"You Been Duped, You Been Tricked, You Been Bamboozled!"

This was a phrase uttered by Malcolm X during one of his many attempts to get the African American community to realize the enormity of the lies that were being propagated by the rulers and historians of his time. Malcolm was explaining how popularly accepted negative myths were designed to confuse and immobilize Black people. Unfortunately deception is a tool that is still being used by those in power to paralyze and disorient the people. Those who are presently controlling WBAI and Pacifica are quite adept at creating myths to either justify or obfuscate their racist behavior leaving in their wake a confused and paralyzed community. What they don’t understand however is that their deception is not sustainable. As Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King often said, “Truth crushed to earth will rise again.”

We are now witnessing the beginning of the resurrection. Over the past ten months we have been fed a robust diet of lies about the financial health of WBAI. We were told that former station manager, Anthony Riddle concealed from the board that WBAI was behind in its rental payments and that the former Program Director, Bernard White, was terminated because he was unable to organize fund drives that raised enough money to pay the bills. This was a calculated distortion of reality used to illegally remove management. We now know why LaVarn Williams, the previous interim station manager and current CFO, withheld the budget from public scrutiny for several months. Information that has just been made public clearly shows the dishonesty of those assertions and the absurdity of the remedy that was taken. If those charges were a rational and legitimate reason to remove previous management then present management should be removed immediately.

We have been told repeatedly that the new management is doing a “wonderful job” and that WBAI's income has dramatically increased; that bills are now being paid and that listenership is on the incline. All of the “happy news’ we have been told by the new board majority, Williams and Grace Aaron, the former Interim Executive Director of the Pacifica foundation is a lie. After making public statements on January 29th leading people to believe that WBAI was all caught up on its rent, the chair of WBAI’s Local Station Board, Mitchel Cohen, a strong supporter of Williams and the coup, was forced to publicly acknowledge several days later that as of the beginning of March 2010 WBAI was three months behind in its rent at 120 Wall St., two months behind in its rent for the transmitter space at the Empire State Building. (In fact, the new station manager, Muriel Tillinghast, who strted her position as of February 1st, has made catching up on the rent her #1 priority.)Listenership is down and there is an unprecedented decrease in the fulfillment rate on pledges made during each fund drive since they took control. The chickens are slowly returning to the hen house.

There are specific immutable realities that the present management has chosen to ignore in pursuit of their goal of ethnic cleansing and appealing to a whiter, broader audience. If they continue to ignore these factors it will surely lead to the demise of WBAI and Pacifica.

    1. It’s the economy Stupid: All terrestrial media outlets - both commercial and not-for-profits - are experiencing economic difficulties in these harsh economic times. Air America is no more. Clear Channel is selling off its assets to recoup its losses. Dozens of other media outlets are folding or selling off their assets to offset their losses.

    2. It’s the rent Dummy: WBAI pays over $60,000 per month for its tower, rental and utility costs. Prior management has been removed but the new management still has to generate enough revenue to pay seven times what the rest of Pacifica is paying for its rental costs. We are still being told that the lease can't be renegotiated or broken. In fact, it can, as real property legal experts have told us. Still there is a refusal to discuss the possibility of moving. Strange behavior?  (See the bar graph at the upper right corner of the front page comparing WBAI’s expenses to the rest of Pacifica. The purple bar is WBAI. You do the math.)

    3. Increased competition and changing listening habits: Twitter, Myspace, Facebook, Blogs, Youtube, etc. have provided formidable competition for the leisure time of real and potential listeners to terrestrial radio. Pacifica needs to conduct an objective analysis on how new technology impacts our present and potential listener base. If warranted Pacifica must allocate the resources necessary to increase its cyber presence.

    4. Inordinate influence of a racist propagandist who is intent on benefiting monetarily from his relationship with the station, possibly buying or leasing it if it goes under:
Check out: (http://justiceunity.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=69:-wbai-lsb-disassociates-itself-from-public-comments-of-lsb-member-steve-brown&catid=1:latest-news&Itemid=56)
(http://whoisstevebrown.info/)

These are the realities that must be acknowledged and successfully negotiated if WBAI and Pacifica are to survive in this period. If the powers that be continue to ignore these factors both WBAI and Pacifica will have a short, grim future. It is up to the listeners and supporters to stand up and demand that the new management cease and desist with the lies and the violations of the rights of its workers both paid and unpaid. They must also take seriously the actual factors that have negatively impacted the station and that threaten its survival.

Throughout the network listeners and producers are organizing to fight back against the destruction of the network. If you are interested in finding out what you can do please visit:
http://www.takebackwbai.org
http://www.facebook.com/pages/takebackwbaiorg/89438391508
http://www.bernardwhite.blogspot.com/
http://www.livestream.com/wbaix

If you accept the false construct being fed to us by the new board majority it’s a clear indication that “Ya Been Tricked, Ya Been Duped, Ya Been Bamboozled.”

“Stay Strong and Pay Close Attention”

Bernard White, Former Program Director-WBAI, 99.5FM