Pen-l, WBAI radio in New York City, sister station to KPFA in Berkeley, is under siege. New management has changed the locks on the doors, fired and locked out staff, etc. More info below. Seth Sandronsky From: Eileen Sutton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: {FP} Fwd: URGENT - NOON DEMONSTRATION SATURDAY Date: Sat, 23 Dec 2000 09:55:36 -0500 Date: Sat, 23 Dec 2000 05:16:35 -0500 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], Free Mumia:; From: Bob Lederer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sat., Dec. 23 at 12 noon EMERGENCY DEMO - SAVE COMMUNITY RADIO Demand that Pacifica restore home rule to WBAI Come to WBAI - 120 Wall St., just south of Water St. Take the 2 or 3 to Wall Street or the 4 or 5 to Wall Street or the A to Fulton St. Last night at around midnight, with no warning to the staff, the Executive Director of the Pacifica Foundation, Bessie Wash, appointed WBAI Talk-Back Host Eutrice Leid as Interim Station Manager. According to eyewitness accounts, the two of them supervised the changing of all locks on every staff member's office in the station. This action marks the long-feared direct takeover of the station by Pacifica, after the firing of former Station Manager Valerie Van Isler about 3 weeks ago without any consultation with local staff, producers or Local Advisory Board, in violation of Pacifica's by-laws -- and despite the fact that Valerie had been told that her termination did not take effect until Dec. 31. It is no coincidence that Pacifica moved in the dead of night at the beginning of Christmas weekend when the fewest people would be available to respond. On short notice, about 15 concerned listeners and producers gathered in the station's lobby between 1 and 3 am to show their concern. Security guards were under strict orders to let nobody up to the station's offices except regularly scheduled show hosts, of whom they were given a list. At around 1:15 a.m., Eutrice Leid went on the air briefly to announce her appointment, said there is no reason for concern, that everything else would continue as normally. Later as she exited the building, she told some of us that she would be back at 8 am and would shortly thereafter go on the air and explain what has happened. She said she had no knowledge of the publicly-announced on-air teach-in about the crisis at WBAI & Pacifica that has been scheduled to run during regularly broadcast shows tomorrow from 8:30 a.m. to 2:00 pm. When asked whether such teach-in could go forward, she said "Ask Bernard White and Amy Goodman." The Concerned Friends of WBAI, a group of listeners and producers that has been holding mass meetings for two months to respond to this crisis, is calling on everyone who wants to save WBAI's independent voice to come out for this protest. Also, tune in to WBAI from 8:30 a.m. to 2:00 pm. (99.5 FM) to see if the teach-in proceeds as scheduled. The usual hosts are scheduled, each to do a piece of the teach-in: 8:30-10:30 David Rothenberg 10:30-12:00 Clayton Riley 12:00-1:30 "Grandpa" Al Lewis 1:30-2:00 Radio Free Eireann (the show was scheduled to continue its regular programming from 2:00-2:30 TELL YOUR FRIENDS - THIS IS THE MOMENT WE NEED TO RALLY BROAD SUPPORT This latest move is part of a long pattern of top-down, arrogant moves by Pacifica to seize control of all 5 stations of the network, and strip them of as much radical content as they can get away with. Most recently, the attack had come in the form of concerted harassment against Amy Goodman, including months of Pacifica management's strong challenges to the specific ideological content of Democracy Now's programs (and before that, the content of the Pacifica National News under Dan Coughlin's directorship) -- about Mumia Abu Jamal, police brutality, Lori Berenson in Peru, etc. That's the type of hard-hitting programming that's at risk with this takeover. Call Executive Director Bessie Wash to insist that she restore local control to WBAI. Her no.: phone: (toll free) 888-770-4944 x348 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Remember: In Berkeley last year, when Pacifica attempted a similar effort to attack local control of another station (KPFA), it was only a massive fightback -- involving countless demonstrations (one of them drawing 10,000), acts of civil disobedience, petitions, phone/letter campaigns, lawsuits, press conferences and many other tactics that finally won back control of the station. We need to mount a similar effort here, ASAP. The next general meeting of the Concerned Friends of WBAI, to help plan this campaign, is scheduled for this Wed., Dec. 27 at 6:30 p.m. at SEIU Local 32B-J at 101 Sixth Avenue (1st floor), just north of Canal St. This is a crucial time to plug into planning and work on the continued fightback. For updates, call the WBAI Listener Action Hotline at (800) 825-0055 or (718) 707-7189 (to be put on a master e-mail list) or click on www.savepacifica.net. Bob Lederer Freelance journalist [EMAIL PROTECTED] - /*This message comes via the freepac list. */ _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com