Pacifica Foundation’s WBAI-FM in New York City could once again be evicted from a tower site in Manhattan. The station has begun an “Emergency Tower Fund” seeking to raise $200,000 to fend off being forced off the air, reports Radio Insight. The Class B FM had received just over $26,000 in donations towards the $200,000 goal as of last week.
“WBAI is facing an existential threat. This is not hyperbole,” says WBAI General Manager Berthold Reimers in a press release. He says the station “owes $150,000 to 4 Times Square which houses its transmitter which enables us to transmit our signal to reach a 90-mile radius. But WBAI could be shut down at any moment and that would be the end of WBAI.”
WBAI moved to the antenna atop 4 Times Square in 2018, after a multi-year legal battle with the Empire State Building over more than $1.8 million in unpaid rent. The Foundation eventually received a $2 million bridge loan from supporters of KPFK-FM in Los Angeles to avoid the building’s ownership, according to Radio Insight.
The lack of tower rent is not the only trouble WBAI is facing. The Media Bureau is looking into whether the non-commercial station aired underwriting announcements in which the hosts discussed products and services without proper sponsorship identification, according to Inside Radio. A group called the Pacifica Safety Net, focused on what it calls continued “mismanagement” of Pacifica, filed that allegation with the Commission to oppose WBAI’s license renewal. The license renewal remains pending.
By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief
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