NEWS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 23, 1999
CONTACT: Andrea Buffa 415-546-6334 x309/415-309-6334 Aileen Alfandary 510-644-3971
PACIFICA HIRES HIGH-PRICED PR FIRM AS LABOR SUPPORT FOR KPFA GROWS, WEEKEND EVENTS PLANNED FOR STATION Central Labor Councils representing over 163,000 members denounce Pacifica. Saturday 1 p.m. labor speak-out planned as community leaders question Pacifica's priorities. Raza Day, apprenticeship program graduation and performances to take place. La Onda Bajita LIVE! at 7 p.m. tonight.
BERKELEY, CA - The Pacifca Foundation, which shut down local listener-sponsored broadcaster KPFA on July 13, has hired Fineman and Associates, a high-priced public relations firm, to handle the deepening crisis throughout the Pacifica network. Community leaders are questioning Pacifica's priorities as national bureaucrats spend listener money on spin control.
"Instead of making good faith gestures to begin diffusing this crisis, Pacifica is using listener donations to clean up its image. We demand that Pacifica tell us where this money is coming from and how much of our money they're paying to corporate PR flacks," said Andrea Buffa, Executive Director of Media Alliance. "But our coalition is growing, and this Saturday's labor speak-out is more evidence of growing community support for KPFA."
Leaders of four Bay Area Labor Councils will speak in front of the station tomorrow about Pacifica's employee lockout and local programming purge, as will Martin Del Campo of the Service Employees International Union local 790, a longtime Latino labor activist.
The speak-out will be followed by a Free Speech Festival including performances by East Bay Urban Arts at 4 pm, the KPFA apprenticeship program graduation at 5 pm, and a 7 pm screening of the movie Network. KPFA DJs will spin from 2-7 pm and a kids and family play and crafts area will be established. Sunday is Raza Day at the station with salsa bands, Danza Azteca and KPFA's Luis Medina.
Meanwhile, Pacifica national leadership succeeded in installing an ISDN line at the station's Berkeley Hills transmitter in a move that will enable managers to broadcast from outside the station. KPFA staff supporters had established a picket line around the transmitter, but a Pacific Bell manager broke through the picket line using a police escort. "Pacifica is escalating this conflict by taking such provocative steps," said KPFA news co-director Aileen Alfandary.
Alfandary points out that even as Pacifica -- which took over the station by force one week ago -- begins mediation with KPFA staff and supporters, it is taking action that will allow management to circumvent the station's role in broadcasting altogether. Mediation between the community and management began Monday. Despite the installation of the ISDN line, the KPFA steering committee participated in another session with the federal mediator today.
Media activists continue to call for the resignation of the Pacifica board leadership as well as the foundation's executive director, Lynn Chadwick. They plan a mass march and rally at 11 a.m. on Saturday, July 31 from Sproul Plaza at U.C. Berkeley, the birth place of the Free Speech Movement of 1964, to Martin Luther King Park, two blocks from KPFA.
For background information, see www.radio4all.org/freepacifica or www.freepacifica.cjb.net.
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