NYC Radio: Report..WBAI Can't Pay Severance

Village Voice graphic

It was August when Pacifica Radio's executive director, Summer Reese, took to the airwaves to announce that most of the station's paid staff, including its entire news department, was being laid off.

According to villagevoice.com, Reese told listeners on the afternoon of August 9 that "we will laying off virtually everyone whose voice you recognize on the air."

At the end of this month, unemployment benefits will run out for the 19 employees who lost their jobs last summer -- and all of them are still waiting for severance checks from Pacifica Radio. At least three of them face becoming homeless.

As part of the agreement the employees' union, SAG-AFTRA, brokered with Pacifica, the network must pay its former employees by the end of March or face the possibility of a lawsuit.

The problem, according to WBAI general manager Berthold Reimers, is neither the station nor network has the money to make good on those promises.

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