Petition to Reverse the hostile Takeover by New Day of KPFK Los Angeles

KPFK Los Angeles is one of 5 stations nationwide within the Pacifica Radio Network. The network was started in 1949 by Lewis Hill, a conscientious war objector of WWII, who was fired from his mainstream journalist job when he refused to misrepresent the facts. Pacifica has been a cornerstone of the peace movement and of leftist uncensored news for all of the U.S. since over 75 years.

As all powerful media outlets critical of governments of both parties, Pacifica has been under attack for decades. In the recent decade, a Democratic party affiliated group with the euphemistic name "New Day" has taken it upon itself to either censor Pacifica into a neutered NPR – or to destroy it entirely.

New Day has taken over of the Berkley station KPFA and Houston’s KPFT and now is in the process of staging a hostile takeover of KPFK Los Angeles and WBAI New York. Both stations are committed to radical Leftist content and have therefore been targeted and infiltrated. KPFK has the most powerful radio signal west of the Mississippi.

In a recent coup, the New Day affiliated Executive Director Stephanie Wells has sold off the KPFK building against the expressed will of the local board and without any benefit to the station. She then fired the General Manager and Program Director at KPFK and took KPFK Rebel Alliance News (the local evening news program) off the air. The newly installed General Manager Maggie Lepieque and Program Director Gary Bacca are strong supporters of New Day and have immediately moved to censor all critical and local programming, replacing it with Berkley’s KPFA programming and music or shopping-network-like donation pitching. 

The recent censorship and layoffs without notice nor proper procedure have made Pacifica vulnerable to legal actions pertaining to wrongful termination claims as well as claims of harassment, censorship and retaliation.

We, the undersigning staff, programmers and listeners of KPFK protest this hostile takeover which is geared towards turning our local KPFK radio station into a mere repeater station, effectively depriving us of our local community radio we have contributed and donated to for years.

We demand the immediate reinstatement of General Manager Michael Novick and the reinstatement of Rebel Alliance News at its rightful place Mo-Fri 6-7pm, along with all other programing censored by new management. 

We have a right to uncensored, diverse programming as laid out in the Pacifica Mission Statement and consider legal action should this unprecedented and hostile takeover in total disrespect of the local community and the listenership of KPFK be allowed to stand.

A huge responsibility has been given into our hands:  the preservation and rescue of the last and oldest free speech non-profit radio station in the world (not just the U.S.)! For over 75 years, generations of Leftists have toiled, mostly for free, to bring information, knowledge, education and perspective to the U.S. population. In a time where Pacifica will be threatened by Trump’s authoritarian FCC, Pacifica must present a united front that must span all people on the Left without censorship, from radical to mainstream. We need to stop the corporate Democratic Party operatives in “New Day” sheep’s clothing to destroy this last bastion of free speech in the US.