November 15–21, 2019 Brooklyn Paper • www.BrooklynPaper.com • (718) 260-2500 AWP 3
WBA, hi!
Court ruling allows radio
station to return to air
Education boost for Brooklyn
$15M awarded to over 50 schools for STEAM programs
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By Colin Mixson
Brooklyn Paper
Shuttered Boerum Hill radio
station WBAI was allowed
to resume broadcasting at 99.5
FM following a weeks-long
closure at midnight on Nov.
7, after a state judge ordered
the station’s parent company
to lay off its attempts to silence
the channel.
State Supreme Court Judge
Melissa Crane reinstated a restraining
order against the
Pacifica Foundation — the
nonprofit owner of five listener
funded radio stations
across the country — that requires
the company to hand
control of local content back
to WBAI.
The station’s return comes a
month to the day after Pacifica
Executive Director John Vernile
ordered the station closed
on Oct. 7, claiming the nonfor
profit could no longer support
WBAI and its multimillion
dollar debt.
But WBAI broadcasters
claimed Vernile exaggerated
the station’s dues, and that
they were being attacked by
a rogue faction within the national
broadcast company for
political reasons stemming
from radio host Mimi Rosenberg’s
on-air statement, “shut
down Trump!”
And Vernile was soon overruled
by the company’s board
of directors, which voted on
Oct. 20 not to ratify his prior
directive closing down the station
— and to place him on a
mandatory paid leave.
However, Vernile challenged
the vote in court, with
attorneys arguing the board
had failed to provide proper
notice, resulting in a legal duel
that led to Crane’s decision
on Wednesday.
Broadcaster and attorney
Arthur Schwartz, who represented
WBAI in court, praised
the ruling for preserving a de-
Host Reggie Johnson back on air at WBAI Radio.
Derrick Watterson
cades old New York City institution.
“I was ecstatic,” said
Schwartz. “It restored a
unique entity which allows literally
hundreds of volunteers
to produce locally oriented
news, political and cultural
programming that has been
going on for 60 years.”
However, fellow board
member Bill Crosier said he
shared Vernile’s funding concerns,
saying Pacifica has historically
propped up WBAI at
the expense of other serious obligations
— including paying
the company’s accountants.
“We’ve been notified by the
company that does our accounting
and HR support, they’re going
to stop working for us because
we owe them so much
money, because that money has
been pulled to pay WBAI salaries,”
said Crosier. “Our audits
are past due, and without
audits we could lose our tax
exemptions, which is entirely
serious.”
By Alejandra
O’Connell-Domenech
for Brooklyn Paper
Brooklyn Borough President
Eric Adams on Thursday
morning awarded $15 million
in capital investments to
58 Brooklyn schools to bolster
their STEAM education,
including major technology
upgrades.
Adams presented physical
checks to teachers and
principals from the selected
Brooklyn schools at an emotional
press conference at
P.S. 158 Warwick in East
New York.
In addition to technology
upgrades, the funds will also
go toward the creation of 11
hydroponic labs, three maker
spaces, a culinary arts space
Borough President Adams
got emotional while
annoucing the funding.
and a creative lab space. Over
the last six years, BP Adams
has invested $140 million in
Brooklyn schools.
“I’m really excited,” said
16-year-old Brianna De La
Cruz, a student at the Urban
Assembly School for Criminal
Justice. The Borough Park
middle and high school received
$70,000 for a new computer
lab.
“College applications are
online now, and we won’t have
to worry about the computers
breaking down as much,
because that happens a lot,”
she added.
According to the principal
Nathalie Jufer, 90 percent
of the students at Urban Assembly
live below the poverty
line and do not have access
to the internet at home,
making the computer lab an
essential to finishing homework
assignments.
“It’s going to make classes
a lot easier and everyone’s
lives easier,” De La Cruz
said.
The occasion was especially
impactful for Adams,
he said, because of his experience
as a police officer in
the community when crime
was high. The investments in
schools were a sign that things
would continue to change for
the better in the community,
he said.
“You know that one day I
would like to be the mayor,
but no matter what I do in
life, in government, I’m going
to find a way to continue
to give these kids an opportunity,”
Adams said. “We have
a long way to go, but we are
raising the bar and letting all
children know that they matter
right here in this part of
Brooklyn.”
Photo by Alejandra O’Connell-Domenech
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