PLEASE FORWARD
I know that not everyone reading this is involved in the debate raging around WBAI, but the radio station has been very important in the lives of many progressive people in the NY region and as part of the Pacifica radio network nationally.
The station, in my view, is being destroyed by a cabal of self-centered opportunists who use inflamatory racial rhetoric to cover-up their corruption and unaccountability. As a result, the listenership as well as the station's income has dropped precipitously, to which these same individuals -- grouped around the misnamed "Justice & Unity Campaign" -- predictably scapegoat the messengers in a hail of racial invective.
Don DeBar, an activist in Westchester county, has defended the management at the station -- Don Rojas (station manager until recently) and Bernard White (program director) -- and challenged me to back up the assertions that I've made.
So I am posting here just a small glimpse at the evidence. Much of what is written below was culled from official documents by Jamie Ross, with a nudge here and there by Alex Steinberg. Thank you, Jamie (and Alex)!
I also thank Patty Heffley, Carolyn Birden, Berthold Reimers, Miguel Maldonado and Steve Brown -- my fellow listener representatives on the Local Station Board -- for their insights into these documents and intense concern for the well-being of the station that we feel is being hijacked and plundered; and to Shawn Rhodes and R. Paul Martin, decent and conscientious staff members on the LSB.
Unlike Don DeBar and his friends, we think that the new Interim General Manager, Indra Hardat, is an honest and forthright person who is doing her best to get the station back on an even financial keel. In my view this will not be possible until the atrocious programming decisions are reversed -- such decisions as the firing of Gary Null and Robert Knight, and the driving out of Mike Feder, to name a few -- and the program director replaced by a more competent and sensitive individual OR by a programming council that includes listener representatives as well as staff and management.
Don DeBar wrote:
>He [Mitchel Cohen] made, via post, the allegations.<
Actually no - Don DeBar started the whole thing with the post entitled SILENT COUP: WBAI DUMPS WAKEUP CALL REPORTER LESLIE GEORGE, that linked to a web page in which he accused interim GM Indra Hardat of firing staff, in violation of union rules, for factional reasons.
Then Don DeBar wrote:
>But seriously, I still await HIS reply, documenting the financial situation
at WBAI and, specifically, his claims that Bernard White and Don Rojas are
responsible for the current conditions.<
OK, let's start with the financial situation at WBAI. It's not good. Several things to look at:
First, WBAI's fundraising ability has slipped dramatically in recent years.
At its peak, in 1998, WBAI could raise $1,000,000 in pledges in 18 days - about $56,000 per day. Now, the station struggles to raise $30,000 - $40,000 per day. As a result, WBAI has to devote much more time and energy to fundraising. For details, see http://radioactivist.net/fundraising_days.html .
Decline in response to on-air pledge drives could be due to a few factors, including reduced commitment to WBAI, donor fatigue from too much fundraising, disinterest in the current programming, dislike for the incessant hawking and pitching of premiums that can be obtained for MUCH less money or even for free directly from the source over the internet, or less money available among the listeners. Whatever the cause, it is a problem, and it seems to be getting worse.
This pattern is not in evidence at other Pacifica stations, which raise money much more efficiently in recent years, employ far fewer salaried staff, and spend 60 percent or even less airtime in contrast to WBAI in fundraising drives. (WBAI spent 91+ days last year in fundraising drives in which normal programming was pre-empted.)
Second, the drop in response to pledge drives has lowered the station's income. In real terms, WBAI had 10-15% less income in Fiscal Year 2005 (which just ended) than FY 2004. (See http://radioactivist.net/long_term.html for details.)
To make up for this shortfall, the station has to reduce expenditures, principally salary, as other expenses, rent, etc., are more or less fixed and even increasing. This is quite difficult, especially since people like Don DeBar claim that the interim General Manager is engineering a coup, when in fact she is trying her damnedest to make ends meet.
In fact, the previous GM, Don Rojas, in collaboration with Bernard White, contracted out for a huge number of unbudgeted services and consultants (instead of using in-house volunteers, where necessary.) These non-budgeted, unaccountable actions cost the station the funds needed to pay a significant portion of the salaries of those being cut today.
Another area in which the station has been bleeding money is the tens of thousands of dollars spent to purchase premiums to then mark up exponentially to "offer" to listeners. This had been an entirely unsupervised area and riddled with potential kickbacks. Despite repeated requests, no breakdown has been made to the Local Station Board of "who was paid what?" for their "donation" of premiums offered over the air and on the website. Don Rojas's replacement, the interim General Manager Indra Hardat, has pledged to look into this area and make a full accounting, if she is able to find the data, and rectify this in the future.
In addition, the station has just been socked with a new bill amounting to over $100,000 in debts owed to lawyers, arising from incidents that management has yet to document to the Local Station Board, which is responsible for reviewing and approving the annual station budget.
Pacifica's Chief Financial Officer and its national board are in agreement that WBAI is in trouble and needs to cut salary. WBAI's shaky financial status has been a continuing worry for the national board's finance committee (for details, see notes on http://wbai.net ). There is continuing fear that the other stations are going to have to bail WBAI out, which runs the risk of bankrupting the network and, in my opinion, of setting the stage for the possible SALE of the station to private interests.
Third, audits of recent years show that WBAI carries about $100,000 more in "current liabilities" (accounts payable, etc.) than "current assets" (cash in bank, receivables, inventory, etc.). WBAI is anomalous in this regard, and has been forced to ask for a waiver on Pacifica's regulations, which means that WBAI has to BORROW (paybacks to come out of future budgets and listener contributions) hundreds of thousands of dollars this year from the funds contributed to Pacifica by other stations to cover this difference and then some. Pacifica's other big stations, KPFA and KPFK carry at least $500,000 more in current assets than in current liabilities. Pacifica audits can be found on http://pacifica.org .
Fourth, the most recent arbitron data (spring 2005) shows a 25-30% drop in WBAI listenership from other recent quarters ( http://radioactivist.net/arbitron.html ). It remains to be seen if this is a one-time drop or the beginning of a trend. But it does not augur well.
Then we come to the roles of Bernard White and Don Rojas in this situation. Yes, they are responsible for this situation -- they are/were management. (Rojas left in May 2005.)
Don Rojas (former GM):
-spent station time and money on non-essentials, like TV and an overly complex and unsuccessful internet radio project to which he devoted a great deal of his salaried time. (The project has been canned, at lest temporarily, by the interim General Manager who replaced Don Rojas in order to save funds, and thus jobs).
-avoided reality and blew smoke. When Patty Heffley (now on the Pacifica National Board) pointed out in June 2004 that WBAI's increasingly long fund drives were emblematic of a problem, Don accused her of attacking him, rather than listening to her well-founded concerns. At the national board meeting in 2005, Don Rojas reported that WBAI's finances were in excellent shape, which was B.S. He resigned from his General Manager position NOT because he was unfairly badgered, but because the governing bodies at WBAI and Pacifica were demanding financial accountability and realistic projections.
-refused to give information requested by the local station board. In 2004, the LSB became aware that WBAI was spending an inordinate amount of money on consultants and contractors, and asked him for details. He refused to give it.
-refused to provide a reasonable budget. In October 2004, the LSB requested a smaller budget than what management provided, on the well-founded belief that WBAI cound not meet the expanded fundraising goal. Again, Don Rojas refused, and the situation went to the national board which ordered a scaled-down budget (but not scaled down enough to prevent the financial desperation that we are now seeing). As it turned out, the Local Station Board was correct, and WBAI indeed did NOT meet the fundraising goal in Rojas's budget -- thus leading to the need for austerity measures, including salary cutbacks and even layoffs, at the present time -- as we'd predicted would occur if they did not heed our warnings.
Bernard White (program director):
-was behind the removal of Gary Null and Robert Knight from WBAI air. Whether one likes Null or Knight, you have to admit that Robert is an extremely skilled reporter and commentator, and that Gary has a large audience and a fascinating program. His firing deprives the station of contributions from their listeners, who would hopefully listen to the other shows as well and become more involved in progressive thinking and activity. It is not surprising that listenership has fallen since Gary left WBAI's air. If he had to go, realistic management would accept that WBAI has to get by on less. And Robert's removal is just simply an outrage. Neither Bernard nor Don ever publicly accepted and planned for the financial consequences of their lashing out out their critics (such as Gary and Robert).
-refuses to put Democracy Now at the best time. The best time for DN is 8-9 am, when the largest potential audience can hear, and possibly repeat it in the evening or late at night. This move would make more money available to the station. However, Bernard refuses to move up DN's timeslot by an hour, since it would cut into Wake Up Call, which is run in part by his allies. (Not referring to Deepa Fernandez here.)
-in general is responsible for the programming. Ultimately it is the programming that convinces people to donate. Without compelling programming, the station's finances suffer. (see http://wbai.net/wbai/wbai_lsb_PD_7-27-05.html for an extended statement and Q and A with Bernard White and the LSB.)
-promoted a factionalized station environment that is not conducive to a highly functioning radio station, and which drives away volunteers (which is evidenced to some degree by the repeated on-air pleas for listeners to come down to the station and answer phones during fundraising marathons).
-puts his own personal agenda before those of the station. One example was his "report to the listener" of late August 2005, in which he spent prime morning air time berating LSB member Steve Brown, who is critical of Bernard White but who has no access to the airwaves. Not only is this unfair to Steve, it's a waste of listeners' time. Most listeners want to hear what's going on in the world, not Bernard's attacks on his "enemies."
The financial documents referred to here are available to any listener-member. This is one of the "rights" that I and the others whom I thanked above fought for over the years and ensured in the current Pacifica bylaws. And it is one of the rights that some are trying to block and take away, as evidenced by the refusal of management to provide Local Station Board members and even Pacifica National Board members with documents needed to review the station's financial situation -- a battle in which the duties of the LSB and the rights of listener-members was upheld, but only after a long, costly and undemocratic battle waged by WBAI management to prevent board members from viewing the records.
- Mitchel Cohen
Please note that Jamie Ross wrote most of the evidentiary material, above. I added a number of comments. But I want to make sure that Jamie gets credit for doing much of this research and writing, and does not get blamed for the additional material I added -- blame that is sure to come (so be forewarned). -----Original Message----- From: ActionGreens at yahoogroups.com [mailto:ActionGreens at yahoogroups.com]On Behalf Of mitchelcohen at mindspring.com Sent: Monday, October 17, 2005 4:09 AM To: actiongreens at yahoogroups.com Subject: [ActionGreens] The WBAI collapse, and Who Is Responsible?
PLEASE FORWARD
I know that not everyone reading this is involved in the debate raging around WBAI, but the radio station has been very important in the lives of many progressive people in the NY region and as part of the Pacifica radio network nationally.
The station, in my view, is being destroyed by a cabal of self-centered opportunists who use inflamatory racial rhetoric to cover-up their corruption and unaccountability. As a result, the listenership as well as the station's income has dropped precipitously, to which these same individuals -- grouped around the misnamed "Justice & Unity Campaign" -- predictably scapegoat the messengers in a hail of racial invective.
Don DeBar, an activist in Westchester county, has defended the management at the station -- Don Rojas (station manager until recently) and Bernard White (program director) -- and challenged me to back up the assertions that I've made.
So I am posting here just a small glimpse at the evidence. Much of what is written below was culled from official documents by Jamie Ross, with a nudge here and there by Alex Steinberg. Thank you, Jamie (and Alex)!
I also thank Patty Heffley, Carolyn Birden, Berthold Reimers, Miguel Maldonado and Steve Brown -- my fellow listener representatives on the Local Station Board -- for their insights into these documents and intense concern for the well-being of the station that we feel is being hijacked and plundered; and to Shawn Rhodes and R. Paul Martin, decent and conscientious staff members on the LSB.
Unlike Don DeBar and his friends, we think that the new Interim General Manager, Indra Hardat, is an honest and forthright person who is doing her best to get the station back on an even financial keel. In my view this will not be possible until the atrocious programming decisions are reversed -- such decisions as the firing of Gary Null and Robert Knight, and the driving out of Mike Feder, to name a few -- and the program director replaced by a more competent and sensitive individual OR by a programming council that includes listener representatives as well as staff and management.
Don DeBar wrote:
>He [Mitchel Cohen] made, via post, the allegations.<
Actually no - Don DeBar started the whole thing with the post entitled SILENT COUP: WBAI DUMPS WAKEUP CALL REPORTER LESLIE GEORGE, that linked to a web page in which he accused interim GM Indra Hardat of firing staff, in violation of union rules, for factional reasons.
Then Don DeBar wrote:
>But seriously, I still await HIS reply, documenting the financial situation
at WBAI and, specifically, his claims that Bernard White and Don Rojas are
responsible for the current conditions.<
OK, let's start with the financial situation at WBAI. It's not good. Several things to look at:
First, WBAI's fundraising ability has slipped dramatically in recent years.
At its peak, in 1998, WBAI could raise $1,000,000 in pledges in 18 days - about $56,000 per day. Now, the station struggles to raise $30,000 - $40,000 per day. As a result, WBAI has to devote much more time and energy to fundraising. For details, see http://radioactivist.net/fundraising_days.html .
Decline in response to on-air pledge drives could be due to a few factors, including reduced commitment to WBAI, donor fatigue from too much fundraising, disinterest in the current programming, dislike for the incessant hawking and pitching of premiums that can be obtained for MUCH less money or even for free directly from the source over the internet, or less money available among the listeners. Whatever the cause, it is a problem, and it seems to be getting worse.
This pattern is not in evidence at other Pacifica stations, which raise money much more efficiently in recent years, employ far fewer salaried staff, and spend 60 percent or even less airtime in contrast to WBAI in fundraising drives. (WBAI spent 91+ days last year in fundraising drives in which normal programming was pre-empted.)
Second, the drop in response to pledge drives has lowered the station's income. In real terms, WBAI had 10-15% less income in Fiscal Year 2005 (which just ended) than FY 2004. (See http://radioactivist.net/long_term.html for details.)
To make up for this shortfall, the station has to reduce expenditures, principally salary, as other expenses, rent, etc., are more or less fixed and even increasing. This is quite difficult, especially since people like Don DeBar claim that the interim General Manager is engineering a coup, when in fact she is trying her damnedest to make ends meet.
In fact, the previous GM, Don Rojas, in collaboration with Bernard White, contracted out for a huge number of unbudgeted services and consultants (instead of using in-house volunteers, where necessary.) These non-budgeted, unaccountable actions cost the station the funds needed to pay a significant portion of the salaries of those being cut today.
Another area in which the station has been bleeding money is the tens of thousands of dollars spent to purchase premiums to then mark up exponentially to "offer" to listeners. This had been an entirely unsupervised area and riddled with potential kickbacks. Despite repeated requests, no breakdown has been made to the Local Station Board of "who was paid what?" for their "donation" of premiums offered over the air and on the website. Don Rojas's replacement, the interim General Manager Indra Hardat, has pledged to look into this area and make a full accounting, if she is able to find the data, and rectify this in the future.
In addition, the station has just been socked with a new bill amounting to over $100,000 in debts owed to lawyers, arising from incidents that management has yet to document to the Local Station Board, which is responsible for reviewing and approving the annual station budget.
Pacifica's Chief Financial Officer and its national board are in agreement that WBAI is in trouble and needs to cut salary. WBAI's shaky financial status has been a continuing worry for the national board's finance committee (for details, see notes on http://wbai.net ). There is continuing fear that the other stations are going to have to bail WBAI out, which runs the risk of bankrupting the network and, in my opinion, of setting the stage for the possible SALE of the station to private interests.
Third, audits of recent years show that WBAI carries about $100,000 more in "current liabilities" (accounts payable, etc.) than "current assets" (cash in bank, receivables, inventory, etc.). WBAI is anomalous in this regard, and has been forced to ask for a waiver on Pacifica's regulations, which means that WBAI has to BORROW (paybacks to come out of future budgets and listener contributions) hundreds of thousands of dollars this year from the funds contributed to Pacifica by other stations to cover this difference and then some. Pacifica's other big stations, KPFA and KPFK carry at least $500,000 more in current assets than in current liabilities. Pacifica audits can be found on http://pacifica.org .
Fourth, the most recent arbitron data (spring 2005) shows a 25-30% drop in WBAI listenership from other recent quarters ( http://radioactivist.net/arbitron.html ). It remains to be seen if this is a one-time drop or the beginning of a trend. But it does not augur well.
Then we come to the roles of Bernard White and Don Rojas in this situation. Yes, they are responsible for this situation -- they are/were management. (Rojas left in May 2005.)
Don Rojas (former GM):
-spent station time and money on non-essentials, like TV and an overly complex and unsuccessful internet radio project to which he devoted a great deal of his salaried time. (The project has been canned, at lest temporarily, by the interim General Manager who replaced Don Rojas in order to save funds, and thus jobs).
-avoided reality and blew smoke. When Patty Heffley (now on the Pacifica National Board) pointed out in June 2004 that WBAI's increasingly long fund drives were emblematic of a problem, Don accused her of attacking him, rather than listening to her well-founded concerns. At the national board meeting in 2005, Don Rojas reported that WBAI's finances were in excellent shape, which was B.S. He resigned from his General Manager position NOT because he was unfairly badgered, but because the governing bodies at WBAI and Pacifica were demanding financial accountability and realistic projections.
-refused to give information requested by the local station board. In 2004, the LSB became aware that WBAI was spending an inordinate amount of money on consultants and contractors, and asked him for details. He refused to give it.
-refused to provide a reasonable budget. In October 2004, the LSB requested a smaller budget than what management provided, on the well-founded belief that WBAI cound not meet the expanded fundraising goal. Again, Don Rojas refused, and the situation went to the national board which ordered a scaled-down budget (but not scaled down enough to prevent the financial desperation that we are now seeing). As it turned out, the Local Station Board was correct, and WBAI indeed did NOT meet the fundraising goal in Rojas's budget -- thus leading to the need for austerity measures, including salary cutbacks and even layoffs, at the present time -- as we'd predicted would occur if they did not heed our warnings.
Bernard White (program director):
-was behind the removal of Gary Null and Robert Knight from WBAI air. Whether one likes Null or Knight, you have to admit that Robert is an extremely skilled reporter and commentator, and that Gary has a large audience and a fascinating program. His firing deprives the station of contributions from their listeners, who would hopefully listen to the other shows as well and become more involved in progressive thinking and activity. It is not surprising that listenership has fallen since Gary left WBAI's air. If he had to go, realistic management would accept that WBAI has to get by on less. And Robert's removal is just simply an outrage. Neither Bernard nor Don ever publicly accepted and planned for the financial consequences of their lashing out out their critics (such as Gary and Robert).
-refuses to put Democracy Now at the best time. The best time for DN is 8-9 am, when the largest potential audience can hear, and possibly repeat it in the evening or late at night. This move would make more money available to the station. However, Bernard refuses to move up DN's timeslot by an hour, since it would cut into Wake Up Call, which is run in part by his allies. (Not referring to Deepa Fernandez here.)
-in general is responsible for the programming. Ultimately it is the programming that convinces people to donate. Without compelling programming, the station's finances suffer. (see http://wbai.net/wbai/wbai_lsb_PD_7-27-05.html for an extended statement and Q and A with Bernard White and the LSB.)
-promoted a factionalized station environment that is not conducive to a highly functioning radio station, and which drives away volunteers (which is evidenced to some degree by the repeated on-air pleas for listeners to come down to the station and answer phones during fundraising marathons).
-puts his own personal agenda before those of the station. One example was his "report to the listener" of late August 2005, in which he spent prime morning air time berating LSB member Steve Brown, who is critical of Bernard White but who has no access to the airwaves. Not only is this unfair to Steve, it's a waste of listeners' time. Most listeners want to hear what's going on in the world, not Bernard's attacks on his "enemies."
The financial documents referred to here are available to any listener-member. This is one of the "rights" that I and the others whom I thanked above fought for over the years and ensured in the current Pacifica bylaws. And it is one of the rights that some are trying to block and take away, as evidenced by the refusal of management to provide Local Station Board members and even Pacifica National Board members with documents needed to review the station's financial situation -- a battle in which the duties of the LSB and the rights of listener-members was upheld, but only after a long, costly and undemocratic battle waged by WBAI management to prevent board members from viewing the records.
- Mitchel Cohen
Please note that Jamie Ross wrote most of the evidentiary material, above. I added a number of comments. But I want to make sure that Jamie gets credit for doing much of this research and writing, and does not get blamed for the additional material I added -- blame that is sure to come (so be forewarned).
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