In This Issue

Dear WBAI family,

As you may be aware, WBAI has gone through a tumultuous period during the past 10 months and our financial situation has been unstable at best. We initiated a series of measures to stabilize the station and I want to communicate the complex and detailed measures that have been undertaken.

1. We moved out of 120 Wall Street where our rent had reached $45,000.00 per month. We rented a broadcast studio at City College for $5,000.00 per month and moved our offices temporarily to the World Financial Center where, thanks to the diligence of our Interim Development Director Andrea Katz, we were able to enjoy free rent for 8 months. This enabled us to reduce expenses by $40,000.00 per month.

We subsequently moved to what I hope will be our final permanent location at 388 Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn where we are paying $4,500.00 rent per month.

The current savings in rent is approximately $400,000.00 per year.

2. Unfortunately, we had to lay off 19 paid staff members and reduce the salary of the remaining staff because we simply could no longer meet our payroll obligations. Our staff was already too small. Now, we are operating with less than the strictest minimum needed. Andrea Katz and I are doing all the administrative office work that used to be done by at least 5 people.

This reduction in force (RIF) will reduce our expenses by about one million dollars this year.

3. We are currently working on our budget for fiscal year 2014 and we are projecting that we will break even for the first time in 12 years. Further, the WBAI Finance Committee approved our budget for the first time in over 5 years. The budget will go next to the WBAI LSB for approval.

5. However, we have some prior obligations that we still must meet.

-Although we paid all the back Empire State Transmitter rental fees of $250,000.00 over the past 4 months, we still owe the August fees of $49,000.00.

-We need approximately $60,000.00 to acquire all the premiums that were pledged for by our listener / members.

-We owe $40,000.00 in back rent to Silverstein properties for our previous offices at 120 Wall Street.
-We owe more than $200,000 in severance to laid-off staff and Pacifica is currently assembling the resources to meet this obligation.

6.We also need to meet our ongoing obligations and we have no means of  raising money until our October Drive. Our current upcoming major obligations are:

- September Transmitter fees of $49,000.00

- September City College Studio rent of $5,000.00

- September Office rent in Brooklyn of $4,500.00

- August telecommunication bills of $10,000

- September 15 and September 30 payrolls of approximately <$20,000.00 each.

We are in a much better financial situation than we were in January and we need to push a little more to become stable in order to start anew and grow a financially viable operation.  I want to acknowledge the remaining staff, who have risen to the occasion and are deeply committed to the revitalization.

I am certain that starting in October and most definitively by December 2013 you will see and hear definitive changes and improvements. I believe we will become stable with your help as you continue to support us by becoming a BAI Buddy monthly contributor.

Thank you,

Berthold Reimers

General Manager

Events 

First, it is exciting to be back in New York City fighting the good fight at Pacifica. It's a rough time right now, but we are hopeful that we can survive and eventually flourish. I know Pacifica well having recently returned from a two year stint at KPFA in Berkeley and many years at WBAI in the past. I hope I can be helpful.

As most of you know, WBAI is in deep distress as pointed out in the Report to the Listener aired on Friday, August 9th, when interim Executive Director Summer Reese and I reported.

"WBAI lays off paid staff to save New York signal as Andrew Phillips takes programming helm" Listen here.

Almost 75% of staff, including all on-air producers, were laid off. WBAI has been in a deficit for ten years, unable to meet its financial obligations, and draining the network. It simply could not continue.

The WBAI audience continued to drop over the years and now is insufficient to support the station. Fingers can be pointed in many directions and Hurricane Sandy certainly delivered a devastating body blow, but programming in recent years is a major reason WBAI has lost audience members.

In the huge New York radio market one must acknowledge the diversity and interests of all potential listeners. WBAI has not done this and now has to change. We are bringing in programing from other sources to populate morning and afternoon drive-times. I have signed on as Interim Program Director for six months, to help us through this crisis.

This is a chaotic time, but in chaos is opportunity and we believe we can move forward in a new, positive and exciting way. Essentially, Pacifica is taking charge of morning and afternoon drive- times. We plan to pump up our drive-time numbers and we must if we are going to get through this crises.

Here are some of the weekday evolving programming changes:

5-6 am  -  Background Briefing with Ian Masters - a left-of-center public affairs offering from KPFK that opens the morning drive-time.

6-8 am -We plan to roll-out an exciting new morning line-up soon. In the meantime we'll be running specials hosted by Michael G through to 8am and Democracy Now!.

9 am - is a current affairs strip:

Monday - Law and Disorder - Center for Constitutional Rights

Tuesday - Project Censored with Mickey Huff and Peter Phillips

Wednesday - Against the Grain with Sasha Lilley and C.S. Soong 

Thursday - First Voices Indigenous Radio -with Tiokasin Ghosthorse

Friday - Guns and Butter - with Bonnie Faulkner

In the afternoon drive-time we open at 3pm with a repeat of Democracy Now! for the time being. We want to reintroduce the Talk Back format soon - with a variety of volunteer local hosts.

At 4 pm is Margaret Prescod and the Sourner Truth radio program out of KPFK. Margaret is a Caribbean native formerly from Brooklyn, now in LA.

At 5 pm is  Letters and Politics with Mitch Jesserich, an offering from KPFA. Mitch was the producer for the WBAI National Fund Raiser last November which raised almost $200k for WBAI. Mitch is a former WBAI and FSRN producer.

At 6 pm is Free Speech Radio News followed by 30 minutes of other news.

In less than a month we will have our new exciting morning presence at 6-8am.  In the meantime we will be running a free-form morning format that will permit our audience to participate in the show. Michael G will host.

We are in a state of triage and there will be other changes as things unfold. The entire program schedule is posted below and on the WBAI website.

Andrew Phillips
Program Director (Interim)

New Program: MUSLIM STATE OF MIND, Tuesdays 9pm

Muslim State of Mind provides a fresh, progressive, and unique perspective on the Muslim American community.  Featuring a collective of young Muslims from the tri-state area, Muslim State of Mind explores everything from international and local politics to art, science, sports, and of course, religion. Building off the success of "Tahrir," a WBAI program from 1990-2013, "Muslim State of Mind," seeks to display the diversity within the Muslim American community.

 Reem Nasr is a graduate of New York University, where she majored in journalism and Middle Eastern studies. Currently, Reem is a freelance production assistant with Everest Productions where she works on issues of science and technology. She has previously worked as a producer on WNYC's preeminent program, The Brian Lehrer Show. Reem is a contributor to PolicyMic, the first democratic online news platform to engage millennials in debates about real issues. She is of Egyptian and Lebanese descent and is interested in affairs of the Muslim American community. Fluent in English and Arabic she hopes to continue her journalistic work in America and abroad. Whenever she can Reem loves to explore new places and foods. She'll be pursuing a masters degree in broadcast journalism at CUNY this fall.

Fatima Ashraf is former Senior Policy Advisor on health and education to Mayor Bloomberg. She is responsible for several New York City initiatives including the Young Men's Initiative, the Health Literacy Fellowship, and NYC Anti-Youth-Violence Project. Prior to City Hall, Fatima was a social epidemiologist with the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Fatima has been adjunct faculty at Columbia University, New York University, Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, and at the City University of New York. She currently consults for Health Career Connections, a national organization committed to empowering students of health professions to pursue careers in healthcare and public health. Fatima holds a Masters from the University of Michigan and Bachelors from the University of Wisconsin.

Saadia Aslam hails from Nutley, New Jersey. She is an art therapist in New York City. She has worked with Smile and the Dr. Helen May Strauss Clinic addressing substance abuse and addiction among teenagers using art therapy. Saadia received her Bachelors degree in Management and Global Studies from the New Jersey Institute of Technology and her Masters in Art Therapy from the School of Visual Arts in NYC. Saadia is a multi-lingual activist, proficient in Urdu, French, Arabic, and Spanish. She is an active member of the Muslim Democrats.
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New Program: INTERPERSONAL UPDATE- Alternating Thursdays 1-2pm (This Thursday: Sept. 5)

Harriet Fraad and Tess Fraad- Wolff

Political is personal. Hosted by Harriet Fraad and Tess Fraad-Wolff, Interpersonal Update presents updates on transformations in US personal life: dating, intimate relationships, and family life. The show will tell you what is happening in the larger economic social and political picture and its impact on our personal lives and welcomes call-in questions.

Harriet Fraad, Ed.D, is a psychotherapist and hypnotherapist in private practice in New York City. She writes regularly for Truthout, and journals such as Tikkun, and The Journal of Psychohistory. Her latest book written with Richard Wolff and Stephen Resnick is Class Struggle on the Home Front (Palgrave 2009).

She writes a blog called "Economy and Society" with Richard D. Wolff that appears on her website, hfraad.com Her newest publication is an essay written with Tess Fraad-Wolff, "Imagine Personal and Sexual Life Under Socialism" which appears in the forthcoming book Imagine Socialism in the USA (Harper Collins, 2013).

Tess Fraad-Wolff, LMSW, CAT is a Psychotherapist and Art Therapist at the Center for Psychological Well-Being in New York City. She lectures and writes on the intersections of economic, psychological and sexual life.

Please send your comments, complaints, or compliments related to any program subject matter aired this month to Listenercommentary@wbai.org with "Listener Comment" in the subject line. Submissions should be limited to 400 words and please include your full name and location. We reserve the right to edit where deemed necessary.