Who Will Stand with Us?

June 3, 2004 - by Luanne Pennesi

(Editors note: This statement by Luanne Pennesi is posted for informational purposes only and does not reflect the opinions of OUT FM. This statement was distributed in hard copy at the station, posted on a public email list, and now appears, without its byline, on the website garynull.com, under the title "Who Will Stand with Us?" Key passages have been noted in red and in bold.)

WBAI's lost mission
By: Luanne Pennesi
Thursday, 3 June 2004

WBAI is no longer a listener sponsored radio station that represents a cultural and educational forum to foster understanding, creativity and uncensored information.

It is now, according to thousands of disenfranchised listeners who left the station because of it, the home of a few self serving, egocentric folk who are using the station to feed their insatiable power needs and to publicly project their uncensored opinions towards anyone who disagrees with them.

So what can be done about it?

1. Just stop supporting the station and find any close substitute on the dial and go on with your life.

2. Write letters to the General Management (GM) and the Program Director (PD)with your concerns and suggestions: though several efforts have been made (well over 44,000 people have written to them), the only responses to these letters, if they are even entertained, are ones of a dismissive nature, bristling with resentment and sarcasm.

3. Get involved with the Local Station Board (LSB): Anyone who has come to the meetings or have seen the minutes see that there are members of the Justice and Unity group, or the management's "team", whose effect of being there seems to be to prevent ANY commencement of the real work that needs to be done. Some on the board say that the process takes time. It has taken us 3 months just to get our committees identified, and presently there is major quibbling over legal procedure, so no work is getting done on them. Only problem is, the station is just about out of funds, and their main way out of it is to keep asking the dwindling listenership to put up more money to fund what many feel are inappropriate expenses. Since February the LSB has been asking some very necessary questions of the management and have gotten no real time answers with regard to BASIC FISCAL AND ADMINSITRATIVE ACCOUNTABILITY. The response from management has essentially been public minimizing of the effects and importance of the LSB on the air by the GM and PD and accusations of the LSB trying to "micromanage" the station (direct quote from Don Rojas to the PNB: "Many members of the LSB have exhibited a tendency to micromanage local station operations…their demands and threats have generated an adversarial tone…staff members feel besieged and intimidated", as if the LSB is responsible for the inner conflicts, disorganization and discontent amongst the staff!). There are basic issues of moral, ethical, alleged criminal behaviors and organization failures that need to be addressed, yet since they have been brought up, they have been defended, denied, tabled, or ignored by management. These will be specified in the pages that follow.

4. Create a citizen's action committee to provide the concerned public who want to replace the current management (and much of its staff) with those who are committed to returning the station to its original mission. Our actions will include the regular submission of e-mails and letters to the Pacifica National Board about our outcries and demand for accountability; through the posting of transcripts of shows that continue to violate the basic philosophy of the station and to provide regular interactions over the internet and at scheduled meetings about how we can reorganize the station to match its original philosophy. As well we will utilize as much alternative news media to get our message out in order to obtain more local support. Like it or not, the only way out of the current quagmire is a clash between the audience and the PNB regarding the current management at WBAI.

Please let it be crystal clear that creating a committee like this is not about slandering or attacking any person at the station. This committee is being created out of deep commitment to restoring WBAI to its original philosophy. The questions we formulate will be meant to address the blatant loopholes in this institution as it stands, or better stated, as it falls, in an attempt to provide real time solutions, one of which is to remove from power those not fulfilling their job descriptions and/or contributing to the station's current fiscal and philosophical deterioration. Period.

This committee is also not meant to be a forum for people who perceive themselves as victims or as a place to ventilate anger and frustration, nor is it meant to be a forum for expressing personal attacks on each other or on the current management regime. It will be a haven for those who want to share specific ideas about how to reorganize the station for its highest good.

First, let's look at some of the accomplishments we've made at the LSB so far. We will be keeping track of all of the things that have been resolved to date, to keep our inquiries evenhanded.

1. Based on LSB intervention at the national level, the management was forced to share all salaries with the LSB as part of the process of evaluating everyone, including the management. Originally the management and certain members of the PNB tried to galvanize themselves from providing volumes of essential information like this which is needed to even begin the task of getting the station back on its feet, as if they could protect it from the LSB and general public.

2. An LSB member recently discovered that the person overseeing the tally room gave incorrect information about basic membership to the volunteers, in writing, which essentially represented deceptive tactics for fundraising. The written memo was removed and volunteers given the correct information.

3. Committees have been created. They are still not functional, according to most of the participants, due to ongoing emotional outbursts and other types of offensive behaviors by audience and LSB members who are there to protect the current management's philosophies.

4. Members of the LSB personally contacted people who owe pledge money and discovered that many of them had not even received their premiums and corrected the situation. They also collected some of the pledge money owed, which improved our abysmal fulfillment rate from the last drive.

5. Most of the LSB members have devoted an inordinate amount of their personal time to the LSB meetings, committee meetings, ad hoc meetings and even working at the station. With all that they have volunteered to do to date, the current management still urges them to sacrifice more time and now their money to help support their game. While these people need to be commended for their tireless efforts and their dedication to saving the station, it seems apparent that what they do will never be enough to get the station back on its feet.

Here are some of the important questions that the audience and LSB needs to have answered, as well as the current issues that we are faced with as a group:

1. STAFFING/EVALUATING:
a. What criteria are used to hire people at the station? Is there a job description for every person hired, whether paid or not? Who is responsible for composing job descriptions? Is there a manual of job descriptions for anyone to review? Where do we post our job openings? Is anyone "appointed" to positions? Who has that authority? Is this in writing in a job description?
b. Who ascertains the salaries and benefits of the paid staff?
c. Are there files with evaluations for each staff member, whether paid or unpaid? How often are evaluations performed on each employee?
d. Is there a table of organization, with a written chain of command re: who answers to whom and a breakdown of the management team? How often does the management team get evaluated?
e. Under what circumstances is someone disciplined re: performance issues? Is this policy uniformly executed amongst the employees? When someone is fired, do they have an exit interview with management?
f. If an employee clearly oversteps his/her authority re: their job expectations, how is it addressed? Specifically, based on a listener inquiry, the management was asked where funds from an event went post event. Who is responsible for following the management of those funds? What was the outcome of the investigation?
g. What are the criteria for hiring "consultants"? What determines the length of their tenure and how many people are interviewed before a position is filled? Have these positions been publicly posted? Or does the management use their own resources to fill them? How often are they evaluated?
h. Who is responsible for calculating fulfillment of pledges? What is being done to monitor the practice of producers having phantom pledges that appear to inflate the fund drive tallies? Is there actually a policy that allows the volunteers to put pledges for hosts of the previous hour into the tally of the next show host? If not, know that volunteers are being instructed to do this, which skews the hosts tally numbers significantly.
i. During the winter fund drive Bernard White announced on the air how much each producer raised. Gary Null's tally figure was not mentioned. What was his rationale? What was done to prevent such a blatant omission in the future? How was this reflected in his evaluation as a manager?
j. What is the policy that governs management with regard to responding to direct inquiries from the public? What is the policy regarding the manager's responsibility to respond to letters written directly to the management, whether on the local or the national level?
k. Who oversees the timely mailing out of premiums? It is a known fact that many people wait for 4-6 months or more before they receive their premiums, if at all. Who is held accountable for this and what is being done, short of the LSB's recent volunteer work, to address this?
l. An LSB member recently discovered that the person overseeing the tally room gave incorrect information about basic membership to the volunteers, in writing, which essentially represented deceptive tactics for fundraising. The written memo was removed and volunteers given the correct information. Was the person responsible for this written memo approached about this? If so, what was her explanation? Would this be reflected in her evaluation? How will this be prevented from happening in the future?

2. STATION SAFETY AND SECURITY
a. What is being done to address the security of our data base? Who has access to it re: changes? What are the policies governing using our database as someone's mailing list?
b. Other than enforcing a policy about locking the doors at night, was security steps have been taken to address the alleged thousands of dollars worth of stolen technical equipment from the station?
c. Are there people sleeping over at the station? Are there people who have personal "quarters" other than professional office space at the station? Who ascertains who can sleep at the station if it is in fact happening? How has this been related to the chronic theft issue? Is there a policy governing the use of the station for this purpose? What is our liability regarding this?
d. The original on air carts made by the LSB secretary 4/19/04for the LSB report to the listeners scheduled for 4/28/04 inadvertently disappeared just prior to the announcement. While a second one was on hand with a Justice and Unity LSB member's input edited in, the original "disappeared". What was done to address this issue?

3. MANAGEMENT
a. Who is in charge of the volunteers? What type of job category do they fall under? What exactly are they expected to do? Who evaluates their performance? Are there policies governing the benefits of membership, specifically their voting rights, as members of WBAI? Who oversees and enforces that? Many of our volunteers never got ballots so their votes were not counted in the last LSB elections. What has been done to prevent this from happening again?
b. Who is responsible for coordinating WBAI events and other significant event coverage in the community? What criteria are used to make the decision to invest the time/money/staff/broadcasting of such events? What kind of event evaluation occurs post event?
c. How often does the management have staff meetings to discuss pertinent issues and share ideas for the improvement of the station? If so, are there documented minutes of them?
d. How does management respond to infighting amongst the staff? Specifically, what was done to address the recent public animosity of Erroll Maitland towards Robert Knight and the ongoing denigration of Gary Null by Bernard White? Are these people held accountable for their actions? Are these incidences documented in their employee files?
e. Why does the Program Director have his own show for 3 hours 5 days a week? Does his job description include hosting a show or does he get paid a separate salary for that? Is he held accountable for the tone and content of his program? Do we have copies of performance evaluations since his tenure to reflect this? If so, what policy is in place regarding how many offenses one can collect before he/she is terminated?
f. What is the mechanism for grievances being addressed at the station? Recently there was a complaint posted by the Women's Collective regarding an incident of verbal and physical assault at the station, resulting in a knee injury. To what extent did management intervene? What was the outcome? What changes were made to prevent such an incident from happening again? Are there records of such incidences at the station with their resolution? Did the station have to bear the brunt of any medical bills as a result of it? Was the person who committed the assaults part of WBAI staff? If so, how did we hold he/she accountable for their behavior?
g. One of Bernard White's jobs is to prepare information for Arbitron. Has this ever been performed? If not, why not?
h. How was the decision made to not have Gary Null pitch for several hours throughout the latest fund drive knowing he has far and away the best fundraising numbers per hour, and knowing that he came to the station, met with the station manager, program director and program heads and volunteered to let the station use as much of his time as they needed, and willingly volunteered to do so? In 14 days he was on for a total of 3 days for a total of 3 hours. And he still raised more dollars per hour than any other host at the station.
i. What kind of background and credentialing checks are performed on program hosts and management? Who does this check?