WBAI Staff
Protest the Theft
of the
Pacifica Foundation

The Staff of WBAI-FM is out in the street today to protest proposed bylaws changes by the Governing Board of the Pacifica Foundation, which owns WBAI. These changes, scheduled to be voted on this coming weekend, would make the Board an insulated, self selecting, self perpetuating central committee which would remove all community input into the Pacifica Foundation and put in charge people who have contributed nothing to the building of the five radio stations Pacifica owns.

The California based Pacifica Foundation could then sell WBAI, for which it was offered $90 million in 1996, and deprive New York City and vicinity of its largest community radio station.

A Governing Board insulated from the public would be able to turn WBAI, and the four other community radio stations it owns, into bland carbon copies of the corporate, homogenous radio networks that Pacifica was originally founded as an alternative to.

Meanwhile WBAI Management continues to violate its own Union Contract and accumulate Unfair Labor Practice charges as it converts Collective Bargaining Unit jobs into “Management” positions, denies health care benefits to those who qualify and illegally fill permanent jobs with “temporary” workers for years. Additionally, WBAI Management and the Pacifica Governing Board continue to defy the ruling by the National Labor Relations Board that reversed Management's attempt to remove 90% of the Collective Bargaining Unit from Union protection.