Blog and Updates
1-18-06: Pacifica's new ED
Pacifica has apparently hired a new Executive Director. I say "apparently," because the hire has not yet been announced by Pacifica itself, though it has been announced elsewhere. The lucky winner is Greg Guma, journalist based in Vermont. Some, including WBAI's Doug Henwood and R. Paul Martin, were concerned by Guma's giving a platform to 9/11 "conspiracy theories" in one of his stories.
Really, this is a minor issue to me. The ED has only a small effect on stories covered on Pacifica. These decisions are mostly made at the station level. The main questions is, will he be able to rise above internal politics and move us forward toward transparency and a better functioning democratic organization?
KPFA LSB member Joe Wanzala makes this point well in the following piece, written 1-10-06:
The main question is whether Mr. Guma is an effective and tenacious administrator [which] The Pacifica network, particularly WBAI, is dire need of. I have done battle with the race essentialists, known in Pacificaland as the 'Justice and Unity Caucus' for several years now. I sympathize with some of their ideological tendencies, but part ways with them on governance questions, where many of them seem to think that Pacifica should be run rather like Robert Mugabe's latter day Zimbabwe (he is a hero to many of them), in other words, to have its management infrastructure lubricated by a rancid stew of corruption with generous dollops of grandiose radical rhetoric thrown in to disguise the stench. To the extent that the race essentialists are complaining about Mr. Guma, it probably has more to do with their fears that he might actually be an honest man - and only incidentally a white one.Mr. Guma's political views are of course of some moment given what Pacifica is about, but I have found that whatever a given person within Pacifica or any other organization may feel about a particular issue, is not necessarily an indicator of how effective and honest an admistrator he/she might be. Take for example KPFK GM Eva Georgia who is acknowledged in the introduction to Mike Ruppert's Crossing the Rubicon. Ms. Georgia is originally from South Africa and is of mixed race descent - she is 'coloured' within the South African racial taxonomy, in the US she is a 'person of color'. The race essentialists and Ms. Georgia are allies within Pacifica politics, less as a function of any ideological symmetry and more a function of sharing a taste for the aforementioned management concoction.
As many of you are aware, CLR James wrote, "The race question is subsidiary to the class question in politics, and to think of imperialism in terms of race is disastrous. But to neglect the racial factor as merely incidental is an error only less grave than to make it fundamental. (283)"
I will now perhaps somewhat clumsily adapt James' statement to Pacifica thusly:
"The question of ideology is subsidiary to the question of governance in non-profit management, and to think of non-profit management mainly in terms of ideological tendencies is disastrous. But to neglect the ideological factor as merely incidental is an error only less grave than to make it fundamental."
1-16-06: Pacifica's governance and management failures go back a ways
Comments from 1985 Pacifica "management audit" by Florence Green. Requested by the Pacifica National Board at that time. As quoted in Uneasy Listening: Pacifica Radio's Civil War by Matthew Lasar, p 215. This is a great book, btw.
1. Management of volunteers: there seems to be no workable system in place for volunteer management, evaluation or training.2. Decision-making at all levels seems to be very ineffective. Decisions are often not implemented. How decisions are made is inconsistent. People do not seem to feel they must follow decisions or directions if they disagree with the decision or direction.
3. Local Board[s] are generally ineffective. National and regional Board roles are unclear. Leadership is not always strong. Board and staff do not usually function as a team, but are often adversaries. Board purpose and function is confused.
4. Relationships at all levels within [the] organization are not well defined and when defined they are not usually followed.
5. Political correctness seems more important than management or program skills. People are given jobs that they sometimes do not have the skills to do. There does not seem to be a process to train people in the skills they need or to dismiss them if their work is not effective ...
6. Pacifica operates as a therapeutic community or refuge for some volunteers and some staff. That aspect of Pacifica creates an atmosphere which works against the needed problem-solving process and is exhausting and draining for everyone.
7. There is a tremendous level of care about Pacifica, what it means and what it can be. There is also a kind of "missionary zeal," which works both as a strength and as a weakness for Pacifica.
8. There appears [sic] to be two forms of communication in use, neither of which appears to be very effective:
a) The Benevolent Dictator Approach, where memos are issued, directing people to do certain tasks. They are often sent without regard to appropriateness or knowledge of whether or not those being directed have the skill, ability or resources necessary to the required task. Because those issues are not considered, many memos are disregarded.
b) The Passive Approach, in which communication is attempted so carefully and cautiously that the end result leaves the recipient unclear as to what is really being said or asked of them. Or direct communication is totally avoided and upsets and concerns are shared only in whispers behind each other's backs.
9. Pacifica was/is a top notch, powerful, important organization. During the 70s, many of the best and brightest left. Many who have remained at Pacifica did so because they had no other place to go. They resist change and work against Pacifica upgrading itself. ...
10. Pacifica is no longer the only game in town. Though it may be that no one does it like Pacifica, to be "Pacifica" is no longer enough to guarantee success.
12-31-05: Mitchel Cohen on USOC, COI, vanguardism, etc.
This is an email response by LSB member Mitchel Cohen to Fred Nguyen. It appeared originally on the Rockland Friends of WBAI list. Fred Nguyen's original remarks are in italic.
Mitchel wrote:
Fred Nguyen can say whatever he pleases, of course, but readers who may not be paying extremely minute attention to every detail at WBAI should not take his pronouncements against what he says is happening there at face value. I've interspersed some comments below ....I have not been following much of the governance stuff.
This is probably the truest statement Fred makes. But far be it from Fred to allow this minor glitch in his attention to keep him from making ominous pronouncements about what everyone else is working on, regardless.
The list prog people are trying to bust the unpaid staff union by having it declared illegal.
This is total baloney. First, list prog stopped existing as such around a year ago. (I consider myself, as do some others, "independent" members of the Board.) Second, there is no "unpaid staff union" at the station -- there is a voluntary association called the Unpaid Staff Organizing Committee, but it is not a union, and this is no minor semantic difference. Third, no one is "having it declared illegal," as if board members have the power to make anything illegal. Nor are the alleged "list prog people" saying that it should be illegal. Fred is simply engaging in the partisan political maneuvering he claims to despise, throwing out smear after smear against those he disagrees with, hoping one of them will slip past unnoticed.
There is really little time to do positive things because of the constant political maneuvering that is happening. In the end it is all in the hands of the Program Director. There has been very little effort to produce a real community assessment because making any changes in programming is like pulling teeth and creates much rancor and protest. Even the PD has his hands tied because of station politics.
Bernard White's hands are hardly tied. He's made a number of horrible and arbitrary decisions that have fueled the dispiritedness at the station: Firing Robert Knight without proper hearing, arbitrarily firing Gary Null, forcing out Mike Feder, among others. (Regardless of what you think of their programs, they are entitled to due process and hearings on any charges against them that led to them being removed from the air. That's why a REAL union is needed.) Then there are other matters: the Program Director's disparaging on the air those he disagrees with while not providing air time for rebuttals; supervising a series of poor fundraising drives, as listeners become increasingly disillusioned with those programming decisions and thuggish behavior.
Many producers believe that seniority and connection or even a pressure campaign is how programming changes are made, which is very true in many instances. In fact there exists a Programming Council the role of which is mostly to limit the power of the PD and lobbying from within. In other words, those in place lobby for whom they have in mind, not necessarily with community outreach in mind.
This too is disingenuous. Seniority is an important part of workers' struggles and should not be so readily dismissed by Fred Nguyen. This does not mean that it can't be pre-empted, but there has to be a legitimate and fair process for doing so. The Program Council has no power -- zilch -- at the station, and Bernard White ignores it regularly. (At KPFA in Berkeley, there is no Program Director, and the program council makes all programming decisions. I'm not saying that that's better or worse, just different.) To assert that workers at the station don't care about community outreach is, first of all, irrelevant as it's not their job to do so -- this is a radio station, dammit, not a revolutionary vanguard party following the lead of the program director -- and secondly, is untrue. Many hosts reach into the communities for information, news, music, arts, commentary, and also participate in community struggles. Fred's blanket assertions, whether about workers at the radio station or about Jews in general are simply false, and not supported by any tangible studies.
The station lacks volunteers, people to coordinate volunteers and just about everything that it needs to grow.
This is correct. The reasons for this shortage of volunteers is the same as for why the fundraising efforts continue to fall far short of what is needed: the growing disillusionment with the programming, the thuggish behavior, and a feeling that those running the station -- with the noted and new exception of interim General Manager Indra Hardat -- doesn't really give a damn about the listeners except for those who agree with every detail of the political line being put forth by those running things. Again, this is how vanguardist parties are run (to the detriment of the Left), but should not be the way a listener-sponsored radio station should function. It's a fundamental philosophical difference I and other independents have with Fred and his misnamed Justice & Unity cadre.
Many of the unpaid producers have serious technical deficiencies and there is no money for training.
To the extent that this is true, it is a major failure of the management of WBAI that flows directly out of management's philosophy of the purpose of a radio station. During the elections to the station board, I had proposed that WBAI work to establish a network of decentralized radio training facilities in high schools throughout the listening area. This could have been (and still could be) done inexpensively, with the support of public schools and create a repository of trained students in a few years who can then move to WBAI. I'd urged management -- at that time Don Rojas and Bernard White -- to make this a priority and offered to put a team together to work FOR FREE to make this happen. But like so many proposals, those VOLUNTEERING to work on projects that were not run or controlled by the Justice and Unity cadre were not allowed to happen. There are many examples of such project proposals that management thought were good proposals but would not let happen because those who would volunteer to make them actually work were not part of their preferred faction. And so now the station is in a financial, technical, and competence bind, as a result.
The problems are so dire that to even bring up that some communities should be served and are not is like talking about the moon in the pond. It would be simpler to go where the money is and try to cater to the wealthy suburbs in the way NPR and other stations are doing, and some are even proposing that but Pacifica is not about that but going after the disenfranchised communities takes time and is slow in creating new memberships although it is definitely what the mission is requires and we definitely do not want to be NPR, we would completely lose our charater and raison d'etre.
This too is bull .... That much-maligned Board Member, Steve Brown -- whom Bernard disgracefully termed a racist on-the-air -- had proposed that we offer trial memberships at $1 apiece in neighborhoods throughout the listening area. I was at that meeting representing Concerned Friends of WBAI along with Silvia Arana, with Valerie Van Isler. The idea was a typically brilliant Steve Brown endeavor that would cost us NOTHING and would dramatically increase temporary memberships everywhere, especially in poor communities. Steve expected to sign up 100,000 people as trial members in this way, we would get all their contact information and establish some sort of bond with them as a radio station, and they would have the opportunity to renew in half-a-year at the regular and promotional rates and be able to vote in the LSB elections. Valerie thought this was a very interesting proposal, but it was SHELVED by management, yet again, and never followed up, same as a dozen other excellent proposals to expand listenership and the financial base.
Above all to increase community representation would require that people worked together and develop an outreach and development plan but there has never been money and resources for that.
Again contrary to what Fred asserts, in the current budget, the independent members of the Board had to fight tooth-and-nail to allocate a budget line precisely for a "development coordinator." It was Fred's Justice & Unity cadre who made motion after motion, month after month, to reduce those funds and cut that out of the budget. Again, they didn't like the idea that this would be an expert position, which -- under the new interim General Manager -- they wouldn't own or control. So better to cut one's nose to spite one's face.
What we are left to do is to ask one of the bodies that is supposed to be in place but is not like the Committee of Inclusion or the Local Advisory Board to do the assessment and help bring these communities to the table. But you have people who are very opposed to the very concept of outreach to these communities and you should realize that this may be the very reason why this has not happened yet.
This too is nonsense. The Committee of Inclusion was indeed formed WITH THE CONSENSUAL APPROVAL OF the independent members of the Local Station Board, and put in the hands of a member of the Justice and Unity cadre as chair of that committee. If it hasn't functioned as Fred wishes, he should take it up with those people, who apparently like to denounce others all the time but not do any of the real work themselves.
If everybody had the mission as a marching order, it would already be at work.
Yup, Fred's vision: Marching orders. Terrific (he says sarcastically).
Hopefully, I've presented some proposals here that had earlier been proposed to WBAI management but have never been enacted. It has been the political maneuvering of those who have power at the station that would rather see the station go down the tubes than to allow the rational and VOLUNTEER work of those whose political line they can't control to have any say. Their vision is not for a progressive, beautiful radio station to operate, but a propaganda loudspeaker for their political line, to draw people into their political parties -- and, as Fred well knows, the leading Justice and Unity cadre are members of certain rigid vanguardist parties that, despite their programmatic minor disagreements with each other, seek to control and to use the radio station for their narrow propagandistic and party-building ends. Utterly disgraceful, and Fred's presentation displays the huge philosophical gulf between those who see the purpose of a radio station as one of hammering "Marching orders" into us masses, vs. those of us who would like to see the radio station provide exciting, intellectually stimulating, forums for art, music, news, and progressive political discussions and debates in furtherance of the Pacifica Mission.
Mitchel Cohen
10-29-05: One problem, three observations, one solution
Written after the aborted LSB meeting in Nyack on 10-22-05. Since there was no quorum, this meeting became an informal town meeting.
WBAI has a SERIOUS problem - it is a listener-sponsored station that is losing its ability to attract listener sponsors. The result is fund drives go on and on, and the station has to cut spending and staff. And the problem is worsening, with no apparent end point. One can only assume the station will have to cut more staff soon if things go on like this.
According to Indra Hardat, WBAI GM, WBAI station membership is now 17,000, down from 21,000 only a year ago. She said this at the PNB meeting in Houston today, 10/29/05.
These figures - pledges per day for the last six fall drives - further illustrate the problem.
Fall 2000: $54,000
Fall 2001: $40,000
Fall 2002: $50,000
Fall 2003: $40,000
Fall 2004: $42,000
Fall 2005: $34,000
The downward trend is immistakeable. The other Pacifica stations do not have this problem.
I presented this issue to the Justice and Unity members of the Local Station board night at the 10/22 meeting at Nyack Village Hall. They are responsible for the station's well-being - if they are serious about their job, they will be worried about the diminishing support for WBAI. I was curious to hear if they had any ideas why this was happening and plans to address it.
Three observations on the J&U LSB members:
1. They mention palliative remedies, but not systemic ones. There was discussion of the need for more off-air fundraising. I believe this is not a real solution. Fundraising over the air, which can draw $30,000 on a bad day, is much more effective than hosting one event that may net $20,000.
2. They don't seem very curious about why WBAI has this problem. They talked about possible causes for the drop, for example Cerene Roberts' idea that the new $25 dollar membership led to people pledging less, without providing any evidence or even showing curiousity about whether it was so. One would think concerned board members would want to understand the financial hole WBAI is falling into.
3. They seem opposed to criticism and dissent.
One solution to WBAI's problem:
The money problem is serious. It needs a serious solution, not rearranging furniture.
It is simple, really. WBAI is a listener-sponsored station. What motivates listeners to give money is the programming. Like others (even JUC supporters), I think WBAI's programming is not as good as it should be.
To motivate listeners to subscribe, improve the programming. Put the best stuff on the air when the most people can hear it. Move Democracy Now on at 8 am. Air other high-quality Pacifica shows, like Flashpoints. Review what's on now. If it is tired or otherwise hard to listen to, get rid of it. Get younger. The future is young people. And don't allow non-broadcasters like Errol Maitland regular access to the mic. That insults listeners.
Our area has a lot of talented people. Surely a creative, clever person can persuade some of them to broadcast on WBAI.
Programming is the responsibility of the Program Director. WBAI needs a good one, someone with breadth of vision, skill at getting along with all sides, ability to set aside personal vendattas, ability to coax the best out of the others, and attention to high broadcasting and journalistic standards. Unfortunately, this description does not fit the current holder of the PD position, Bernard White, who was basically a political hire. This is not a critique of his own broadcasting skills, only his performance as PD. We need a new PD.
Finally, be frugal as possible. Continual 25-day plus fund drives turn off everyone and burn out the subscriber base. The station has to get away from that ASAP. Also, the station has to stop supporting employees that do not fulfill their obligations.
WBAI seriously needs a change. Staying the course here is to stay on the road to oblivion.
1-25-05: Justice and Unity to listeners - "You don't count"
In an important vote at the 1/5/05 local station board (LSB) meeting, Justice and Unity again revealed itself as a staff-controlled organization opposed to oversight of WBAI by listeners.
The LSB voted to stack the search committee for the station's new general manager with representatives of the paid staff union (AFTRA) and the unpaid staff organization (USOC) at the expense of listener representatives.
The details: the LSB voted to constitute the GM search committee with 3 paid staff (elected by AFTRA), 3 unpaid staff (elected by USOC), and 5 listener members of the LSB (elected by the LSB). The kicker is that if either AFTRA or USOC can vote to reduce the number of listener-members to three. And USOC has already said that it prefers only 3. [note: AFTRA has also said it wants only 3 listener-members on the committee. So the final make-up is 6 reps of staff organizations, 3 of listener-members.]
Further, this motion states that the committee's recommendation should be sent to the Executive Director (who does the hiring) without review by the LSB as a whole.
All the Justice & Unity LSB members - even those elected by listeners, including Evan Tobias, Sarah Flounders, Lisa Davis, Ray Laforest, etc. - voted for this motion. Everyone else voted against it. Since J&U has a majority, the motion passed.
In doing so, the J&U controlled LSB overturned a much better plan passed by the previous LSB that had equal participation of listeners and staff and under which some staff were elected by the LSB, not the staff organizations. Under this (now rejected) plan, the staff organizations had a voice but did not dominate.
The upshot of the latest vote is that staff organizations, not listeners, will be the predominant voice on the search committee for the GM, the most important station employee.
Why is this a problem?
1. It disenfranchises listener-members. WBAI/Pacifica went through a tremendous battle to make the foundation accountable to listener-members, who sustain the foundation with their money. In one vote, J&U has made listener-members into junior participants in the LSB's most important decision. This leads us to the old system, under which listeners were cut out of station governance. That did not work.
2. The GM candidates will reflect the concerns of entrenched staff, and the finalist will owe his/her job to the staff organizations. This does not augur well for effective management.
3. This vote demonstrates that J&U LSB listener reps do not take their job seriously. They effectively have said to the staff organizations, "you tell us who the GM should be, and we'll go along with it." Listener-members, who will pay the salary and listen to the radio of the new hire, deserve better representation than that. And if the J&U LSB listener reps don't want to take the responsibility, why do they want to be on the board?
4. This motion renders the staff elections to the LSB meaningless. LSB staff reps have ALREADY been elected by their fellow staff members to represent them in important matters such as GM selection. But J&U apparently does not respect that election, and instead wants the staff organizations to do it all.
Listeners who are happy with the station as it stands now may agree with the Justice and Unity position. But listener-members who are troubled by the dysfunction that has characterized WBAI for the past several years, like me, and those who support real democratic governance, should be skeptical.
Why does Justice and Unity want to cut listeners out?
*****
Minutes – 1-5-05
Regular WBAI LSB Meeting
Community Church
New York City.
Announced on-airMotion by Gaston, Motion on General Manager Search Committee
Seconded.
Whereas, Article 7, Section 3, subsection B of the Pacifica Bylaws provides that one of the powers of the Local Station Board is: "To screen and select a pool of candidates for the position of General Manager of its respective radio station, from which pool of approved candidates the Executive Director shall hire the station's General Manager. The LSB may appoint a special sub-committee for this purpose." and
Whereas, the current General Manager has submitted his resignation,
Therefore, be it resolved, that:
1. The WBAI Local Station Board shall establish an ad hoc committee known as the General Manager Search Committee (GMSSC) to screen and select a pool of candidates for the position of General Manager, and to submit that pool to the Pacifica Executive Director for a decision on hiring.
2. The GMSSC shall be composed of 11 members, appointed as follows:
… 3 unpaid staff members elected by the WBAI Unpaid Staff, under the auspices of the Unpaid Staff Organizing Committee (USOC);
… 3 paid staff members elected by the WBAI Paid Staff, under the auspices of AFTRA; and
… 5 listener members of the WBAI Local Station Board elected by the LSB via single transferable voting.
Provided, however, that the LSB's final approval of this formula shall be contingent upon written approval by the AFTRA and USOC unions at WBAI by January 15, 2005. If the LSB Chair does not receive notice of approval from both unions by that date, the formula shall automatically be as follows, and elections shall proceed on this basis:
… 3 unpaid staff members elected by the WBAI Unpaid Staff, under the auspices of the Unpaid Staff Organizing Committee (USOC);
… 3 paid staff members elected by the WBAI Paid Staff, under the auspices of AFTRA; and
… 3 listener members of the WBAI Local Station Board elected by the LSB via single transferable voting.3. The LSB's election of its members to the GMSSC shall occur at the next regular LSB meeting. The two unions' elections of their members to the GMSSC shall be concluded no later than February 15. The GMSC will not hold its first meeting until all members have been elected. The highest vote-getting LSB voting member shall convene the first meeting after consultation with the other members. In the case of a vacancy or an anticipated leave of absence for three or more meetings, the next highest vote-getter within the relevant category shall join the committee for the period of absence of the elected member.
4. All meetings concerning individual candidates for General Manager will be held in executive session (either in person or by conference call) and all information about such candidates kept confidential, unless the GMSSC votes, with the consent of the candidate, to make the meeting and/or information public. All other meetings of the GMSSC shall be held according to the open meetings rules in the Pacifica Bylaws. All GMSC members, voting and nonvoting, shall sign an agreement to maintain the confidentiality of all information discussed in executive session or made available on a confidential basis.
5. The final pool of candidates for General Manager voted by the GMSSC to be recommended to the Executive Director shall be sent directly to him/her, with a confidential copy also forwarded to the WBAI Local Station Board. All LSB members shall keep the names on the names in that pool confidential unless and until the GMSSC votes, with the consent of the candidate(s) involved, that the name(s) and any other information about the candidate(s) may be made public.