First some background Democracy Now was created in 1996 by WBAI Radio, the New York station of the Pacifica Radio Network, which also owned the program and paid its production costs and the salaries of its employees. The program featured news, analysis, and opinion, focusing primarily on stories that were underreported or ignored by mainstream news coverage. Recipient of numerous awards – including the Gracie Award from American Women in Radio & Television, the George Polk Award, the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial’s First Prize in International Radio, and (for its host, Amy Goodman) the Right Livelihood Award – Democracy Now is one of the best, and justifiably one of the most popular, programs on the Pacifica Network. During the years in which Pacifica owned Democracy Now, it was the only program that actually made money for the network, over and above what it raised during the network’s regular on-air fund drives. This income comprised approximately $500,000 a year in syndication fees from more than 100 non-Pacifica stations (averaging $2,000-$5,000 a year per station), and approximately $250,000 a year in fees from listeners who wanted CD copies of past or present broadcasts (at about $10 per CD). The combined revenue for Pacifica from Democracy Now totaled approximately $750,000 per year. Amy Goodman attempts to take Democracy Now away from Pacifica However, all this changed in 2001, when Amy Goodman, the producer and primary on-air host of Democracy Now (and a salaried employee of Pacifica), dropped a bombshell on the Pacifica National Board. Goodman told the astonished board members that she would quit Democracy Now — and stop raising money for the network’s on-air fund drives — unless Pacifica turned over total ownership of Democracy Now to Goodman’s private corporation, free of charge, along with its entire 7-year archive of Pacifica-produced Democracy Now programs.
