Billionaire Sam Zell Fights to Avoid Legal Claims Over Tribune Buyout

Bloomberg: Tribune Co. Chairman Sam Zell is battling to avoid legal liability for leading what he called “the deal from hell,” the $8.2 billion buyout of the bankrupt newspaper and television company.

In court papers filed yesterday, Zell asked the judge overseeing Tribune’s bankruptcy for permission to challenge a lawsuit filed against him by creditors. The lawsuit seeks to recover money from him, and other Tribune managers, whom creditors blame for the company’s inability to repay about $13 billion in debt, most of which is tied to the 2007 buyout.

“He is the one person who did nothing wrong,” David Bradford, Zell’s bankruptcy attorney, said in court yesterday, a few hours before filing the latest round of court papers in which the Chicago real estate billionaire denied responsibility for Tribune’s insolvency.

Two groups of hedge funds have submitted competing plans to reorganize Tribune and resolve billions of dollars worth of legal claims related to the buyout. Both groups would allow a federal lawsuit against Zell and Tribune’s other managers to go forward.

Chicago-based Tribune filed bankruptcy in December 2008, one year after the two-stage buyout was completed. The company owns eight newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune, with a combined daily circulation of 1.9 million last year. The company’s 23 TV stations include sites in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.

The bankruptcy case is In re Tribune Co., 08-bk-13141, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware (Wilmington).

To contact the reporter on this story: Steven Church in Wilmington, Delaware, at schurch3@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: David Rovella at drovella@bloomberg.net

More Lawsuits OK'd in Tribune Case

By SEAN KELLY

Courthouse News Service

WILMINGTON, Del. (CN) - Individual creditors in Tribune Co.'s bankruptcy case can file lawsuits in state courts against those that benefited from the $8.2 billion buyout of the company, a judge ruled on Tuesday.

U.S. Bankruptcy judge Kevin Carey said that even though the state law fraudulent conveyance claims may proceed, they should wait until the confirmation process ends. That is expected some time next month. Tribune then will have a reorganization plan in place and will be ready to emerge as a new company after 27 months in bankruptcy.

In an AP article on March 22, 2011, reporter Randall Chase wrote  that an independent examiner appointed by Carey already has concluded that some aspects of Tribune's buyout bordered on fraud. But Tribune Co.'s reorganization plan would release lenders and other parties from future legal liabilities related to the buyout.

Chase went on to write that Attorneys for some creditors told Judge Kevin Carey that they should be cleared to go after money that the company itself didn't try to get before a deadline expired in bankruptcy court. The court has been overseeing Tribune Co.'s operations since the company filed for bankruptcy protection in December 2008.

Daniel Golden, an attorney for the hedge fund Aurelius Capital Management, said his client and other noteholders must file the lawsuits by June 4 in states likely to exercise jurisdiction. Those states include: Delaware, where Tribune Co. is incorporated; Illinois, home to its Chicago headquarters; and Massachusetts, where certain shareholders tendered their stock in the buyout.

"The most important thing for us to do is to get those claims filed," Golden said.

Tribune, owner of eight newspapers and numerous television stations, filed for bankruptcy one year after real estate tycoon Sam Zell led a leveraged buyout of the company in 2007, leaving Tribune $13 billion in debt.

Federal adversary lawsuits were filed late last year against many of the players in the ill-fated buyout, including Zell, the McCormick Foundation and other shareholders who benefited from the deal.

Judge Carey stayed those claims, and now the similar state claims, until completion of the bankruptcy process.

The lawsuits were allowed to be filed during bankruptcy because the statutes of limitations were running out. The state law claims expire on June 4.

The motion to allow the filing of state-law constructive fraudulent conveyance claims was backed by Aurelius Capital Management and the Committee of Unsecured Creditors.

Aurelius, which is represented by Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, is the leader of one of two bankruptcy plans trying to get confirmation from the court.

The other plan under consideration is backed by Tribune, the banks the financed the buyout and the Committee of Unsecured Creditors.

Disputes between the rival groups have made it a contentious and drawn-out bankruptcy proceeding. But the filing of the state claims united Aurelius and the Unsecured Creditor Committee, as it did for the federal adversary actions.

"The Creditor Committee approves of this motion for filing state claims," Akin Gump attorney Daniel Golden said in court.

"This might be the nicest thing Aurelius has ever said about the Committee," Carey quipped from the bench.

Those opposed to the motion include The McCormick Foundation, the Cantigny Foundation, Zell's EGI-TRB, and other former shareholders and directors of Tribune.

"What they all have in common is shareholder redemption proceeds that they don't want to give back," Golden said.

Lawyers for both the McCormick Foundation and EGI-TRB argued that the state claims are the same as the earlier-filed adversary claims.

The representative for the McCormick Foundation said, "The fact that they want to file claims for the same $1.2 billion claim means they are the same claims they've already filed."

EGI-TRB representative David Bradford, of Jenner Block, took issue with EGI-TRB being named a "stock redeemer" in the 2007 leveraged buyout.

EGI-TRB put up $50 million in the second step of the merger, but "never got back its $50 million but only a future interest in the company," Bradford said Tuesday.

Golden countered that there was "no reason to treat a $50 million credit any different than a $50 million payout."

Confirmation hearings are expected to continue, beginning on April 11, 2011.

PIX11 LAUNCHES “DR. STEVE” – Health, Wellness and Lifestyle Program to Debut April

Feel Better, Live Better. On April 17, 2011 PIX11 will launch Dr. Steve, a 30-minute health, wellness and lifestyle program for families. The multi-topic show will be hosted by Dr. Steven Salvatore, a board certified Emergency Medicine physician who has served as the health expert on PIX11 Morning News since 2005. Dr. Steve will air Sundays at 11am beginning April 17th.

Dr. Steven Salvatore at  PIX 11

Dr. Steve will feature a mix of wellness topics including fitness and nutrition experts, kitchen nutrition makeovers, gadget and product reviews, children’s health and topical parenting issues. From gathering to cook a nutritious meal, to finding a fitness regimen adaptable for multi-generations, Dr. Steve will show viewers how to incorporate more quality family time into their lives. The show will also feature a roundtable discussion with Moms in the community and profiles of everyday heroes—ordinary people overcoming extraordinary obstacles.

Dr. Steve will offer advice to empower viewers and encourage them to be their own best advocates. From jumpstarting your wellness routine to setting an action plan, he will explore the latest trends and debunk health myths while providing large and small ways to integrate well-being.

“This is an opportunity for viewers to take control of their lives. Too many people let things go and put them off for another day, but the truth is, you can start today, right now with simple solutions, and I’m excited to help show them how,” said Dr. Steve.

Millions of viewers know Dr. Steve from his medical reports on PIX11 Morning News, which are currently syndicated to 13 Tribune stations including: PIX11/New York, KTLA/Los Angeles, WGN/Chicago, CLTV/Chicago, WXMI/Grand Rapids, WPMT/Harrisburg, WXIN/Indianapolis, KSWB/San Diego, KTXL/Sacramento, KCQP/Seattle, KDVR/Denver, WTIC/Hartford and WGNO/New Orleans.

A board certified Emergency Medicine physician, Dr. Steve completed his Emergency Medicine residency at Long Island Jewish Hospital and was formerly an Attending Physician in the Emergency Department of St. Vincent’s Midtown Hospital in Manhattan. Prior to his post at St. Vincent’s Midtown Hospital, Dr. Steve was the Assistant Director and Attending Physician in the ER of St. John’s Queens Hospital. He was also an Attending Physician at New York Hospital Queens and has been an Assistant Clinical Professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. A graduate of Fordham University with a Bachelor of Science in Biology, Dr. Steve received his medical degree from New York College of Osteopathic Medicine with honors in Osteopathic Manipulative Therapy. Dr. Steve is a member of the American College of Emergency Physicians. Dr. Steve is also the co-founder and director of The American Academy of Personal Training, a vocational school with locations in New York and Boston, licensed by the State Education Department in New York State and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

“Dr. Steve has the perfect mix of medical training and wellness planning. As a board certified physician, he has practical experience but also lives the healthy life he advocates, so he is able to help viewers and their families better understand how to lead happier, healthier lives themselves,” said Eric Meyrowitz, PIX11 Vice President/General Manager.

Dr. Steve will launch on PIX11 on Sunday, April 17th at 11am with plans to syndicate nationally. Launching alongside Dr. Steve is an informative companion website: www.drsteveshow.com

About WPIX

Founded in 1948 and owned by Tribune Broadcasting, a division of the Tribune Company, WPIX-TV has long been regarded as a groundbreaking station in New York. In September 2006, PIX11 became the flagship station of the CW Television Network, and its successful primetime programming, award winning news, extensive library of hit movies, first-run programs, off-network sitcom favorites, quality children's programming and public affairs shows, as well as outstanding event coverage, have contributed to the station's success. PIX11 has earned over 180 Emmy Awards, including two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Morning News Program and multiple Emmy Awards for Outstanding Newscast. The station has been honored with numerous other awards for excellence in reporting, news coverage, public affairs, specials and features. In addition, PIX11 has been the official broadcast television home of the New York Mets since 1999. For more information, please visit www.pix11.com

Support Huffington Post Bloggers

The Newspager Guild Guild is calling on unpaid writers of the Huffington Post to withhold their work in support of a strike launched by Visual Arts Source in response to the company’s practice or using unpaid labor. In addition, we are asking that our members and all supporters of fair and equitable compensation for journalists join us in shining a light on the unprofessional and unethical practices of this company.

Just as we would ask writers to stand fast and not cross a physical picket line, we ask that they honor this electronic picket line.

The Newspaper Guild, a 26,000-member-strong national union of media workers, is committed to fair compensation for all workers, whether they are freelance bloggers or traditional employees. We are further committed to promoting quality journalism. Working for free does not benefit workers and undermines quality journalism.

In response to the Huffington Post’s refusal to compensate its thousands of writers in the wake of its $315 merger with AOL, the Newspaper Guild has requested a meeting with company officials to discuss ways the Huffington Post might demonstrate its commitment to quality journalism. Thus far, the request has been ignored.

Arianna got millions; we got bylines

After building a media empire based on declining to pay some writers and republishing the work of others, the Huffington Post was sold for to AOL for $315 million. We are calling on Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington to invest in quality journalism by sharing a portion of her fortune with the people who made her successful.

The Newspaper Guild has joined with Visual Arts Source in a campaign calling for Arianna Huffington to demonstrate her commitment to the value of journalism by paying fair wages to her bloggers.

Visual Arts Source, http://visualartsource.com , an art publication, represents more than 50 writers who have said they will no longer write for the Huffington Post for free and who object to a company that depends on unpaid labor for its success.

As Cherie Turner, one of the former writers, explained, “Certainly, we all have written for free for the great exposure the Huffington Post can give us, but what’s the cost? Those of us on strike feel it undermines the value of our profession and is unethical, especially in light of great profits by those at the top. We are only asking for a fair share of what we are helping to create. We are also speaking out against real journalism being run side-by-side with advertorial.

“We feel it is unethical to expect trained and qualified professionals to contribute quality content for nothing. It is unethical to cannibalize the investment of other organizations that bear the cost of compensation and other overhead without payment for the usage of their content. It is extremely unethical to not merely blur but eradicate the distinction between the independent and informed voice of news and opinion and the voice of a shill.

The Newspaper Guild and Visual Arts Source Our urge others to join forces and no longer contribute their labor until the following demands are met:

● A pay schedule must be proposed and steps initiated to implement it for all contributing writers and bloggers; and,

● Paid promotional material must no longer be posted alongside editorial content; a press release or exhibition catalogue essay is fundamentally different from editorial content and must be either segregated and indicated as such, or not published at all.

Four things you can do NOW, if you choose to join this effort:

 

● Stop providing free content to Huffington Post and let your editor know you are choosing to take this action and what your demands are if he/she would like to keep you writing for HP (see above);

 

● Please respond and let me know you’re on board and that we are allowed to use your name in any press materials we send out regarding this strike;

 

● Please pass along the names and e-mail addresses of your colleagues who contribute to the Huffington Post so that we may ask for their support;

● Send a letter to your local media op-ed section letting them know how you feel about this situation.



Arianna Huffington



Thank you for your consideration in joining in these efforts. Our intent is to encourage the Huffington Post to do the right thing. We would all love to continue contributing, but only if the terms are fair and promote good, healthy journalism. This is about supporting the quality and integrity of a vehicle for progressive expression, to actually help Huffington Post succeed, but on the right terms. We call on Arianna Huffington to demonstrate her commitment to the working class she so ardently champions in her writing.

For more information see:

Facebook: "Hey Arianna, Can You Spare a Dime?"  https://www.facebook.com/heyarianna

TNG-CWA Freelance Project: http://guildfreelancers.org/gf/

TNG-CWA Free Project Coordinators:

East Coast: Lauri Lebo, laurilebo@gmail.com

West Coast: Rebecca Rosen-Lum rrosenlum@gmail.com

The Newspaper Guild

501 3rd Street NW 

Washington, DC 20001

202-434-1100

At 3pm on April 4th, 2011 - Stand Up for Workers' Rights

On April 4th, 2011 we'll commemorate the life work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. King was assassinated on that date in 1968, as he stood with striking sanitation workers in Memphis.

The Newspaper Guild-CWA is asking all workers to plan a visibile activity in their worplace for 3 p.m. local time on April 4th.

Stickers and flyers are available on request - contact Jay West at the Guild office.

CWA is planning activities around the country. Find out what is going on in your area by visiting www.cwaAction.org .

Fight back against the destruction of workers' rights in America.

The state of Wisconsin was the first to recognize the right of public workers to organize over 50 years ago. Now, some are acting to destroy those rights, using the excuse of budget balancing.

Visit www.cwaAction.org

Join other CWA activists, and members from human rights organizations, on April 4th, 2011. Activities are planned throughout the United States. This is not about narrow interests. This is about saving democracy, in the workplace, and in the United States.

Want to do something TODAY? Here's what you can do right now  to make a difference.

Create An April 4th Event NOW!!   or Join An Event!!

See the attached Flyers  and Documents for more information.

The Newspaper Guild-CWA, 501 Third St. NW, Washington, DC, 20001 - 202-434-7177

The Newspaper Guild • 501 3rd Street NW • Washington, DC 20001 • 202-434-1100

WDFH FM 90.3 Launches New Studio

WDFH volunteer program host Vinny Cohan
preparing for a show on a recent Saturday evening

WDFH-FM 90.3, community public radio for the lower Hudson valley, inaugurated its new studio with a special broadcast of live performances by musicians from our region. The broadcast took place on Saturday, March 12, starting at 8:00 p.m.before an enthusiastic, standing room only crowd.

WDFH’s long history has resembled a roller coaster. Marc Sophos, the station’s founder, spent about 20 years — starting in 1973, when he was a student at Dobbs Ferry High School — to secure the station’s broadcast license from the FCC. Since WDFH’s first broadcast in 1995, the station has built studios and then lost them twice, most recently in 2006. Its transmitter has been shuttled from location to location. The station was even forced off the air entirely for nearly a year in the late 1990s.

New WDFH Studio

But recent events have enabled WDFH to rise from the ashes. In January 2009, the station completed a 7½ year project to expand its FM signal, increasing the number of potential listeners to 400,000, forty times more than it could reach earlier. In 2010, a donation from a community minded supporter enabled the station to acquire space to build a new studio. The studio, completed in September, includes vastly upgraded equipment from the studios of WQXR, donated to WDFH in 2010 by The New York Times after the legendary classical music station was sold to WNYC.

This is the first time in the station’s entire history that it has had a viable signal and a studio at the same time. Mr. Sophos started training volunteers in the studio during the fall, and just recently, the first live broadcasts on WDFH since 2006 took place.


Licensed by the Federal Communications Commission as a noncommercial educational FM radio station, WDFH broadcasts on 90.3 MHz. Our newly expanded signal — the result of a 7½ year expansion project completed in early 2009 — can now reach about 400,000 potential listeners in the lower Hudson Valley. You can also listen online from anywhere in the world.



WDFH Signal Coverage Map



WDFH volunteer Dave Foster filing records



“This is a very exciting time for us,” said Vinny Cohan, a longtime WDFH volunteer who hosts a music program on Saturday evenings at 9:00. “We’ve spent the past few years laying the groundwork, and it’s thrilling that the pieces are finally coming together to create this new beginning.” Mr. Cohan and fellow program hosts Dave Foster (Tuesdays at 7:00 p.m.) and John Dyer (Thursdays at 8:00 p.m.) share their deep knowledge and play music from WDFH’s library of more than 100,000 recordings. These programs are repeated at various times during the week. The station broadcasts a freeform mix of rock, folk, blues, and jazz, and plans to introduce new music hosts in the coming months.

Mr. Sophos said that in an age when musical entertainment has moved to computerized radio stations and online services, it’s refreshing to hear the occasional crackle of vinyl records and to realize that there’s a real human being choosing the music personally. “It’s a rarity these days,” he said. “Many radio stations today broadcast a song rotation chosen by a computer and played off a hard drive. That’s part of the reason that many people have turned to online music; they figure that if radio isn’t giving them music chosen thoughtfully, they might as well customize their own playlists. But something really important has been lost, and I think that a lot of people are starting to realize that. We’re a proud throwback to an earlier age, when radio meant records and CDs and a real person carefully choosing what music to play. We curate our presentation of music in the way that a museum curator creates an exhibit — with a human touch. Computers can’t do that.”

While the station is working to increase the number of volunteer music program hosts, it is also creating new public affairs programs. On January 19, it launched Village Green, a new weekly program about environmental sustainability hosted by Maxine Margo Rubin.

It has just started work on a program that will give voice to LGBT youth. More original programming is in the planning stages. Continuing public affairs programs include Recovery Talk, hosted by journalist Robyn Leary; the show explores recovery from addiction, trauma, illness, domestic violence, and more.

In Focus, a local news discussion program hosted by WDFH veterans Jane Botticelli and Mr. Cohan, features in-depth reporting by Gary Cahill, the publisher and editor of The Gazette. The show focuses on Ossining, Briarcliff Manor, Cortlandt, and Croton. WDFH is now exploring possibilities for the expansion of the program to cover a wider range of communities.

The station also carries public affairs programs from independent producers and the Pacifica Radio Network, including the daily news programs Democracy Now and Free Speech Radio News.

The live inaugural broadcast on March 12 marked WDFH’s official celebration of its new beginning. Musical guests included the critically acclaimed singer-songwriter Jann Klose, who made his debut on WDFH. He has performed with or opened for Annie Haslam and Renaissance, Marty Stuart, Willy Porter, Pete Seeger, Melissa Ferrick, Marshall Crenshaw, Rosanne Cash, and Les Paul. Also performing will be Starnes&Shah, the duo of Zilpha Starnes and Dania Abu-Shaheen, joined by bassist Nick LaBate and drummer/percussionist Heinrich Kruse. Ms. Abu-Shaheen has performed several times on WDFH, first with her three-piece combo including Sarah Nurbhai on violin and Matt Noble on bass and later with her band The Antics.

“We’re delighted to have this chance to showcase musicians from our local area,” said Mr. Sophos. “We have some very good public radio stations with signals that can be heard in our area, but their programming focus is elsewhere. WDFH is based right here in the lower Hudson valley, our volunteer staff comes from here, and our programming is intended to serve our local interests, not those of the city.”

He added, “Visits from musicians were a regular part of our programming, but when we lost our studio in 2006, everything came to a stop. Now that our new studio is up and running, we’ll be working to regain our position as a leading forum for live performances and in-depth interviews.”

In addition to Ms. Abu-Shaheen, the roster of musical guests who have appeared at WDFH includes the actor and folksinger Dominic Chianese, known for his roles in The Godfather Part II and on HBO’s The Sopranos; jazz musicians Theo Bleckmann and Ben Monder; Rachelle Garniez; David Bennett Cohen of Country Joe and the Fish; Susan Kane, Dave Goldman, and others from Tribes Hill; the Tony Rivera Band; Chicago bluesman Fruteland Jackson; The Almost Original Synthetic Swampgrass Jug-Band; Josh Holmes; Elisa Peimer; The Shermans; Real Live Girl; Alex Sweeton; Bethany Yarrow; Don Brewer; Melanie; synthesizer gurus Richard Lainhart and Jordan Rudess of Dream Theater and the supergroup Liquid Tension Experiment; and others.

WDFH, which is nonprofit, noncommercial, and powered by volunteers, is supported by tax-deductible contributions from the public and local businesses. It is working to develop other funding sources as well, and once it reaches $100,000 in local funding, it plans to apply for grants from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

The live broadcast on March 12 was attended by a standing room only audience of WDFH’s friends and supporters.

About WDFH

WDFH is the lower Hudson valley’s only community public radio station. The station’s parent organization is Hudson Valley Community Radio, Inc., a local nonprofit organization that is tax exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. WDFH is an affiliate of the Pacifica Radio Network and is the lower Hudson valley’s on-air source for Democracy Now! and Free Speech Radio News. The station can be heard at 90.3 FM in central and northern Westchester and eastern Rockland. It can also be heard anywhere online at http://wdfh.org. A separate audio stream is optimized for iPhones and other mobile devices.

Tax-deductible contributions can be sent to WDFH at 21 Brookside Lane, Dobbs Ferry, N.Y. 10522. Contributions can also be made online through:

 http://www.wdfh.org/listen.htm.

WDFH is also seeking volunteers to create programming and work behind the scenes. Anyone interested in joining the staff should visit http://www.wdfh.org/join.htm .

About the musicians who performed live at the event and on the air on March 12:

Jann Klose

Jann's critically-acclaimed album, "Reverie," and his new music video, "Doing Time," are his current releases, and continue to build attention with AOL/Spinner just featuring the video on their home page. The Washington Post writes, "Klose wins over the listener with his soaring voice, which may well be a staple of chamber pop for a long time to come." The Advance Newspaper Wire Services praises, "The first thing that's totally unmistakable about Jann Klose is that voice which is just light years beyond that of the typical singer/songwriter — a sound that is classy, distinctive and often irresistible." Jann's music has also been heard on the Grammy-nominated album, "Healthy Food for Thought" and on MTV's CRIBS. Over the past seven years, he has performed 500 shows and has opened for and performed with an array of artists, including Annie Haslam and Renaissance, Marty Stuart, Willy Porter, Pete Seeger, Melissa Ferrick, Marshall Crenshaw, Rosanne Cash, and Les Paul.

Starnes and Shah

Starnes & Shah is a vocal duo comprised of Zilpha Starnes (keyboards and vocals) and Dania Abu-Shaheen (guitar and vocals). The group was formed in Astoria, New York, in 2005. Dania (Shah) writes the music and Zilpha (Starnes) sings the harmony. The songs reflect Dania's interest in rock and roll, poetry, and storytelling. Zilpha's harmonies add elements of exchange and sometimes tension to make Starnes & Shah what it is: an unlikely pairing of a formally trained choir girl from Dallas and a self taught Lebanese rabble rouser.

Described as psychedelic folk, the music ranges from pared down acoustic ditties to rock anthems complete with choral arrangements and layered guitar effects. As a live act, Starnes & Shah believe that it only gets better with time and experience. They have played shows in Northeastern cities including Burlington, Portland, Boston, Philadelphia, and their current home city, New York. Starnes & Shah released an acoustic EP titled "Here Again on the Island" (2006) and two full length albums: "Summer in the Woodshed" (2007) and "Pink White Blue Green" (2009), featuring full band arrangements. Starnes & Shah continue to play regular shows in New England and New York. Dania has performed several times on WDFH.

Nick LaBate

Coming from a musical family which includes operatic vocalists, classical instrumentalists, and composers, it seemed as though music was in Nick LaBate's blood. While he now occupies the low end of the sonic landscape, Nick got his start in music on the saxophone. Classic sounds captured his ear from an early age, and that has carried through to the present. College brought on a new way of life and new musical directions, and soon the bass came calling. Nick soon got involved with fellow student musicians as well as experienced pros, and was gigging steadily within a couple of years of picking up the bass. After graduation came a succession of original projects in the New York City area that ran the gamut.

In styles ranging from post-punk (Programmed Response) to power pop (From the desk of Sally) to alt rock (The Jeff Gaynor Band) and Americana (ShoeMania), the gig and recording credits started to mount. And with that experience, a style started to emerge that drew from the blues, the Beatles, classic soul of the 60's, and rock from the 70's. Nick began playing with Starnes&Shah in January of 2010.

Heinrich Kruse

Heinrich Kruse is a drummer/percussionist from Cape Town, South Africa. He was appointed principal percussionist of the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra (1999-2001). During this time he was a member of various jazz ensembles and drummer for the U.C.T. College of Music Big Band. He worked in the Caribbean and Mediterranean on cruise ships and performed in Turkey and Tunisia with the Andrew Young Band.

He became first call drummer/percussionist for various musical theatre productions in South Africa, including Annie, Evita, Cats, Rocky Horror Picture Show, Phantom of the Opera, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, Chicago, Jesus Christ Superstar, We Will Rock You, Hair, High School Musical, and Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris.

In 2006, he moved to London where he played on Chicago The Musical in London's West-End and on the U.K. touring production of the same show. He was the drummer for the London-based folk/Americana band Laetoli Steps and Scottish indie/rock band Oswald. Heinrich currently resides in New York City and joined Starnes&Shah in February 2011.

WDFH is the only community public radio station in the lower Hudson River Valley. Community radio stations are noncommercial stations that are owned by independent, non-institutional not-for-profit organizations. There are only about a few hundred community stations in the United States out of, what, about 15,000 radio stations altogether? Most of the rest of the country's noncommercial stations are licensed to schools, colleges, universities, and other institutional organizations — so community radio is a rare breed in several ways:

WDFH is powered by volunteers from the community — your friends and neighbors, not a staff of "full-time professionals" who may or may not have any real commitment to the communities the station serves. Get info on joining the staff as a community volunteer or student intern).

WDFH is local and focused so they can be much more responsive to the needs and interests of our communities.

WDFH is noncommercial and not beholden to the corporate drive toward the lowest common denominator (info on making your pledge to support WDFH).

WDFH's music programming includes a freeform mix of progressive and alternative rock, jazz, blues, and folk. We regularly feature in-studio musical guests. We also broadcast a significant schedule of news and public affairs programming (schedule).

Community stations are institutions in their communities, and they are working to build WDFH so that it can be worthy of that description.

WDFH is a member of the Pacifica Radio Network, the Grassroots Radio Coalition, the National Federation of Community Broadcasters, and  the New York State Broadcasters Association.

   Listen Now 

Support WDFH-FM 90.3 Become a member of WDFH today and help support your local community radio station — the only one of its kind in the lower Hudson valley.



Visit the WDFH pledge page for donation options, including automatic monthly subscriptions. Or make your one-time donation here by credit card or Paypal. For donations of $100 or more, please contact us directly at 914-674-0900 ext. 60 or send a check made out to WDFH or Hudson Valley Community Radio, Inc. to:



WDFH-FM 90.3
21 Brookside Lane
Dobbs Ferry, NY 10522
Attn: Marc Sophos, Executive Director

The Fire Last Time

By Peter Dreier and Donald Cohen

The New Republic

Labor, big business, and the forgotten lessons of a disaster that happened 100 years ago this month

Americans tend to be fascinated by what’s new and to be indifferent to the past, except when they can use “tradition” to reinforce current prejudices and power arrangements. This has had an unfortunate effect on how we govern ourselves. We forget important lessons, and repeat old mistakes.

A century ago, on March 25, 1911, 146 garment workers, most of them Jewish and Italian immigrant girls in their teens and twenties, perished after a fire broke out at the Triangle Waist Company in New York City’s Greenwich Village. Even after the fire, the city’s businesses continued to insist they could regulate themselves, but the deaths clearly demonstrated that companies like Triangle, if left to their own devices, would not concern themselves with their workers’ safety. Despite this business opposition, the public’s response to the fire and to the 146 deaths led to landmark state regulations.

Businesses today, and their allies in Congress and the statehouses, are making the same arguments against government regulation that New York’s business leaders made a century ago. The current hue and cry about “burdensome government regulations” that stifle job growth shows that the lesson of the Triangle has been forgotten. Here, to refresh our fading memories, is what happened.

 One hundred years ago, New York was a city of enormous wealth and wide disparities between rich and poor. New industries were booming—none more so than women’s and men’s clothing. The new age had created a demand for off-the-rack, mass-produced clothing that could be sold in department stores. The Triangle company made blouses, which were called shirtwaists.

Some of the 146 victims of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company
 fire lay on the streets of New York's Lower East Side,
March 25, 1911.
(International Ladies' Garment Workers's Union)



Few of those who bought the new ready-to-wear clothing gave much thought to the people who made them. The blouses, skirts, and sweaters were sewn in miserable factories, often by girls as young as 15 who worked seven days a week, from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. with a half-hour lunch break, and often longer during the busy season. They were paid about $6 per week, and were often required to use their own needles, thread, irons, and even sewing machines. The factories were overcrowded (they often occupied a room in a tenement apartment) and lacked ventilation. Many were poorly lit fire traps without sprinklers or fire escapes.

In November 1909, over 20,000 shirtwaist makers from more than 500 factories, led by the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU), walked off their jobs. They demanded a 20 percent pay raise, a 52-hour workweek, and extra pay for overtime. They also called for adequate fire escapes and open doors from the factories to the street. Within 48 hours, more than 70 of the smaller factories agreed to the union’s demands, but many of the largest manufacturers refused to compromise.

The New York City police soon began arresting strikers—labeling some of them “street walkers,” which was literally true, since they were carrying picket signs up and down the sidewalks. Judges fined them and sentenced some of the activists to labor camps.

But the strikers held out and by February 1910, most of the small and midsized factories, and some of the larger employers, had negotiated a settlement for higher pay and shorter hours. One of the companies that refused to settle was the Triangle Waist Company, one of New York’s largest garment makers.

That July, another group of garment workers—over 60,000 cloakmakers, mostly men this time—went on strike. As the tensions escalated, both union and business leaders invited prominent Boston attorney (and later Supreme Court Justice) Louis Brandeis to New York to help mediate the conflict. With Brandeis’s nudging, the two sides signed the “Protocol of Peace” agreement that set minimum industry standards on wages, hours, piece-rates, and workplace safety and health. But the Protocol’s weakness was that it was a voluntary agreement, not a government regulation, and not all manufacturers signed on. Once again, one of the holdouts was the Triangle Waist Company.

Owned by Isaac Harris and Max Blanck, who were known as the “the shirtwaist kings," Triangle was one of the most rabidly anti-union firms. On March 25, 1911, on a Saturday at 4:45 p.m., close to quitting time, a fire broke out on the eighth and ninth floors of its ten-story building. Factory foremen had locked the exit doors to keep out union organizers and to keep workers from taking breaks and stealing scraps of fabric.

Other doors only opened inward and were blocked by the stampede of workers struggling to escape. The ladders of the city’s fire engines could not reach high enough to save the employees. As a result, workers burned or they jumped to their deaths. Experts later concluded that the fire was likely caused by a cigarette dropped on a pile of “cut aways” or scraps of cloth that had been accumulating for almost three months.

News of the fire spread quickly, catalyzing public opinion, and energizing a broad coalition of unlikely allies. It included immigrants, muckraking journalists, clergy, unionists, socialites, and socialists. Rose Schneiderman, an immigrant worker, socialist, and fiery union organizer, found common cause with Anne Morgan, the daughter of Wall Street chieftain J.P. Morgan.

Frances Perkins, a former settlement house worker who was at the time a researcher and lobbyist for the Consumers League (and who later became Franklin Roosevelt’s trailblazing secretary of labor) joined hands with Rabbi Stephen S. Wise to demand reform.

On April 6, 30,000 New Yorkers marched—and hundreds of thousands more lined the march’s route—behind empty hearses to memorialize the fire’s victims. Numerous rallies, broadsides and editorials called for legislative action—ranging from fire safety codes to restrictions on child labor. In response to the outcry, New York Governor John Alden Dix created the Factory Investigating Commission, a pioneering body with broad subpoena powers and teams of investigators, led by two savvy Democratic politicians, state Assemblyman Al Smith and state Senator Robert F. Wagner.

Smith, Wagner, and the Commission members traveled up and down the state holding hearings and visiting factories. Over two years, the commissioners interviewed almost 500 witnesses and visited over 3,000 factories in 20 industries. They found buildings without fire escapes, bakeries in poorly ventilated cellars with rat droppings. Only 21 percent of the bakeries even had bathrooms, and most of them were unsanitary. Children—some as young as five years old—were toiling in dangerous canning factories. Women and girls were working 18-hour days.

After the fire, many city officials acknowledged there was a problem. Edward F. Croker, New York City’s retired fire chief, told the Commission that employers “pay absolutely no attention to the fire hazard or to the protection of the employees in these buildings. That is their last consideration.” His department had cited the Triangle building for lack of fire escapes just one week before the fire.

But the garment manufacturers, the Real Estate Board, and the bakery and cannery industry groups sought to stymie the Commission. The real-estate interests opposed city fire codes. After the Fire Department ordered warehouses to install sprinklers, the Protective League of Property Owners held a meeting to denounce the mandate, angrily charging the city with forcing owners to use “cumbersome and costly” equipment.

As representative of the Associated Industries of New York insisted that regulations would mean “the wiping out of industry in this state.” Mabel Clark, vice president of the W.N. Clark Company, a canning corporation, opposed any restrictions on child labor. “I have seen children working in factories, and I have seen them working at home, and they were perfectly happy,” she declared.

Terence McGuire, president of the Real Estate Board, summed up the business argument against regulation. “To my mind this is all wrong,” he declared. “The experience of the past proves conclusively that the best government is the least possible government.” The board warned that new laws would drive “manufacturers out of the City and State of New York.”

Smith, Wagner, and the political leaders of the time, fortified by a vibrant progressive movement, ignored these opponents of business regulation. In the first year, the Commission proposed and the legislature quickly passed a package of laws requiring mandatory fire drills, automatic sprinklers, and unlocked doors during work hours that were required to swing outward. They also created rules on the storage and disposal of flammable waste, and they banned smoking from the shop floor.

In the second year, the legislature passed additional reforms. They set the maximum numbers of workers per floor. They established codes requiring new buildings to include fireproof stairways and fire escapes. They required employers to provide clean drinking water, washrooms and toilets for their employees. They gave labor commission inspectors the power to shut down unsanitary tenement sweatshops. And they ruled that women could work no more than 54 hours a week and that children under 18 could not work in dangerous situations.

These path breaking state regulations, provoked by the Triangle fire, proved that government could play a powerful role in the lives of ordinary people. Other states followed suit, and ultimately President Franklin Roosevelt, prodded by Perkins, Wagner, and other veterans of New York’s progressive movement, introduced New Deal reforms ending child labor, establishing a federal minimum wage and a 40-hour week, and creating a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) that would establish the right of workers to form a union that would bargain collectively with employers.

The Triangle company’s owners were indicted and went on trial for manslaughter, but they were found innocent when the judge told the jury that in order to return a guilty verdict, they had to find that the two defendants knew or should have known that the doors were locked. Harris and Blanck also continued to refuse to recognize the union. But the company never recovered from the fire and the controversy surrounding it, and in 1918, it closed its doors.

That didn’t happen to other city businesses. Contrary to the business leaders’ dire predictions, they did not suffer from the new regulations. The New York Times reported in July 1914, that, “[n]otwithstanding all the talk of a probable exodus of manufacturing interests, the commission has not found a single case of a manufacturer intending to leave the State because of the enforcement of the factory laws.” New York’s Seventh Avenue remained the headquarters of the nation’s garment industry for decades until production gradually moved south and overseas after World War II.

Ironically, 100 years after the Triangle fire, we still hear much of the same rhetoric whenever reformers seek to use government to businesses act more responsibly and protect consumers, workers, and the environment. For example, the disasters last year that killed 29 miners at Upper Big Branch and eleven oil rig workers in the Gulf could have been avoided had lawmakers resisted lobbying by mine owners and BP to weaken safety regulations.

Today, the leading foe of reform is the United States Chamber of Commerce, which is on a crusade against the Obama administration’s plans to set new rules on unsafe workplaces, industrial hazards and threats to public health. The Chamber labels every effort at reform a “job killer.” The Chamber’s most vocal proponent is Darrell Issa, the conservative California Republican who chairs the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. At the request of the Chamber and other industry lobbies, Issa recently launched a congressional assault on safeguards in workplaces and communities.

In January, Issa sent letters to more than 170 companies and business lobby groups—including Duke Energy, FMC Corp., Toyota, Bayer, the American Petroleum Institute, the National Association of Manufacturers, the Association of American Railroads, the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association, and lobbies representing health care, banking, and telecommunication providers—asking them to identify "burdensome government regulations" that they want eliminated.

The business groups responded with a long wish list, including rules to control “combustible dust” that has resulted in explosions killing workers; rules to track musculoskelal disorders, such as tendonitis, carpal tunnel, or back injuries, that impact millions of workers at keyboards, in construction, or in meat processing; and rules to address workplace noise that leads to hearing loss. And Republicans listened. They are proposing to cut OSHA’s budget by 20 percent, which, coming on top of decades of cuts, would cripple an agency that has been effective at significantly reducing workplace injuries and deaths.

The Republican leadership is trying to drive home the message, in Speaker John Boehner’s words, that “excessive regulation costs jobs” and that the “path to prosperity” is by “getting government out of the way.” Americans of earlier generations—who enjoyed the benefits of the Progressive Era and the New Deal reforms, and the political clout of a vibrant labor movement—understood this was nonsense, but it seems like the lessons of the past have to be relearned again. That’s why it is important to recall the sordid circumstances in which 146 young women lost their lives at the Triangle Waist Company a century ago.

Peter Dreier teaches politics and chairs the Urban & Environmental Policy Department at Occidental College. His next book, The 100 Greatest Americans of the 20th Century, will be published later this year by Nation Books. Donald Cohen directs the Cry Wolf Project. Donald Cohen directs the Cry Wolf Project.