Vote soon: KPFK critical LSB 2024 endorsements from New Day Pacifica
Thanks to you and others like you, in 2023 NDP and our allies won a majority of Listener Station Board seats at three stations, plus additional seats at other stations, which got us much closer to bringing about real change!
To get across the finish line we need to keep voting and winning in 2024.
We may endorse more candidates, but below are the 2024 LSB candidates we’ve identified so far. To maximize NDP’s strategic leverage, please vote for them in the order suggested and then STOP.
If there are candidates you are enthusiastic about supporting who aren’t listed, vote for them also, and then STOP. This will optimize their chances of winning. And if you believe they’d be good candidates for New Day’s support, let us know and we’ll vet them too.
NEW DAY PACIFICA’S RECOMMENDATIONS
A number of our supporters have contacted us and are anxious to vote. For those who just want to vote and get on with your day, here is an unadorned list of recommendations as of today. Please understand that the list could be ordered many different ways and still be an excellent guide. Many factors were considered including prior service on the LSB (you can’t be elected to the Pacifica National Board until you’ve served a year on the LSB), experience, skills, availability to commit time, name recognition, age, etc.
Further down and on our website you can learn more about the candidates, New Day, and the current state of KPFK and Pacifica.
Please vote for the following in this order, or any order you choose, then stop. Click on the names of any candidates for photos and more information about them:
Listener Member Candidates we endorse:
- Christina Avalos
- Adam Wolman
- Dr. Chipasha Luchembe
- Nikki Haun
- Dr. Nancy Niparko
- Steven Meeks
- Vinnie DeStefano
- Ahjamu Makalani
- Carlos Zavala
- Rick Cooper
Staff Candidates we endorse:
Again, if there are additional candidates you would like to see elected, we suggest adding them, then stopping, to optimize their chances of winning.
FINDING YOUR BALLOT
A link to your ballot will be sent weekly to the email address associated with your membership. Look for an e-mail from:
Pacifica Foundation Inc invitations@mail.electionbuddy.com
Subject line “Vote now: Pacifica Foundation Inc 2024 Local Station Elections”
REQUESTING A BALLOT
If you can’t find your ballot, check your spam and trash folders, request a new ballot by clicking here.
Please support New Day Pacifica
Your support is essential for moving forward. People across the network are now grappling with Pacifica’s dauntingly high debt, defaulted loans, and loss of basic operational resources.
We will also optimize the chances of our recommended candidates if we can send a postcard and additional emails. To make that possible, please consider a donation of $10 to $10,000 to help with expenses for endorsement mailings. To send a postcard to all KPFK members we need your support — please help us get out the word.
PLEASE HELP OUR ENDORSED CANDIDATES WIN BY DONATING.
For more info on the candidates, see below.
For updates on New Day and Pacifica’s progress, go to NDP’s home page
ENDORSEMENTS
In reviewing candidates running for seats on the KPFK Local Station Board, New Day Pacifica looked for competent, honest, experienced, skilled, dedicated people we think will make excellent board members. We do not require or expect candidates to endorse New Day Pacifica, so this is not a “Slate” in the common understanding of that term. It should also be noted that there are many other people running, some of whom may make excellent board members and others who would not.
When voting or endorsing, the bottom line is that you have to make choices. Our hardest task was to make recommendations regarding the order in which you should vote. The important thing is that you vote for all of the recommended candidates, either in the order in which we suggest, or in whatever order you believe would be best.
The great thing about STV —Single Transferable Voting, the election system Pacifica uses — is that votes are not wasted, making it likely that most of the people you vote for will be seated if enough people follow our recommendations.
PRESENTING THE KPFK LOCAL STATION BOARD CANDIDATES 2024
Listener-Member Candidates (only Listener Members may vote for these):
Christina Avalos
Christina Avalos is honored to be a current member of the local KPFK station board. She wants to help KPFK grow because it provides such a vital service to us all. It gives us “informative” views in a time when it’s diversity is most needed. She brings years of experience in community outreach with grassroots organizations, campaigns and issues. This includes her participation in the campaign to amend the Three Strikes Law. Avalos has worked with David Sanchez’s Brown Berets, Chicano Unidos of Orange County and Los Amigos of Orange County. She is presently actively involved with Latina women artists and writers such as Naomi Quiñonez and she is secretary of Americans for Democratic Action of Southern California.
Adam Wolman
Adam Wolman feels that few things are more important in the fight for social justice than preserving the progressive independence of KPFK. Those of us desperate to undo oligarchy, wealth inequality, human rights abuses, and systemic racism — to replace greed, oppression and division with kindness and social services, freedom and opportunity — need KPFK and Pacifica to amplify our voices. Adam fears that right-wingers have bought up a majority of media outlets already, leaving only KPFK, KPFA, KPFT, WPFW, and WBAI along with a few other stations scattered around the country as a counterweight.
This candidate supported NDP’s Bylaws Referendum from day one as a way to revitalize Pacifica, reaching out to the New Day team to offer help when he first heard Pacifica was in serious trouble. “I’ve listened to and loved KPFK for 20 years, admire Pacifica’s history, and see its potential going forward.” Adam has said he’s running “in hopes of playing a small role in helping Pacifica stay independent while growing its diverse listener base, coffers, and impact on the multicultural communities it serves.” As a network television creative executive and political activist, Adam has experience we believe would serve the LSB brilliantly. Just as importantly, he’s the kind of person who listens with kindness and respect to all points of view, and is a true collaborator devoted to bringing people together in support of shared goals.
Dr. Chipasha Luchembe
Dr. Chipasha Luchembe, originally from Zambia, is a candidate for the Local Station Board of KPFK. He has been a listener-sponsor and volunteer for KPFK since 1974. Dr. Luchembe is an educator and a community activist and has so served in Africa, Europe, and the Americas. His History Professorships are known in several Southern California universities and he’s taught at the University of Zambia and the University of Botswana.
Additionally, he has served on the Board of International Relations Council of Riverside, California. The city of Los Angeles knows him as a founding member of the City of Los Angeles-Lusaka (Zambia) Sister City Committee. His proven record of activism goes back to the Free South Africa Movement during the darkest days of anti-apartheid and extends to the present Free Palestine Movement. He helped organize the Perris Association for Community Empowerment (PACE). In 2012, the city of Perris elected its first Latino City Council representative and its first Latino mayor.
This candidate aims to strengthen the link between KPFK’s local and global listeners by leveraging its social diversity. If elected, he vows to work to make KPFK a true voice of our local community with a global perspective. Dr. Luchembe wants to promote KPFK’s presence and participation in community events, especially within under represented groups and conduct outreach to show KPFK as their platform for sharing their news and activities. He envisions KPFK as a bridge uniting our community with the world. He recognizes that this process has started, but can be improved upon and expanded.
Dr. Nancy Niparko
Dr. Nancy Niparko, a pediatric neurology medical doctor, is also a longtime listener-sustained of KPFK.
Dr. Niparko seeks your vote. She believes that radio is the most accessible and universal media for promoting awareness and progressive values to everyone —-given the amount of time we spend in our cars. Her greatest motivation for seeking a position on the KPFK local board, is to put a focus on more intelligent radio programming with the primary intention of banning anti-science from the PACIFICA airwaves. She asserts that featuring anti-science charlatans as news experts is dangerous to human lives and has potential for legal liability.
Her progressive politics began as a little girl. Raised by politically active school teacher parents, her indoctrination was to believe in equal education and equal opportunity for all. This was solidified by the historic Supreme Court’s decision that “Separate is Not Equal”.
She is presently retired, but Dr. Niparko still sees patients on a part time basis. She has been fundraising as a co-chair of LA Physicians for a national health program, as a board member for Americans for Democratic Action, and as a board member of Momentum/Cerebral Palsy- LA.
This candidate says she most enjoys providing food to the homeless every week. “Once upon a time, I was delighted with KPFK’s programming.”, she adds. “I felt smarter every time I listened to KPFK, and furthermore, learning about the origins of PACIFICA radio was reason enough to support its future!” In LA, KPFK has access to world class guests from universities, medical research centers and of course, it’s the entertainment capital of the world. We have students who’d love the opportunity to produce informative and entertaining programs. We’d build younger and future audiences for KPFK. I’ve got great ideas for radio content for children, comics, radio theater lovers and certainly I’d wish to develop non-conspiracy based news. Nancy Niparko, MD is running for this KPFK Listener Board to help develop intelligent radio programming with a focus on banning anti-vaccine and other anti-scientific charlatans from KPFK.
Nikki Haun
Nikki Haun is a recent graduate of the University of California- Santa Barbara, majoring in Political Science and History. She supports grassroots movements that help enact change and drive local community initiatives. Her volunteer work with KPFK began in August of 2023. She hopes to continue serving as a member of the local station board.
Steven Meeks
Steven Meeks is a longtime supporter-listener to KPFK/ PACIFICA. He is currently serving as the Treasurer of KPFK’s Local Station Board, and is a member of Pacifica’s National Finance Committee. His focus is to help bring financial sustainability to all the Pacifica stations. This goal includes finding ways for KPFK to connect with the hundreds or thousands of people who attend local demonstrations in alignment with KPFK’s peace and social justice mission.
Meeks has extensive experience volunteering and serving on non-profit boards, especially those focused on arts and culture. Currently he manages a local community garden. He values KPFK’s coverage of environmental issues. For this candidate, environmental programs bring attention to ways of saving our beautiful planet Earth. He sees KPFK as an emergency alert station in times of floods, fires, and power outages. “I want to invigorate KPFK by seeking a generation of young blood and showcase their innovative ideas to revitalize the local treasure of KPFK.”
Ahjamu Makalani
Ahjamu Makalani is a member of the Black Socialists of America and is the president of DLC703 of the SEIU Local 1000. He was also a founding officer of what was called the California Democratic Progressive Caucus. He feels that we can achieve:
- Single-Payer health care
- Community development investments
- Green New Deal
- Criminal Justice Reform
- Sound and humane immigration policies
- Free and accessible college/university education
These policy measures, among many others, will improve the living standards of working class people and will promote sustainable economic development for the 21st century and beyond.
Vinnie DeStefano
Vinnie DeStefano is running for a seat on KPFK’s local board. He’s been a lifelong social justice activist and a listener-sponsor of KPFK since 1971. He is a founding member of Assange Defense in Southern California and sits on it’s National Steering Committee. Vinnie is honored to be their National Organizing Director. Currently, he is the treasurer of the Pasadena/Foothill chapter of the ACLU. The ACLU seats him on their Affiliate Board and Executive Committee, as well. He’s worked extensively on police reform in his hometown of Pasadena. As a founding member of the Pasadena Privacy For All, he’s fought the Pasadena City Council and Pasadena Police’s purchase and use of invasive technologies without the knowledge or permission of its citizens.
Last, he has been involved with Amnesty International for over four decades. Being a listener-sustainer to KPFK for more than fifty years, Vinnie remembers KPFK being completely different from anything else on the airwaves. It even became incredibly important to his own education. He sees that it has fallen from its lofty position among the premiere progressive news outlets in the country. As a local board member, he will work to rebuild the listenership and stop the never ending fundraising. He says, “I’d work to halt the snake oil offerings which fall below the dignity of the station and is an insult to the listeners. What we need is a strong and robust station requiring 21st Century thinking and methods of resolve, yet never compromising Lewis Hill’s original vision for PACIFICA.
Carlos Zavala
Carlos Zavala has listened to KPFK daily for well over a decade after first, taking his dial off of NPR. As a child in the sixties, he remembers his father following the Gore Vida and William F. Buckley debates on radio and also enjoying the radio theater with him on their long drives across Southern California. His childhood memories include Ed Sullivan and The Beatles, the Viet Nam War, the assassinations of JFK, MLK, Jr., RFK, and Salvador Allende, the hot Cold War, the military and its manufacturing. His generation, adds Zavala, was very challenged with the destruction of mankind. In Los Angeles we were in a cultural melting pot and we were all breathing the same smog!
When Zavala began his engineering studies, he concentrated on economics and global social issues. His 35 year professional career has largely focused on the conservation of resources within construction and operations in multiple industries. He joined the KPFK-LSB hoping he could help the station with cost analysis, project management, planning and operations. Having once helped design the schematics for a WiFi student station at LA Valley College, he understands that radio is a very different industry. His past 3 years on the KPFK board, highlights to the technicality-minded Zavala, that the biggest problem KPFK is actually facing is the station’s clear lack of a consistent funding stream. He hopes now, he can contribute more of his experience towards the leveraging of new funds to grow the membership without sacrificing the principles of PACIFICA. Carlos would appreciate your vote allowing him to continue to bring in some needed compassion as he questions the status quo.
Rick Cooper
Hello Fellow KPFK Supporters! Rick here. Besides passion, skill, and having been raised in LA, I have a variety of experiences in radio that will support the contributions I can make as an LSB member.
20 years in the film industry (DGA) working music festivals and creating and producing events has given me on-the-ground experience working cooperatively. I am a team member who loves the challenges of solving problems while maintaining healthy, respectful, cooperative working relationships. (NVC trained.)
After years in theater and community TV (Maui Community Television), I started in radio at the independent commercial station owned by Dan Healy (of the Grateful Dead), KERG. From there I developed an innovative talk show (InterActive Radio) on KHSU, where I was the first programmer on the (then) beloved station with no previous ties to Humboldt State University. My show followed All Things Considered, a nice lead in. I then worked 2+ years organizing and as a founder of acclaimed progressive station KMUD, serving in multiple roles on the board and as Director of Public Relations.
I’ve also developed and held workshops on Becoming and Excelling as a Radio Talk Show Host and Producer. My life these days is based in California, with my office and home in Santa Monica. (I was raised in the SGV.)
I am driven to support KPFK in part because it/Pacifica is among the last free media that doesn’t track our data. With the many challenges Pacifica is facing, my skills can help preserve KPFK, bringing more stability. Things are finally moving in that direction, so let’s keep it up! Part of my vision is to aid KPFK in better identifying itself as the rare treasure it is, driving people to the archives and live shows. Also offering improved promotion of the fantastic shows produced in-house, which can translate to more fundraising opportunities.
I also am a strong supporter of underwriting opportunities (for LOCAL and SMALL BUSINESSES ONLY). Small businesses gain visibility and our patronage, helping them rise above the onslaught of big business! A KPFK-small-business-alliance could benefit businesses, KPFK, and listeners. So…. Let’s elect a great LSB team, look closely at the challenges, roll-up our sleeves and make KPFK an even better servant for LA’s diverse communities. If this resonates with you, please consider offering me your vote. And thank you!
Staff Candidates (only Staff Members may vote for these):
Myla Reson
I often tell people I received my education at Pacifica Radio.
Don’t get me wrong. I attended UCLA and UC Berkeley. But I started listening to KPFK as a teenager and will be forever indebted to Pacifica for the extraordinary programming that has informed and shaped my worldview.
I love KPFK. I love Pacifica.
“No Nukes” campaigner Harvey Wasserman and I co-host – and along with Vic Gerami – co-produce California Solartopia airing Wednesdays at 5pm
In this post covid virtual reality, I think it’s essential for programmers and staff to be able to organize, communicate and coordinate with one another.
During these perilous times, I hope to work for you and with you so that KPFK and Pacifica will thrive and continue to be a beacon for all who strive for peace, justice, and a livable planet.
I’m humbly asking for your vote so I can continue to serve as your station board staff representative. Please reach out to me with any questions or concerns. I would love to hear from you.
Vic Gerami
I am an award-winning Armenian-American journalist and the editor + publisher of The Blunt Post. I was also the host and co-producer of my national headline news + politics program, THE BLUNT POST with VIC (TBPV) on KPFK 90.7 FM (Pacifica Network). TBPV is no longer on the air. I produce for the KPFK show, Solartopia. I am also on the KPFK LSB and the Convener of the Programming Oversight Committee.
I have interviewed over one-hundred members of Congress on my show and other high-profile public figures, including Senator Bob Menendez, Congressman Adam Schiff (10.19.20), Congressman Adam Schiff (3.30.20), Congresswoman Jackie Speier, Congresswoman Katie Porter, Congressman Tony Cardenas, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, and Congresswoman Judy Chu, Congressman Mark Takano, Congressman Jim Costa, Congressman Gil Cisneros, Congresswoman Norma Torres, Congresswoman Grace Napolitano, Congressman Raul Ruiz + Congresswoman Barbara Lee, Congresswoman Linda Sanchez, Congressman Alan Lowenthal, as well as Marianne Williamson.
I am also a contributor for some of the most prominent publications in the nation, including Windy City Times, Bay Area Reporter, California Courier, OUT Traveler, The Fight, and The Advocate Magazine, among others.
Today reaching national, international audiences, I built a foundation of knowledge and skills by learning the media industry during my years at Frontiers Magazine, followed by positions at LA Weekly and Voice Media Group. For the second time, I was selected as a finalist in the Los Angeles Press Club’s National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Awards “Columnist of the Year” category in 2019, having first made the final round in 2017. I was also a finalist in record seven (7) categories for the 62nd Annual Southern California Journalism Awards in 2020.
The Wall Street Journal featured me as a “leading gay activist” in its landmark 2008 coverage of opposition to Proposition 8, the ballot measure that for years denied same-sex couples in California the freedom to marry. In addition to my years of volunteer work as a leading advocate for marriage equality, I later served as a Planning Committee member for the historic Resist March in 2017.
KPFK is a rare and treasured institution that should be cherished, protected, and grow to its highest potential.
I will utilize my comprehensive experience in media, marketing, public relations, strategic partnership, activism, and community engagement to help KPFK overcome its current challenges and thrive in the coming years.
Growing the station’s audience, engaging with younger generations, and funding would be my top priorities. KPFK is and should be broadly known as the bastion of truth, progressive thought, and independent journalism devoid of disinformation, propaganda, and outside influence.
DONATE
Donate $10 to $10,000 (or more) to help us with expenses for endorsement mailings. We are hoping to send a postcard to all KPFK members, with our recommendations but can only do so with your support, so please help us get out the word.
Your donation now to New Day Pacifica will be used to support the candidacies supported by NDP, to try to assure a better future for Pacifica. We do not want you to donate money to New Day Pacifica
that would otherwise have gone to Pacifica or your station.
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Thank You
Thanks for supporting New Day Pacifica as we work to make sure Pacifica, our stations and our mission not just survive but grow and have more significance!
Your donation to New Day Pacifica will support our efforts to see that our stations and our mission not just survive but grow and have more significance!
Donations to New Day Pacifica are NOT tax deductible.
Donate to your Pacifica station
We also encourage you to donate to KPFK, in addition to donating to NDP.