Kim Ives

I am a filmmaker and have been a newspaper and radio journalist with various Haitian media over the past 40 years. I sit on the editorial board of Haïti Liberté, the largest Haitian weekly newspaper and am a panelist on Sunday afternoon’s Sewòm Verite (Truth Serum), one of the most listened-to programs on Radio Panou, the Haitian community’s premiere radio station.

I’ve worked closely with many media organizations, including Democracy Now, The Intercept, the Guardian, NACLA, The Nation and Wikileaks. As an anti-imperialist political activist, I have helped organize many demonstrations, conferences, tribunals, delegations, and press events.

My long experience with alternative media and progressive movements can be brought to bear on the challenges faced by WBAI. As New York’s principal progressive radio station, WBAI must re-engage with our listenership, expand it, and find ways to renew their interest, faith, and passion in the programming and mission of this 60-year-old media institution.

As a kid, I used to be driven to WBAI from upstate New York by my mother, Jill Ives, who produced a show on Haiti in the 1970s. From 2001 to 2019, I was one of the producers of WBAI’s Haiti shows – first Haiti: The Struggle Continues and then (name change only) Lanbi Call.

Part of my vision for WBAI’s revitalization is to reach out to progressive parties, mass organizations, community groups, and media in the New York area to wed their outreach, bases, clientele, and political work to the station. Engagement with them will bring capacity, energy, and listenership.

Furthermore, in this digital age, we must modernize the delivery of our programs, incorporating video as well as simplifying and streamlining the sharing of content on social media.

I have experience with the methods and tactics of many other progressive organizations seeking to survive and thrive in a hostile political and difficult economic environment, especially that of New York City. That includes not only groups around Haïti Liberté, but also everything from the 35-year-old Veye Yo community organization in Miami to our neighbor, the Park Slope Food Coop. We can draw from the experience of others for lessons on innovation and organization.

WBAI is essentially a coalition, which can be a source of dysfunction but also of strength. I have had years of experience working in coalitions, defining goals, hashing out demands, delegating tasks, and coordinating efforts. I am neither naive nor sectarian. We are all in the same boat. If the station goes down, so does every program. It would be an ignominious end to such a proud institution. We can do this. We must do this. Long live WBAI! Viv WBAI!

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• What experience, connections, skills or traits would you bring to the local station board to advance the station’s mission?

  I bring the experience of 40 years of working in alternative media: print, audio, and filmmaking. I have also worked in many coalitions, which is fundamentally what WBAI is, and have the skills and experience to resolve conflicts in coalitions. (I’ve heard that an early WBAI Local Election Supervisor opined that WBAI didn’t need elections; it needs conflict resolution.)

• What do you appreciate and value in the station’s current operations?

  Currently, I appreciate a number of well-produced shows which offer careful research, well-thought-out questions or presentations, and progressive or radical analysis.

• What would you like to see improved or changed in the station’s current operations?

  I would like to see the return of various special-interest but broad appeal shows, similar to our former Haiti show, Lanbi Call. I believe “quilt” programming, if done logically, can be just as effective as “strip” programming–even, in fact, more effective. WBAI offers a unique forum for broadcast content contained in such “niche” shows, which can’t be found anywhere else on the FM dial. The hackers show (being bounced around), the computer show (cancelled), the Haiti show (cancelled), etc. Where else can you find such programming?

• Describe what you anticipate would be your top three priorities or areas of focus if you were elected to the local station board.

  Priority one would be to develop or bring back programming that will encourage listener interest, enthusiasm, and even passion.

  Priority two would be to translate that rekindled interest and listenership into financial support, but not through constant on-air fundraising. It is essential for the station’s survival that on-air fundraising be lessened. New innovative fundraising strategies, built largely around community outreach, must be tried.

  And three, the station’s website, social media sharing tools, and podcast infrastructure must be modernized and made more efficient. Videotaping infrastructure and producer skill enhancement should also be put in place.

• Sustainability is an important part of any nonprofit operation. What are your thoughts on how the board can help to improve the station’s financial footing?

  The solution is not technical, but political. By conducting outreach campaigns in and to the local communities that form the natural base of WBAI, we can expand our listenership and thereby improve our financial footing. Progressive political parties, community organizations, media, and church groups would all like to get air time to broadcast their perspectives. They would then (and should be asked to) promote WBAI in their meetings and publications. Their members or readerships would then tune in, see more promotion of the station, gain interest, spread the word, volunteer time, etc. This type of “grassroots promotion” has worked very well in the Haitian community over decades, and could be adapted to WBAI.

• Is there anything else you would like prospective voters to know?

  The first battle in any struggle to change the world is ideological, i.e., the battle of ideas. Ideological debate and analysis, if carried out well, can motivate more effectively than any contrived advertising tactics. WBAI is a tried-and-true institution that has offered a forum for progressive ideas for decades. Rekindling that original mission–more surely than any slick gimmicks or bait-and-switch campaigns–is our surest path to stability, growth, and progress.