It’s been a wild ride this past two years trying to bring Pacifica back to democracy. To be the creative network of stations envisioned by Lou Hill. A network for progressive voices throughout the United States and the world. With the 2022 elections coming, we need Pacifica more than ever. For that reason, we need your continued support more than ever and we’ll return to that later, but first, here’s an update on what’s been happening.

For a year and a half, we struggled against the entrenched management and National Board. They exploited every technicality and trick to stop us.

They changed the number of signatures for the Bylaws referendum. From 400 to 2,000. We got 3,000 of you to sign, and more kept signing afterwards.

Then they mounted a campaign of disinformation, distortion, and half-truths against the New Day Bylaws. They hampered our email send-outs to members. They ran on-air programs featuring all the mentioned forms of disinformation without affording our representatives the required equal time on air to respond. All this continues to this day!

Despite all this, current management failed, and enough members were able to discern the facts, namely that Pacifica would disappear if we did not change. Thousands of members voted in the largest turnout ever for a Pacifica election. New Day won the overall vote with a 55% to 45% margin.

We thank you for your support – for the thousands of you who voted YES for bylaws and governance reform to save Pacifica, for the many who emailed and called your fellow members, and for the hundreds of you who donated to help pay expenses for New Day Pacifica (NDP). If you haven’t donated lately, this is a great time to do so.

Donate to New Day Pacifica

But the struggle goes on. The entrenched interests continue to have Pacifica in their grip, even though they’ve shown they have no solutions to Pacifica’s problems, that threaten our stations’ very survival.

Why NDP Needs Your Continued Support

Current management has interpreted the applicable California law to mean that a tiny number of staff, mostly at one station (WBAI) where the disinformation about New Day had been most prevalent, could override the vote of the majority of Listener-Members, because — according to them — staff members’ rights would be more negatively affected by the new bylaws than would Listener-Members’ rights. Since the much smaller staff group — if considered separately — voted no, current mamnagement declared that New Day lost the referendum. Suffice it say, we strongly disagree with their interpretation of the law.

Finally, Pacifica filed the present lawsuit against New Day. And against the NDP Transition Officers that you voted to put in place along with the NDP Bylaws. We had to hire lawyers to represent three of those officers to get Pacifica to drop the lawsuit against them.

Then, Pacifica filed a lawsuit against all of the candidates for the KPFK-LSB that New Nay endorsed.

An ongoing pattern of behavior indicates that this is what Pacifica’s current management does. They threaten, they file lawsuits, they use intimidation tactics to try to get their critics to quit, in apparent hopes that no one has the funds to go to court to challenge Pacifica in court.

However with your help, we’re doing just that.

There’s a chance that the end may be in sight.

Next Wednesday, Dec. 29, a judge will hear arguments on whose interpretation of the California law will prevail. We are hoping that the court makes a decisive ruling in New Day’s favor, but we’ll just have to wait and see.

Pacifica recently filed yet more legal accusations against New Day. We must respond. The lawyers must be paid. And more costs will come.

We have come really far, but we’re not quite across the finish line yet. It would be a shame to come up short. Our legal team can’t wait and needs to be paid as they work. If you think our cause is worthy, please donate whatever you can, from $10 to $10,000. It all goes to the attorneys arguing our case, and working to protect YOUR rights as Pacifica members.

May 2022 be the year that peace settles in every corner of the earth that needs it the most — including Pacifica!

Donate to New Day Pacifica

For updates, see NewDayPacifica.org

Thank you again and we hope that you, Pacifica, and all of our stations have a great 2022!

From NDP’s May 31, 2021 email:

Top 10 Reasons to Vote Yes

1. Pacifica staff you know and respect are voting Yes to change the Pacifica bylaws so we can save KPFA, KPFK, KPFT, WPFW, and WBAI. Aileen Alfandary, KPFA News Director (also heard on KPFK): “The current bylaws structure has encouraged dismal mismanagement which threatens the continued existence of the nation’s only progressive radio network.” Sonali Kolhatkar, Host of Rising Up with Sonali, heard on KPFK, KPFT, and KPFA: “I’ve been shocked year after year watching the local and national boards hamper the workings of stations, undermine worker rights, and generally stand in the way of the Pacifica network thriving.” Egberto Willies, KPFT Host of Politics Done Right: “I am absolutely sure that everyone on both sides of the by-laws debate loves the Pacifica Network and what is best for it. I did not make up my mind to support the new by-laws until just recently, when I finally understood why the current dynamics were untenable. Insanity, doing the same thing and expecting a different result, will ensure Pacifica continues its death spiral. Direct democracy is an antidote to factions as we are learning now with our own national politics.” Ian Masters, KPFK Host of Background Briefing: “The Pacifica Foundation is run by a dysfunctional Board incapable of raising funds and in denial of its looming debt. Please do your part and sign the New Day Pacifica bylaws petition.” 2. Listeners want a solid professional radio network: well-run, without constant desperate fund drives and the fear of being shut down and sold off – with great progressive shows and music reflecting Pacifica’s diversity. 3. Current bylaws have led to organizational crisis and impending financial disaster. 4. New Day Transition Officers named in the new bylaws love and are devoted to saving Pacifica. They have stellar progressive activist bios and strong financial backgrounds. With a newly elected functional New Day Pacifica Board, Pacifica can finally hire a stable, long-term Executive Director with media management experience to return Pacifica to financial and organization health. They are neither corporatists, capitalists, dictators, or fascists as name-called in the Vote No literature.

5. Pacifica’s dysfunctional national board has burned through 17 Executive Directors in 18 years, leaving the Foundation essentially leadership for 18 years. 6. Vote Yes so we can save and strengthen all five stations, including WBAI and WPFW. 7. Pacifica has failed every financial audit since 2013. Independent auditors have encouraged Pacifica to consider bylaws revisions “to simplify and encourage more productive meetings… The Foundation and its several stations would benefit from changes designed to achieve a more productive governance process.” 8. Pacifica has forfeited over $7 million in federal grant money since 2013 due to organizational dysfunction. Pacifica was finally totally kicked out of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting grant program last year for not paying back a requested $137,000 overpayment that was 7 years overdue. 9. Pacifica does not have the reserves to pay the $3.2 million loan payment, now due October 2022. This tipping point for the financial cratering of the Foundation has luckily been put off 18 months, but without massive amounts of fundraising from progressive funders and celebrities and doubling our membership, Pacifica may not survive. The $2 million in Covid grant money went to payroll and other long-overdue debts, NOT toward the $3.2 million loan. 10. Reinvigorated, democratically elected Local Station Boards will actively support their stations with fundraising, community feedback on the station’s programming, and all-hands-on-deck efforts to help double the station’s membership. LSBs will “work with station management to ensure that station programming fulfills the purposes of the Foundation and its response to the diverse needs of the listeners (demographic) and communities (geographic) served by the station.” (NDP bylaws)

Pacifica is in trouble, and desperately needs your help. Dysfunctional bylaws have made it impossible for Pacifica’s National Board, though well-intentioned, to function. The network’s financial decline and debt burden have worsened to a crisis point over the last ten years. The board, tangled up in unworkable bylaws, is unable to stabilize the situation or turn things around. This puts the future of an invaluable, irreplaceable progressive asset in grave peril.

Pacifica has forfeited millions of dollars in federal funding since 2013.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting stopped funding Pacifica in 2012 after Pacifica refused to pay back a $137,000 overpayment uncovered by a regular CPB audit. Pacifica only paid back the $137,000 last year after CPB announced it was dropping Pacifica from its grant program. Pacifica was way too late to be reinstated to the grant program; Pacifica now has to start over from the beginning with a totally new application to re-enter the CPB grant program (and Pacifica does NOT currently meet CPB’s minimum qualifications). See CPB’s May 22, 2020 letter to Pacifica.

The Pacifica Board has forfeited over seven million dollars in CPB grant funding since 2012. This annual million dollars was divided among the five stations to help pay expenses and fund new programs.

Pacifica has failed every financial audit since 2015.

Auditors since 2015 have said they have “substantial doubt about the organization’s ability to continue as a going concern”. That’s the language Auditors use to say an organization is in extremely bad shape. Review Pacifica’s audits.

Pacifica has no reserves to pay a $3.2 million dollar loan payment. Despite the FJC lender’s written offer in October to extend the $3.2 million loan payoff one year, the National Board apparently still hasn’t nailed down a formal extension of the loan due April 2 2021. The National Board has known for at least two years that it would not be able to put aside $3.2 million, and that loan default meant losing station buildings at KPFA, KPFK and/or KPFT. While New Day Pacifica is very hopeful that Pacifica will be able to get an extension from the lender based on FJC’s October offer to Pacifica, the fact that the Pacifica Board still hasn’t nailed down the details reflects the profound dysfunction generated by Pacifica’s current governance structure and bylaws. (At their February 25 meeting the National Board was still discussing whether or not they should ask the lender for an extension. We understand that since that time the Board has decided to ask for a loan extension.)

Pacifica’s Executive Directors are constantly changing, with 17 EDs both permanent and interim in 18 years. This means there has been no stable leadership at Pacifica in 18 years.

One of the National Board’s central roles is to hire and support an Executive Director with media management experience to run the network, fundraise and supervise the stations. The National Board has chased out or fired every experienced ED they have hired during this time because the Board micromanages ED decisions. As a result, the ED position has largely been filled by current or former National Board members (sometimes paid, sometimes volunteer)in long-term “interim” positions. None of these Interim Executive Directors have had media management experience.

The New Day Pacifica (NDP) bylaws proposal is completely different than last year’s losing PRP proposal.

Differences include the role of the Local Station Boards, whether or not to have staff on the National Board, and whether or not the majority of the National Board would be elected listeners and staff (New Day) or appointed experts (PRP).

Role of the Local Station Board: Last year’s PRP Bylaws would have eliminated the Local Station Board structure. New Day Pacifica refocuses the duties of the LSBs on community outreach, fundraising and supporting the stations rather than counterproductive micromanagement.

Whether or not staff represented on the Pacifica National Board: PRP eliminated staff representation on the National Board. With New Day, staff for the first time will directly elect their National Board directors.

Composition of the majority of the new National Board: With PRP the majority of the National Board would be appointed experts, not elected listeners and staff. With New Day, the majority of the 15-member National Board will continue to be elected listeners and staff, with three appointed experts.)

For more information, see the Detailed Description of the NDP Bylaws.

Also see more about the relationship between the March 2020 (PRP) Bylaws and the New Day Pacifica version