Apparently the shit has hit the fan at Pacifica again. This time it’s at NYC station WBAI. Reports from the station indicate that Pacifica director Bessie Wash has fired WBAI’s station manager Valerie Van Isler and program director Bernard White, the doors to the station have also been locked and station staff are being admitted only under controlled circumstances (as opposed to the station’s usual open-door policy). It appears to be a strange repeat of what happened at KPFA in Berkeley in the Spring of ’99, when Pacifica management locked out the entire staff for almost a month in retaliation for staff protests over Pacifica’s firing of KPFA’s popular station manager Nicole Sawaya. Will Pacifica ever learn? Or do they simply have unending faith in strong-arm tactics?
For more on the situation at WBAI as it unfolds, go to the Save Pacifica website..
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