Luanne Pennesi Letter to Don Rojas

June 10, 2004 - by Luanne Pennesi

(Editors note: This letter by Luanne Pennesi posted for informational purposes only and does not reflect the opinions of OUT FM. Letter from Luanne Pennesi to Don Rojas in response to Mr. Rojas's statement to the Pacifica National Board, posted at www.garynull.com. Key passages noted in red type and in bold]

June 10, 2004

Dear Don:

I would like to address your most recent attempt to use the LSB as the scapegoat for the plummeting morale of the staff at the station at the PNB meeting. Bottom line, Don, is that one of the many reasons we are here as the LSB is to hold you accountable for your job expectations. It's far easier to blame others for one's lack of performance and the state of things today, and invest energy in justifying the type of management you seem to advocate; however, it will not be part of the constructive changes that need to be made and it is hardly a hallmark of effective management in ANY institution. The numbers from the past 5 drives speak volumes about the direction we are going in. The LSB has only been in session since February! That's less than 5 months! Defend yourself and your buddies there as you may, we are in crisis because too much has been left unaddressed, unorganized and unaccounted for. And it all starts at the top. And the members of the LSB who have dedicated so much of their time and energy FOR FREE are the last people you should be throwing stones at and expecting to be accountable for the results of what is happening at the station.

The tone and temperament of the on air sound of WBAI is unprofessional and to many unlistenable. Have you forgotten that more important than the LSB or the staff and management are the listeners? They have been insulted pummeled, isolated and denigrated. How dare you talk about unity, recovery, conciliation, cooperation, when NOTHING or less than nothing has been done to honor our most important asset, the audience? The racism is palpable. Examine the background of virtually all the newly hired. Blacks, and friends of the management. It is time we recognized that you have accepted the station's trajectory into hell. Since when did you have the right along with Bernard to make unilateral decisions that will ultimately cause the station to lose more audience?

Why are there are no programs about Jews, Caucasians, Asians and other cultures on the air except those groups who you deem politically proper? You continue to refuse, along with Bernard, to listen to what the audience has said. They don't like what they hear on the air. And they refuse to be continuously insulted by the lowest standard of programming in radio.

Bernard dominates the airwaves for 15 hours a week, in violation of the AFTRA rules. No where else in radio would you have management taking the work from union or volunteer workers. Everything is done based upon the small clique of unprofessional, untalented self serving bitterly angry malcontents whose supporters seem to have no life except for writing repugnant screed on the Goodlight board or keeping committee meetings in gridlock.

It is not by accident that the progressive community has withheld its collective judgment of looking at the rank, amateurish way you all have behaved as if WBAI is your plaything that you can do whatever you want with, without consequence. The fear has been that any criticism against the management or its on air "talent" would be to remove the last vestige of respect that a once revered station had. Truth is, WBAI holds no significance for anything. We are irrelevant today. In no small measure, because the station has never been this poorly run. For all the people who helped take the station away from the old management, the payback has been to give jobs disguised as consultants and private contractors, to people with little or no qualifications who would not have been hired anywhere else, as the friends of Bernard and yourself. Look at the new development director. A close friend of both of you. When Steve Brown volunteered to be the development director for FREE, one of the most qualified people in America for that job, with a known reputation for having the commitment and passion to keep WBAI alive, you rejected it. Other noncommercial stations are supported by qualified volunteers. WBAI would rather hire people in spite of our financial crisis to pay the army of fire ants who assisted in the ruthless takeover of the station. And that is the story that will become known in time. So your poetic gesture to the PNB, nicely stated, has nothing in the world to do with WBAI.

The morale at the station could not be worse, but it has nothing to do with the LSB. It is an embarrassment to the members of the progressive community who come and sit quietly in the audience of the LSB meetings and watch the futility of a process where certain members of the JUC use intimidating styles of communication in an attempt to protect the agenda and the status quo of the station and its management. Where are the Koreans, the Vietnamese, the Germans, and all the other nationalities and races that should be a part of the mix? The educated, the intellectuals? The artists? The humanists and the spiritualists? All you have to do is see who is missing to see the bias and racist make up that has occurred. It is best if this whole issue were taken on air and let the public know the truth. It would seem that your only interest is covering up the true nature of management incompetence and dereliction. Do not expect to smack your audience in the face and have them turn the other cheek. Air America has a larger audience in NY after being on the air than for 3 months than WBAI has accumulated in 40 years.

Makes you wonder where you went wrong.

Luanne Pennesi