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KPFT/90.1 is a 100,000-watt radio station located in the non-commercial end of the dial. It is one of 5 stations (and approximately 70 affiliates) of the Pacifica Foundation, a radio network founded 50 years ago with a specific mission to build community by being a forum for various viewpoints. Pacifica was the world’s first listener-sponsored radio network and is a 501-C3 Non-profit chartered in California. It accepts federal dollars through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and is thus regulated by Federal Telecommunication Law covering the FCC and CPB.

KPFT, under the direction of station manager Garland Ganter, has abandoned its role as a Voice for the Community in favor of a popular-music format. KPFT is now using 2/3 thirds of its airtime on weekdays and virtually 100% on weekends to play (predominantly) Americana/Texas music.

1. Local news and public affairs programming covering human and civil rights, racial, gender and sexual discrimination, education, environment, medicine and healthcare, religious/atheist discussion, free form and drama, other fine arts, ethnic communities, international affairs, local public policy, progressive and conservative political views

2. A wide range of music including popular, folk, Latino, classical and traditional music, including featuring local artists

3. Multi-lingual and children’s programming

4. Extensive Community events bulletin board

5. Mostly volunteer programmers

1. Programmed by full-time paid weekday DJs (production classes for volunteers suspended)

2. No local news and only 3 hours/week of local political/community programming

3. Virtually no "minority" community affairs programming (1 hour/week)

4. A play-listed AAA music format with little diversity (exploiting music fans vs. news divide)

5. Censorship of national programming: Pacifica’s premiere news show, Democracy Now!, cancelled due to internal power politics likely because of the show’s hard hitting approach to news

6. Strict gag-rule preventing any on-air discussion of Pacifica or programming at KPFT.

There was a national strategy implemented by Pacifica national and local management to remove local content in favor of national programming. This resulted in a top-heavy national office bureaucracy; forcing the need to raise more funds and reorient towards a "commercial-radio" model. The national programming promised has never materialized. Dues payments for the National Office have risen from 3% in the ‘80s to 17% of station revenues currently, The national office also sequesters all side-band/subcarrier rental fees and syndication receipts.

There was a national and local strategy to "professionalize" programming enacted by Ganter at KPFT in a quest for larger more mainstream audiences. This goal has also proved illusory as KPFT only garnered a paltry 1.2 share in recent Arbitron ratings.

Pacifica’s National Board (PNB) has tried to make itself self-selecting and thus isolated themselves from community involvement. Formerly the PNB was seeded from local boards. This change has touched off a storm of protest. The listeners have organized in massive opposition to these changes with funding boycotts & 3 lawsuits against Pacifica for breach of fiduciary responsibility and illegal governance. To defend themselves, the PNB has hired among the most expensive law firms in the country (Fulbright & Jaworski, Williams & Connelly, Epstein, Becker & Green). Pacifica has also spent untold tens of thousands of dollars on a succession of public relations firms (recently Westhill Partners, a Washington D.C. firm specializing in "hopeless cases").

Locally: Replace KPFT’s local advisory board with a democratically elected board.

Federal law (US Code Title 47, Section 396) explicitly proscribes duties and conduct of Community Advisory Boards that is mandated for stations receiving CPB funds (this law is quoted verbatim on page 12 of this issue).

KPFT’s LAB routinely violates federal law by:

-Failing to give public notice of its meetings.

-Taking all discussion into executive session (illegal under open-meeting provisions)

-Failing to do its mandated review of station content, personnel and mission.

-Lacking diverse representation of the community

-Having no clear policies on elections of new members of the LAB.

Locally: A return to balance in programming, including LOCAL NEWS

Locally: Develop a programming council for KPFT to funnel community ideas for shows (described in our last issue and available on our website).

Nationally: Stop the misappropriation of funds for lawyers and PR firms which is threatening to bankrupt the network ($440,089 was spent in just one month in 1999 on PR and security guards to combat listener protests).

Nationally: Reverse the illegal governance changes and return selection of the PNB to local boards (i.e. settle the listeners’ lawsuits).

Nationally: Reduce the bureaucracy of Pacifica’s national office and return stations to local control over content.

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