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Insurance Tunes Out WBAI Sandy Claim

If the accusations in the Wall Street Crusader 48 blog are true, WBAI-99.5 at the very least may be looking at the FCC denying it's license getting renewed.

And possibly even the FCC yanking the station's license in mid-term, forcing WBAI off the air.

Pacifica may, if these allegations are true (and it's not yet known if they are), may want to sell WBAI now, before any possible FCC action. At least they would get something for giving up the 99.5 frequency. Otherwise, if either of the above scenarios occur, they would leave WBAI with nothing other than the equipment that they won't be able to use.
 
If those allegations aren't true, isn't there a libel suit in the making??

All those idiots do is bicker among themselves while pretending to care about "the community". WBAI is a train wreck because none of them can work together or have a common goal. The only goal is each individual's vision for the station.
 
I've never cared for much of what WBAI airs but it does allow for an alternate voice to be heard. If you don't care for WBAI might I suggest that there are hundreds of alternative statioons to listen to, both on the air and through streaming. It's sad that NYC doesn't have a commercial classical station or a commercial Jazz station. Our dials are filled with dumbed down repetitive formats. What reasonable programing would air on 99.5 instead of what is there currently? More syndicated garbage? I read from some that WBAI should lose its license. How do you feel about WABC which has become a repeater of syndicated fare which can be heard all over the country. If junk is the basis for FCC action that garbage spewed out by those once great AM facilities should be have been removd from the air years ago. I know I'll hear that they have listeners. They have garbage for listeners from an advertising standpoint. Their audience is comprised of the elderly, the shut ins and the perpetually unemployed. In a city the size of NY which has a huge population what we don't need is another cookie cutter waste of electricty which is what airs on most of those stations which are airing programing of no relavence to population of NY. Heck, I don't think WABC still has a real local news staff. It's a disgrace!
 
As there is apparently a real possibility WBAI will not be able to raise the funds needed to continue broadcasting from the Empire State Building, it seems to me that Cumulus Media may have a good opportunity to buy it in exchange for WFAS FM + cash.
 
That would be their best bet. Keeping WBAI isn't financially in the cards for them, it's been hemorrhaging money for years now.
 
WBAI's treasurer has posted some further information on the WBAI Issues forum.

There's no copyright notice over there or any indication that it can't be redistributed, so considering it's a public post for a public station making a public solicitation I will quote it. If the mods here don't like it they can edit it.

Some folks are wondering about the Management statement that we need to raise $500,000 to get out from under the Empire State Building (ESB) rent crisis. IMO Management should have given the $500,000 figure right away, rather than stating the lower $250,000 figure that only reflected part of the problem.
Here is a look at a fast spreadsheet layout of the antenna issue only.

Due March 15 50,000
Due March 31 150,000
Due April 1 60,000 *
Due May 1 60,000 *
Due June 1 60,000 *
Due July 1 60,000 *
Due August 1 60,000 *
TOTAL 500,000

So the reality is that by the end of March we really need to have $210,000 in cash to lay on the ESB or we're in serious trouble. And you can see that the total for the antenna/ESB is $500,000.

If you look at the budget you'll see that the largest expense for WBAI is not the antenna/transmitter space at ESB, it's personnel.

Unfortunately, the Pacifica National Office has been dysfunctional since last year, so we do not have the FY12 audit yet, it is projected to arrive in May - late again. But here are the WBAI figures that I have:

Personnel for FY11 $1,491,554 (source: FY11 audit)
Total Salaries & related Expenses for FY13 $1,356,762 (source: WBAI FY13 budget)

Since we're without a Program Director for a while in FY13 that budget item will probably be little bit lower this fiscal year, but those are big numbers.

Payroll MUST be met on time twice a month. That comes to about $49,000 twice a month. Next payroll is due on March 29. There are additional costs related to payroll with separate deadlines but they all add money to the personnel line.

In addition we still owe Silverstein of 120 Wall St. about $149,000. That's actually a settlement that Pacifica/WBAI reached, it could have been a much larger bill.

And then there are loads of other, ordinary expenses. We have, finally, gotten an income statement for Q1 FY13 (October, November and December 2012). Here's the biggest news:

Listener Support income appears to be off by $329,653 as compared to the FY13 budget.
Total revenue seems to be off by $474,599 as compared to the FY13 budget.
Total direct expenses appear to be off by $96,864 as compared to the FY13 budget.

The above is based on comparing the FY13 budget figures with the Q1 FY13 Income Statement from the National Office. I must say that given the state of the National Office at this time I am not 100% confident in the precision of their figures, but those figures should certainly be in the ball park. So total revenue is short of what had been projected by almost $500,000. Total direct expenses are nearly $100,000 more than had been projected. You can see why we got behind on the rent.

And I will reiterate that in the past this sort of serious cash flow mess has been somewhat ameliorated by Pacifica throwing us bridge loans, and sometimes those loans have simply never been repaid. There are no longer substantial cash reserves in Pacifica nor at any station. WBAI and some other stations have not been paying their "Shared Expenses" payments, formerly called "Central Services" payments to Pacifica, so Pacifica itself is in bad shape. That is the real reason why there is such an emergency now, as opposed to all of the other times that ESB has brought such actions against WBAI for being so far in arrears in paying the rent.

* After negotiations it looks like WBAI will have to pay the $50,000 in arrears remaining after the end of March at the rate of $10,000 a month for five months. So, since we'll also have an additional $50,000 coming due at the first of each month as well, the bills will be $60,000 for those five months. And we must make those payments on time, or we're right back in court and looking at possible eviction. September 1, puts us back at the regular approximately $50,000 a month rent on ESB.

BTW, the $50,000 a month ESB figure is an approximate average. The nominal rent is lower than that, but ESB adds their own utilities and other expenses, so the ESB bill varies every month. We are seeing Manhattan real estate at its most predatory.

The FY13 budget files are to be found here. You'll need a Yahoo! ID in order to access that file.

I hope this helps people to understand this a little better.

Sez who?

R. Paul Martin
Treasurer WBAI LSB
Click to expand...
 
secondchoice said:
I understand the ownership of this station is committed to the "non-com" business model. but being above 91.9 could it legally be switched to a regular commercial station?* I know of translators that were below 92.1 that switched frequencies above 92.1 and been tied to AM's commercial AM's. If this station could be converted to a regular commercial station, then there is "collateral" for a loan from a bank.

*IIRC someone posted that there were a few FM channels above 92.1 that non-commercial stations had "preference". I thought this was odd but this is the same FCC that allowed some of the VHF TV stations to run digital on in the old analog spectrum so anything is possible.
Click to expand...
When the telephone company assigns your area a new area code, the day that is effective is the day it is yours. An overlap period exists for a certain time but when the new area code is implemented, it is yours. It does not become yours when the old one no longer functions.

I suspect that is what happened during the transition time for the a-d TV conversion. It would explain why it was unnecessary for an analogue counterpart to be on the air when the digital signal signed on.

In other words, the United States has been Digital TV since 1998, NOT 2009!

The period in between was allowed for everybody to get "up to speed". (It was a piss-poor transition, to say it nicely.)

Poor media reporting has caused this confusion.

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!
 
secondchoice said:
If this station could be converted to a regular commercial station, then there is "collateral" for a loan from a bank.
Click to expand...

The problem, as I see it, is that any bank that might give the kind of financing that a full B in NYC would justify is going to keep its distance because of two things. First, the current operation is highly politicized, meaning that any foreclosure would likely generate protests, FCC complaints and more. Second, and more important, the station is not generating the volume of donations needed to operate, let alone pay a loan (and the parent company is apparently in a cash crunch).

To a bank, those are not incentives to making a loan.
 
Bongwater said:
A station like WBAI, for all it's dysfunctions, does have it's place. EVERY market needs that one lovable rabble rousing non-commercial station.
Click to expand...
We have one. It's called WFMU. Their amazing fundraising marathon (NPR could learn a few things) is almost over. And they only do it for two weeks a year, or at least that's the goal.

WBAI is a radio catastrophe. The endless internal battles are exhausting just to read about. I have a friend who is a dedicated listener, but he only listens to Democracy Now, and that's all. He was surprised when I told him they have 9/11 conspiracy theorists on the air at other times.

These days, you can get progressive news on the Internet without having to listen to Amy Goodman's incredibly harsh, grating voice, and that's exactly what I do.

Not that I want to see boring, cookie-cutter commercial programming on this frequency either. I wonder if another non-commercial broadcaster could come up with enough cash for 99.5.
 
That would be a financially unviable deal if 99.5 went from one non-commer to another. Already in this market alone, we've seen Family Radio, and to a lesser extent, classical music non-commers move to lesser signals. It just would not make economic sense for 99.5 to end up with an entity other than a commercial broadcaster. How soon before someone files to have the status for the frequency converted to a commercial license?
 
Split it into two stations like the two W**U's on the old UN channel.
 
Trade to CBS for WINS 1010 + cash. CBS puts WINS on big FM signal, WBAI gets big Northeast coverage for their mostly non-music format. Win-win.

Trade to Cumulus for 103.9 + cash. WBAI stays on without huge transmitter rent and has reasonable NYC coverage.

These FMs are not going to keep their stick value forever. Pacifica better face the music, not blow their 99.5 equity by waiting too long, and do something fast to save their NY presence and get cash. They could do the same thing in San Francisco where they are also on a commercial FM frequency.
 
Pacifica already blew it. If they had done this with 99.5 8-10 years ago they would have gotten 3x the amount they would now for 99.5.

But hey, gotta keep those 9/11 conspiracies on prime radio real estate for the 98,000 listeners.
 
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