Bob Lederer – Short Statement
I want to work with others to reverse WBAI’s dangerous direction in the past year –mistreatment of staff, mismanagement of finances, and programming inconsistent with the mission. I want management to resume adherence to union contracts, repeal the gag rule, reinstate those removed and banned, and restore local programming time.
Bob Lederer – Candidate Statement
Last year’s abrupt management replacement – done at the behest of the Local Station Board (LSB) and Pacifica National Board (PNB) majorities, without any real evaluation or humane treatment – was heralded as the solution to WBAI’s financial crisis. Pacifica parachuted in California personnel, supposedly skilled in budgets, fundraising, and programming.
So how are we doing now?
Monthly LSB Finance Committee meetings have become a depressing ritual of bad news:
- a report by Pacifica’s outside auditor, finding
- a drop in WBAI’s listener support of $1.4 million (more than a third) from fiscal year 2008-2009
- Pacifica’s “internal controls are atrocious” and the organization is “falling apart at the seams”
- a drop in WBAI’s listener support of $1.4 million (more than a third) from fiscal year 2008-2009
- several months of arrearage in office and tower rent (the excuse for last year’s management purge)
- admission that for 9 months no installment payments were processed, costing WBAI perhaps $100,000+
- fulfillment rates (pledge percentage paid) down by 10%, costing WBAI tens of thousands, in sharp contradiction to management’s gloating about meeting drive goals.
I could go on….
Meanwhile, money is being drained on such things as a white-elephant phone system chosen unilaterally by Pacifica’s CFO without staff input (lacking voicemail for unpaid staff) and $2,000 a month for a celebrity music program in a slot formerly filled by unpaid producers – when devastating layoffs haven’t been reversed.
A Pacifica-wide gag rule has been imposed (but only enforced against management critics), and a revolving door of managers (3 so far) have abrogated the union contract that for decades protected the rights of unpaid staff to minimal due process and input on programming. Six producers have been yanked (three of them also banned), the Community Bulletin Board group resigned after they were censored as part of a campaign to disappear persons out of favor with new management, and the union (USOC) list of unpaid staff voters was rejected, leading to numerous staff being disenfranchised in the 2009 board election. Management devotes no effort to challenging an onerous “Copyright Confessor” system restricting producers’ music plays.
All of these travesties derive from “democratic” boards that have been manipulated by a well-financed listener group determined to impose their own agenda – moving WBAI toward a money-first, power-for-some model headed for financial destruction and mission/community abandonment.
For 10 years, I’ve advocated respect and decent treatment of WBAI staff. During my 6 years on the LSB and 3 years on the PNB, along with other dedicated staff and listeners, I fought many such battles and challenged poorly-thought-out proposals and budgets.
I ask for your support to return to work with others on righting these wrongs. Let’s exercise financial control, hire competent and humane management, protect staff rights, and safeguard WBAI’s mission. Let’s develop a capital campaign to purchase a permanent home and ease the pressure from the exorbitant rent. I also recommend you vote for my like-minded staff colleagues, Louis Reyes Rivera and William Heerwagen. If again elected, I’ll work harder to report back and facilitate staff discussions of key board issues.
Bob Lederer – Candidate Questionnaire
1. Why do you want to be on the Local Station Board (LSB)?
First and foremost, I want to work with others to reverse the dangerous direction that our station has taken in the past year – in its treatment of staff, handling of finances, and programmatic direction away from the mission. I want management to adhere to the union contract, practice proper hiring with public notice, repeal the gag rule, reinstate those removed and banned, and restore time taken away from local programming. More broadly, I want to resume the LSB work I did for six years, working with others to help forge sound budgets, insure respect for staff rights and contributions, defend our station’s historic autonomy, maintain our mission-adherent programming, and hold board members accountable for racist, sexist, and other discriminatory conduct.
2. How do you envision the LSB working with the Pacifica Foundation, WBAI staff and listener members?
The LSB should be the funnel through which proposals and initiatives from WBAI are sent to the PNB and the Executive Director. The LSB should actively encourage involvement by staff and listeners in its discussions; it should work with management and staff to hold more frequent town hall meetings, community events, and on-air Reports to the Listener to create more venues for that dialogue. The PNB and Executive Director absolutely should not impose programming or staffing decisions on the local stations.
3. How can WBAI better serve the community? Please define community.
To me, community for WBAI should be considered in the plural – the many geographic, demographic, and issue-oriented groupings of people who share interests and needs. I think WBAI’s focus should be on those communities that continue to be underserved by the major/corporate media.
An important step to resume the community service for which WBAI was well-regarded would be to restore Wakeup Call to three hours daily, so that many more local issues can be aired, and in greater depth. Beyond that, the station should be involved in more forums in different geographic areas, to engage communities about issues of concern. This could help show the station’s value, while also heightening its profile and providing a genuine service in areas where there is little available uncensored media geared to those communities.
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.
The station could benefit from a systematic publicity campaign to heighten the visibility of our programming in the region generally, and especially in underrepresented communities where it fills such a vital survival need. The LSB should reconstitute the Membership, Outreach, and Fundraising Committee, which has been allowed to lapse under the current majority. Such a committee could hold publicized brainstorming sessions to involve listeners and staff in developing a strategy to bring awareness and promotion of WBAI to progressive, ethnic, and neighborhood newspapers; student and community organizations; and broader peace, justice, and environmental activist groups.
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?
It is critical to fund the position of Development Director so as to have a full-time professional to develop a comprehensive plan for off-air fundraising, including special events for major donors, planned giving programs, awards dinners, increased Internet marketing of products (such as WBAI t-shirts, caps, and mugs) that support our mission, and other initiatives. This will ultimately reduce the constant pressure for longer on-air pledge drives.
On the expense side, moving the station to an owned facility would certainly save substantial funds in the long term, so I will support the LSB in working with management and staff to launch a Capital Campaign to work toward that goal.
Long term, we might consider working to establish a Pacifica record label that would allow the marketing of original music, spoken word, and poetry. This could be developed in close consultation with the cultural workers’ community. Such a project could promote many up-and-coming performers and help them increase their income, while also providing new revenue to the network.
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 have been an organizer for peace and social justice for thirty years. My work has included support for Puerto Rican independence, freedom for U.S. political prisoners such as Mumia Abu-Jamal, the rights of people with HIV/AIDS, and equality for lesbians/gay/bisexual/transgender people.
During the last phase of Pacifica’s mainstreamization, and especially after WBAI’s “Christmas Coup,” I became very active in the movement to take back the station and network. Professionally, I have been a writer and editor for a range of progressive publications. At WBAI, I have co-produced and co-hosted the programs “AIDS: Paths to Self-Empowerment and Healing” (1990-1994) and “Health Action” (1994 to date). For three years, I was the Interim Editor of the WBAI Website and Folio, and for four months (until my job was abolished), I was an Interim Premiums Assistant, where I worked to resolve members’ complaints about lack of delivery of premiums.
I served on the LSB for 6 years and, during that time, the PNB for 3 years. On the boards, I served in the following positions: Chair, PNB Elections Committee; Chair, LSB Elections Review Committee and LSB Bylaws Review Committee; member, LSB Finance Committee, PNB Personnel Committee, and PNB Governance Committee.
I believe that all of these experiences have provided me with important skills for continued board service: understanding budgets; engaging in personnel searches and strategic planning; writing motions; understanding Pacifica’s Bylaws and Robert’s Rules of Order (and the latter’s serious weaknesses, which can make it a tool for aiding obstruction); facilitating meetings; building consensus; and working toward mutual respect.
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 currently a member of the LSB Finance Committee. I also periodically attend meetings of other LSB committees. Whether or not I am again elected to the LSB, I will remain on the Finance Committee (non-board members are eligible to gain voting rights after three meetings), as I believe our budgeting oversight role is one of our most important responsibilities.
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?
As a staff representative on the LSB and on the PNB, I worked with colleagues to achieve the following:
· Successfully fought devastating budget cuts (and thus even more layoffs) proposed by other board members
· Personally obtained a large donation for ongoing funding of WBAI’s online audio archives
· Helped pass an LSB motion urging Pacifica to return to WBAI 80% of the rental income from our sideband frequency
· Fought to establish that national programming must be based on local stations’ input, and opposed imposition of any “must-carry” mandate
· Helped prevent Pacifica’s adoption of arbitrary new rules for staff without staff input
· Worked to stave off PNB proposals that threatened producers’ copyrights to their programs
· Defended unpaid staff voting rights in LSB elections
· Gained passage of motions insuring adequate representation of paid and unpaid staff on the General Manager Search Subcommittee, and insisting that the Executive Director obtain local recommendations before hiring or firing a General Manager (a principle that was violated when the current LSB majority established the Management Search Committee now in place – which furthermore illegitimately now includes board members whose terms have expired since they were elected to the committee by the LSB)
· Helped pass a motion establishing a Pacifica national Spanish-language news program, potentially extending the network’s reach to Latino communities hemisphere-wide
· Supported holding board members accountable for racist and sexist conduct.
The greatest obstacle to achieving more was the refusal of many local and national board members to work cooperatively. There was manipulation of Robert’s Rules and violation of democratic procedures that stifled ideas held by the board minorities. And there was a determination by some to purge those managers and staff who did not follow a particular agenda.
I am hopeful that if I return to the board, I can work with others to challenge these negative behaviors and encourage the LSB to move in a more constructive and democratic direction.
I encourage ideas, questions and feedback. Contact me at ledererbob@gmail.com.
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