I was part of WBAI’s Community Bulletin Board until we resigned to protest censorship of it. I urge you to vote for me and the other Justice and Unity candidates (www.justiceunity.org). Working together, we can take back the station from those who want WBAI to let dollar-seeking trump community voices.
eugene@justiceunity.org * 212-591-2111
I, Eugene Hamond, am proudly seeking a seat on the WBAI Local Station Board with the Justice and Unity slate (www.justiceunity.org).
I’ve been a WBAI listener since the late 1960s and a member and supporter since the 1980s. I’ve been a volunteer at the station for the last 10 years, answering phones at pledge drives and packing premiums to send out. For 3 years, I worked as an unpaid producer on the Community Bulletin Board, where we provided a venue for important grassroots events – especially those that had few other publicity outlets – to be announced three times a day.
My involvement with the Community Bulletin Board ended in April, after we announced a public event on Black media that included former Program Director Bernard White as a speaker. Members of the collective were called on the carpet by the interim program director and told that henceforth we would have to submit all items for pre-approval – and the announcement was taken off the air. We found this censorship of the mere mention of Bernard White’s name unacceptable, and we resigned as a collective.
This type of censorship of voices critical of current management and board majorities is becoming more common, and now the national Pacifica Executive Director has proposed tightening the existing gag rule to virtually disallow on-air discussion of station and network policies. All this is happening in the wake of last year’s backward changes at Pacifica and especially WBAI, including the firing and banning of Bernard White as program director and the removal of station manager Anthony Riddle, the banning of several producers and listeners (all without due process), and a move toward morning programming that sounds corporate and even right-wing at times.
I’ve worked as an environmental and occupational health and safety professional, retiring as the director of health and safety at Hostos Community College. I volunteer with IFCO/Pastors for Peace and have gone with them on several caravans to Cuba. I’m a member of the executive committee of the Caribbean and Latin American Support Project (CLASP) in Ulster County, NY, where I live. I also sing with the New York City Labor Chorus. I believe these experiences equip me well to contribute to keeping WBAI on mission and solvent.
I will be working with Justice and Unity to renew WBAI’s focus on the struggles of poor and working people, to increase coverage of activities in New York City and the surrounding, area, to expand the station’s listenership and membership, and to find a building to escape the exorbitant ($350,000) annual rent on Wall Street.
I urge you to vote for all of the Justice and Unity candidates–endorsed by Fred Ho, Larry Hamm, Esperanza Martell, the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond, and the Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition, among others–in the following order:
1. Bernard White
2. Suzanne Adely
3. John Brinkley
4. Father Lawrence Lucas
5. Ray Laforest
6. Wellington Echegaray
7. Sharonne Salaam
8. Linda Bergnes
9. Myriam Decime
10. Carlos Canales
11. Sarah Kelpner
12. Henry Hagins
13. Eugene Hamond
eugene@justiceunity.org * 212-591-2111
1. Why do you want to be on the Local Station Board (LSB)?
I want to serve on the WBAI Local Station Board in order to help strengthen and increase the reach of WBAI, which is the only progressive voice of truth and justice in the New York metropolitan area. I am running in conjunction with my colleagues of the WBAI Justice and Unity Campaign (www.justiceunity.org), who have the same goals.
2. How do you envision the LSB working with the Pacifica Foundation, WBAI staff and listener members?
The LSB must work with the Pacifica Foundation and the WBAI paid and unpaid staff to uphold and promote the mission of WBAI and Pacifica, and also work together with listener members to increase their participation in the station.
3. How can WBAI better serve the community? Please define community.
A community is a group of people with similar lives and interests. WBAI needs to reach out in a stronger way to the many communities of workers, students, immigrants, older people, students, young people, and children. A big part of this would be to increase news-gathering and reporting by training people from various communities to act as local reporters, and to do more work to have the station provide a forum for progressive organizations
4. Describe some actions you would take to increase the influence of the station in underrepresented communities and to increase the diversity of the listening
audience.
WBAI needs to have sharper, more progressive programming that tells the truth about work, income, family, housing, food, health care, police abuses, neighborhood problems, etc., in the listening area. We should move away from programming that sounds like generic, public radio-type broadcasts that only represent the interests of the capitalist ruling class and people who want to identify with them.
5. What sources of funding, other than listener donations, do you feel WBAI should solicit? Do you have any ideas with respect to improving the current funding mechanisms?
We should consider regular and ongoing concerts, film showings, community events, fundraising dinners, and cultural and political activities to raise money. WBAI should develop a model of subscribers who donate money every month through a credit card donation. As far as spending money, WBAI needs to aggressively build the special fund started by Bernard White when he was Program Director to look for a building to buy (not on Wall Street), in order to stop having to pay a huge monthly rent.
6. Please state briefly the skills, experience, educational background, work history, organizational affiliations, areas of community service, areas of interest and expertise that you would bring to the Pacifica network as a member of the Local Station Board.
I worked as an occupational and environmental safety officer at Hostos Community College. In that position I was responsible for developing and implementing programs and for training, both formal and informal, to protect the health and safety of the workers and the college community. I received my Master’s Degree while working full-time, with two young children. I am a good listener and communicator and am organized and persistent in carrying out activities. I volunteer with IFCO/Pastors for Peace and have gone on a several Caravans to Cuba. I am not afraid of hard work.
7. On which Local Station Board committees are you interested in actively serving? If you are a current Local Station Board member, on which committees do you currently serve?
I am interested in actively serving in the Finance Committee, because I have a keen interest in monitoring the station’s budget and spending, and the Committee of Inclusion, because I’d like to help review and improve the representation of underrepresented communities at all levels of station operations.
8. If you are currently on the Board and wish to be re-elected please describe your 3 year experience on the LSB. What did you accomplish? What were the obstacles you faced? Do you envision any change in the next three years if you are re-elected?
Not applicable.
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