I love this freedom, that INDY MEDIA offers us - to reveal and discuss and cuss at KPFK because there is no place else we can speak to strangers and anonymousers with cute names about our concerns. Genuine concerns. Real worries. Urgent questions. and some bits of facts too.

Ian Masters did the un-bearable, the un-acceptable, the impolite = he on-the-air bad-mouthed other unnamed programs and their beliefs...ridiculed their views... while the station was desperately pretending to be a united front ..and ever-so-humbly & honestly asking, begging, screeching for money in any which way...even with unbelievable [advertisements] of products and exaggerated claims for those 'premium' products......

and since it is a Free Speech Station that KPFK claims to be, I guess this is ok too....

KPFK is free to make wild claims in order to raise lots of money to pay for whatever they think we should know nothing about. Like = How the station is run, what is happening within the KPFK ranks and staff & programmers, how the money is actually spent besides revealed lawsuits, or if the LSB has any advisory power or influence over the stuck-in-position staff ?

Ian Masters and others are free to make statements that no one likes to admit - as someone may be shamed or angry and do their pay-backs behind opaque station doors. The station is fraction-ated, [yep] broken on the inside, divided and dysfunctional.

Different opinions of what is TRUE , always stated as if true forever and for everyone, has now emerged about the station itself, now on air. Having revealed the reality - that not everyone agrees about all the political events or who should have what powers...or for how long either.... duh.... and that inside the station they are not sweetly smiling at each other either ! duh.... and Ian Masters said it aloud, on the air, and showed us more openly what is going on within... duh...

even tho I cringed at how those listeners who may not know some of the participants involved in this factionalization may see the station = see it as finally cracking & crumbling and falling ...and others even hoping for that to take effect... but I dont. In fact, I presume there are more than 2 divisions, more than just a pair of oppositional antagonistic groups, and that there are many fractionalized sects, cults, gangs, alliances and sets that have-to-work-together anyhow.

But the fake image KPFK hypocritically wants to present is no different than any other business ..." love, solidarity = we are all together and love each other = and no one - no one ! - is allowed to admit or say otherwise, for then we may lose some of our respect. our incoming money. yep.

The truth of divisiveness is too dangerous to acknowledge so many have risen up to accuse Ian of slander or leaking or maybe even trying this =prohibited-acts-are-punishable-even-at-free-radio-stations.

Some of us thought that KPFK was strong enough to be open and reveal it's insides and still stand, survive, and grow. Some of us hoped that the honest Truth prevailed about KPFK, not just as revealed about other corporations & businesses & governments . Some of us thought KPFK would not enter into the addictive denial and shame that weaker organizations utilize most often.

Thank you Indy Media Volunteers & Workers !!!

For letting more be revealed on thise written pages than on our free-speech air waves.

KPFK had [past tense, dead now] a web Listener forum that was not well utilized, as few responded to the issues raised .... but it was still a place to communicate that centered around the station and it's problems. And those who wrote on the Listener Forum hoped fervently that the staff would maybe [?] ...maybe read their comments, suggestions, questions & concerns too. But it was removed with the excuse of spam proliferating, as if this didnt happen everywhere that is not cut out, as this service to the loyal listeners & volunteers was done.

I never found out if anyone at the station ever bothered to read anything on the Listener Forum. If they cared what others think or say or feel. No indication of anyone reading the comments about KPFK on their website seemed to affect or get any response, except for someone who added a brief "you are wrong" or "I agree" on rare occasion. It was a blank field in which hope that what was written would be read or help the station improve, hope that went just as blank.

We never heard any feedback from anyone at the station, or LSB, or hardly anyone at all. . We never knew if we were writing-pissing into the wind and just getting soaked, voicing our concerns all for nothing.

So we also thank Ian Masters is voicing what others dont dare do...letting everyone else know there is no unity nor much agreement at Our Station...a million + richer for all the sales pitches we had to tolerate recently ...

and the KPFK elections should have made that clear with all the shenanigans that did occur and then had to be repaired. Yet was the Elections supervisor Peters charged for the $$$ and consternation his mistakes caused so many ? Even if they were actually unintenional and stupid, was the station reinbursed for all that extra cost and work to fix the elections ????? yet another secret not revealed...is he still working for Pacifica and being powerful or paid for his kind of 'work' ?

will we ever know ? secrets...who will tell ? Do we need more 'fact checkers' and researchers to spend time elsewhere to find out what happened or happens at Our Station ?

Most listeners didnt even bother to vote in the elections anyhow, so if not Ian raising his ire and voice, they would have remained unaware of the interior instability or divisions that continue to exist.

And maybe they are now worse than before ? Didnt the elections prove that KPFK is not working above board and honestly giving fair and even chances to all candidates ?

What kind of clues do we need to see the craziness and cracks and foibles and stupidities committed in Our Name, as it Is Our KPFK ? Just like we say it is "our government", our taxes...so it is Our KPFK, our pledges ....used and borrowed 'in our name' for our benefit and information is supposed to be given to us who pay for it too.

Even at t his point, those of us who CARE, but do not attend the boring, hostile environment of the LSB meetings or other committee meetings - in order to save our time & sanity, of course - we dont know what is going in the station we thought we paid for.... for services we could trust.

Question: How can we trust what is said or reported on KPFK if we cant trust the staff-mangement-LSB-programmers because they are all pretending they are

working together for our behalf ?????

If they lie in appearing to be in agreement, then maybe they lie about other things they say on air too ?????

If they - all concerned and inside KPFK - hide and keep secret what is happening in that structure we call "listener sponsored" corporation, how do we know it is not another version of collapse-ready-to-happen, or take-over-already-happening or financial-ruin-yet-unannounced ???? huh?

Ian may have sounded 'bad' but he also did us all a favor just the same. Ever listen to family hateful - irritating - scary - squabbles and think that family is going to fall apart, and then what ? "The end of the world is coming !!!!" That is when we are children, not when we are already responsible adults.

We need to know the reality of what is happening in OUR KPFK, from various versions, and not be pacified as if we needed infant formulas and the KPFK image carefully maintained upright.

So I again, let more of us thank Ian Masters, for venting his own spleen on his own program and giving us a hint that things are not as cool or calm or cooperative as the radio station's IMAGE is made to appear....and as we know, appearances are deceiving, especially at our beloved KPFK....very deceiving...it is mostly appearances because the hypocrisies are now showing thru = leaking, gushing, hemoragging out actually, on air too ! And we are hearing the damaged results.

Sounds dramatic ? of course.

But so is all the fear-mongeringplayed aloud there too , the pleas to please buy stuff to save our lives with stuff {red or green or gold] that only KPFK offers during fund drives, stuff that we would never pay for at that price anywhere else. But fear brings in 'sales revenues' and so it is used, proliferating OUR airwaves. For many many days.

thanks to only the very few programmers who dont bow to the management and staff and LSB seat-holders and dont just stay quiet behind their microphones....while the majority, the rest, are just hoping not to lose their slots -so they continue to collude and hide and dont tell us anything.

Thanks Ian! for making more apparent the friction & dispute, or at least one of them, anyhow. Tell us more of what we could not know if you do not expose that too. Not just USA governmental stuff, KPFK governmental stuff is important to us too. Keep it up!

Let some who know ...tell us, so we can help...help fix things....advise...inform....share ideas and aims... to not let a few just hog the airwaves for their group only .... as it seems happens a lot at KPFK. Let some air in finally ! ventilate and open up the air waves !

Just Ian Masters gets credit, huh?

No thanks to me for posting Ian's letter? No thanks to the staffer who posted his email? No thanks to Agustin Cebada for telling the truth on air and getting punished for it. Some of us are trying to get information out and we're taking bigger risks that Ian Masters is. He's untouchable, teflon-plated, just like Ronnie Ray-gun.

Harrumph.

A longtime Pacifica observer, volunteer, listener, former staffer and participant here. The only thing Indymedia should be embarassed about is that idealistic newbies are writing about Pacifica.

KPFK is, I have no doubt, divided, though most would like there to be more solidarity. The writing here, however, references that state as if it is unusual. KPFK and indeed most of the Pacifica stations have operated in mild to extreme states of dysfunction since they began. The fact that these stations manage to stay operational in the midst of so many of its participants (managers, Molly Paige, Ian Masters, Lila Garrett and the lot of them) paradoxically wishing, suing and fighting internally indirectly for the stations to dissolve is a minor miracle. KPFK is not exempt from a larger psychosis which has afflicted Pacifica as a whole, and the station has done nothing special to bring same about. It is Pacifica, where entitlement reigns supreme and has for years.

The "democratic" governance structure is an expensive and pointless distraction. I have no idea why this piece singles out the LSB "staff" representatives -- in fact, the KPFK LSB as a whole is bankrupt, with most of the crappiness of the board coming from "listener" representatives, fumbling graybeards with no non-profit or fundraising experience but elected on platforms and issues they can't really impact and offering viewpoints for which they have no grounding. KPFK's board is not unusual though, and its representatives should receive no special scorn. Pacifica's governance structure sucks and seemed squarely aimed, as former ED Greg Guma once wrote, at building a small government, not to supporting a media institution. Hence, Pacifica's national board votes to fly its members to Washington, DC so Takeback messiah Sherry Gendleman and convicted felon Evelyn Bethune can hang out together while the foundation itself teeters on financial collapse.

Pacifica's internal problem nationally is that true believers at every station seem to believe speaking up against a shadowy group holding and maintaining power is the elixir to all which ails, or at least most which ails. This is great behavior if you're in a support group but not a radio station. In fact, these behaviors do little more than intimidate young people and new voices (who have more to do with their lives than ever possibly keeping up with the myriad feuds and byzantine histories of slights and distrust) from ever getting involved and turn off listeners, who rightfully see dopes like Ian Masters' whimpering about the station as a sign that even well-known hosts don't care about Pacifica.

I volunteered, worked, etc. for Pacifica for quite some time and don't have the answers, but can certainly say stuff like this sounds so familiar to me. Been done, doesn't work.

Yes, all are duly thanked and bowed to for offering up words, thoughts and reflections...even if we agree or not...this here is the dialogue or complaints or commentary that is missing elsewhere....that is necessary, helpful for any possible CHANGE.

and KPFK claims to be up front and yet refuses to change.

And even if it has been exactly the same, reluctant to shift into modern gear, refusing to share any positions, repeating the same programs and in -fighting whether on air or in it's hidden chambers.... maybe sometimes, like NOW, some bit of change can happen ? Never say die unless it is dead and then why listen to the same thing repeated as if it were 'news' anyway?

There are still some programs and programmers that lure us in to listen, to want to keep them alive and vibrant and changing too. There is some education to all the ranting and promotions on KPFK. There is an occasional new idea and unspoken-elsewhere thought that makes sense. But it takes a lot of listening and a lot of volunteering and sending in money to get that little bit...which is still seducing me, and maybe you too....to keep on ...wanting and trying....to help it be what KPFK claims it is, or can be.

We assume everyone knows what we know and take for granted that it is 'common knowledge' which is NOT the case most often. That is why we write here. Because we find someone else...who agrees or disagrees or says something else we didnt remember or know.

Amy Goodman is one of KPFK's prime programs, and even those who also agree that the station is frustrating and no longer vibrant or relevant or giving voice to those otherwise unheard, say they listen - just for her program.

Roy of Hollywood has long hour-long talks that speak to the body-mind-spirit that other programmers ignore in their seeking to rebel against only the government and yet do less to the stultifying daily culture.

Ian Masters does more than seek the latest book seller to interview, and picks those who are more prominent in current events with whom to discuss issues, whether some agree with his politics or hate him for it. The information is unique to what else is heard on KPFK.

A few others offer information not easily dis-covered elsewhere without a lot of searching...Free Speech Radio News....Access Unlimited...and many many others. Yes, all are duly thanked and bowed to for offering up words, thoughts and reflections...thoughts that make us think more....whether if we agree or not...

There are still some programs and programmers that still lure us in to listen, to want to keep them alive on-air, and vibrant and changing too. There is some education to all the ranting and self-promotions and commercial-promotions disguised as ‘events’ on KPFK. There is an occasional new idea and unspoken-elsewhere thought that makes sense. But it takes a lot of listening and a lot of volunteering and sending in money to get that little bit...which is what is still seducing me, and maybe you too....to keep on ...wanting and trying....to help it be what KPFK claims it is, or can be.

A few others offer information not so easily dis-covered elsewhere without a lot of searching...Free Speech Radio News....Access Unlimited...Michael Slate has a more equitable point of view at times....Cosmic Bario music that brings unexpected sounds into our ears.....and yes, there are many many programs that do bring in something 'different' than is found in LA's radio spheres. It is not all programs that are repetitive and wearisome, but a prominent number that are displayed during the main hours, maybe those preferred by some management decisions.

But no feedback is wanted or solicited, and no other influences are allowed or communications acknowledged. That lack of transparency as to how things are limited or decided [except by lengthy committee meetings that are not recorded for public-sponsor views]. The KPFK website has nothing more current than an occasional item from 2007 of any minutes, agendas, meeting summaries. They dont want to ‘share’ their information, or have it be known that ....what ?

and on Indymedia, YES ! this here is the dialogue or complaints or commentary that are missing elsewhere....that is necessary, helpful for any possible CHANGE.

and while KPFK claims to be up front and “open” and “free” and yet the majority who are entrenched there refuse to change...anything or so it seems. And even if the station has been exactly the same for a long long time, reluctant to shift into modern gear, refusing to share any ideological positions, by repeating the same programs and also in -fighting whether on air or in it's hidden chambers.... maybe sometimes, like NOW, some bit of change can still happen ? Never say die unless it is totally dead ...and it is a dead place, dysfunctional to the end, why listen to the same thing repeated - as if it were 'news' anyway?

We assume everyone knows what we know and take for granted that it is 'common knowledge' – but which is NOT the case most often.

Are there other internet places where KPFK info is shared? besides here ?

there is a blog found that has little on it so far, but it may also be used to inform us-all and for some to give of what we know or write what we want to have happen to each other, and gain some momentum... and gain some numbers of us to be united... to be able to not be the single 'cry out' in these winds, these pages.

http://KPFKcommentators blogspot.com



is one other place. Are there more ????

We have to speak UP and speak out and be heard, however it can be done. Yes, some of us who have been around a while know that KPFK has been dysfunctional forever and still is. Does that mean we divorce from it ? Or disown it ? or still

try to make something better happen....even there.

yep. let's do it !