WBAI Ordered Back On The Air As NYC Station Fights Takeover

NEW YORK — WBAI staffers found their Brooklyn studio torn apart Tuesday morning even after a judge ordered the beloved community radio station's owner to let it back on the air, station representatives said.

The Monday temporary restraining order from a Manhattan Supreme Court judge came as WBAI accused the Pacifica Foundation in a lawsuit of violating its own bylaws by taking over the local station in the latest episode of a longstanding conflict.

The order "means the station is legally back in the hands of WBAI's personnel," station General Manager Berthold Reimers said in a statement Tuesday morning, adding his thanks for the "enormous support that we had from our staff and broad sectors of the listening community."

Pacifica blamed WBAI's perennial financial problems for its decision to suddenly shut down the commercial-free station, which had been a bastion of progressive politics in New York City since it started broadcasting in 1955.

The move elicited an outpouring of support for the station from listeners and elected officials, including Mayor Bill de Blasio and state Attorney General Letitia James.

The foundation's new executive director, John Vernile, had WBAI's Brooklyn studio locked, fired its 12 staffers and replaced its local programming with a feed of national shows — even though Pacifica's board never voted to authorize those actions, the station's lawsuit alleges.

The court ordered Pacifica to return control of WBAI to its local staff and restore its signal to the radio airwaves and the station's website, said Arthur Schwartz, the attorney representing the station.

But some staffers "found the whole studio dismantled" when they got back into the station's Brooklyn offices Tuesday morning, and the signal has yet to come back, according to Schwartz. He said he's threatened to have Pacifica held in contempt of court if the signal isn't restored.

"If we hadn’t acted last night they would have moved every piece of equipment out of that office today," said Schwartz, who also hosted a weekly show on WBAI. "They were very ready. They had a whole plan of action to dismantle the operation and basically make it impossible to recreate it."

Sabrina Jacobs, the interim chair of Pacifica's board of directors, said the foundation would respond to the "ridiculous" restraining order in court Tuesday.

Jacobs maintained that financial woes forced Pacifica to shut down WBAI. The station had accumulated a $4 million debt to Pacifica Central Services, which placed a burden on the foundation's national office, archives and other stations, according to an open letter Pacifica posted on WBAI's website.

"It’s against the law to have a paid employee working when you’re not able to pay them," Jacobs said. "And that’s what we were trying to do. We were trying to avoid breaking the law because we don’t have the money to pay those employees."

But court papers suggest money was just one factor in Pacifica's sudden takeover of the station.

Vernile complained in a Sept. 27 letter to Reimers about an Aug. 30 promo that expressed "support or opposition of" a political candidate, which he said put the station's broadcast license and nonprofit status in jeopardy.

The impetus for the complaint was longtime WBAI host Mimi Rosenberg using the phrase "Stop Trump" in a promo for her Labor Day special, the station's lawsuit says.

That indicates Pacifica was unhappy with the content produced by WBAI, whose politics have long been "somewhat to the left" of its owner, Schwartz said. (WBAI also hosted a program called "TrumpWatch.")

"I knew something was brewing, but I really think this is not about money," Schwartz said.

Pacifica tried to straighten things out with WBAI before taking the drastic step of shuttering the station, Jacobs said. But Reimers was not giving the foundation accurate information and his allies on Pacifica's board were backing him up, she said.

"They’re living in a dream world, for lack of a better phrase," Jacobs said of the board members who joined WBAI's lawsuit.