WBAI (99.5
FM) is a
non-commercial
A non-commercial (also spelled noncommercial) activity is an activity that does not, in some sense, involve commerce, at least relative to similar activities that do have a commercial objective or emphasis. For example, advertising-free community ...
, listener-supported
radio station
Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...
licensed
A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit).
A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...
to
New York, New York
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Uni ...
. Its programming is a mixture of political news, talk and opinion from a
left-leaning
Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...
,
liberal
Liberal or liberalism may refer to:
Politics
* a supporter of liberalism
** Liberalism by country
* an adherent of a Liberal Party
* Liberalism (international relations)
* Sexually liberal feminism
* Social liberalism
Arts, entertainment and m ...
or
progressive viewpoint, and
eclectic music. The station is owned by the
Pacifica Foundation with studios located in
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
and transmitter located at
4 Times Square
4 Times Square (also known as 151 West 42nd Street or One Five One; formerly the Condé Nast Building) is a 52-story skyscraper at Times Square in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Located at 1472 Broadway, between 42nd and ...
.
History
Origins
The station began as WABF, which first went on the air in 1941 as W75NY, of Metropolitan Television, Inc. (W75NY indicating an eastern station at 47.5 MHz in New York), and moved to the 99.5 frequency in 1947. In 1955, after two years off the air, it was reborn as WBAI (after then-owners Broadcast Associates, Inc.).
1960s
WBAI was purchased by
philanthropist
Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives, for the Public good (economics), public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private goo ...
Louis Schweitzer, who donated it to the
Pacifica Foundation in 1960. The station, which had been a commercial enterprise, became non-commercial and listener-supported under Pacifica ownership.
The history of WBAI during this period is iconoclastic and contentious. Referred to in a ''
New York Times Magazine
''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine supplement included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted many notable contributors. ...
'' piece as "an anarchist's circus," one station manager was jailed in protest. The staff, in protest at sweeping proposed changes of another station manager, seized the studio facilities, then located in a
deconsecrated church, as well as the transmitter, located at the
Empire State Building
The Empire State Building is a 102-story Art Deco skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The building was designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon and built from 1930 to 1931. Its name is derived from "Empire State", the nickname of the st ...
. During the 1960s, the station hosted innumerable anti-establishment causes, including
anti-Vietnam war activists, feminists (and live coverage of purported
bra-burning demonstrations), kids lib, early
Firesign Theater
The Firesign Theatre (also known as the Firesigns) was an American surreal comedy troupe who first appeared on November 17, 1966, in a live performance on the Los Angeles radio program ''Radio Free Oz'' on station KPFK FM. They continued app ...
comedy, and complete-album music overnight. It refused to stop playing
Janis Ian
Janis Ian (born Janis Eddy Fink; April 7, 1951) is an American singer-songwriter who was most commercially successful in the 1960s and 1970s. Her signature songs are the 1966/67 hit " Society's Child (Baby I've Been Thinking)" and the 1975 Top T ...
's song about interracial relationships "
Society's Child
"Society's Child" (originally titled "Baby I've Been Thinking") is a song written and recorded by American singer-songwriter Janis Ian in 1965. Background
Its lyrics concern an interracial romance – a still-taboo subject in mid-1960s America. ...
". Extensive daily coverage of the Vietnam war included the ongoing body count and innumerable anti-war protests.
WBAI played a major role in the evolution and development of the
counterculture of the 1960s
The counterculture of the 1960s was an anti-establishment cultural phenomenon that developed throughout much of the Western world in the 1960s and has been ongoing to the present day. The aggregate movement gained momentum as the civil rights mo ...
and early 1970s.
Arlo Guthrie
Arlo Davy Guthrie (born July 10, 1947) is an American folk singer-songwriter. He is known for singing songs of protest against social injustice, and storytelling while performing songs, following the tradition of his father, Woody Guthrie. Gu ...
's "
Alice's Restaurant
"Alice's Restaurant Massacree", commonly known as "Alice's Restaurant", is a satirical talking blues song by singer-songwriter Arlo Guthrie, released as the title track to his 1967 debut album '' Alice's Restaurant''. The song is a deadpan prote ...
" was first broadcast on ''
Radio Unnameable'',
Bob Fass
Robert Morton Fass (June 29, 1933 – April 24, 2021) was an American radio personality and pioneer of free-form radio, who broadcast in the New York region for over 50 years. Fass's program, ''Radio Unnameable'', aired in some form from 1963 unt ...
'
freeform radio
Free-form, or free-form radio, is a radio station programming format in which the disc jockey is given total control over what music to play, regardless of music genre or commercial interests. Freeform radio stands in contrast to most commercia ...
program on WBAI, a program which itself in many ways created, explored, and defined the possibilities of the form. The station covered the 1968 seizure of the
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
campus live and uninterrupted. With its signal reaching nearly 70 miles beyond New York City, its reach and influence, both direct and indirect, were significant. Among the station's weekly commentators in the 1960s were author
Ayn Rand
Alice O'Connor (born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum;, . Most sources transliterate her given name as either ''Alisa'' or ''Alissa''. , 1905 – March 6, 1982), better known by her pen name Ayn Rand (), was a Russian-born American writer and p ...
, British politician/playwright Sir
Stephen King-Hall, and author
Dennis Wholey
Dennis Wholey (born July 2, 1939) is an American television host and producer, and the author of a number of self-help books, one of which was a ''New York Times'' bestseller. He currently hosts ''This is America & The World with Dennis Wholey'', ...
. The 1964 Political conventions were "covered" satirically on WBAI by
Severn Darden
Severn Teakle Darden Jr. (November 9, 1929 – May 27, 1995) was an American comedian and actor, and a founding member of The Second City Chicago-based comedy troupe as well as its predecessor, the Compass Players. He is known from his film app ...
,
Elaine May, Burns and Schreiber,
David Amram
David Werner Amram III (born November 17, 1930) is an American composer, arranger, and conductor of orchestral, chamber, and choral works, many with jazz flavorings. ,
Julie Harris
Julia Ann Harris (December 2, 1925August 24, 2013) was an American actress. Renowned for her classical and contemporary stage work, she received five Tony Awards for Best Actress in a Play.
Harris debuted on Broadway in 1945, against the wish ...
,
Taylor Mead
Taylor Mead (December 31, 1924 – May 8, 2013) was an American writer, actor and performer. Mead appeared in several of Andy Warhol's underground films filmed at Warhol's The Factory, Factory, including ''Tarzan and Jane Regained... Sort of ...
, and members of ''
The Second City
The Second City is an improvisational comedy enterprise and is the oldest ongoing improvisational theater troupe to be continually based in Chicago, with training programs and live theatres in Toronto and Los Angeles. The Second City Theatre op ...
'' improvisational group. The station, under Music Directors
John Corigliano
John Paul Corigliano Jr. (born February 16, 1938) is an American composer of contemporary classical music. His scores, now numbering over one hundred, have won him the Pulitzer Prize, five Grammy Awards, Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition, an ...
, Ann McMillan and, later
Eric Salzman
Eric Salzman (September 8, 1933 – November 12, 2017) was an American composer, scholar, author, impresario, music critic, and record producer. He is known for advancing the concept of "New Music Theater" (in his compositions and his large ...
, aired an annual 23-hour nonstop presentation of
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...
's Ring Cycle, as recorded at the Bayreuth Festival the year before, and produced live studio performances of emerging artists in its studios. Interviews with prominent figures in literature and the arts, as well as original dramatic productions and radio adaptations were also regular program offerings.
1970s
In 1970, Kathy Dobkin, Milton Hoffman, and Francie Camper produced an unprecedented, critically acclaimed 4 day round-the-clock reading of Tolstoy's ''
War And Peace
''War and Peace'' (russian: Война и мир, translit=Voyna i mir; pre-reform Russian: ; ) is a literary work by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy that mixes fictional narrative with chapters on history and philosophy. It was first published ...
''. The epic novel was read cover to cover by more than 200 people—including a large number of international celebrities from various fields. ''
Newsweek
''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis (businessman), Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print m ...
'' called this broadcast "one of the more mind-blowing 'firsts' in the history of the media". The complete reading (over 200 audio tapes) was the first Pacifica program to be selected for inclusion in the permanent collection of the Museum of Broadcasting in NYC.
![Seven Dirty Words WBAI](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dd/Seven_Dirty_Words_WBAI.jpg)
In 1973, the station broadcast comedian
George Carlin
George Denis Patrick Carlin (May 12, 1937 – June 22, 2008) was an American comedian, actor, author, and social critic. Regarded as one of the most important and influential stand-up comedians of all time, he was dubbed "the dean of countercul ...
's iconic ''
Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television''
monologue
In theatre, a monologue (from el, μονόλογος, from μόνος ''mónos'', "alone, solitary" and λόγος ''lógos'', "speech") is a speech presented by a single character, most often to express their thoughts aloud, though sometimes a ...
uncensored. WBAI's broadcast of ''Seven Words'' became a landmark moment in the history of
free speech
Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The rights, right to freedom of expression has been ...
. In a 1978 milestone in the station's contentious and unruly history, WBAI lost a 5-to-4
U.S. Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
decision (''
FCC v. Pacifica Foundation
''Federal Communications Commission v. Pacifica Foundation'', 438 U.S. 726 (1978), was a landmark decision of the US Supreme Court that defined the power of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) over indecent material as applied to broadc ...
'') that to this day has defined the power of the government over broadcast material it calls indecent.
In 1974, WBAI program director Marnie Mueller asked
Charles Ruas to become director of arts programming. Thus the station, already at the forefront of the counterculture and anti-war protest, also became a platform for New York's avant-garde in theater, music, performance, art, and poetry. When the downtown avant-garde opera ''A Letter to Queen Victoria'' by
Philip Glass
Philip Glass (born January 31, 1937) is an American composer and pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century. Glass's work has been associated with minimal music, minimalism, being built up fr ...
and
Robert Wilson opened at the Metropolitan Opera, the station was right there to tape excerpts in rehearsals for broadcast.
Ruas initiated a year-long series on
Marguerite Young
Marguerite Vivian Young (August 26, 1908 – November 17, 1995) was an American novelist and academic. She is best known for her novel '' Miss MacIntosh, My Darling''. In her later years, she was known for teaching creative writing and as ...
's epic novel ''
Miss MacIntosh, My Darling
''Miss MacIntosh, My Darling'' is a novel by Marguerite Young. She has described it as "an exploration of the illusions, hallucinations, errors of judgment in individual lives, the central scene of the novel being an opium addict's paradise."''Wo ...
''. These readings were transformed into performances by Rob Wynne, who scored them with a complex collage of sound effects, music, and opera. The participants included
Anaïs Nin
Angela Anaïs Juana Antolina Rosa Edelmira Nin y Culmell (February 11, 1903 – January 14, 1977; , ) was a French-born American diarist, essayist, novelist, and writer of short stories and erotica. Born to Cuban parents in France, Nin was the d ...
,
Marian Seldes
Marian Hall Seldes (August 23, 1928 – October 6, 2014) was an American actress. A five-time Tony Award nominee, she won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for '' A Delicate Balance'' in 1967, and received subsequent nominations ...
,
Alice Playten
Alice Playten ('' née'' Plotkin; August 28, 1947 – June 25, 2011) was an American actress known for her high-pitched, child-like voice.
Life and career
Born in New York City, Playten began her career at age 11 in the Broadway musical ''Gyp ...
,
H.M. Koutoukas,
Leo Lerman
Leo Lerman (May 23, 1914 – August 22, 1994) was an American writer and editor who worked for Condé Nast Publications for more than 50 years.Grimes, William (August 23, 1994). Leo Lerman, 80, Editor at Conde Nast Magazines. ''The New York Time ...
,
Michael Wager
Michael Wager (born Emanuel Weisgal, April 29, 1925December 26, 2011) was an American film and television actor.
Wager was born in New York, New York, and nicknamed "Mendy". He was the son of Meyer W. and Shirley (Hirshfeld) Weisgal.
He appea ...
,
Novella Nelson
Novella Christine Nelson (December 17, 1939 – August 31, 2017) was an American actress and singer. She established her career as a singer, both on the off-Broadway and Broadway stage and in cabaret-style locales.
Career
Starting in 1961, Nels ...
,
Osceola Macarthy Adams,
Owen Dodson
Owen Vincent Dodson (November 28, 1914 – June 21, 1983) was an American poet, novelist, and playwright. He was one of the leading African-American poets of his time, associated with the generation of black poets following the Harlem Renaissance ...
,
Wyatt Emory Cooper
Wyatt Emory Cooper (September 1, 1927 – January 5, 1978) was an American author, screenwriter, and actor. He was the fourth husband of Vanderbilt family heiress and socialite Gloria Vanderbilt and the father of CNN anchor Anderson Cooper. ,
Michael Higgins,
Anne Fremantle
Anne Jackson Fremantle (born Anne-Marie Huth Jackson; 1909–2002) was an English-American journalist, translator, poet, novelist and biographer.[Peggy Cass
Mary Margaret "Peggy" Cass (May 21, 1924 – March 8, 1999) was an American actress, comedian, game show panelist, and announcer.
She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting ...]
,
Ruth Ford
Ruth Ford (July 7, 1911 – August 12, 2009) was an American actress and model. Her brother was the Bohemianism, bohemian surrealist Charles Henri Ford. Their parents owned or managed hotels in the American South, and the family regularly move ...
,
Earle Hyman
Earle Hyman (born George Earle Plummer; October 11, 1926 – November 17, 2017) was an American stage, television, and film actor. Hyman is known for his role on '' ThunderCats'' as the voice of Panthro and various other characters. He also ap ...
and Daisy Alden.
When
William Burroughs
William Seward Burroughs II (; February 5, 1914 – August 2, 1997) was an American writer and visual artist, widely considered a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodern author who influenced popular cultur ...
returned to the United States from Tangier, Ruas invited him to present a retrospective of all his works. The series consisted of four programs, beginning with ''Junkie'' and followed by ''The Yage Letters'', read by Burroughs and Allen Ginsburg, ''The Last Words of Dutch Schultz'', and, finally, ''Naked Lunch''. Bill Kortum oversaw this series as well as retrospectives of the works of
Jerzy Kosinski
Jerzy is the Polish version of the masculine given name George. The most common nickname for Jerzy is Jurek (), which may also be used as an official first name. Occasionally the nickname Jerzyk may be used, which means "swift" in Polish.
People
...
and
Donald Barthelme
Donald Barthelme (April 7, 1931 – July 23, 1989) was an American short story writer and novelist known for his playful, postmodernist style of short fiction. Barthelme also worked as a newspaper reporter for the ''Houston Post'', was managing ...
, co-produced with Judith Sherman, the station's music director.
A semester of
Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of the Beat Gener ...
's poetry seminar held at the
Naropa Institute
Naropa University is a private university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1974 by Tibetan Buddhist teacher Chögyam Trungpa, it is named for the 11th-century Indian Buddhist sage Naropa, an abbot of Nalanda. The university describes itself as ...
in Colorado was presented by Ruas, and for many years the station covered the annual New Year's Eve celebratory poetry marathon at St. Mark's Church. The day the Vietnam War ended, poet
Muriel Rukeyser
Muriel Rukeyser (December 15, 1913 – February 12, 1980) was an American poet and political activist, best known for her poems about equality, feminism, social justice, and Judaism. Kenneth Rexroth said that she was the greatest poet of her "ex ...
came to the station to read her poem on peace.
Ruas inaugurated the Audio Experimental Theater, a series presenting the works of avant-garde artists:
Meredith Monk
Meredith Jane Monk (born November 20, 1942) is an American composer, performer, director, vocalist, filmmaker, and choreographer. From the 1960s onwards, Monk has created multi-disciplinary works which combine music, theatre, and dance, recording ...
, Yvonne Rainer, Ed Bowes, Michael Newman, Joan Schwartz, Benjamin Folkman, Vito Acconci, Charles Ludlum, Jacques Levy,
Willoughby Sharp
Willoughby Sharp (January 23, 1936 – December 17, 2008) was an American artist, independent curator, independent publisher (he was co-founder and co-editor of Avalanche Magazine with Liza Béar), gallerist, teacher, author, and telecom activist ...
,
John Cage
John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading fi ...
, Robert Wilson,
Philip Glass
Philip Glass (born January 31, 1937) is an American composer and pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century. Glass's work has been associated with minimal music, minimalism, being built up fr ...
, Richard Foreman, and Joan Jonas.
In drama, the station defended
Tennessee Williams
Thomas Lanier Williams III (March 26, 1911 – February 25, 1983), known by his pen name Tennessee Williams, was an American playwright and screenwriter. Along with contemporaries Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller, he is considered among the thre ...
against his critics during the last years of his life by covering his ''Memoirs'' and broadcasting a production of ''Two-Character Play''. Other dramatists whose works were featured included
Jean-Claude van Itallie
Jean-Claude van Itallie (May 25, 1936 – September 9, 2021) was a Belgian-born American playwright, performer, and theatre workshop teacher. He is best known for his 1966 anti-Vietnam War play ''America Hurrah;'' ''The Serpent'', an ensemble ...
, Richard Scheckner, Andrei Serban, and Elizabeth Swados.
Ruas initiated interview programs featuring nonfiction writers discussing their fields of expertise—Buckminster Fuller, Thor Heyerdahl, Ed Sanders, Jonathan Kozol and Nigel Nicholson.
Each of the arts had weekly coverage. Courtney Callender's ''Getting Around'' covered the cultural scene. Moira Hudson was the dance critic. The visual arts critics were John Perreault,
Cindy Nemser
Cindy Heller Nemser (March 26, 1937 – January 26, 2021) was an American art historian and writer. Founder and editor of the ''Feminist Art Journal'', she was an activist and prominent figure in the feminist art movement and was best known for he ...
, Liza Baer, Joe Giordano, Judith Vivell, Kenneth Koch, and
Les Levine
Les Levine (born 1935) is a naturalized American Irish artist known as a pioneer of video art and as a conceptual artist working with mass communication. In 1967, Levine won first prize for sculpture in the Canadian Sculpture Biennial.
Life and ...
.
Susan Howe produced a weekly poetry program presenting the works of
John Ashbery
John Lawrence Ashbery (July 28, 1927 – September 3, 2017) was an American poet and art critic.
Ashbery is considered the most influential American poet of his time. Oxford University literary critic John Bayley wrote that Ashbery "sounded, in ...
,
W.S. Merwin
William Stanley Merwin (September 30, 1927 – March 15, 2019) was an American poet who wrote more than fifty books of poetry and prose, and produced many works in translation. During the 1960s anti-war movement, Merwin's unique craft was thema ...
,
Maureen Owen,
Charles Reznikoff
Charles Reznikoff (August 31, 1894 – January 22, 1976) was an American poet best known for his long work, ''Testimony: The United States (1885–1915), Recitative'' (1934–1979). The term Objectivist was coined for him. The multi-volume ''Test ...
, Rebecca Wright,
Ron Padgett
Ron Padgett (born June 17, 1942, Tulsa, Oklahoma) is an American poet, essayist, fiction writer, translator, and a member of the New York School. ''Great Balls of Fire'', Padgett's first full-length collection of poems, was published in 1969. He ...
,
Carter Ratcliff
Carter Ratcliff (born 1941 in Seattle, Washington) is an American art critic, writer and poet. His books on art include "John Singer Sargent" (Abbeville Press, 1982); "Robert Longo" ( Rizzoli, 1985); "The Fate of a Gesture: Jackson Pollock and Post ...
,
John Hollander
John Hollander (October 28, 1929 – August 17, 2013) was an American poet and literary critic. At the time of his death, he was Sterling Professor Emeritus of English at Yale University, having previously taught at Connecticut College, Hunter C ...
,
Anne Waldman
Anne Waldman (born April 2, 1945) is an American poet.
Since the 1960s, Waldman has been an active member of the Outrider experimental poetry community as a writer, performer, collaborator, professor, editor, scholar, and cultural/political activ ...
,
Helen Adam
Helen Adam (December 2, 1909 in Glasgow, Scotland – September 19, 1993 in New York City) was a Scottish poet, collagist and photographer who was part of a literary movement contemporaneous to the Beat Generation that occurred in San Francisc ...
,
Audre Lorde
Audre Lorde (; born Audrey Geraldine Lorde; February 18, 1934 – November 17, 1992) was an American writer, womanist, radical feminist, professor, and civil rights activist. She was a self-described "black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet," who ...
, Michael Brownstein, Mary Ferrari, and
Muriel Rukeyser
Muriel Rukeyser (December 15, 1913 – February 12, 1980) was an American poet and political activist, best known for her poems about equality, feminism, social justice, and Judaism. Kenneth Rexroth said that she was the greatest poet of her "ex ...
. She also produced specials featuring
William Carlos Williams
William Carlos Williams (September 17, 1883 – March 4, 1963) was an American poet, writer, and physician closely associated with modernism and imagism.
In addition to his writing, Williams had a long career as a physician practicing both pedia ...
, V. R. Lang, Jack Spicer, Louise Bogan, Paul Metcalf, Jonathan Williams, Harry Mathews, and James Laughlin.
From 1976 to 1979, poet
John Giorno
John Giorno (December 4, 1936 – October 11, 2019) was an American poet and performance artist. He founded the not-for-profit production company Giorno Poetry Systems and organized a number of early multimedia poetry experiments and events, inc ...
hosted ''The Poetry Experiment''
and later presented his five-part series ''
Dial-A-Poem Poets''.
For a few years, WBAI became a cultural force as these programs were disseminated nationally through the Pacifica Network.
In 1977, there was a major internal crisis at WBAI which resulted in the loss of the physical space of the station. WBAI was located in a former church on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. For many years, WBAI had believed it was exempt from New York City real estate taxes as an "educational" institution, but in March 1977 the City Tax Commission denied that status and WBAI eventually sold the church (which it owned) to pay the back taxes. WBAI signed a new lease for the 19th floor (the former Caedmon Records office/studio) plus one office on another floor of an office building at 505 8th Avenue on the West Side of Manhattan.
Turmoil and change
After the events in 1977, the station began a shift to a more profound international direction. In 1980, Caribbean immigrant and Marxist activist
Samori Marksman was hired as WBAI Program Director and with his ascension, there was more of a focus on international issues and the promotion of people of color to the WBAI staff which caused grumbling among long time white and Jewish progressives who felt they were being pushed out of the station. In 1983, Marksman abruptly left for the Caribbean island of Grenada to participate in a new government – a government that was thwarted by the
US invasion of Grenada in October 1983.
In 1986, gay activist
John Scagliotti
John Scagliotti is an American film director and producer, and radio broadcaster. He has received honors for his work on documentaries about LGBT issues including ''Before Stonewall'' and ''After Stonewall''.
Biography
During the 1970s, Scagliott ...
became program director. He initiated many program changes; still more long-time programmers left the station. Scagliotti tried to professionalize the programming and smooth out the rougher edges of existing shows. During his tenure, several producers received accolades for their efforts, including Robert Knight, who won a Polk Award for his show "Contragate", and future program director and Station Manager Valerie Van Isler, who won awards for her role in the film, ''
The Panama Deception
''The Panama Deception'' is a 1992 American documentary film, critical of the 1989 United States invasion of Panama.
The film was directed by Barbara Trent, written and edited by David Kasper, and narrated by actress Elizabeth Montgomery. It was a ...
''. Also, award-winning producer and host
Amy Goodman
Amy Goodman (born April 13, 1957) is an American broadcast journalist, syndicated columnist, investigative reporter, and author. Her investigative journalism career includes coverage of the East Timor independence movement, Morocco's occupation ...
began her career under Scagliotti. Samori Marksman returned to WBAI in the early 90s and in 1994, and was hired again as WBAI's Program Director. During his five-year tenure, WBAI achieved significant progress in listenership and fundraising. Marksman founded ''
Democracy Now!
''Democracy Now!'' is an hour-long American TV, radio, and Internet news program hosted by journalists Amy Goodman (who also acts as the show's executive producer), Juan González, and Nermeen Shaikh. The show, which airs live each weekday at ...
'' in 1996, the award-winning program now helmed by Amy Goodman. Marksman was deeply-connected to the Caribbean and African diaspora. His own program, "Behind The News", focused on international and national issues from a black nationalist and Marxist perspective. Marksman was profoundly loved by a broad cross section of the WBAI audience and staff. His shocking and sudden death from a massive heart attack on March 23, 1999 was a wound to the station that lasted for years. Over 3,000 people attended his funeral at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Manhattan.
![120 Wall Street door](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/60/120_Wall_Street_door.jpg)
Shortly before the death of Samori Marksman and following years of complaints about the outdated and filthy studios at 505 Eighth Avenue in New York, WBAI moved to new studios at 120 Wall Street in the Financial District in Manhattan in June 1998. After the death of Marksman, there was profound uncertainty and an explosion of pent-up feelings and resentments that was suppressed by Marksman and Mario Murillo, the Public Affairs director. Utrice Leid, a popular Caribbean radio host and producer had expected to succeed Marksman but was denied the post by then-General Manager Valerie Van Isler. This led to an intense battle between various factions inside and outside the station and with The Pacifica Foundation, the non-profit parent company of WBAI. The culmination of this conflict was the "Christmas Coup" in December 2000 when a faction, led by Leid, padlocked the station and took control of the airwaves, starting an on-air and off-air war that lasted for several years. Some senior WBAI staffers, including General Manager Van Isler, were fired immediately. Van Isler, in particular, was blamed for the early death of Marksman. In 1994, Van Isler initially refused to hire Marksman, claiming Marksman had a mediocre credit report, then, later in his tenure, refused to give him a salary increase. The autocratic and unpopular Van Isler also vigorously fought former staffers from obtaining unemployment benefits, including Bill Wells, the former WBAI Chief Engineer, who had a disability.
In late 2012, WBAI suffered extensive damage to its offices following the events of
Hurricane Sandy
Hurricane Sandy (unofficially referred to as ''Superstorm Sandy'') was an extremely destructive and strong Atlantic hurricane, as well as the largest Atlantic hurricane on record as measured by diameter, with tropical-storm-force winds spann ...
.
The Manhattan offices saw
flood
A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrol ...
ing reach the second floor, trapping seven staffers inside, and the telephone systems being disabled. The devastation by Sandy occurred in the midst of fundraising efforts, which ultimately prevented WBAI from acquiring the necessary funds to remain operational. As a result of funding and operational difficulties, WBAI announced in 2013 it would be moving out of those studios to temporary studios of
WHCR-FM located in
Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street (Manhattan), 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and 110th Street (Manhattan), ...
, a station operated by
City College of New York
The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a public university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 1847, Cit ...
(CUNY).
[
Lynne Rosen and John Littig, co-hosts of the monthly show ''The Pursuit of Happiness'', were found dead on June 3, 2013, after committing suicide in their ]Park Slope
Park Slope is a neighborhood in northwestern Brooklyn, New York City, within the area once known as South Brooklyn. Park Slope is roughly bounded by Prospect Park and Prospect Park West to the east, Fourth Avenue to the west, Flatbush Aven ...
home.
In June 2013, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) is an American publicly funded non-profit corporation, created in 1967 to promote and help support public broadcasting. The corporation's mission is to ensure universal access to non-commercial, ...
suspended payments to WBAI, citing accounting irregularities and a failure by the station to meet its financial obligations. Layoff notices effective July 15 were subsequently issued to the station's staff and management.
On August 9, 2013, Pacifica management announced that due to financial problems, WBAI was laying off about two-thirds of its staff, effective August 12, 2013. The entire news department was laid off. Summer Reese, the interim executive director of the Pacifica Foundation, which owns WBAI, said that after talks with SAG-AFTRA
The Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA, stylized as SAG·AFTRA ) is an American labor union representing approximately 160,000 film and television actors, journalists, radio personalities, record ...
, the union that represents broadcasting talent, "we will be laying off virtually everyone whose voice you recognize on the air," effective Monday. She corrected that and announced the final number was 19 out of the station's 29 employees, about 66%. Andrew Phillips, the former general manager of another of Pacifica's five stations, KPFA
KPFA (94.1 FM) is an American listener-funded talk radio and music radio station located in Berkeley, California, broadcasting to the San Francisco Bay Area. KPFA airs public news, public affairs, talk, and music programming. The station sign ...
in Berkeley, California
Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emer ...
, was appointed WBAI's interim program director. ''The New York Times'' reported that the station owed $2 million in broadcast fees to ''Democracy Now!
''Democracy Now!'' is an hour-long American TV, radio, and Internet news program hosted by journalists Amy Goodman (who also acts as the show's executive producer), Juan González, and Nermeen Shaikh. The show, which airs live each weekday at ...
'' alone, while cash on hand was just $23,000.
In March 2014, there were assorted rumors that the station would be sold or leased or moved, in whole or in part (including their equipment and antenna at the Empire State Building
The Empire State Building is a 102-story Art Deco skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The building was designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon and built from 1930 to 1931. Its name is derived from "Empire State", the nickname of the st ...
), after contentions and firings both at WBAI and at Pacifica headquarters.
On December 17, 2014, the California State Attorney General opened a full and formal investigation into the Pacifica Radio Foundation, owner of WBAI, with respect to its alleged irregularities as to its finances, violations of California law with respect to nonprofit organizations, and violations of its own bylaws. In 2015, WBAI moved to new studios and offices at 388 Atlantic Avenue in the Boerum Hill
Boerum Hill (pronounced ) is a small neighborhood in the northwestern portion of the New York City borough of Brooklyn, bounded by Schermerhorn Street to the north and Fourth Avenue to the east. The western border is variously given as either Sm ...
section of Brooklyn.
On October 4, 2017, the court rejected WBAI's pleadings as ill-founded and granted the Empire State Realty Trust (ESRT) a summary judgment, in the amount of $1.8m plus attorney's fees, for the monies due through the initial filing date of late 2016. ESRT was awarded with an additional $600k for the lease through the date of the court's ruling, with obligations of approximately $50k+ per month through lease expiration in 2020 also remaining in place. A further settlement was announced on April 6, 2018, releasing WBAI from the court judgment and its obligation to continuing leasing the Empire State tower into 2020. They began broadcasting from 4 Times Square
4 Times Square (also known as 151 West 42nd Street or One Five One; formerly the Condé Nast Building) is a 52-story skyscraper at Times Square in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Located at 1472 Broadway, between 42nd and ...
on May 31, 2018.
On Monday, October 7, 2019, the Pacifica Foundation announced they were shutting down WBAI's local operations, leaving only two workers to keep the station's signal on the air. WBAI began airing a national network feed known as "Pacifica Across America" - a curated collection of original content produced by Pacifica stations KPFA
KPFA (94.1 FM) is an American listener-funded talk radio and music radio station located in Berkeley, California, broadcasting to the San Francisco Bay Area. KPFA airs public news, public affairs, talk, and music programming. The station sign ...
in Berkeley, California
Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emer ...
, KPFK
KPFK (90.7 FM) is a listener-sponsored radio station based in North Hollywood, California, United States, which serves Southern California, and also streams 24 hours a day via the Internet. It was the second of five stations in the non-commerci ...
in Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
, KPFT
KPFT (90.1 FM) is a listener-sponsored community radio station in Houston, Texas, which began broadcasting March 1, 1970 as the fourth station in the Pacifica radio family. The station airs a variety of music, news, talk, and call-in programs, ...
in Houston
Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...
and WPFW in Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
, among other sources (the post-shutdown WBAI schedule included commercial progressive talker Thom Hartmann
Thomas Carl Hartmann (born May 7, 1951) is an American radio personality, author, former psychotherapist, businessman, and progressive political commentator. Hartmann has been hosting a nationally syndicated radio show, ''The Thom Hartmann Pro ...
and Native American free-form series '' Undercurrents'', which is mostly syndicated to public radio). John Vernile, interim executive director of the Pacifica Foundation, said the station's fund raising and audience had declined in recent years, to the point where the rest of the Pacifica network was subsidizing WBAI's operations on top of servicing its unsustainable debt load.
Within hours of the shutdown, WBAI's staffers filed a lawsuit in New York state court challenging the shutdown as illegal. A temporary injunction was granted the afternoon of October 8, 2019 ordering WBAI to resume operations and not dismantle the studio until an October 18 hearing, but by the time the injunction had been issued the studio had already been dismantled, preventing the staff from resuming local operations. An appeals court lifted most of the injunction October 10, only enjoining Pacifica from outright firing WBAI's employees. On Tuesday, October 15, 2019, WBAI's attorney, Arthur Schwartz, stated that Federal Judge Paul A. Engelmayer
Paul Adam Engelmayer (born April 12, 1961) is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Early life and education
Born in New York City, New York, Engelmayer earned an Artium B ...
reactivated the temporary restraining order (TRO), extending it to close of business on the 17th.
On October 15, District Judge Engelmayer (Southern District of New York) extended the New York State Supreme Court's TRO from October 18 through the end of the next hearing, which was scheduled for Monday, October 21. Prior to the hearing, the parties were to submit briefs in support or opposition of the extension of the TRO.
In Manhattan Supreme Court, Judge Melissa Crane ordered Pacifica to return control of the station back to WBAI. She upheld the October 20, 2019 board vote to annul the decision to shutter WBAI. A lawyer for Pacifica, Kara Steger, said that the company planned to appeal the ruling. WBAI resumed local programming on November 7.
References
External links
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Station History & Current Affairs
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{{Coord, 40.687249, N, 73.985566, W, type:landmark_region:US_source:FCC, display=title
Pacifica Foundation stations
BAI
1960 establishments in New York City
Counterculture of the 1960s
1941 establishments in New York City