BY ROSE ADAMS
A non-profi t media company
abruptly shut down a beloved
Brookly-based radio station
on Monday morning, fi ring
most of the station’s staff
and changing the locks on its
Boerum Hill offi ces — setting
off a messy legal battle for the
future of the decades-old radio
station.
“They dismantled the entire
station,” said WBAI on-air
personality Arthur Schwartz,
who also works as the station’s
lawyer. “They told the landlord
that they’re out of there.”
WBAI had hosted progressive
talk shows about politics and
local activism since 1960, but
listenership has dwindled in
recent years — leading parent
company Pacifi ca Foundation
to cut the cord on the station
as it racked up $4 million in
debt.
“WBAI has had to repeatedly
call on other Pacifi ca stations
to help fund its payroll and
Dr. Enrico Ascher provides the best vascular care
COURIER L 12 IFE, OCT. 11-17, 2019
other operating expenses,” the
company said in a statement.
“We can no longer keep taking
money for essential services
from our stations in LA, SF
Bay, Houston and DC communities
to cover WBAI’s continued
shortfalls. This practice is
endangering the entire Foundation.”
The cost-saving measure came
to an abrupt halt, however,
when WBAI staffers fi led an
injunction against Pacifi ca, accusing
the media conglomerate
of violating its own bylaws
by shutting down the station
and changing its programming
without board approval,
according to Schwartz.
The hail-mary legal challenge
worked — at least temporarily
— as a Manhattan Supreme
Court judge signed a temporary
restraining order against
Pacifi ca on Monday night, and
ordered it to give the keys
back to WBAI until its court
hearing on Oct. 18, according
to Gothamist .
But the power struggle continued
when Pacifi ca’s legal
eagles hit back — refusing to
comply with the judge’s stayof
execution by claiming the
court lacked proper authority
to sign to restraining order.
On Tuesday, WBAI staffers
entered the offi ces on Atlantic
Avenue between Bond and
Hoyt streets and discovered a
disheveled offi ce with disconnected
wires, scattered computers,
and no signal, according
to Schwartz.
Schwartz said he plans to fi ght
Pacifi ca’s noncompliance with
another legal attack.
“I’m just about to fi le a motion
for contempt,” he said on
Tuesday evening.
Making the matter more dramatic,
Schwartz also alleges
that Pacifi ca’s choice to shut
down the station was primarily
rooted in political disagreements,
not in WBAI’s
debts.
“This is about content. It’s not
about fi nances,” he said.
According to Shwartz, higher
ups at the parent company
became angry with their radio
hosting employees on Labor
Day, when longtime host
Mimi Rosenburg said “Stop
Trump” during a promotion
during her show.
Pacifica executives claimed
the anti-Trump message
threatened the company’s
Federal Communications
Commission status and
urged the station’s executives
to suspend Rosenburg,
according to Schwartz.
The parent company denies
that the ordeal has anything
to do with the station’s shutdown,
saying the sudden
closure is a strictly financial
decision that came after
months of deliberation.
“We were necessitated to
act in the most responsible
way we saw in order to stabilize
and secure the future
of 99.5fm WBAI and the network,”
Pacifica wrote on
WBAI’s website. “While this
decision was abrupt it was
after careful examination of
all possibilities.”
Both parties will appear before
a judge in Manhattan
Supreme Court Oct. 18.
The Pacifica Foundation did
not respond to requests for
comment.
WBAI staffers say that the station’s parent company changed the station’s
locks and tore apart their offi ce on Monday. Photo by Rose Adams
OFF AIR Shutdown of beloved Brooklyn
radio station sparks legal battle
BUS I N E S S , B ROOK LYN S T Y LE
We don’t have to travel to Manhattan
to get the best vascular medical
care because we have Dr. Enrico
Ascher, Chief of Vascular and Endovascular
Surgery at NYU Langone
Hospital-Brooklyn, and founder of
the Vascular Institute of New York.
Dr. Ascher is an internationally
recognized vascular surgeon who pioneered
several techniques that are
now utilized worldwide. In addition
to being one of the most experienced
surgeons in this country with over
25,000 procedures and operations performed
over a 3 decade span he finds
time to author and co-author over 300
scientific articles in addition to be the
Chief-editor of a classic textbook in
vascular surgery. His enormous contributions
to the minimally invasive
management of vascular diseases
including aortic aneurysms, stroke
prevention, wound care, varicose
veins and angioplasty and stenting
for PAD have not gone unnoticed. Dr.
Ascher is the only surgeon in the tristate
region to be elected as President
of the Society for Vascular Surgery as
well as The World Federation of Vascular
Societies. During his tenure as
leader of these societies Dr. Ascher
was able to help shape the specialty
and reached out to the medical community
in a partnership to improve
the vascular health of the US population.
Dr. Ascher conceived and develop
the first clinical guidelines for
the management of vascular diseases
and he is recognized by his peers as a
superb surgeon with tremendous talent.
As an example of one of his creative
contributions one can describe
his technique of performing balloon
angioplasty and stenting (in patients
who experience pain in the legs upon
walking) without the use of potentially
harmful contrast material and
with no exposure to radiation!
Dr. Ascher also developed the
mini-incision carotid surgery where
a life threatening plaque can be safely
removed from the artery via one inch
small cut instead of 5-7 inch incision
in the neck. “We have the lowest rate
of complications in the country since
I have not had a single major issue
with hundreds of patient treated with
this technique” - says Dr. Ascher
His groundbreaking techniques
have been adapted worldwide as they
causes less trauma to the patient.
Limb salvage is yet another field
in which Dr. Ascher has earned acclaim.
“We are the first to create a comprehensive
care plan that has vascular
medical specialists and surgeons
working together to treat patients,”
he says. For the most part, vascular
surgeons elsewhere work separately
from vascular medicine physicians,
he says. But by working as a team,
the patient is assured of optimum,
unbiased treatment.
Patients from New York City and
surrounding states have sought Dr.
Ascher’s services, after being told by
other institutions that their limbs
could not be salvaged, and that amputation
was the only option. Yet,
Dr. Ascher and his team were able
to transform their lives by utilizing
techniques they developed to save
the limbs.
“These patients are now walking
on their own two feet,” he says.
Research, studying, and learning
are Dr. Ascher’s passions. He
was the first to perform bypass to the
plantar arteries of the foot, and this
is now widely considered standard
procedure for limb salvage.
Swelling of the legs is a common
problem that causes tremendous
pain, inhibiting lifestyles. This is
another area in which the Vascular
Institute can help, as Dr. Ascher has
published extensively on the subject
of varicose veins. He and his team of
board certified vascular specialists
have performed more than 15,000
laser procedures for the treatment
of varicose veins and leg swelling,
offering several different devices to
customize treatment plans for the
patients who come to his Vascular
Center for relief of symptoms or
for aesthetic reasons. He notes that
swelling of the legs can be caused
by veins that are not visible, so a
thorough examination is really important
to detect the cause of these
problems and to fix them to obtain a
meaningful result.
More than 20 years ago Dr. Ascher
was helping people with aortic
aneurysms — ballooning of the arteries
in the stomach or chest.
“We are so comfortable with
the new, modern techniques, we
are sending patients home the same
day. Just 5 years ago we were keeping
patients for at least 2 days in the
hospital,” he says. “They leave with
a small puncture in the groin, go
home with no pain, and have dinner
with their families.”
This potentially life-threatening
issue is more common than people
realize, he says, and is often found
accidentally when patients undergo
ultrasounds or CAT scans.
“When it becomes painful, these
aneurysms (ballooning of the arteries)
are ready to pop with critical
consequences. So it’s better to fix
them when they achieve a certain
size,” he says.
Notably, the Vascular Institute
was the first wound care center in
New York, and remains one of the
busiest wound care centers in the
area.
Dr. Ascher’s esteemed staff includes
Dr. Anil Hingorani, Dr. Natalie
Marks, Dr. Sareh Rajaee, and
Eleanora Iadgarova, a nurse practitioner.
The practice is open every day,
including weekends, and the staff
can always find an opening to ac -
commodate patients who need immediate
treatment, says the doctor.
Vascular Institute of New York
960 50th St.between Ninth and
10th avenues in Borough Park,
(718) 438-3800, www.vascularnyc.com.
Open every day, 8 am – 5 pm.
Additional locations:
Queens; 97-32 63rd Rd.,
Queens; 432 E. 149th St. in the Bronx.
/www.vascularnyc.com
/www.vascularnyc.com
