[lbo-talk] KPFA Staff Open Letter to the Local Station

[dano]

At 11:51 AM -0700 8/24/04, Carol Spooner wrote:
>The Pacifica elections this year will cost about $160,000 this year 
>-- spread over 5 stations and over two fiscal years from July 
>through December 2004.  There will be no elections in 2005.  Then 
>there will be elections again in 2006 & 2007 (it's a 
>2-years-on/one-year-off election cycle).  The 2003 election was 
>delayed due to court hold ups, so most of the cost was incurred in 
>this fiscal year -- but that was an anomaly that will not occur 
>again.
>
>$160,000 is 1% of the total annual Pacifica consolidated budget of 
>$15,486,006 per the proposed FYE 9/30/05 budget. It is 7% of the 
>current (as of June 2004) network working capital of $2,285,313 per 
>the June '04 balance sheet posted at www.pacifica.org
>
>The overall turnout in the last election was about 16% per Dan's 
>Coughlin's press release on the election pasted below. I believe 
>this is regarded as high for non-profit board elections. If I'm not 
>mistaken Andrea Buffa said their voter turnout at Media Alliance was 
>about 2%-3%.

Last year I subscribed to KPFK, the Pacifica station in Los Angeles. 
I made a sizable contribution to the public affairs show Background 
Briefing. (Highly recommended audio archives at the show host's site 
<http://www.ianmasters.org/>.)

When time came to vote, I got nothing in the mail. I contacted the 
station and the show and inquired after my ballot. (Might as well 
vote, since I paid for the privilege.) Nothing ever came, and nobody 
seemed to know why or even really cared to do anything about it.

When my annual subscription ran out, I heard nothing from the station 
or the show asking me to renew. I suppose the mass mailings to 
subscribers can be expensive, but it may also help the renewal rate. 
I know I didn't renew.

-- 
Eddie would go...