Last Thursday the national board of the Pacifica Foundation fired Executive Director Summer Reese, who was hired for the position in November after serving on an interim basis for more than a year. The how and why of Reese’s ouster are unclear. According to the New York Times article that broke the story, board members […]
Community radio stations will continue to have an option for a daily half-hour news broadcast while they wait for a possible return of Free Speech Radio News. The Pacifica Network and the National Federation of Community Broadcasters have reached an agreement with Feature Story News to offer its 6 week-old daily news program FSN Reports […]
As expected, the Pacifica Foundation has released a Request for Proposals to run Pacifica station WBAI in New York City via a Local Management Agreement. Various interesting strings are attached to this RFP, among them: Pacifica must retain “ultimate control” over the LMA’s programming and even be able to preempt or reject various shows to […]
Editor’s note: On October 3, the Pacifica Foundation National Board passed a resolution instructing its interim Executive Director to release a Request for Proposals for Public Service Operating Agreements (essentially leasing arrangements) for Pacifica station WBAI in New York City. Seven days later the board passed a motion instructing the ED “publish the RFP as […]
Many listeners and supporters were surprised to learn last week that a brand-new half-hour daily news program was ready to take the place of Free Speech Radio News on the Monday just after its final program aired. It was just the Saturday after FSRN’s last airing that Pacifica made the announcement that Feature Story News […]
With the closure of Free Speech Radio News this past Friday, Pacifica stations and some 100 community radio affiliates are left with a half-hour hole in their schedules. This weekend Pacifica announced that beginning today the network will be carrying a half-hour broadcast of Feature Story News where FSRN used to be. For some community […]
Since publishing my post on Free Speech Radio News’ closure I’ve heard some questions about why the organization is so dependent on Pacifica. It’s a good question, and the answer helps illuminate why folks across community radio care about Pacifica. To get a better handle on FSRN’s situation I had a follow-up phone call with […]
The independent, daily half-hour international news program Free Speech Radio News will air its last edition this Friday, September 27. According to a memo from the FSRN board of directors the organization is carrying just over $200,000 in accounts receivable, $198k of which is owed by the Pacifica Foundation. As of September 13 FSRN had […]
Corporation for Public Broadcasting Ombudsman Joel Kaplan’s anticipated second commentary on Pacifica station WBAI in New York City is out, and Kaplan says he’s gotten some responses to his original request for comment on gripes about “questionable fundraising ethics” at the station. They come from ‘BAI Public Affairs director Kathy Davis and interim Development Director […]
6/22/13 – 9:47 PM. Update on this story here: an assessment of the situation from a Pacifica National Board member. Full disclosure: trying to verify anything at Pacifica radio these days comes down to citing around 5,000 unofficial spokespersons in the absence of even one of the official variety. But this statement purporting to come […]
