Hi, I am Chuck Fall from Portland, Oregon, and I am a WBAI listener (over the internet) seeking the WBAI Outreach Coordinator position. I am running for the position to support independent radio and help preserve its community-based, democratic origins and, most importantly, help sustain its financial independence by expanding outreach.
I have a bachelor of arts in English literature and a master’s in teaching. I have a media background, having written for the college newspaper. Later in life I volunteered at KBOO Community Radio in Portland. There I saw what it takes to produce radio.
I have worked as a teacher, a waiter, and a workers’ compensation claims representative. My last job was selling residential solar.
I ran for state representative to the Oregon legislature on the Green Party ticket but did not get elected.
Now I am retired but active in the Truth Action Project, a volunteer-run activist group that advances an independent media perspective through a weekly TAP Talk public forum. We bring in experts to speak to our political truth community on a range of topics. We hold meetings on Zoom and have weekly discussions.
I support WBAI and all independent, Pacifica-based radio programming. This important media network provides us with an independent voice our democracy needs to survive.
More than anything, I look forward to working with the team at WBAI to advance the station mission to provide independent radio.
As a retiree I have time to dedicate to helping preserve and sustain the cause of independent radio. I sincerely believe our society is at risk of losing key fundamental freedoms; our First Amendment rights to speech and to publish are threatened, both of which are key to communicating and petitioning our right to seek redress for grievances.
Chiefly, among many grievances that need petitioning, is the grievance that our ruling class put our country on the path of empire. Opposing war is key to reclaiming community and democratic agency.
As an activist in the political truth community, I am aware that our government and corporations actively deceive us with big lies. For example, in 2003, Colin Powell, in his role as secretary of state, lied in front of the United Nations about why NATO needed to go to war against Saddam Hussein of Iraq. People around the country assembled to protest the contrived war; nevertheless, the United States Congress approved a war based on a big lie that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. The capacity of the powerful to act with impunity has only gotten worse.
Our society needs independent radio more than ever. More voices / participation from the membership and listening body can empower independent media.
Through radio programs that expose the corruption, like Uncontrolled Opposition, we can mount resistance by raising awareness about what is going on in society. I support independent media and the Pacifica radio network and request your vote for me to be the next outreach coordinator for WBAI.