Things Still Not Pacific at Pacifica

An update to our earlier notices of the mayhem at leftist Pacifica Radio and flagship station KPFK, courtesy of the Pacifica-in-Exile folks, who sent out a press release a couple days ago detailing the ongoing implosion of the enterprise:

Dominos Topple: Third On-Air Resignation at KPFK In Three Days

Berkeley – On Wednesday, Yatrika Shah-Rais became the third veteran programmer to resign on-air at Los Angeles radio station KPFK. Shah-Rais, the former music director of the Cultural Center in Los Angeles, announced her departure one day after Betto Arcos announced the airing of his final show, and two days after Derek Rath resigned on-air, all three of them long term producers of the station’s Global Village series. Former Doors drummer John Densmore called into KPFK during Arcos’ final show. You can hear Shah-Rais’ goodbye here. GM Radford is said to have tried to prevent the live on-air Global Village broadcast Wednesday morning.

An online petition containing a Letter of No Confidence in the new manager went online yesterday and collected 123 signatures on its first day. The letter cited legal, fundraising, programming and behavioral problems including work reductions not negotiated with the union, mishandling a worksharing application, releasing employee SS# numbers, losing a Free Speech TV contract, emptying fund drive rooms during pledge drives, obscenity and homophobia on air, withholding of seniority pay to employees and union dues to SAG-AFTRA, and profanity-laced outbursts towards staff. . .

KPFK has been overcome by angry donors calling to demand refunds for premiums never received. . .

KPFK’s financial meltdown is having serious implications throughout the network, where the LA station’s formerly robust fundraising numbers helped with meeting expenses throughout the network. Statements were made at national governance meetings in the last two weeks about the significant difficulty of meeting station payrolls and paying for health benefits at the end of this month, but there has been no public statement to date as the end of the month passed.

There’s lots more, and you can read the whole release here. I haven’t had this much leftist schadenfreude since the Berlin Wall came down.

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