"I look up and I see Dennis Bernstein being pursued by four or five armed guards The guards are big, beefy guys and they're using their professional weight to push Dennis into the corner. They push him onto the tape machine, so that my lead story is knocked off the air…The only thing I can think of doing is going back to the announce room on mike and telling listeners what is occurring."

- KPFA Programmer Mark Mericle describing Garland Ganter’s 1999 takeover of the Berkeley Pacifica station.

March 31: KPFA’s popular manager, Nicole Sawaya is fired by Pacifica director Chadwick after opposing the PNB’s plan to end local control. KPFA staff go on air to demand Sawaya’s reinstatement. Over 800 KPFA supporters demonstrate in front of the station. Later that night, in a still unsolved attack, shots are fired through the window of an uninhabited Pacifica office.

Over the next 2 months, Chadwick fires popular KFPA hosts Larry Bensky and Robbie Osman for talking about Pacifica on air. When no one will replace Osman, air goes silent for 2 hours, for first time in 25 years. Two days later, hundreds rally at station. Chadwick has 14 people arrested for blocking Pacifica's doorway. Protests grow in the listener community and include celebrities like talk show doc Dean Edell, actor Peter Coyote and writer Alice Walker.

June 24: Pacifica forwards 2,000 protest letters and e-mails to Berkeley police, suggesting they investigate the letter writers for predisposition to violence.

July 12-14: Media Alliance receives a misdirected email from PNB treasurer Micheal Palmer discussing plans to "shut down and reprogram" KPFA and to sell KPFA and/or WBAI. KPFT manager Garland Ganter and engineer Bob Cham arrive from Houston. During that evening’s news, KPFA investigative reporter Dennis Bernstein is broadcasting a story on the Palmer memo when Ganter orders security guards to force Bernstein out of the studio. Ganter, realizing that his takeover is being broadcasted live, takes KPFA off the air and begins playing taped music. Hundreds converge on the station. 52 staff and community members, including Dennis Bernstein and the news staff, are arrested. The next day, staffers arrive to find KPFA boarded up and all placed on "administrative leave." Ganter institutes plan to broadcast Houston KPFT feed in place of taped KPFA shows.

July 22: Pacifica hires high-priced PR firm for damage control. Berkeley police again arrest protesters.

July 29-Aug 1: PNB Chair Berry tells media no sale of a station is in progress, sidesteps mediators, and says KPFA staff should return, claiming they may "run the station." Over 10,000 listeners assemble with signs and placards calling for community control. Soon thereafter, programmers return to KPFA.

Throughout this struggle, the PNB-chosen station managers at WPFW, KPFK and KPFT censor all news about the KPFA struggle. At KPFK, reporter and PNN stringer Robin Urevich is banned after writing a newspaper article critical of Pacifica. Although an actual accounting has never been done, Pacifica has revealed that it had spent an extraordinary sum of money in its battle with KPFA. Among other expenses: $58,000 for public relations firm, $390,000 for security, and $7,000 to have the station boarded up.