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LUANNE
PENNESI'S LETTER TO DON ROJAS
Don Rojas, Station Manager
WBAI 99.5 FM Radio
120 Wall St, 10th floor
New York, NY 10005
January 8, 2004
Dear Mr. Rojas,
I have been writing to you, as many others have, since May of
2003 and to date I have not received a response from you. As a
listener I am disappointed to say the least; however, it does
not affect my enthusiasm to be a committed force in the
restructuring of WBAI.
On the way to work on Monday, 1/5/04, I heard 2 hours of WBAI
programming. What I heard was racist and anti-Semitic monologue
and dialogue riddled with hateful behaviors. I remember when the
station was a forum for progressively thinking voices with
inspirational programming. It is disheartening to realize that
the entire station is being given up to racist radicals filled
with envy and starving for any kind of negative ego expression
via the only station that was originally designed to help people
to be better individuals as part of a collective community. I
also encourage you to listen to a tape of Bernard White’s show
that morning when he endorsed a candidate (Errol Maitlin’s
lawyer) on his show, thus violating the Campaign rules. Know
that legal counsel is being sought for this gross infraction and
national election supervisors have been notified. I am
interested to see how you, the station manager, will handle
this.
It is apparent that the current staff at WBAI is fearful that
with the new elections coming up that they will lose control of
this bastion of hate that they have created over the past
several months. The closest thing I can compare it to right now
is Fascism in the 1930’s. The only way the station can be truly
changed for the better is to have positive progressive thinking
new candidates come in and infuse conscious, healthy energy into
the station. I am heartened by the volume of e-mails and
correspondence I have received that support my views.
As always, I fully expect that you respond to my concerns. At
the end of the day it is not Bernard White that must be held
accountable, but their supervisor, YOU.
Respectfully submitted,
Luanne Pennesi, RN, MS
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