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‘Christmas
Coup’ at New York’s WBAI By Bill Weinberg
The dissenters have called for listeners to refuse to contribute to the station and instead to support a legal effort to unseat the Pacifica Board, which they charge is illegally constituted. At the time of the coup the station had just completed a tremendously successful fall marathon, but the February fund-raising marathon fell considerably short. Chronology
of Strife At the foundation’s request, Van Isler had previously testified before the National Labor Relations Board against the rights of unpaid staff to union representation. But in a turnaround, she had just signed a nine-month extension of the union contract recognizing the rights of the unpaid staff to be represented by the United Electrical Workers Local 404. She also broke ranks with the foundation’s National Board over their efforts to rein in the autonomy of award-winning journalist Amy Goodman’s network-wide Democracy Now!, which is produced at WBAI and has come under Pacifica’s fire for its coverage of such “unpopular” issues as political prisoners like Leonard Peltier and Mumia Abu-Jamal and the impact of the Iraq sanctions. Late in the evening on December 22, Pacifica Executive Director Bessie Wash and WBAI talk show host Utrice Leid entered the station and changed the locks on the front door. Hours later, at 1:15 a.m. on December 23, Leid interrupted a broadcast to announce on the air that she had been appointed interim general manager. “I’m delighted to inform you that I have been named as General Manager,” she said. “Everything is fine, there is no coup, just me. There is no SWAT team here …” Later that morning, Program Director and morning show co-host Bernard White and his co-producer, UE shop steward Sharan Harper, received at their homes hand-delivered letters—on Pacifica stationery, and signed by Wash—informing them they had been terminated. These terminations were illegal: Under Pacifica by-laws, the duties of Pacifica executive director do not include internal station personnel decisions. The same day, it was announced on the air that White and Harper were barred from the premises and would be assumed to be trespassing if they showed up and dealt with accordingly, and that anyone who aided them would be subject to disciplinary measures. In the following days, guards were brought in who denied access to various producers, and Leid announced at internal station meetings that more people were banned: morning show engineer and co-producer Janice K. Bryant and longtime volunteers Cerene Roberts, Ursula Ruedenberg and Rosalie Hoffman. Public spaces within the station were locked, and a security company was reportedly contacted about installing surveillance cameras. Round-the-clock guards, including off-duty police, were placed in the station, letting in only people on an approved list. The purged staffers are demanding their reinstatement and charging the Pacifica National Board with illegally interfering in internal station matters. On January 9, Leid announced that the WBAI Local Advisory Board would be denied access to the station for its monthly meeting if the agenda included a public commentary period (mandated by station by-laws). On January 23, the Advisory Board put this edict to the test. When Leid persisted in barring entry to the banned volunteers, nine supporters refused to move from the hallway and were arrested, including two Advisory Board members, Miguel Maldonado and Vicente Panama Alba of the National Congress for Puerto Rican rights. All nine spent that night in a New York City jail. Since then the station has lost or fired more staff. On January 31, Democracy Now! co-host, the distinguished journalist Juan Gonzalez, announced he was stepping down in protest against the coup and launching a national campaign to unseat the Pacifica board. He called for listeners nationwide to withhold donations to Pacifica and instead support ongoing litigation against the board. On February 9, 20-year station veteran Mimi Rosenberg was sacked as co-producer of WBAI’s labor program. And on February 13, longtime morning show news anchor Robert Knight was informed that both he and Goodman—two of the station’s most popular producers—had been removed from the morning program. Fade to
Corporate
The board recently proposed to add as new members Luis Wilmot, who heads the AT&T-backed pro-deregulation Texas Partnership for Competition, and Francisco Ricciolo, a Citibank Vice President. Subsequently, however, the board backed down from Ricciolo’s appointment in the face of growing protest from listeners. And Now
the News The Foundation was also recently audited by the state legislature in California, where it is incorporated. In 1999, it relocated to Washington in the face of ongoing protests at its old Berkeley offices over a similar crisis at the local Pacifica station there, KPFA. For several weeks in the summer of 1999, all staff were locked out and the station occupied by a private armed security force when Pacifica removed longtime KPFA Station Manager Nicole Sawaya. The work of purging the Pacifica network is largely completed. The Houston station, KPFT, which was once intensely multilingual (reflecting the city’s diverse population), now plays almost entirely country and western music. The Washington station, WPFW, plays almost entirely conservatory jazz. KPFK in Los Angeles still maintains some political programming, but within closely circumscribed limits. Only KPFA in Berkeley and WBAI in New York remain undomesticated. An alliance of WBAI staff and subscribers has mobilized to defend WBAI’s autonomy. The alliance, Concerned Friends of WBAI, has held several well-attended protests outside the station’s Wall Street offices that won much mainstream media coverage. The organization launched by Gonzalez, the Pacifica Campaign, is openly competing with the station for listeners’ donations. Both groups are demanding recision of the terminations, lifting of the bannings and establishment of a democratic governance structure for both the station and the Foundation . Journalist Bill Weinberg is the author of Homage to Chiapas (Verso, 2000) and the host of WBAI’s Moorish Orthodox Radio Crusade talk show (Tuesday nights at midnight). * * * For more information:
Editor’s note: This magazine does not recommend withholding funds from Pacifica stations.
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isteners,
producers and staff at WBAI, the Pacifica radio station in New York, are
protesting a “Christmas coup” in which the station’s general manager and
program director were removed and several others banned from the premises.
The banned staff charge that the National Board of the Pacifica Foundation,
which holds WBAI’s license, is attempting to purge radical voices from
the airwaves—or even sell the station to commercial interests.