Democracy Now! thrown off the air. Striking Pacifica stringers launch a daily half-hour newscast on over 20 community stations across the country. Controversial Pacifica National Board member Michael Palmer resigns in the face of mounting nationwide protests. And Congressman Major Owens (D-Brooklyn) holds hearings on the Pacifica crisis. It's been a busy week.

WBAI (99.5 FM) began its spring fundraising drive by banishing its most well known program - Democracy Now! - from the New York City airwaves.

The award-winning morning news show was pre-empted on May 16 (though it is still being aired nationwide except in Los Angeles) for the duration of WBAI's three-week spring fundraising drive. While the show's host Amy Goodman broadcast from one of WBAI's auxiliary studios, Morning Show host Santiago Nieves urged New Yorkers to contribute money in support of radical, cutting edge radio.

"To take that program off the air for three weeks is unconscionable," said Judy Solomon, a 30-year listener who was picketing outside the station's headquarters at 120 Wall Street.

WBAI, one of the five member stations of the left-leaning Pacifica Network, has been in turmoil since Pacifica's national management fired the station's general manager, program director and other longtime employees and volunteers last December in what critics have dubbed the "Christmas Coup".

Goodman's preemption helped spark hundreds of irate calls to the station's pledge number (212-209-2950), tying up phone lines. Randy Credico of the William Kuntsler Fund said his sources inside the station tell him the fund drive is going poorly.

"It's about as busy in there as the Des Moines Airport at 3 o'clock in the morning," Credico said.

Dan Coughlin, former director Pacifica Network News (PNN), suspects Goodman's preemption may be permanent.

"It's about testing the waters to eliminate the program entirely," Coughlin said.

WBAI's interim general manager Utrice Leid was unavailable for comment.

Earlier in the week, Michael Palmer, treasurer for the Pacifica National Board, resigned in the face of mounting nationwide protests outside the real estate brokerage firm he works for. On the same day, Congressman Major Owens (D-Brooklyn) held a three-hour hearing on the Pacifica crisis.

Meanwhile, Free Speech Radio News, founded by striking Pacifica stringers, has begun a daily half-hour newscast that will be carried for a month on more than 20 community radio stations around the country. FSRN has 90 stringers scattered across 20 states and six continents, and former PNN anchor Verna Avery Brown is hosting the show.

"They (Pacifica) want to shut down this cast," said Eileen Sutton, a banned WBAI reporter. "But, they can't. It's a constant reminder of what PNN isn't."

FSRN's daily newscast, which is being produced in San Francisco, Washington, D.C. and Tampa with support assistance in New York from the NYC-IMC, will run from May 18-June 15. Someday, it may become a permanent program.

"We're making history here," Sutton said.