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3-8-01 Email Major Owens now |
Building Bridges incident report Congressman Major Owens (D-Brooklyn) was caught up in the Pacifica radio crisis on Monday March 5th when he was forced off the air at WBAI along with the rest of the Burning Bridges program by the interim station manager. ( Click here for a report ). The Congressman wants you and everyone else to email him at this especially reserved address and express your views on the situation at Pacifica. Numbers are important here. He has spoken out on the floor of Congress on the issue of free speech radio and plans to continue to do so.
email to: debbie.aledo.simpson@mail.house.gov
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3-8-01
RADIO FREE SPEECH IS BEING DENIED IN NEW YORK CITY
Mr. Speaker, tyrants in control of totalitarian countries like China,
Serbia and Iraq consider control of the airwaves an absolute
necessity. They ruthlessly enforce censorship of a kind few of us in
America can imagine. On last Monday, however, I had the weird
and frightening experience of being gagged by a radio station
manager in my own home city of New York. It started with a
routine request that I call in for a phone interview on a show hosted
on Radio Station WBAI by Ken Nash which focuses on union and
labor news and features. The name of the show which commences
at 2 P.M. was "Building Bridges." As the Ranking Democrat on
the Workforce Protections Subcommittee I welcome the chance to
appear on shows related to working families or unions.
It is important to note that Radio Station, WBAI is a non-profit
station which runs primarily on contributions solicited from its
mass of diverse listeners. Since last December this station has
experienced considerable turmoil internally and long-term
producers and hosts have been fired or locked out of the station.
Like many New Yorkers I am concerned about the present and
future of this vital outlet for free speech on the radio. Without
knowing all of the specific tensions and confrontations within the
station I have indicated my interest in working toward the resolution
of the problems hampering the continuation of the unique and
robust programming at WBAI.
It is important to note that I am presently seeking ways to get more
avenues opened for radio free speech in my City. Five low-powered
Haitian stations have been shut down. The survival of WBAI is vital
for the entire movement seeking more access to the airways. The
bully monopolies of commercial radio provide the continuing
roadblocks. My knowledge of the reputation of certain recent
appointments to the Board of Pacifica Network, which is the parent
non-profit institution responsible for WBAI, leads me to conclude
that there is a clear and immediate danger that attempts will be
made to sell WBAI to a commercial owner. Such a sale would
mean the loss of a vital voice for working families in NYC.
My beliefs and point-of-view are considered heresy by Station
Manager Utrice Leid. Without explanation or apology she shut
down the microphones and proclaimed that she had to intervene
because it was her job to allow only the "truth" over the airwaves.
The following is a summary of the statement I would have made
had I not been censured and shut off:
The situation at WBAI has implications far beyond this one station.
Freedom of speech over the airwaves via radio, broadcast
television, and cable television is presently quite limited for the
majority of Americans. We have a problem of great magnitude that
is not being appropriately addressed. The WBAI arrangement and
structure offered one model to be emulated. As a listener
supported station with a very diverse set of programs, procedures
and guests, WBAI represents the optimum use of radio in the
service of ordinary people.
When I attended the memorial service for the late Samori
Marksman, former WBAI Station Manager, last year in that great
hall at St. John's Cathedral, I saw a more diverse assembly than I
have seen anywhere in New York City. Folks from all races,
religions, income levels and political persuasions were there.
There were intellectual snobs who support programs broadcasting
esoteric operas mingling with radical, grassroots political activists.
Indeed, as a politician, one immediate reaction I experienced as I
contemplated all of that diversity with solidarity was a concern that
some people in powerful places would perceive WBAI as a threat.
The term "power structure" applies to forces that are very real. And
I felt that this "power structure" would seek to destroy what the
WBAI Community has created.
WBAI represents radio freedom of speech that does not make a
profit for anyone. There are those who see profits being made via
WBAI and other Pacifica stations. There are others in powerful
places who feel that only commercial stations should exist; or if
there are public stations, they should be indirectly controlled by
corporate grants and benign corporate advertisements.
Some of the persons who have recently been appointed to the
Pacifica Board represent such powerful commercial interests. In
my opinion, WBAI is an endangered station as long as such
business predators are on the Pacifica Board. Persons far
removed from the original ideals and philosophy of the founders of
the Pacifica chain are not likely to promote the original intent of
this very well conceived system.
A basic question which must be tested as soon as possible in the
courts is: Who owns a non-profit entity and who has a right to sell
non-profit radio stations? Does the original charter or licensing by
FCC permit any group of trustees or directors to treat Pacifica and
WBAI as if they are commercial entities?
While the Pacifica turmoil is raging, I strongly urge WBAI to seek
to preserve its free speech function in New York City by exploring
the necessary steps to become independent of Pacifica. As a non-
profit entity WBAI should use the university structure as a model.
It should elect a Broad of Trustees through a voting process
utilizing its contributors and supporters as the voters. The
Trustees should be responsible for basic business operations while
the producers and staff should be given a role similar to the faculty
at a university. Basic freedoms similar to academic freedom and
tenure should be conferred upon longstanding producers and long-
term paid and unpaid staff participants.
I offer this as one model to preserve WBAI as a bastion of radio
free speech. We need to broaden the efforts to promote such free
speech via radio. New technology that permits small low powered
stations to broadcast at low costs has provided new possibilities
for greater avenues to radio free speech; however, five Haitian
stations have been shut down in my district and been declared to
be "pirate stations". There is a great need to test the long accepted
rules and regulations of the FCC. Too much of the status quo as
reinforced by the 1996 Telecommunications Act borders on the
unconstitutional denial of freedom of speech.
There is a larger free speech war to be engaged; however, first we
must preserve the solidarity and diversity on the airwaves as
represented by WBAI.
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NY Daily News 3-8-01
WBAI CONTINUED:
An open critic of changes at the station, Owens was being interviewed by
Ken Nash, host of the show ironically called "Building Bridges."
Nash already had read a statement of his own condemning the firing of his
former co-host, Mimi Rosenberg. Acting station manager Utirce Leid then came
on the air and said "false statements" had been made and she had to "send a
signal that enough is enough."
After about 10 minutes of music, Nash and Owens were gone and Leid took
listener calls. Owens said the cutoff was "like something in a totalitarian
country" and said he would comment in the Congressional Record.
Meanwhile, WBAI has not announced a new regular morning host, but there
were indications yesterday that Santiago Nieves - who had that position
several years ago - might return.
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