Statement by the WBAI Justice & Unity Campaign on WBAI Layoffs, Program Changes, and Appointment of Interim Program Director

We wish to express solidarity with and sympathy for the hardworking and talented Staff of WBAI who have unnecessarily lost their jobs or had their hours sharply reduced. We recognize that most of those directly affected have had no input into budgets or spending, and that the paid programmers held no content control beyond their own shows, but worked exhaustingly preparing for and engaging in ever-longer rounds of on-air fundraising.

Some staff and listeners repeatedly made suggestions for off-air fundraising that were ignored. Many of the laid-off staff were deeply connected to our area’s communities and provided irreplaceable service. They should not be blamed nor have their work denigrated because of the station’s financial position or treated as scapegoats for agendas not of their creation and management failures.

• We reject the recent and current actions of the Pacifica Interim Executive Director and the WBAI General Manager regarding layoffs, the content and method of programming changes, the unrelenting fundraising that seems designed to alienate listeners, the lack of financial transparency that has made it impossible for board members to fulfill their fiduciary responsibilities, and the imposition of an Interim Program Director.

• We reject the idea that a crisis, engineered or otherwise, allows the Pacifica Interim Executive Director to make unilateral decisions that have a devastating impact on WBAI’s listeners and staff.

• The removal of staff and programs that went to the heart of Pacifica’s mission, especially with their emphasis on coverage of local communities historically and currently discriminated against, is unacceptable. Imported national programming cannot be a replacement for programming by local producers and reporters focused on life-and-death struggles by communities in the tri-state area. (For example, notwithstanding the excellent coverage of the Stop and Frisk decision by “On the Count”, our Saturday criminal justice program, our drive-time audiences missed the opportunity to hear the “culmination” of this story from those who have covered the trial and more – the issue – for years.)

• We urge the Local Station Board to promptly launch the annual written evaluation of the General Manager that is required in the Pacifica Bylaws (and which has never occurred during the General Manager’s three-year tenure), and to refrain from further attempts to drag the discussion of the evaluation process into an unwarranted and bylaws-violative executive session. We also call on the Pacifica National Board to move promptly on the bylaws-mandated evaluation of the Interim Executive Director, who has been in office for more than a year.

• We demand that WBAI and Pacifica management immediately send an email and regular-mail fundraising appeal to people in its database, and as funds become available, restore recently cut positions, beginning with programming and news positions, in the order required by the union. To minimize costs, we recommend that those who contributed online be contacted by email and those who contributed by regular mail be contacted via postal mail.

• We demand of the General Manager and, where applicable, the temporary Interim Program Director:
  • an outline of the recall procedure for laid-off persons that includes the order in which workers can expect to be called back to work,
  • an explanation of the selection criteria for the programs that have replaced locally-produced shows, and copies to the Local Station Board (LSB)  of any agreements with their hosts, producers and/or station of origin regarding duration, pitching, etc.
  • that the process for program changes in the immediate future and later, including the replacements for all shows previously produced by paid staff and “Al Jazeera English,” be laid out for the Staff and LSB, and that it include the participation of the Paid and Unpaid Staff in such decisions,
  • that the LSB be immediately provided with any and all contracts, letter of agreements or any such document between the person illegitimately designated  as Interim Program Director,
  • that the hire of an Interim Program Director (IPD) follow the process laid out in the Pacifica bylaws, which specifically states that the PD shall be hired by the GM from a pool of candidates selected by the LSB,
  • that the General Manager should ensure that any IPD is available to the LSB at its meetings for the duration of his stay,
  • that any IPD should convene meetings with the full staff (paid and unpaid) before making major programming decisions, and at least monthly on other programming-related issues, and
  • that the General Manager promptly place a public notice in appropriate venues for the positions of Program Director and Development Director.

• We demand the immediate release of balance sheets and other financial documents requested for years now from Pacifica management by the WBAI LSB Finance Committee, and ongoing full financial transparency.

We urge you to read this Listener Statement, presented on behalf of a group of listeners at the August 14, 2013 LSB meeting, with whose criticisms we agree.