Pat Logan Candidate Statement

I have been a WBAI listener since 1966. During the mid-'90's I supported the UE affiliated staff Union. I was outraged when WBAI General Manager Valerie Van Isler successfully appealed the inclusion of unpaid staff to the NLRB. I understood quite early the extent of the problems which led to the listener law suits and the December, 2000 coup.

I was enraged by the bannings and the red bating which characterized the Leid administration. When the first elected Board took its' seats I was excited and optimistic. Since then I have attended almost all the LSB meetings which have become increasingly unproductive and hostile.

For several years I have participated in the Program Committee, observing its wrangling and lack of accomplishment. This year I joined the Radio Committee charged with putting together the LSB Reports To The Listener. The split in the Board which Justice And Unity erroneously claims is caused by racial animosity, a smoke screen designed to intimidate dissenters, results only partially from the extent to which members believe that identity politics should or should not be the dominant paradigm in determining programming and the makeup of the audience the LSB and management aspire to reach.

At bottom each meeting as well as this election are confrontations between those who want to maintain the status quo, i.e. current management, at almost any cost and those who recognize the need for fiscal responsibility, greater transparency, meaningful listener input and closer adherence to the Pacifica mission.

The current Board has accomplished so little because its J&U majority prevents the LSB from carrying out its mandated oversight and fiduciary responsibilities. If they remain the majority will WBAI survive? I fear that it will not.

Thousands of former listeners now seek information elsewhere. Disgruntled listeners withhold their dollars. They have given up on the potential of WBAI/Pacifica. You, on the other hand, can nurture WBAI by changing the balance of power on the Local Board and its Committees, ensuring that management will be thoroughly evaluated and that balanced budgets, based on realistic assessments of station income and expenses, will be submitted to the National Finance Committee; you who can determine the kind of folks the LSB elects to the National Board which, among other things, hires Pacifica's CEO, who, in turn, hires WBAI's General Manager.

So please vote for me, James Ross, Robert Gold, Bernardo Palumbo, Carla Cubit, Albert Solomon and Jennifer Jager.