” Highlights, the changes in only nine weeks:
There are just no quick and easy fixes for Pacifica radio or stations. All the great ideas are labor and overhead intensive and killer on the staff. Don’t assume that a big change, like changing the by-laws, will be better instead of worse.
If we all just did our jobs well, and elected good local board members (that we knew by social media), and stop putting too much energy into the internal fighting, all would be well ‘in the garden’.
The fight between the more and more Leftyish and the more cultural and more full stream will always be there, as it should be. But all of us left-of-center are part of ‘The Struggle’. And should pull together. (Those nearer the center often pay for the rest of us.)
The 19th (18th?) is the last day to Vote No for the Pacifica radio new by-laws.
A vote yes is to vote for the so-called elites to dictate to the people, or even sell off the stations. But a big infusion of cash from that would just go right away for their pet projects or into their pockets. These are the folks responsible for the possible loss of KPFA’s building. Disenfranchises the 200+ affiliate stations.
YOUR BALLOT must be received by 11:59 p.m. EST on March 19. If you didn’t get a ballot, or misplaced it, request another ballot
h t t p s : / / r e s c u e p a c i f i c a . n e t
” rescuepacifica.net “
Know when meetings are at this site:
| Monday, March 2, 2020 | 6:00 PM ET | |
| KPFK General Manager Evaluation | Live Meeting – Not Recorded – Executive Session – Not Streamed | |
| Purpose: Personnel Matters | Committee Members | |
| Grace Aaron | graceaaron@gmail.com | |
| Posted: 02/24/2020 – 7:30 PM | Updated: 02/24/2020 – 7:30 PM | |
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| Back to the Calendar | ||
| Wednesday, March 4, 2020 | 7:00 PM ET | |
| WPFW Programming | Live Meeting – Not Recorded | |
| Purpose: Regular Programming Committee Meeting | Committee Members | |
| Vinnie Jack | vinniejack@gmail.com | |
| Posted: 10/16/2019 – 6:11 PM | Updated: 10/16/2019 – 6:11 PM | |
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| Back to the Calendar | ||
| Thursday, March 5, 2020 | 8:30 PM ET | |
| Pacifica National Board | Teleconference | |
| Purpose: Regular meeting of the PNB. | Committee Members | |
| Regular meeting of the PNB. | ||
| Alex Steinberg | pnbalex@gmail.com | |
| Posted: 01/04/2020 – 11:47 PM | Updated: 01/04/2020 – 11:47 PM | |
| Streamed Here The direct link is http://kpftx.org:6280 Also Here | ||
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| Back to the Calendar | ||
| Monday, March 9, 2020 | 7:00 PM ET | |
| WPFW Finance | Teleconference | |
| Purpose: Regular Finance Meeting | Committee Members | |
| Phone meeting 857-232-0157, code 205491. | ||
| Vinnie Jack | vinniejack@gmail.com | |
| Posted: 12/20/2019 – 5:27 PM | Updated: 12/20/2019 – 5:27 PM | |
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| Back to the Calendar | ||
| Tuesday, March 10, 2020 | 7:00 PM ET | |
| WPFW Outreach & Development | Live Meeting – Not Recorded | |
| Committee Members | ||
| Ellen Carter | ellencarter19@gmail.com | |
| Posted: 01/22/2020 – 2:26 PM | Updated: 02/17/2020 – 12:14 PM | |
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| Back to the Calendar | ||
| Tuesday, March 10, 2020 | 8:30 PM ET | |
| Finance | Teleconference | |
| Purpose: Regular meeting | Committee Members | |
| Agenda | ||
tbd |
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| R. Paul Martin | rpm@glib.com | |
| Posted: 05/14/2019 – 9:46 PM | Updated: 05/14/2019 – 9:46 PM | |
| Streamed Here The direct link is http://kpftx.org:6280 Also Here | ||
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| Back to the Calendar | ||
| Wednesday, March 11, 2020 | 6:30 PM ET | |
| WPFW Local Station Board | Live Meeting – Recorded | |
| Committee Members | ||
| Agenda | ||
The LSB regular meeting will convene at 6:30pm and will be open to the public. The Community Comment portion of the meeting begins at a "Time Certain" of 7:30 pm, regardless of where we are in the agenda. |
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| Ellen Carter | ellencarter19@gmail.com | |
| Posted: 12/12/2019 – 10:26 AM | Updated: 02/17/2020 – 12:13 PM | |
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| Back to the Calendar | ||
| Wednesday, March 11, 2020 | 7:00 PM ET | |
| WBAI Local Station Board | Live Meeting – Recorded | |
| Committee Members | ||
| Carolyn McIntyre | cemac62@aol.com | |
| Posted: 02/23/2020 – 5:24 PM | Updated: 02/23/2020 – 5:24 PM | |
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| Back to the Calendar | ||
| Wednesday, March 11, 2020 | 7:00 PM ET | |
| KPFK Finance | Live Meeting – Not Recorded | |
| Purpose: To Review KPFK Financial Documents | Committee Members | |
| The KPFK Local Station Board’s Finance Committee Meeting will meet on Wednesday, March 11, 2020 at 4:00 pm Pacific Time, at the KPFK Station. KPFK is at 3729 Cahuenga Blvd. West, North Hollywood, CA 91604-3504, 3/4 block southeast of the intersection of Lankershim and Ventura Blvds., not far from the Universal Studios Red Line station on Lankershim. |
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| Fred Blair | fred.b.blair@gmail.com | |
| Posted: 02/11/2020 – 6:32 PM | Updated: 02/11/2020 – 6:32 PM | |
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| Back to the Calendar | ||
| Wednesday, March 11, 2020 | 8:00 PM ET | |
| KPFT Local Station Board | Live Meeting – Recorded | |
| Purpose: Regular Busines, Election to PNB Committees | Committee Members | |
| Richard Uzzell | richard_uzzell_3@hotmail.com | |
| Posted: 02/20/2020 – 1:02 AM | Updated: 02/20/2020 – 1:03 AM | |
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| Back to the Calendar | ||
| Friday, March 13, 2020 | 7:00 PM ET | |
| Programming | Live Meeting – Not Recorded | |
| Purpose: Programming Policy Matters | Committee Members | |
| Agenda | ||
Discussion of KPFK programming and policy regarding programming. |
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| Grace Aaron | graceaaron@gmail.com | |
| Posted: 02/24/2020 – 7:37 PM | Updated: 02/24/2020 – 7:37 PM | |
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| Back to the Calendar | ||
| Monday, March 16, 2020 | 7:30 PM ET | |
| KPFT Development | Live Meeting – Not Recorded | |
| Committee Members | ||
| Agenda | ||
| will include Outreach coverage will include election of chair & secretary |
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| Teresa Allen | teresajallen@sbcglobal.net | |
| Posted: 02/19/2020 – 11:44 PM | Updated: 02/19/2020 – 11:44 PM | |
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| Back to the Calendar | ||
| Tuesday, March 17, 2020 | 7:00 PM ET | |
| KPFT Finance | Live Meeting – Not Recorded | |
| Committee Members | ||
| Teresa Allen | teresajallen@sbcglobal.net | |
| Posted: 02/19/2020 – 11:41 PM | Updated: 02/19/2020 – 11:41 PM | |
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| Back to the Calendar | ||
| Wednesday, March 18, 2020 | 7:00 PM ET | |
| WBAI Finance | Live Meeting – Not Recorded | |
| Purpose: Regular meeting | Committee Members | |
| Agenda | ||
TBD |
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| R. Paul Martin | rpm@glib.com | |
| Posted: 02/19/2020 – 11:15 PM | Updated: 02/19/2020 – 11:15 PM | |
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| Back to the Calendar | ||
| Tuesday, March 24, 2020 | 8:30 PM ET | |
| Finance | Teleconference | |
| Purpose: Regular meeting | Committee Members | |
| Agenda | ||
tbd |
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| R. Paul Martin | rpm@glib.com | |
| Posted: 05/14/2019 – 9:47 PM | Updated: 05/14/2019 – 9:47 PM | |
| Streamed Here The direct link is http://kpftx.org:6280 Also Here | ||
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Bylaws Amendments would:
(text in italics is from the proposed Bylaws – view .PDF download from pacifica.org)
Eliminate the local boards.
ARTICLE X… Upon adoption of these Bylaws the Local Station Boards authorized under the previous Bylaws shall be terminated…
Remove the entire Pacifica National Board that was democratically elected by our Local Station Boards.
Article XV… The terms of the previous Board of Directors shall expire on that date. (When the Transition Board consisting of the 6 appointed At-Large Directors is seated.)
Eliminate staff representation completely on the National Board.
ARTICLE V… No staff member, as defined in Article III, Section 1.B, above, nor any station or Foundation employee, nor any person who hosts or helps to produce a program regularly aired on any Pacifica radio station shall be eligible for service on the Foundation Board of Directors as an At-Large or Station Representative Director.
Eliminate representation from our Affiliate Network on the National Board.
Make it easier to sell a building and even to sell a radio license – possibly to sell KPFK!
Article IV, Section 3. QUORUM FOR ACTION BY VOTE A quorum for any action by membership vote shall be 5% of the members, or 5% of the members associated with that station. (The quorum in the current Bylaws is 10%. The Bylaws being proposed make it much easier to sell a major asset of Pacifica such as a building or to sell or swap a radio station license because the voting threshold is much lower.Give majority control of the National Board to appointed people – with no oversight.
ARTICLE VI. BOARD OF DIRECTORS, Section 1. NUMBER OF DIRECTORS There shall be Eleven (11) Directors, including five (5) Station-Representative Directors and six (6) At-Large Directors.
Give greater power and control to At-Large (appointed) PNB Directors because Directors elected by station members cannot be either the PNB Chair or Treasurer.
ARTICLE VIII. OFFICERS… The Chair and the Treasurer are required to be At-Large Directors.
Make it harder and more expensive to become a member.
ARTICLE III. MEMBERSHIP… “Listener-Sponsor Members” shall be any natural persons who within the preceding 12-month period: (1) have contributed a minimum of $50 to any Foundation radio station… or (2) have volunteered a minimum of fifteen (15) hours of service to any Foundation radio station. (Currently, annual membership is $25, volunteer membership requires 3 hours of volunteer work.)
Open the door to corporate sponsorship.
Open the door to censorship and a push for more ‘moderate’ political programming.
Make the Bylaws easier to amend opening the door to breaking up Pacifica, selling assets more quickly, etc.
ARTICLE XII. AMENDMENTS The Board of Directors may amend these Bylaws by a 2/3rds majority vote of all the Directors at a regular or special meeting, provided however that written notice setting forth the amendment or summary of the changes to be effected thereby shall be given to each director and shall be posted on the Foundation website and each Pacifica radio station website at least thirty (30) days prior to the vote.
I’m sorry about being Partisan on this, but I can’t stand this ‘and I’m not going to take it anymore’.
Inshallah
Excerpt: 
“DANNY GLOVER, CINDY SHEEHAN & JACKIE GOLDBERG ASK YOU TO VOTE ‘NO’ ON PACIFICA BYLAWS PROPOSAL
| Inbox | x |
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1:09 PM (8 hours ago) |
“Dear Sue, please join us in voting against these deceptive amendments. Please forward to your friends. We must protect Pacifica Radio! Warmly, Danny, Cindy and Jackie
Join activistsJackie Goldberg, Danny Glover, Cindy Sheehan, Joan Sekler, KPFK’s JimLafferty (The Lawyer’s Guild), KPFA’s Dennis Bernstein (Flashpoints), WBAI’s Bonnie Faulkner (Guns & Butter), WPFW’s Verna Avery Brown (‘What’s At Stake‘ and past host of Pacifica Radio News) and the 21 of the 24 KPFK Local Station Board members who voted ‘NO’ on these bylaws changes: Jan Goodman, Grace Aaron, Ken Aaron, Michael Adler, Allan Beek, Fred Blair, Jeanette Charles, Bella de Soto, Eric Jacobson, Evelia Jones, Ali Lexa, Michelle Manos, Barbara Marbach, Michael Novick, Jim Osborne, Nancy Pearlman, Lawrence Reyes, Paul Roberson, Oscar Ulloa, Polina Vasiliev and Beth von Gunten.MEMBERS: Did you get your ballot?
First, look for your email ballot sent Feb 18 from ‘Pacifica Foundation <vote@simplyvoting.com>‘
If you did not get your e-ballot on Feb 18 or paper ballot by Feb 20… CLICK HERE TO REQUEST A PAPER BALLOT, replacement e-ballot or new e-ballot
Eligible voters are those who donated at least $25 between Jan. 03, 2019 and Jan. 02, 2020. Voting ends Thursday, March 19. For your vote to count, your paper ballot must arrive by snail mail March 19 (so mail it early) or your eballot must be cast by 8:59 p.m. PST on March 19. If you donated $50, then your spouse or other household member is also eligible to vote. See Danny Glover in this 45 second video https://youtu.be/dHnLsBG2wYM. Danny urges Pacifica members not to change the bylaws which would eliminate staff representation on the Pacifica board. This move toward corporatization would lead to an NPR operation with appointed boards of directors and eliminate the democratic governance led in part by the workers who produce programming at Pacifica.What’s going on:Some of the proponents behind the bylaws referendum have urged bankruptcy, been in favor of shutting down and/or selling the Pacifica New York and Washington, D.C. station signals, and pushed for breaking up the network. They have:
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The interview from the Atlanta Pacifica Affiliate is long but it includes some good descriptions. I think that they want to disenfranchise the paid staff (and the unpaid) because they make the stations run and they know the real dirt. Prices and ploys would make it harder for the poor and oppressed to become members/voters. Elected Board members would become severely limited, and hand-picked At-Large members would have a lock on the boards.
“14. ED may dispense with hired outside election contractors and order board secretary, who can be at-large director or hired employee, to act as election supervisor.
17. All vacancies filled by board. If an elected station director resigns, their successor will be picked by the board w…
20. Board secretary authorized as an outside hired employee.
22. Vice-Chair, Secretary, CFO and Treasurer can all be the same person.
24. CFO is supervised by the ED.
25. General managers and program directors, as well as other staff, are removed from indemnification from lawsuits filed against them in the context of performing their work.
29. Removes description of conflict of interest criteria from the bylaws.”
” https://pacificafightback.org/ ”
https://pacificafightback.org/
The photo and the quote by Alice Walker were taken when “National Pacifica” tried to take over KPFA and locked out all the paid and unpaid staff.
“There will be no Delegates, no Delegate elections, and no Local Station Boards. The members of thecurrent Local Station Boards may join their station’s Community Advisory Board (CAB) but will have no role in governance. A CAB is required at each station by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and will operate under the CPB requirements. https://www.cpb.org/stations/certification/cert3
Staff-Members and persons hosting or helping to produce a regular program airing on any Pacifica radio station will not be eligible for service on the Board of Directors, nor are any station or Pacifica Foundation employees.
Six Transition At-Large Directors will be seated at a Board meeting during the last two weeks of January 2020. They are: Heidi Boghosian, Judy Graboyes, Bob King, Barbara Ransby, Walter Riley, and Norman Stockwell. Their biographies are posted here.If any of those six becomes unable to serve before the first meeting of the new Transition Board in January, then those remaining will select alternates in the order they choose from the following alternates: Terri Burke, Mustafaa Carrol, and Louis Vandenberg. Their biographies are posted here.
The 5 Transition Station Representative Directors will be elected by the members early next year and will be seated at a Board meeting during the first 2 weeks in May 2020. The 2019 Board’s terms will expire upon the commencement of the January Transition Board meeting.”
” https://pacificaradiowatch.home.blog/2020/02/17/ed-brazon-spreads-the-calm/ ”
Excerpt: “…Pacifica Foundation, Inc. has engaged two specialty firms helping us with the tax lien for KPFA and the transmitter property as well. Both firms have clearly made this a priority. The law firm helping us with the tax exemption has great expertise in this particular area and the lawyers and [sic] communicated with someone with the authority to grant us some status relief, pending the submission of our exemption application by Friday, February 14. Relief regarding the lien is not guaranteed, but I think we can be cautiously hopeful. KPFA produced the final financial documents needed for both properties on Thursday, February 14 [sic: the 13th].
However, it is also the case that the Organizational Clearance Certificate I sent them which we’ve always used, and which grants the Pacifica Foundation, the property tax exemption status as a non-profit entity, must be reapplied for. It turns out such a Certificate had to be applied for when the name was changed in 2013 and again when we changed it back in early 2015 to Pacifica Foundation, Inc.. That further complicated the application attempted by KPFA during that same period. KPFA already had a reduced tax amount as a result of previous tax exemptions applied for, but the subsequent one was intended to render the properties totally exempt from taxation. The lawyers also believe all of Pacifica’s properties should qualify for full exemption status….”
“…As the situation progresses toward resolution, I will update your PNB directors [sic].
Than [sic] you,
Lydia Brazon
Interim Executive Director
Pacifica Foundation…”
I didn’t know that she was in charge again!
. . . “This led to a notice of public auction and sale of the studio building at 1929 Martin Luther King Jr Way for seven years of unpaid property taxes. A certified letter sent to KPFA on January 17, 2020 from the Tax Collector’s office has disappeared into the ether.
In comments to station staff and to the press, UIR members of KPFA’s station board and KPFA’s business manager have blamed the default on an involuntary name change forced on the Pacifica Foundation when a scam outfit registered the Pacifica Foundation name with the state. However, that is not the reason for the property tax default.
The last filing made to the Alameda County Assessor was filed on February 15, 2012. The 2013 filing was due on February 15, 2013 and was not made. The filing at the Secretary of State of another Pacifica Foundation by the scam outfit occurred on February 26, 2013, or 11 days after the initial default. The Pacifica Foundation did not change its name until March 19, 2013 or 34 days after the property tax default. The failure to file and the initial property tax default on February 15, 2013 was not caused by the name change because the name change had not happened yet. Unless someone was in possession of a crystal ball, the two things were unrelated.
In other news, Pacifica members should shortly get a ballot in the mail asking them to weigh in on a proposed substitute set of bylaws, created mostly by the UIR/Save KPFA group at KPFA. These anti-democratic . . . ”
Thanks to ” https://pacificainexile.org/archives/2978 ”
This site won’t let me copy its URL website, so here it is:
” https://elections.pacifica.org/wordpress/ ”
There are also the reports from the last elections.
Better read the 31!. They make me sick.
“FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:January 26, 2020
It’s Up To You Now
Berkeley – On January 23, an Alameda County, California courtroom decided to allow 600 members to force their late-submitted anti-democratic bylaws proposal to a referendum vote immediately at the expense of Pacifica’s membership. The January 23 decision pauses the results of the last delegate election, which 6,085 members participated in. It delays the seating of national board reps selected by newly-elected delegates and keeps the outgoing national board unwillingly frozen into place for another seven weeks. Each Pacifica member faces a bill of approximately $1.50 each for what will be the third nationwide election in little more than a year. Ballots are expected to go out in mid-February.
This publication had previously suggested that Pacifica members would be well-advised to simply ignore these bylaws ballots should they receive them. But we are now changing that advice. On further review of this ill-advised proposal, we strongly recommend a loud and decisive “NO” vote. We will talk a bit about why below.
For those who want to climb into the weeds, (and pretty much everyone now has too), Pacifica in Exile has prepared a detailed guide called 31 Things About The New Bylaws Proposal. You can find it here. Please distribute widely.
Below we will highlight a few general points about the Pacifica Restructuring Project proposal that you should keep in mind.
1. The referendum the Court forced despite the lateness of the original proposal is NOT a referendum on the current bylaws, but on this specific proposal. This proposal was drafted in secret by less than a dozen people and never vetted beyond this tiny group before being foisted upon the network. Acceptance would impose a permanently un-elected national board majority. The proponents generally argue on the basis that the current bylaws have problems, which is a position most would agree with. But instead of putting their proposal up for broad discussion as one possible alternative among many, they have short-circuited dialogue and proposed an ultimatum: their way or the highway. These are not the values a community-based membership organization should espouse.
2. The new bylaws proposal installs immediately, 6 particular people, who would compose a permanently un-elected majority on an 11-person board. Those 6 seats would be filled by other national board members into infinity and this group would be free to operate the Foundation more or less as they please, since they have an absolute majority and can establish the board quorum of 6 entirely by themselves. The installed directors require no consent for any board action d by the pro forma member-elected portion of the board (5 seats – 1 from each station signal area). In other words, in this model you get a vote, but it is only symbolic.
The original proposal, which was sent to 47,000 Pacifica members and signed on to by less than a thousand of us, named 6 individuals and 3 alternates. Of those 9 individuals, two have dropped out since the proposal was floated in September. Of the 7 remaining, only 2 have media experience. The most heavily represented constituency is civil rights lawyers, who compose 3 of the remaining 7. 2 are based in the San Francisco Bay Area, 2 in Texas (the smallest Pacifica signal area) and 2 in the Midwest, a region which does not have a Pacifica-owned station. None are located on the Eastern seaboard where Pacifica maintains WBAI-FM in New York and WPFW-FM in Washington DC. None of the 7 people asking you to install them has made a single public comment about what they will do if placed on the board of directors.
3. We encourage you to read the full 31 Things About the New Bylaws article. Here is a quick touch on a few of the salient changes:
* While your vote drops in value from 4 seats on the national board to 1 minority seat, the cost of that vote doubles to $50/yr from the current $25/year.
* There is no residency requirement for a sole elected station representative on the national board.
* Quorum drops to 5% for future changes to the bylaws including station license sales.
* Station unpaid and paid staff are prohibited on the national board. Pacifica affiliated stations no longer have seats for their representatives on the national board.
* While there are nominally 5 member-elected directors (1 from each station), they are not only a permanent minority, they are prohibited from serving as the board chair or board treasurer. Only the self-appointed directors can chair the board or serve as the treasurer.
* Conflict of interest rules for board members are loosened so that any claim that a director has a “personal interest” in a board decision can keep them from voting. This explicitly allows the prevention of directors from voting as happened with the exclusion of WBAI’s representatives from voting on the raid of their station. That action was thrown out by NY’s Supreme Court as “trumped-up” based on the current bylaws. It wouldn’t be in the future.
What Will Happen If These New Bylaws Are Adopted
It doesn’t take a crystal ball. After 7 weeks of bylaws election, then Pacifica will have to have 5 more elections, one at each station, to select a new sole station director. After that is all over, this new board will finally sit down and realize they have a loan principle payment of $3.2 million due in less than a year. The new board will panic, examine their assets, and immediately call yet another election seeking member permission to sell a station license. What else can they possibly do? What we are looking at is just another pathway to the unnecessary break-up of Pacifica. The people’s media assets, which are held in trust by the Pacifica Foundation, deserve better.
We know there are other answers. $1.9 million dollars was given to this organization in one calendar year in 2019 in windfall gifts. Loan obligations can be met, if we want them to be. Bylaws don’t replace the will to survive and putting the public interest first.
Vote to keep your membership rights and vote NO on the break-up bylaws.
If you value being kept up to speed on Pacifica Radio news via this newsletter, you can make a little contribution to keep Pacifica in Exile publishing . Donations are
secure, but not tax-deductible”
When ‘National’ tried to take over KPFA, the communities filled the streets to take back their station. ‘This is ours, this is something we paid for, we believe in, and that we intend to keep,’ paraphrase of Alice Walker. A balance of power with less power for National and more for the stations would be better. KPFK, for one, and its building, was built by people in L.A., not National. At-large PNB members is just a scheme to dis-power the local reps.
An excerpt that I’m speaking out against: “Also, as a guide to how we treat one another, the egalitarian principle is not to reward & punish given one’s endowment: just because some stations use Pacifica-owned buildings, not their buildings, isn’t justification for looking down on & disparaging WPFW & WBAI. It was a mere historical accident that at the beginning, Pacifica & KPFA constituted an identity, the one-and-the-same. A station’s financial performance may be criticised, but one must recognise that (1) some of its contracts may have been agreed, even negotiated, by the executive director &/or the National Board, & (2) the station manager (called in Pacificanese the general manager) isn’t appointed locally but by the executive director. Please don’t mistake the locus for the cause.”
https://pacificaradiowatch.home.blog/category/authoritarianism/
8 minutes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Pryor
I wanted to say a few words to encapsulate the career of Richard Pryor but there is way too much.
Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor (December 1, 1940 – December 10, 2005) was an American comedian, actor, film director,social critic, satirist, writer, and MC.[19]….
Pryor was known for uncompromising examinations of racism and topical contemporary issues, which employed colorful vulgarities and profanity, as well as racial epithets. He reached a broad audience with his trenchant observations and storytelling style. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential stand-up comedians of all time: …
Pryor’s body of work includes the concert movies and recordings: Richard Pryor: Live & Smokin’ (1971), That Nigger’s Crazy (1974),…Is It Something I Said? (1975), Bicentennial Nigger (1976), Richard Pryor: Live in Concert (1979), Richard Pryor: Live on the Sunset Strip (1982), and Richard Pryor: Here and Now (1983). He also starred in numerous films as an actor, such as Superman III (1983), but was usually in comedies such as Silver Streak (1976), and occasionally in dramatic roles, such as Paul Schrader‘s film Blue Collar(1978). He collaborated on many projects with actor Gene Wilder. Another frequent collaborator was actor/comedian/writer Paul Mooney….
Pryor won an Emmy Award (1973) and five Grammy Awards (1974, 1975, 1976, 1981, and 1982). In 1974, he also won two American Academy of Humor awards and the Writers Guild of America Award. The first ever Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor was presented to him in 1998. Pryor is listed at Number 1 on Comedy Central‘s list of all-time greatest stand-up comedians.[23]….
In 1969, Pryor moved to Berkeley, California, where he immersed himself in the counterculture and rubbed elbows with the likes of Huey P. Newton and Ishmael Reed. He signed with the comedy-oriented independent record label Laff Records in 1970, and in 1971 recorded his second album, Craps (After Hours). Two years later, the relatively unknown comedian appeared in the documentary Wattstax (1973), wherein he riffed on the tragic-comic absurdities of race relations in Watts and the nation. Not long afterward, Pryor sought a deal with a larger label, and after some time, signed with Stax Records.[when?][citation needed]….
When his third, breakthrough album, That Nigger’s Crazy (1974), was released, Laff, who claimed ownership of Pryor’s recording rights, almost succeeded in getting an injunction to prevent the album from being sold. ….That Nigger’s Crazy was a commercial and critical success; it was eventually certified Gold by the RIAA[when?] and won the Grammy Award for Best Comedic Recording at the 1975 Grammy Awards….
….Pryor returned to Reprise/Warner Bros. Records, which re-released That Nigger’s Crazy, immediately after …Is It Something I Said?, his first album with his new label. Like That Nigger’s Crazy, the album was a hit with both critics and fans; it was eventually certified Platinum by the RIAA[when?]and won the Grammy Award for Best Comedic Recording at the 1976 Grammy Awards…..
Pryor’s release Bicentennial Nigger (1976) continued his streak of success. It became his third consecutive Gold album, and he collected his third consecutive Grammy ….
The Richard Pryor Show premiered on NBC in 1977 but was canceled after only four episodes probably because television audiences did not respond well to his show’s controversial subject matter, and Pryor was unwilling to alter his material for network censors. During the short-lived series, he portrayed the first African-American President of the United States, spoofed the Star Wars cantina, took on gun violence, and in another skit, used costumes and visual distortion to appear nude.[35]…..
In 1983, Pryor signed a five-year contract with Columbia Pictures for US$40,000,000.[37] This resulted in the mainstreaming of Pryor’s onscreen persona and softer, more formulaic films like Superman III (1983), which earned Pryor $4,000,000; Brewster’s Millions (1985), Moving (1988), and See No Evil, Hear No Evil (1989). The only film project from this period that recalled his rough roots was Pryor’s semi-autobiographic debut as a writer-director, Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling (1986), which was not a major success….
In 2002, a television documentary depicted Pryor’s life and career. Broadcast in the UK as part of the Channel 4 series Kings of Black Comedy, it was produced, directed and narrated by David Upshal and featured rare clips from Pryor’s 1960s stand-up appearances and movies such as Silver Streak (1976), Blue Collar (1978), Richard Pryor: Live in Concert (1978), and Stir Crazy (1980). Contributors included George Carlin, Dave Chappelle, Whoopi Goldberg, Ice-T, Paul Mooney, Joan Rivers, and Lily Tomlin. The show tracked down the two cops who had rescued Pryor from his “freebasing incident”, former managers, and even school friends from Pryor’s home town of Peoria, Illinois. In the US, the show went out as part of the Heroes of Black Comedy series on Comedy Central, narrated by Don Cheadle.[citation needed]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Pryor
This is a shortening of all the praise of him on Wikipedia
http://transom.org/2012/youre-on-the-air/
Nan Rubin may be able to help you.
She was part of a Strategic Process imposed on KPFK in 1986. But Lorenzo Milam’s off-titled Sex in Broadcasting book was the handbook for getting on the air for many years.
My greatest personal satisfaction in a long public broadcasting career has come from building a radio station from scratch. Flipping the switch and filling that empty space on the radio dial with brand new sounds for the very first time — nothing can match it.
I’m close to social security age now, but signing my first station on the air in 1975 was one of the biggest thrills of my life.
My first radio station was WAIF 88.3 FM in Cincinnati, one of a wave of community stations in Atlanta, Madison, Memphis, St. Louis, Tampa and elsewhere that hit the airwaves between 1970 and 1980 as part of the counter-culture and anti-Vietnam War era, guided in part by Lorenzo Milam and Jeremy Lansman’s irreverent station-building guide “Sex and Broadcasting.” We were licensed to Stepchild Radio of Cincinnati, Inc. and our bumper stickers read “Out of the Ordinary Radio.”
Building a radio station takes a serious commitment. First, you have to set-up a non-profit organization so you can legally apply for a broadcast license and also raise money. At the same time, you have to do a technical search to find an open frequency on the FM dial, plus locate a real physical place to put a transmitter and antenna. Then you are ready to fill out an FCC application requesting the frequency, and the FCC sits on it for months while they make sure everything meets their requirements.
In the meantime, you become a community organizer, holding a gazillion meetings to plan station operations, implement decision-making, devise programming schedules, scout out broadcasting equipment and studio locations, and ask people to give you money for a radio station that is just an idea and doesn’t exist yet. You are also holding your breath and hoping no other group has the same idea and applied for the same frequency.
…………
Not from WBAI.org. Definitely written from a point of view.
DABIN FOR NEWS
Under normal circumstances,Amy Goodman and Daily News columnist Juan Gonzalez say, they’d be happy their daily “Democracy Now” show has moved from 9 a.m. to 8 a.m. on WBAI (99.5 FM).
But with WBAI having another of its periodic civil wars, they aren’t so sure.
Before the shift last week, co-hosts Goodman and Gonzalez sent a letter to acting general manager LaVarn Williamssaying that while the station has the right to air the program whenever it wishes, “This decision disturbs us deeply and we urge that it be reconsidered.”
Their concern, they say, involves the fact that moving “Democracy Now” is only one part of larger changes at WBAI, including the dismissal of station manager Anthony Riddle and program director Bernard White.
Critics of Riddle and White charged they had narrowed the station’s appeal, costing it listenership and revenue. White disputes those assertions, and his supporters have launched a campaign to “take back WBAI.”
Goodman and Gonzalez’s letter says firing White “lacked basic human consideration” and expresses concern that the new team is using “Democracy Now” as “a weapon against its opponents.” . . . .
Andrew Leslie Phillips has written a short history of the Pacifica radio network, published below. He is interim general manager of Pacifica station KPFA in Berkeley, California.
Phillips is a native of Australia. He spent seven years in Papua New Guinea as a government patrol officer, radio journalist and filmmaker before coming to New York in 1975. He produced award-winning investigative radio documentaries on a wide range of environmental and political issues for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and for Pacifica station WBAI in New York City. He taught journalism, radio and “sound image” as an adjunct professor at New York University for 10 years.
The Pacifica foundation was founded in 1946 by poet and journalist Lewis Hill and a small group of pacifists, intellectuals and experienced radio people. They did not have the same political or economic philosophy but shared a vision which supported a peaceful world, social justice and creativity. ….
FM was a new, technology and Pacifica was backing the future, inventing an entirely new funding mechanism – the theory of listener sponsored radio. . . .
Equality of access to airtime has always been at the center of controversy at Pacifica and community radio everywhere. Most on-air people at Pacifica were not paid until the mid 1990’s. They volunteered and they made money to support the Foundation by pitching their programming on free-speech Pacifica radio. That was the deal. It was a tacit agreement – Pacifica provides opportunity and access whilst producers agreed to pitch and encourage on air pledges. By far the largest percentage of financial support for Pacifica still comes from listener donations.[2]. . . ”
http://www.radiosurvivor.com/2013/08/06/riding-the-waves-at-pacifica-radio-by-andrew-leslie-phillips/
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September 16 2015
6:07 minutes
:26 minutes
Richard Wolff explains debacle in Greece
http://uprisingradio.org/home/2015/07/27/dr-richard-wolff-makes-sense-of-the-greek-debacle/
See Uprising’s website http://uprisingradio.org/home/
Professor Engelman is the author of “Friendlyvision: Fred Friendly and the Rise and Fall of Television Journalism,” with an Introduction by Morley Safer (NY: Columbia University Press, 2009) and “Public Radio and Television in America: A Political History” (Sage: Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1996). His “The Origins of Public Access Cable Television,” Journalism Monographs (No. 123, October 1990), has been translated into Japanese and Portuguese.
| Ralph Engelman
LET ME QUICKLY INTRODUCE OUR PANELISTS. TOMORROW, GARRY TRUDEAU WILL RECEIVE THE GEORGE POLK CAREER AWARD. HIS COMIC STRIP HAS ATTAINED THE STATUS OF A GREAT AMERICAN INSTITUTION. FOUR 45 YEARS, HE HAS SPARED NO PUBLIC FIGURE OR ILL-CONCEIVED POLICY IN A UNIQUE SATIRIC APPROACH TO POLITICAL COMMENTARY. HE STANDS ALONGSIDE SUCH LEGENDARY CARTOONIST SUCH AS OUR NEXT PANELIST, JEWELED PFEIFER –JULES FEIFFER. JULES http://www.c-span.org/video/?324923-1/discussion-role-satire |
Published on Sep 9, 2014
The Nobel Peace Prize nominee and holder of 21 honorary doctorate degrees hammers Obama and our consumerist mentality.
“Capitalists in the 1970s realized they no longer needed to pay high wages to American, European and Japanese workers, when they could simply relocate their centers to countries with no wage regulations” -Professor and Economist Richard Wolf
Richard Wolf discusses the history of capitalist resistance from Germany to Greece for KPFK audience members. http://ow.ly/i/8BWOj
Once you’re at youtube the subsequent and related videos present themselves as choices.
(this was 2014?)
