WBAI Struggles

[AMRocks]

They've all been proposed and all rejected. They want to stay where they are.

We all WANT things, but there will be some point where they owe too much money and the could lose the place totally.

 

[badjef]

I tuned in a couple nights ago to see what they were up to. The host was doing her show over the phone for some reason. Yes, she was literally phoning it in.

There goes that phone bill.

 

[wavo]

You need to spend some time with anarchists. They don't care what other people want.

As I mentioned before, I spent a few years in community radio. The folks who ran the place were decidedly not anarchists...they were elitists. There were too many people who wanted to "contribute" to the workload by "ruling." They were of such importance that they dare not dirty their hands with manual labor...their contribution was their superior intellect. THEY knew what was best for the proletariat, much like today's politicians. Anarchy is the lack of authority...these people definitely wanted to be the "authority" and they had no interest in sharing that authority.
Reading some of the WBAI insiders blogs I can see the same dynamics. Way too many "important" people and waaaay too few workers. Elitism is one of the most destructive forces in society, yet hierarchy is a survival skill in collective societies. God is, indeed, a cruel comedian...

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

Well Pacifica WBAI, KPFK, and KPFA are free to have whatever they want but wait I remember a few years back that they were in debt because they owe Amy Goodman and the Democracy Now crew $$ due to how the contracts were managed also FSRN podcasts was waiting for payments from Pacifica Radio at one point. Note Democracy Now and FSRN news are currently self distributed at the time if post.

Oh boy if Lew Hill wanted Pacifica to operate that way then good luck

 

[wavo]

Well Pacifica WBAI, KPFK, and KPFA are free to have whatever they want but wait I remember a few years back that they were in debt because they owe Amy Goodman and the Democracy Now crew $$ due to how the contracts were managed also FSRN podcasts was waiting for payments from Pacifica Radio at one point. Note Democracy Now and FSRN news are currently self distributed at the time if post.

Oh boy if Lew Hill wanted Pacifica to operate that way then good luck

That is how many of the elite deal with the underclass. Let them eat ketchup...
These same elitists should remember their history lessons...they are the first to die when the revolution begins. But also remember that the French revolution was started by members of the elite.

 

[TheBigA]

Reading some of the WBAI insiders blogs I can see the same dynamics. Way too many "important" people and waaaay too few workers.

You're putting too much faith in that blog. The workers are creating obstacles for management. Not because they want to manage. But because they want to be an impediment to management. That is anarchism, not elitism. If any of the workers want to run the place, they can, because there's a vacuum at the top. The workers DON"T want to manage. They'd have to take a pay cut.

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

https://www.thenation.com/article/pacifica-radio-worth-saving/

Well If you want to see the drama at Pacifica you have to look at this.

http://educate-yourself.org/cn/How-...to-Amy-Goodman-and-Democracy-Now28mar14.shtml

And here's some memos talking about the drama between Pacifica and Democracy Now over its contract disputes.

 Pacifica’s newly discarded programmers began to reach out to allies, a task made easier by the advent of the World Wide Web. As they conversed in cyberspace, they organized campaigns to “take back” member stations like KPFA and WBAI. “Take Backers,” as they came to be called, pushed a common narrative: Pacifica radio was losing any connection with its roots. It was becoming “corporatized.” It was moving to the right, aspiring to become little more than a media outlet that operated slightly to the left of NPR.

Democracy Now! and Radio Nation listeners at the time often did not share this view. Filmmaker Michael Moore quickly lost patience with the squabbling over Pacifica at a 1996 media conference. “Is it me, or is the left completely nuts?” his Nation magazine essay began. “I won’t bore you with the details of October’s Media and Democracy Congress, but suffice it to say that the left is still in fine form, completely ignoring anything that really matters to the American public. I’m convinced there’s a good number of you who are simply addicted to listening to yourselves talk and talk and talk.”

Exasperated with the raucous conduct that had become typical at Pacifica board meetings, member stations publicized them less, skirting Corporation for Public Broadcasting transparency rules and thus triggering a CPB audit. Impatient with the network’s progress, in 1999 Pacifica’s leaders scotched the organization’s fragile system of inclusive governance, in which each station’s advisory board appointed several members to Pacifica’s national board. Moving forward, the national board would select delegates on its own, a move that worried moderates in the organization.

As tensions mounted, Pacifica’s leadership was suddenly transferred to two individuals who were unprepared to handle the challenges and complexities of the moment. Healthy Station Project coordinator Lynn Chadwick took the mantle of executive director. Mary Frances Berry, head of the US Civil Rights Commission, became chair of the board. They—particularly Berry—may have been told that the trajectory of Pacifica had been settled and all they had to do was set the dashboard to cruise control.


The tense situation at Pacifica station KPFA in Berkeley quickly interrupted this comfortable prospect. When Chadwick decided not to renew the contract of KPFA’s general manager in April 1999, the station’s staff rebelled with on-air protests. In response, she fired dissenters. Then, to the astonishment of the entire city and much of the left, Chadwick hired armed guards to shut KPFA down. Ten thousand demonstrators marched for its reopening in the summer.

It is important to remember the larger context as this micro-drama unfolded in Berkeley. The web was now in full throttle—“indie media” sites popped up in every major city in the United States and around the world. Soon after the KPFA crisis, demonstrators flooded Seattle, site of a World Trade Organization conference. Clear Channel’s acquisition of over 1,200 radio stations by 2001 provoked a huge outcry across the country. Media activists pushed the FCC not to further deregulate its media-ownership rules—already substantially loosened by the Telecommunications Act of 1996.

With all this going on, it was easy for the Take Back movement to frame Chadwick’s shuttering of the world’s longest-running listener-supported radio station as part of a narrative of corporate consolidation. And it was easy for the left to see it as such. “The [Pacifica] directorate doesn’t like anything that smacks of the unmanageable,” declared Nation columnist Alexander Cockburn during the KPFA crisis. “It doesn’t like radicalism. It wants respectable NPR-type stuff.”

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

http://www.radiosurvivor.com/2013/0...story-news-to-fill-void-left-by-fsrn-closure/

Even FSRN has had contract issues with Pacifica and they had to go podcast only too because of those issues.

http://www.radiosurvivor.com/2013/0...-friday-victim-of-pacificas-financial-crisis/

 

[wavo]

You're putting too much faith in that blog. The workers are creating obstacles for management. Not because they want to manage. But because they want to be an impediment to management. That is anarchism, not elitism. If any of the workers want to run the place, they can, because there's a vacuum at the top. The workers DON"T want to manage. They'd have to take a pay cut.

The blogs remind me of my learning experience in my community radio days. The station I worked with was not nearly as dysfunctional as Pacifica/WBAI but I still recognize some of the same dynamics.
I do not disagree with your thoughts although, in my experience, the staff did not want total anarchy. Anarchy, as a "solution" was reserved for those who wanted a different direction or focus.

Addition: After reading Radio Patrol's entry, especially the quote from the Nation columnist, Alexander Cockburn, I have to admit these are indeed people who will settle for nothing less than total anarchy. What a sad bunch of malcontents and mentally unstable people!
When michael moore sounds reasonable you just have to laugh...

 

[TheBigA]

I do not disagree with your thoughts although, in my experience, the staff did not want total anarchy. Anarchy, as a "solution" was reserved for those who wanted a different direction or focus.

Did the staff at your community station ever sue the station? Ever lock management out? This group has. This has been going on for many years through multiple management changes.

 

[Bill Zurmuehl]

I am surprised that EMF has not tried to purchase WBAI

 

[DavidEduardo]

I am surprised that EMF has not tried to purchase WBAI

Most of the major broadcasters, past and present, and a lot of smaller ones, too, have tried to buy WBAI and they have been "aggressively" rebuffed.

I made a pass at it for the company I headed back in 1979 and the response was quite bizarre and included statements like "capitalists don't understand our mission..."

 

[wavo]

Did the staff at your community station ever sue the station? Ever lock management out? This group has. This has been going on for many years through multiple management changes.

Yeah...I know. there were some "loud" meetings but, no, there was never even talk of a lockout or taking over the transmitter site.

I was just reading one of the blogs linked above. According to the blog, (I have no idea about the accuracy so keep that in mind) it seems dear amy goodman, little Ms. Occupy, host of "democracy now" (lack of capitalization as a sign of disgust) demanded, and got the rights to her program and has billed fees of over $8M which SHE controls and is accountable to no one. HER attorney is the sole arbiter of the agreement between her and Pacifica. Does this not tell you the whole story? Acquisition of wealth is EVIL...except when I acquire wealth...
WBAI/Pacifica in a nutshell...do as I say....ignore the man behind the curtain.

 

[TheBigA]

Acquisition of wealth is EVIL...except when I acquire wealth...

You're focusing on the money side of it. That's not her focus at all. TTBOMK she hasn't been paid in years. She hasn't made an issue of it.

 

[wavo]

You're focusing on the money side of it. That's not her focus at all. TTBOMK she hasn't been paid in years. She hasn't made an issue of it.

I have no idea regarding the accuracy of the blog - it may be misleading, or intentionally false. According to the blog, she demanded, and received rights to the program. I'm guessing she has collected millions in fees and broadcast rights, much of that from Pacifica affiliates who HAVE been paying. The financials are not published so we are not privy to where the money goes.
Money IS the focus. The disdain of capitalism, mainly because of the disparity in income, is hard to stomach coming from wealthy hypocrites. In my opinion, amy goodman personifies elitism and exactly why WBAI is so dysfunctional

 

[badjef]

Why does WBAI have an auxiliary antenna on Empire if they can't afford the rent for one space?
This is looking more and more like a sale.

 

[wavo]

Why does WBAI have an auxiliary antenna on Empire if they can't afford the rent for one space?
This is looking more and more like a sale.

The aux antenna rent is $17,500 a year which is a little under $1500/month. That's peanuts compared to the $45,000 monthly rent.
Anytime there is work to be done on the master antenna, or combiner, WBAI would either have to go to an aux antenna or go off the air. I would pay the extra $1500 monthly for peace of mind.

 

[DavidEduardo]

Why does WBAI have an auxiliary antenna on Empire if they can't afford the rent for one space?
This is looking more and more like a sale.

I am nowhere near positive on this, but since the master antenna gets periodic maintenance, tenants have very cheap access to the auxiliary antenna. I also believe that they may switch to the auxiliary antenna when riggers go over the FM panels to access the TV antennae up above or even to maintain the colored lighting on the building (to avoid RF exposure above OSHA standards). On that building, you need to have the auxiliary in order to stay on the air reliably.

 

[TheBigA]

I'm guessing she has collected millions in fees and broadcast rights, much of that from Pacifica affiliates who HAVE been paying.

That show has hundreds of stations that are in a far better financial situation than Pacifica. Amy is cut from a slightly different cloth than the staff of WBAI. Don't lump her in with them.

 

[wavo]

It's amazing...this thread has been going on since 2013 and has 46 pages! If you go back to 2013 the same thing(s) are stated over and over!

My final thought. Media access is one of the most important freedoms of all. I have always been a supporter, and still am, of community radio because most do offer access to those who have traditionally been denied access to the media. That even includes those who have opinions far outside of mainstream and opinions I disagree with, sometimes with vigor.
The internet has changed how we get entertainment and information forever...and to the benefit of everyone. As long as the government keeps its sticky fingers out... For that reason WBAI is not mission critical any longer and can safely be swept into the dust bin of history. Receivership may restore sanity to the organization so it can evolve into something useful for 21st century America.

I have enjoyed the conversation! Thanks to Frank and everyone at Radio-Discussions for keeping this resource alive!!