BY ROSE ADAMS
A non-profi t media company
abruptly shut down a beloved
Brooklyn-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
COURIER L 10 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
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