Alert: Financial crisis at Pacifica and KPFA

Dear friends,

You all know about the crisis at KPFA. What you may not know is that the crisis is not only at our station. Partly because KPFA has not been paying its share of Pacifica's expenses, partly because Pacifica has had to hire lawyers to defend against lawsuits from laid-off KPFA staff, and doubtless for a lot of other reasons, Free Speech Radio News has announced that they will have to cease production on December 20 if they do not raise $40,000 by then. FSRN is without a doubt, the most unique thing on Pacifica's airwaves. It was created after the 1999 crisis and is a source of news NO ONE ELSE covers from all over the world. So the first thing I am asking you do is go to FSRN and give whatever you can. And send this announcement to everyone you know immediately.

The second thing I'm asking you to do is donate to support KPFA. We will be starting a one-week fund drive next Monday, and we need to raise at least $250,000. This fund drive is being organized very last minute because of the chaos at the station, and many of the paid staff will not be doing that much to help (and may in fact be trying to sabotage it). Some people are definitely hoping that the station goes under, to prove that it cannot survive except by doing everything their way. But we cannot allow that to happen. We may think that it can't happen, because we have always survived in the past. But a lot of institutions that are bigger and stronger than Pacifica have gone under in the last couple years. Remember Wells Fargo? Washington Mutual? They had Bank of America and Chase to buy them out. If Pacifica gets bought out, it will be by someone like Clear Channel.

Women's Magazine is not doing a fund drive show because we just didn't have time to get it together, but we are still begging you to give anything and everything you can to save our station. If you give online, you can leave a comment saying that you value Women's Magazine, and mention the other shows that are important to you. People really need to see that it's not only the Morning Show that can raise money or that listeners care about. You don't need to wait for the fund drive to start. You don't even need to listen to it, though of course there will be some great programming. Go to KPFA.org today and click on "donate".

Please circulate this to everyone you know and ask them not to forget, not to put it off, but do it today.

Thanks!
Kate for Women's Magazine