Pacifica Radio Network has named William Crosier as its new Executive Director.
Crosier served on the Pacifica Board of Directors in 2010-2012 and again since last year representing 90.1 KPFT Houston. He supplants Interim Executive Director Lydia Brazon who has led the organization since October 2015.
Pacifica has been on the brink of financial ruin for the past several years. 99.5 WBAI New York is currently being sued for $1,357,429.71 by the Empire State Building over unpaid rent. The group as a whole is being investigated by the California Attorney General’s Registry of Charitable Trusts over delinquent financial audits.
In addition to KPFT and WBAI, Pacifica owns 94.1 KPFA and 89.3 KPFB Berkeley/San Francisco, 90.7 KPFK Los Angeles and 89.3 WPFW Washington.
The five-station Pacifica Radio network opted for change in 2017 by removing Lydia Brazon, the interim executive director since 2015 and replacing her with 2010-2012 and 2016-2017 Director William Crosier.
The change comes as the network faces an unprecedented political situation in the United States, which is reeling from the assault of the newly elected Donald Trump administration on constitutional freedoms and governmental assistance programs. Pacifica’s alternative news, information and cultural programming provides perspectives rarely heard in mainstream media and features the voices of artists, activists and public intellectuals.
The network, founded in 1946 in Berkeley, California, faces an increasingly acute financial situation, with litigation recently filed by the Empire State Building for unpaid transmitter tower rent for station WBAI, and an investigation in progress by the California Attorney General’s Registry of Charitable Trusts over delinquent financial audits.
Crosier commented: “Pacifica’s mission of alternative educational broadcasting is crucial to the future of this country. I will do everything in my power to ensure the Pacifica Foundation’s survival until I can hand over the network to the care of a new visionary leader. I thank my colleagues on the Pacifica National Board for their faith in me. I know we have serious challenges ahead, but I look forward to working together with Pacifica staff and volunteers to catch up on the things we’ve been neglecting, and guide us to a better place”.
Crosier holds a master of science degree in biomedical engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington and thirty-five years of experience in the development of computer-based electronic and electro-mechanical hardware and software systems for biomedical research. He is a long-time radio aficionado and the former chair of the board and President of the Houston Peace and Justice Center.
The Pacifica National Board made the change on Friday evening during a national teleconference. Outgoing director Lydia Brazon had held the interim position since October of 2015.
