RadioPoetics.org

Steve Brown to News
show details 1:42 AM (7 hours ago) Reply

Dear WBAI Supporter --
What do the newly elected members of WBAI's governing board (aka Local
Station Board or LSB) look like? I have attached photos of each one,
so you can easily recognize them on the street -- in case you want to
toss a bouquet (or hurl a rotten rotten tomato, as the case may be).
The first meeting of this board took place on Wednesday, April 23. As
I said in my last report, the political faction known as Justice &
Unity (JUC), which formerly held a majority on the station board, was
repudiated and soundly defeated by the Independent (INDY) candidates
in the recent station election.

And for good reason. During the 5 years that the JUC faction
controlled the governing board and the station, WBAI's most popular
broadcasters were abruptly fired, some of its best programs were
either taken off the air or turned over to untalented (and often
incapable) friends of management. Thousands of listeners deserted the
station in protest and withdrew their financial support, rendering the
station bankrupt. That is what the new Independent (INDY) board
members have inherited.
Can WBAI be turned around? The Independents are now in the majority.
And although they do not always agree with one another (to say the
least), they have all pledged that they will work harmoniously
together to heal WBAI ... to restore its financial stability and
empower its producers and staff to create the kind of powerful and
provocative programming that will re-establish WBAI as the leading
voice of New York's progressive community.
But they can't do it without your help. As Mitchel Cohen, the newly
elected Chair, recently announced (echoing the resolve of all the
independent board members):
"I want to invite all WBAI listeners to attend our meetings -- and
PARTICIPATE. All our meetings will be open to the public, and I will
be submitting a plan to change how future meetings are conducted, so
that ALL OF US (board members and listeners alike) can discuss our
problems and tackle them TOGETHER. Your active involvement is needed."

Below are the 24 members of the 2008 WBAI Local Station Board, in
alphabetical order. :

Mitchel Cohen---------INDY (Chair)
Kathy Davis-----------INDY (Pacifica National Board Director)
Bernardo Palombo-----INDY
Carolyn Birden---------INDY (Pacifica National Board Director)
Steve Brown-----------INDY
Jennifer Jager----------INDY
James Ross------------INDY (Pacifica National Board Director)
Shawn Rhodes---------INDY
R. Paul Martin---------INDY (Treasurer)
Andrea Fishman-------INDY (Vice Chair)
Alex Steinberg---------INDY
Seth Goldberg---------INDY (Secretary)
Max Schmid-----------INDY
Robert Gold-----------INDY
Bob Lederer-----------JUC
Lisa Davis-------------JUC
Tibby Brooks----------JUC
Nia Bediako-----------JUC (Pacifica National Board Director)
Sara Flounders--------JUC
Vajra Kilgour----------JUC
Lawrence Lucas-------JUC
Berta Silva------------JUC
Ray Laforest----------JUC
Omowale Clay--------JUC
Tony Riddle (WBAI Station Manager, board member ex-officio )