NYC Radio: Pacifica Explores LMA For WBAI-FM

Non-com radio station WBAI 99.5 FM, long teetering on the financial precipice, may resolve the issue by leasing itself to another operator, reports The NY Daily News.

A lease-management arrangement (LMA), would put all programming in the hands of the leasing entity.

Steve Brown, a member of WBAI's local station board, revealed Monday that the Pacifica National Board (PNB), the governing body of WBAI and four other Pacifica stations, has started the process of seeking LMA bidders.

"Although WBAI might not be sold (yet)," said Brown, "it seems almost certain to be leased."

There is a Nov. 6 deadline for responses.

WBAI, which has been financially precarious for almost the whole six decades it has broadcast in New York, has recently slid to the edge of insolvency, laying off staffers and warning that it cannot pay its bills.

Some members of the PNB have reportedly advocated selling WBAI, which would relieve Pacifica of that ongoing debt crisis and provide capital for the other Pacifica stations in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston and Washington.

WBAI supporters in New York, on the station board and off, have largely resisted that idea.

But none of the long-contentious and faction-ridden supporters have been able to implement a plan that would put WBAI on firm financial footing.

The station's listenership has also dwindled the last few years. Despite having a 10,000-watt signal in the middle of the FM dial.  That big signal and dial position could make WBAI attractive to potential buyers, or leasers.

Coverage map courtesy of  Recnet.com

The biggest fear among WBAI staffers and supporters is that the loss of WBAI would remove a progressive voice from a radio market whose dominant talk voices are conservative.