Pacifica Foundation

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Pacifica was founded in 1946 by pacifists E. John Lewis and Lewis Hill. During World War II, both of them had filed for conscientious objector status.{{Cite web |title=The Pacifica Foundation |url=https://www.pacifica.org/about_history.php |access-date=2024-11-20 |website=www.pacifica.org}} After the war, Lewis, Hill and a small group of former conscientious objectors created the Pacifica Foundation in the town of Pacifica, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Their first station, KPFA in Berkeley, commenced broadcasting in 1949. By 1977, the network had added WBAI in New York City, KPFK in Los Angeles, WPFW in Washington, DC, and KPFT in Houston.[https://americanarchive.org/participating-orgs/NCSG43 Pacifica Radio Archives] page at American Archive of Public Broadcasting site

{{main|FCC v. Pacifica Foundation}}

In 1973, one of Pacifica's stations, WBAI, broadcast comedian George Carlin's Filthy Words routine uncensored. Following a listener complaint, Pacifica received a letter of reprimand from the FCC, censuring them for allegedly violating broadcast regulations which prohibited airing indecent material.{{cite web |last=Samaha |first=Adam |url=http://www.law.uchicago.edu/files/file/314-as-story.pdf |title=The Story of FCC v. Pacifica Foundation (and Its Second Life) |access-date=October 5, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110419133818/http://www.law.uchicago.edu/files/file/314-as-story.pdf |archive-date=April 19, 2011 }} The foundation took the matter to the U.S. Supreme Court in FCC v. Pacifica Foundation and lost in a 5–4 decision. This became a landmark moment in the history of free speech, and the case continues to define the power of the government over broadcast material it calls indecent.{{cite news |title=The Station That Dared to Defend Carlin's '7 Words' Looks Back |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/25/nyregion/25wbai.html |work=The New York Times |first=Glenn |last=Collins |date=June 25, 2008 |access-date=February 23, 2012}}

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In two years during a three-year cycle, subscribers and station staff at each station vote to elect the Local Station Board, as required by the Pacifica Foundation bylaws.{{Cite web|url=https://pacifica.org/pnb_bylaws.php|title=The Pacifica Foundation|website=pacifica.org}} The local station boards have support and advisory duties for their station. They also elect members from their body to serve on the Pacifica Foundation's national board of directors. The full local station board meets monthly, and committees of the local station board meet on both regular and ad hoc bases.

For most of its history, Pacifica gave each of its stations independent control of programming. During the 1990s, a major controversy arose over rumors that the Pacifica National Board and national staff were attempting to centralize control of content, to increase audience. The rumors included accusations that the board proposed changing the network's funding model away from a reliance exclusively on listener donations and toward a mix of listener donations and corporate foundation funding similar to that of NPR. There were also accusations that the Board was considering selling both KPFA and WBAI in New York City, which operate on commercial-band FM frequencies (94.1 and 99.5, respectively) worth hundreds of millions of dollars.{{Cite web |title=Lasar (Matthew) Papers on KPFA and Pacifica Foundation |url=https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8rv0w0q/entire_text/ |access-date=September 26, 2023 |website=oac.cdlib.org}}

This led to years of conflict, including court cases, public demonstrations, firings and strikes of station staff, whose common plight inspired creation of Radio4all.net to preserve what they saw as the original spirit of Pacifica. Many listeners of the individual stations, especially KPFA and WBAI, objected to what they saw as an attempt to tone down the overtly left-leaning political content on Pacifica stations. The controversy included highly publicized ideologically charged disputes between grassroots listener organizations and Mary Frances Berry, a former chairperson of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, who chaired Pacifica's national board at the time.{{cite web|url=http://www.villagevoice.com/1999-07-20/news/free-speech-for-sale/|title=Free Speech for Sale?|work=The Village Voice|date=July 20, 1999|access-date=July 10, 2010}}{{cite web|title=There's Something About Mary|url=https://www.salon.com/1999/10/12/berry/|date=October 12, 1999|access-date=July 10, 2010}}

The board eventually was embroiled in counter-lawsuits by board members and listener-sponsors and, after global settlement of the lawsuits in November 2001, an interim board was formed to craft new bylaws, which it did in two tumultuous years of national debates among thousands of listener-sponsors and activists, finally giving listener-sponsors the right and responsibility to elect new Local Station Boards at each of the five Pacifica stations. These local boards in turn elect the national board of directors. Aside from some minor changes, the same 2003 bylaws remain in effect today.{{citation needed|date=October 2024}}

Pacifica National News director Dan Coughlin (director) was voted Interim Executive Director of the network in 2002 (the "Interim" was later dropped). The years of internal legal battles and financial mismanagement{{by whom|date=October 2024}} had taken a toll.{{citation needed|date=October 2024}} In 2005, Coughlin resigned{{why|date=October 2024}}, the network was still largely disorganized{{citation needed|date=October 2024}}, and Pacifica reverted to operating with an interim executive director for most of the year.{{citation needed|date=October 2024}}

In January 2006, Pacifica hired Greg Guma as the next executive director of the Pacifica Foundation. By the end of the year, the Foundation had fully recovered its financial health and had launched two new national programs: Informativo Pacifica, a daily Spanish Language newscast, and From the Vault, a weekly program drawn from Pacifica's extensive audio archives. Pacifica also produced Informed Dissent, a ten-week series for the 2006 mid-term elections that drew from talent across the network. Guma left his post in September 2007{{why|date=October 2024}}.{{Cite web|url=http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1299528035837796976&hl=en|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120205141919/http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1299528035837796976&hl=en|url-status=dead|title=Greg Guma Interview|archivedate=February 5, 2012}}

Pacifica's National Board unanimously chose former KPFA general manager Nicole Sawaya as the next executive director.{{cite web |url=http://www.pacifica.org/current-events/nicole-sawaya-hired-as-new-pacifica-executive-director.html |title=Pacifica.org Nicole Sawaya Hired as New Pacifica Executive Director |work=Pacifica.org |access-date=July 19, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080615040106/http://www.pacifica.org/current-events/nicole-sawaya-hired-as-new-pacifica-executive-director.html |archive-date=June 15, 2008 }} Sawaya had been among the staff members fired by the national board in 1999 amidst Pacifica's internal crisis. Sawaya began her tenure as executive director in mid-November 2007, but abruptly changed her mind two weeks later.{{cite web |url=http://www.lasarletter.net/drupal/node/529 |title=Sawaya quits [sigh] |work=LLFCC.NET |access-date=July 19, 2008}} Pacifica historian Matthew Lasar said she "found the level of internecine dysfunction at Pacifica overwhelming, and fled her job."{{citation needed|date=October 2024}} The Pacifica National Board spent the next several months negotiating with her, and Sawaya resumed her job on March 5, 2008.{{cite web |url=http://www.lasarletter.net/drupal/node/562 |title=Sawaya unquits |work=LLFCC.NET |access-date=July 19, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090905074916/http://www.lasarletter.net/drupal/node/562 |archive-date=September 5, 2009 |url-status=dead }} She resigned effective September 30, citing "dysfunctional" governance and "shoddy and opaque" business practices that had plunged the organization into a financial crisis.{{cite web |url=http://currentpublicmedia.blogspot.com/2008/09/sawaya-leaves-pacifica-publishes.html |title=Sawaya leaves Pacifica, publishes regretful critique |publisher=American University School of Communication |date=September 25, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101126222606/http://currentpublicmedia.blogspot.com/2008/09/sawaya-leaves-pacifica-publishes.html |archive-date=November 26, 2010 |access-date=February 22, 2012}}

Sawaya's departure was followed by major staff layoffs. In 2009, Pacifica Board chair Grace Aaron became interim executive director, former board member LaVarn Williams replaced Lonnie Hicks as chief financial officer, and the national office took control of WBAI in New York. Aaron appointed Williams acting GM of WBAI in May, and Hicks filed a lawsuit against the foundation alleging that he was dismissed because he is African American and a whistleblower.{{citation needed|date=October 2024}}

On August 9, 2013, Pacifica interim executive director Summer Reese announced that due to financial problems, Pacifica-owned radio station WBAI-FM in New York was laying off about two-thirds of its staff, effective August 12, 2013. The entire news department was reportedly included in the layoff.Ben Sisario, [https://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/12/business/media/wbai-fm-lays-off-most-of-staff.html "WBAI-FM Lays Off Most of Staff"], August 11, 2013, The New York Times.

After Pacifica's board of directors completed the 2016 board year with the exclusion of 75% of WBAI's board representation, it then moved to decertify Pacifica's 2016 board elections, which had been won handily by the independent faction not in power. The new 2017 board of directors replaced interim executive director Lydia Brazon with KPFT director Bill Crosier and reinstated WBAI's delegation.{{citation needed|date=October 2024}}

On Friday, October 6, 2017, Pacifica lost a $1.8 million settlement over what they claimed was price gouging by Empire State Realty Trust (ESRT), which had been raising antenna rental charges for WBAI at 9% per year for the last 12 years under a 15-year lease WBAI signed in 2005 that did not expire until 2020. The rent was set at more than half a million dollars annually, which Pacifica claimed was approximately 4 times the current market rent for Midtown Manhattan antenna rentals. Pacifica Radio's WBAI has housed its transmitter on the Empire State Building since 1966. The 9% annual rental increases were facilitated by the destruction of the twin towers on September 11, 2001, which dramatically reduced space available for comparable antennas. The ruling encumbered all of Pacifica's assets including KPFA and KPFB in Berkeley, KPFK in Los Angeles, WPFW in Washington, DC, and KPFT in Houston in addition to WBAI in New York City but does not affect the assets of any of its affiliates.{{Citation

| date = October 6, 2017

| title = Court Protects ESRT's Lease Terms for Pacifica's Non-Profit WBAI Radio in NYC – Denies "Unconscionability" Motion

| publisher = Common Dreams

| url = https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2017/10/06/court-protects-esrts-lease-terms-pacificas-non-profit-wbai-radio-nyc-denies

| access-date = January 11, 2018}} For more information on what has happened since the October 6, 2017, court ruling, see {{Citation

| date = January 2, 2018

| title = What's Up with Pacifica Radio? WTF Pacifica?

| publisher = KFCF | location = Fresno, CA

| url = https://www.kfcf.org/whats-up-with-pacifica-radio/

| access-date = January 11, 2018}} On April 6, 2018, The Pacifica Foundation announced the settlement on a series of agreements that release WBAI, the organization's New York radio station, from a court judgment as well as the last two years of its lease at the Empire State Building as of May 31, 2018.{{Cite web|url=https://www.wbai.org/articles.php?article=3570|title = Pacifica Announces Settlement with Empire State Building and Empire State Realty Trust}} The Foundation later completed an agreement to relocate its transmission facility to a new site nearby.

On October 8, 2019, it was announced that WBAI's local operations were abruptly shut down.Leonard Greene. [https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-wbai-radio-shutdown-20191007-k4jt6xqisfg3dmarhhzhkxjwau-story.html Community radio station WBAI shuts down amid financial woes]. Daily News (New York), October 7, 2019 Their programming was superseded by Pacifica Across America: a compilation of work from sister stations and other sources; Democracy Now! continued to be broadcast.

The 2019 WBAI shutdown was litigated in the fall of 2019. The New York State Supreme Court ruled in November 2019 that the WBAI shutdown by then-executive director John Vernile was executed "ultra vires" (without the proper authority) and ordered the station re-opened.{{Cite web|title=NY Supreme Court Transcript Released {{!}} Pacifica in Exile|date=November 29, 2019 |url=https://pacificainexile.org/archives/2839|access-date=December 31, 2020|language=en-US}}

A show that for years has been considered the flagship of Pacifica Radio's national programming is Democracy Now!, an independent news organization that covers democracy, human rights and justice issues, and questions the motives of U.S. foreign and domestic policy. Hosted by Amy Goodman and Juan González, this program is a compilation of news, interviews, and documentaries. Democracy Now! is heard and seen on more than 700 radio and TV stations across the U.S. including public-access television stations and satellite television channels Free Speech TV and Link TV.{{Citation|title=Democracy Now!|date=January 16, 2019|url=https://www.linktv.org/shows/democracy-now|language=en|access-date=December 31, 2020}} WDEV, based in Waterbury, Vermont, is the only commercial radio station in the U.S. that carries the program{{cite web |url=http://www.wdevradio.com/index-progs.asp |title=Program Schedule |publisher=WDEV Radio Vermont |access-date=February 22, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080831085741/http://www.wdevradio.com/index-progs.asp |archive-date=August 31, 2008 |url-status=dead }}—even though it is also heard in north-central Vermont over Pacifica affiliate WGDR in Plainfield and its sister station, WGDH in Hardwick.{{cite web |url=http://www.wgdr.org/ai1ec_event/democracy-now-2/?instance_id=230222 |title=Democracy Now! |publisher=Wgdr.org |access-date=July 30, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131014074536/http://www.wgdr.org/ai1ec_event/democracy-now-2/?instance_id=230222 |archive-date=October 14, 2013 |url-status=dead }}

In 2002, as Pacifica implemented its new listener-sponsor-accountability structure and as Pacifica and Democracy Now! settled outstanding disputes from previous years, Democracy Now! spun off with substantial funding from Pacifica to become an independent production.{{citation needed|date=October 2024}}

The Pacifica network, in addition to extensive community-based productions at its various stations around the United States, also featured a daily newscast Free Speech Radio News from 2003 to 2013.{{citation needed|date=October 2024}} FSRN was a radio program founded by Pacifica Reporters Against Censorship, a group of mostly Pacifica Network News reporters who went on strike against the Pacifica board policies of the late 1990s. FSRN was primarily funded by Pacifica, and includes headlines and news features produced by reporters based around the U.S. and in scores of countries around the world. In September 2013, the board of directors of FSRN issued a lay-off notice to all staff, and confirmed that their last broadcast would take place on September 27, 2013. The board cited financial difficulties as the reason for the decision.{{cite web|title=Free Speech Radio|url=http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Our-last-newscast-is-September-27--2013.html?soid=1102100306353&aid=WSa2AdUYdMo|publisher=Myemail.constantcontact.com|access-date=September 24, 2013}}

In 2006, Pacifica added two new national programs: From the Vault from the Pacifica Radio Archives, a weekly program that thematically repackages{{when|date=February 2020}} archival material, making it relevant to contemporary listeners; and Informativo Pacifica, based at KPFK in Los Angeles, a daily Spanish-language newscast that includes reporters from the U.S. and many Latin American countries.{{citation needed|date=October 2024}}

• In 2007, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced that it would accept new applications for non-commercial radio licenses for the first time in more than a decade. In response, Pacifica joined forces with other advocates for independent media in the "Radio for People" campaign, helping local groups apply for these full-power licenses.
• Pacifica has{{when|date=February 2020}} expanded its schedule of national special broadcasts, distributing more audio documentaries, covering the Attorney General Alberto Gonzales hearings live, and sending production teams to the United States Social Forum and the National Conference for Media Reform.
• Pacifica expanded{{when|date=February 2020}} its offerings in multiple media platforms, using "Web 2.0" technology. In September 2007, one interactive website, KPFA's Warcomeshome.org, began to offer hard-hitting stories from reporter Aaron Glantz about the human costs of the Iraq War, as well as innovative ways of contributing to, and distributing information about, the impact of the conflict.
• Pacifica suspended regular programming for three days to air a live broadcast of the Iraq War Winter Soldier event in Silver Spring, Maryland from March 14 through March 16, 2008. The broadcast was co-anchored by journalist Aaron Glantz and KPFA Morning Show host Aimee Allison.{{cite web |url=http://warcomeshome.org/wintersoldier2008 |title=Winter Soldier 2008 Audio, Photo Archives from Pacifica Radio |publisher=KPFA |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090331211006/http://www.warcomeshome.org/wintersoldier2008 |archive-date=March 31, 2009 |access-date=February 22, 2012}}

Local Pacifica stations produce{{when|date=February 2020}} many programs that are available to network stations and affiliates. These include: Sprouts, a weekly showcase of producers and stations around the network, often in documentary format; Explorations in Science with Dr. Michio Kaku, a weekly radio program on science, politics, and the environment; Dennis Bernstein's Flashpoints, a daily drive-time public affairs program; Against The Grain a progressive and radical commentary program; and many other regular programs.

Pacifica also produces {{when|date=February 2020}} a wide variety of special broadcasts, including live coverage of major U.S. Congressional hearings, national mobilizations against war, and other important events, such as the United States Social Forum. Special programs also include news documentaries, holidays and commemorations, and archival audio from the Pacifica Radio Archives.

Pacifica distributes program content via the Audioport system.{{Cite web|title=AudioPort.Org - Latest Programs|url=http://audioport.org/|access-date=December 31, 2020|website=audioport.org}}

The Pacifica Radio Archives, housed at station KPFK in Los Angeles, is the oldest public radio archive in the United States{{r|PaFouCert}} documenting more than five decades of grassroots political, cultural, and performing arts history. The archive includes recordings of interviews with John Coltrane, James Baldwin, Lorraine Hansberry, and Langston Hughes, among many others. The Pacifica Radio Archives were featured in their own 30-minute slot on BBC Radio 5 Live's (now defunct) Up All Night program.{{Cite web |title=FTV 214 Pacifica Radio Archives on the BBC |website=Pacifica Radio Archives |url=http://fromthevaultradio.org/home/2010/06/15/ftv-214-pacifica-radio-archives-on-the-bbc/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100922062249/http://fromthevaultradio.org/home/2010/06/15/ftv-214-pacifica-radio-archives-on-the-bbc/ |url-status=usurped |archive-date=September 22, 2010 |access-date=December 31, 2020}}

The Pacifica-owned stations are listed below in alphabetical order by state and community of license.

Note: All stations except for WBAI were built and signed-on by the Pacifica Foundation.

• FCC v. Pacifica Foundation
• List of Pacifica Radio stations and affiliates
• Radio4all.net
• National Federation of Community Broadcasters

{{Reflist}}

• Lasar, Matthew, Pacifica Radio: The Rise of an Alternative Network, Temple University Press, April 2000. {{ISBN|1-56639-777-4}}
• Lasar, Matthew, Uneasy Listening: Pacifica Radio's Civil War, Black Apollo, October 2005. {{ISBN|1-900355-45-0}}
• Walker, Jesse, Rebels on the Air: An Alternative History of Radio in America, New York University Press, June 2004
• KPFK.***.commentators.HERE [2016-2017] [http://KPFKcommentators.blogspot.com]

• [http://pacifica.org/ Pacifica.org]
• [http://pacificanetwork.org/ Pacifica Network stations and affiliates]
• [http://www.pacificaradioarchives.org/ Pacifica Radio Archives]
• [http://www.fsrn.org/ Free Speech Radio News]
• [http://www.radioforpeople.org Radio for People]
• [http://www.kpfahistory.info KPFA: A Historical Footnote.] Seventy-five hours of programs and interviews from the 1960s.
• [http://www.radio4all.net/index.php/series/Unwelcome+Guests Unwelcome Guests archive] at radio4all
• [http://www.whitings-writings.com/lengthening_shadow.htm The Lengthening Shadow: Lewis Hill and the Origins of Listener-Sponsored Radio in America] at Whitings Writings
• {{IA|pacifica_radio_archives|Pacifica Radio Archives}}
• [https://americanarchive.org/participating-orgs/NCSG43 Pacifica Radio Archives] materials at American Archive of Public Broadcasting
• [https://archives.lib.umd.edu/repositories/2/resources/678 Pacifica Foundation records] at the University of Maryland Libraries

{{PacificaRadio}}

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