LEVY PROPOSES WNYE TO WNYC: WHAT ARE WE LOSING?
By Katarzyna Kozanecka

Every Saturday at noon, 12-year-old Katerina Taketzis and 15-year-old Amalia Dedousis produce and host a show called Cosmos Kids on Cosmos FM (WNYE-91.5 FM). For the past two years, they have shared a creative half-hour during which they and other children their age perform original stories, sing, and talk about sports, music, fashion, movies, and growing up Greek. But if the seven members of the NYC Board of Education approve Chancellor Harold Levy’s proposal for a Lease Management Agreement (LMA) that will transfer management of WNYE-FM to WNYC Radio, Inc., the voices of Katerina and Amalia and many other children will most certainly disappear from the airwaves.

Cosmos FM is one of many ethnic and independent programs that call WNYE, a radio station owned and operated by the NYC Board of Education (BOE), their home.

According to Victoria Streitseld, a spokesperson for the BOE, “[The LMA] is an option that is being considered when it comes to the future of the station.” She could not disclose the terms of the agreement, but producers of ethnic programs such as Cosmos FM on WNYE announced at a press conference that the lease is for ten years and that there will be no financial gain to the BOE. In fact, after the ten years are up, the BOE will have to pay to get the station back. Furthermore, the ethnic and independent producers have not received written assurance that their programs will be preserved if WNYC Radio, Inc. becomes the new operator of WNYE.

“But let’s say they do lease us some time,” said Dedousis. “They are probably going to make it very expensive.” Hence, opposition to the LMA is great.

“This is a crime to society,” said Elena Maroulleti, producer and host of Aktina FM,
a bilingual live call-in Greek-American Magazine Show on WNYE. “The ethnic programs are addressing the needs of everybody,
especially the children.” According to Maroulleti, WNYE’s ethnic programs—Greek, Haitian, Polish, Macedonian, Bosnian, French, Ukrainian, Croatian, and others–are a vital link between immigrant families and their
native lands, and also teach the public about other cultures.

The programs on WNYE also serve students and professors of foreign languages whom might not otherwise have access to a language as it is spoken in the native country. For example, French teachers rely on Radio France International broadcasts, which can be heard live from Paris each night. “[It helps them] perfect their knowledge of the French language and society. This eventually makes better foreign language students,” said Pascal Bourdon, from the French consulate. “The knowledge of foreign languages in this country is not so huge that the tools that encourage [learning them] can be so easily discarded,” he added.

Moreover, the BOE has not had to interrupt programs to solicit money from listeners thanks to the ethnic producers. “Seventy percent of funding for 91.5 FM comes from the ethnic producers,” said Trevor Wilkins, producer and host of a calypso music show on WNYE.

In an effort to preserve the current management of WNYE and to save their programs from being silenced, a coalition of ethnic producers has launched an email and letter campaign to Ninfa Segarra, President of the BOE. “Thousands of letters have already arrived but we need more,” said Marouletti. Comptroller and mayoral candidate Alan Hevesi, Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields, and other tri-state area politicians have already written letters to Segarra asking her to ensure that WNYE’s programs will continue even under new management.

Program producers believe that Levy wants to contain costs, improve programming, and increase the audience of WNYE-FM and WNYE-TV, a radio and television station established in 1938 and 1949, respectively, to provide educational and cultural programs for the city’s children, parents, and teachers.

Although the producers consider this a noble intention, they also believe that New York City children stand to lose a valuable resource if the Board accepts the LMA, because WNYC, a classical music station with programming from NPR and PRI, has no experience in producing educational programs or working directly with the community.

For contact information and links to program websites, go to www.wnye.nycenet.edu.

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