The Pacifica Foundation, a Berkeley-based community radio network that includes the progressive radio station KPFA, has been offered a $2 million loan to pay off part of its debts, easing fears that its assets will be seized.

“The good news is that it will take care of the immediate problem,” said Pacifica’s interim executive director, Bill Crosier.

Pacifica, the nation’s first listener-sponsored radio, has pioneered decades of left-leaning public affairs programs and community-based music. KPFA’s signal reaches one-third of California, broadcasting on 94.1 FM and 89.3 FM in Berkeley, Fresno and Santa Cruz. In addition to KPFA, it operates noncommercial radio stations in New York, Washington, Houston and Los Angeles, and syndicates content to over 180 affiliates.

But it is $8 million in debt — more than double its assets. The network’s most pressing concern has been $1.8 million in back rent owed to the New York City-based Empire State Realty Trust, which manages the Empire State Building used by the New York station WBAI.

Pacifica’s creditor won a judgment in court and the right to seize Pacifica’s bank accounts and properties, including KPFA.

The new loan, offered by Los Angeles supporters, hasn’t been approved yet because the documents, detailing the terms of the agreement, are not finalized, said Crosier.

The Pacifica board will vote on the loan this week, in meetings on Tuesday or Thursday.

It is considered a “bridge loan,” to be replaced by a longer term loan that will give Pacifica time to independently decide what assets to leverage to pay off long-term debts and what kind of structural reorganization to initiate.

“We’ll look at a bigger and longer-term loan in a few months,” Crosier, who emphasized he was not speaking on behalf of the foundation.

The debt has angered supporters of the Bay Area station KPFA, asserting it is the victim of mismanagement by a sister station. KPFA has deep roots in America’s pacifist and anarchist traditions, dating back to a 1950s feud with the federal government after readings by poets Allen Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti were deemed “vulgar, obscene and in bad taste.”

But Pacifica has lost about half of its listeners since 2000 and competes for attention with the internet’s vast menu of podcasts, Facebook and Twitter posts. (KPFA has lost fewer listeners, an estimated 20 percent.)

Some staff and volunteers welcomed the news.

“If the $2 million will serve to preserve the network — provided that Empire State agrees to the repayment, and of course we don’t know if it will, or not — then, in my opinion, this is better than nothing,” said Mary Tilson, host of KPFA’s Sunday afternoon show of country, bluegrass and old-timey music called “America’s Back 40.”

But the new loan, they added, doesn’t solve a larger problem: The network has been incurring losses for the last several years and its business does not produce a cash surplus to service interest or debt repayment.

That worries Tilson, Crosier and others, who cautioned Pacifica against taking on more debt and instead urged voluntary bankruptcy.

“I still think, after all this deliberation, that Chapter 11 is probably the best recourse for the network, because it would allow time to come up with a plan to pay off the entire amount — and allow the organization time to think about its governance structure, as well,” said Tilson. “It seems like safer course and could potentially be less costly in the long run.”

Pacifica’s $8 million in debt approaches the equivalent of its $10.17 million in annual receipts. And its debt is more than double its entire assets of $3.97 million, according to the Guidestar database.

“There is still a concern about the long-term problem of how we pay off the loans and other debts,” agreed Crosier.