Sun Mar 3 21:18:00 2002

Dear Friends --

I am sitting here opening the last two months of mail. I am ashamed to
say that I have been so overwhelmed with work on the new interim Pacifica
Board (and studying for the California Bar Exam, which I just took last
week) that I have not opened the mail addressed to the Committee to Remove
the [former!] Pacifica Board since early January! (The job didn't come with
a secretary. )

As I read these notes from people across the country, along with
donations to help finish paying off our legal expenses, I am overcome with
emotion. I really don't know if you all know how deep and widespread the
cause of free speech radio became over the past 2-1/2 years since the KPFA
lockout. People from across the country joined us as the outrages grew, the
attacks on Democracy Now!, the WBAI Christmas Coup ... Juan Gonzales and the
"Pacifica Campaign", community groups and activists, unions, many of the
Pacifica "affiliate" stations around the country that subscribe to Pacifica
programming ... thinkers and writers, musicians and academics ... and
listeners, listeners, listeners ... who believe in what Pacifica is meant to
be and who know how much we need it now, more than ever. But I do know,
because thousands of you have written over the past 2-1/2 years & sustained
me in the middle of the night when I sometimes thought I was a madwoman.

It is my fervent hope that with your help the passion for rebuilding
will be as strong as the passion for reclaiming Pacifica has been. We have
much work ahead & I think it will take years to rebuild what was
systematically attacked and nearly destroyed -- station by station -- over
the past decade at Pacifica. We must insure that Pacifica is carrying out
its full mission -- at all 5 stations -- to bring us news and information
not commonly available elsewhere to help us understand the political and
economic the causes of war, racism, poverty & injustice in a deeply divided
and vulnerable world, to help us share our common humanity through music,
drama & literature, to provide a forum for the creative energies of our
communities at each Pacifica station across the country ... most of all to
help bring about "a more pacific world in our time" as Lew Hill and
Pacifica's founders hoped Pacifica would do.

Pacifica is now almost 53 years old. Last Thursday there was a
wonderful day of national programming to celebrate that history and to raise
money for the KPFK (Los Angeles) transmitter project. (The money for that
project had been squandered by the old regime & time was running out with
the FCC to get it done or we were in danger of losing the KPFK broadcast
license.) In the coming months we must do more to educate our listeners
about how and why we nearly lost this precious national resource & what we
need to do to protect it from future attacks -- because, as long as Pacifica
is doing its job of raising questions and issues the "powers that be" don't
want us thinking about, then we can expect Pacifica to be a political
target. We must all be vigilant against takeovers from within -- such as
occurred over the past decade. That is why Pacifica's bylaws will be
re-written this coming year -- to insure that the local and national boards
are accountable to the listeners and staffs who built this network. I hope
many of you reading this will join the committee in your station area that
will help to re-write the bylaws. This is important work & will require
creative thinking and compromises among many competing legitimate interests
in the future of Pacifica. Please listen for on-air announcements about how
to join these committees & I'll send out notices, too.

Thank you for your incredible financial support for our legal work to
remove the former board of directors. Without that work, along with the
activists across the country who never let the pressure down, we would never
have succeeded. The old board majority finally had to capitulate. We wore
them down together, and they knew that facing trial they faced personal
liability for their reckless management of Pacifica that had brought the
foundation nearly to bankruptcy, their outrageous spending, and their
abandonment of Pacifica's purposes ... and finally, they ran out of money to
keep fighting us. Yes, they used our money to fight us. Their attorneys
billed over $2 million & it now looks like only a little under half of that
will be paid by their directors & officers insurance. But, given the
impossible alternative of ever replacing this irreplaceable network -- with
its five broadcast licenses in five major cities -- the fight was worth it.

When we began our legal fight we knew it would be expensive for our side
... but how expensive we didn't know. I just received the final bill from
our attorneys for their incredible, nearly full-time work in the final
months of trial preparations, depositions, negotiations, mediations, and
post settlement work. All-in-all, it cost us over $400,000 to prosecute our
case -- from the initial petition in 1999 to the California Attorney General
for standing to sue, through the many expensive delaying tactics the other
side put up, including removing the case to federal court, discovery fights,
pre-trial negotiations, etc. And amazingly, you supported us throughout ...
at this point we have nearly paid our bills in full. We still need to raise
about another $10,000 ... so if you can, please send one final donation to
our legal fund ... addresses below. If we receive more than we need, the
excess will be given to the Pacifica Foundation.

Most of all, please help support your local station through this
rebuilding process. KPFA & KPFK just had record fund drives of over
$800,000 and $700,000, respectively, and WBAI just raised over $1 million --
and we are overjoyed with your vote of confidence. The WPFW and KPFT
fundrives will begin soon ... although there is still much work to do at
those stations to re-build local public affairs programming ... your
generous support for those stations will do more than anything else right
now to help make that possible.

The interim board will be meeting in Los Angeles this weekend March 8-10
... the agenda is posted at the Pacifica webpage www.pacifica.org. I hope
to get a chance to meet some of you while I'm there.

Pacifica Means Peace.

Thank you,

Carol Spooner
Founder, Committee to Remove the [former!] Pacifica Board
sponsors of the listeners' lawsuit
web page: http://home.pon.net/wildrose/remove.htm

P.S. See our webpage for important documents on the history of the Pacifica
takeover -- see particularly articles by Lyn Gerry & Dan Coughlin
highlighted in the box if you scroll down to the links on the left side of
the web page.

###

There are 2 funds supporting the listeners' suit -- tax-deductible & non-tax
deductible. If you don't itemize your taxes or don't need the deduction,
please choose the non-tax deductible option in order to save us a small
administrative overhead fee. Thanks!

NON TAX-DEDUCTIBLE gifts to our legal fund can be made payable and mailed
to:
Committee to Remove the Pacifica Board
1136 Wild Rose Drive
Santa Rosa, CA 95401.
or on-line through Paypal go to http://www.paypal.com/. You will need to
give them our email address: wildrose@pon.net.

Or ... TAX DEDUCTIBLE gifts in any amount can be made payable and mailed to:
Marin Health Fund/Public Media Initiative
(you can abbreviate: "MHF/PMI")
P.O. Box 5402
Mill Valley, CA 94942.

You will receive tax deduction receipt from them. Also, the MHF/PMI has a
special account to receive gifts of stock in support of the listeners'
lawsuit.
For details contact Linda Remy at mhf1982@pacbell.net
MHF/PMI can an receive gifts on line at
Web Page: http://www.guidestar.org/helping/donate.adp?ein=94-2860344
Thank you!

###
This bulletin comes from the Committee to Remove the [Former!] Pacifica
Board
web page: http://home.pon.net/wildrose/remove.htm