There's something about Mary

Even when Berry caved in to the protests at KPFA and announced she was reopening the station at the end of July, she turned what could have been an opportunity for peacemaking into an ultimatum. If staffers didn't return the next day at 9 a.m., they'd lose their jobs, even though no job protections or an end to the "gag" on discussing the controversy on the air were guaranteed.

Employees were also threatened with "corrective action" by the board if they didn't, within six months to a year, increase the number of listeners, the diversity of the audience and its "loyalty." Berry's ultimatum required that a commercial ratings service would be used to measure the station's performance, another gut punch at KPFA's grass-roots, listener-supported tradition.

Back on the air, the station had lost its general manager, program director, business manager, music director, a second host for the morning show and its manager for the apprenticeship program -- which trained young people of color -- because of the turmoil and financial uncertainty. Interim general manager Jim Bennett says he's only been able to replace some of them with temporary hires. "Talented people are reluctant to apply because of how unstable it is in KPFA and Pacifica land," he says. It is still unclear whether the more than $500,000 Pacifica spent on the lockout will come out of KPFA's budget.

"She's setting us up for failure," says award-winning broadcaster and KPFA talk-show host Larry Bensky. "Berry doesn't want to improve KPFA. She wants revenge."

KPFA begins a critical fund-raising marathon Tuesday, and listeners are filling the airwaves with tortured laments that the money they send to KPFA will go to the now-despised central network, Pacifica. The Pacifica board, fraught with resignations by two members and whistle-blowing by another, has postponed its October meeting by a month, leaving the stations operating without budgets for the first time in their 50-year history. Listeners have formed an organization to push for Berry's resignation and scores of back-channel pleas have been made, so far to no avail.

Mary Berry's term as chairman of the Pacifica board runs out in nine months. Many hope she will simply step down then and disappear. But that doesn't sound like Dr. Mary Frances Berry. She told WBAI staffers at her drive-by visit last month, "If you want me to stay I will go. But the minute you ask me to go I am here forever!"

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