Oct. 2024 General manager's Report to the LSB

2024-10 General Manager's Report to the LSB

Technical matters:

     KPFK Chief engineer Stuart Landau has restored our broadcast signal in the Santa Barbara area, which required multiple trips up there the replacement and repositioning of an antenna, and the installation of a new transmitter. There is still some interference with the signal there and in a number of other locations in our extensive listening area because the main transmitter on Mount Wilson is not operating at full power, because of a number of failing power supplies. We have three of the power supplies out for repair and refurbishing and upon their return, will be testing them. If they work properly, we will be sending additional power supplies out for repair, and will be bringing our transmission back up to full power. Pacifica chief engineer Moe Thomas is awaiting the results of the refurbishing and testing to see if the provider could be contracted with to do similar repairs at other stations that require them.

     The tech task force met and has come up with an extensive list of items needed to assure continued, uninterrupted operation of the station from our new location, and at the transmitter. These include ice shields and replacement dishes at the transmitter. We are also working on building a new version of Studio C, a recording staff for larger numbers of participants, which was dismantled at 3729 Cahuenga and brought to 111 Jackson. This will entail moving other tech items, as well as an electrical system upgrade to reorganize existing circuits and add an additional one. The building owners/management are also planning a replacement of the air conditioning system in the building during November that will necessitate using an Internet connection for our studio-to-transmitter link while those replacements are made on the roof of 111. Pacifica's chief engineer and national technical officers are working on revising our FCC licensing for the studio to transmitter link since we will no longer be moving back to 3729 Cahuenga as originally planned.

Finances:

     Despite many economies, KPFK continues to face financial challenges, partly as a consequence of the move, which necessitated many expenditures for building our new studios and paying rent. Some proceeds from the sale of 3729 Cahuenga will be used to make us whole for those previous expenditures, including reimbursing various personnel for covering the cost of needed tech they purchased with personal funds, and for assisting KPFK with the cost of the rent. The current on-air membership and funding drive is doing somewhat better than the last two, but not as well as should be the case for the fall on-air fund drive. We are working with programmers and staff to improve donations for the last few weeks of the drive, scheduled to continue on-air through October 31. We will be keeping open the Allegiance platform for the drive through November 6, the day after Election Day, as we anticipate that some additional revenues might well come in to the station on those days, but we will not be pitching on air.

     We have scheduled a benefit film screening for the station on October 30, showing "Reimagining Safety" with a panel that includes the film-maker Matthew Solomon, Channing Martinez of the Labor Community Strategy Center, myself, a member of Black Lives Matter LA, Gina Viola and Matt Sedillo. Tickets will be sold through the website, as an on-air thank you gift for donations to the station and at the door. If this is successful, we will see it as a launch of a revived KPFK Film Club, with a monthly film screening and discussion for Film Club members (at a premium over regular membership; used to be $150 annually).

     We have had to back-burner the effort to attract more underwriting because of the demands of the move, the FCC compliance training, and the fund drive. We are looking for additional volunteers to solicit underwriting from small businesses, community organizations and other non-profits. If you are interested in working pro-bono on this effort, please contact me. I also look to the Local Station Board delegates to engage in donor stewardship, calling lapsed donors and members to find out why they left and what we can do to win them back, and thanking and otherwise deepening our relationship with existing listener-sponsors.

      We also have to activate our connection with "Hungry Friend," a source of passive income if members sign up for their free service, so that each time a member dines at a participating restaurant using a registered credit card, a portion of the entire bill including gratuity is donated to KPFK in their name automatically.

Programming and related issues

     There is no question that the strict enforcement of the FCC compliance requirements has impacted our fundraising, as it has necessitated a culture change for our programmers and listeners. There have been two major violations of the FCC regulations and both have taken place at our station, requiring reports to the FCC of the violations under the terms of the consent decree/settlement with the FCC, and resulting in suspensions of the programming.

     We cannot afford additional violations, which could result in the extension of the probationary period (already two years) or worse. Especially during this fund drive, we must follow the rules, as onerous, challenging or unfamiliar as they may feel.

      I will reiterate here several key points from the FCC compliance training so that LSB members not on the staff and other listeners can fully understand the new constraints.

WE CANNOT "PITCH" FOR PRODUCTS, ONLY FOR OUR PROGRAMMING, OUR CONTENT, OUR STATION, OUR MISSION, OUR COMMUNITY SERVICE.

     If we have a thank you gift to offer to show our appreciation for the listeners' support, it MUST be vetted in advance with Terry Guy in Membership. It can only be mentioned, IN NON-PROMOTIONAL LANGUAGE, four times during the course of a program. The appeal to listeners must be based on the program, NOT on the value or desirability of the thank you gift.

IF THE THANK-YOU GIFT IS OBTAINED GRATIS OR BELOW COST, A "SPONSORSHIP I.D." IN NON-PROMOTIONAL LANGUAGE MUST BE CLEARED IN ADVANCE WITH JOHN ALMELEH, THE NATIONAL COMPLIANCE OFFICER, WHO IS NOW ON VACATION.

    The ID, in the form of a  statement that "Support for [this program] on KPFK comes in part from [provider] (who made tickets/books/DVDs available). More information is available at [URL/phone]", should be aired just before and just after the program, voiced by the board operator or pre-recorded.

PROGRAMMERS OR PRODUCERS CANNOT OFFER THANK-YOU GIFTS OF THEIR OWN PRODUCTS, WHETHER PROVIDED GRATIS TO OR PURCHASED BY THE STATION.

     This is seen as a quid pro quo for a consideration of participation in the program.  The first rule above applies specifically to non-commercial educational licensees such as KPFK and the other Pacifica stations. The other rules apply to ALL broadcasters, commercial or non-commercial, licensed to use the public airwaves.

    Some of the other Pacifica stations have stopped offering thank-you gifts of any kind. We are not currently planning to eliminate any and all thank-you gifts and hope that it does not become necessary to do so, if there are any further violations.

     In addition to the suspensions, which hopefully can be resolved quickly through additional re-training when the national compliance officer returns and can offer it, there have been some other programming changes. Creative Frontline, a powerful Indigenous-based environmental and anti-extractivism program must moved up from being part of Something's Happening and extended to an hour on Mondays to lead off an environmental strip at 4 PM along with Be a Better Relative/Eagle and the Condor on Tuesday, XR Now! from Extinction Rebellion LA on Wednesday and Eco-Justice Radio from SoCal 350.org on Thursdays (augmented on Wed. at 5 with California Solartopia at 5 after XR Now!). CodePINK has moved into Something's Happening overnight Monday to Tuesday, following Le Show with Harry Shearer.

     The Voices from the Frontlines crew decided they could not continue with their weekly program, and The Constituency was moved up to that Friday morning spot and extended to an hour. In its place, Green Street, an environmental health program was moved into the daytime lineup from Somethings Happening and we have been experimenting with other health oriented programming in its late night slot, soliciting listener input. Dr. Nita Vallens of Inner Vision is taking a leave of absence for personal reasons. For now we will probably add back a second iteration of The Aware Show with Lisa Garr, as a hoped-for substitute host for Inner Vision had a scheduling conflict and had to back out. Interim unpaid Program Director Marlena Bond has developed a new podcast, Empty Los Angeles, and in the process is reworking the entire podcast set-up on our website to make it more accessible.

      Special programming coming up includes coverage of the Free and Equal Elections Foundation presidential debate to be held here in L.A. on Wednesday October 23 from 5-8 PM. Candidates committed to participate so far include Jill Stein of the Green Party, Chase Oliver of the Libertarian Party and Randall Terry of the Constitution Party. All candidates have been invited and Cornel West independent and Claudia de la Cruz running on the Peace & Freedom Party line in CA may participate. Sylvester Rivers and a female co-host will cover it for KPFK (though not moderating the debate) introducing and framing it for our listeners, providing context and analysis when there are commercial breaks, and hosting a discussion with listener calls when it ends. On Election Night Tuesday November 5, we will be participating in national Pacifica coverage from 5-9 PM Pacific (pm to midnight on the East Coast), being executive produced by WBAI and WPFW, with participation from KPFT in Houston and KPFK here on the West Coast. 

      We are discussing a series of special programs in the two weeks after the election, "What's Next?" focusing on critical social and political questions in the light of the election outcomes, whatever they may be, hopefully incorporating listener calls, and culminating in the town hall gathering the LSB planning for Sunday November 17 (to help build towards that event and to discuss the role that KPFK and Pacifica in whatever the political climate may be after Nov.5 and in the coming years). Broadcasting the LSB town hall is under consideration.

Youth Involvement

     We have our second intern from the Conservancy of Recording Arts and Sciences, who has been working with interim (unpaid) operations manager Charlie Wilken on a number of projects this month and next, and we anticipate continuing that relationship with CRAS (which is located in Arizona but has students from or interesting in working in Los Angeles). In addition, we are about to launch a program with seniors from Dorsey High School in South LA, where about seven students from Dorsey will come to KPFK once a week for 4 hours at a time over the course of a semester, work on podcasting and familiarize themselves with various aspects of radio production, broadcasting and promotion. We have also connected them up with the CSULA media department students, who work on the Cal State LA student community news that airs on KPFK the first Sunday of the month. We hope these relationships will blossom into ongoing input to the station from these young people and their associates and followers.

Marketing and Promotion

     We have been in discussion with a couple of pro bono consultants, Pam Brown and Ibrahim El-Sayed, about improving our website, and using it more effectively in coordination with social media to promote our content and attract new listeners and donors. These discussions are just beginning but hold great promise and we anticipate a major upgrade of the website to improve its discoverability and utility in searches by search engines, augmented by content on a variety of social media platforms and improved podcasting efforts. Volunteers who can help with that effort, and with coordinating the station's efforts with those of individual programs are very much welcome. This would include monitoring a Discord chat room we are developing for listeners to reflect on and communicate with each other about our programming.

Respectfully submitted,

Michael Novick, interim General Manager