This is a letter from Margy Wilkinson, chair of KFPA’s local station board:
Like you, the majority of the KPFA Local Station Board (the group known as SaveKPFA) is deeply unhappy at the abrupt, illogical and unnecessary changes at KPFA – beginning with the cancellation of the Morning Show. We see the station we love being changed beyond recognition and placed in great danger. The interim station management and the Pacifica management have made these decisions without input from staff, the listeners or the elected local board.
While there is a minority group of the local board that apparently supports this carnage at KPFA, the large majority of the listeners who have corresponded with us or with the station are appalled at the damage to KPFA, the Pacifica flagship station.
The LSB has no direct control over programming – nor should it. However we are charged by the Pacifica bylaws with ensuring that KPFA’s programming responds to the needs of its listeners. Clearly, recent changes have alienated thousands of listeners who care passionately about KPFA. We are also charged with ensuring that programming decisions and program evaluations are done in a fair, collaborative and respectful manner.
Clearly the process described above has not happened at KFPA. The 2000 Pacifica Bylaws were written to establish democratically controlled local stations. KPFA’s license is owned by the Pacifica Foundation. Its national board is made up of members elected from the local station boards, and its bylaws were created with the understanding that Pacifica would not interfere in local affairs. However, a particular faction (that of Ms. Rosenberg) was able to win enough seats on the various local station boards to control the Pacifica Board. While that group is a minority on the KPFA local board, it is a majority on the Pacifica National Board. They have used this majority position to completely over-ride the rights of our local board. Decisions about KPFA are being made by a national board consisting mainly of people from other stations. KPFA’s listeners and staff have been disenfranchised.
We will win this battle. Don’t give up and abandon the station to usurpers. Let’s keep the pressure on Pacifica and reestablish local control over programming and policy.
Thanks for writing to us.
Margy Wilkinson
LSB Chair