My name is R. Paul Martin and I’m running for Staff representative to this new version of the Local Station Board in this election. I’m asking you to vote for me.
I’ve been a producer at WBAI for 44 years. In that time I have done a number of thigns besides producing programs. I was the coordinator of the WBAI Gay Men’s Collective for a couple of years; I helped bring the first actual Union to WBAI in the late 1980s, WBAI was a part of Amalgamated Local 404 of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America, I was a Shop Steward in that Union for 14½ years and the Chief Steward for 11½ years; I was elected to the first WBAI LSB and began to serve in 2004, and I have attended every legal meeting of the LSB in that time. I have served in one capacity or another as a Staff rep on the WBAI LSB for more than 22 years now. Part of that service has been as the elected Treasurer of the LSB starting in April 2008. As LSB Treasurer I am Chair of the WBAI local Finance Committee and I was a voting member of Pacifica’s National Finance Committee (NFC) until the faction currently in charge of the Pacifica Foundation asserted that their bylaws, which I opposed, reduced the Treasurers to having only an advisory role on the NFC. I continue on the NFC in that advisory role. As Treasurer I have issued monthly Treasurer’s Reports for the past 13 years, as mandated by the WBAI LSB. I’m hoping that people in governance will be able to receive more timely financial information.
This LSB will be different from the LSB we’ve had for the past 22+ years. Because of that, all of Pacifica governance will be different. I’m hoping that I can champion some changes in Pacifica in the near future that I will think will enhance the functioning of Pacifica governance. I’m sure that, if elected, I can offer new perspectives to some people who will be engaged in Pacifica governance. I’m willing to participate in the current, much reduced, role of governance because I want to help as much as is possible to keep WBAI intact. I have always opposed the selling of WBAI, and I certainly would oppose again any attempt to just take WBAI off the air and pipe in other stations’ programming, as happened in 2019. I also oppose any attempts to have some other organization take over the station. WBAI needs to remain free and independent so that we can communicate our varied and independent ideas to the world. If elected to the LSB I will be a voice dedicated to keeping WBAI alive. Please vote for me and give me that chance.
I am also endorsing fellow producer Max Schmidt in this election.