WBAI and Pacifica: Independent Media in the Balance

Laura Flanders interviews Amy Goodman of Democracy Now on the role of independent media, the situation at WBAI, and the future of Pacifica. Goodman was interviewed live on KWAB/RadioForChange.com Friday, February 2, 2001.

Laura Flanders here with you on RadioForChange.com. We're going to talk with Amy Goodman in just a moment about Democracy Now. She's been signing off her daily broadcast "From the embattled studios of WBAI in New York," we'll find out why.

Amy Goodman might be feeling a little isolated these days, but probably not; she has many, many thousands of fans all across the country. We've described Amy, a former colleague of mine, as the glue of the progressive movement. I don't know how she likes to be referred to as glue but we're going to find out. Amy, welcome to RadioForChange.

Amy Goodman: It's great to be with you Laura.

Laura Flanders: How do you like being referred to as glue, what holds the movement together?

AG: Well, I hope it doesn't just mean "stuck."

LF: No, definitely not [laughing]. Well we're going to talk about your signing off your show for the last few days as "From the embattled studios of WBAI." Can you tell us what you mean?

AG: Right. I've been saying, "From the embattled studios of WBAI, from the studios of the fired and the banned, from the studios of our listeners" and then I say I'm Amy Goodman. I used to say "with Juan Gonzalez for another edition of Democracy Now." But, well, it's just a very difficult workplace right now. I do speak as a worker and a member of AFTRA -- as a Pacifica national programmer -- and then here in New York at WBAI our union is UE local 404, that's United Electrical. We're working in a hostile workplace and it has happened since Christmas weekend right before Christmas when Pacifica management came to WBAI in the middle of the night and they changed all the locks and they prevented us from coming in.

They installed the new general manager and at 1:50 in the morning of December 23rd she went on the air and announced "I am the new station manager, there is no coup, there are no SWAT teams it's just me." And she said there would be no changes in programming, but that was not to be the case because five hours later, early on Saturday morning of that Christmas weekend, program director and longtime program producer of WBAI Bernard White got a knock on his door at around seven in the morning and a messenger was there with a letter. It was just a letter of a few sentences, and it said you are terminated from your job at BAI, if you try to come you will be considered a trespasser, your possessions will be sent to you in the mail. This is a man who has been at WBAI for almost 20 years. He's a beloved broadcaster here, a member of the community.

An hour later up in Harlem, Sharan Harper was at home. She is the producer of Wake Up Call, the program that Bernard hosts and I cohost. It's a local show in the morning at WBAI. Sharan Harper got a knock on her door, and it was again the messenger with a package for her. And in that package was a letter that said you've been terminated as a producer of Wake Up Call -- as I think it's called a production assistant - it will be considered trespassing if you come to the station. Your possessions will be sent to you in the mail. So within two hours, two major programmers were out, Bernard and Sharan.

We headed to the station on Saturday that Christmas weekend, we tried to go in as producers, we were locked out. There was a selective lockout except for people who were on the air at that moment. The programming required so much more than being actually on the air. Police were called in. There were hundreds of people outside. They told us that we would be arrested for trespassing if we entered. And since that time we have been in lockdown mode. All the locks are changed. We were not given the combination for the front door. There are guards here.

It has to say the least created a very chilling environment. Because coupled with the firings, which by the way started in November with the ouster of our long time general manager Valerie van Isler -- coupled with those -- have been a series of bannings. We don't know who is next. We don't know why people are banned. We don't know why the people have been fired who've been fired. We just learn as they come to the door and the guards turn them away that they are banned.

Among them Janice K. Bryant who is my colleague on the morning show, Wake Up Call. She's been a long-time producer. Wake Up Call is really the flagship program. It's the largest block of time, three hours in the morning from 6:00 to 9:00. It airs just before Democracy Now which listeners in Boulder and Denver may hear on KGNU and that airs live your time at 7:00 in the morning. But we are on at 9:00 and the three hours before that are the Wake Up Call show and almost everyone has been taken out of that program.