I am seeking re-election to the Local Station Board with the WBAI Justice and Unity Campaign (www.justiceunity.org). I have been a human rights activist for most of my adult life, believing in the need for the Black community to aggressively build institutions and alliances that strengthen our struggle for human rights. I’ve been privileged to be a guest on various WBAI programs to get out the word. As a strong supporter of the station, I stood up against the infamous “Christmas Coup” in 2000 that tried to co-opt the station into corporate/mainstream politics. I spoke around the city to keep WBAI an independent voice against all forms of oppression, corruption, and racism.

I am registering to become a candidate as part of the 2007 Local Station Board Pacifica WBAI Elections. I would like to help participate in the decision making process for the WBAI local radio station board and give input and feedback as a listener. I am interested in serving on the local station board because I believe Pacifica and its affiliate radio stations are a great listener sponsored, community, non commercial radio who support free speech and broadcast the voice of the people and give power to the people. I would like to help encourage Pacifica and WBAI to reach a wider audience as well.

As a current member of the WBAI Local Station Board and the Pacifica National Board, I have proudly served my term as part of the Justice and Unity Campaign (www.justiceunity.org) with courage, integrity, and conviction. It's an honor for me and our slate to be endorsed by such strong human rights activists as Amina Baraka, Amiri Baraka, Evelyn Warren, Michael Tarif Warren, and Larry Hamm. I ask that you join them in voting for me and all my fellow Justice & Unity candidates:

I'm proudly running for the WBAI Local Station Board with the Justice and Unity Campaign (www.justiceunity.org), which has been endorsed by the Free the Cuban 5 Committee, Amiri Baraka, and many other activists and progressive organizations. WBAI is a key source for community education and organizing, especially now that the U.S. government is determined to destroy any struggle for national self-determination.

Having served for the last three years on the Local Station Board (LSB), I seriously appreciate the long-term, day-to-day struggle to keep WBAI a resource for communities and movements that are under attack.

I have been a WBAI listener and supporter for the past twenty years. I worked for NYC as a social worker for thirty years and have been retired for the last eleven years. Since I retired I have devoted much of my time to Latin American solidarity movements. In recent years I have been involved with School of the Americas Watch, the Colombia Support Network, Cuba Solidarity NY, and the Bolivarian Circle of NY. WBAI has been an invaluable resource for the promotion of my activism.

I am running because I believe that WBAI is in serious financial trouble, and could use my help now. My expertise has nothing at all to do with radio or organizing – I work on cancer research at a very small non-profit medical foundation. But my professional experience, training, and skills in independent analysis and thinking – I am a 61-year-old physician-scientist who has had successful business experience – may be very helpful to the local station board at this time. Carol Spooner, who was the guiding intelligence in the lawsuit that brought democracy and listener sovereignty to Pacifica in 2002,

WBAI is part of my life. For years Wake Up Call has lured me from sleep with vital stories and information on history, politics, art, health and science. WBAI was insightful, provocative and diverse. As an activist, I depended on it for news and coverage of events. I looked forward to my favorite programs.

I'm Ken Laufer, WBAI listener since the 60s, member in 1996 of the SaveOurStation coalition. My job as a teacher of developmentally disabled High School students indicates that I have a lot of patience and am very tactful. If elected to the LSB, I'll use this diplomacy in seeing that meetings are conducted in a civil and respectful manner.

Who am I? I'm a proud socialist/feminist, atheist and active member of School of the Americas Watch, the National Federation of The Blind, the Juanita Young Support Committee and the NYC Labor Chorus.

Some say I was born a radio studio. I’ve held every radio job you can think of – disc jockey ... weatherman ... news writer ... police reporter ... investigative journalist ... news anchor ... executive producer ... Program Director ... even General Manager of a station with over a million listeners. I’ve worked in “commercial” radio – at Bloomberg Multi-Media, NBC, WMCA, and WINS (ever hear Shadow Traffic?). And I’ve worked in “public” radio – at WNYC, NPR, the BBC, even Gary Null’s radio station.

Complaining about problems won’t fix them. But pretending they don’t exist only makes them worse. That’s what happened to WBAI which is now bankrupt, and a quarter-million dollars in debt. Oddly enough, no one seems to be responsible. Not only does the WBAI board majority (called the JUC) not recognize the deficit but also claims no responsibility. JUC is in denial and has failed to responsibly oversee management. They all fiddled around while WBAI burned. Now they want to be re-elected, so they can continue fiddling until WBAI is in ashes. I say NO!

I am a 67 year old white male, third generation Russian Jewish Heritage. I purposely use the word heritage, in that the inborn experience of a historic minority in Eastern Europe has guided my life and professional career.

As a political and community activist for nearly 40 years, I’m running for election to the WBAI Local Station Board. As part of the Justice and Unity Campaign (www.justiceunity.org) -- which has been endorsed by a wide range of activists and progressive organizations, such as Michael Tarif Warren and the Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition -- I urge you to vote for me and all our candidates:

“Estamos todos en el mismo barco, pero el barco hace agua ... WBAI esta a punto de hundirse.” (We are all in the same boat, but the boat is leaking ... and WBAI is about to sink.) That’s not one of Dick Cheney’s phony terror alerts. WBAI really is sinking. The radio station on which so many of us have depended – for so long – and for so much – is bankrupt.

Dear listeners,
WBAI is in trouble, financially and otherwise. It’s serious. And the controlling faction on the LSB abets the station's decline by ignoring the very oversight of station affairs the Board is mandated to perform.

Mr. Albert Baron Solomon has not qualified as a candidate for WBAI Local Station Board.

Any votes for him will be skipped over to the benefit of the voter's next choice. 

Click on Read More to see the statement the submitted.

I am honored to run for the WBAI Local Station Board on the slate of the Justice and Unity Campaign (www.justiceunity.org), which has been endorsed by the Free the Cuban 5 Committee and many other activists and progressive organizations. I urge you to also vote for all my colleagues on this diverse, anti-racist slate:

I am currently a WBAI Local Station Board member affiliated with the Justice and Unity Campaign (www.justiceunity.org) and am seeking re-election. The Justice & Unity slate has been endorsed by a wide range of activists and progressive organizations, such as Michael Tarif Warren and Asia Pacific Action. I’ve been an active member of the board’s Programming, Finance, and Inclusion committees, and most important currently, the General Manager Search Subcommittee. It’s imperative that we identify and select a progressive-minded individual with the strength, integrity, and proven experience to help move our station forward in these critical times.

I’m a Latino immigrant living in NYC for 38 years; the Director of Parents in Action for Leadership and Human Rights, an activist organization dedicated to protecting Children from abuses by the Public Schooling System and the Foster Care Industry. I have been active in promoting system change through wherever life may bring me.

I’m an activist/organizer with the New York Coalition to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal, and a proud member of the National Writers Union. I’m honored to run for re-election to the Local Station Board with the WBAI Justice and Unity Campaign (www.justiceunity.org) to help our station face its current financial challenges and grow to meet the needs of our communities for progressive news, insightful analysis, and resistance to the dismantling of civil rights and liberties.