Russell E. Dale – Candidate Statement and Questionnaire

I’m proudly running for re-election to the Local Station Board with the Justice & Unity Campaign (www.justiceunity.org). I’m a political activist, college professor, and musician in NYC, and a devoted WBAI listener for over 30 years. I’ve been an active Board member since 2009, and have served on three Pacifica National Board committees: Elections, Technology, and Programming.

The world, WBAI, and all public media entered an economic crisis in 2008. The next year, opportunistic Pacifica managers backed by the current board majority took advantage of this situation and summarily removed WBAI’s community-oriented management, silencing many important voices, especially political people of color – even banning several from the station. (I was one of several dissenting listeners also banned without any process. Even after Bernard White and I were elected to the board, management refused to allow us to volunteer and meet at the very station where we have governing responsibilities.)

As a result of this purge, WBAI’s programming has been seriously compromised: useful information has been replaced by hucksterism and even reactionary politics. Days devoted to pledge drives have dramatically increased, but revenue has not; we’re still in desperate financial straits. Pledge drives are replete with right-wing conspiracy theorists, salespeople pushing consumable health products with questionable claims, and charlatans whose “anti-elitism” masks racism and right-wing politics. This has cost WBAI many listeners.

Those who seized control have taken WBAI far from its mission of education and understanding among diverse communities. We need to get back on course, get former listeners back, and add new listeners.

One of WBAI’s biggest financial burdens is the enormous rent for our Wall Street studios. The lease there ends this year. Before Bernard White’s firing as Program Director, he had organized a $150,000 building fund and a space-search committee that was making headway. This August, he proposed a board motion urging management NOT to renew the lease, but instead to move into much less expensive temporary digs while fundraising for a permanent home. It was voted down – only Justice & Unity members supported it – despite two years of reports by the independent auditor saying Pacifica’s future is very much in question. WBAI may be on the brink of disappearing.

Justice & Unity has a vision for a broad-based capital campaign and space search, with staff/listener/board involvement along with volunteer real-estate experts, to find and finance an owned facility, perhaps offering space for progressive organizations, an assembly/performance hall, and a high-tech media center.

Let’s save the station by bringing in people who’ll do what’s necessary to put WBAI on a sustainable path. We can revive WBAI as a desperately needed community resource!

Please vote for me (email: russell@justiceunity.org) and the other candidates of the WBAI Justice & Unity Campaign (endorsed by ProLibertad, Nana Camille Yarbrough and Joel Kovel), in the following order:

1. Father Luis Barrios
2. Cerene Roberts
3. William Heerwagen
4. Sharonne Salaam
5. Russell Dale
6. Carlos Canales
7. Diana Crowder
8. Shahid Comrade
9. Ebon Charles
10. Eugene Hamond

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Answers to Candidate Questionnaire

1.    In what ways is your station moving in a positive direction, that you would want to continue or perhaps improve?

The ineffective Pacifica executives who for the past 3 years have helped bring WBAI to the brink of disaster have not had their contracts renewed. But that alone won’t balance our books: we need skillful local and national leadership, a more cohesive board that effectively provides oversight, and relocation of the station to a place with much lower rent.The Occupy Wall Street programming is great! We should have more programming by the 99%!We really must have more Spanish-language programming as well. More and more Spanish-speaking people are working in the NY region. Their voices should be represented on WBAI, and not just during the overnight or super early on a weekend morning when fewer people listen!WBAI has a new website, but it needs improvement for ease of use, and since community events are happening all over the city, they should be posted clearly on the website.

2.    In what ways is your station moving in a negative direction, that you would want to stop or change? What changes would you work for?

WBAI’s management and the current board majority refuse to make changes needed for the station’s survival. At the August LSB meeting, Bernard White brought a motion urging that we NOT renew the lease at 120 Wall Street and that we move to cheaper digs. The board majority voted it down. The rent at 120 Wall Street may destroy WBAI. We MUST move. WBAI pays hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on rent (over half a million dollars between the offices and the antenna)!Another persisting negative situation at the station is that there are a number of listeners (including Bernard White and I, despite our status as board members) who are banned from entering the building for political reasons. This targeting of dissenting listeners and staff must be ended and sanctions reversed.During fund drives, the station must stop pushing questionable health products as well as reactionary propaganda from right-wing – and sometimes racist – sources.

3.    What key experience, connections, skills or traits would you bring to the Local Station Board to advance the station’s mission?

I’m an activist in NYC. I teach and organize events at the Brecht Forum in Manhattan and sit on the Editorial Board of the peer-reviewed journal Science & Society. I have deep ties to various universities around NYC.I’ve been a professor for over 25 years. I take seriously the Pacifica mission to educate and create understanding among diverse groups, and often use WBAI in my classes. WBAI is a unique tool for education, and with internal application of its external principles, it can remain that way.I’ve served on the LSB for almost 3 years, and served on 3 Pacifica National Board committees. I’ve been effective in fighting for important actions. In 2010, when the late Louis Reyes Rivera’s board candidate statement was severely censored, I fought in the Elections Committee to have it restored, and it was. This year I successfully brought a motion in the LSB for the Pacifica Executive Director to resume contract discussions with our paid staff’s union.

4.    What ideas do you have for helping the station and the Pacifica Foundation meet the financial challenges currently being faced?

We must move WBAI to a more affordable location. This is a fundamental change that must take place if the station is to survive.The increasing length of fund drives, which often feature premiums by hucksters, has cost us many of our longtime devoted listeners. Losing listeners means losing funding. We must raise listenership by increasing public-affairs programming that serves area communities. When NYC’s communities are involved in the station, and when we get out from under the outrageous rent we currently pay, our financial problems will be greatly reduced.Also, WBAI has an incredible trove of recorded material going back many years that we can use to raise money. We should regularly have live lectures and performances from top speakers and artists that we can record, publish, and sell, thus creating a powerful revenue stream.