Kristen Harknett, Campus Greens

Free speech radio is under siege.  New York City’s WBAI (99.5 FM) -- listener-sponsored, commercial-free, community radio -- has been hijacked by its parent, the Pacifica Network.  In steps that were eerily reminiscent of the hostile takeover of KPFA in Berkeley, Pacifica fired WBAI’s General Manager of 10 years, along with at least three other long-time staff members.  No reasons were given for these firings.  Fired staff members along with several volunteer staff members were threatened with arrest if they even set foot in the station. No reasons were given for these bannings.  WBAI staff members voted unanimously in favor of reversing these firings and bannings.  Not only has Pacifica ignored the outcry from staff and listeners, they have responded to dissent by censoring it.  The Pacifica management has announced on the air that “there is no crisis at WBAI” and have forbidden staff from discussing “internal matters” on the air.  Those who violate this gag rule have been threatened with "severe disciplinary action" in a written memo to all staff.  The threat is clear - talk about Pacifica's wrongdoing on the air and join the ranks of the fired and the banned.

Pacifica’s plans and their execution have been shrouded in the utmost secrecy.  Locks to the station were changed in the middle of the night on December 22, and the interim General Manager (unilaterally appointed by Pacifica) announced her ascension to the position on the air at the odd hour of 1:50 in the morning, after the locks had been changed.  Pacifica and the interim General Manager have filled WBAI with security guards, some with firearms, creating a chilling atmosphere.  No one knows who will be fired or banned next.

The removal of key staff members and the lockout at WBAI are all the more bizarre and suspicious given that WBAI had just completed a highly successful fundraising drive in the fall.  They raised $900,000 in listener donations in Fall 2000, which lifted them out of debt for the first time in years and even gave the station a $70,000 surplus.  Meanwhile, Pacifica routinely siphons off money donated from listeners and is currently using these funds to lock out staff, hire guards, and impede the autonomy and independence of the station it was donated to support.  The Pacifica Foundation's books have been kept secret for years in spite of constant pressure for acountability to listener sponsors.

These recent steps taken by Pacifica are part of a broad strategy to make member stations more mainstream, divide staff and listeners, erode listener support, and eventually sell off Pacifica station’s valuable FM licenses.  The evidence mounts that the sale of station licenses is the end game for profiteering Pacifica board members:  Behind closed doors, the Pacifica National Board has secretly discussed selling the licenses for KPFA in Berkeley (likely to garner as much as $75 million) or WBAI in New York (valued at more than $100 million).  These plans were leaked by one of three dissenting board members and were also revealed in an intercepted email between board members discussing the possible sale.  Meanwhile, Pacifica is attempting to move their operations from California to evade state laws that might impede the sale of licenses, and anti-union lawyer and board member John Murdock has recently drafted changes to the Pacifica by-laws that would give a small number of board members power to sell station licenses and reap huge financial gains from the destruction of the community radio network.

Listeners provide over 80 percent of the funding for WBAI, yet they have been given no say in Pacifica’s plans to takeover and overhaul the station and have not even been privy to discussions about the possible sale of the station’s license.

Fortunately, there is an upside to this story.  Thousands of Pacifica listeners and supporters of independent media nationwide have mobilized to save Pacifica and its member stations.  Multiple efforts are currently underway to defend the autonomy and independence of WBAI, to fight the Pacifica board, and to restore a democratic process to all Pacifica member stations.  You can help:

Read more about the crisis at WBAI, the history of Pacifica’s turn away from independent, progressive media values, and lawsuits pending against Pacifica’s National Board.