Battle for KPFA Now Will Be Fought in Court

The battle over America’s oldest listener-supported radio station went to court Friday, as community activists filed suit in an attempt to take control of KPFA-FM, which bills itself as “the voice of the voiceless.”

After months of tensions, a week of street protests and dozens of arrests outside the station, lawyers filed suit in Alameda Superior Court, accusing the nonprofit Pacifica Foundation of subverting the independence of the 50-year-old beacon of Berkeley’s free speech movement.

“The lawsuit charges essentially that the board of directors has usurped the power of the membership,” said lawyer Dan Siegel, who represents the community activists. “It is abusing its authority by attempting to alter the programming and mission of Pacifica.”

KPFA, founded in 1949 to aid the pacifist movement, has been at the center of a dispute between station veterans and the Pacifica Foundation, which is attempting to apply a new national “strategic plan” for KPFA and the four other stations in its network.

KPFA’s offices have been padlocked by management, with the station broadcasting taped programming, since the protests began Tuesday. The lawsuit seeks to force the Pacifica Foundation to drop its planned programming changes and reopen the station to veteran broadcasters who have worked there, in some cases, for decades.

Pacifica officials say the new plan is intended to give Pacifica stations--which include KPFK-FM (90.7) in Los Angeles--a higher national profile.

But a large and vocal segment of KPFA listeners disagrees, saying the foundation’s new “vision” for its stations is an attempt to make them more to the liking of corporate sponsors.

The dispute broke into the open in March, when foundation officials did not renew the contract of Nicole Sawaya, the station manager at KPFA.