PacificaWatch

. . . for the 15 days, Tu7-Tu21Dec2021, $195k pledge goal, $13k a day . . . & yet, & yet . . . $89 415 total pledged at 0001 PST, W22Dec, daily average $5 961 pledged, &, at 78% fulfilment, $4 650 gross proceeds per day . . . so even being in drive brings in only ~58% (less cost of fundraising) of the ~$8 044 daily expenses . . . oh . . . https://www.kpfk.org/ . . .

[UPDATE . . . the drive ended on time, with a welcome ‘thank you’: “KPFK’S ON-AIR FUND DRIVE IS NOW OVER[.] THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO HAS PLEDGED SUPPORT!” (original caps & emphases, so unobtrusively to the left of the thermometer that it’s easily missed). Welcome, coz the last drive, the first under Miquel’s management, fizzled out in silence. And the gauge is still registering: at 0001 PST, Th23Dec it was $98 967, a commendable $9 552 for the day, 60% up on the drive daily average. This may be telling us something – but the motivator may be a self-interested message: “Get your Tax-Deductible pledges in before the new year” (original emphases). Ah well . . .

[0002 PST, F24Dec: $100 805, +$1 838 … 0103 PST, Sa25Dec (just after going to Mass with Miquel): $100 805, +$0 … 0309 PST, Su26Dec: $100 805, +$0, so I guess the thermometer manager is now in Honolulu (or is it Vegas?) – and good for her (or is it them?).]

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. . . the coming gloaming, the darkness sweeping in upon the face of the deep . . .

The Tu7-Tu21Dec KPFK fund-drive ended yesterday. A disaster: it couldn’t even bring in enough to cover daily expenses – let alone create a stash to cover the weeks out of drive. Gross proceeds, so before deducting the costs of fundraising, averaged only ~58% of the ~$8 044 daily expenses.

The previous drive was Tu5Oct-F5Nov: $186761 pledged ÷ 32 days = $5 836 – the report by then KPFK Treasurer & KPFK Finance Cttee Chair Fred Blair (10:06) to the 9Nov PNB Finance Cttee, https://kpftx.org/archives/pnb/finance/211109/finance211109a.mp3.

How does the current one compare? $89415 pledged ÷ 15 days = $5 961. Oh.

The extra: $5961 − 5836 = $125 daily pledged.

But that’s pledged: what about cash in the coffers?

In that report, Chair Blair said the fulfilment rate was “about 78%” (30:18). That was a slight improvement on 76.8%, the previous rate given publicly, by then KPFK business manager Barry ‘The King’ Brooks (18:17) for the Tu20Apr-F4June drive (16June KPFK Finance Cttee – https://kpftx.org/archives/pnb/kpfkfin/210616/kpfkfin210616a.mp3).

So, $125 x 0.78 = $97.50.

So an extra $98 gross proceeds a day. An extra $4.06 an hour. (You may have thought this warranted bolding – but it’s actually worse, as explained below.)

So, an extra ~$1 463 gross proceeds for the period, compared with the last drive.

(Re the 5Oct-5Nov drive, there has been no update, as usual, on any of these basic facts: the total pledged, the fulfilment rate, the gross proceeds, the cost of fundraising, the net proceeds – and no-one seems to ask, members of either the KPFK Finance Cttee or the KPFK Local Station Board.)

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Station manager Miquel Calçada made a special effort for this drive. To break the mould. “I-I hope that we have a webinar by Christine [Blosdale] with all the programmers” (49:29, at the W17Nov KPFK LSB; oddly, the drive wasn’t mentioned in his report, that starts 36:20) – https://kpftx.org/archives/pnb/kpfk/211117/kpfk211117a.mp3.

The complete plan for full-spectrum domination was unleashed on day #9 of the drive, W15Dec, when he told the LSB,

we got, urgh, the attention of individual programmers and the necessity of pitching. We distributed scripts, pro formas [garbled]. I spoke with many programmers personally, and they also were offered to attend [Mansoor-the-Unmuted then interrupted] a webinar by Christine Blosdale on pitching techniques [guess she charged: otherwise Miquel would have raised morale by lauding her for selfless magnanimity in supporting the station in its hour of need]

GM Miquel Calçada, 49:15; report starts at 47:32 – https://kpftx.org/archives/pnb/kpfk/211215/kpfk211215a.mp3

So all systems go.

However, the yield looks like +2.1% (5961 ÷ 5836 daily pledged, or 4650 ÷ 4552 daily fulfilled). That’s the +~$98 gross proceeds a day. And that’s the gross.

https://pacificaradiowatch.home.blog/2021/11/19/today-kpfk-is-losing-money-at-a-rate-of-3500-dollars-a-day-105k-a-month-1-point-26m-a-year-as-per-the-docs-publicly-why-does-no-one-recognise-the-scale-the-urgency-qm/ (section •7• Discussion: General)

So, this drive compared with the last, the extra $4.06 gross proceeds per hour is, what, $3.50 net, an extra $3.50 cash in the coffers for each & every hour of the drive? Or is it $3? Guess we’ll never know.

In that longish post I also pointed out,

[t]he pledge level is now so low that, counter-intuitively, drives may bring in less money, less net income, than if the station had no drives at all. It would be a good idea for KPFK management to do a more accurate set of calculations, for different scenarios, & think the matter thru.

‘Today KPFK is losing money at a rate of ~$3 500 a day, ~$105k a month, ~$1.26m a year, as per the docs. Why does no-one publicly recognise the scale, the urgency?’, section •7• Discussion: General – https://pacificaradiowatch.home.blog/2021/11/19/today-kpfk-is-losing-money-at-a-rate-of-3500-dollars-a-day-105k-a-month-1-point-26m-a-year-as-per-the-docs-publicly-why-does-no-one-recognise-the-scale-the-urgency-qm/

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So, bringing in an extra $98 gross proceeds a day.

And the current cost of the station, estimated using the KPFK net income statements in the Aug2021 NETA-produced monthlies? $244 684 per month . . . $8 044 per day. Running a loss at a rate of $105 116 per month . . . $3 456 per day.

And the response to reality is an extra $98 gross proceeds a day?

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https://kpftx.org/pacalendar/cal_show1.php?eventdate=20220127

Will the current PNB tolerate another ~$105k of debt for the next board to deal with? Undoubtedly.

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Meanwhile, just up the coast, the KPFA breakers have been on the move, mimicking Putin pushing his tanks up against the Ukrainian border. Both luv it up close & personal. Sharon ‘no-one luvs WBAI more than I do’ Adams termed out as KPFA Treasurer, & Chris ‘please don’t mock my false laugh, it’s not easy being Janus’ Cory, already on the PNB Finance Cttee, replaced her, by acclamation, at the Sa18Dec KPFA LSB. This creates space on the PNB Finance Cttee for a certain Ms Gendelman. She didn’t run for any of the LSB positions – clearing the way for her to become a director, & even stand to be PNB Chair. (Riding two horses is forbidden: “Local Station Board officers may not serve concurrently as Foundation Directors”, Article 7, Section 5 – https://pacifica.org/indexed_bylaws/art7sec5.html. Shooting the stable is allowed.)

Ms Gendelman? Yes, Sherry.

• 2008 PNB Chair.

• 2008 (praps 2008-9) Executive Director (as PNB Chair, standing in): “[s]he was on the Pacifica National Board for two years and served as its Chair, and interim Executive Director of the Pacifica Foundation” – https://pacificasafetynet.org/about-psn/.

• A self-proclaimed KPFA Protector, as are Adams & Cory, a breaker alliance of Pacifica Safety Net & New Day Pacifica during the 2021 delegates elections – https://www.kpfaprotectors.org/endorsers.

• A co-organiser of the 2019-20 Pacifica Restructuring Project, instigator of the 2020 by-laws referenda – https://pacificaradiowatch.home.blog/breaking-up-pacifica-two-current-attempts-plus-the-sep2019-mar2020-referenda-failure/breaking-up-pacifica-1-the-attempt-by-crosier-goldmacher-sabbagh-as-pacifica-restructuring-project-incl-tanaka-gendelman-spooner-franck-travis-da-silva-sep2019-mar2020/.

• Head of Pacifica Safety Net: “Sherry Gendelman (PSN President)” – https://pacificasafetynet.org/about-psn/; given as CEO & “Agent for Service of Process” in a 16Nov2020 filing with the California Secretary of State, a ‘Corporation – Statement of Information’, form SI-100 – https://mega.nz/file/UZ0TSI6K#kMsyUh5-afmpzMy3GO4OYmQOyi0Nv2zUEB0xeE4S7-w.

• Why safety net? A circus? Clowns? Kinda, but not really: “[w]e are raising money for a ‘safety net’ of funds outside of the control of Pacifica Foundation management to protect the stations” – https://pacificasafetynet.org/about-psn/. Oh. So much for loyalty to the foundation, the usual gloss for a certain standard of behaviour, one even found in state law: “[a] director shall perform the duties of a director […] in good faith, in a manner that director believes to be in the best interests of the corporation” (CA Corporations Code, § 5231(a)) – https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displayText.xhtml?lawCode=CORP&division=2.&title=1.&part=2.&chapter=2.&article=3.

• Not a litigant against the foundation, just sitting back as president/CEO whilst others bring the action – https://pacificaradiowatch.home.blog/breaking-up-pacifica-two-current-attempts-plus-the-sep2019-mar2020-referenda-failure/breaking-up-pacifica-3-the-attempt-by-gendelman-goldmacher-huggins-alderson-as-pacifica-safety-net-from-dec2020/.

• As I said last December:

Let’s not mince words: the stated ambition is to set up a parallel funding operation, so necessarily competing with Pacifica. In the meantime, fund litigation to bleed Pacifica dry.

https://pacificaradiowatch.home.blog/breaking-up-pacifica-two-current-attempts-plus-the-sep2019-mar2020-referenda-failure/breaking-up-pacifica-3-the-attempt-by-gendelman-goldmacher-huggins-alderson-as-pacifica-safety-net-from-dec2020/

Setting the stage for what? The anti-breakers, politically crushed in the 2021 by-laws referenda. The 2021 PNB under Chair Alex Steinberg, as passive as can be. And now the breakers with a stronger presence on the PNB, able to cause frequent deadlock. Welcome to New Day Year 2022.

Quo vadis?

[UPDATE . . . another prediction bites the dust: Ms Gendelman didn’t run for the PNB, in early Jan2022. Even so, the KPFA delegates elected the same mix of directors, three breakers, one anti: Donny ‘do you think I care?’ Goldmacher (Sherry’s partner in PSN crime), Darlene Pagano, Mark Van Landuyt, & anti-breaker James McFadden. As living disinformation, Ms Pagano said in her pitch for votes that she’s not in any faction – “I am a person who is not on, or in, any – or either – faction, urgh slate or party, urgh though I have been endorsed by two slates now over the years, at different times, and I take that as, um, a sign that I’m doing something right” (29:10), https://kpftx.org/archives/pnb/kpfadelegates/220108/kpfadelegates220108a.mp3 – yet she endorsed the KPFA Protectors candidates in the 2021 delegates elections, https://www.kpfaprotectors.org/endorsers .]

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Should KPFK’s estimated rate of current loss-making be revised in the light of the later Sep & Oct monthlies?

Folder of the NETA monthlies (10 no.; Nov2020, & Feb thru Oct2021; note that the Nov2020 monthlies give monthly net income statements for all 7 units, plus the aggregation (‘consolidated’ in the jargon), from Oct2019, so before SARS-CoV-2 had been detected, as well as the FY2019 totals): https://mega.nz/folder/RR8XmaAB#kEhHjAFTec2X_Z6CzAC5dw

It largely turns on the total non-Central Services expenses. My working estimate was the average of June-July-Aug, ~$203k per month.

First, have the FY2021 monthly totals been restated in the later monthlies? Yes: only two changed, those for July & Aug. July was down by $2 877, & Aug down by $1 514; & 4391 ÷ 3 = 1464, & x 12 = 17568, so my estimate was overstated by $17 568 for the year thru 5Nov2022, or 0.72% (÷ (202945 x 12)). A tidy sum for an individual, but not material for a ~$3m juggernaut.

Second, & more important, are the size of the Sep & Oct totals. (In case you were asking, the Sep total is the same in both the Sep & Oct monthlies.) Sep was the highest since March: so no continuing monthly decline there (Sep was $216 016, & the June-July-Aug average was the $202 945). Then Oct came in with $161 556. Other that recognising it as an anomaly in the calendar 2021 series (or indeed the series since Adam & Eve), what is one to make of it? The new standard? Will we be at $150k by Dec?

So where does the Oct figure vary the most? Compared with the June-July-Aug average (as now adjusted, of course), personnel costs are down $14k ($119 346 ⭢ $105 058), admin down $10k ($35 778 ⭢ $25 800), programming up $2k ($12 903 ⭢ $14 694), & development down $17k ($32 634 ⭢ $16 003). The net decrease is $39 106. The line items tell you that half of that is forgoing premiums & telemarketing – but with an Oct telemarketing charge of $10 790 (÷ 31 = $348), who the hell was calling whom, & about what? Is this some standing charge, that previous station manager Anyel Fields contracted to in his wisdom? Or is it actually a call centre, processing pledges & payments during the 5Oct-5Nov fund-drive? Maybe Julia, or Kim, can tell us.

On balance, with Sep higher & Oct significantly lower than the June-July-Aug average, & without any explanation from anyone for Oct being such an anomaly, it’s prudent not to change any of the working assumptions. It may be that current total monthly non-Central Services expenses are down from $203k to, say, $173k, reducing the estimated monthly rate of loss-making to ~$75k, making the annual loss thru 5Nov2022, ~$900k. In the wider scale of things, small comfort, yes? Anyway, there just isn’t enough reliable evidence at the moment to support the claim that KPFK is currently not an annual loss-making operation of $1.25m but an annual loss-making operation of $0.9m.

And putting it that way, tells us what has to be done – N O W.

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