LSB Recommends Rollback of Programming

In response to the massive programming changes that WPFW General Manager John Hughes enacted in December 2012, the WPFW-Local Station Board (LSB) passed a motion urging a rollback of the programming grid to the pre-12/3/2012 status.

The full text of the motion, which was approved by a vote of 19 to 2 on December 19, 2012, states

The WPFW-Local Station Board (LSB) hereby:

(1) Condemns the process through which the WPFW General Manager (GM) developed and implemented the recent massive programming changes; and

(2) Strongly recommends that the GM immediately restore the programming grid to the pre-12/3/2012 status; and to refrain from changing this grid until the approval by the LSB of a formal "Program and Program Grid Evaluation Process". This formal process shall be developed collaboratively and mutually agreed upon by

(a) the staff, which has the expertise and the execution responsibility;
(b) the LSB, which (per the Pacifica Bylaws) has oversight responsibility;
(c) the CAB, which, by CPB regulation and the CAB Bylaws, has responsibility to evaluate the station's progress toward its programming goals.

The massive programming changes that the WPFW General Manager imposed in December 2012 were developed and implemented in a manner that grossly violated the principle of "high regard for volunteers" as specified in the WPFW Mission Statement; have been widely condemned by a broad cross-section of listeners and volunteers on both their merits and the process; and have placed a major strain on the station's already fragile financial status.

The powers, duties and responsibilities of the WPFW Local Station Board (LSB), as stated in Article 7, Section 3G of the Pacifica Bylaws, include the requirement: "To work with station management to ensure 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;"