Thursday, January 23, 2014

Andrew Phillips on WBAI and censor R. Paul on patrol


Presumably responding to Mitchel Cohen's clueless criticism of his resignation from WBAI last year, Andrew Phillips once again feels a need to explain what should have been obvious. He uses this opportunity to also set a couple of other things straight.


When Andrew's note was posted to the BlueBoard by Jim Dingeman, I responded. Of course I could not include Mitchel Cohen's name, because R. Paul Martin has included him on his list of the banished. I know, it is exceedingly stupid, but this is WBAI, where people who found a smidgeon of micropower are in a panic mode.

You will not find my offending post on the BlueBoard, for it has been removed by censor Martin, but it and his e-mail to me follow  this new letter from Andrew Phillips. Idiotic as his behavior is, I think it is symptomatic of what happens to the minds of little people who have clung on for years and now see it all slip away.

Regarding who controls WBAI programming.

I assume people understand that I resigned from WBAI because my program direction authority was undermined by Summer Reese and GM, Berthold Reimers when Reese informed me at 10pm on Monday night October 14th that Gary Null would be pitching during the 7-8am hour the following morning to pitch his "infomercials" in the fall fund drive. I disagreed with the strategy and resigned. Null went on to make very little money in morning drive in the fund drive at the same time exacerbating the premium fulfillment problem.

I told Reese and the GM I wanted WBAI drive-time Null and Blodsdale free to do authentic Pacifica programming and not repetitive informercials. Subsequently they also removed Ian Masters' Background Briefing from the 10am slot where I have no doubt he was building an audience. I knew that the only chance WBAI had to build audience was to improve drive time hence I imported some of the best of Pacifica program during those hours.

The premium I used was the 100 speaker pak produced by KPFA and which KPFA agreed to fulfill on WBAI's behalf. Unfortunately, to best of my knowledge, WBAI has not provided KPFA with information to permit this to happen so the premiums were not fulfilled. Permitting inexperienced personnel to intercede in programming has not helped WBAI.
Whilst I respect the efforts of the CAB, if and until programming is vastly improved, particularly in drive time, it's game over.

And finally, the on-air sound and technical competence at WBAI is a disgrace. The. Operation Director,Tony Ryan was asked repeatedly by me to deal with the poor on-air phone quality at the Harlem studio but to this day it's still not good. I asked him to seek assistance from Pacifica tech staff, Jon Almelah and Jake Glanz both of whom wanted to help.

And I asked Tony Ryan to create a Comrex link to enable broadcasting from 388 Atlantic Avenue to Harlem. In addition, Lara Flanders was ready to step up and contribute when a Comrex link between her and the studio was established. Again, Almelah and Glanz were ready to help but Tony Ryan was not able or willing to establish the link.

Respectfully,
Andrew Leslie Phillips.
ADDENDUM 

The post Big Brother did not want you to read:

Date: Thursday, 23 January 2014, at 2:00 pm
In Response To: message from andrew (jim dingeman)

Andrew is absolutely correct, and he did the only thing someone with integrity intact could do. Summer Reese is a bumbling fool who has no business dabbling in broadcast management. The former head of WBAI's 
dysfunctional LSB, whose name may not be mentioned in this forum without a stomp of approval—yes, I said stomp—has posted in Nalini's forum, criticizing Andrew for resigning and lauding Reese for bringing back the scam artists. It brought in money, he says, so it was the right thing to do.

There is something about extended association with the so-called "new" Pacifica that makes some people lose their senses.


This produced the following e-mail from R. Paul Martin:

I told you not to. You can post his name and when I get to it I'll pass the message. You know this is done to prevent attacks on people who can't defend themselves. And do not discuss the moderation of the board.

My final thoughts on this:
It appears to me that R. Paul Martin's need to assert himself and gain notice has seriously affected his concept of "free speech." We were never told why he banished Mitchel Cohen and other elected board members from the BlueBoard, a forum he volunteered to take over a couple of years ago, but you can be sure it's somehow political. Now the zero hour nears and WBAI's abusers may have to turn to rather than on each other.

Of course, this forum is not closed to R. Paul should he wish to experience free speech!  
What do you think?

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