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Toward a New Pacifica in 2004
A Report to the Pacifica Community
February 2004
by Dan Coughlin
Executive Director
Pacifica Foundation
In its 55th year, the Pacifica Radio network continues to
break new ground. The two-year reform administration of the
interim Pacifica National Board (iPNB) is now over and a new,
democratic Pacifica is being born. More than 16,000 listeners
and staff across the country cast their ballots this past
month for 317 candidates running for 120 Local Station Board
seats. This was a historic achievement. Listeners and staff
alike should all feel proud that Pacifica now becomes the
first democratically-run national media organization in the
country.
The courage of the Pacifica leadership in taking this bold
step, coupled with the commitment of listener members nationwide,
bodes well for the future. Special thanks to members of the
outgoing interim Pacifica National Board for all their efforts.
They have earned our gratitude and respect. They leave behind
an important record of achievement that will foster the media
and democracy movement for years to come.
Over the last two years, the network has undergone a stunning
turnaround. Working together, staff, listeners, and board
members have turned a $4.4 million deficit in Fiscal Year
2001 into a $1.8 million surplus in the preliminary FY03 audit.
In a community-driven process, we rewrote the Pacifica Radio
bylaws and successfully ran the equivalent of a big city election.
We rebuilt the network’s affiliates relations, saved
and upgraded the KPFK transmitter in Southern California,
and moved Pacifica’s HQ from Washington, DC, back to
its original home in Berkeley. Pacifica also settled more
than a dozen separate complex pieces of litigation, and, for
the first time in five years, the network faces no litigation.
But the challenges and vulnerabilities ahead are formidable,
from maintaining and upgrading our physical plant to building
stations that reflect the diverse communities we serve, from
ensuring training programs for under-served constituencies
to confronting a legacy of bitter in-fighting that continues
to tear at the very fabric of Pacifica. Now is the time for
healing, unity, and stability, and for moving forward with
a common agenda: to build a stronger and more influential
Pacifica, one that puts media democracy in practice.
Going forward, I believe we need to collectively embrace
two strategic goals in order to fulfill the Pacifica mission
and strengthen the network’s historic role as an independent
community voice for peace and justice:
Goal No. 1 -- Strengthen Pacifica as a multi-platform media
organization. From interactive web sites to digital satellite
radio, from Internet Radio to collaborating with local community
access TV, from the digital conversions of our transmitters
to expanding our affiliate network, the future for Pacifica
lies in developing a multi-platform distribution and proliferation
strategy. The objectives: to fulfill our mission, influence
the public discourse, improve Pacifica’s image, and
raise new revenues. Indeed, the new media revolution is not
simply an “opportunity” for Pacifica, but an imperative,
one that fits with the expansion vision of Pacifica’s
founders.
Goal No. 2 -- Develop internal practices that reflect Pacifica’s
core values, where the individual is precious and respected
in a cooperative and diverse social and professional milieu,
and where peace, justice, and fair play accurately describe
our internal relationships.
But before moving to the future, I’d like to take a
moment to assess the past year, let you all know what we’re
working on, and sketch out in more detail the road ahead.
1. Network Finances
The National Office announced to all paid staff just last
month that paychecks would now be deposited directly into
staff bank accounts instead of being handed out on payday
at the various stations.
While a seemingly simple administrative move, the initiative
marked an important milestone. Under the leadership of Chief
Financial Officer Lonnie Hicks, and backed by the efforts
of business managers and development directors nationwide,
Pacifica’s financial operation is rising up from the
nightmare of debt, insolvency, and poor record-keeping to
begin realizing high standards of non-profit financial management.
Two years ago, the network faced an FY01 deficit of $4.4
million (See
audit for FY 2001). Internal record-keeping was in shambles,
audits were late, budgets did not exist, litigation was tearing
the network apart, and bankruptcy loomed. Today, the proposed
FY04 network budget is forecasting a surplus of one million
dollars, monthly income statements
are being routinely published, and for the first time in years,
Pacifica’s audit will be completed on time. Preliminary
FY03 audit figures show that the network posted a $1.8 million
surplus in 2003.
Just as important, the iPNB and I have worked hard to put
behind us the complex, and emotion-laden, litigation related
to the Pacifica crisis period of 1999-2001. This has been
a difficult, time-consuming, and expensive process. Many thanks
to all of those who worked so hard to help us reach this goal.
While this is good news, settling cases means more or less
immediate cash outlays and impacts future budgeting. As of
this date, Pacifica faces about $850,000 in expenses related
to by-laws, listener elections, new legal settlements, old
professional service firm debt, and, of course, attorney fees.
About $370,000 of this debt is not active, and not currently
being invoiced, and is a potential write-off for Pacifica.
Despite the challenges posed by Pacifica’s legal situation,
the network is moving forward and much of this progress is
revealed in the numbers. Pacifica’s revenues in the
2001 Fiscal Year (Oct. 1, 2000-Sep. 30, 2001) totaled $10.98
million. In FY03, they hit $15.8 million, a 44 percent increase
in three years. This is truly remarkable, by any measure.
But, much of this was due to a dramatic leap in listener support
during the Iraq war, support that is now dropping. The FY04
budget is projected to drop down to a more realistic level
of $14.8 million.
In sum, consolidating network finances remains the No. 1
priority of the Pacifica Foundation in 2004. An independent
financial review in January 2002 said that it would take Pacifica
five years to recover from the 1999-2001 crisis. So while
we have made tremendous progress, going forward the network
must maintain fiscal discipline.
2. Local and National Programming
The country and the world are at a crossroads. Election 2004
is arguably the most important poll since 1932. And Pacifica
will be there. Working in partnership with affiliates across
the country, Pacifica will produce a series of town hall meetings,
to be broadcast nationally, in ten key battleground states
over the ten-week period leading up to the elections. We will
also provide in-depth multimedia coverage of the upcoming
Democratic, Republican, Green Party, Hip Hop and Unity: Journalists
of Color conventions as well as the demonstrations and protests
that are being planned in New York and Boston. We’re
also planning to feature unique programming, such as “Courtyard,”
an election-year weekly drama series now being produced out
of KPFK Los Angeles.
Critical to the Pacifica election year programming effort
is our multi-platform proliferation strategy. We are presently
planning a path-breaking Internet radio station which will
compile and stream the best public affairs and arts programs
drawn from our five stations in Berkeley, New York, Los Angeles,
Houston and Washington, D.C. This Internet station will aim
to broadcast live coverage of major events in this election
year as well as provide news headlines covering national and
international developments. Funding for these election year
efforts are coming from the national office plus new revenue
strategies being developed by the national office and General
Managers at their various stations.
Our reportage will put emphasis on policies, not personalities,
and our broadcasts will incorporate the views and perspectives
of those whose voices are generally left out of the for-profit,
infotainment media conglomerates -- community activists, civil
liberties groups, trade unionists, people of color, immigrant
communities, women and youth.
The aim of our national programming is nothing less than
to strengthen Pacifica as the No. 1 source of progressive
media content in the United States. Pacifica can, is, and
will increasingly become known as an articulate and crusading
voice in the media world, reporting with the highest standards,
and with its finger firmly on the pulse of communities nationwide.
Key to this goal is re-establishing a national programming
unit and a Pacifica-identified flagship national news service
for community radio stations nationwide, one that we can showcase
on the Internet, over digital satellite radio, and even over
community television. Working closely with Pacifica’s
local news departments, the daily news show can help pioneer
the network’s shift into multimedia programming.
Over the last year, the community radio world has shown,
that, working together, Pacifica and affiliate stations can
produce dynamic, informative programming, from the ground
up. One such collaboration was the hourly news headlines that
journalists from Free Speech Radio News provided at the opening
of the Iraq war. Those headlines were carried nationwide and
lifted the quality and the journalistic standards of all our
stations.
The headlines are a model we need to consider adopting permanently.
We should also begin to consider launching a collaborative
one-hour morning national news program that challenges the
hegemony of the commercial media and NPR. It is vital that
the stenographers of power not be allowed to monopolize the
interpretation of events. And with more than 50 percent of
all public radio listeners tuning-in by 9:00am Monday-Friday,
Pacifica needs to match our limited resources with those listeners
who are actively seeking an alternative to the right-wing
media.
Deepening our partnerships with community radio and independent
media nationwide and rolling out new programming initiatives
are essential to Pacifica’s future. This critical election
year is the time to begin.
3. Staffing, Diversity, and Training
Pacifica has many riches, but none is more important than
the diversity and commitment of the paid and unpaid staff
around the country. We need to increase our institutional
commitment to our staff with specific programs aimed at helping
them do the fine job they want to do.
 Indeed,
Pacifica now faces serious staff retention and attraction
problems. Departing staff are telling us frankly, “We
can’t work here. It’s too crazy.” Pacifica
needs stability, accountability, and a sense that our internal
cultural reflects Pacifica’s mission and values.
Each of us in the Pacifica community -- listeners, staff
and board members -- has an awesome responsibility and an
important legacy to fulfill. Each Pacifica contributor is
an ambassador for the network. We are representatives of Pacifica,
of its mission and its ideals, and our conduct both on and
off the air reflects an image to the world outside the station’s
boundaries. Therefore, let us respect one another and act
with the highest integrity.
Over the next year, the national office will develop internal
goals and initiatives aimed at supporting our staff, reducing
internal strife, improving retention levels, and organizing
our considerable human resources to better support our mission
values and goals. Specifically, Pacifica CFO Lonnie Hicks
is now exploring a wide variety of professional and financial
supports for our staff.
We will aim to ensure that all producers have access to training
and education programs this year. At the same time, we will
aim to rebuild our cadre of producers to ensure a strong,
diverse base that can sustain the network for years and decades
to come.
As I reported last year, the national office has worked closely
with the leadership of KPFA’s First Voice apprenticeship
program to adapt the curriculum, instructor’s handbook,
and other documents for distribution to other Pacifica stations.
The First Voice apprenticeship program is a free, hands-on
radio training program designed to increase cultural and ethnic
diversity in the media. Launched in 1984 in response to well-documented
minority exclusion from public and commercial media, KPFA’s
Apprenticeship Program has provided hands-on training to more
than 250 adults in a comprehensive, 18-month program that
provides solid grounding in both journalism and technical
production.
In the year ahead, Pacifica will deepen its commitment to
creating new opportunities for a broader segment of society
and preparing a diverse group of producers for long term involvement
in public broadcasting. And this commitment originates in
our mission: to "encourage and provide outlets for the
creative skills and energies in the community; and to contribute
to a lasting understanding between ... individuals of all
nations, races, creeds and colors.”
4. Pacifica Affiliates Program
This past year, Pacifica has re-emerged as the national voice
of free speech community radio. Some 100 stations nationwide
now carry Pacifica programming, more than at any time in Pacifica’s
54-year history.
Pacifica's Affiliate Stations, as
of January 2004
With the introduction of Internet distribution, our affiliates
program is also beginning to fulfill Pacifica’s potential
international leadership in free-speech community media. Already,
stations in Australia, Canada, and Europe air Pacifica programming
such as Democracy Now! And our first African affiliate is
already in the making: Hot 98.3 ZFM, a community FM station
in Abuja, Nigeria, part of the emerging democratic movement
in Nigeria.
The re-emergence of the Pacifica affiliates program is the
result of a lengthy re-evaluation process with our allies
in the community radio movement. We’ve also made a huge
effort to upgrade our technical operations and our administrative
services to the affiliates. Along with these initiatives,
representatives from seven affiliate stations worked with
a committee of Pacifica’s interim national board to
revive and plan a new affiliates program. The result of the
committee’s work is the Pacifica Affiliates Network.
This new spirit of cooperation between Pacifica and our affiliates
was demonstrated during the most difficult of times. Last
March, as bombs rained down on Baghdad, stations across the
country carried Pacifica’s war coverage. Ten community
radio stations co-produced headline news for the coverage.
Many stations continue to co-produce an affiliate-based newsmagazine
with Pacifica, called Sprouts, and interest has been expressed
by the news departments of many of our affiliates to work
together for a community radio response to national elections.
In today’s landscape, active partnership in program
development is expressed by almost all affiliates as one of
the most valued benefits to them for joining our broadcast
network. This perception of partnership in building a community
broadcast network is a major cornerstone to the Pacifica Affiliate
Network’s success.
At the onset of 2004, Pacifica has a staff of technicians
for our Berkeley satellite operations and a full-time coordinator
for maintaining day-to-day relations with affiliates and for
marketing our programs to new stations. Both the technical
and administrative staff, assisted also by the Pacifica national
web team, will spend 2004 building the infrastructure for
Pacifica Affiliates Network and hammering out the procedures
to make our plans into reality.
Listed below are things to look for within the next few months
as the Pacifica Affiliate Network is implemented:
- A user-friendly Pacifica affiliates web page that will
help new stations to affiliate and offer many support services
to current affiliates.
- An updated program schedule for our Ku satellite.
- Capacity for producers from affiliate stations and Pacifica
sister stations to distribute programs through the Pacifica
web site, creating a large, searchable archive of broadcast
material, a true exchange of progressive programs throughout
the community radio broadcast network. The new technologies
of dissemination can reanimate the founders’ vision
of Pacifica as a clearing house for the radio arts and the
building of a peaceable world through dialogue.
- A growing relationship with the cutting-edge grassroots
low-powered radio station movement, as we become the network
for LPFMs.
- A sharp increase in the number of new affiliate stations
joining our broadcast network. Pacifica currently has nearly
50 paying affiliates and as programs like Democracy Now!
and Free Speech Radio News continue to grow, we are aiming
at doubling the number of affiliates in the year ahead.
5. Pacifica’s Web Operations
Network-wide, Pacifica stations and producers continue to
develop a range of outstanding web sites. And when it comes
to the World Wide Web, our motto is simple: Let a Thousand
Flowers Bloom. The more Pacifica producers and programmers
are active in the virtual world, the better our mission is
being fulfilled.
In the months ahead, Pacifica’s main websites will
slowly evolve from internal informational websites which focus
on Pacifica election's and governance issues, to a major progressive
online content provider, focusing on all of Pacifica's programming.
Our sites will aim to aggregate the hundreds of programs we
air every month, and the thousands of individual shows they
produce day in day out, month after month throughout Pacifica.
To start off, we will make available over seven years worth
of Democracy Now!, all of Peacewatch's archives, many of Pacifica
Network News’ old programs, Flashpoints, and other Pacifica
favorite's that we have available from the recent past.
In the weeks and months ahead, Pacifica.org will be renovated.
With a new purpose, and appearance, combined with some great
new custom web applications, the new Pacifica.org will allow
both Pacifica's programming and mission to transcend the local
signal areas of its sister stations and affiliate stations
in a truly unprecedented fashion.
But we also want to make this operation self-sustaining and,
in fact, to become a new revenue source for the network. Another
new application for Pacifica.org will be a shopping cart,
where you can pick up some progressive weapons of mass instruction
- like books, CDs, videos, DVDs, T-shirts, and bumper stickers.
All this is to come to Pacifica.org. With the use of the
new websites targeting newer visitors outside of the traditional
Pacifica signal areas, and our ever increasing placement in
the Internet's top search engines like Google, Netscape, MSN,
and AOL, Pacifica's online presence is going to be working
harder than ever not only to complement the Pacifica message,
but also to help fulfill our mission in ways the Foundation's
community could have only dreamed of just a few years ago.
6. Pacifica Radio Archives
The Pacifica Radio Archives (PRA) is the repository of over
47,000 audio recordings that represent the history and evolution
of Pacifica Radio’s broadcast history. In 1971 PRA was
established to consolidate the stock of analog reel-to-reel
tape, program guides, and other materials that had collected
at the various stations.
Over the last two years, the entire Pacifica Radio network
has rallied to embrace this repository, which is considered
by many historians and scholars to be one of the most important
audio collections in the world. Two separate days of on-air
fundraising have helped to more than double the Archives’
budget and strengthen the Los Angeles-based unit’s operations.
This has brought many positive changes to PRA that have enabled
them to achieve many of their goals and objectives in areas
of preservation, station program services, and accessibility.
PRA’s preservation project is funded by a grant from
the Recording Academy, supported by an award from the National
Endowment for the Arts, and the generosity of the Pacifica
station listener. With the help of archive and preservation
experts, PRA conducted an assessment of its collection, resulting
in a formal report that is posted on PRA’s website,
www.pacificaradioarchives.org.
Additionally, PRA staff will be trained in new transfer techniques
and will create a “Best Standards and Practices Manual”
for tape restoration. More than 2000 tapes have already been
transferred to digital format.
PRA has also initiated an innovative outreach program to
the Pacifica affiliate stations that will provide Pacifica
Program Services for radio stations that are members in the
ever-expanding Pacifica Affiliates Network. Classic Pacifica
recordings and packages will be offered for use as premium
gifts to listeners, i.e., Defining Black Power and Voices
from the Left. In addition to offering relevant special programming
to stations for notable historical milestones (James Baldwin
Tribute for gay pride month), PRA is developing a weekly radio
show tentatively titled Frequency of Change, with programs
drawn from the depths of its refrigerated vault and offered
free to affiliate stations.
PRA continues to archive many diverse national network shows
such as Democracy Now!, Explorations with Michio Kaku, and
This Way Out. PRA has also offered newly produced programs
such as the radio adaptation of John Hersey’s Hiroshima,
with a talented international cast including Tyne Daly, Roscoe
Lee Browne, and Ruby Dee. Hiroshima is a finalist in the NFCB
Golden Reel Awards for radio drama. Other Archive program
projects heard on Pacifica stations this past year have been
The New Nuclear Danger with Dr. Helen Caldicott narrated by
Lily Tomlin and W.E.B. DuBois; One Hundred Years of the Souls
of Black Folk narrated by Alfre Woodard. For its two on-air
fund drive marathons PRA produced over 30 hours of programming
that included unique recordings not heard in over 40 years.
Currently, PRA is producing a new radio documentary called
Pacifica’s Convention Coverage: The Critical Ear scheduled
for release in May 2004.
Last fall, the PRA staff donated their time for several weekends
and renovated the Archives offices and vault in Los Angeles,
creating space for critical preservation operations. The archives
website will be redesigned to facilitate access to content
and streamline promotion of tapes and CDs, and will be rolled
out later this year.
Overall, the staff remains optimistic for 2004 as it gets
ready to introduce its new image to public radio stations
across America and the community at large. Many thanks to
all who have contributed to the Archives Preservation Fund
and donated their energy to help preserve the historic Pacifica
Radio Archives.
7. Transmitters and Physical Plant
While the digital future beckons, we are still analog broadcasters,
with important responsibilities regarding our physical plant
and infrastructure. But here again we’re looking to
strengthen our analogue broadcasting while creating a digital
capacity with our studios and transmitters. Some of our stations
are slated to go through a federally funded conversion process
in the period ahead.
Network-wide, we’ve upgraded studios and are putting
into place new transmitters. But some of the necessary initiatives
we need to take, like so many of our other dreams, remain
unbudgeted and we are actively looking to identify funding.
In the meantime, there is a lot of work going on.
At KPFA 94.1 FM in Berkeley, the new transmitter installation
project is progressing, but more slowly than we anticipated.
To save money, we are depending on professional volunteers
for several aspects of the transmitter building renovations,
including the rebuild of the air conditioning system.
We hope to have the new transmitter on-line before the end
of April. Concurrently, the ancient, 50's vintage backup antenna
will be used while the new antenna system is installed. The
old main antenna will also be removed, refurbished, and re-installed
at a new location up near the top of the tower. The old backup
antenna will be removed at that time.
At the same time, we are planning to begin the digital conversion
of the KPFA transmitter, funded recently by the Corporation
for Public Broadcasting. KPFA applied to be one of the "seed-market"
stations that have been chosen by the CPB to test this new
system. The CPB grant makes it more possible for us to test
and evaluate the system for our own satisfaction. The new
system should be on the air by the fall of 2004.
We still have a number of pending translator applications,
one of which is now unopposed in Santa Cruz. The FCC will
act upon that application in the near future. The Auburn translator
purchase is now complete, and we are about to file for a modification
of this antenna to bring it into a better location for reaching
Auburn and the I-80 corridor in the Sierra foothills.
At KPFK 90.7 FM in Los Angeles, I’m pleased to report
that the master control studio project is nearing completion.
The final wiring and testing will be accomplished in the next
few weeks. Because of the complexity of the systems we have
installed, we have to make sure the new on-air studio and
the digital interconnects to the new production studio (being
used as on-air right now) have the bugs all worked out before
switching over. As with any new installation, this is normal.
After a period of training in March, the new master studio
should be ready to go around the first of April.
The new transmitter installation at Mt. Wilson continues
to work as it should. This is the second winter since the
installation, and despite some severe ice loads in December,
everything looks like it is good for the long term. Many thanks
to listeners across the country for making this happen.
As for the tower on Mt. Wilson, we are presently looking
at a proposal for building a tower over twice as high as our
present one at 180 ft. This could improve the KPFK signal
in all directions by a very large margin, and likely eliminate
the incoming interference from XLNC in Tijuana. This would
be an amazing addition to what is already an incredible transmitter,
one of the largest in the country.
In other news, we are still waiting for the FCC to act on
granting the translator application for northern San Diego.
It is unopposed, and should be granted in the near future.
KPFT 90.1 FM’s main and backup transmitters working
properly for the first time since the move to the current
tower in the mid-1990's. We are still waiting for the FCC
to act on the application for power increase. The Galveston
translator is operating normally, and providing a good reach
over the southern reaches of the KPFT primary coverage area.
We are still waiting for the FCC to grant the two pending
translator application we have north of Houston. They are
unopposed, and should be granted at some point.
Following a series of transmitter problems in 2002, WPFW
89.3 FM launched a comprehensive transmitter upgrade project
at WPFW this past June, one of the most extensive transmitter
and physical plant upgrade programs in the network. It involved
a full overhaul of the transmitter, including installing back
up generators, remote links, and a High Volume AC upgrade.
We also fixed problems with a potentially severe antenna pressure
leak. This could have put WPFW off the air for many weeks.
In the meantime, WPFW applied for and won a digital transmission
“seed market” grant from the CPB and plans are
underway for that project to get underway.
At WBAI 99.5 FM, there continues to be renovation work at
the Empire State Building. A fair amount of after-midnight
downtime this winter has been caused by the need to do major
repairs and additions to the antenna mast on Empire during
off-peak hours. WBAI has no power during these times of work,
mostly to protect the workers on the mast, and because major
renovations in the Empire combining system required that all
FM and TV stations are off the air for safety reasons. Much
of the work should be complete by mid-summer.
Media Democracy in Action
Over the last year, many of us have been reminded of Rachel
Corrie, the 23-year-old student from Evergreen College in
Olympia, Washington, home of community radio station KAOS,
who was killed by the Israeli Army as she defended a Palestinian
home from a bulldozer. Pacifica and community radio lost one
of our voices when Rachel died. Her courage inspires us. It
is reflective of a new humanity which has swept the world
in recent years and that gives us hope for a brighter future.
Just as Rachel Corrie and Pacifica founders Lew Hill, Richard
Moore and Eleanor McKinney were propelled by a deep sense
of urgency in a time of national and international crisis,
we, too, must put the same kind of energy, commitment, creativity,
and political principle into building independent, community-based,
commercial-free, mission-driven radio. We have no choice.
If free speech and basic democratic liberties are to survive
in the United States, we must rededicate ourselves to the
fundamental principles of our movement.
To be sure, Pacifica plays a leadership role in the independent
media movement and in that capacity the entire Pacifica community
has major responsibilities. They range from providing a distribution
infrastructure for progressive and independent media content,
to supporting Low Power FM stations, to producing, distributing
and financing programming like Democracy
Now!, Flashpoints
or Free Speech Radio
News.
The new Pacifica democracy means a new responsibility, and
a new accountability, for all of us. We are each stewards
of a historic legacy entrusted to us and we must nurture it.
Stability, compromise, and reform are important watchwords.
In many ways, the easy part is behind us. Now, the challenge
ahead is to forge a common agenda, to unify and to build a
stronger and more influential Pacifica. A more just and peaceful
world is not only necessary but possible and a condition of
its possibility is media democracy. Let Pacifica be its shining
beacon.
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