Elect Independent Candidates to the WBAI LSB

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Meet The Candidate – Max Schmid

STAFF CANDIDATE

Max Schmid is my name, and I am running again for a staff seat on the WBAI Local Station Board.

I have been the producer and host of The Golden Age of Radio since December 1978, and have been on the paid staff continuously since before my official union hire in 1989.

After 40 years as programmer, and over 30 years as paid staff, I think my commitment to the Pacifica Mission and WBAI should be clear.

I am dedicated to the resurgence of our radio station as a bastion of
truth and a beacon of the arts in the tri-state area.

The actions of our new program director in bringing back the news is a welcome step that I support. It gives me hope for the future of WBAI. Great programming is what we need to turn the station around and make it vital and relevant again, which will bring in listeners and much need revenue.

We have forgotten that the purpose of on-air fundraising is to build a database of supporters, and then work that database to solicit further funding. We haven’t sent out renewal letters in YEARS!! The air cannot be the sole source of funding.

The staff and listeners are worn out, and tired of hearing endless repeats of what amounts to selling snake oil. If this is the audience we appeal to, this is the only audience that will be left.

We are paying for a Development Director, so where’s the development? The grants, the outreach to major donors, the solicitation letters? We need to return to some of the financial practices that worked well in the past. Outreach and fundraising letters, working the database. Outreach to major donors. We cannot survive by using 40% of our air time for on-air pitching!

I have the experience and skills that I bring to the Local Station Board to advance the station’s mission. As a WBAI lifer, I know how the place runs. What works, what doesn’t work, or what won’t work. I offer my service again to continue the effort to preserve and strengthen our radio station.

DISCLAIMER: This is not an official Pacifica Foundation website nor an official website of any of the five Pacifica Radio Stations (KPFA Radio, KPFK Radio, KPFT Radio, WBAI Radio, WPFW Radio). Opinions and facts alleged on this site belong to the author(s) of the website only and should NOT be assumed to be true or to reflect the editorial stance or policy of the Pacifica Foundation, or any of the five Pacifica Radio Stations (KPFA Radio, KPFK Radio, KPFT Radio, WBAI Radio, WPFW Radio), or the opinions of its management, Pacifica National Board, station staff or other listener members.

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Meet The Candidate – Shawn Rhodes

STAFF CANDIDATE

DISCLAIMER: This is not an official Pacifica Foundation website nor an official website of any of the five Pacifica Radio Stations (KPFA Radio, KPFK Radio, KPFT Radio, WBAI Radio, WPFW Radio). Opinions and facts alleged on this site belong to the author(s) of the website only and should NOT be assumed to be true or to reflect the editorial stance or policy of the Pacifica Foundation, or any of the five Pacifica Radio Stations (KPFA Radio, KPFK Radio, KPFT Radio, WBAI Radio, WPFW Radio), or the opinions of its management, Pacifica National Board, station staff or other listener members.

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Meet The Candidate – Linda Zises

LISTENER CANDIDATE

I am a long time listener to WBAI and a former producer for 10 years. Before retiring I had a long career as a social worker as I was always attracted to social justice issues. My parents were victims of the McCarthyite blacklist and the isolation I felt growing up turned me to searching for alternatives to the mainstream media.

During my career with the New York City Human Resources Administration I was one of the originators of the breakfast program and Minicap for disabled children. I designed the citywide co-terminality program that effectively decentralized social service delivery in the five boroughs.

In the 1970 and 80s I was also involved with the effort to allow women to be bus drivers and to end discrimination against women in the uniformed services.

During litigation on New York City pension benefits, I got the State to change interest rates from three to seven percent on workers money. And after 20 years of fighting politicians, city lawyers and commissioners, I forced the City to adopt sex neutral actuarial tables in the administration of pensions. The settlement the city agreed to resulted in $200 million being turned over to women who otherwise would have been cheated out of their rightful pension payments.

I was the first in the country to achieve this for a municipality. 
Additionally I forced the City to equalize employment titles such as clerks and janitors for which there had been disparity between men and women in job function and pay.

In the early 1970s I also succeeded in getting New York City to discontinue forced maternity leave in the fifth month of pregnancy and I stopped the City practice of terminating women’s employment if they were in a provisional title and went on maternity leave.

I also got the City to discontinue forcing women returning to work post maternity leave to get permission to return to work from the city’s doctor.

I forced the City to allow pregnant women to use their accrued annual and their sick. Leave during their maternity leave. I forced the City to allow women to continue health benefits while women were out on leave and to allow women to take promotional exams while on leave.

Additionally, I instituted childcare that could be taken at any time after maternity leave terminated and I instituted disability payments for eligible women during their maternity leave.

I won childcare for men, a benefit unimaginable prior to my work.
At the end of all that I was tired of politics and retired. But the plight of WBAI has awoken my sense of responsibility to others and that is why I am running. I am for the expansion of WBAI and wish to see Pacifica become a real network and alternative to the poisonous right wing radio. I am opposed to the sale or lease of WBAI to MNN or any other entity.

Corporate free candidates, Corporate free news outlets are our last hope for a humane society.

DISCLAIMER: This is not an official Pacifica Foundation website nor an official website of any of the five Pacifica Radio Stations (KPFA Radio, KPFK Radio, KPFT Radio, WBAI Radio, WPFW Radio). Opinions and facts alleged on this site belong to the author(s) of the website only and should NOT be assumed to be true or to reflect the editorial stance or policy of the Pacifica Foundation, or any of the five Pacifica Radio Stations (KPFA Radio, KPFK Radio, KPFT Radio, WBAI Radio, WPFW Radio), or the opinions of its management, Pacifica National Board, station staff or other listener members.

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Meet The Candidate – Shatia Strother

LISTENER CANDIDATE

Shatia Strother is a Bed-Stuy native and resident whose life passion is maintaining the history and culture of communities of color through activism in social, food and environmental justice issues. Her role as mother and wife has lead her towards a path of intentional radicalism and self determination with the hopes that she can raise her children and encourage communities to champion the causes they find important to them.

In 2012, Shatia co-founded the 462 Halsey Community Garden with the mission to develop a safe, inclusive green-space for residents to create and strengthen community bonds through growing food, sharing resources and addressing both social and food justice issues.

In 2014 she was hired as the Lead Organizer and sole paid staff of FUREE- member-led organization comprised of mostly low-income women of color fighting systems of oppression that threaten housing security, economic stability and democratic participation. She currently serves as Program Coordinator supervising 2 organizing staff members (F/T Lead Organizer and one P/T Youth Organizer).

In this capacity she has been successful in resurrecting FUREE’s FUREEous Youth Program (and the more recently formed sub-program ‘FUREEous Youth Arts House- FYAH’), among other significant community engagement and organizing projects such as the annual F.I.R.E.D. UP Leadership Academy workshop series (running each Spring/Summer).

Along with many other hobby projects, Shatia is a member of the Brooklyn Movement Center (BMC) and Malcolm X Grassroots Movement (MXGM) as well as active volunteer at her son Sean’s school (serving as grade-rep linking parents directly to school information and resources). Her interests include gardening, scrapbooking/albumin, sewing, camping/hiking, a growing collection of dead animals and any adventurous activity that worries her husband and involves potential dangers. Shatia loves to travel and share stories, is an avid baker and experimenter in the kitchen as well as a dabbler in the art of homemade jam.

DISCLAIMER: This is not an official Pacifica Foundation website nor an official website of any of the five Pacifica Radio Stations (KPFA Radio, KPFK Radio, KPFT Radio, WBAI Radio, WPFW Radio). Opinions and facts alleged on this site belong to the author(s) of the website only and should NOT be assumed to be true or to reflect the editorial stance or policy of the Pacifica Foundation, or any of the five Pacifica Radio Stations (KPFA Radio, KPFK Radio, KPFT Radio, WBAI Radio, WPFW Radio), or the opinions of its management, Pacifica National Board, station staff or other listener members.

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Meet The Candidate – Carolyn Morra Birden

LISTENER CANDIDATE

My name is Carolyn Morra Birden.

I want WBAI to fulfill its mission, part of which is to “contribute to a lasting understanding between nations and the individuals of all nations, races, creeds and colors; to gather and disseminate information on the causes of conflict between any and all such groups; and through any and all means compatible with the purposes of this corporation to promote the study of political and economic problems and of the causes of religious, philosophical and racial antagonisms.” I want WBAI not only to “explain and analyze” the problems but to promote those working on solutions.

In the Questionnaire responses by candidates, you will find my background, some history, and my goals for WBAI: please read that file.

My long history with WBAI and the Pacifica National Board (PNB) started in 1999 when I read the statement by Lew Hill, now our Mission Statement at the beginning of Pacifica’s Bylaws, and determined to implement the noble goals of an organization with such a purpose. Except for the mandatory year off after five years of service, I was a member of the Local Station Board (LSB) from 2004 (the first LSB) through December 2015, and served as a Director on the PNB between 2011 and 2015. On the PNB I was the Secretary for one year, and chaired the Elections Committee for several years and the Audit Committee for one year. 

The role of the Local Station Board is nominally advisory, but there are many issues elected members can and should address: first, of course, is keeping WBAI alive and well: not so easy in the face of Manhattan Neighborhood Network’s attempt to buy and bury us in its cable network. I have fought, and will continue to fight, that takeover by the fifth column at work within Pacifica.

Rather than commercializing our air, we need to create programming addressing interests of listeners hungry for solutions to today’s troubles. We need more programs that present science, music, art, education, literature, and politics to more diverse audiences in more creative ways: we have hardly addressed the many needs of our potential audience. 

I believe that WBAI’s and Pacifica’s potential strength is its identity as a membership organization: we need to keep members better informed and engaged in the work of the station, and vitally connected to the station’s mission. We must empower them to stay in communication with WBAI and create a community that values WBAI’s work. 

Clearly the station should fight current disasters: the commercialization of culture, the selling of libraries, creating wars for profit, betrayal of our young, torturing immigrants and indigents, exacerbating hatred of “the other ” all require vehement defense of a free press in this country. WBAI must exemplify what a free press can be: I will work to revitalize programming and finances, and to keep ever-present destructive elements from destroying the station’s efforts to fulfill its mission. 

I’m out of space: write to me at [email protected] 

DISCLAIMER: This is not an official Pacifica Foundation website nor an official website of any of the five Pacifica Radio Stations (KPFA Radio, KPFK Radio, KPFT Radio, WBAI Radio, WPFW Radio). Opinions and facts alleged on this site belong to the author(s) of the website only and should NOT be assumed to be true or to reflect the editorial stance or policy of the Pacifica Foundation, or any of the five Pacifica Radio Stations (KPFA Radio, KPFK Radio, KPFT Radio, WBAI Radio, WPFW Radio), or the opinions of its management, Pacifica National Board, station staff or other listener members.

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Meet The Candidate – Maxine Harrison-Gallmon



LISTENER CANDIDATE

My name is Maxine Harrison-Gallmon.

My father, Bertram Harrison, was a dedicated member of WBAI for over 35 years and a regular contributor.

I was born in Jamaica, grew up in Brooklyn and became aware of WBAI due to the influence of my father.

Right after my father passed on 4 years ago, I began volunteering at WBAI. I help the General Manger with daily chores and do whatever is needed to get premiums to listeners. 

I have been a major supporter of Bernie Sanders and I have been a staunch proponent of independent grassroot candidates. Although I am not a member of DSA, I am actively involved in promoting their message. I have helped the General Manager of WBAI reach out to Nina Turner, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Jumanee Williams. I’ve also helped Dr. Howard Jordan secure interviews with some of these grassroots people. 

I believe that a multi-party system is the only way to get out of the vortex of establishment and corporate politics. I am willing to be a WBAI LSBmember because I want to help the WBAI LSB reach out to the youth and progressive movements that are on the rise. I also want WBAI to survive by staying in contact with the real grassroot movements that it was meant to represent from its inception. 

I have supported Zephyr Teachout, Cynthia Nixon, Jill Stein and Jumanee Williams, who called me recently to thank me for working with him on his campaign. 

I hope you recognize what I can bring to the WBAI LSB and to the WBAI family. Please vote for me. 

DISCLAIMER: This is not an official Pacifica Foundation website nor an official website of any of the five Pacifica Radio Stations (KPFA Radio, KPFK Radio, KPFT Radio, WBAI Radio, WPFW Radio). Opinions and facts alleged on this site belong to the author(s) of the website only and should NOT be assumed to be true or to reflect the editorial stance or policy of the Pacifica Foundation, or any of the five Pacifica Radio Stations (KPFA Radio, KPFK Radio, KPFT Radio, WBAI Radio, WPFW Radio), or the opinions of its management, Pacifica National Board, station staff or other listener members.

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Meet the Candidate – Randy Credico

STAFF CANDIDATE

Let’s light a fire under the Local Station Board! 

As a political satirist and stand-up comic, I know how to make people laugh. But I also know how to organize them to fight for meaningful change, I have been doing it for decades. During 1980s Contra Wars, I organized Comics Against War, a troupe of radicals who risked their lives by skewering Ronald Reagan’s murderous policies with weekly satirical shows in front of the US embassy in Nicaragua B under hazardous wartime conditions. (Which infuriated Ronald Reagan and Oliver North. In fact, when I got back from Nicaragua, Johnny Carson banned me from The Tonight Show because my anti Reagan jokes offended his mainstream TV audience.) 

In 2010, I organized thousands of activists in a successful campaign to overturn NY=s harsh Rockefeller Drug Laws. And recently I was nabbed, grabbed, handcuffed, and tossed in jail with my buddy, Cornel West, for organizing a protest against the Police Department’s “stop-and-frisk” policies. 

If you elect me, I will use my organizing skills to organize the WBAI board which has been asleep too long. The board has the power to make WBAI healthy again. And relevant again. It has the power to force fund drive premiums to be delivered on time … the power to have a phone line installed for listener feedback (and complaints) … the power to push for powerful new programs that will attract new listeners and boost donor support.

Here=s another benefit my election can bring to the board. I’ve been satirizing NY politics for 30 years. I’ve also run for Senator, Governor and Mayor. As a result, I’m on a friendly first-name basis with every important political figure in NY, including Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, Public Advocate Tricia James, State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli, Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez, Mayor Bill deBlasio, and Governor Andrew Cuomo. We don’t agree on many issues (that’s for sure!), but I did get our politicians to write powerful public letters (and exert powerful private pressure) in support of WBAI during its life-and-death struggle with the Empire State Building which agreed to tear up WBAI’s unfair lease and free it from $2 million in rent debt. And as host of Live on the Fly, I was also able to attract many controversial voices to WBAI — some for the first time j(ncluding Julian Assange, Ralph Nader, John Pilger, Ray McGovern, Harry Belafonte, and Dick Gregory) because they happen to be my personal friends. And precisely because they are my friends, I hope to persuade them to host their own programs on WBAI. That could boost our listenership and financial support so that we will no longer have to waste 130 days a year (one third of our air time) begging for money during fund drives. My candidacy is supported by Steve Brown, Alex Steinberg, Jim Dingeman, Carolyn Birden and many other WBAI activists. I hope you’ll support me too.

DISCLAIMER: This is not an official Pacifica Foundation website nor an official website of any of the five Pacifica Radio Stations (KPFA Radio, KPFK Radio, KPFT Radio, WBAI Radio, WPFW Radio). Opinions and facts alleged on this site belong to the author(s) of the website only and should NOT be assumed to be true or to reflect the editorial stance or policy of the Pacifica Foundation, or any of the five Pacifica Radio Stations (KPFA Radio, KPFK Radio, KPFT Radio, WBAI Radio, WPFW Radio), or the opinions of its management, Pacifica National Board, station staff or other listener members.

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