Pipe Dream is celebrating its 60th year as Binghamton University’s independent student newspaper. It started as the Colonial News in the fall of 1946 and has been going strong twice a week ever since. So we’re taking a look back into the paper’s archives, at the people and events that have made the news over BU’s past 60 years.

Tuesday, Jan. 31, 1989

Klan members appeal WHRW’s decision

In December of 1989, two Ku Klux Klan members attempted to get airtime on the Binghamton radio station WHRW, but their request was denied. The Klan representatives, Joyce and Walt Bialkowski of Canisteo, N.Y., wanted to ‘clear up some misconceptions’ about the Klan. The article describes how they went on to appeal the decision.

The Bialkowskis wrote a letter appealing to the board of directors and the Binghamton University administration to reconsider the program’s cancellation. The couple argued that WHRW had been pressured to cancel the program by the BU Administration and that this type of censorship went against the ideals of a university. Walt Bialkowski stated that, ‘The student body will not be permitted to hear our side of the story. If we had weak arguments, then they could have exposed our erroneous views right in public. People never get to hear it from the horse’s mouth.’

There was some controversy over the decision to not run the program. The WHRW board had originally agreed in a 10-to-1 vote to consider granting the couple airtime. However, the board later voted 9-to-4 to deny the request.

Some board members felt that the Bialkowskis ought to be able to share their views, no matter how much one might disagree with them. One such member was Joseph Belluck, then folk director for WHRW, who stated that, ‘Anybody who wanted to listen out of intellectual curiosity was denied an opportunity ‘ anybody who was offended could just turn it off.’

However, the majority of board members disagreed with the couple’s assessment that the public didn’t know the facts about the Klan. They felt that it would be an irresponsible use of airtime to let people disseminate their hateful views. Many administration officials agreed with then University Vice President Raymond Dye’s statement, ‘Everyone knows what the Klan is and what it stands for.’