EMERGENCY ACTION ALERT!

Amy Goodman Officially Fired From WBAI's Wake-Up Call

Informed sources say WBAI's interim general manager Utrice Leid officially fired eight-year Wake-Up Call co-host Amy Goodman yesterday from the embattled station's morning show.

The move completes the purge of one of WBAI's most popular and progressive programs following the December "Christmas Coup" that led to the firing and banning of WBAI producers, the censorship of programming, and the installation of security guards at the listener-sponsored, community station. In the hours following the take-over, Leid had said there would be no programming changes.

Sources say Leid told Goodman that the "chemistry" between the morning show host installed after the take-over, Clayton Riley, and Goodman "did not work."

Leid had removed Goodman, and WBAI news reporter Robert Knight from Wake-Up Call in early February after sources say Goodman complained to the interim general manager that Riley had called Goodman a "bitch," physically threatened Robert Knight and called him a "slave" for defending Goodman. Reportedly, those complaints followed a series of abusive, hostile, and threatening actions by Riley on-air and off-air that staff and listeners had repeatedly complained about to WBAI management.

UE Local 404 has protested the hostile work environment at WBAI, and called the firing and banning of more than 10 WBAI staff a "flagrant case of union busting." Pacifica listeners and staff nationwide have protested the moves as an attempt to depoliticize programming at WBAI, and to centralize control at the 52-year-old network's new headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Goodman and former Wake-Up Call host Bernard White, fired within hours of the December take-over, had built the morning program into one of WBAI's most important and successful shows. Goodman first aired her award-winning documentary Massacre: The Story of East Timor on Wake-Up Call, and the morning show has since won a number of awards, including a Golden Reel from the National Federation of Community Broadcasters for Betty Shabazz: The Final Interview. The show's approach and content also reflected deep community roots.

Please protest this retaliatory action against Amy Goodman!

Contact WBAI Interim General Manager Utrice Leid at (212) 209-2820 or uleid@escape.com.
Demand the reinstatement of Goodman, along with all the fired and banned workers! Leid just spent 3 weeks asking for your money. Now is the time to ask Leid for the programming you paid for!

Call WBAI's on-air line at 212-209-2900.
Talk about the bannings on all WBAI shows, and especially on Wake-Up Call.