Top KPFK Executives Fired in Management Shake-Up

The top executives at public-radio station KPFK-FM (90.7) were forced out Wednesday for what were described as management shortcomings, including failing to improve its multicultural programming.

General Manager Clifford Roberts and program director Lucia Chappelle were asked to leave the station by Patricia Scott, acting executive director of the Berkeley-based Pacifica Foundation, which owns the station. She also eliminated the position of assistant general manager but said that Mary Fowler, who had held the job, will likely remain at KPFK in another capacity.

“The Pacifica Foundation is looking at changes in top management to really focus on programming that is more relevant to the African American, Latino and Asian American communities,” Scott said in an interview. “We want to provide this programming in a more structured manner, and not just with news and public affairs but with cultural programming too. In order to do this, we really have to change the management of the station.”

One of the weak spots in the programming lineup, she said, is the morning show “Up for Air,” which has several hosts over the course of the week. “That’s not acceptable,” she said. “It needs to have a stronger identity. It also needs a very strong producer who can really focus on what the local issues are.”

Scott also cited past programs by African American producers that were branded as anti-Semitic by the Jewish community as potentially divisive and not helpful to the Pacifica Foundation’s stated mission of “programming that promotes peace.”

Roberts had been in his job for 15 months, Chappelle in hers for 7 1/2 years. Neither could be reached for comment. Pacifica plans to conduct a nationwide search for a new management team.