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 From The Station Manager  

Events

Host Highlights

Volunteers/Internships 

Listener Commentary

Program Schedule

Berthold Reimers

This week, thanks to your help, we were able to pay a portion of our transmitter fees and forestall the loss of our ability to broadcast.  

Thank you for your thoughtful donations - they have come in $5 dollar amounts to $25,000 amounts - and each and every dollar is appreciated. 

As we know, most of you have been effected by the economic crisis and have very limited discretionary funds. But your continued donations make it possible to continue the programming important to you, despite the economic distress we currently find ourselves in. Private donations are crucial to not-for-profits like WBAI and go far in making up for cuts in foundation and state and local government funding that the competition is so steep for today.

Frankly, we could not do what we do without donors such as yourself. We, and those without the means to support the station, deeply appreciate your generosity.

Thank you -

James Irsay

James Irsay returns to WBAI on Friday mornings from 10am - noon beginning on April 12.

Irsay is a lifelong musician, and a virtually lifelong radio host/producer. He attended the Juilliard School, and studied piano and composition with some of the world's greatest musicians. In radio, He has won numerous awards, including several CPB's, the Ohio State, and the Armstrong. He brings an insider's perspective to music, and gets "between the notes" to illustrate questions of interpretation, performance practice, history, etc. His emphasis is on little-heard recorded classical performances - often those recorded during the 78 rpm era. There is no other radio program on New York radio which presents historical recordings accompanied by in-depth, non-pedantic "user-friendly" commentary, as suitable for a neophyte as a professional musician.

The program's title, Morning Irsay, as opposed to, say "Morning Music", was chosen because ultimately, he has always felt free to make good radio from anything that interests him, in addition to presenting classical music. The unexpected is likely to make regular appearances on Morning Irsay. Humor is another defining element of the program, and this element draws listeners who may not have had a predisposition to classical music listening. His audience has always cut across demographic boundaries. The choice to title the program Morning Irsay is also due to name recognition, based on his continuous presence on New York radio from 1971 until 1999, over three stations: WBAI, WNYC and WQXR. The last ten years were spent at WQXR, where he built an audience of one million daily listeners, based on Arbitron ratings.    

In Irsay's words. "New listeners, of all demographics, are always being drawn to their radios and computers. Generations come and go. If great art is presented in youthful but literate language, without pomp or affectation, these listeners feel a greater connection with that art, and a real connection with WBAI. This is life-changing, and is a direct and focused goal of my programming. It is the "WBAI treatment" of music, or indeed any subject, that makes an impression on our listeners.    

Peter Bochan

Esther Armah

Esther Armah continues to scoop awards. After being awarded Most Valuable in Local  Radio for the 2012 Progressive Honor Roll by John Nicholls of The Nation, just last month she scooped the 'My Sister's Keeper Award' from the annual Sista to Sisa Youth Summit. This is a one-day empowerment summit connecting 125 high school girls of Pan African descent from underserved areas across NYC with women making a difference in the areas of technology, media, law, health and wellness, medicine, entertainment, education, personal growth and development and other fields. The girls are engaged in workshops, live entertainment, and reflective activities. Utilizing a 3 step-process of self-awareness, self-appreciation, and self-actualization the workshops and activities equip participants with fundamental tools to make well-informed decisions today and in the future.

Esther Armah was given the prestigious award for her work on Emotional Justice - the mullti-media, multi-platform, multi-generational, -multi-racial arts and conversation series that features live panels, art, on air components. For Season 4, the series work featured key in-depth long form interviews aired on Wake Up Call with a mix of celebrities, activists and scholars.  Included were actor, author and philanthropist Isaiah Washington, scholar and public intellectual Brittney Cooper to name just two.

With more good news, Esther's play SAVIOUR? which debuted in Harlem in October 2011 to sold out audiences and provocative panel discussions that featured Dr Cornel West and Pulitzer prize winner Lynn Nottage, will now debut in Chicago from March 2014 to May 2014.

Esther Armah and her Emotional Justice work have taken her to the Ivy League with a panel appearance at Stanford Universityplus a special panel workshop at the prestigious annual Samuel De Witt Proctor Conference in Dallas, Texas. At both venues she continues to meet new listeners to WBAI and Wake Up Call and introduce audiences to the station via live-stream.

WBAI's producer Ibrahim Gonzalez and Public Affairs Director Kathy Davis interviewed by Christina Pagan at BronxNet. BronxNet is a public, educational, and government access (PEG) cable tv network in The Bronx, airing on multiple Cablevision and Verizon FiOS channels.