I am seeking election, as an Indy, to once again serve as Local Station Board Chair. That’s because I want to see WBAI grow and thrive as a listener accountable station, grass-roots pluralism style. We need to offer wide-ranging counter-narratives to what is destructively presented as “public discourse” in the corporately owned and funded media. Free speech is essential to our mission and I reject top-down, prescriptive, and insidious overrides of it. WBAI should provide information and insight that the monied interests controlling the media and the internet are burying. I envision WBAI as a discovery porthole through which listeners can discover what they are unlikely to discover elsewhere so they can understand our world, the past, and our possible futures.
The station needs to cover more territory more efficiently and engage more listeners. Alternative media is fast replacing legacy media, and WBAI needs to return to leadership in this regard. With attention grabbing content, the station could be less easy to pigeonhole as predictable, and less susceptible to caricature.
Technological update, particularly as the station reflects itself on the internet (before the internet may be further shut down) affords opportunities for extra content. Content could overflow to second-channel (or even third-channel) HD broadcast programming now possible with our still unused HD antenna; it could be coordinated with second- and third-channel streaming on the internet, and podcast and internet availability of content. Provision for such integrated overflow (like “Web Exclusives”) could allow WBAI to better address local news. It could allow for “farm team” development of new talent, concepts and approaches and could avoid demise of sometimes beloved shows struggling with low ratings. It could be a haven for expansion of WBAI’s often lucrative music programming. . WBAI’s various parts could be more cohesively integrated and cross-supporting.
On-the-street solicitation along with more man-on-the-street interactions, could have the benefit of raising awareness about the station and its programming. Along with more event-connected solicitations, (often highly valued by younger cohorts) those approaches could result in funds from new members who may get added to the listener base. It also involves two-way conversations that would provide valuable feedback about the station’s possibilities and potential.
We should also understand and more intuitively appreciate the value and community building aspects of real time live radio. Let me reiterate: We are living, breathing, real people living in real time and, there is always a special magic and bond that comes from sharing and participating communally in live real time events: terrestrial real time radio and live events are two examples.
I am an activist cofounder of Citizen’s Defending Libraries who writes on many topics concerning our freedoms. That’s come after my quarter century plus working as a lawyer in public finance, affordable housing, etc. with an urban planing background during which I ran the legal department for the state finance agencies.