For Immediate Release:

October 31, 2012

Contact: Summer Reese
Chair and Interim Executive Director Pacifica Foundation E-mail: summer@pacifica.org
Tel: (510) 849-2590

Pacifica's WBAI Radio Station in New York, Silenced by Sandy, is Back on the Air!

New York-The Nixon administration couldn't do it. Neither could the Clinton or Bush administrations. But yesterday, hurricane Sandy turned off the mics at WBAI, the historic Pacifica Foundation New York radio station that has been a listener-sponsored gadfly afflicting the comfortable and comforting the afflicted since 1960.

WBAI's General Manager, Berthold Reimers reported that after the transit system was shut down Sunday evening, a crew of WBAI producers camped out at the station so that they could continue live coverage of Hurricane Sandy, as Wall Street flooded 10 stories below them.

"All day Sunday and Monday, WBAI ran interviews with New Yorkers, and focused on questions that, at the time, were being ignored by the corporate media," Reimers said. "Are the nuclear power plants at Indian Point in jeopardy, and should they be shut down immediately? Why did New York City shut off electricity, water and elevators more than 24 hours before the storm hit to the tens of thousands of poor and working class people living in public housing? What affect did global climate change have on this storm, and on future ones?"

By Monday evening, the waters outside rose to the second floor of the building. Con Ed shut off the power -- and along with it, the ability to broadcast from that location. Announcer Michael G. Haskins was able to continue broadcasting for several hours from a remote location, using equipment that had been purchased a year ago for that purpose.

The WBAI crew, meanwhile, was trapped on the tenth floor in the station's studios at the intersection of Wall Street and South Street, in the heart of New York's mandatory evacuation zone. They were not able to safely exit the building until Tuesday morning, after the waters finally receded. At the same time, in the early hours of Tuesday, WBAI's broadcast was interrupted altogether when Verizon, the carrier of the signal to the antenna, lost its connection at the Empire State Building and WBAI went silent.

Summer Reese, the interim Executive Director of the Pacifica Foundation, reported that "WBAI's engineers are working to restore WBAI to its studio and full programming as soon as possible."

UPDATE: October 31, 2pm: WBAI, came back on the air late Tuesday night with archival recordings. By 2 pm Wednesday, Program Director Chris Hatzis and Michael G. Haskins were able to go on the air and announced that the station was again broadcasting live, for the time being from the studios of Gary Null's Progressive Radio Network on Manhattan's Upper West Side. We all at WBAI and Pacifica are very grateful to Gary Null for making this extraordinary and collaborative effort.

Thanks also to Program Director Chris Hatzis, Producer Esther Armah, News Reporter Rebecca Myles, Engineers Ken Gale and Tony Ryan, Technical Engineer Graceon Challenger, and several volunteers who camped out at 120 Wall St. to keep broadcasting, and who were trapped when the electricity was turned off.

WBAI broadcasts over 99.5 FM, and is part of the progressive Pacifica Network based in Berkeley, California.

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