“New Day Pacifica” Bylaw Proposals: A Group On The West Coast Is Declaring War on Pacifica And WBAI- Democracy and Free Speech Are In Peril

 Free Speech Peril!- A Group On The West Coast Is Declaring War on Pacifica And WBAI  . .  And On Democracy

To All Library Defenders-

Here is something that’s still in draft because we are still working on it, but it will inform you about urgent matters nonetheless.  One reason it's in draft is because the WBAI Local Station Board still needs to pass the included resolution.

If you believe in free speech and want to be able to continue to access narratives that are alternative to the propaganda the corporately owned mainstream press pumps out, we hope this will encourage you to take action, including that you and others become WBAI members (a mere $25) by April 7th.

We think you'll find the scenario reported on below familiar.  Powerful interests are working to shrink our libraries, where we get our information, and to eliminate the books; Let's not let them succeed in this parallel effort to take away free speech radio and the information and insight it provides.

Please let Carolyn and me know if you refresh or start your WBAI membership or get any of your friends to become WBAI members.

Should the Pacifica Free Speech Radio network be at war with itself? It’s a self-destructive course when it is.  But that’s exactly what seems to have happened.  The union of five free speech stations through the Pacifica network was meant to be a strengthening measure providing cross support between the stations . .

. . . But now it seems that there is a faction at the Pacifica stations on the West Coast that wants to declare war on the Pacifica stations on the East Coast and particularly New York City’s WBAI.  (WBAI is New York’s only true listener supported public radios station.) Especially considering the history of some of the actors involved in this attack, the so-called “New Day Pacifica,” proposals to strip democracy and listener accountability out of Pacifica’s bylaws, it does not seem as if that faction has the best interest of Pacifica at heart.

Do the attackers want to dismantle the Pacifica network and WBAI because they want to see free speech radio, radio for the 99.5% (WBAI is 99.5 FM on the dial in NYC) dismantled entirely?. . . .

. . . Or, do the attackers want to dismantle the Pacifica network and WBAI because they want to refashion it, do a make over so that all the stations broadcast content that falls in line with dominant, power-serving narratives pumped out by the corporate mainstream press, be it the divisive corporate “Red Broadcasting” by Fox, or the divisive corporate “Blue Broadcasting” by the likes of MSNBC.

In either case, such dismantling and destruction of Pacifica and WBAI would neutralize the threat that free speech and listener accountability pose to establishment power structures.

WBAI just aired a two-hour program to inform its listeners of the nefarious “New Day Pacifica" plans afoot.  You can find it to listen to here: “The Democracy Project,” March 6, 2021. . . (Because of the rules applicable when proposed Pacifica bylaw changes are to be voted on, WBAI is now in a period where WBAI has to be silent, neutral and unable to inform its listeners about the bylaws, but this program, predating the election period, can still be listened to on WBAI’s archive.)

Very worth listening to for understanding the overall context of obvious concerns is the stage-setting introduction for the program Johanna Fernandez, host of WBAI’s morning program, “A New Day.”  (Did “New Day Pacifica” intend to be stealing the name of Johanna’s morning show for “good will” confusion purposes?: Some people think so.)  Her introduction starts at 5:10 in the recording.

In her opening Johanna Fernandez makes a very good case that the “New Day Pacifica” proposals should be seen in an overall context of neoliberal privatizing takeover and shutdown of the free press.

Perhaps most important to listen to in that broadcast is former Pacifica board Chair Grace Aaron’s exceptionally clear technical description of the proposals that the New Day Pacifica proponents are trying to foist on the listener members of WBAI and Pacifica.  Grace Aaron names names in saying who the New Day Pacifica are and why all their actions, past and present, ensure these people and their motives are to be suspected.  (Her statement starts at 16:05 in the recording.)
 
As Grace makes clear, the proposals are designed to be an undemocratic and racially skewing dictatorial power grab by an elite minority with conflicts of interest that would shut out from representation the blacker, browner, more progressive East Coast Stations (WBAI and WPFW).  If these bylaw changes are approved they would establish locked-in leadership over Pacifica for three years by four self-appointed officers, including a Chair, Sharon Kyle, who may have a direct conflict of interest as she is the owner of the LA Progressive, an online, for-profit newspaper.  Although there would be one representative on the new board from WBAI and one from WPFW (our Washington, D.C. station). stations would be locked out of the 4 officer positions and would have fewer board members overall than the West Coast stations for 3 years.  WBAI and WPFW are Pacifica’s blacker, browner and more progressive stations.  Also, none of the 4 board officers would be from the staff or Pacifica’s affiliate stations.  The locked in structure would ensure minority opinion would have very little representation or voice.

The changes would also eliminate local control and influence over local station broadcasting by taking away the LSB oversight over station general managers.  Thus programing in New York City and Washington D.C. would be effectively determined top-down by those seizing power on the West Coast.  What could/would result?: During the October 2019 shutdown of WBAI these same people pumped into NYC programming from California that was innocuously bland, dull.  It was unthreatening to power and devoid of any sense of locality.

There is other insidious stuff tucked into the proposals like rejiggering staff representation rules to further lock in this West Coast Pacifica faction dominance.

The proposals would do absolutely nothing to improve Pacifica’s financial condition.  Instead, having to deal with proposals like these worsen it.  These now recurring launches by the same people to make different kinds of overhauling changes to the bylaws are probably intended as attempt to drain Pacifica’s preciously spare resources (including possible forcing a bankruptcy of Pacifica) and foment perpetual debilitating distraction, as much as they are actually in hope of successfully making any such changes.

How do we fend off this attack?: By April 7th,  WBAI needs to make sure that it has as many listener members ready and qualified to vote on on the upcoming bylaw referendum as possible.  That means that listeners should have contributed at least $25 or more within the year to the station.  One way to do that immediately (if someone is not currently up-to-date as a listener member) is to immediately become a member of WBAI as a BAI Buddy supporting the station or a show for $10 a month or more and then make up the extra with a one time donation (of $15 more more extra dollars?).

Another way to help win this fight is for WBAI supporters to make sure that two of their friends become WBAI members eligible to vote by April 7th.  If ever WBAI member got two friends to do that by April 7th WBAI member would more than double.  (plus it means a lot for people to be listening to WBAI and telling others about the cool and fascinating stuff they heard the there.)

And another quick stop for anyone, is to also sign (and pass along) the petition opposing the proposed bylaw changes up at The Democracy Project.

Here is the resolution that WBAI’s Local Station Board passed unanimously at its last meeting condemning the New Day Pacifica proposals:

Resolution of WBAI’s Local Station Board Finding That Proposed “New Day Pacifica” Bylaw Changes Will Be Extremely Destructive and Adverse To The Interests of Pacifica

Whereas, whenever proposals are made to fundamentally alter the structure of the Pacifica Foundation (“Pacifica”) it is essential to examine those proposals with care to determine whether such proposed changes would truly be helpful to Pacifica or would, instead, be detrimental and destructive;        

Whereas, while it would be nice to assume that proposals to make fundamental changes to Pacifica are always made with good faith intentions to improve Pacifica, that is something that should never be assumed;

Whereas, Pacifica, as currently structured, stands ready to be a provider of truth, facts, factual corrections, and alternative narratives that pose a significant threat to the dominating narratives of the monopolistic, corporate, mainstream press that serve power structures that seek to quash and censor opposition, and, as such, we must be on guard against those entering the Pacifica environment that, whatever their pretenses, choose to be destructive and disruptive to Pacifica;

Whereas, we have to be aware that Pacifica and its terrestrial radio stations are an even more obvious target for attack by these powerful interests, because unlike the internet sources of news, information and communication, terrestrial radio cannot be as easily shut down, censored, silenced, manipulated, monitored and surveiled as is becoming increasingly evident as a problem with respect to the internet;    

Whereas, we, as WBAI’s Local Station Board (“LSB”) do not want to see Pacifica destroyed by being driven into bankruptcy or by being dismantled and reconstructed as another arm of the corporate owned and corporately captured press and media conglomerates (for instance becoming a corporate Democrat “blue broadcaster” such as some of the corporately-owned cable channels);

Whereas, our LSB believes that WBAI is one of Pacifica’s most progressive stations, successful in steering away from the traps of corporately captured and promulgated narratives and that its independence, voice, and ability to continue to be this way should be protected and preserved;

Whereas, the best way to ensure that Pacifica fends off destruction and/or neutering of its ability to be a strong, free-speech source of alternative narratives that serve the public interest and intellectual freedoms is for Pacifica and its stations to remain democratically accountable to its listeners;

Whereas, the LSB has reviewed, and is alarmed in the extreme by, the “New Day Pacifica” proposals to change the bylaws seeing that they will be detrimental and disruptive to the essential purposes of Pacifica for all of the above reasons; and

Whereas, the LSB therefore wishes to set forth its condemnation of the “New Day Pacifica” proposals for reasons that include all of what we set forth below; now, therefore be it

RESOLVED, by LSB as follows:

Section 1. The LSB condemns  the “New Day Pacifica” proposals because:

    A.   The LSB emphatically notes that many of the people behind the push for the “New Day Pacifica” proposals are the very same people who were behind and involved in: i) the surreptitious, unauthorized, illegal, and costly shutdown of WBAI of October 2019, ii) the simultaneous secretly launched and roundly defeated (by a 2/3rds margin) last set of disruptively proposed, antidemocratic bylaw changes of that time that destructively drained Pacifica of $150,000 of its resources, and iii) advocating for shutting down WBAI.

    B. The proposals are designed to be an undemocratic and racially skewing power grab by an elite minority with conflicts of interest that would shut out from representation the blacker, browner, more progressive East Coast Stations (WBAI and WPFW).  To wit, the virtually complete erosions of democracy include:
    
            •    The bylaw changes would establish locked-in rule over Pacifica for three years by four unelected, self-appointed officers, including with conflict of interest connections to for-profit media.  These individuals would have no professional radio experience.  The lock-in would include officers hostile to and connected with the shutdown of WBAI.  The individuals being picked for this lock-in of power do not include proper representation for WBAI or WPFW, the other East Coast station. None are from the staff or affiliate stations.
            •    Pacifica’s proportional voting representation ensuring a voice for minority opinion would be eliminated be reducing to one the number of representatives sent to Pacifica’s National Board from each station, thus ensuring that only the majority would have any representation or voice.
            •    To extend this elimination of elected voices the majority-representing national board members would get to appoint additional board members suitable to their more limited, undemocratic mind-set.
            •    The changes would eliminate local control and influence over local station broadcasting by taking away the LSB oversight over station general managers.  Thus programing in New York City and Washington D.C. would be effectively determined top-down by those seizing power on the West Coast.  As the example of the October 2019 shutdown of WBAI demonstrated, what these kinds of people chose to do the last time they had the opportunity to do this was to run programming that was innocuously bland, dull and unthreatening to power and devoid of any sense of locality.
            •    The changes would rejigger the staff representation rules in order to assure that the results of staff elections would always give the West Coast Pacifica stations assured dominance.

    C. The proposals are additionally very suspect because they would do absolutely nothing to improve Pacifica’s financial condition, but presenting and having to deal with proposals like these absolutely worsen it.  The recurring launches by the same people to make different kinds of overhauling changes to the bylaws are probably intended as attempt to drain Pacifica’s preciously spare resources (including possible forcing a bankruptcy of Pacifica) and foment perpetual debilitating distraction, as much as they are actually in hope of successfully making any such changes.

    D. The proposals would make the Pacific bylaws far longer than they are now and far more complicated, a highly undesirable outcome.

Section 2.  To defend against and repel this onslaught against listener interest, the LSB encourages WBAI listeners to increase their contributions to WBAI and Pacifica, and if they are not currently, to become current members of WBAI and Pacifica, particularly on or before April 7, 2021 (with a contribution of $25 or more), and to encourage everyone they know to do the same.
           
Section 3.  This resolution shall take effect immediately and the LSB directs the LSB chair to forward this resolution to the Pacific National Board and make every effort to promulgate it widely for public view and to ensure it becomes widely known that the LSB denounces the “New Day Pacifica” proposals by reason of all the harm the proposal of those bylaw changes are apparently designed to inflict on Pacifica in its pursuit of its mission and particularly on WBAI.

If you want to know more history about when a lot of the same ““New Day Pacifica” people were involved in the surreptitious, unauthorized, illegal and costly October 2019 sut down of WBAI, you can find it here along with the resolution that the WBAI LSB unanimously adopted to condemn it then:

Resolution of WBAI’s Local Station Board Responding To Shutdown of WBAI New York

Once again- Fend off this attack as follows:

            •    By April 7th,  help make sure WBAI has as many listener members ready and qualified to vote on on the upcoming bylaw referendum as possible.  That means that listeners should have contributed at least $25 or more within the year to the station.


            •    Make sure your friends (at least two?) become WBAI members eligible to vote by April 7th.

            •    Sign (and pass along) the petition opposing the proposed bylaw changes up at The Democracy Project.

An Insightful Warning: Alex Steinberg’s Prescient Pre-WBAI Shut Down Report As A Pacifica National Director To The WBAI Local Station Board On September 11, 2019

On September 11th Alex Steinberg delivered an insightful report to WBAI's Local Station Board. .

WBAI Radio, New York City’s only truly listener supported public radio station is now back up and running, but October 7th it was abruptly shut down for a month by a stealth attack, from which it is still working to completely recover.  We urge support of the station, and particularly that those who can become “WBAI Buddies” to make recurring automatic monthly donations (which can be in small amounts) that will also ensure your membership in the station and ability to participate in its elections.

Almost a month before WBAI was shut down the WBAI Local Station Board received a report from Alex Steinberg, a director on the Pacifica National Board for the five station network of which WBAI is a part that was both a prescient warning about the likelihood of an attack on WBAI and the Pacifica network it is a part of and important documentation providing perspective as to why such an attack would be unjustified.

We provide you with that report below:

September 11, 2019

Director's Report to the WBAI LSB

The future of Pacifica and 'Plan B'

I wish to bring to the attention of the WBAI LSB and the public that a series of events has transpired in the past two weeks that should raise the alarm bells about the continued existence of WBAI as an independent radio station beaming a powerful signal in the largest media market in the country. I believe WBAI is in grave danger. Some of these events  cannot discuss explicitly because they took place in a closed session of the Pacifica National Board while other events involve confidential personnel issues.  What I can tell you,  based on discussions with a number of individuals that are not covered by confidentiality rules, the proceedings of open sessions of the PNB and its committees, as well as a paper trail of documents and emails and past actions by certain individuals with a history within Pacifica, is that a group of Directors on the PNB is intent on usurping the role of the WBAI LSB in evaluating management. They are intent on removing WBAI's management team by executive fiat. Furthermore the goal of these behind the scene machinations is not the revival of WBAI but its dismantling. The group of Directors behind these actions are led by Bill Crosier from KPFT, who is currently the Secretary of the PNB. Crosier has the strong backing of Director Adrienne LaViollette from KPFT, Mansour Sabbagh from KPFK, Donald Goldmacher from KPFA, Chris Cory from KPFA and Sabrina Jacobs, the Vice-Chair of the PNB, also from KPFA a network of individuals from the Bay Area long associated with KPFA. The general outlines of their plan for WBAI and Pacifica are no mystery. A recent document by long-time KPFA insider Peter Franck, called 'Plan B' makes clear exactly what they want to do. 

Franck's 'Plan B' (see the appendix to this document)  calls for the dismantling of Pacifica as a network and the devolution of each of the radio stations into its own legal entity.  This will be accomplished by essentially scrapping the current bylaws either through a lawsuit or through the intervention of the California Attorney General.  Democratically elected Local Station Boards will be gone. They will be replaced by purely advisory bodies appointed by management. The Pacifica National Board will be left to preside over a ghost of what the Pacifica Foundation has been, being left with a modest  programming service. The new PNB will be smaller and weaker, ceding much more authority to the Executive Director. It will also have at least some members who are appointed rather than elected. Franck's document makes the case that starting the new legal entities and energizing the stations will take a lot of start-up cash. How is this cash going to be raised?  He says the solution is simple, we can easily raise between $10 to $15 million by "swapping or selling one of our signals."  Guess which signal he has in mind to finance his reorganization plan? Hint, it's not KPFA.

A little bit of recent history

It is public knowledge that Director Crosier, when he was interim Executive Director in 2017, was a strong advocate of the sale or swap, first of the WPFW license, and then of the WBAI license. Crosier was also a strong advocate, along with then CFO Sam Agarwal, of Pacifica going into Chapter 11 bankruptcy.  Crosier and Agarwal opposed all efforts to find an alternative to bankruptcy in dealing with the ESRT lawsuit.

Crosier and Agarwal strongly opposed the loan that made possible the settlement of the ESRT lawsuit and the move to 4 Times Square.  The people most involved in negotiating that loan, Directors Nancy Sorden, Jan Goodman and Grace Aaron, did their work in spite of the hostile reception from Pacifica's iED at the time, Bill Crosier, and CFO Sam Agarwal. Let us remind this audience that the settlement with ESRT saved us $1.9 million that would have been due if we had not gotten out of the remainder of our lease. It also reduced our monthly tower rent costs from something between $60-$70K per month to approximately $18K per month.   Not only did we see a 400% saving on our Tower Rent in moving to 4 Times Square but we kept 100% of our listener coverage area and actually have a better signal than we had at Empire State thanks to a brand-new transmitter that was part of the deal with 4 Times Square.

So Crosier, who was proved dead wrong in 2017 when he said there was no good alternative to bankruptcy, is back at it again in 2019. He has once more bought into the idea, originating from some quarters in KPFA,  indeed it appears he never really abandoned it, that all the problems of Pacifica could be solved by sacrificing WBAI. 

The game plan

How do the group of Directors on board with Peter Franck's  'Plan B',  intend to force the liquidation, one way or another, of WBAI? We already know their game plan by once more looking at some recent history.  Back in the summer of 2017, Pacifica was without question in a genuine crisis. We were facing a lawsuit from Empire State for Tower rent that had not been paid in over a year and considerable penalties. WBAI, along with some other stations, also had a very poor fund drive. iED Crosier decided that the way to deal with this crisis was to send a "rescue team" to WBAI. The ostensible purpose of this "rescue team" was to help management fix WBAI.  But the real purpose, it soon became clear, was to replace the WBAI General Manager and interim Program Director with a hand-picked team from KPFA. Director Sabrina Jacobs, who had absolutely no management experience, was supposed to lead this "rescue team".  When we found out about this plan it struck some of the Directors at the time, notably Directors Steinberg and Aaron, as a completely irrational and panic-driven approach to a real problem. How in the world would a team from California, who knew nothing about WBAI and its culture and who had no management experience, be able to fix a problem that had been festering for years. And while it is certainly legitimate to critique the management of WBAI, it should be kept in mind that the bulk of the problems at WBAI  were due to outside events about which WBAI management had no control, namely the impossible Empire State lease approved by a past PNB 15 years previously and the stripping down of three quarters of WBAI's staff by a previous PNB shortly after hurricane Sandy, leaving WBAI with less than a skeleton crew. It seemed to some of us that this plan, if it were carried out, could only destabilize WBAI and deepen its crisis further. It made absolutely no sense and we managed to shut down this idea literally at the last minute before it was launched. 

Is WBAI a "failed station"?

Now move forward two years to the late summer of 2019. The Pacifica Foundation in 2019 and WBAI are in much better shape now than they were in 2017 prior to the settlement with ESRT, when things looked so bleak. We completed our 2017 audit and are close to completing our 2018 audit. Once that is done, we will be current with our audits and work can begin on the 2019 audit as soon as we close out the 2019 fiscal year at the end of September. We have pretty much paid all obligations that we owed on our pension plans, debts that had triggered off a Department of Labor investigation in 2017. Democracy Now, to whom we owed several million, forgave us that debt, thereby immediately improving Pacifica's financial profile. We have an accounting and financial infrastructure in place now that was sadly lacking in 2017 as a result of hiring NETA to do our books and provide us with other services that were once handled by the National Office. When the 2018 audit is completed and we are current with our audits, will be in a position to try to regain our CPB funding, the lack of which for the past 5 years has cost us $4-$5 million. We will also be in a position to approach foundations and major donor who all require up to date audits before considering grants.  That's the situation at the national level.

What the membership figures show

At the local level some interesting things are revealed when we compare the number of listener members as determined by the 2018 and 2019 LSB elections from the Pacifica Election Final Report for 2018, Table 1 on page 18 and the Pacifica Election Report 09-05-19:

2018- KPFA  15,585    KPFK  14,366   KPFT   4,294   WBAI   6,806   WPFW unknown
2019- KPFA  14,311    KPFK  13,210   KPFT   3,549   WBAI   8,186   WPFW 6,289
          KPFA -8%          KPFK  -8%       KPFT -17%     WBAI  +20%


The number of members at WBAI rose by 1,400 over last year. That's a gain of roughly 20%. On the other hand, all the other Pacifica stations for which we have statistics show a significant drop in membership.  KPFT's membership dropped by 17%. KPFA's membership dropped by 8%. KPFK's membership also dropped by 8%. True, membership is only one metric and comparisons from one year to the next gives only a partial story. Nevertheless one would think these figures would cause those who claim that WBAI is a "failed station" to pause and take notice.

Not only is our membership up, but listenership is also up as confirmed by Nielsen ratings.  This is largely due to a series of programming changes aimed at improving their quality, especially of drive time programs. And for the first time in a long time, an influx of producers has joined the WBAI staff who are under 60. In fact many of them are in their 20's and 30's. Overall this is good news for WBAI. 

WBAI is improving

As for the purely financial picture at WBAI, it is considerably better than it was in 2017.  Yet, WBAI is still not where we would like it to be. The improvements in members and listeners have not yet translated into significantly increased contributions from our listeners. WBAI is today still running a deficit, though one that is dramatically reduced compared to the nightmare scenario of 2017. Our general manager estimates that the total deficit for 2019 will be approximately $160K.  A significant figure to be sure, but not an intractable one. To put that number into perspective, if we had our CPB funding restored to the levels we used to receive, that deficit would turn into a surplus of approximately $160K.  Our monthly deficit is less than our Tower Rental expenses which are approximately $18K monthly.  That is an expense that none of the California stations have. Their Tower rent is close to zero. In addition we have an expense of approximately $6,500 in studio rent. That is also an expense that the California and Houston stations do not have since they own their buildings.  In addition, WBAI has recently been the recipient of significant bequests. The bulk of those bequests were given to Pacifica to use as they wish while the remainder went to paying off some past debts at WBAI. Yet despite these signs of improvement at WBAI when you consider its health in the context of other Pacifica stations, we still hear a narrative emanating from Berkeley that WBAI is "underperforming", that it is a "failed station" and that only a drastic solution can turn WBAI around.  They simply ignore the incremental changes that have taken place.

To be sure WBAI is underperforming in the sense that it is performing well below its potential. But if you consider WBAI in relation to the other Pacifica stations, then you can hardly say it is "underperforming". All measurable criteria that we have indicates that WBAI is actually improving.  It is performing better than KPFT, a station whose membership and listeners have shrunk dramatically. It is performing better than KPFK, a station that was once the power-house of Pacifica when it came to fund drives but is now facing huge shortfalls.  In any case, the purpose of an assessment of the health of WBAI is not to compare it to other Pacifica stations, but to see how it can be improved further to realize its great potential.

Back to the Future

In spite of all these signs of significant improvement in the overall health of Pacifica and of WBAI, we are faced with a very real cash flow crisis that reached a critical point in September of 2019.  In addition, an incident involving one WBAI producer who, according to the opinion of Pacifica's counsel, stepped over the line  in terms of certain regulations, has been used to drum up an atmosphere of panic. We are hearing things like "WBAI is out of control".  While these problems - the cash flow crisis, and possible violations of regulations are real enough - they are being used as a wedge in order to convince a number of Directors that the aborted Crosier plan from 2017 should be replayed in 2019.  Thus we are once more hearing about why a team from California should be sent immediately to take over and manage WBAI.  The goal, we believe, based on our observations not only of the words, but also of the actions of the principal players in this drama, is to turn WBAI into either a repeater station, without any local programming or staff, or to sell or swap the signal, thereby fulfilling an important part of Peter Franck's 'Plan B'.  They are using the atmosphere of crisis in order to convince a number of other Directors to go along with their scheme, Directors who otherwise would be more prudent. 

The shock doctrine

The mechanism of achieving consensus based on exploiting a crisis has been well documented in Naomi Klein's best-selling book from 2007, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. Klein's brilliant insight was to examine how crises and disasters can be used by businesses and governments to their advantage.  Under conditions of crisis, whether real or manufactured, many people are prone to let their natural defenses down and convince themselves that they must listen to "experts" who can help lead them out of the crisis by agreeing to accept harsh measures that under normal conditions they would never agree to. That is how unions are convinced to scrap decades old pension plans and benefits in order to "save jobs". That is how international financial institutions convince governments to sign onto decades of austerity. The same methods can be used on a much smaller scale, to convince a Board of Directors to take actions that are destructive of the organization in order to overcome a crisis.  Indeed Klein showed that often it is advantageous to those exploiting the atmosphere of crisis to deliberately stoke the crisis and make it worse.  Can this be happening at WBAI?

What about that loan?

A final footnote to this report.   There has been a lot of discussion about the loan and what plans the PNB and Pacifica management have for repaying the loan.  At the National level much of these discussions have been occurring on the Strategic Planning Committee, of which Director Steinberg is the Chair. Most of these discussions have been in open session and the recordings are available to anyone who wishes to listen.  A plan introduced by Steinberg had been discussed for several weeks. The plan consisted essentially in holding a series of national fund drives, similar to the national fund drive in 2017 that raised significant funds to allow us to hire auditors.  It was also recognized that these fund drives and other initiatives were not likely to come up with the entire balance of the loan by the time it is due.  The remainder of the balance were to be handled by refinancing that portion of the loan. It is always possible to refinance a loan and is considered a standard business practice. The terms and conditions for refinancing the loan vary widely, depending on the financial condition and credit-worthiness of the borrower. We felt that since Pacifica is on the precipice of being up to date with our audits and showing other signs that our financial situation has improved, that we may be able to get some relatively good terms for a refinanced loan.  We were surprised however at the reaction of our new iED,  John Vernile, to this plan. He stated at the last Strategic Planning Committee meeting that the goal of fund drives should be for the entire balance of the loan, not just the $1 million projected by us. It's certainly a nice goal, but how realistic is it? Not only that but somehow this goal would be achieved on a greatly reduced schedule of national fund drives, perhaps only two Christmas special fund drives.  When the question was asked how this goal can be achieved Mr. Vernile answered that the fund drives can be supplemented by approaching major donors and having a more systematic approach to soliciting bequests. It seemed to some of us that was this not a realistic plan. We also wondered why Mr. Vernile appeared to take the option of refinancing a portion of the loan off the table.  It leads us to wonder where iED Vernile stands on the core issues facing Pacifica and WBAI.

What next?

This report is meant to alert the WBAI LSB and WBAI staff,  listeners and supporters to the dangers we are facing.  The ideological divide is between those who think the future of Pacifica is to circle the wagons in order to protect their own turf, even at the expense of a key player in the most important media market in the country, and those who think the future of Pacifica lies inrevitalizing all the stations we now have and work much more closely toward becoming a genuine nation-wide network while at the same time maintaining close ties to their local communities.  We believe that Pacifica and WBAI can have a real influence on the politics and culture of this country which is now plagued by a rise of neo-fascism, a newly invigorated racism and anti-Semitism, attacks on the working class, the poor and immigrants, denial of climate change and science and the rise of authoritarian, anti-democratic values.  The mainstream media is not part of the solution. Indeed they are part of the problem. As is NPR. This is where Pacifica can make a difference - if it has the courage and the vision and rejects all the tribalistic pressures to only tend to one's "own" garden.

Alex Steinberg


* * *

Appendix: Peter Franck's 'Plan B'*
*from his web site, https//culturelaw.com/special-infromation/plan-b/

PLAN B
        A "Friendly Divorce" to Save the Stations

Introduction. Six years ago, Carol Spooner circulated a letter she called "Time for an Amicable Divorce at Pacifica?" Without speaking for her, I believe she saw then, as a very close observer of the Pacifica scene, that attempting to govern and run the five Pacifica Foundation Radio stations under a single corporate umbrella, Pacifica Foundation, was not working, and indeed could be a threat to the survival of at least some of the stations. Observing recent crises, some of us have now come to the same conclusion. This paper will attempt to outline how such a "friendly divorce" could happen. Its goal is the preservation of all of the Pacifica stations in a manner which will enable them to continue carrying out the Pacifica mission.

There are a number of ways in which the "friendly divorce" plan could be initiated. They include; (a) decision by the Pacifica National Board; (b) legal action under California Corporations' Code Section 6510; (c) the exercise of certain rights which FJC has under the terms of the $3.7 million Loan Agreement of April 2, 2018; (d) a vote of the Pacifica membership. It is not the purpose of this paper to discuss how such a plan may come to be initiated, but to acknowledge it as a possibility and discuss what it would look like.

Outline of a plan.

1. Legal Separation.

a. Establishment of independent 501(c)3 non-profit corporations based in each of the cities in which current Pacifica stations are located, thus establishing local station entities. In most states, any person or legal entity can establish a new non-profit organization by filing Articles of Incorporation with the respective Secretary of State. For all five stations Pacifica Foundation itself would be the Incorporator. As the Incorporator, Pacifica would establish bylaws 1 for the new non-profits and appoint their initial Board of Directors.

b. Appointment of the current members of the stations' Local Station Board and transfer of the licenses would be conditioned on the agreement of all current board members to suspend intramural fighting during the transition period. They would start with a simplified initial set of by-laws, with a provision that they could be amended by a simple majority of the board during the first 60 days. A simple set of by-laws, providing for a smaller board, with most of its members elected, and some seats with particular competencies to be filled by appointment.

c. In the event that a Local Station Board does not unanimously commit to suspending a factional fighting during the transition period Pacifica would put out a notice to all relevant non profit organizations in the signal area, inviting them to apply for that communities' license. Who would be the decider would depend on how the process was initiated (see paragraph 2 of the introduction above).

2. Transfer of licenses. License transfer must be approved by the Federal Communications Commission. Pacifica would file with the FCC an application to transfer the current licenses to the new local entities. Filing a Petition for Consent to Transfer does not open the license to third parties. The only action open to the FCC, if there was any properly filed opposition, would be to either grant the transfer or deny the transfer. If granted, the licensee would become the new local non-profit. If denied Pacifica would remain the licenser. The Application to Transfer the licenses would only happen if the local Board has agreed to suspend intramural disputes (as provided in Section 1 b, above). Under FCC regulations, transfer of licenses is subject to the timely filing, by any concerned party of a Petition to Deny. There would have been prior agreement that no such Petition would be filed on or behalf of any present Board Members.

3. Funding. Pacifica will have to engage in a signal swap which could net as much as $15,000,000 (probably reducing the number of people potentially, but not currently listening to one or two of the stations by about 40%). The impact on actual listenership Pacifica will be minimal. Pacifica will use the funds to pay off all current debts and divide the balance (which could be as much as $9,000,000) among the five new non-profit corporations.

4. Reorganization and Revitalizing the New Stations. From the funds left after paying the debt Pacifica would make each newly independent station a restricted "Reorganization and Development grant" (R&D grant) so they can reorganize and modernize; the terms of the R&D grant will be to conduct a reorganization of programming and operations along the lines outlined in attachment A.

5. The Pacifica Archives will be placed with the University of Santa Barbara or such other entity as has a proven capability of completing the technical preservation work and a commitment to making the contents freely available;

6. The Pacifica Program Service. as the one cash positive entity of Pacifica will continue to operate much as it does at present, under the guidance of a reduced and streamlined Pacifica Board.