WBAI likes to call itself “radio for the 99 percent.” But most of the time the station — a listener-supported and proudly scrappy mainstay of the left since 1960 — is lucky to be heard by 0.1 percent of the New York radio audience.

That disparity, and the teetering finances of the station and its owner, the nonprofit Pacifica Foundation, became apparent on a Friday afternoon this month with a tearful on-air announcement by Summer Reese, Pacifica’s interim executive director, that the station was laying off 19 of its 29 employees just to cover basic expenses like the rent for its transmitter atop the Empire State Building.

“Most of your familiar hosts,” she told listeners, “will not even have the opportunity to really say goodbye to you.”

The layoffs, which included the entire news department, have put a spotlight on a station that has played a major role in American public broadcasting. WBAI, at 99.5 FM, was one of the leaders of the free-form radio movement in the 1960s, with early appearances by Bob Dylan and the on-air premiere of Arlo Guthrie’s song “Alice’s Restaurant.” In the 1970s the station became a free-speech martyr when the Supreme Court upheld a Federal Communications Commission indecency citation for running George Carlin’s seven “filthy words.”

But huge debt and a dwindling membership have left both WBAI and Pacifica starved for cash. The station, one of five owned by the foundation, has operated in the red each year since 2004, accumulating more than $3 million in net losses, according to Pacifica financial statements. In addition to WBAI, Pacifica has stations in Los Angeles, Washington, Houston and Berkeley, Calif., and feeds content to more than 150 affiliates.

Among Pacifica’s debts are more than $2 million in broadcast fees owed to Amy Goodman’s “Democracy Now!,” the network’s most popular show. To cover Pacifica’s operating costs, the network has drained most of its accounts, hobbling the organization and raising the doomsday scenario in which it would have to sell WBAI’s broadcast license.

Founded in 1946 by conscientious objectors from World War II, Pacifica was the first radio network to eschew commercial sponsorships and maintain itself through listener donations. But critics have long said that its top-heavy governance, with large local boards and frequent, expensive elections, have put the organization in a constant state of gridlock, and that unless Pacifica reforms it will simply govern itself to death.

“This is what the board does,” Ms. Reese said in an interview: “It fiddles while Rome burns.”

Those same problems were on display at a public WBAI board meeting last week in an arts space in Lower Manhattan. Despite the layoffs just days before, the first 25 minutes were devoted to a procedural debate about the night’s agenda, with frequent mentions of Robert’s Rules of Order. Occasional shouts of “fascist!” and “go back to the N.S.A.!” rang out from listeners in attendance.

Berthold Reimers, WBAI’s general manager, reported that the station had $23,000 on hand and was scouring Craigslist and other sites to furnish new, cheaper studios in Brooklyn. An Ikea chair was bought for $40, he said. “That’s the cheapest we could possibly get.”

Former WBAI staff members complain that constant management turnover as the board instituted one “coup” after another made their jobs nearly impossible.

“For the last 10 years working at WBAI has been a nightmare,” said Jose Santiago, the news director for two decades. “I compare it to the nation facing Democrats and Republicans in Washington. Their priority is to stay in power and bash each other in the head, and nothing ever gets done.”

The station has just 14,000 members, who last year contributed $2.5 million, according to a preliminary financial statement from Pacifica.

“Pacifica has fallen below the level of sustainability in the size of its audience,” said John Dinges, a professor at the Columbia Journalism School and a former managing editor at NPR News.

“Democracy Now!” is Pacifica’s largest single creditor. Ms. Reese said that Ms. Goodman had been unwilling to restructure the debt, but Ms. Goodman, speaking last week after raising money on the air for two Pacifica stations, said she wanted to negotiate. “We are committed to the future of Pacifica,” she said.

To reform WBAI and Pacifica, Ms. Reese said she wanted to tame the finances, improve programming and rewrite the bylaws “from scratch.” The layoffs will save WBAI $900,000 a year, she said, but Pacifica is still strained. Board elections are held in two out of every three years, and last year the cycle cost $231,000. Pacifica still has $100,000 in legal bills, many from suits originating in the elections.

The financial situation raises the specter of selling WBAI’s broadcast license, its greatest asset. George R. Reed, a broker for television and radio stations, said that based on its reach, WBAI’s signal is worth about $45 million. But given the New York market, the price could easily be higher. Last year, for example, CBS paid $75 million for the 101.9 FM frequency.

Ms. Reese said she believed that Pacifica can turn itself around.

“This is not an irretrievable situation,” she said. “It’s a very politicized organization, and that sometimes interferes with making intelligent decisions. But by taking a look at programming, we can improve listener hours and our financial situation.”

Changing WBAI’s programming risks alienating the station’s core audience. Ms. Reese and the interim program director, Andrew Phillips, want more general-interest programming in the key “drive-time” hours of the morning and late afternoon. This strategy has been conventional wisdom in radio for decades, but not at WBAI, whose morning lineup includes shows like “First Voices Indigenous Radio.”

At the board meeting, Mr. Phillips told those in attendance that morning shows would no longer be directed “to the niche,” but that they would attract a wider audience that would help sustain the station. That proposition has terrified many of the station’s devotees.

Beverly Abisogun, 73, reflected the anger of many in attendance when she responded, saying, “We are not a niche; we are it.”

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: August 20, 2013

An earlier version of this article incorrectly referred to Amy Goodman as a creditor of Pacifica with “Democracy Now.” The money is owed to the program, of which she is host and executive producer.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/21/business/media/democracy-may-prove-the-doom-of-wbai.html?partner=rss&emc=rss