You had a clean white face colorless and faded.

ACCORDING to Molly McDevitt, public relations director for WBAI, there was no trouble until Jan. 15 when the UFT filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission, simultaneously informing the New York Times of their action. "On Jan. 16 the storm broke," Miss McDevitt said. "Within the next few days all the people who hadn't listened to the broadcast but who read the Times Post or the Daily News were sending us hate mail and bomb threats."

The UFT action may have been political; the day before their letter to the FCC several black teachers--including Campbell--who had been suspended from their positions pending hearings were reinstated by the court. Since the charges against the teachers had been brought by members of the UFT--charging harrassment, threatening and intimidation of teachers--discontent is not unlikely. "The teachers' strike--the tactics, rhetoric, issues involved--is responsible for a lot of what has happened here since," Lester said.

Jan. 23, the Thursday following the UFT's letter, was the day of "the remarkable lampshade incident," Miss McDevitt said. One member of a discussion group on the Julius Lester show--a member of the Afro-American Teachers--said, "More power to Hitler, He didn't make enough lampshades out of them."

WBAI was picketed by about 200 members of the Jewish Defense League, the publishers of the inflammatory Jewish Press, a weekly warning of pogrom plans. The JDL demanded immediate cancellation of the Julius Lester Show, and apology from WBAI, and a written pledge that "no more time will be granted these haters." "This was a demand for censorship," Miss McDevitt said. "Of course it was rejected."

The problem WBAI faces is not with the FCC. The result of the inquiry now being conducted by the seven-member Commission headed by Rosel H. Hyde is likely to be favorable. In a similar case in 1966, station KTYM, a branch of Pacifica Radio in California, was also charged by the Anti-Defamation League with anti-Semitic broadcasting. It was the judgment of the Commission that "the public interest is best served by presenting any views that are not a clear and present danger and evil . . . free speech that we abhor and hate is as legal as that which find congenial."

"What we fear," Miss McDevitt said, "is not the FCC ruling, but a general smear campaign."

THE SITUATION is one of incipient public hysteria. With the exception of extremist groups like the JDL, WBAI's problem has been to a large degree on of misunderstanding. The most vociferous protestors are those who have never actually listened to the station, which is an open forum to all points of view. The poem was taken out of context, as an expression of the station's general policy. But once one accepts the fact that WBAI is not anti-Semitic, that the charges are ridiculous, and that the First Amendment will save the station, our discomfort still remains. The climate into which WBAI must broadcast is an uneasy one. Bad enough is the likelihood that public reaction to anti-Semitic expressions will become more and more violent--it is even worse to realize that the anti-Semitic feelings continue to exist within the black community.

The Anti-Defamation League feels that WBAI is not serving the "general public good" by broadcasting such feelings. The radio station feels that it is indeed serving the public good by articulating what must otherwise be ignored. The A-DL feels that WBAI is creating hate; WBAI knows that the hate exists. And they interpret the entire situation differently.

"I don't see any of this an anti-Semitism," Lester said. "It's rather anti-racism. Anti-Semitism in other parts of the world was used by the power structure as a rallying point. In New York the Jews are in the position of power; the blacks are the minority. It's not the same thing at all. As to the pogrom fantasy, even if the desire exists--and I am firmly convinced that it does not--the power is nonexistent."

Look again at the poem. It says a lot. The poem was written by a girl named Fia Baran, which the Jewish Press managed to turn into an acrostic for Hate Zion--by getting the name wrong. When they called WBAI with the information, Miss McDevitt told them that they were using the wrong name, and was answered, "What difference does it make?" It doesn't make much difference to either side.