Thursday, August 19, 2010

KABF in trouble?

It sure seems that way. The Little Rock, Arkansas community radio station, where I hosted a show for about five years starting in 1988 when I was in high school, is being audited by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. There's also a bit of a power struggle right now within its board of directors. The troubles have the potential to rip KABF apart, or perhaps give new life and direction to the station. KABF has a special place in my heart and I'm hoping for the best. But internal emails, which I've detailed below, show the troubles it faces.

The CPB's interest comes from the financial funding it has given to the station in recent years. The CPB is an entity that provides critical support for public broadcasting, but those receiving its funding must meet strict standards. I was surprised after moving back to Little Rock to hear in its top of the hour legal ID that KABF, which has always been a little sloppy with details, was funded in part by the CPB. Even KASU, a more formal NPR station owned by Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, lost its CPB funding for a time for not meeting the standards.

Some of KABF's problems stem from the disintegration of the community action group ACORN, which it had always been closely aligned with. While technically, KABF was run by the Arkansas Broadcasting Foundation, it was essentially operated by ACORN. Since going on the air in 1984, KABF has always shared office space with ACORN in Little Rock. Also, many of the KABF board members have concurrently been ACORN board members. But with the national scandal that ACORN found itself in after undercover videos were recorded, which it was later learned were highly manipulated to give a misleading impression, the two entities began being pulled apart. At one board meeting, an ACORN representative even stood up to say that KABF owed the group 25 years of back rent. The Little Rock chapter has since formed a new group and it appears KABF won't have it to fall back on for support.

A key aspect that is being investigated is that CPB money was apparently not going directly to KABF, but rather to an entity in New Orleans with ACORN connections, who I understand paid KABF's bills and salaries. And it's suggested in emails from KABF board member Pat Jansen that there may have been some improprieties. On August 8, Jansen wrote to station staff, volunteers and supporters that an independent audit is being conducted of the last several years and "there is NO TELLING what those audits will uncover, or what might be necessary to remedy the resulting complaints, or what portion of those grants might need to be repaid," Jansen wrote. "However, the corrective actions we're about to make now can also be applied to some of these eventual CPB concerns." He says the chief fear is that KABF "could be cut off completely due to the irresponsible nature of previous business conduct." Jansen indicated that the Office of Inspector General for the CPB has said that necessary for continued funding would be a complete "separation from ACORN.” He also wrote that “Since we have interlocked board members with obvious links to the former ACORN and various ACORN affiliates, this could be a huge problem."

That's where the power struggle comes in. A few days before those comments, on August 4, Jansen demanded in an email that board members Columbus Higgins, Evelyn Parker, Maxine Nelson, Johnnie Pugh and Donna Massey need to step down, and made some pretty pointed accusations. "I am hereby asking for the resignations of these five board members because of their willful neglect of the needs of the station, because of past mismanagement and lack of proper oversight, and because of inappropriate connections and conflicts of interest which are preventing the flow of station funds and hindering positive change."

Jansen says he has been in direct contact with representatives of the CPB in Washington for their guidance in what can be done to continue its funding, which is the primary source of KABF's operating budget. In emails, Jansen has also encouraged everyone involved to stay positive, especially since the story is being reported on by other media. That prompted this written reply from Deb Moser: "I understand the 'let's not be negative,' BUT the reality is that this is a negative issue and I am not so worried about the media. The more info that gets out, the better. I think it is perfectly fine to let folks know about the board and the board members who are refusing to do anything. In fact, I think the more that their names are associated with their sinking ship, the better."

Internal conflicts have torn apart many great community radio stations over the years. It takes a lot of people to keep a mostly volunteer radio station on the air and there are a lot of different opinions and personalities. I don't know who is right and who is wrong in this fight, again I'm just hoping KABF survives. In a board meeting August 17, an Arkansas Times reporter says things were more civil and no one mentioned Jansen's call for the five members to resign. But systemic problems still haven't been addressed.