“Justice” Denied at Jazz and Justice
As the nation’s current Democratic system attempts a slow ride into the sunset, Management at WPFW radio takes a passenger seat in its sidecar.
In its mission statement the station says “Our continued use of and high regard for volunteers will provide an opportunity for individual skill development in radio broadcast techniques, and broadcast management. Volunteer opportunities will be available in most areas of program administration.”
In reality, the current management team prefers to use a heavy-handed dictatorial approach when confronted with personnel situations that require due process and neutrality for fair resolution.
For a number of years, the public, the LSB, and staff members have wondered why certain programmers have disappeared from the airwaves without notice. When asked, management’s response is typically to say that it’s a personnel issue and they can’t speak on it. Listener’s who’ve enjoyed the programs and made donations prior to its removal have expressed frustration with these answers that don’t answer and have ceased to support the station monetarily. Some have stopped listening and moved on to podcasts offering similar or better programming.
Certain members of the LSB and the local community started meeting as far back as 2010 to develop a process that would give the volunteer staff and management a method for working out grievances internally and thus be on a similar level as the paid staff who have union representation. During 2014 management (meaning the station G.M. or Pacifica Executive Director and PNB at that time) decided to draft a station operation guide for volunteers to adhere to, but this document did not address grievances and several processes were not acceptable to the volunteer programmers. It was placed on hold until 2019 when a second process was distributed. This was called the “Employee Handbook” and like the 2014 draft it didn’t address grievances outside of the federal mandates of discrimination, whistleblowing, and retaliation. Meanwhile, the LSB continued to develop the WPFW Bill of Rights and Grievance Procedures.
A second reason for creating this process is the Pacifica by laws, Art.7, Sec.3, G, mandate that station board of directors “work with station management to ensure that station programming fulfills the purposes of the Foundation and is responsive to the diverse needs of the listeners (demographic) and communities (geographic) served by the station, and that station policies and procedures for making programming decisions and for program evaluation are working in a fair, collaborative, and respectful manner to provide quality programming”.
This section is a critical instruction for preventing abuses of power and for maintaining checks and balances within this progressive non-profit, public media organization. If you read about the history of Pacifica Radio, you’ll find that power struggles began shortly after its inception. This led to the revision of the Pacifica bylaws in July/August of 2003 to ensure a more democratic process.
On September 11,2024, the WPFW LSB approved a final draft of a document developed by the Programming Committee in collaboration with The Programmers Task Force titled, “WPFW-LSB Programming Committee Volunteer Staff & Programmers Bill of Rights.”
After at least three months, when no action was taken to notify the volunteer programmers of the document, the LSB requested that the IGM, Miyuki Williams, post the approved document along with the approved grievance form, in a manner which can be downloaded, on the WPFW website no later than January 31, 2025. Furthermore, the LSB requested of the IGM that she distribute, to all paid and unpaid staff, communication introducing both documents and where they can be accessed no later than January 31, 2025. Pacifica Berkley station KPFA currently has a grievance process posted on their website that was developed by their UPSO or Unpaid Staff Organization.
As of September 2025, neither request has been fulfilled. Instead, the IGM Miyuki Williams has kicked the can over to the Executive Director, Stephanie Wells, who in a July 10, 2025, PNB meeting told our PNB reps that she is working on a process to be used by all stations, with the help of an H.R. professional and expects it to be done in 60 days. By our estimate, the 60 days expired on September 10, 2025.
Meanwhile, programmers including Millie Ware, longtime popular. host of “Millie’s Mellow Moments” have been booted from their shows without due process. Concurrently, programs regularly disappear, and new programs appear on the airwaves using no transparent or systematic method provided for selection, by the Program Director Katea Stitt. One or two persons should not be the sole decision makers on what the public hears. The LSB programming committee is there to collaborate on these matters. This topic will be left for later.
Hopefully this article will motivate you to attend LSB meetings, town halls and/or email letters to WPFW and the Pacifica E.D. with your concerns and opinions about Jazz and Justice slipping away.
Interim General Manager/Miyuki Williams – gm@wpfw.org
Pacifica Executive Dir./Stephanie Wells – ed@pacifica.org
WPFW Chair/ Kamau Harris – lsb.chair@wpfw.org
And we’d like to hear from you too.
Leave your comments on this website and or at our email – cmswpfw24@gmail.com.
The People For WPFW 