[lbo-talk] Why Not Sell WBAI?

Michael Perelman michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
Fri Jul 22 13:28:06 PDT 2005


What left organization has shown the capacity to absorb such an amount of money & put it to good use. Why not just send the proceeds to a select group of administrators & advisors & be done with it.

On Fri, Jul 22, 2005 at 04:02:16PM -0400, Nathan Newman wrote:
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Doug Henwood" <dhenwood at panix.com>
> >I can understand where you're coming from but if the station's future
> >is very rocky unless some serious money can be raised.
>
> Okay, just to raise the boogeyman.
>
> Does owning a radio license for a network that ends up reaching a relatively
> small number of listeners justify the opportunity cost of foregoing the
> value of the radio license for other purposes. I've seen estimates that the
> WBAI license is worth as much as $250 million, which means that the Pacifica
> trustees are probably on paper the wealthiest identifiably Left institution
> in existence.
>
> Yet the results are pretty paultry.
>
> Wouldn't it make more sense to sell the license, put the broadcast on the
> Internet or on XM or Sirius, who might cover the production costs and who
> are looking for niche stations. "Podcasts" could be the next big thing and,
> who knows, WBAI could end up with a rapidly depreceating asset worth very
> little in coming years as broadcast radio is replaced by these other systems
> of delivering audio content.
>
> Instead, use the annual income from the sale, put the $250 million in a
> trust, and pump tens of millions of dollars yearly in grants into a wide
> range of left grassroots media or other political projects.
>
> Do you really think WBAI's political influence serves the left more than
> what say $12 million per year devoted to alternative uses?
>
> Nathan Newman
>
>
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-- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929

Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu



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