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JMyrleFuller (talk | contribs) →Turmoil and change: threat of being taken off 4 times square |
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On December 17, 2014, the California State Attorney General opened a full and formal investigation into the Pacifica Radio Foundation, owner of WBAI, with respect to its alleged irregularities as to its finances, violations of California law with respect to nonprofit organizations, and violations of its own bylaws. In 2015, WBAI moved to new studios and offices at 388 Atlantic Avenue in the [[Boerum Hill]] section of Brooklyn.<ref name="FCC">{{Cite web|url=https://publicfiles.fcc.gov/fm-profile/wbai|title=WBAI - FM Station Profile|website=FCC Public Inspection Files}}</ref>
On October 4, 2017, the court rejected WBAI's pleadings as ill-founded and granted the Empire State Realty Trust (ESRT) a summary judgment, in the amount of $1.8m plus attorney's fees, for the monies due through the initial filing date of late 2016. ESRT was awarded with an additional $600k for the lease through the date of the court's ruling, with obligations of approximately $50k+ per month through lease expiration in 2020 also remaining in place.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://rew-online.com/2017/10/empire-state-realty-pacifica-wbai-lawsuit/|title=Empire State Realty wins lawsuit against non-profit radio station Pacifica WBAI|first=Christian Brazil|last=Bautista|date=October 5, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://current.org/2017/10/judge-rules-against-pacifica-wbai-in-1-8m-lawsuit/|title=Judge rules against Pacifica, WBAI in $1.8M lawsuit|first1=Tyler|last1=Falk|website=Current|date=October 6, 2017}}</ref> A further settlement was announced on April 6, 2018, releasing WBAI from the court judgment and its obligation to continuing leasing the Empire State tower into 2020.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.radioworld.com/news-and-business/pacifica-settle-nyc-tower-dispute|title=Pacifica Settles NYC Tower Dispute|first1=Randy J.|last1=Stine|website=Radio World|date=April 6, 2018|access-date=May 5, 2020}}</ref> They began broadcasting from [[4 Times Square]] on May 31, 2018.<ref>{{cite Q|Q70229711}}</ref> A bailout loan from listeners of sister station KPFK eventually covered the remaining fees on the lease.<ref name=evictiondanger/>
On Monday, October 7, 2019, the Pacifica Foundation announced they were shutting down WBAI's local operations, leaving only two workers to keep the station's signal on the air. WBAI began airing a national network feed known as "Pacifica Across America" - a curated collection of original content produced by Pacifica stations [[KPFA]] in [[Berkeley, California]], [[KPFK]] in Los Angeles, [[KPFT]] in [[Houston]] and [[WPFW]] in Washington, D.C., among other sources (the post-shutdown WBAI schedule included commercial progressive talker [[Thom Hartmann]] and Native American free-form series ''[[Koahnic Broadcast Corporation#Programming|Undercurrents]]'', which is mostly syndicated to public radio). John Vernile, interim executive director of the Pacifica Foundation, said the station's fund raising and audience had declined in recent years, to the point where the rest of the Pacifica network was subsidizing WBAI's operations on top of servicing its unsustainable debt load.<ref>{{cite news|last=Sisario|first=Ben|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/07/business/media/wbai-pacifica-layoffs.html|title=Layoffs and Canceled Shows at WBAI-FM, a New York Radio Original|work=The New York Times|date=October 7, 2019|access-date=October 8, 2019|quote=replaced its local programming with shows drawn from Pacifica's four other stations. ..."Listeners in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Houston and Washington, D.C., have been supporting the efforts in New York," Mr. Vernile said. "It has gotten to a point where we can no longer do that."}}</ref>
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In Manhattan Supreme Court, Judge Melissa Crane ordered Pacifica to return control of the station back to WBAI. She upheld the October 20, 2019, board vote to annul the decision to shutter WBAI. A lawyer for Pacifica, Kara Steger, said that the company planned to appeal the ruling. WBAI resumed local programming on November 7.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://nypost.com/2019/11/06/nyc-based-radio-station-wbai-to-go-back-on-the-air-at-midnight|title=NYC-based radio station WBAI to go back on the air at midnight|website=New York Post|date=November 7, 2019}}</ref>
In April 2024, WBAI announced it had again fallen into arrears on tower rental and that the owner of 4 Times Square was threatening to remove WBAI "at any time" unless the station paid the $150,000 in debt it owed to the building. WBAI, which stated that such a move would mean "the end of WBAI" (a statement the general manager insisted was "not hyperbole") immediately launched a [[pledge drive]] hoping to raise the funds.<ref name=evictiondanger>{{Cite web |last=Venta |first=Lance |date=2024-04-10 |title=WBAI In Danger Of Being Evicted From Another New York Tower |url=https://radioinsight.com/headlines/267334/wbai-in-danger-of-being-evicted-from-another-new-york-tower/ |access-date=2024-04-10 |website=Radio Insight |language=en-US}}</ref>
==References==
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