WBAI
Encyclopedia
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
, and a mixture of political news and opinion from a leftist perspective, tinged with aspects of its complex and varied history, such as Freeform radio, which WBAI played a role in developing, as well as various music.
The station began as 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, it was reborn as WBAI (whose calls were named after then-owners Broadcast Associates, Inc.). It was purchased by eccentric
philanthropist
Louis Schweitzer
, who donated it to the Pacifica Foundation in 1960. The station, which had been a commercial enterprise, became non-commercial and listener-supported under Pacifica ownership.
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 atop the Empire State Building
.
WBAI played a major role in the evolution and development of the counterculture in the 1960s
and early 1970s. Alice's Restaurant
was first broadcast on Radio Unnameable, Bob Fass
’ 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 influence, both direct and indirect, were significant. Among the station's weekly commentators in the mid-1960s was author Ayn Rand. The 1964 Political conventions were "covered" satirically on WBAI by Severn Darden, Elaine May, Burns and Schreiber, David Amram, and members of the Second City comedy group. The station presented an annual 24-hour nonstop presentation of Richard Wagner
’s Ring Cycle, 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. In 1970, Kathy Dobkin, Milton Hoffman, and Francie Camper produced an unprecedented, critically acclaimed 4½ day round-the-clock reading of Tolstoy's WAR AND PEACE. The epic novel was read cover to cover by more than 200 people—including a large number of international celebrities from various fields. "Newsweek" called this broadcast "one of the more mind-blowing 'firsts' in the history of the media." The complete reading (over 200 audio tapes) was the first Pacifica program to be selected for inclusion in the permanent collection of the Museum of Broadcasting in NYC.
In 1973, the station broadcast comedian George Carlin
's infamous Filthy Words
routine uncensored – see F.C.C. v. Pacifica Foundation for a detailed account of the court case that ensued.
to become director of arts programming. Thus the station, already at the forefront of the counterculture and anti-war protest, also became a platform for New York’s avant-garde in theater, music, performance, art, and poetry. When the downtown avant-garde opera A Letter to Queen Victoria by Phillip Glass and Robert Wilson
opened at the Metropolitan Opera, the station was right there to tape excerpts in rehearsals for broadcast.
Ruas initiated a year-long series on Marguerite Young
’s epic novel Miss McIntosh, My Darling. These readings were transformed into performances by Rob Wynne, who scored them with a complex collage of sound effects, music, and opera. The participants included Anaïs Nin, Marion Seldes, Alice Playten, H. M. Koutoukas, Leo Lerman, Michael Wagger, Novella Nelson, Osceola Archer, Owen Dodson, Wyatt Cooper, Michael Higgins, Anne Fremantle, Peggy Cass, Ruth Ford, Earle Hymen, and Daisy Alden.
When William Burroughs returned to the United States from Tangiers, Ruas invited him to present a retrospective of all his works. The series consisted of four programs, beginning with Junkie and followed by The Yage Letters, read by Burroughs and Allen Ginsburg, The Last Words of Dutch Schultz, and, finally, Naked Lunch. Bill Kortum oversaw this series as well as retrospectives of the works of Jerzy Kosinski
and Donald Barthelme
, co-produced with Judith Sherman, the station’s music director.
A semester of Allen Ginsburg’s poetry seminar held at the Naropa Institute in Colorado was presented by Ruas, and for many years the station covered the annual New Year’s Eve celebratory poetry marathon at St. Mark’s Church. The day the Vietnam War ended, poet Muriel Rukeyser
came to the station to read her poem on peace.
Ruas inaugurated the Audio Experimental Theater, a series presenting the works of avant-garde artists: Meredith Monk, Yvonne Rainer, Ed Bowes, Michael Newman, Joan Schwartz, Benjamin Folkman, Vito Acconci, Charles Ludlum, Jacques Levy, Willoughby Sharpe, John Cage, Robert Wilson, Phillip Glass, Richard Foreman, and Joan Jonas.
In drama, the station defended Tennessee Williams
against his critics during his last years by covering his Memoirs and broadcasting a production of Two-Character Play. Other dramatists whose works were featured included Jean-Claude van Itallie, Richard Scheckner, Andrei Serban, and Elizabeth Swados.
Ruas initiated interview programs featuring nonfiction writers discussing their fields of expertise—Buckminster Fuller, Thor Heyerdahl, Ed Sanders, Jonathan Kozol, and Nigel Nicholson.
Each of the arts had weekly coverage. Courtney Callender’s Getting Around covered the cultural scene. Moira Hudson was the dance critic. The visual arts critics were John Perreault, Cindy Nemser, Liza Baer, Joe Giordano, Judith Vivell, Kenneth Koch, and Les Levine.
Susan Howe produced a weekly poetry program presenting the works of John Ashbery, W. S. Merwin, Maureen Owen, Charles Reznikoff, Rebecca Wright, Ron Padgett, Carter Ratcliff, John Hollander, Anne Waldman, Helen Adam, Audre Lorde, Michael Brownstein, Mary Ferrari, and Muriel Rukeyser. She also produced specials featuring William Carlos Williams, V. R. Lang, Jack Spicer, Louise Bogan, Paul Metcalf, Jonathan Williams, Harry Mathews, and James Laughlin. John Giorno presented his 5-part series Dial-a-Poem Poets.
For a few years WBAI became a cultural force as these programs were disseminated nationally through the Pacifica Network.
With the decline of the arc of history represented by the 1960s and 1970s, the station turned against itself. A new board of directors determined a new agenda, and, against the staff resistance provoked 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 mainstream commercial aesthetic rather than from the outside.
, Jan Albert, Chris Albertson
, Nancy Allen, Archie Altman, Lindsay Audin, Robbie Barish, Deborah Begel, Olenka Bohachevski, Delphine Blue, Peter Bochan, Bunny Bruce, Janice K. Bryant, Doreen Canto, Pepsi Charles, Frank Coffee, Janet Coleman, Neal Conan
, Pat Conte, John Corigliano
, Deloris Costello, Larry Cox, Joe Cumo, Barbara Day, Ife Dancy, Dick Demenus, Kathy Dobkin, Mike Edl, Barika Taheer Edwards, Matt Edwards, Dick Elman, Bob Fass
, Mike Feder, Charlie Finch, Richard Fioravanti, Paul Fischer, John Fisk, Sara Fishko, Joe Frank
, Paul Gorman, Joanne Grant, Jeff Greenfield
, Edward Haber, Doug Henwood
, Charles Hobson, Milton Hoffman, Mary Houston, Susan Howe
, Jimmy Howes
, Rob Hunter, Timothy Jerome, Larry Josephson
, Citizen Kafka
, Jesse Keyes, Glo Kirby, Robert Knight, Alen Pol Kobryn
, Chris Koch, Robert Kuttner, Richard Lamparski, Julius Lester
, Al Lewis, John Lithgow
, Sari Locker, Leonard Lopate
, The Mighty G-Man, Ann MacMillan, Marian McPartland
, Samori Marksmen, Margaret Mercer
, Frank Millspaugh, Dale Minor, Andrew Phillips, Betty Pilkington, Charles Pitts, Steve Post
, Charles Potter, Robert Potts, David Rapkin
, Desiree K. Robinson, David Rothenberg, Charles Ruas
, Eric Salzman, Lynn Samuels
, Bill Schechner, Baird Searles
, John J. Simon, Miles Smith, Peter Cedric Rock Smith (aka: Rocky), Jay Smooth, Bruce Soloway, A. B. Spellman
, Gordon Spencer, Dick Sudhalter
, Becky Thorn, Tom Tracy, Mickey Waldman, Marjorie Waxman, Manoli Wetherell
, Ira Weitzman, Bernard White, Tom Whitmore, Will K. Wilkins, Ed Woodard, Peter Zanger.
In the 1960s, Dale Minor and Chris Koch reported on the Vietnam War
and the Civil Rights
struggle. Former Station Manager Chris Albertson
returned to the music field, spent 28 years as Contributing Editor to Stereo Review and authored a biography of Bessie Smith. The Apple specialist
business Tekserve
was originally composed of former WBAI employees David Lerner, Dick Demenus, and Mike Edl. Through the 1970s, David Rapkin, James Irsay and Charles Potter produced some of the finest American radio drama of the post "Golden Age", some is still found in the Pacifica Archive, notable, an adaptation of Dalton Trumbo
's "Johnny Got His Gun". In the 1980s, new studios at the stations Eighth Avenue address were built by Miles Smith who, along with WBAI alumna Jane Pipik, is now working at WGBH in Boston. About the same time Dennis Coleman, Jim Freund
, Sharon Griffiths, Kathy O'Connell, Sharon Mattlin, Sidney Smith, Paul Wunder, Max Schmid and Simon Loekle formed EMRA, the Early Morning Radio Alliance. Loekle also created the Shakespeare Liberation Front and with Stephen Erickson produced radio dramas, dramatic readings and documentaries - notably, "Tale of the Monkey King" and the "Communist Manifesto". Loekle (As I Please - Saturday Mornings at 7AM and “Stand-up Academy”), Freund (Hour of the Wolf
), Smith, and Schmid are still at the station. After retiring as a NYC High School science teacher, Paul Wunder, aka, "Doctor Science", became Operations Director, a position he held until his death. Erickson, who became program director in 1984 but was battered by charges of racism (Village Voice 1985) when he attempted to change the program schedule, moved to Germany where he produces radio documentaries.
WBAI's broadcast of the comedian George Carlin
's "Filthy Words
" became a landmark moment in the history of free speech. In a 1978 milestone in the station's contentious and unruly history, WBAI lost a 5-to-4 U.S. Supreme Court
decision (FCC v. Pacifica Foundation
) that to this day has defined the power of the government over broadcast material it calls indecent.
is presently WBAI’s most influential offering. The station also hosts shows such as Golden Age of Radio serials, Weaponry, a show about military history and technology, Free Speech Radio News
, and Wakeup Call (WBAI's morning drive time
news magazine presented by several hosts including Mario Murillo
and Esther Armah). Also included are a regular arts
program: The Artsy Fartsy Show with host Barika Taheer Edwards. The weekly science fiction
program: Hour of the Wolf
presented by Jim Freund
, and Off The Hook, a program by the 2600 hacker group about the societal implications of communications & security technology and related laws, The Personal Computer Show with Joe King and Hank Kee, and the economic journalism of Doug Henwood
. Music programming includes Peter Bochan's All Mixed Up, Music of the Grateful Dead and more on "Morning Dew", Jeannie Hopper's Liquid Sound Lounge on Saturdays, Chico Alvarez
's New World Gallery on Sunday afternoons and David Kenney's Everything Old Is New Again, a mix of pop and jazz standards, show tunes, cabaret and interviews on Sunday evenings.
WBAI also offers programming and specials targeted primarily toward cultural audience segments that are typically under-served by most commercial media outlets. Radio Tahrir (supported in part by the Islamic Center of Long Island and targeted primarily towards Muslims), Out FM
(New York's "only progressive queer radio hour"), Joy of Resistance ("multicultural feminist radio") , First Voices Indigenous Radio (a global look at Native/Indigenous peoples), Radio drama
serial, The Aliens (one of the few radio drama series to hit the US airwaves since the Golden Age of Radio) focused on inter-cultural relationships around the world, and Asia Pacific Forum (targeted primarily towards Asian Americans)are examples of such programming."Program Schedule", wbai.org, January 29, 2011
WBAI's FM subcarrier (At 67 KhZ removed from its center FM frequency) is leased to Radio Maria
New York which airs Catholic programming in both Italian and Spanish languages.
Pacifica Radio
Pacifica Radio is the oldest public radio network in the United States. It is a group of five independently operated, non-commercial, listener-supported radio stations that is known for its progressive/liberal political orientation. It is also a program service supplying over 100 affiliated...
, is a non-commercial
Non-commercial
Non-commercial refers to an activity or entity that does not in some sense involve commerce, at least relative to similar activities that do have a commercial objective or emphasis...
, listener-supported radio station
Radio station
Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...
, broadcasting at 99.5 FM
Frequency modulation
In telecommunications and signal processing, frequency modulation conveys information over a carrier wave by varying its instantaneous frequency. This contrasts with amplitude modulation, in which the amplitude of the carrier is varied while its frequency remains constant...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.
Its programming is leftist
Left-wing politics
In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...
/progressive
Progressivism
Progressivism is an umbrella term for a political ideology advocating or favoring social, political, and economic reform or changes. Progressivism is often viewed by some conservatives, constitutionalists, and libertarians to be in opposition to conservative or reactionary ideologies.The...
, and a mixture of political news and opinion from a leftist perspective, tinged with aspects of its complex and varied history, such as Freeform radio, which WBAI played a role in developing, as well as various music.
History
Eccentricity (behavior)
In popular usage, eccentricity refers to unusual or odd behavior on the part of an individual. This behavior would typically be perceived as unusual or unnecessary, without being demonstrably maladaptive...
philanthropist
Philanthropist
A philanthropist is someone who engages in philanthropy; that is, someone who donates his or her time, money, and/or reputation to charitable causes...
Louis Schweitzer
Louis Schweitzer (Philanthropist)
Louis Schweitzer was a Russian-born United States paper industrialist and philanthropist who purchased the U.S. radio station WBAI from Theodore Deglin for $34,000 in 1957...
, who donated it to the Pacifica Foundation in 1960. The station, which had been a commercial enterprise, became non-commercial and listener-supported under Pacifica ownership.
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
Deconsecration
Deconsecration is the act of removing a religious blessing from something that had been previously consecrated by a minister or priest of that religion. The same act when performed by a member of a differing religion may be considered a curse by some religions and not a complete removal of the...
, as well as the transmitter, located atop the Empire State Building
Empire State Building
The Empire State Building is a 102-story landmark skyscraper and American cultural icon in New York City at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and West 34th Street. It has a roof height of 1,250 feet , and with its antenna spire included, it stands a total of 1,454 ft high. Its name is derived...
.
WBAI played a major role in the evolution and development of the counterculture in the 1960s
Counterculture of the 1960s
The counterculture of the 1960s refers to a cultural movement that mainly developed in the United States and spread throughout much of the western world between 1960 and 1973. The movement gained momentum during the U.S. government's extensive military intervention in Vietnam...
and early 1970s. Alice's Restaurant
Alice's Restaurant
"Alice's Restaurant Massacree" is a musical monologue by singer-songwriter Arlo Guthrie released on his 1967 album Alice's Restaurant. The song is one of Guthrie's most prominent works, based on a true incident in his life that began on Thanksgiving Day 1965, and which inspired a 1969 movie of the...
was first broadcast on Radio Unnameable, Bob Fass
Bob Fass
Bob Fass is an American radio personality and pioneer of free-form radio, who has broadcast in the New York region for 40 years....
’ 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
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
campus live and uninterrupted, as well as innumerable anti-war protests. With its signal reaching for nearly 100 kilometers beyond New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, its reach and influence, both direct and indirect, were significant. Among the station's weekly commentators in the mid-1960s was author Ayn Rand. The 1964 Political conventions were "covered" satirically on WBAI by Severn Darden, Elaine May, Burns and Schreiber, David Amram, and members of the Second City comedy group. The station presented an annual 24-hour nonstop presentation of Richard Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
’s Ring Cycle, 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. In 1970, Kathy Dobkin, Milton Hoffman, and Francie Camper produced an unprecedented, critically acclaimed 4½ day round-the-clock reading of Tolstoy's WAR AND PEACE. The epic novel was read cover to cover by more than 200 people—including a large number of international celebrities from various fields. "Newsweek" called this broadcast "one of the more mind-blowing 'firsts' in the history of the media." The complete reading (over 200 audio tapes) was the first Pacifica program to be selected for inclusion in the permanent collection of the Museum of Broadcasting in NYC.
In 1973, the station broadcast comedian George Carlin
George Carlin
George Denis Patrick Carlin was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, actor and author, who won five Grammy Awards for his comedy albums....
's infamous Filthy Words
Seven dirty words
The seven dirty words are seven English language words that American comedian George Carlin first listed in 1972 in his monologue "Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television". The words include: shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker, and tits...
routine uncensored – see F.C.C. v. Pacifica Foundation for a detailed account of the court case that ensued.
Arts Programming in the 1970s
In 1974 WBAI program director Marnie Mueller asked Charles RuasCharles Ruas
Charles Ruas, born in Tianjin, China, is an American author and intellectual, particularly known for his work as an interviewer, literary and art critic, and translator....
to become director of arts programming. Thus the station, already at the forefront of the counterculture and anti-war protest, also became a platform for New York’s avant-garde in theater, music, performance, art, and poetry. When the downtown avant-garde opera A Letter to Queen Victoria by Phillip Glass and Robert Wilson
Robert Wilson (director)
Robert Wilson is an American avant-garde stage director and playwright who has been called "[America]'s — or even the world's — foremost vanguard 'theater artist'". Over the course of his wide-ranging career, he has also worked as a choreographer, performer, painter, sculptor, video...
opened at the Metropolitan Opera, the station was right there to tape excerpts in rehearsals for broadcast.
Ruas initiated a year-long series on Marguerite Young
Marguerite Young
Marguerite Vivian Young was an American author of poetry, fiction, non-fiction, and criticism. Her work evinced an interest in social issues and environmentalism....
’s epic novel Miss McIntosh, My Darling. These readings were transformed into performances by Rob Wynne, who scored them with a complex collage of sound effects, music, and opera. The participants included Anaïs Nin, Marion Seldes, Alice Playten, H. M. Koutoukas, Leo Lerman, Michael Wagger, Novella Nelson, Osceola Archer, Owen Dodson, Wyatt Cooper, Michael Higgins, Anne Fremantle, Peggy Cass, Ruth Ford, Earle Hymen, and Daisy Alden.
When William Burroughs returned to the United States from Tangiers, Ruas invited him to present a retrospective of all his works. The series consisted of four programs, beginning with Junkie and followed by The Yage Letters, read by Burroughs and Allen Ginsburg, The Last Words of Dutch Schultz, and, finally, Naked Lunch. Bill Kortum oversaw this series as well as retrospectives of the works of Jerzy Kosinski
Jerzy Kosinski
Jerzy Kosiński , born Józef Lewinkopf, was an award-winning Polish American novelist, and two-time President of the American Chapter of P.E.N.He was known for various novels, among them The Painted Bird and Being There...
and Donald Barthelme
Donald Barthelme
Donald Barthelme was an American author known for his playful, postmodernist style of short fiction. Barthelme also worked as a newspaper reporter for the Houston Post, managing editor of Location magazine, director of the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston , co-founder of Fiction Donald...
, co-produced with Judith Sherman, the station’s music director.
A semester of Allen Ginsburg’s poetry seminar held at the Naropa Institute in Colorado was presented by Ruas, and for many years the station covered the annual New Year’s Eve celebratory poetry marathon at St. Mark’s Church. The day the Vietnam War ended, poet Muriel Rukeyser
Muriel Rukeyser
Muriel Rukeyser was an American poet and political activist, best known for her poems about equality, feminism, social justice, and Judaism...
came to the station to read her poem on peace.
Ruas inaugurated the Audio Experimental Theater, a series presenting the works of avant-garde artists: Meredith Monk, Yvonne Rainer, Ed Bowes, Michael Newman, Joan Schwartz, Benjamin Folkman, Vito Acconci, Charles Ludlum, Jacques Levy, Willoughby Sharpe, John Cage, Robert Wilson, Phillip Glass, Richard Foreman, and Joan Jonas.
In drama, the station defended Tennessee Williams
Tennessee Williams
Thomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams III was an American writer who worked principally as a playwright in the American theater. He also wrote short stories, novels, poetry, essays, screenplays and a volume of memoirs...
against his critics during his last years by covering his Memoirs and broadcasting a production of Two-Character Play. Other dramatists whose works were featured included Jean-Claude van Itallie, Richard Scheckner, Andrei Serban, and Elizabeth Swados.
Ruas initiated interview programs featuring nonfiction writers discussing their fields of expertise—Buckminster Fuller, Thor Heyerdahl, Ed Sanders, Jonathan Kozol, and Nigel Nicholson.
Each of the arts had weekly coverage. Courtney Callender’s Getting Around covered the cultural scene. Moira Hudson was the dance critic. The visual arts critics were John Perreault, Cindy Nemser, Liza Baer, Joe Giordano, Judith Vivell, Kenneth Koch, and Les Levine.
Susan Howe produced a weekly poetry program presenting the works of John Ashbery, W. S. Merwin, Maureen Owen, Charles Reznikoff, Rebecca Wright, Ron Padgett, Carter Ratcliff, John Hollander, Anne Waldman, Helen Adam, Audre Lorde, Michael Brownstein, Mary Ferrari, and Muriel Rukeyser. She also produced specials featuring William Carlos Williams, V. R. Lang, Jack Spicer, Louise Bogan, Paul Metcalf, Jonathan Williams, Harry Mathews, and James Laughlin. John Giorno presented his 5-part series Dial-a-Poem Poets.
For a few years WBAI became a cultural force as these programs were disseminated nationally through the Pacifica Network.
With the decline of the arc of history represented by the 1960s and 1970s, the station turned against itself. A new board of directors determined a new agenda, and, against the staff resistance provoked 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 mainstream commercial aesthetic rather than from the outside.
Alumni of the station
Alumni of WBAI include Margot AdlerMargot Adler
Margot Adler is an author, journalist, lecturer, Wiccan priestess and radio journalist and correspondent for National Public Radio .- Early life :Born in Little Rock, Arkansas, Adler grew up mostly in New York City...
, Jan Albert, Chris Albertson
Chris Albertson
Christiern Gunnar Albertson is a New York City-based jazz journalist, writer and record producer.He was born in Reykjavík and educated in Iceland, Denmark and England before studying commercial art in Copenhagen...
, Nancy Allen, Archie Altman, Lindsay Audin, Robbie Barish, Deborah Begel, Olenka Bohachevski, Delphine Blue, Peter Bochan, Bunny Bruce, Janice K. Bryant, Doreen Canto, Pepsi Charles, Frank Coffee, Janet Coleman, Neal Conan
Neal Conan
Neal Conan is an American radio journalist, producer, editor, and correspondent. He is senior host of the National Public Radio talk show Talk of the Nation....
, Pat Conte, John Corigliano
John Corigliano
John Corigliano is an American composer of classical music and a teacher of music. He is a distinguished professor of music at Lehman College in the City University of New York.-Biography:...
, Deloris Costello, Larry Cox, Joe Cumo, Barbara Day, Ife Dancy, Dick Demenus, Kathy Dobkin, Mike Edl, Barika Taheer Edwards, Matt Edwards, Dick Elman, Bob Fass
Bob Fass
Bob Fass is an American radio personality and pioneer of free-form radio, who has broadcast in the New York region for 40 years....
, Mike Feder, Charlie Finch, Richard Fioravanti, Paul Fischer, John Fisk, Sara Fishko, Joe Frank
Joe Frank
Joe Frank is an American radio personality, known best for his often philosophical, humorous, surrealist, and sometimes absurd monologues and radio dramas.-Early life:...
, Paul Gorman, Joanne Grant, Jeff Greenfield
Jeff Greenfield
Jeff Greenfield is an American television journalist and author.-Biography:He was born in New York City to parents Benjamin and Helen. He grew up in Manhattan and graduated from the Bronx High School of Science in 1960. He obtained a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in...
, Edward Haber, Doug Henwood
Doug Henwood
Doug Henwood is an American journalist who writes frequently about economic affairs. He publishes a newsletter, Left Business Observer, that analyzes economics and politics from a left-wing perspective, and is a contributing editor at The Nation.- Early years :Henwood was born in Teaneck, New...
, Charles Hobson, Milton Hoffman, Mary Houston, Susan Howe
Susan Howe
Susan Howe is a American poet, scholar, essayist and critic, who has been closely associated with the Language poets, among others poetry movements. Her work is often classified as Postmodern because it expands traditional notions of genre...
, Jimmy Howes
Jimmy Howes
Jimmy Howes is a radio disc jockey and talk show host, stand-up comic. New York City On-Air Radio Host under dozens of different synonyms. Morning Show Host on Jukebox Radio, New York City, Mid-Day host with WVNJ, Program Director and a morning show host of WGHT...
, Rob Hunter, Timothy Jerome, Larry Josephson
Larry Josephson
Larry Josephson is an award winning public radio producer. Since 1965 he has worked in the field of public broadcasting as a producer, host, station manager, engineer, teacher, writer and consultant...
, Citizen Kafka
Citizen Kafka
Citizen Kafka was the stage name of New York-based radio personality and folk musician Richard Shulberg ....
, Jesse Keyes, Glo Kirby, Robert Knight, Alen Pol Kobryn
Alen Pol Kobryn
Alen Pol Kobryn, is an American poet, novelist, and voice actor.Kobryn was educated at Johns Hopkins and New York University, and studied with John Ashbery at the City University of New York....
, Chris Koch, Robert Kuttner, Richard Lamparski, Julius Lester
Julius Lester
Julius Lester is an American author of books for children and adults, and taught for 32 years at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He is also a photographer, as well as a musician who recorded two albums of folk music and original songs.-Early life and family:Born on January 27, 1939, in...
, Al Lewis, John Lithgow
John Lithgow
John Arthur Lithgow is an American actor, musician, and author. Presently, he is involved with a wide range of media projects, including stage, television, film, and radio...
, Sari Locker, Leonard Lopate
Leonard Lopate
Leonard Lopate is host of the public radio talk show The Leonard Lopate Show, broadcast on WNYC. He first broadcast on WKCR, the college radio station of Columbia University—where his brother Phillip was a student—then later at WBAI, before ultimately moving to WNYC. -Biography:Lopate came to...
, The Mighty G-Man, Ann MacMillan, Marian McPartland
Marian McPartland
Margaret Marian McPartland, OBE is an English-born jazz pianist, composer, writer, and the host of Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz on National Public Radio, NPR.-Early life:...
, Samori Marksmen, Margaret Mercer
Margaret Mercer
Margaret Mercer was program director of WQXR in New York, the classical music station in New York.As such, her programming decisions and choices as to program material have significant influence on shaping the artistic and cultural scene in one of the world's great cities, and, by influence and...
, Frank Millspaugh, Dale Minor, Andrew Phillips, Betty Pilkington, Charles Pitts, Steve Post
Steve Post
Steve Post is an American freeform radio artist, author of Playing in the FM Band .In 2006 he celebrated his 25th anniversary as program host on WNYC, New York City's principal NPR affiliate station. For 20 years he was host of WNYC 93.9's Morning Music program...
, Charles Potter, Robert Potts, David Rapkin
David Rapkin
David Rapkin is a recording engineer, sound designer and audio producer, based in New York.-Career:Rapkin has designed sound on Broadway for Steaming by Nell Dunn, On Golden Pond by Ernest Thompson, The Curse Of An Aching Heart by William Alfred, The Wake Of Jamie Foster by Beth Henley and...
, Desiree K. Robinson, David Rothenberg, Charles Ruas
Charles Ruas
Charles Ruas, born in Tianjin, China, is an American author and intellectual, particularly known for his work as an interviewer, literary and art critic, and translator....
, Eric Salzman, Lynn Samuels
Lynn Samuels
Lynn Margaret Samuels is an American radio personality based in New York City who currently hosts a weekend talk show on Sirius XM Stars channel 107.-External links:****...
, Bill Schechner, Baird Searles
Baird Searles
William Baird Searles was a science fiction author and critic. He was best known for his long running review columns for the magazines Asimov's , Amazing, and Fantasy & Science Fiction . He also did occasional reviews for other publications, including The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, and The...
, John J. Simon, Miles Smith, Peter Cedric Rock Smith (aka: Rocky), Jay Smooth, Bruce Soloway, A. B. Spellman
A. B. Spellman
A. B. Spellman , is an African-American poet, music critic, music historian, arts administrator, and author. He first garnered attention for his 1964 book of poems entitled The Beautiful Days...
, Gordon Spencer, Dick Sudhalter
Dick Sudhalter
Richard "Dick" Sudhalter was an American jazz trumpeter, scholar, critic, and album annotator.-Biography:...
, Becky Thorn, Tom Tracy, Mickey Waldman, Marjorie Waxman, Manoli Wetherell
Manoli Wetherell
Manoli Wetherell is New York Bureau Chief Engineer for National Public Radio.-Miscellany:She has occasionally been portrayed in The Uncanny X-Men as an NPR reporter and technician, starting in the Fall of the Mutants.-References:...
, Ira Weitzman, Bernard White, Tom Whitmore, Will K. Wilkins, Ed Woodard, Peter Zanger.
In the 1960s, Dale Minor and Chris Koch reported on the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
and the Civil Rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
struggle. Former Station Manager Chris Albertson
Chris Albertson
Christiern Gunnar Albertson is a New York City-based jazz journalist, writer and record producer.He was born in Reykjavík and educated in Iceland, Denmark and England before studying commercial art in Copenhagen...
returned to the music field, spent 28 years as Contributing Editor to Stereo Review and authored a biography of Bessie Smith. The Apple specialist
Apple Specialist
Apple Specialist is an independent Apple Inc. reseller which over time has demonstrated exceptional, consistent, and comprehensive knowledge of Apple technology, offers its entire line of hardware and software, offers complete service and support for branded products, and has been designated as...
business Tekserve
Tekserve
Tekserve is an American consumer electronics and information technology consulting business based in the Flatiron District, Manhattan, New York City...
was originally composed of former WBAI employees David Lerner, Dick Demenus, and Mike Edl. Through the 1970s, David Rapkin, James Irsay and Charles Potter produced some of the finest American radio drama of the post "Golden Age", some is still found in the Pacifica Archive, notable, an adaptation of Dalton Trumbo
Dalton Trumbo
James Dalton Trumbo was an American screenwriter and novelist, and one of the Hollywood Ten, a group of film professionals who refused to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1947 during the committee's investigation of Communist influences in the motion picture industry...
's "Johnny Got His Gun". In the 1980s, new studios at the stations Eighth Avenue address were built by Miles Smith who, along with WBAI alumna Jane Pipik, is now working at WGBH in Boston. About the same time Dennis Coleman, Jim Freund
Jim Freund
Jim Freund is a radio personality and a prominent figure in the speculative fiction community as host of the Pacifica Radio show Hour of the Wolf and as curator of the New York Review of Science Fiction Reading Series....
, Sharon Griffiths, Kathy O'Connell, Sharon Mattlin, Sidney Smith, Paul Wunder, Max Schmid and Simon Loekle formed EMRA, the Early Morning Radio Alliance. Loekle also created the Shakespeare Liberation Front and with Stephen Erickson produced radio dramas, dramatic readings and documentaries - notably, "Tale of the Monkey King" and the "Communist Manifesto". Loekle (As I Please - Saturday Mornings at 7AM and “Stand-up Academy”), Freund (Hour of the Wolf
Hour of the Wolf (radio show)
Hour of the Wolf, named for the Ingmar Bergman film of that same title, originally hosted and produced by Margot Adler in 1972, is a long-running radio program, devoted to speculative fiction, hosted since 1974 by Jim Freund on WBAI in New York....
), Smith, and Schmid are still at the station. After retiring as a NYC High School science teacher, Paul Wunder, aka, "Doctor Science", became Operations Director, a position he held until his death. Erickson, who became program director in 1984 but was battered by charges of racism (Village Voice 1985) when he attempted to change the program schedule, moved to Germany where he produces radio documentaries.
WBAI's broadcast of the comedian George Carlin
George Carlin
George Denis Patrick Carlin was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, actor and author, who won five Grammy Awards for his comedy albums....
's "Filthy Words
Seven dirty words
The seven dirty words are seven English language words that American comedian George Carlin first listed in 1972 in his monologue "Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television". The words include: shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker, and tits...
" became a landmark moment in the history of free speech. In a 1978 milestone in the station's contentious and unruly history, WBAI lost a 5-to-4 U.S. Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
decision (FCC v. Pacifica Foundation
Federal Communications Commission v. Pacifica Foundation
Federal Communications Commission v. Pacifica Foundation, 438 U.S. 726 is a landmark United States Supreme Court decision that defined the power of the Federal Communications Commission over indecent material as applied to broadcasting...
) that to this day has defined the power of the government over broadcast material it calls indecent.
Programming
Democracy Now!Democracy Now!
Democracy Now! and its staff have received several journalism awards, including the Gracie Award from American Women in Radio & Television; the George Polk Award for its 1998 radio documentary Drilling and Killing: Chevron and Nigeria's Oil Dictatorship, on the Chevron Corporation and the deaths of...
is presently WBAI’s most influential offering. The station also hosts shows such as Golden Age of Radio serials, Weaponry, a show about military history and technology, Free Speech Radio News
Free Speech Radio News
Free Speech Radio News is an independently produced half hour daily national and international radio news program focusing on peace and social justice issues in the US and around the world. FSRN is collectively run by its workers and reporters...
, and Wakeup Call (WBAI's morning drive time
Drive time
Drive time is the daypart analog to prime time for radio broadcasting. It consists of the morning hours when listeners wake up, get ready, and/or head to work or school, and the afternoon hours when they are heading home and before their evening meal. These are the periods where the number of...
news magazine presented by several hosts including Mario Murillo
Mario Murillo
Mario A. Murillo is a journalist who has worked in commercial, public, and community radio for over 22 years. He hosts and produces Wakeup Call on WBAI-Pacifica in New York. An associate professor at Hofstra University, Murillo is also the author of Colombia and the United States: War, Unrest,...
and Esther Armah). Also included are a regular arts
ARts
aRts, which stands for analog Real time synthesizer, is an audio framework that is no longer under development. It is best known for previously being used in KDE to simulate an analog synthesizer....
program: The Artsy Fartsy Show with host Barika Taheer Edwards. The weekly science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
program: Hour of the Wolf
Hour of the Wolf (radio show)
Hour of the Wolf, named for the Ingmar Bergman film of that same title, originally hosted and produced by Margot Adler in 1972, is a long-running radio program, devoted to speculative fiction, hosted since 1974 by Jim Freund on WBAI in New York....
presented by Jim Freund
Jim Freund
Jim Freund is a radio personality and a prominent figure in the speculative fiction community as host of the Pacifica Radio show Hour of the Wolf and as curator of the New York Review of Science Fiction Reading Series....
, and Off The Hook, a program by the 2600 hacker group about the societal implications of communications & security technology and related laws, The Personal Computer Show with Joe King and Hank Kee, and the economic journalism of Doug Henwood
Doug Henwood
Doug Henwood is an American journalist who writes frequently about economic affairs. He publishes a newsletter, Left Business Observer, that analyzes economics and politics from a left-wing perspective, and is a contributing editor at The Nation.- Early years :Henwood was born in Teaneck, New...
. Music programming includes Peter Bochan's All Mixed Up, Music of the Grateful Dead and more on "Morning Dew", Jeannie Hopper's Liquid Sound Lounge on Saturdays, Chico Alvarez
Chico Alvarez (artist)
Ernesto "Chico" Alvarez Peraza is a Cuban North American artist of Latin American music who has been performing as a singer throughout the New York City tri-state area for the last four decades...
's New World Gallery on Sunday afternoons and David Kenney's Everything Old Is New Again, a mix of pop and jazz standards, show tunes, cabaret and interviews on Sunday evenings.
WBAI also offers programming and specials targeted primarily toward cultural audience segments that are typically under-served by most commercial media outlets. Radio Tahrir (supported in part by the Islamic Center of Long Island and targeted primarily towards Muslims), Out FM
Out FM
Out FM is an anti-racist, progressive LGBTQ public affairs and culture talk radio show airing on Tuesday evenings from 7pm to 8pm on WBAI 99.5 fm, Pacifica Radio in New York...
(New York's "only progressive queer radio hour"), Joy of Resistance ("multicultural feminist radio") , First Voices Indigenous Radio (a global look at Native/Indigenous peoples), Radio drama
Radio drama
Radio drama is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance, broadcast on radio or published on audio media, such as tape or CD. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine the characters and story...
serial, The Aliens (one of the few radio drama series to hit the US airwaves since the Golden Age of Radio) focused on inter-cultural relationships around the world, and Asia Pacific Forum (targeted primarily towards Asian Americans)are examples of such programming."Program Schedule", wbai.org, January 29, 2011
WBAI's FM subcarrier (At 67 KhZ removed from its center FM frequency) is leased to Radio Maria
Radio Maria
Radio Maria is an international Catholic radio broadcasting service founded in Erba, province of Como, in the diocese of Milan in 1983. The World Family of Radio Maria was formed in 1998 and today has branches in 55 countries around the world...
New York which airs Catholic programming in both Italian and Spanish languages.