2009-07-26 WBAI LSB Report

1. The WBAI Local Station Board welcomes the new management to WBAI, and
greatly appreciates the appointment of LaVarn Williams and Tony Bates as
interim management, and the sacrifices they have made in their personal
lives in order to help put WBAI back on track.

WBAI had built up a huge deficit over the last 5 years and prior management
failed to report to the LSB the extent of the situation we were in, and also
failed to take a number of steps recommended by the LSB to reverse the
downward slide. So we greatly welcome the Pacifica National Board?s
commitment to SAVING WBAI as a radical, listener-sponsored radio station
that will deepen its commitment to our diverse communities and expand access
to social justice and environmental movements in the NY Metropolitan area.

We cannot afford to lose this station, nor to commercialize it, nor to sell
it; WBAI is a precious jewel that gives voice to our movements and the arts,
and these need to be heard -- they get no airing in the corporate media. We
need to broaden discussion and debate of movement strategies WITHIN the
Pacifica Mission which has been missing from WBAI for some time, and WBAI
needs to expand that concept. We applaud the initiatives of the Pacifica
National Board that have reinforced that direction.

Most of all, the WBAI LSB THANKS the other stations for BAILING US OUT TO
THE TUNE OF MORE THAN A MILLION DOLLARS over the last five years, and we
thank the PNB, Grace Aaron in particular and all of the officers of
Pacifica, for SAVING the station from financial disaster and preventing the
corporate forces from shutting down the station altogether. Thank you, thank
you, thank you!

2. I became Chair of the LSB at the end of April, 2008, and was re-elected
in December.

3. The LSB has taken many actions, some of which remain to be implemented.
Among them, a resolution to expand the News Department which provides some
of the most important and most listened to programming on WBAI. The local
news consistently reaches out to communities under- served by both corporate
and public media. This cornerstone of WBAI programming has for too long been
severely understaffed and under-budgeted. The WBAI LSB requested that
management formulate a plan, in conjunction with the News Director, to
provide adequate funding for the possible increase of News staff, within the
context of looming cuts, in order to improve the quality of, and to expand
local news programming. This plan would consider training and utilizing
stringers and other resources that the News Director and Management
determine are necessary to implement these goals.¨WBAI management instead
laid off a key and award-winning reporter, Eric Williams, who provided
excellent coverage of City Hall -- sorely needed, especially in this
election year.

4. This Local Station Board also passed motions opposing the whipping up of
public sentiment against Venezuela, and called for public hearings on the
U.S. government's increasing hostility to the elected government of Hugo
Chavez. We urged WBAI to air more voices opposing the U.S. government's
hostile actions, in order to give some balance to the blitzkrieg of attacks
against Chavez that was appearing in the corporate media.

5. The LSB also affirmed the rights of Pacifica Foundation Directors, which
we felt had been severely violated. Our resolution supported the right of
PNB Directors to inspect records at WBAI. The inspection had initially been
approved by the Interim General Manager and was properly conducted; but
Pacifica?s chief counsel at the time interfered with it. The Local Station
Board of WBAI passed a resolution that deplored the interference with
Pacifica Directors? inspections and inspection rights at WBAI by former
interim Executive Director and Foundation Counsel Dan Siegel. The LSB
reaffirmed the absolute rights of Foundation Directors to exercise their
fiduciary responsibility to inspect station and foundation records and
equipment per California Corporate Code §6334.

6. Similarly, putting into practice our commitment to transparency and
accountability, the LSB called upon the Pacifica National Board and its
National Finance Committee to conduct all discussions about the budgets of
the stations and network in public session, with the sole exception of those
specific budget line-items that properly fall under the exemptions to the
requirement of open meetings in Article 6, Section 7 of the Pacifica bylaws,
i.e., individual personnel matters that require confidentiality (such as
individuals' salaries) and matters related to litigation or the need for
confidential legal consultation, and commercial transactions such as loans
or lines of credit. We appreciate the renewal of Pacifica's commitment to
openness that is taking place on the Finance Committee, with Jamie Ross as
Chair. This commitment to openness is a very welcome change. The WBAI LSB
encourages the PNB to extend this transparency to all areas of Pacifica.

7. The LSB approved the "Mending Fences Resolution," which required
management, along with a committee of members of the LSB, to meet with
Robert Knight and Gary Null, to suggest ways to move forward and heal the
breach with them, with other staff and producers who were fired, and with
their many listeners. This included the possibility of returning Knight and
Null to WBAI's airwaves. We greatly appreciate LaVarn Williams' and Tony
Bates' new "reaching out" in this regard, and hope that such efforts will be
fruitful.

8. The LSB strongly endorsed a very detailed proposal to reclaim unfulfilled
pledge funds -- management simply refused to implement this ?no brainer?
despite repeated requests and votes by the LSB, which also requested that
the GM prepare a realistic recovery plan to bring WBAI to full solvency.
This also was ignored. We look forward to discussing such plans for WBAI
with the new iGM.

9. The WBAI LSB has created a Management Search Committee with 50 percent
representation on it by staff, and the other 50 percent by listeners. (All
will be elected by the Local Station Board, with one-half coming from
current members and the other half elected from non-LSB members who have
applied to serve on that committee.)

10. The LSB passed a motion on Waivers policy for 2009 that asks the
National Elections and Local Elections supervisors to implement a policy to
identify those candidates eligible for waivers as of July 15, 2009 and that
if any eligible candidates are identified, they will be grandfathered into
the membership database by the NES no later than August 15, 2009. (This
motion narrowly passed. As Chair of the Local Station Board, I believe this
motion to be illegal as it violates the date-of-record stipulation in the
bylaws, but the LSB did pass this resolution by a majority vote.)

11. The LSB did approve a modest Off-Air Fundraising Plan with the idea that
if we could do a few things well, we would consider additions to it.

12. Finally, for the first time since its inception 6 years ago, the LSB
conducted an exhaustive and detailed evaluation of management in executive
session as required by law. Unless the former management personnel waive
their rights to confidentiality, we have been instructed by corporate
counsel that we are not free to speak in public session about ANY aspects of
the evaluations ­ -- not even about the process, nor even about who
participated in them. I want to stress this because there is much
misinformation that is being spread concerning the evaluations, and members
of the LSB would LOVE to speak freely about them, but we are simply NOT
ALLOWED TO UNDER THE LAW unless and until the personnel involved legally
waive their rights to confidentiality.

All in all, being Chair of the WBAI Local Station Board has been an
exhausting but very productive experience, and the Board is especially
thrilled to have played its role in providing governance and financial
accountability, and helping to SAVE WBAI ­-- with the help, of course, of
all of the listeners and staff whom the Board represents --­ a very big
difference between the situation today and the circumstances that existed at
Pacifica 8-1/2 years ago.