An unvarnished blog that dips into the past and comments on the present of WBAI-FM, a once significant, intelligent New York radio station that for years has suffered chronic abuse from within and now nears extinction. Your comments are welcomed and will not be censored.
What on earth is Union Radio? I get a monthly newspaper and an e-newsletter from my Union. It is very dry and boring, with only some of the stuff relating to out immediate issues at workplace and beyond that, very little useful info. How can you maintain a radio station, around that, or even a show. I can see a show, oh well, it wouldn't interest anyone besides a few hundred employees, and both the HQ and the Union periodically host over the web town-hall meetings.
ReplyDeleteRobert Hennelly is full of it. He stepped up to the plate, hoping to bring (and take credit for rebuilding BAI) and he clearly has no new ideas. "Union Underwriting" could possibly buy another show that nobody would listen to. The supreme irony is that the Ultra-Left Pacifica is extremely Anti-Union in their actions, which happens with most small business, so hell with them.
I WISH Hennelly would find some genuine underwriting, but he won't. I Heard him today on the Kathy Davis show. Hennelly is a CHAMELEON, on Haskins and Hennelly, not a bad show overall on its content, corny in its commercial morning show wannabe presentation, Hennelly tries to sound like a morning show commercial radio commentator, on Kathy Davis, he sounded like a New Age hipster. Hearing him, I realized that Hennelly is a mainstream commercial radio in his culture, thinking, and approach. It is sad to hear him pitch to the miniscule audience that is paying for the premiums. Why don't they realize that they have no audience and that they should change how they fund their operation? Things are so bad, that if Pacifica starts running radio commercials, they would be in a better financial and ethical condition that they are in today.
Finally, Hennelly has revealed himself today to be hopeless pandering nerd. He equated "Diversity" with a racial or ethnic "Minority", claiming that BAI is the most diverse radio station in broadcasting today, and defined "Diverse" as "Black, Latino and Muslim" youths getting their journalistic experience at BAI. That is not diverse. To me it seems that Hennelly is begging "Community" for financial support. NPR and BBC are diverse. I am a Russian-American and sadly, BAI does NOT cover my neck of the woods, NPR and BBC does. Both have Russian journalists as affiliates ands staffers, NPR did a sound check series on modern Russian music to coincide with the Sochi Olympics coverage. If you listen to NPR, you get radio personalities from all over the world. That is DIVERSITY!!!! Why can NPR be creative with their cultural programming, and BAI lack basic journalism? NPR might get funded by the BIG OIL, but it DELIVERS cutting edge content, while BAI and Pacifica set up lofty goals for themselves and behave like the Pharisees in the temple changing money before Jesus beat them and threw them out.
I agree with all you say in this comment. I listened to Kathy's show today and could not believe that her idiotic blather was still allowed to take up air time. Then Hennelly came in—he is the PD who by rights should be showing her the door and putting something of substance into that slot, but he fell right in with it and became just as silly as she is.
DeleteLater, today, I heard that new show with "Sir" Isaac Ferguson—it's called "Let's Talk" and both his shows so far have started with 20-25 minutes of uninterrupted music. He is a part of the "Midnight Ravers" group, which has been placing Marcus Garvey on a pedestal lately, and speaks of the evils of colonialism. They are right about that, but it somehow is inconsistent with his giving himself the "Sir" title, isn't it?
Today's "Let's Talk" began with close to a half hour of recordings by singers who overdosed, then Hennelly came in, did a very ineffective pitch, and introduced Ferguson. He, in turn, introduced the grandson of a Hollywood mogul (I didn't quite get the name, but it sounded like Marion) who, apparently, is or was an addict. There followed a lengthy interview wherein the guy, in a painfully inarticulate manner, stumbled over his words and said absolutely nothing that your average high school kid doesn't know. It was embarrassing and offered a prime example of bad radio.
If they had any brains, they would not wonder why WBAI has lost its listeners and all respect. You are right, when Hennelly and co. rip into NPR, their accusations have a hollow ring to them. Did you hear Hennelly praise Sheldon Walden's circumcision show today? It was terrible—anyone who expects iPD Hennelly to improve WBAI's program schedule should take their binoculars to the nearest park, look up, and do a bit of pig spotting.
I stopped listening after Kathy Davis played some CD featuring a guy maniacally raving about a "paradigm shift". The guy was marketing something, and I was driving hoe from work and I just wanted to relax, and I just turned the BAI off. Today, on my drive home from work, I heard some music interspersed with some interview about fracking and the chemical spill in West Virginia. I would have liked to hear the interview, but why mix it up with the top 40 music?
ReplyDeleteThe funny thing is, seeing how Hennelly and Pacifica are dedicated to preserving the BAI as a "Community Station" at all costs, the show actually scares away their intended audience.