WBAI
Radio station |
name = WBAI |
image =
| airdate =
1960 | frequency = 99.5
MHz | city =
New York, New York| area =
New York| format =
Community radio| owner =
Pacifica Foundation | erp = 50000
watts |
branding = WBAI |
slogan =
Your Peace and Justice Community Radio Station | website =
http://www.wbai.org |}}
WBAI, a part of the
Pacifica Radio Network, is a
non-commercial, listener-supported
radio station, broadcasting at 99.5
FM in
New York City.
Its programming is
leftist/
progressive, an admixture of
leftist political
orthodoxy tinged with aspects of its more complex and varied past, such as
Freeform Radio, in the development of which WBAI played a critical role, as well as varied musical offerings.
Democracy Now! is WBAI's most influential present offering. It also hosts
Golden Age of Radio serials,
Weaponry a show about military history and technology,
Free Speech Radio News,
Wakeup Call WBAI's morning drive-time news magazine presented by
Deepa Fernandes and
Mario Murillo, a regular science fiction program
Hour of the Wolf presented by
Jim Freund,
Off the Hook, a program presented by the
2600 hacker group, and the economics journalism
Doug Henwood.
WBAI also offers ethno-centric programming targeted primarily towards ethnic/ socioeconomic audience segments that are typically underserved by most commercial media outlets.
Radio Tahrir(supported in part by Islamic Center of Long Island) which is targeted primarily towards Muslim Americans and Asia Pacific Forum which is targeted primarily towards Asian Americans are examples of such programming.
|
The WBAI studios on the 10th floor of 120 Wall Street, Manhattan |
The station's origins began with
WABF, which first went on the air in
1941 as
W75NY and moved to the 99.5 frequency in
1948. In 1955, after two years off the air, the station was reborn as WBAI (whose calls were named after then-owners
Broadcast Associates, Inc.). It was purchased by
eccentric philanthropist Louis Schweitzer and donated to the
Pacifica Foundation in
1960. The station, which was commercial up to that point, switched to non-commercial status from then on.
It played a major role in the evolution and development of the
counterculture in the
1960s.
In
1973, the station broadcast comedian
George Carlin's infamous
Seven Dirty Words routine â€" see
F.C.C. v. Pacifica Foundation for a detailed account of the court case that ensued.
The history of WBAI is long and contentious. Referred to in a
New York Times Magazine piece as ‘an anarchist's circus,' one station manager was jailed in protest, and the staff, in protest at sweeping proposed changes of another station manager, seized the studio facilities, then located in a deconsecrated church, as well as the transmitter, located at the
Empire State Building.
WBAI's coverage of the turbulence of the 1960s and early 1970s in New York was a self-defining series of events, a deep resonance.
Alice's Restaurant was first broadcast on
Radio Unnameable,
Bob Fass's
Freeform Radio program, a program which itself in many ways created, explored, and defined the possibilities of the form. The station covered the 1968 seizure of the
Columbia University campus live and uninterrupted, as well as innumerable anti-war protests. With its signal reaching for nearly 100 kilometers beyond
New York City, its reach, and its influence, both direct and indirect, were far greater. The station presented an annual 24-hour nonstop presentation of
Richard Wagner's Ring Cycle, a marathon reading of
War and Peace with celebrities reading various sections, held live performances of emerging artists in its studios, and produced and presented interviews with prominent figures in literature and the arts, as well as original highly-produced radio dramas.
With the decline of that particular arc of history represented by the 1960s and 1970s the station found itself turning against itself, a new board of directors determined a new agenda, and, against the staff resistance represented by what was known internally as
The Crisis, and manifest in the seizure and occupation of the facilities, a different station emerged, one which attempted to offer an alternative perspective within the aesthetic sensibilties represented by mainstream commercial media rather than offer an aesthetic, a sensibility, fundamentally other than and a challenge to mainstream media.
Alumni of WBAI include
Bob Fass,
Steve Post,
Margot Adler, and
Leonard Lopate. The
Apple specialist business
Tekserve was originally composed of former WBAI employees David Lerner, Dick Demenus, and Mike Edl.
*
WBAI Head Jailed in Contempt Case â€"
New York Times, pp 1,2, 19720304
*
Playing in the FM Band: A Personal History of Free Radio â€" (
Steve Post,
Viking Press)
*
Insurgent Staff Members Take Over WBAI in a Coup â€"
New York Times, pp 1,2, 19770212
*
Official site*
Unofficial site with station history and written archives
