metropolitan new york branding wbai slogan your peace and justice community radio station frequency 99.5 mhz first air date january 8 1960 format community radio erp 4 300 watts stereo haat 415 meters class b facility id 51249 callsign meaning the former owner broadcast associates incorporated owner pacifica radio pacifica foundation inc. webcast listen live website wbai.org wbai a part of the pacifica radio network is a non commercial listener supported radio station broadcasting at 99.5 fm in new york city . the station has their transmitter atop the empire state building but might be in the process of relocating to the conde naste building also known by its address of 4 times square . its programming is leftist progressive and a mixture of political news and opinion from a leftist perspective tinged with aspects of its complex and varied history such as freeform radio which wbai played a role in developing as well as various music . contents 1 history 1.1 origins 1.2 1960s 1.3 1970s 1.4 dwindling and decline 2 alumni of the station 3 programming 4 references 5 external links history edit origins edit the former wbai studios on the 10th floor of 120 wall street manhattan the station began as wabf which first went on the air in 1941 as w75ny of metropolitan television inc. w75ny indicating an eastern station at 47.5 mhz in new york and moved to the 99.5 frequency in 1948 . citation needed in 1955 after two years off the air it was reborn as wbai whose calls were named after then owners broadcast associates inc. . citation needed 1960s edit wbai was purchased by eccentric philanthropist louis schweitzer who donated it to the pacifica foundation in 1960 . 1 the station which had been a commercial enterprise became non commercial and listener supported under pacifica ownership . citation needed the history of wbai is iconoclastic and contentious . citation needed referred to in a new york times magazine piece as an anarchist s circus one station manager was jailed in protest and the staff in protest at sweeping proposed changes of another station manager seized the studio facilities then located in a deconsecrated church as well as the transmitter located atop the empire state building . 2 during the 1960s the station hosted innumerable anti establishment causes including the anti war folks feminists kids lib early firesign theater comedy and complete album music overnight . citation needed notable were the continual direct daily coverage of the vietnam war including the daily body count their refusal to stop playing janis ian s song about interracial relationships society s child and their live coverage of various bra burning conventions . citation needed wbai played a major role in the evolution and development of the counterculture in the 1960s and early 1970s . 3 arlo guthrie s alice s restaurant was first broadcast on radio unnameable bob fass freeform radio program on wbai a program which itself in many ways created explored and defined the possibilities of the form . 4 the station covered the 1968 seizure of the columbia university campus live and uninterrupted as well as innumerable anti war protests . citation needed with its signal reaching nearly 70 miles beyond new york city its reach and influence both direct and indirect were significant . citation needed among the station s weekly commentators in the 1960s were author ayn rand british politician playwright sir stephen king hall and author dennis wholley . citation needed the 1964 political conventions were covered satirically on wbai by severn darden elaine may burns and schreiber david amram julie harris taylor meade and members of the second city improvisational group . citation needed the station under music directors john corigliano ann mcmillan and later eric salzman aired an annual 23 hour nonstop presentation of richard wagner s ring cycle as recorded at the bayreuth festival the year before and produced live studio performances of emerging artists in its studios . citation needed interviews with prominent figures in literature and the arts as well as original dramatic productions and radio adaptations were also regular program offerings . citation needed 1970s edit in 1970 kathy dobkin milton hoffman and francie camper produced an unprecedented critically acclaimed 4 day round the clock reading of tolstoy s war and peace . citation needed the epic novel was read cover to cover by more than 200 people including a large number of international celebrities from various fields . citation needed newsweek called this broadcast one of the more mind blowing firsts in the history of the media . the complete reading over 200 audio tapes was the first pacifica program to be selected for inclusion in the permanent collection of the museum of broadcasting in nyc . citation needed a poster in a wbai broadcast booth warns radio broadcasters against using the seven dirty words . in 1973 the station broadcast comedian george carlin s infamous filthy words routine uncensored . wbai s broadcast of filthy words became a landmark moment in the history of free speech . in a 1978 milestone in the station s contentious and unruly history wbai lost a 5 to 4 u.s. supreme court decision fcc v. pacifica foundation that to this day has defined the power of the government over broadcast material it calls indecent . 5 in 1974 wbai program director marnie mueller asked charles ruas to become director of arts programming . citation needed thus the station already at the forefront of the counterculture and anti war protest also became a platform for new york s avant garde in theater music performance art and poetry . citation needed when the downtown avant garde opera a letter to queen victoria by philip glass and robert wilson opened at the metropolitan opera the station was right there to tape excerpts in rehearsals for broadcast . citation needed ruas initiated a year long series on marguerite young s epic novel miss mcintosh my darling . citation needed these readings were transformed into performances by rob wynne who scored them with a complex collage of sound effects music and opera . citation needed the participants included ana s nin marian seldes alice playten h. m. koutoukas leo lerman michael wagger novella nelson osceola archer owen dodson wyatt cooper michael higgins anne fremantle peggy cass ruth ford earle hyman and daisy alden . citation needed when william burroughs returned to the united states from tangier ruas invited him to present a retrospective of all his works . citation needed the series consisted of four programs beginning with junkie and followed by the yage letters read by burroughs and allen ginsburg the last words of dutch schultz and finally naked lunch . citation needed bill kortum oversaw this series as well as retrospectives of the works of jerzy kosinski and donald barthelme co produced with judith sherman the station s music director . citation needed a semester of allen ginsberg s poetry seminar held at the naropa institute in colorado was presented by ruas and for many years the station covered the annual new year s eve celebratory poetry marathon at st. mark s church . citation needed the day the vietnam war ended poet muriel rukeyser came to the station to read her poem on peace . citation needed ruas inaugurated the audio experimental theater a series presenting the works of avant garde artists meredith monk yvonne rainer ed bowes michael newman joan schwartz benjamin folkman vito acconci charles ludlum jacques levy willoughby sharp john cage robert wilson philip glass richard foreman and joan jonas . citation needed in drama the station defended tennessee williams against his critics during his last years by covering his memoirs and broadcasting a production of two character play . citation needed other dramatists whose works were featured included jean claude van itallie richard scheckner andrei serban and elizabeth swados . citation needed ruas initiated interview programs featuring nonfiction writers discussing their fields of expertise buckminster fuller thor heyerdahl ed sanders jonathan kozol and nigel nicholson . citation needed each of the arts had weekly coverage . citation needed courtney callender s getting around covered the cultural scene . citation needed moira hudson was the dance critic . citation needed the visual arts critics were john perreault cindy nemser liza baer joe giordano judith vivell kenneth koch and les levine . citation needed susan howe produced a weekly poetry program presenting the works of john ashbery w. s. merwin maureen owen charles reznikoff rebecca wright ron padgett carter ratcliff john hollander anne waldman helen adam audre lorde michael brownstein mary ferrari and muriel rukeyser . citation needed she also produced specials featuring william carlos williams v. r. lang jack spicer louise bogan paul metcalf jonathan williams harry mathews and james laughlin . citation needed john giorno presented his 5 part series dial a poem poets . citation needed for a few years wbai became a cultural force as these programs were disseminated nationally through the pacifica network . citation needed with the decline of the arc of history represented by the 1960s and 1970s the station turned against itself . citation needed a new board of directors determined a new agenda and against the staff resistance provoked by what was known internally as the crisis and manifest in the seizure and occupation of the facilities a different station emerged one which attempted to offer an alternative perspective within the mainstream commercial aesthetic rather than from the outside . citation needed dwindling and decline edit in 1998 wbai moved to the tenth floor at 120 wall street in the financial district . 6 in late 2012 wbai suffered extensive damages to their offices following the events of hurricane sandy . 6 the manhattan offices saw flooding reach the second floor trapping seven staffers inside and the telephone systems being disabled . the devastation by sandy occurred in the midst of fundraising efforts which ultimately prevented wbai from acquiring the necessary funds to remain operational . as a result of funding and operational difficulties wbai announced in 2013 it would be moving out of those studios to temporary studios of whcr fm located in harlem a station operated by city college of new york cuny . 7 6 lynne rosen and john littig co hosts of the monthly show the pursuit of happiness were found dead on june 3 2013 after committing suicide in their park slope home . 8 in june 2013 the corporation for public broadcasting suspended payments to wbai citing accounting irregularities and a failure by the station to meet its financial obligations . 9 layoff notices effective july 15 were subsequently issued to the station s staff and management . 10 11 on august 9 2013 pacifica management announced that due to financial problems wbai was laying off about two thirds of its staff effective august 12 2013 . the entire news department was laid off . 12 summer reese the interim executive director of the pacifica foundation which owns wbai said that after talks with sag aftra the union that represents broadcasting talent we will be laying off virtually everyone whose voice you recognize on the air effective monday . she corrected that and announced the final number was 19 out of the station s 29 employees about 66 percent . andrew phillips the former general manager of another of pacifica s five stations kpfa fm in berkeley california was appointed wbai s interim program director . the new york times reported 13 that the station owes 2 million in broadcast fees to democracy now alone while cash on hand was just 23 000 . in march 2014 there were assorted rumors that the station will be sold or leased or moved in whole or in part including their equipment and antenna at the empire state building 14 after contentions and firings both at wbai and at pacifica headquarters . 15 on december 17 2014 the california state attorney general opened