KPFT

FY2021, only KPFA made an unaudited net income after adjusting for windfalls, per Sep2021 monthlies

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Here are the unaudited FY2021 net income statements of the 5 stations, per the NETA-produced Sep2021 monthlies. They’re adjusted to exclude the windfalls: the forgiving of the two loans received from the Paycheck Protection Program that benefited all stations, & a property donated to WBAI.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .KPFA . . . . . . . KPFK . . . . . . . .KPFT . . . . . . WPFW . . . . . . . . WBAI . .

revenue:

revenue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 861 315 . . . .3 120 159 . . . . .667 024 . . . . 1 774 741 . . . . . 1 713 203

less PPP #1 & #2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .~891 475. . . . .~735 972 . . . .~117 373 . . . . .~273 411 . . . . . .~255 715

less donated property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 . . . . . . . . . . . 0 . . . . . . . . . . .0 . . . . . . . . . . . .0 . . . . . . . 200 000

total revenue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ~$3 969 840 . .~$2 384 187 . . .~$549 651 . .~$1 501 330 . . . ~$1 257 488

expenses:

Central Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .471 456 . . . . .500 868 . . . . . 161 628 . . . . . .208 176 . . . . . . .253 344

other expenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 216 336 . . . 2 671 995 . . . . .580 498 . . . . 1 351 266 . . . . . 1 399 170

August tower rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .0. . . . . . . . . . . 0 . . . . . . . 6 000 . . . . . . . . . . . .0 . . . . . . . . . . . . .0

total expenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$3 687 792 . . $3 172 863 . . . .$748 126 . . . $1 559 442 . . . .$1 652 514

net income/(loss):

FY2021 net income/(loss) . . . . ~$282 048 . .(~$788 676) . . (~$198 475) . . .(~$58 112) . . (~$395 026)

depreciation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .~77 310 . . . . . ~15 461 . . . . . .~26 882 . . . . . ~13 900 . . . . . . ~16 282

FY2021 net income/(loss) . . . . ~$204 738 . .(~$804 137) . . (~$225 357) . . .(~$72 012) . . (~$411 308)

The stations as a whole:

• one net income, ~$204 738

• four losses, ~$1 512 814

• total loss (net), ~$1 308 076

Sources: Sep2021 monthlies, https://mega.nz/file/9IMj2aTS#e03Ou9otHTSDjVTng6oPkNbTdu724o_ner3bH2_bi4I; &, for the FY2020 audited depreciation charge, please see page 36 (page 39 of the PDF) of the FY2020 auditor’s report, https://pacifica.org/finance/audit_2020.pdf

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Explanations of estimates, etc.:

• this statement supersedes the one derived from the Aug2021 monthlies – in the section ‘Discussion: General’ of 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/.

• why the PPP amounts had to be estimated: “[t]he distribution of PPP #1 (& #2, for that matter) hasn’t been made public. But in the NETA monthlies are the Jan2021 & Aug2021 totals for ‘Miscellaneous/Other Income’, within which they’re posted. The Jan2021 totals per the July monthlies, the latest to have PPP #1 posted within FY2021: KPFA $440 828.47, KPFK $393 653.02, KPFT $58 199, WPFW $141 119.64, WBAI $126 557.47, PNO $50 180.54, PRA $46 755.67, consolidated as $1 257 293.81. That’s $663.81 more than the loan – and, indeed, that’s the figure left in the Jan2021 statement of the Aug2021 monthlies, when PPP #1 was deleted from the FY2021 consolidated & put in the FY2020 one. With no other info, in the KPFK computation above, the perhaps overstated $393 653 has been used” – link just given, in the ‘Discussion: General’ section, problem P#5. The size of the forgiven loan: “[t]he PPP loan [#1] was granted to the Foundation on June 19, 2020 in the amount of $1,256,630” (p. 19; p. 21 of the PDF) – https://pacifica.org/finance/audit_2020.pdf.

• the $200k property, donated to WBAI, & booked June2021 – report to WBAI Local Station Board (p. 1) by its Treasurer, R Paul Martin, https://glib.com/treasurers_report_2021-07-14.pdf.

• the revenue data in the Sep2021 monthlies differ from those in the Aug ones. There’s no change for KPFK, WPFW, & WBAI. However, KPFT has 1 change: the June2021 ‘Listener Support’ was reduced by $200. And KPFA has 9 changes, almost half of them material: 3 were unchanged (Oct, July, Sep); 5 differed by <$5k each; but 4 were larger, with Dec rising by $39 757, Jan falling by $48 377, Feb falling by $127 606, & Mar rising by $373 303. Booking adjustments are made all the time, but management are interested in patterns. It would be reassuring – not least because KPFA’s bookkeeper, Maria ‘if you don’t stop your nasty questions I’m off this call’ Negret, has been holding up the production of NETA’s monthlies – if CFO Anita Sims provided a written public explanation of why the last 4 bookkeeping totals were changed.

R Paul Martin on the bottleneck: “[at the 9Nov PNB Finance Cttee,] NETA Controller Julia Kennard substituted for the interim CFO […] She said that she hoped that the September financials would be out soon. She said that KPFA is still getting their revenue numbers in, and that it always takes long time to get that in. She said that she didn’t know why the software KPFA uses makes that a challenge” (p. 2) – https://glib.com/treasurers_report_2021-11-10.pdf. Fiefdoms. Provincial priorities. The Berkeley Hillbillies.

The KPFA material differences: Dec2020 rising $39 757 (562875 ⭢ 602632), Jan falling $48 377 (604089 ⭢ 555713, rounding), Feb falling $127 606 (381092 ⭢ 253485, rounding), & Mar rising $373 303 (374292 ⭢ 747595).

• KPFT Aug2021 tower rent charge: all year the charge is ~$6 500 rising to ~$6 700, except for Aug, which is ~$776. With no explanation given, it’s prudent to add $6k.

• depreciation estimate: this charge is absent, as a matter of course, from the net income statements constituting the NETA monthlies. It’s computed from the relevant asset balances destined for the balance sheet, a statement that first appears when it’s presented to the auditors. Given this, as mentioned, the estimate used is simply the audited FY2020 charges found in the auditor’s report (p. 36; p. 39 of the PDF) – https://pacifica.org/finance/audit_2020.pdf. Note that KPFA’s charge is anomalous in Pacifica terms, & exactly x5 that of KPFK: they’re buying assets, presumably to improve their service to the listeners, whilst the struggling stations are dying on their knees . . . this is the inverse of the implementation of a Pacifica network development plan. We need a rational response to the uneven & combined development that is Pacifica Foundation, Inc. – as The Lion may have put it.

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The directors need to get a grip: instructing ED Brazon to devise & publish plans, & to ensure their implementation by the station managers. Public comment at Su12Sep2021 KPFK LSB

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A public comment was made, on the fly, at the Su12Sep2021 KPFK LSB (2:07:03, https://kpftx.org/archives/pnb/kdelegates/210912/kdelegates210912a.mp3). Listening to the meeting, & what hadn’t been said, a comment had to be made. In the rush, one clause was incomplete; that’s been rectified in this somewhat augmented re-write. The immediate context was an emergency LSB meeting to replace a prominent breaker, Jim Osborne, who resigned as a listener-delegate, & so as a Pacifica director, a few days before, on Th9Sep. He, like most of the breaker delegates Pacifica-wide, had withdrawn from most of the meetings since the referenda results, M12July – no doubt working on getting the breaker vote out in the current LSB delegate elections . . . mixed in with spending more time with the next group writing another parachute, a new constitution for Pacifica, benignly termed, in Pacificese, a set of proposed by-law amendments.

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It was noticeable that not one director candidate (nor anyone in the earlier public comment) stressed that what Pacifica needs today are plans & their execution. In other words, (1) Executive Director Lydia Brazon has been derelict in not producing plans, and (2) the directors constituting the National Board have been derelict in the legal sense (as they’re the carers of the charity’s assets) in not ensuring that ED Brazon has both produced plans & executed them.

Plans have to be of different durations: one, three, & five years. Today there are five most urgent plans: one for Pacifica as a whole; a plan addressing the $3.165m due to FJC by 30Oct2022 (especially given that FJC only allow a loan to last five years, so to 1Apr2023); a financial plan to eliminate losses at KPFK; ditto one for KPFT; ditto one for WBAI.

This will necessarily mean a planned transfer of Pacifica’s fundraising proceeds from KPFA to allow all Pacifica stations to have a station manager & enough staff to adequately do the work of station development & growth, so focusing on programming, outreach, fundraising, & business. This is the minimum perpetual station staff complement of any functioning radio network – Pacifica cannot be reduced to an aggregation of stations, of fiefdoms.

The directors need to take control, making the ED (& the Chief Financial Officer) their instrument; likewise, the ED needs to ensure that the five station managers implement her plans. Both relationships are required to allow the testing of ideas for Pacifica’s development & growth, concretised in plans that are democratically adopted & made public. It’s also one way that Pacifica member decision-makers, & senior employees & contractors, can be made accountable to the members & listeners, those who either elect them or pay their wages. This is all basic. One may call this rational arrangement democratic centralism.

But can the political conditions be created for this? – not least because the breaker momentum is likely to result in them controlling from Jan2022 the PNB & three local station boards, allowing them to ram thru all the by-law amendments they want that don’t need a national membership vote; plus them creating a 23rd at-large director; plus a PNB-directed ED taking over any of KPFK, KPFT, & WBAI as emergency austerity operations.

Without comprehensive public statements (that is, policies) of what the directors want to achieve, & so what the ED has to plan & execute, (1) the directors & the ED are largely unaccountable for their acts of commission & omission, & (2) the intent of all concerned isn’t transparent. That’s why these plans have to be made public.

Instead, what we have is firefighting: living at the level of events, not structures. Choosing not to develop a vision, choosing not to exercise foresight. Refusing to make the necessary hard decisions. Objectively, the anti-breakers function as breakers, jeopardising both individual stations & Pacifica as a network.

Deficiencies & absences. Helping to explain why Pacifica is largely run not as a public charity but as a private club.

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[This would have taken 3¾mins to read; so ~30secs a para.]

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KPFT’s broadcast licence extended thru 1Aug2029, granted Th22July

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KPFT’s broadcast licence was due to expire Su1Aug – but you wouldn’t know it if you relied on the local management & Executive Director Lydia Brazon. Ditto the Local Station Board & the Pacifica National Board. No-one thought the members, listeners, & staff deserved to know. No-one thought they deserved to be reassured that all was in hand, that the application had been submitted on date X & a decision was expected by date Y. But communication & courtesy are skilled accomplishments, an achievement, even for those who think they’re professionals. But those running PacificaWorld are those running PacificaWorld.

Hence the post here on 13July, ‘Three station FCC licences expire this year: KPFT 1Aug, KPFA 1Dec, KPFK 1Dec’. It was welcomed in Houston, because even delegates on PNB cttees were unaware of the upcoming expiration.

. https://pacificaradiowatch.home.blog/2021/07/13/three-station-fcc-licences-expire-this-year-kpft-1aug-kpfa-1dec-kpfk-1dec/

Today, the public file of KPFT on the Federal Communications Commission website bore good news: “[t]his is to notify you that your Application for Renewal of License 0000142229, was granted on 07/22/2021 for a term expiring on 08/01/2029.” – https://publicfiles.fcc.gov/fm-profile/kpft.

. . . there you go, says Lydia . . .

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How did Maxie miss this talent?

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There was me, being a lil sceptical about Ms Aaron’s abilities. She really does have an eye for talent. Talent, along with best practices, watchwords of the dearly departed Maxie Jackson. Ms Aaron, with no history of radio management, radio achievement, radio network success, really does know how to surround herself with the right people.

Here, on audio, is captured Ms Aaron’s first appointment. In full flow. The interim General Manager of KPFT, Houston. On his first day. Mr Jack Valinski. This evening, Jack was the first guest on ‘his’ show, Queer Voices, where until a week ago he’d been exec producer, for over 17 years.

But tonight Jack showed why he’s stepped up. And now Jack says he’s trying to prove himself as station manager, as at the mo he only has the ‘interim’ label, you understand. Don’t worry, Jack, the way you lay it on the line here, you’ve clearly got all the talent, all the technique, all the best practices needed to succeed in today’s Pacifica.

When Jack was vetted by Ms Aaron it was obviously his ideas on ‘the vision thing’ that clinched the job (2:10, 11:17). Here is Jack’s big interview, 4:30 – 25:51. Too many highlights even to list, so please enjoy the full KPFT experience:

https://mega.nz/#!DrIHBY5Z!o8j-mUPSgJz-thJwPPI0eYgiXnsuTArg1iH-Ngv6g-c (26:13, 12 MB, the archive’s original 64 KBps); temporarily, with same timestamps, in these station archives: https://archive.kpft.org & https://kpft.org/programming/newstalk/queer-voices/

Another intern – sorry, interim – is the executive director, Mr John Vernile. His job’s been made a lot easier with Ms Aaron’s judicious elevation of Jack. Texas is all sown up now. John won’t have to get his hands around the Houston issues, & take a deep dive into the options. (I know John’s from the music industry, but in the age of #MeToo he’d better be careful with his catchphrases.)

All this leaves Jack hardly able to contain himself, like Willy Wonka on meth, as he’s left alone to devise his multi-dimensional integrated plan for the station. That vision thing, again.

The surrealness of it all was unintentionally captured with the outgoing music, The Wizard of Oz. Dorothy. Pure genius. Enjoy these 20 minutes of Jack at his most impressive.

Thank Allah we’ve got Ms Aaron, Pacifica’s living, breathing deity.

Remind me, what was all that fuss about, some Maxie guy or someone, right?