Editing Pacifica Foundation (section)

==Internal conflicts==
=== 1990s–2002 ===
For most of its history, Pacifica gave each of its stations independent control of programming. During the 1990s, a major controversy arose over rumors that the Pacifica National Board and national staff were attempting to centralize control of content, to increase audience. The rumors included accusations that the board proposed changing the network's funding model away from a reliance exclusively on listener donations and toward a mix of listener donations and corporate foundation funding similar to that of [[NPR]]. There were also accusations that the Board was considering selling both KPFA and WBAI in New York City, which operate on commercial-band FM frequencies (94.1 and 99.5, respectively) worth hundreds of millions of dollars.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Lasar (Matthew) Papers on KPFA and Pacifica Foundation |url=https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8rv0w0q/entire_text/ |access-date=September 26, 2023 |website=oac.cdlib.org}}</ref>

This led to years of conflict, including court cases, public demonstrations, firings and strikes of station staff, whose common plight inspired creation of [[Radio4all.net]] to preserve what they saw as the original spirit of Pacifica. Many listeners of the individual stations, especially KPFA and WBAI, objected to what they saw as an attempt to tone down the overtly left-leaning political content on Pacifica stations. The controversy included highly publicized ideologically charged disputes between grassroots listener organizations and [[Mary Frances Berry]], a former chairperson of the [[U.S. Commission on Civil Rights]], who chaired Pacifica's national board at the time.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.villagevoice.com/1999-07-20/news/free-speech-for-sale/|title=Free Speech for Sale?|work=[[The Village Voice]]|date=July 20, 1999|access-date=July 10, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=There's Something About Mary|url=https://www.salon.com/1999/10/12/berry/|date=October 12, 1999|access-date=July 10, 2010}}</ref>

The board eventually was embroiled in counter-lawsuits by board members and listener-sponsors and, after global settlement of the lawsuits in November 2001, an interim board was formed to craft new bylaws, which it did in two tumultuous years of national debates among thousands of listener-sponsors and activists, finally giving listener-sponsors the right and responsibility to elect new [[Local Station Board]]s at each of the five Pacifica stations. These local boards in turn elect the national board of directors. Aside from some minor changes, the same 2003 bylaws remain in effect today.{{citation needed|date=October 2024}}

=== 2002–2009 ===
Pacifica National News director [[Dan Coughlin (director)]] was voted Interim Executive Director of the network in 2002 (the "Interim" was later dropped). The years of internal legal battles and financial mismanagement{{by whom|date=October 2024}} had taken a toll.{{citation needed|date=October 2024}} In 2005, Coughlin resigned{{why|date=October 2024}}, the network was still largely disorganized{{citation needed|date=October 2024}}, and Pacifica reverted to operating with an interim executive director for most of the year.{{citation needed|date=October 2024}}

In January 2006, Pacifica hired [[Greg Guma]] as the next executive director of the Pacifica Foundation. By the end of the year, the Foundation had fully recovered its financial health and had launched two new national programs: ''Informativo Pacifica'', a daily Spanish Language newscast, and ''From the Vault'', a weekly program drawn from Pacifica's extensive audio archives. Pacifica also produced ''Informed Dissent'', a ten-week series for the 2006 mid-term elections that drew from talent across the network. Guma left his post in September 2007{{why|date=October 2024}}.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1299528035837796976&hl=en|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120205141919/http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1299528035837796976&hl=en|url-status=dead|title=Greg Guma Interview|archivedate=February 5, 2012}}</ref>

Pacifica's National Board unanimously chose former KPFA general manager [[Nicole Sawaya]] as the next executive director.<ref name="Pacifica.org Nicole Sawaya">{{cite web |url=http://www.pacifica.org/current-events/nicole-sawaya-hired-as-new-pacifica-executive-director.html |title=Pacifica.org Nicole Sawaya Hired as New Pacifica Executive Director |work=Pacifica.org |access-date=July 19, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080615040106/http://www.pacifica.org/current-events/nicole-sawaya-hired-as-new-pacifica-executive-director.html |archive-date=June 15, 2008 }}</ref> Sawaya had been among the staff members fired by the national board in 1999 amidst Pacifica's internal crisis. Sawaya began her tenure as executive director in mid-November 2007, but abruptly changed her mind two weeks later.<ref name="urlSawaya quits [sigh] - LLFCC.NET">{{cite web |url=http://www.lasarletter.net/drupal/node/529 |title=Sawaya quits [sigh]  |work=LLFCC.NET |access-date=July 19, 2008}}</ref> Pacifica historian Matthew Lasar said she "found the level of internecine dysfunction at Pacifica overwhelming, and fled her job."{{citation needed|date=October 2024}} The Pacifica National Board spent the next several months negotiating with her, and Sawaya resumed her job on March 5, 2008.<ref name="urlSawaya unquits - LLFCC.NET">{{cite web |url=http://www.lasarletter.net/drupal/node/562 |title=Sawaya unquits |work=LLFCC.NET |access-date=July 19, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090905074916/http://www.lasarletter.net/drupal/node/562 |archive-date=September 5, 2009 |url-status=dead }}</ref> She resigned effective September 30, citing "dysfunctional" governance and "shoddy and opaque" business practices that had plunged the organization into a financial crisis.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://currentpublicmedia.blogspot.com/2008/09/sawaya-leaves-pacifica-publishes.html |title=Sawaya leaves Pacifica, publishes regretful critique |publisher=American University School of Communication |date=September 25, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101126222606/http://currentpublicmedia.blogspot.com/2008/09/sawaya-leaves-pacifica-publishes.html |archive-date=November 26, 2010 |access-date=February 22, 2012}}</ref>

Sawaya's departure was followed by major staff layoffs. In 2009, Pacifica Board chair Grace Aaron became interim executive director, former board member LaVarn Williams replaced Lonnie Hicks as chief financial officer, and the national office took control of WBAI in New York. Aaron appointed Williams acting GM of WBAI in May, and Hicks filed a lawsuit against the foundation alleging that he was dismissed because he is African American and a [[whistleblower]].{{citation needed|date=October 2024}}

===Financial situation in the 2010s===
On August 9, 2013, Pacifica interim executive director Summer Reese announced that due to financial problems, Pacifica-owned radio station WBAI-FM in New York was laying off about two-thirds of its staff, effective August 12, 2013. The entire news department was reportedly included in the layoff.<ref>Ben Sisario, [https://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/12/business/media/wbai-fm-lays-off-most-of-staff.html "WBAI-FM Lays Off Most of Staff"], August 11, 2013, ''The New York Times''.</ref>

After Pacifica's board of directors completed the 2016 board year with the exclusion of 75% of WBAI's board representation, it then moved to decertify Pacifica's 2016 board elections, which had been won handily by the independent faction not in power. The new 2017 board of directors replaced interim executive director Lydia Brazon with KPFT director Bill Crosier and reinstated WBAI's delegation.{{citation needed|date=October 2024}}

On Friday, October 6, 2017, Pacifica lost a $1.8&nbsp;million settlement over what they claimed was price gouging by Empire State Realty Trust (ESRT), which had been raising antenna rental charges for WBAI at 9% per year for the last 12 years under a 15-year lease WBAI signed in 2005 that did not expire until 2020.  The rent was set at more than half a million dollars annually, which Pacifica claimed was approximately 4 times the current market rent for Midtown Manhattan antenna rentals.  Pacifica Radio's WBAI has housed its transmitter on the [[Empire State Building]] since 1966.  The 9% annual rental increases were facilitated by the destruction of the twin towers on September 11, 2001, which dramatically reduced space available for comparable antennas.  The ruling encumbered all of Pacifica's assets including KPFA and KPFB in Berkeley, KPFK in Los Angeles, WPFW in Washington, DC, and KPFT in Houston in addition to WBAI in New York City but does not affect the assets of any of its affiliates.<ref>{{Citation
| date = October 6, 2017
| title = Court Protects ESRT's Lease Terms for Pacifica's Non-Profit WBAI Radio in NYC – Denies "Unconscionability" Motion
| publisher = Common Dreams
| url = https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2017/10/06/court-protects-esrts-lease-terms-pacificas-non-profit-wbai-radio-nyc-denies
| access-date = January 11, 2018}} For more information on what has happened since the October 6, 2017, court ruling, see {{Citation
| date = January 2, 2018
| title = What's Up with Pacifica Radio? WTF Pacifica?
| publisher = KFCF | location = Fresno, CA
| url = https://www.kfcf.org/whats-up-with-pacifica-radio/
| access-date = January 11, 2018}}</ref>   On April 6, 2018, The Pacifica Foundation announced the settlement on a series of agreements that release WBAI, the organization's New York radio station, from a court judgment as well as the last two years of its lease at the Empire State Building as of May 31, 2018.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.wbai.org/articles.php?article=3570|title = Pacifica Announces Settlement with Empire State Building and Empire State Realty Trust}}</ref> The Foundation later completed an agreement to relocate its transmission facility to a new site nearby.

On October 8, 2019, it was announced that WBAI's local operations were abruptly shut down.<ref>Leonard Greene. [https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-wbai-radio-shutdown-20191007-k4jt6xqisfg3dmarhhzhkxjwau-story.html Community radio station WBAI shuts down amid financial woes]. ''Daily News'' (New York), October 7, 2019</ref> Their programming was superseded by Pacifica Across America: a compilation of work from sister stations and other sources; ''[[Democracy Now!]]'' continued to be broadcast.

The 2019 WBAI shutdown was litigated in the fall of 2019. The [[New York State Supreme Court]] ruled in November 2019 that the WBAI shutdown by then-executive director John Vernile was executed "ultra vires" (without the proper authority) and ordered the station re-opened.<ref>{{Cite web|title=NY Supreme Court Transcript Released {{!}} Pacifica in Exile|date=November 29, 2019 |url=https://pacificainexile.org/archives/2839|access-date=December 31, 2020|language=en-US}}</ref>