1,000 Protesters Demand Radio Station Not Be Sold

More than 1,000 supporters of community radio station KPFA marched through the streets Saturday, demanding that the station not be sold.

“Pacifica needs to give us written assurances that it won’t sell,” Aileen Alfandary, KPFA’s news co-director, said before the march.

Selling the station would mean the end of “one of the last bastions of independent community-based media,” said Andrea Buffa of Media Alliance, a nonprofit group that supports KPFA staffers.

The nonprofit Pacifica Foundation, which owns the station, has said it is not for sale.

Those assurances aren’t enough for the employees and their supporters, who think Pacifica’s directors have lost credibility. “They should bring in new people to deal with this crisis,” Buffa said.

Pacifica officials offered to discuss any issues of concern with KPFA workers, including the firings of former station manager Nicole Sawaya and program host Larry Bensk, which led to protests and a 17-day employee lockout.

A delicate truce was reached Friday when the lockout ended.

Mary Frances Berry, chairwoman of Pacifica’s board of directors, said workers are welcome to run the station as they wish but must improve audience size and diversity within six months.

Programming is expected to resume this week. Pacifica said those who do not show up by 2 p.m. Monday will go off the payroll, although they will not be fired.

Trouble began in April when a popular station manager was dismissed. A subsequent management edict prohibiting discussion of the issue on the air set the stage for a series of showdowns.

A talk show host and music programmer were fired and more than a dozen protesters were arrested for trespassing. In mid-July veteran newsman Dennis Bernstein was taken off the air for talking about the controversy. More arrests followed, staffers were put on leave and the station was locked up.

The fracas has drawn hundreds of protesters who rallied to support KPFA, which for 50 years has aired alternative viewpoints.