Resolution passed by WBAI CAB on November 10

Unanimous Resolution of the Listeners Attending the WBAI Community Advisory Board Meeting on Sunday, November 10th, 2013

Ms. Summer Reese
Executive Director
Pacifica Foundation
CC: PNB and WBAI LSB

Whereas, the WBAI Community Advisory Board has had several meetings for the past few months to discuss the financial crisis impacting WBAI and the Pacifica Foundation:  There has been unanimous opposition to any lease management agreements that would effectively end local control over WBAI Programming. This opposition is diverse and sweeps across the scope of opinion among listeners of WBAI in the Tri-State Area.  The fall fund drive has shown that the listener community in the Greater Metropolitan Area will respond generously to maintain WBAI as the independent broadcast station that they cherish. The entire signal area that we reach is upset and angered by the possible leasing of WBAI to an outside entity.

People in New Jersey, Westchester, Rockland, Ulster, Nassau and Suffolk Counties have expressed their support through their donations in this drive. They are equally chagrined by the possibility of the loss of WBAI to an LMA. As an example of this, Dr. Shya K. Bey has taken the initiative to call you directly to express her support for WBAI and Pacifica. She and her colleagues have been meeting and contacting others to keep WBAI fiscally sound and thriving. All are against a LMA and the sudden firing of Berthold Reimers. Her opinion and financial support is but the tip of an immense iceberg through our signal area that fervently desires WBAI to be maintained as the exciting alternative broadcast station that it has always been.

In furtherance of exploring these ideas with you after the outstanding fund raising drive we have just gone through and completed we expect a meeting with you, On Tuesday, November 12, 2013 at 7:00 P.M., at 388 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn NY 11217.

We also want to reiterate the resolution that we all agreed on today, November 10th, 2013:

“Whereas, we the listener-sponsors of WBAI/Pacifica, are outraged at what is happening at our station;

and Whereas the local station board (LSB) has not represented our interests for a long period of time;

and Whereas the current crisis is the result of past dysfunction; and Whereas in our most resent fund drive, we listener-sponsors exceeded the targeted goals;

Resolved: That we go on record as opposing any LMA;

and Further Resolved: That we demand retention of the General Manager during this crises period;

and we expect a meeting with Summer Reese, Pacifica Executive Director on Tuesday, November 12, 2013 at 7:00 P.M., at 388 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn NY 11217;

Further Resolved: That we demand an open meeting with the LSB to address the future of our station.”

We want to thank you for your time and attention to this matter.


The following Listener-Sponsors were among those attending:

Marilyn Voyt-Downey Carl Makower Tarun Kranadas James Sagurton Nicolas Chango David Suker Jonathan Weil Elton Owusu Kenneth Porter Ronald Fecher Patrick Robinson Nenette Knpke Roberth Hennelly Susan Hues M. VanderHeyden Adam Korany Saint – Clair Jackson Anita Luftig Louise Lessard Kyle Scott Bob Levis John Foust Marianita Damari Len Kleinman Matt Mazza Lucio Cacharani Nia Knowell Deb Russell Brown Boukan Collins Dr. Shya K Bey