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OCTOBER 20, 2019, BROOKLYN WEEKLY
RADIO CHATTER
Broadcasters acuse WBAI parent company of lying about debts
BY ROSE ADAMS
The national nonprofi t
radio company attempting
to shutdown Brooklyn’s beloved
99.5 FM WBAI lied
to the public about debts
owed by its listener-funded
broadcast, according to executives
at the radio station,
who claim their taxexempt
overseers simply
want to strip the station for
parts.
“The four-million-dollar
fi gure is a complete
and total fi ction,” said Alex
Steinberg, a member of the
local and national station
boards that oversee WBAI
and Pacifi ca. “They just
created it to make WBAI
look like a deadbeat.”
Big shots at the California
based Pacifi ca Foundation
claimed WBAI was
drowning in $4 million of
debt after they fi red most of
radio station’s Boerum Hillbased
staff and took over
the station’s programming.
But the $4 million fi gure
claimed by Pacifi ca is
complete bogus, according
WBAI general manager
Berthold Reimers, who
said the station only owes
$700,000 to Pacifi ca and
other outside lenders.
Steinberg accused Pacifi
ca’s new director, John
Vernile, of making a rouge
decision to close the station
— and circulating the exaggerated
debt as justifi cation
— in an elaborate scheme
to sell the station’s 99.5 FM
signal, which is worth between
$20 and $40 million.
“Their game plan, I believe
is to sell the signal,”
said Steinberg.
But higher-ups at Pacifi
ca claim that the WBAI’s
leadership has mismanaged
the station’s fi nances
to the point of no return,
and that Pacifi ca no longer
had enough funds to pay
the station’s staff.
“The other stations are
not generating suffi cient
income to be able to continue
paying for WBAI’s
employees, and, in fact, the
Foundation as a whole has
insuffi cient income to continue
paying for WBAI’s
payroll,” wrote Pacifi ca
board member Bill Crosier
on Oct. 12.
A 2017 audit of the Pacifi
ca’s fi nances posted on the
nonprofi t’s website states
that previous WBAI debts
forced the parent company
to take out a $3.46 million
loan — and that the station
still had a number of other
outstanding payments.
Still, WBAI broadcasters
argue that personal
disagreements, rather
than debt, caused the shutdown,
citing a dispute that
blew up in September after
longtime host Mimi Rosenberg
cried out “Shut down
Trump” — which executives
at the station’s parent
company feared would
threaten their Federal
Communications Commission
license, according to
Arthur Schwartz, a lawyer
and broadcaster with
WBAI.
“This is about content.
It’s not about fi nances,”
said Schwartz.
After the abrupt shutdown
on Oct. 7, WBAI
fi led an injunction against
Pacifi ca, arguing that the
company violated its own
bylaws by shuttering the
station without board notice
or approval.
The dispute quickly
devolved into a back-andforth
legal battle which is
slated for a court hearing
on Oct. 21, according to
court documents .
Meanwhile, Pacifi ca has
refused to rehire the WBAI
staff or give the station its
broadcasting powers back
as the court battle continues,
according to WBAI offi
cials.
IN THE DARK: Staffers at WBAI claim that executives at its parent company — which shutdown the station on Monday — are lying about
the station’s fi nances. Photo by Rose Adams
Crushed in Kensington
BY BEN VERDE
A motorist struck and killed a 60-year-old woman crossing
a dicey stretch of Church Avenue on Saturday.
Police say Olga Feldman was attempting to cross
Church Avenue near E. Fourth Street at 3:15 pm on Saturday,
when she and a 72-year-old companion were struck
by a black Cadillac SRX traveling west on Church.
First responders rushed the two victims to Maimonides
Hospital, where doctors pronounced Feldman dead,
cops said. The driver remained at the scene and was later
taken to Maimonides for evaluation, authorities said.
No arrests have been made and the investigation is
ongoing.
There have been 13 crashes on the stretch of Church
Avenue between Coney Island and McDonald Avenues
since 2016, according to Crashmapper . Saturday’s crash
is mere blocks away from where two pedestrians were
killed by drivers in one week in July — including 47-
year-old Maria Del Carmen Porras-Hernandez .
The Cadillac was travelling west on Church Avenue when it struck
two pedestrians crossing the street. Photo by Paul Martinka
According to HowsmydrivingNY, a Twitter bot that
tracks drivers’ violations, the Maryland plates belonging
to the Cadillac SRX have been cited three times, including
once for speeding in a school zone earlier this
year.