Yes, yes, some people said, but we also must go beyond what’s popular.
“Make the programs irresistible,” Bernard White advised, “and the stations, I’m sure, will take them.”
Well, maybe. But most of the suggestions avoided the real issues: how to make tough decisions, allocating resources – and time, and obtain commitments. The resources were there, yet little was happening and most national “specials” that aired didn’t make people proud.
Of all the remarks Eva’s were the most concrete. She was bright and passionate, and had somehow made things work in L.A. I had to wonder why she’d become so controversial. Despite our awkward beginning (she had also applied for the ED job) she was backing my move to have managers from across the country confer more often. “Let’s have the operations group be effective,” she said, “a place where we look at program proposals – without a ‘must carry’ and without a fight. And then we preempt.”
For others, however, nothing short of full involvement by everyone – from board committees and staff to volunteer producers – would be enough. As Los Angeles Producer (and KPFK staff delegate to the national board) Alan Minsky put it, “Participatory structures are at the core of everything.” But that was precisely the rub, how to get anything done when so many, often-conflicting interests were involved.
I mulled it all over back in Berkeley. Basically, the weekend had gone well. People were thinking about how to rebuild trust and create a stronger national identity. I had received the board’s go-ahead to hire a network programming “coordinator” –once they approved the job description, of course. They’d also approved funds for the settlement of a lingering lawsuit brought by former KPFA producer Noelle Hanrahan. Most of station’s staff didn’t want her back, but a trial would be expensive and destructive. Maybe Pacifica was moving on after all, I thought.
Someone had even stepped up to take the Berkeley station manager job. KPFA’s development director, Lemlem Rijio, was born in Ethiopia, attended college in the US, and had worked for Pacifica a few years. Married, petite and self-assured, she had turned down my initial offer to serve as interim manager for up to nine months, but reconsidered after reporting for the station at the L.A. meeting.
The choice didn’t please those who felt that she was too chummy with the “entrenched” staff. They wanted an outsider who would shake things up, even though that had gone poorly during Roy Campanella’s brief tenure. Lemlem was part of the group that had pressed for his removal, yet that also meant she knew the players and the terrain, and might bring some calm and order until a permanent leader could be found. No one could predict how long that would take.
When I left Pacifica at the end of 2007 Lemlem was still Interim GM. My successor Nicole Sawaya, as her last official act before leaving Pacifica herself in September 2008, made that appointment permanent.
* * *
All in all, my first year as ED went relatively well. In addition to selecting new station managers for two of the largest stations – KPFA and WBAI, I hired National Technical Director Jon Almeleh and Network Programming Coordinator Nathan Moore, and negotiated a long-awaited contract with Free Speech Radio News, the collective that produced Pacifica’s half-hour daily newscast.
The number of national specials increased, the affiliate network surpassed 100 stations, work began on digital conversion, and a new weekly program highlighting Pacifica’s broadcast history, using the unique and extraordinary Pacifica Radio Archives, began to air. When the FCC announced that it would accept applications for non-commercial radio licenses for the first time in more than a decade, Ursula Ruedenberg successfully pressed for the network to join forces with other independent media advocates in the Radio for People campaign, which recruited local groups to apply for the frequencies.
Despite some local resistance, I also managed to get a 10-week national election series on the air. Drawing on the skills of more than 50 people from Pacifica and affiliate stations, the program, Informed Dissent, focused on key Congressional races and how corporate power, race, class, and the media influence the electoral process. It was carried on dozens of stations across the country during the fall, and seemed a hopeful step toward inter-station programming collaboration. There was little promotion within Pacifica, however, scheduling at some sister stations was unpredictable, and local management was cool to its continuation.
My most controversial decision concerned Pacifica’s most difficult station, WBAI. By June 2006, it was clear that Interim GM Indra Hardat couldn’t control Bernard White, and that the program director considered her a “bean counter” undeserving of his respect. In fact, without consulting her, he had announced plans for changes in the program grid. Looking them over, I saw little except a new music block in the evening and new time slots for the same programs. Suggestions that the station needed to reinvigorate its arts programming and appeal to the city’s 30 percent Latino population had been ignored. As a result, I blocked Bernard’s attempted programming power play.
Since the bylaws prevented me from directly disciplining White, however, and Hardat was too intimidated to use her authority despite my backing, I decided to replace her with someone he couldn’t ignore. But doing that quickly would require national board support, since the Justice and Unity Coalition (JUC) and the station’s Unpaid Staff Organizing Committee demanded local control of all hiring processes. If that happened, agreeing on a replacement could take years.
My strategy was to recruit someone not embroiled in WBAI’s factional warfare but familiar to some key players and willing to step into the lion’s den. Once I had such a person lined up, I could break the news to Hardat, return her to her old job as business manager, and let a local search committee look for additional candidates. My “safety” candidate turned out to be Robert Scott Adams, a black former station manager who had been a leading contender for the same job at WPFW a year before. Though local board members in DC wanted him, my predecessor Dan Coughlin had gone with the station “insider,” Ron Pinchback.
At least 22 people applied for the WBAI job over the summer, but after interviewing several of them the local search committee concluded that no one was qualified. Due to repeated scheduling snafus, Adams wasn’t even interviewed. Clearly, the locals preferred the status quo, despite their own criticisms of Hardat, to anyone I might choose.
In late September, when I told the national board what had happened, an overwhelming majority backed my decision to hire Adams anyway. The JUC never forgave me, and, as it turned out, Adams was no more able to control Bernard White than anyone else.
Toward the end of the year, local station board elections came off on schedule and without many disputes. In fact, turnout modestly increased, although it represented only 11.5 percent of listener-members and 35 percent of staff.On the other hand, despite an increase in working capital and control of expenses, underlying financial problems persisted. Audience decline and a drop in memberships was placing pressure on Pacifica’s remaining, largely aging supporters to contribute more. In many cases, fund drives had to be extended to meet budget goals. Legal, governance, and employee benefits costs were rising, and the budget process, which focused primarily on individual stations, didn’t sufficiently emphasize network-wide needs such as retooling infrastructure, training, development, and marketing.
The PNB’s decision to hire Dan Siegel as corporate counsel made it easier to respond to disputes and complaints. But requests for his participation in Board sessions, as well as calls for legal opinions, increased. Considering the cost of settlements and other assistance, the total legal bill from October 2005 to September 2006 was $325,000, up 182 percent from the previous year. CFO Hicks predicted that it might go even higher next year.
In the midst of a national economic decline, the original listener-supported radio network has been experiencing its own financial and organizational meltdown. As Executive Director in 2006 and 2007, I was in a unique position to identify many of the dilemmas facing this important progressive media organization. This article chronicles my experiences and efforts to avert a crisis, continuing a narrative begun last year and reporting on recent developments. To read previous installments, see Planet Pacifica: An Inside Story at Maverick Media.
Part Two of Real Life on Planet Pacifica
During the March 2006 meeting of the Pacifica National Board, held just two months after I became ED, a report from WBAI put the network’s problems in high relief. As Indra Hardat, the station’s Interim General Manager, and Program Director Bernard White took their places at opposite ends of the board’s large horseshoe the seating itself underlined the distance between them. I’d asked them to attend and explain what was happening. The idea was to get the divisions crippling the station out into the open.
Hardat had been interim GM for almost a year. She talked about “team spirit” and connections being made, but the station was still running in the red. The problems, she claimed, were lack of cooperation from the local board and poor communication with White. What WBAI needed, in her opinion, was “more women of color in programming” and a “sane and equitable work environment.”
Then she dropped a bombshell. “I am surprised that incidents of violence are being downplayed,” she said, “because it’s real, it’s happening. I have been the victim of verbal abuse more than three times in the last month or so.”
The room was stony silent. To understand the “conditions I have been forced to work under,” she went on, “We need to have some background. There are certain producers, LSB members and staff who never wanted me to be the IGM and have never hesitated to show it. And that’s a fact.”
She talked about Valerie Van Isler, the former GM who had originally put Bernard White in charge of programming – before both of them were fired in 2000. “She was attacked on a weekly basis by different members of the staff, and she took it quietly,” Indra recalled. “Folks, I’m not going to take it quietly. I’m not going to swallow it. Because I’m a woman, and a woman of color, I’m not going to take abuse.”
Van Isler had been “demonized” but she wasn’t the enemy, Indra claimed. “She was just trying to be objective and not belong to any of the camps. I’m the independent party. I do not believe in any factions or anything like that.”This was starting to sound a bit disingenuous. “We need dialogue with the programming department, and maybe mediation. But so far, on any kind of programming changes or preemptions, I’ve not been informed or included.” The excuse was that she wasn’t “qualified” in radio or programming, she added. “But I think it’s because I’m a woman.”
Bernard was prepared for the attack. Disarming yet stern he offered a starkly different portrait. Pacifica was “suffering from post-traumatic coup syndrome,” he said. The primary players who had hijacked the organization were gone, but “many of their supporters are still around and are involved in a well-funded, public campaign to destabilize WBAI.”Here lay the real threat to the station’s solvency.
He didn’t name Steve Brown, but the words left little doubt. The conspiracy’s “chief architect, financier and spokesman” was using “venomous poison pen e-mails” and “fabrications” to undermine trust with the listeners. And without trust, he predicted, the station would die. The fact that the attack focused on him was significant, he claimed, but his real concern was what it was doing to the station.
So, there it was: a serious conflict of perceptions, style and priorities between the station’s two top managers, and beneath the surface an ongoing struggle that dated back years. The comments that followed revealed still more.
For Lisa Davis, a new board member from New York, the real problem was racist remarks and charges of “corruption” leveled at Chief Financial Officer Lonnie Hicks. “I’ll be all night telling you about that,” Indra shot back, referring to her suspicions about the CFO, “and I would probably be fired for that.” Don White, a mild-mannered, veteran activist from Los Angeles, was concerned about the whole culture at the station and whether the GM was really in charge. “Is there a kind of culture that could be threatening to people entering the building?” he asked.
No, it was safe at the station, the two managers insisted. Violence was down since the bad old days. But discussions about programming were minimal and strained. “The only time I’ve talked with her,” Bernard said, “is when she talked with me about what I should do.” Making it plain that he wasn’t taking orders he quickly returned to Steve Brown’s critical e-mails.
Another new board member, WPFW’s Acie Byrd, asked what they could do to improve the situation. Indra’s solution, to the financial crunch at least, was more music and arts programming. Bernard was skeptical about that and thought the station needed more attention to race, like an anti-racism workshop the board had been through the day before.
Indra wouldn’t budge from charges of “verbal abuse” and gender discrimination; Bernard professed a willingness to cooperate – despite the attacks. “Hey, I’m not perfect,” he sighed. “But you have to work with what you have.”
PNB Chair Dave Adelson tried to push past the stalemate. Looking at Bernard, he said, “People are motivated to defend you. But I don’t see Indra representing a faction, and some of the ‘he-she’ disputes are about a challenge to you. You getting along is the only way to de-escalate this war.”
“We need a united front,” Indra agreed.
“I’ve said we should sit down and talk,” Bernard answered.
“But you won’t talk. You walk away,” she shot back.
In the end, the combatants at least agreed to mediation, and I was ordered to investigate Indra’s charges. But there were no obvious solutions to the underlying problems – declining ratings, financial failure, and a racially-charged, divisive atmosphere.
In the midst of a national economic decline, the original listener-supported radio network has been experiencing its own financial and organizational meltdown. As Executive Director in 2006 and 2007, I was in a unique position to identify many of the dilemmas facing this important progressive media organization. This article chronicles my experiences and efforts to avert a crisis, continuing a narrative begun last year. To read previous installments, see Planet Pacifica: An Inside Story at Maverick Media.
Part One: Rethinking the Experiment
“What are we trying to accomplish here? Are we trying to expand an extraordinary radio network, to support programming that addresses the mission I’ve described, or are we trying to create a government? If it’s the latter, we’re doing quite a job.”
--Remarks to the PNB, March 2006
When Pacifica Radio’s national board met in person during my time as the network’s Executive Director, it was normally an all-weekend affair. Actually more than a weekend: Managers and staff started arriving Wednesday for a full-day, staff-only summit on Thursday.
The location rotated according to a required order and timing, another bright idea, evidently designed to equalize local participation, by the reformers who recaptured the network about years ago. The trouble was that housing about 40 people for four days in New York, plus a meeting hall big enough to accommodate an audience and “public comments” by local activists, could cost double the price of the same digs in Houston, while a summer session in Houston could be almost unbearable. In short, it was an arbitrary, potentially costly arrangement.
On the other hand, the gatherings did bring together people from disparate cultures, and, if the mood was right, could build momentum for new ideas. My plan for the March 2006 session in Los Angeles, held just two months after I became ED, was to lay out the problems and get some early “buy in” for a network-oriented thrust. As Affiliates Program Coordinator Ursula Ruedenberg delicately put it during a “thematic” discussion that weekend, national programming “is very thorny just beneath the surface. It set the stage for what happened in the 90s. There began to be pressure to work as a national network,” she recalled, “and that process aroused all sorts of issues.”
At least the timing and location looked good. The board was about to adopt a National Programming Policy, which would trigger the hiring of a coordinator. Theoretically, he or she could pull together people and programs across the country. Meanwhile, outside the hotel in the streets of Los Angeles, over a half a million people were gathering for “La Gran Marcha,” part of a nationwide protest against a proposed law to raise penalties for illegal immigration and classify the undocumented – or anyone who helped them – as felons. Over the next few days hundreds of thousands more showed up in Denver, Cleveland, Columbus, Detroit, and Nashville. In the wider debate over immigration the protests not only demonstrated opposition to the bill but called for a “path to legalization” for the millions entering the country without permission.
It was a perfect issue for Pacifica, and the Board promptly took time out to join the march. For KPFK it was a golden programming opportunity. The station went live for five hours that day, airing reports and coverage in Spanish and English, the first show of its kind. Yet the other sister stations didn’t take it as a national feed, preferring local coverage or the usual shows.
Latino programming was at the top of the agenda. Largely at the urging of KPFK, the Board had decided that a daily Spanish language news show should be launched nationally. New York and DC Latino activists were also lobbying for more airtime. They had a point. The demographic trends in signal areas and nationally pointed to a large “under-served” audience. According to Arbitron, Latinos spent more time listening to the radio than any other ethnic group. In fact, Spanish-language media – Univision, Telemundo and radio stations – had helped to mobilize people for the immigration protests. In L.A. , Eddie “Piolin” Sotelo, a Spanish radio personality, persuaded friends at other stations to rally listeners and cover the event. But commercial radio’s interest in the issue was likely to fade, while Pacifica, if it made a sustained commitment, could build a large and loyal new listenership.
“I’m feeling a lot of pressure for change,” I told the board, “people waiting to see whether I will take sides, and waiting to judge. I’m bound to disappoint some people. There’s really no way to satisfy all of the expectations.” It might be possible to find some common ground, I acknowledged, but winner-take-all wasn’t the best starting point. “What we have, with certain exceptions, is a siege mentality, sometimes referred to as protecting turf.”
My strategy was to move slowly, step-by-step, protecting the staff, assessing their performance – and not becoming embroiled in every local quarrel. But that wouldn’t be easy.As usual, charges and counter-charges were flying, over money in New York, airtime and board elections in DC, and the management vacuum at KPFA. I’d been looking for an interim GM to handle the Berkeley station for a month now. No one seemed to want the job, and I had more to fill in the weeks ahead.
“What’s my vision of Pacifica?” It was time to start answering the question. “That Pacifica very soon will stop making war on itself,” I explained. “But this will require a leap of faith and an act of will.” Tolerance, respect, and diversity, all three would be needed. “And since I’ve said that I won’t use force – negative power – I’ll have to work with persuasion.”
For many people, Pacifica isn’t just about education or even media. Crossing the country I had asked many times: What are we building – a network or a government? Standing before the national board I posed the question again. “We have local and national legislative bodies,” I pointed out. “We have factions that could soon become political parties. We have expensive and politicized elections. We have dropping turnout, endless political gamesmanship, and the emergence of calls for the creation of what some might view as judicial bodies. But if it’s the former – to create radio that challenges, informs and enlightens – I think we need to rethink this experiment, take it back to the shop and debug it as soon as possible, before it makes accomplishing the mission nearly impossible.”
The goal, I said, “is to unleash often latent potential that exists both within and around the network; in other words, working synergistically both with each other but also with the larger media community that we sometimes lead and sometimes follow, an independent media movement of which we are just one part. It’s long past time that this organization retakes its place as a leading voice and a moving force in community-based media.”
The applause was encouraging when I finished the report. But the discussion that followed put the enthusiasm into perspective. Despite my good intentions Ken Freeland, a disgruntled board member from Houston, felt that I was making his job more difficult.He was particularly displeased that I had let KPFT General Manager Duane Bradley attend the Texas Music Awards, where the station was up for a prize, rather than come to L.A. and submit to his questioning.
Like other Amy Goodman fans, Ken was angry that Democracy Now! didn’t get earlier “drive time” airplay and wanted Duane in the hot seat. I felt Ken was missing the point. “There’s a lot more programming we need to develop,” I told him, and I didn’t intend to force stations to broadcast DN at a specific time. Others asked about the Spanish newscast, which had been discussed by the staff two days before. KPFK was ready to launch a daily one-hour broadcast. But some of the stations still weren’t willing to commit.
Unions are portrayed today as just another special interest group. Yet the true, largely ignored early history of the labor movement tells a different story: a long and dedicated effort, despite often ruthless opposition, to shorten working hours, obtain a living wage, and win reforms like Social Security. A seven part series.
Greg Guma grew up in New York City and moved to Vermont in 1968. Since then he has been a newspaper journalist, magazine editor, college educator, public administrator, community organizer, federal projects director, bookstore owner, self-taught historian, and CEO of the Pacifica Radio Network.
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