(Pacifica Radio) WBAI-FM Lays Off Most of Staff
Source: NY Times
WBAI-FM, the noncommercial radio station that has been a liberal fixture in New York for more than 50 years, laid off about two-thirds of its staff last week, including its entire news department, because of long-simmering financial difficulties.
In a tearful on-air announcement on Friday, Summer Reese, the interim executive director of the Pacifica Foundation, which owns WBAI, said that after talks with SAG-Aftra, the union that represents broadcasting talent, “we will be laying off virtually everyone whose voice you recognize on the air,” effective Monday.
She said on the air that 75 percent of the staff would be let go, but in an interview over the weekend she said that the final number was 19 out of the station’s 29 employees, about 66 percent.
...
WBAI, which broadcasts at 99.5 FM, has long struggled financially, and its leadership structure has been described as anarchic. But its problems multiplied last year after Hurricane Sandy, when it was forced to vacate its studios on Wall Street. In March, the station began a drive to raise $500,000 to pay back rent on its transmitter. Ms. Reese said the station had millions of dollars in debt and had operated at a loss since 2004. She said the Pacifica network had repeatedly drained its finances to cover WBAI’s expenses. The station, she added, could no longer afford to make its payroll and was laying off employees to pay its transmitter rent and to avoid being forced to sell its broadcast license.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/12/business/media/wbai-fm-lays-off-most-of-staff.html
Uh oh, no more Democracy Now? This means no more WBAI Evening News or Wake Up Call with that woman with the British accent who I'd hear before Democracy Now when i would stream the show via WBAI on the TuneIn app.
The announcement is at 25:50 at http://archive.wbai.org/files/mp3/wbai_130809_180000wbainews.mp3
The announcement carries on in this file, followed by Amy Goodman doing a pledge session in place of Occupy Wall Street Radio: http://archive.wbai.org/files/mp3/wbai_130809_183000owsr.mp3
This blog says WBAI is being "being abused from within": http://wbai-nowthen.blogspot.com/
Furthermore, the ombud of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting has questioned WBAI's fundraising ethic.
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silvershadow
(10,336 posts)
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)Ours in LA is a lifeline.
kelliekat44
(7,759 posts)olddots
(10,237 posts)as far as real un commercial radio .
BumRushDaShow
(128,531 posts)to get some of their wealthy to bankroll liberal/progressive stations. This is similar to what happened to Air America.
Regressives and the loon RWingers happily fund their gasbags and libelists, even at a loss (see Clear Channel, Cumulus & the Washington Times) because to them, the "message" and megaphone is key to success.
htuttle
(23,738 posts)...because for the most part, it often pays off financially for them. They contribute $100,000 to a candidate or right wing PAC, and they get $1,000,000 back in tax write-offs, contracts, increased short-term profits from lack of regulation, etc...
All that left-wing political organizations have to offer contributors is their attempt to make the world a better place, and that, sadly, is not enough to get people (and corporations) to part with their cash.
It strikes at the heart why our civilization, if not our species, is probably doomed. We're selfish.
calimary
(81,139 posts)But sometimes I find myself thinking - a world without humans would probably be able to heal itself...
kelliekat44
(7,759 posts)L0oniX
(31,493 posts)It one of the last outlets for real journalism. When you don't have real news journalism the failure of Democracy is not far away. The ability of the people to be truthfully informed is essential for Democracy. Even now IMO Democracy is mostly an illusion.
2banon
(7,321 posts)Democracy Now! broadcasts on Pacifica, but when DN was going to be shutdown during the 1999 coup Goodman took critical steps to rally support for the program, and then became Independent. WBAI staffers and General Manager were extremely hostile to her, for reasons to lengthy to go into here, Goodman managed to set up an independent studio at the Firehouse Station - and then set out to make sure DN!'s future was not hinged whatever happened to bai or to Pacifica. Set out on a campaign to get Independent stations as well as public radio and tv stations to pick up the show. So, DN! should be ok. and likely to continue broadcasting on WBAI, she's Pacifica's cash cow when it comes to fundraising. But if not, the shows stream live on line, and shows are archived. And other public stations carry her show.. I don't know which those are in NY area..
Internal politics at WBAI has been nothing less than a toxic waste dump for at minimum over 13 years, and likely longer than that. From the poisoning effects of entrenched identity politics, turf battles, cronyism, corruption and worse. This has been years and years in coming and should have happened actually many many years ago.
It's my hope that WBAI will recover, with honest, intelligent talent, without having to sell the licence.
MicaelS
(8,747 posts)And the station can't find enough money to keep running?
davepc
(3,936 posts)
ramapo
(4,587 posts)I've listened to and supported the station for the past 40+ years. Unfortunately, it has been a festering, dysfunctional mess of politics, personal attacks, infighting, and overall incompetence for decades. And over the past ten years it has just gotten worse and worse. It looks to be circling the drain for real now and I wonder if there is a chance for it to climb out of the enormous hole it has dug for itself.
I would mourn the loss of the station but aside from a couple of programs, I honestly can't say I would miss it. Much of the programming is simply awful and has been for a long time. You might wonder why the station is not supported by the NY area liberal community but the fact that it has been unable to raise money in this area speaks to how bad the station has been run in terms of programming and finance.
WBAI's license is worth a fortune given its spot right in the middle of the FM band.
Codeine
(25,586 posts)I grew up listening to Pacifica in the 80s and it was tremendously important in the formation of my political and social consciousness. In the last 20 years it turned into an unlistenable shithole. The station that taught me - and millions like me - to understand the political machinations of the wealthy and powerful, to embrace the LGBT community, and to and question the entrenched values of our culture is little more than a joke now.
Niceguy1
(2,467 posts)Is just a mess...laid off most popular shows and filled in with amatures.
The whole pacifica network is slowly dieing.
2banon
(7,321 posts)Were you involved with the Save Pacifica Movement too back in 99?
When KPFA was shut down that's when I got involved... that's how I learned what was happening in New York and the rest of the network.. The more I learned, the more disgusted I became.. particularly with WBAI. Those folks were really f****d up. WPFW in DC was plain weird... no public affairs programming at all only jazz 24/7... KPFT has a great progressive programmers folks but some really weird "libertarian" types as well.
proverbialwisdom
(4,959 posts)HEADLINES AUGUST 12, 2013
Pacfica Radio Station WBAI Lays Off Most of Staff
New York City’s Pacifica radio station WBAI, where Democracy Now! has broadcast for the past 17 years, has laid off two-thirds of its staff, including the entire news department, following a series of crippling financial problems. Summer Reese, the interim head of Pacifica, told The New York Times the layoffs include 19 out of 29 employees. WBAI lost its studios on Wall Street during Superstorm Sandy and has struggled to pay rent on its transmitter, which sits atop the Empire State Building. Summer Reese announced the layoffs in an on-air address to listeners following union talks on Friday.
Summer Reese: "With a very heavy heart and very great difficulty, we will be laying off virtually everyone whose voice you recognize on the air who is a paid programmer. This includes the vast majority of paid programming in the daytime. It will include the news broadcast, which I know from a great deal of feedback from the listening public is very important to the New York City audience. We do not have the ability to continue payroll at this station without making these layoffs."
WBAI is one of five stations in the nationwide Pacifica network. Donated to Pacifica by philanthropist Louis Schweitzer, WBAI went on the air in 1960. Andrew Phillips, former general manager of Pacifica’s Berkeley, California, station KPFA, is taking over as interim program director of WBAI.
https://www.facebook.com/democracynow
Absolutely amazing history detailed here: http://www.pacifica.org/about_history.php
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)it broadcasts from 'BAI's studios, and is heard on the Pacifica stations (and many others), but is no longer part of Pacifica.
http://www.democracynow.org/about/history
proverbialwisdom
(4,959 posts)I was involved with the Save Pacifca movement when this happened.. It was a brilliant move on her part, but totally out of necessity. She was lucky to have Michael Ratner assist with the legal formalities to make this happened. It was very difficult process, but very successful.
reddread
(6,896 posts)she isnt likely to get trapped behind Pacifica managements neoliberal walls again.
bananas
(27,509 posts)Pacifica was taken over by a group who wanted it to be more like NPR, to accept corporate funding, to appeal to centrists, to get rid of extremists and eclectic programs.
They canceled a lot of good programs and fired a lot of dedicated hosts - and they banned anyone from talking about it.
For a while Roy Tuckman at KPFK got around the ban by broadcasting her show at the end of his, calling it "The Amy Goodman Hour", but they cracked down on that too.
A lot of community and college radio stations dropped their affiliation with Pacifica as a result of the coup.
proverbialwisdom
(4,959 posts)bananas
(27,509 posts)I googled and found a couple of good articles, bit I don't have to cut-n-paste excerpts right now.
2001: http://freepacifica.savegrassrootsradio.org/freepacifica/xmas/haiti_progres-wbai.html
2008: http://www.villagevoice.com/2002-01-15/news/a-dose-of-democracy-now/
proverbialwisdom
(4,959 posts)2banon
(7,321 posts)
warrprayer
(4,734 posts)death of the free press and replaced with canned music and hate speech
2banon
(7,321 posts)Mary Francis Berry was the Chairman of the Pacifica Board, back then. They had this grand "vision" to turn Pacifica Radio Network into a Democratic Party Media outlet.... they came up with this so called Strategic Plan, to remove what they considered as radical programming, which eventually included Democracy Now! (even though they created DN!). This followed the notorious interview Goodman had with Clinton regarding East Timor. Clinton was absolutely furious, and what followed was some very nasty business..
But they (Pacifica Board of Directors) made a lot of really stupid mistakes and they underestimated the outrage of the listeners, who became quite active very quickly.
They shut down KPFA and we set up camp in front of the station, occupied Martin Luther King BLVD for a month if memory serves.. got organized on a national level, which had some pretty hairy moments but eventually we prevailed in court. It was a long difficult struggle..
WBAI on the other hand was largely a detriment in this struggle. Their machinations were akin to dealing with the Teabaggers. i kid you not. We used to have a "freepacifica" website that gave summation of the history, up to the minute updates and reports and so forth, but I don't it exist anymore.
Matthew Lasar is an historian and had some great stuff up for several years, I don't know if he still does.
oshma
(63 posts)[link:http://www.leftvoices.net| is her new site, and she posted a podcast about the Stop and Frisk ruling last night. You can follow her on Twitter at @AndreaSearsNews.
hrmjustin
(71,265 posts)oshma
(63 posts)I will head there now.
Andrea is also on FB as http://www.facebook.com/leftvoices
hrmjustin
(71,265 posts)markpkessinger
(8,392 posts)What a pleasant surprise to find your name here! (Full disclosure for everyone else's benefit: oshma is one of my dearest friends, whom I have known for somewhere approaching 25 years. We even shared an apartment at one point!)
oshma
(63 posts)And Mark is one of the most thoughtful, cogent writers I have ever had the pleasure of reading! (Can it really be 25 years? Wow...but we are still so young!)
hrmjustin
(71,265 posts)kelliekat44
(7,759 posts)this station...and all the other Pacifica stations that are suffering. Better buy than buying the WPost.
Pterodactyl
(1,687 posts)WBAI, which broadcasts at 99.5 FM, has long struggled financially, and its leadership structure has been described as anarchic. But its problems multiplied last year after Hurricane Sandy, when it was forced to vacate its studios on Wall Street. In March, the station began a drive to raise $500,000 to pay back rent on its transmitter. Ms. Reese said the station had millions of dollars in debt and had operated at a loss since 2004. She said the Pacifica network had repeatedly drained its finances to cover WBAI’s expenses. The station, she added, could no longer afford to make its payroll and was laying off employees to pay its transmitter rent and to avoid being forced to sell its broadcast license.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/12/business/media/wbai-fm-lays-off-most-of-staff.html?_r=0
Turbineguy
(37,296 posts)right-wing hate radio's business model. They have been able to pay huge for the splooge that comes out of the likes of Rush Limbaugh.
oshma
(63 posts)(She also produced a podcast on Saturday after President Obama's speech on Syria.)
LeftVoices has had close to a thousand unique visitors in just three weeks of existence. Come check out Andrea's work on Facebook, via Twitter as @LeftVoices, her webpage, or Liberated Syndication.
News is still her passion, and she is still pursuing it--while steadily applying to every journalism job out there.
CGA
(1 post)Your omnipresence as a promoter of Andrea is exemplary, WBAI could have used you when there was still hope.
hrmjustin
(71,265 posts)hrmjustin
(71,265 posts)
gopiscrap
(23,726 posts)oshma
(63 posts)Andrea Sears doesn't have bureaucracy. I tell her what I am doing and she either says, "That's great, thank you!" or she sighs and says, "Yes, dear", which usually means I've misfired 
kelliekat44
(7,759 posts)What is wrong with this country???
B Calm
(28,762 posts)
polynomial
(750 posts)This is a time to reflect on that free air communications called radio, is it growth or contraction? Air space for me is in the Chicago area. There is basically one ‘popular liberal’ or Democratic supportive radio station in Chicago, perhaps others but my listening when considering a Democratic path is WCPT 820am.
Two other popular so called conservative stations in Chicago are WGN, and ABC. WGN, also considered Fox News in morning broadcasting the famous Glen Beck. The ABC morning broadcasting the unholy Rush Limbaugh. It is very rare for me to accept the policies that Beck or Limbaugh project, however sometime I agree on issues. I never call into talk shows, just listen.
WCPT has Ed Shultz on broadcasting the same time as Rush Limbaugh broadcasting on ABC radio. Usually eleven o’clock central standard time. With big hitters like that seems the money is rolling in. Back to back duel journalism with a very different approach by each. Comparing each from my view Shultz has the edge over Limbaugh. Lately Limbaugh has toned down his corrosive attitude that which was as harsh as the Sith lord of Star wars fame, saying liberals should be wiped out. To me it’s ironic to think that way for those that signed the original declaration of independence could be considered liberal and treasonous. LOL.
brooklynite
(94,384 posts)Even on the RW side, radio audiences are aging out. Perhaps activists don't want to listen to radio, and mainstream audiences aren't interested in thoughtful political commentary.
reddread
(6,896 posts)Not a lot of direct awareness here of how Pacifica was assaulted in the 90's under the abusive leadership of
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Frances_Berry
"Separately from her work on the Civil Rights Commission, Berry was named chair of the Pacifica Radio Foundation's National Board in June 1997. She drew great controversy from listeners, programmers, and station staff, after she and the board attempted to modify programming in order to expand the listeners of the stations and to attract a more diverse audience. "White male hippies over 50,"[citation needed] is how Berry described the programmers and audience of KPFA in Berkeley. Rumors of board actions involving the sale of flagship stations such as KPFA were widely circulated by the programmers. (Unlike most public service stations, Pacifica stations hold valuable high wattage licenses at commercial frequencies in major urban markets including New York City.) In 1999 she and Pacifica's Executive Director Lynn Chadwick fired the station's manager and issued a gag order,[7] threatening to fire anyone else who worked at the station who spoke of their actions. Berry thereafter ordered a lockout of all KPFA personnel, in violation of station union agreements. She then proceeded to demand the imposition of racial preferences across the board at KPFA, though she refused to meet with minority staff people at the station, who mostly disagreed with her actions.[8] Berry's actions in connection with Pacifica Radio brought protest from free speech groups such as the ACLU[9] She subsequently resigned from the Pacifica board."
who in my opinion was there to destroy the strongest weapon in the progressive (back when this word had meaning)
arsenal. She and others of her choosing worked very hard to financially ruin a very strong organization. If you scratch the surface
of many of these operatives, you will find VOA backgrounds, and futures.
When incredibly high bids for internal security such as cameras and presumably access controls and alarms by ADT (hardly the most affordable or competitive bidders, and one of the least trustworthy of such companies from a fiduciary standpoint) were contracted to keep the staff of flagship station KPFA locked down and eventually locked out, the goal seemed obvious-
BREAK THE BANK and silence dissent.
The network has been an absolute target of third way Democrats, and the financial assault has burdened the healthiest station and their contributors in a completely unfair, unethical manner.
I suggest anyone with a real interest in what has happened to these very important resources over the last twenty years look a little closer, the historical information and trajectory of these failures is well documented by many, many activists in the repeated struggles to peel back the grip of people who are NOT just trying to "NPR" the network. thats a joke.
They schemed to sell the frequencies of their stations in secret.
They worked to financially undermine the whole network and especially the strongest, most dangerous voices at KPFA.
Their predecessors did dirt to two of the best programmers at KPFA,
William Mandel and Mama O'Shea in what was a bloody purge in 1995
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Mandel
(please notice the absence of info about his removal)
http://www.billmandel.net/h/chron.shtml
and her blessedness, Mama O'Shea
http://choppedliverproductions.com/mama/mama.html
these two longtime programmers were removed under gag orders in 95.
Mama O'Shea, the most beautiful of spirits on the radio, was too dangerous.
Her show allowed people like Judi Bari
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judi_Bari
to organize in REAL TIME the Redwood Summer resistance
to junk bond scum Maxxam who took over
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Lumber_Company
(notice no info on Maxxam)
who went directly after the old growth timber that hosted seriously endangered species.
As Judi and Daryl were carbombed, with cointelpro linked, bombmaking FBI agents who arrested them for
bombing themselves.
For me, the power that Mama O'Shea gave Judi Bari and hundreds of others who were able to use
her vox populi to unleash communication otherwise impossible in the pre-internet era, made Pacifica
a hard target for multiple assaults.
One voice that was heard after the 95 purge, the worst voice ever
heard on radio, the least talented person I have ever heard stumble through "interviews" from his firehouse
in Oakland, the not yet ready to announce his campaign for Mayor, JERRY BROWN!
http://articles.latimes.com/1994-03-02/entertainment/ca-28893_1_jerry-brown
a radio show that was illegal for a political candidate, and ended with his announcement for Mayor,
October 28, 1997.
Conservative Democrats have done great and intentional harm to Pacifica and KPFA.
repeatedly.
that is why the money is not forthcoming, people know how it is being stolen, misspent and squandered
by these animals that will not give up their grip on the throat of free speech radio.
that is how these stations have been ruined.
no accident, not victims of the economy.
Look it up, there is plenty of records out there, just have to dig through the garbage first, and recognize it for what it is.
Air America has nothing on Pacifica, no comparison can be reasonably made.