Bob Lederer

Questionnaire – Bob Lederer

1. Why do you want to be on the Local Station Board?

I want to continue the LSB work I have done over the past three years, working with others to: help forge sound budgets; insure respect for staff rights and contributions; defend our station’s historic autonomy; maintain our mission-adherent programming; and hold board members accountable for racist, sexist, and other discriminatory conduct.

2. How do you envision the local Board working with Pacifica Foundation, WBAI, and the community?

The LSB should be the funnel through which proposals and initiatives from WBAI are sent to the PNB and the Executive Director. The LSB should actively encourage involvement by staff and listeners in its discussions; it should work with management and staff to hold more frequent town hall meetings, community events, and on-air Reports to the Listener to create more venues for that dialogue. The PNB and Executive Director absolutely should not impose programming or staffing decisions on the local stations, as has been attempted in recent months.

3. How could the station better serve its listeners?

An important way to create more offerings and listening options would be to utilize WBAI’s currently unused sideband to create an additional set of 24/7 programming, which could also be webstreamed. Long-term, funds could be raised to add a HD (High Definition) digital signal, which would create additional channels that could further open the airwaves. Any of these approaches would allow for such expansion of WBAI’s reach through specialized community programming, including in languages other than English; the rebroadcast of existing shows at times that might attract additional listeners; and the broadcast of shows produced by other Pacifica stations. By offering an additional stream of programming on our unrented sideband, a simulcast of that programming on the Internet, and eventually its broadcast on HD, we will enhance our fundraising ability in these venues.

4. Describe some actions you would take to increase the influence of the station in underrepresented communities and to increase the diversity of the listening audience.

The station could benefit from a systematic publicity campaign to heighten the visibility of our programming in the region generally, and especially in underrepresented communities where it fills such a vital survival need. I would recommend that the LSB’s Membership, Outreach, and Fundraising Committee hold publicized brainstorming sessions to involve listeners and staff in developing a strategy to bring awareness and promotion of WBAI to progressive, ethnic, and neighborhood newspapers, radio stations, and community organizations, as well as broader peace, justice, and environmental activist groups.

5. What sources of funding, other than listener donations, do you feel WBAI should solicit?

It is critical to fund the position of Development Director (included in the LSB-approved budget for Fiscal Year 2007) so as to have a full-time professional to develop a comprehensive plan for off-air fundraising, including special events for major donors, planned giving programs, awards dinners, increased Internet marketing of products that support our mission, and other initiatives. This will ultimately reduce the constant pressure for longer on-air pledge drives.

In addition, we should work to establish a Pacifica record label that would allow the marketing of original music, spoken word, and poetry. This should be developed in close consultation with the cultural workers’ community. Such a project could promote many up-and-coming performers and help them increase their income, while also providing new revenue to the network.

WBAI should also make more diligent efforts to collect the fees owed to it by entities that rent access to one of its sideband frequencies.

On the expense side, moving the station to an owned facility would certainly save substantial funds in the long term, so I will support the LSB in working with management and staff to launch a Capital Campaign to work toward that goal.

6. Please state briefly the skills, experience, educational background, work history, organizational affiliations, areas of community service, areas of interest and expertise that you would bring to the Pacifica network as a member of the Local Station Board.

I have been an organizer for peace and social justice for thirty years. My work has included support for Puerto Rican independence, freedom for U.S. political prisoners such as Mumia Abu-Jamal, the rights of people with HIV/AIDS, and equality for lesbians/gay/bisexual/transgender people. During the last phase of Pacifica’s mainstreamization, and especially after WBAI’s “Christmas Coup,” I became very active in the movement to take back the station and network. Professionally, I have been a writer and editor for a range of progressive publications. At WBAI, I have co-produced and co-hosted the programs AIDS: Paths to Self-Empowerment and Healing (1990-1994) and Health Action (1994 to date). For three years, I was the Interim Editor of the WBAI Website and Folio, and for four months (until my job was abolished), I was an Interim Premiums Assistant, where I worked to resolve members’ complaints about lack of delivery of premiums. My candidate statement details the committee work I have done as an LSB and PNB member.

I believe that all of these experiences have provided me with important skills for continued board service: understanding budgets; engaging in personnel searches and strategic planning; writing motions; understanding Pacifica’s Bylaws and Robert’s Rules of Order (and the latter’s serious weaknesses that can make it a tool for aiding obstruction); facilitating meetings; building consensus; and working toward mutual respect.

7. Do you anticipate missing any Local Station Board meetings due to family or job related problems or inadequate transportation?

No. I have attended every LSB meeting over my past term except one when I was out of town.

8. On which Local Station Board committees are you interested in actively serving? If you are a current Local Station Board member, on which committees do you currently serve?

I am currently a member of the LSB Finance Committee and the PNB Governance and Personnel Committees. I also periodically attend meetings of other LSB committees. Whether or not I am re-elected to the LSB, I will remain on the Finance Committee (non-board members are eligible to gain voting rights after three meetings), as I believe our budgeting oversight role is one of our most important responsibilities. If I am returned to the LSB and that body again elects me to the PNB, I would seek to continue on the two PNB committees on which I now serve (Personnel and Governance).

I encourage ideas, questions and feedback. Contact me at bob@healthaction.info.

Click here for candidate statement