Protest at a private ‘ribbon-cutting’ for a ‘public’ radio station

Chanting a one-word question: 'Why?'

Tessa Morgan was standing in a parking lot in front of WCAI’s new broadcast home in Falmouth on Friday morning, November 14, protesting with 50-plus people holding homemade signs and striking up periodic chants:

“Why? Why? Why? Why?”

“No Donation Without Representation!”

“Go Back Home, Go Back Home, Go Back to Boston, Go Back Home!”

That one was riffing on the call letters of CAI’s controlling entity, WGBH, where local ire is focused. Protestors chose that moment because inside CAI’s new headquarters an invite-only gathering was assembling for a “ribbon-cutting”: Vacating CAI’s former home, the historic Captain Davis House in downtown Woods Hole, had been accomplished at GBH’s insistence. (GBH pulls the building out from under CAI)

For Morgan to be joining was poignant. For 16 years she has been making CAI coffee mugs at her pottery shop, Flying Pig. Her work became a kind of mascot.

“One year I made 900,” she smiled. “But that was just too much, so I said tops would be 500 or so.” They sell outright, or become enticements for memberships.

A Falmouth police officer stopped the crowd from entering the station. “This is private property, you shouldn’t even be up here,” he told them, meaning the Highfield hilltop beside Beebe Woods. But he did not try to remove them, and they did not try to force entry.

“I’ve always loved being connected to the station but not now,” Morgan mused. “The final straw was their cutting ties with Jay Allison, the station’s founder.”

Allison did not attend this protest (his wife Melissa did, and helped organize), nor the “ribbon-cutting.” An agreement between GBH and Allison, in place since he partnered to support CAI’s launch 25 years ago, said that Allison’s Atlantic Public Media would retain workspace. His presence no longer is welcome.

“APM is being locked out of the radio station it founded,” Allison wrote in a public letter to CAI staff. “The reason cited is security.” He in turn has told them to take his name off a long-established Founders Fund.

That was Tessa’s last straw. The biggest straw remains GBH’s decision to sell the historic Davis home, originally to a private party, then to the Woods Hole Community Association, a non-profit that stepped in and raised about $2 million in record time to “save” the building. Most people assumed GBH would keep CAI in the village, especially after the Community Association offered five years no rent.

GBH turned that offer down cold (A friendly buyer, but CAI is moving anyway), saying space but mainly financial considerations drove the decision. Yet they refuse to share any details about CAI’s budget, operating expenses, fundraising, or fiscal relationship to Boston (Questions GBH should answer about CAI).

Meanwhile, to vacate, build a broadcast studio from scratch, renovate offices, GBH reportedly has spent nearly $1 million and counting.

For one fiscal quarter, that tradeoff might make the books look better. But long term?

“This lack of transparency is really the main issue,” said Vivian Gainer, another protestor who came up from Woods Hole on Friday. “That’s why everyone is chanting, ‘Why?’ Is it really a financial thing? Is it a vendetta against Jay Allison? We’d like to know.”

“No one is providing a good explanation,” agreed Alan Steinbach, also from Woods Hole. “People know CAI all over the world, and the reason is Atlantic Public Media. Why do this?”

Another chant picked up:

“Ho Ho, Hey Hey, Local Never Felt So Far Away.”

Only one person from CAI came out. Stephen Colella, who solicits underwriting, 14 years onboard, emerged to observe, hear criticism, offer some perspectives — no official capacity, expressing personal concern, with respect. Only after the event wound down, according to Melissa Allison, “a handful of protestors were ultimately allowed inside, to meet with GBH CEO Susan Goldberg (and others).”

“The move is an emotional loss for Woods Hole, I understand that,” Colella said. “But from a different perspective, this station is supposed to serve all of Cape Cod. We’ve heard that we’re ultra-focused on Woods Hole.”

There’s irony here. GBH ended CAI’s popular “pub nights,” when staff showed up at bars all over the Cape to meet and greet, talk radio. What’s more, Allison’s group has produced programming shared by National Public Radio stations across the country; if people around the Cape think CAI is Woods Hole-centric, NPR does not.

Because of that, GBH’s self-inflicted public relations wound has festered in private conversations and public forums nationwide.

This is happening in the context of the biggest crisis public radio and television has faced, funding eliminated by Congress and the President. One response is a strong desire for public media supporters to up the ante, close ranks.

Yet as national challenges reverberate, here’s Cape Cod’s perspective:

A “public,” “local,” “community” radio station held a “ribbon-cutting” — by invitation only.

Really?

About 35 invitees attended, while outside a crowd of more than 50 lovers and appreciators of public media chanted and protested, excluded from access by a police detail.

This is not in any way a good look.

Allison, choosing not to attend the event in his support, a few days later offered a proposal: How about a mediated forum, GBH and APM front and center, to try to come to an understanding?

His condition: Air it live on CAI.

Alan Steinbach expresses himself

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