Michael Hiltzik: The crisis at iconic public radio station KPFK gets deeper

As host of the political talk show Background Briefing on the Los Angeles listener-funded radio station KPFK, Ian Masters is used to delving into controversial, polarizing issues.

Lately, he's been getting a lot of angry emails from listeners. But they're not complaining about his choice of topics or even his progressive take on current affairs.

Rather, they're expressing outrage at the amount of airtime KPFK is turning over to programs pitching alternative health and wellness nostrums and wild conspiracy theories, particularly during its ever-lengthening and ever more frequent fundraising drives.

"They can't stand it," Masters told me, adding that he senses the downside personally. "My credibility is assaulted every day because we're selling this snake oil."

That's as concise a picture as you're likely to get of the crisis confronting KPFK, which is now entering its seventh decade, and engulfing the Pacifica network of which it's a flagship. Pacifica was founded by pacifists in 1946 and launched its first station, KPFA in Berkeley, in 1949.

Those stations and others in the Pacifica network