Thursday, June 18, 2009

Pacifica Radio gets new leadership

Daniel Borgström

Pacifica radio has new leadership -- people who are attempting to deal with a serious financial crisis which was building for years.

After years of stumbling leadership, Pacifica radio has new people in key positions:
  • LaVarn Williams, formerly a local board member here at KPFA, is now the interim Chief Financial Officer (CFO);
  • Ricardo de Anda is the interim General Counsel; and
  • Grace Aaron, now the interim Executive Director (ED), oversees the five-station network.
The largely new national board (PNB) made long overdue changes. The departed -- who included attorney Dan Siegel, a former iED -- were the status quo responsible for the network's grave financial crisis. During the decade beginning 1999, Pacifica remained in the hands of several mutually back-scratching groups, who pushed their own agendas to the extent that the survival of the five-station Pacifica network is now in question. When a member station is in trouble, it draws resources from others in the network. More>>