WBAI lays off paid staff to save New York signal as Andrew Phillips takes programming helm

On August 9th, between 4:00 and 6:00 pm Eastern time, the Pacifica Radio Network's Interim Executive Director Summer Reese and its new Program Director Andrew Phillips went on Pacifica WBAI-New York's airwaves to make the sad announcement that all the paid programming staff had been laid off to save the station's powerful FM signal broadcast from the top of the Empire State Building there. Andrew Phillips left his position as KPFA Interim General Manager to take over the task of managing WBAI's transition to all volunteer programming for the time being. Reese and Phillips said that the station faces enormous operating costs in New York City and has been in financial trouble for many years, and that this is an attempt to save and reinvent WBAI. This is the two hour archive of that broadcast.