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]
-
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