WBAI in Crisis

By Reginald Johnson




Progressive radio station WBAI in New York is in dire financial straits, and sweeping layoffs are planned.

A majority of the 28-member staff at the station have received layoff notices from the Pacifica Foundation, which owns WBAI and four other listener-supported, non-commercial outlets around the country. Layoffs were supposed to go through July 15, but were delayed until Wednesday, July 31.

Details on what program cutbacks would take place as a result of the layoffs and what the future holds for WBAI is unclear as neither Pacifica officials, station management, Local Station Board members or the union representing staff, could be reached for comment.

WBAI has been struggling in recent years with high rental costs and major damage to the station from Hurricane Sandy. Additionally, fundraising drives have fallen short of their goal.

At certain times this year staff has gone without pay and the station came close to losing its 50,000 watt antenna on the Empire State Building due to unpaid rent.

An article in Current.org, a website about public media news on July 1 quoted Pacifica Interim Executive Director Summer Reese as saying that the station’s difficulties in meeting payroll go back years. Pacifica’s national office has been subsidizing WBAI to cover its shortfalls.

“We have stripped every resource available (at the national office) rather than deal with the situation,” Reese was quoted as saying.

The cuts to WBAI’s staff would save $900,000, the article indicated.

Reese also said the station’s programming would have to be evaluated. “We wouldn’t be in this state if the programming were reaching a wider audience,” she said.

That comment is in line with many critics who claim that programming at WBAI is not diverse or dynamic enough to attract a larger audience. Presently WBAI has 15,000 paid subscribers, a number that many feel should be much higher given the power of the station’s signal and the population of the New York City area.

Berthold Reimers, general manager of WBAI indicated in a July newsletter to listeners that the station’s financial woes mean a downsizing of operations.

“WBAI as it exists right now will not be preserved because it cannot survive under the current financial model. However, WBAI will continue to exist as a local NY metropolitan area radio station,” he said.

WBAI - 99.5 FM has been one of the most important progressive media outlets in the country for over 50 years. The Pacifica Radio Network’s flagship show, “Democracy Now,” began at WBAI. Other shows on the station, many of which are picked up by other stations are “Law and Disorder,” “The Gary Null Show,” “Where We Live,” “Economic Update,” and the “Radio Unnameable,” with Bob Fass.

Restore the Fourth!

By Reginald Johnson            


     A grassroots movement has formed to fight back against the dragnet government surveillance exposed by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

    “Restore the Fourth” recently organized protests against the spying, which involves government monitoring of both phone and Internet communications.

   On Independence Day, July 4^th, the group held rallies around the country targeting the surveillance begun under former President George W. Bush and expanded under President Barack Obama.

   “Restore the Fourth” takes its name from the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution, which says  “the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

   Members of “Restore the Fourth” maintain that the sweeping NSA surveillance of phone and Internet records of millions of Americans violates the Fourth Amendment and must be ended.

   President Obama has defended the spying, saying it’s been approved by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Court and is a vital tool in stopping terrorist acts.

   A majority of both Republicans and Democrats have also supported the need for spying on citizens, citing the war on terror.

   The administration has launched an intensive effort to capture Snowden, a former private contractor with the NSA, and bring him up on charges of having violated the Espionage Act due to his release of classified information. Snowden fled first to Hong Kong, and then to Russia. He is believed now to be in the Moscow Airport, where he is attempting to gain asylum to another country, possibly in Latin America.

   The “Restore the Fourth” campaign is supported by other privacy groups, such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Stop Watching Us and the Internet Defense League.

  The rallies on the 4^th brought out people from both the left and right.  A demonstration at the courthouse in Louisville, Ky. saw conservatives join with liberal Democrats carrying signs like “Privacy is our right” and “No Spying on Americans,”  according a story in the Courier-Journal.

  Fred Gittner of Southern Indiana, who was wearing a tea-party shirt, held a sign next to self-described liberal Democrat Patty Call, of Crestwood, Ky.

  “At least we can agree on this,” she said. “Basically, spying on everyone, without a warrant, is going too far.”