WBAI, a part of the Pacifica Radio Network, is a non-commercial, listener-supported radio station, broadcasting at 99.5 FM in New York City.

Its programming is leftist/progressive, and a mixture of political news and opinion from a leftist perspective, tinged with aspects of its complex and varied history, such as Freeform radio, which WBAI played a role in developing, as well as various music.

The station began as WABF, which first went on the air in 1941 as W75NY and moved to the 99.5 frequency in 1948. In 1955, after two years off the air, it was reborn as WBAI (whose calls were named after then-owners Broadcast Associates, Inc.). It was purchased by eccentric philanthropist Louis Schweitzer, who donated it to the Pacifica Foundation in 1960. The station, which had been a commercial enterprise, became non-commercial and listener-supported under Pacifica ownership.

The history of WBAI is long and contentious. Referred to in a New York Times Magazine piece as "an anarchist's circus," one station manager was jailed in protest, and the staff, in protest at sweeping proposed changes of another station manager, seized the studio facilities, then located in a deconsecrated church, as well as the transmitter, located atop the Empire State Building.

DJ Spinna (born Vincent Williams, 1973) is an American hip hop music artist and producer, who, according to Allmusic.com, has "remained strictly an underground artist despite his astonishing talent."

He began experimenting with turntables at age 11 and is known for combining dance music with hip hop, funk, and soul music. He remixed artists such as De La Soul, Mary J. Blige, and Stevie Wonder. He also collaborated with Eminem on songs such as "Three Six Five," "Watch Deez," and "5-Star Generals," before the latter went on to superstardom. His first group, the Jigmastas, was with the emcee Kriminul. He is also a member of Polyrhythm Addicts, an underground hip-hop 'supergroup' composed of him, Apani B Fly MC, Mr. Complex, and Shabaam Sahdeeq. The group's album Rhyme-Related was released in 1999 on Wreck/Nervous Records and featured a song with Pharaohe Monch. Apani B Fly MC was replaced by Tiye Phoenix when the group reunited and recorded the 2007 release Break Glass, which featured the single “Reachin’,” released on April 24, 2007. He also worked with New York-based live house-music group Tortured Soul as well as being a member of the group Domecrackers with DJ/Producer Joc Max from Kansas City, and Grap Luva, whose brother is legendary hip hop producer Pete Rock.

Felipe Luciano (born ca. 1947, New York City) is an American poet, community activist, journalist, media personality, and politician. He is of Afro-Puerto Rican heritage.

Luciano served time in prison for manslaughter in the fatal stabbing of a Brooklyn teenager in the early 1960s. Following his release, he attended Queens College and became a member of the Original Last Poets (with Gylan Kain and David Nelson).^{[citation needed]}

He co-founded the Young Lords (also called the Young Lords Party) in the 1960s and served as its chair. Although the Young Lords in Chicago began as a gang before they became politicized, the Young Lords Party in NYC reportedly began as a political movement.^{[citation needed]}

Luciano later became a radio, television, and print journalist, and won several awards^{[citation needed]}. He is President and founder of Luciano Productions, Inc.^{[citation needed]}