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Last week KPFA began its pledge drive just around the same time that Pacifica Radio Network announced sharp budget and program cuts as well as staff lay-offs in an attempt to blot out some of the red ink on its beleaguered books. 

Aaron Glantz, producer of Free Speech Radio News at Berkeley-based KPFA, said pending budget cuts are sad but necessary to restore the network’s finances. 

One of the programs to be cut will be the national news (The Pacifica Network News or PNN), which is a half-hour news show airs on four of the five Pacifica stations and on more than a dozen affiliates nationwide. The last day of operations for PNN news was Friday, Feb. 15 and its nine member staff has been furloughed.  

“It’s really sad that they had to close down the national news. I’ve reported for it many times,” Glantz said. “But it was a bloated national news, and it played on very few stations. Perhaps now we can put out a better news that will reach more people.”  

Pacifica Executive Producer of National Programming Brian Gibbons says the cuts will not likely be noticed in Berkeley because KPFA has the capacity to replace the cut programs. 

“There will obviously be some voices that listeners are use to hearing that they will no longer hear. But KPFA more so than other stations will easily be able to fill the slot,” he said. 

PNN will be replaced with Free Speech Radio News. Free Speech Radio News is the broadcast of former PNN reporters who waged a strike against management. 

At present there have been ten lay offs at Pacifica that include staff members with up to 20 years worth of seniority.  

“This doesn’t have a lot to do with the political struggle. It’s an entirely financial concern,” Gibbons said. 

But according to Glantz proposed lay offs will include new personnel brought in to replace former staff members fired after protesting the network.  

Also in an effort to reduce the network’s deficit, flagship program and top fundraiser, Democracy Now!, is being reorganized. A statement released by Pacifica’s new management stated that this will save approximately 25 percent in costs to the network. 

Other national units, including the Pacifica Radio Archives, the national office, and the finance department, will be absorbing cuts of 20 percent.  

The network's senior managers will also be taking a 10 percent pay cut and Coughlin will reportedly take a 25 percent reduction in salary.  

“The national management is trying to shield the stations, including KPFA, from the national debt. So in the meantime, we just have to try to raise as much money as possible,” Glantz said. 

Glantz also said KPFA now has control over their finances and consequently have a real motivation for fund raising. 

Last June Pacifica’s Foundation was criticized by Sen. John Burton, D-San Francisco, for allegedly refusing to share KPFA’s financial information with station management.  

Burton also condemned the foundation for using listener donations to pay for the board’s legal fees and efforts “to oppose union organizing.” 

KPFA journalist David Landau said the station had difficulty even getting access to the money it raised.  

But Glantz and other KPFA activists are placing their hopes in the new Pacifica management and the community to help turn things around. He also said that activists involved in a lawsuit against the network are anticipating a settlement soon with the new management team. 

Former Pacifica News Director Dan Coughlin, fired after talking on air about a one-day boycott of various stations carrying the Pacifica News, is now the network’s acting executive director.  

“We have to make some tough choices,” Coughlin said. “But together with the entire Pacifica community — with listeners, local and national board members, senior managers, and our unions, we’re going to bring this network back to where it has been the last half century – at the cutting edge of American political and artistic life.” 

The 53-year-old nonprofit recently concluded an independent review of its finances — ordered by its new interim board of directors — and revealed an unprecedented working capital deficit of $4.8 million and a projected budget gap for the 2002 calendar year of $1.5 million, according to a statement released by the network. 

“To stop the financial hemorrhaging, the nation’s oldest listener-sponsored network will reorganize its satellite distribution service and national programming division, thus saving more than $1 million over the next year,” according to a statement released by the network. 

Budget cuts and expanded fund-raising plans are expected to close this year’s $1.5 million budget gap without impinging on Pacifica’s core operations at its five sister stations, said a network spokesperson. 

The Pacifica National Board also approved the hiring of Squire, Sanders & Dempsey to handle the network’s relationship with its large creditors.  

Pacifica has been billed for approximately $2.2 million by various law and public relations firms and security companies during the past year. 

“We are bringing clarity and order to Pacifica’s financial crisis,” said Pacifica Board Chair Leslie Cagan. “We will meet the Foundation’s obligations as we revitalize its mission of free speech, corporate-free community radio.” 

The network plunged into deep crisis following the 23-day lock out of staff and community at Pacifica station KPFA in Berkeley in the summer of 1999 and the “Christmas Coup” at Pacifica-owned WBAI station in New York in December 2000. The year before, network executives spent a record amount. In 15 months the network went from a $600,000 surplus to a deficit of almost $5 million.