Null: Uncle Sam is killing WBAI!

Let me preface this by pointing out that there was a time when I suspected the government of attempting to discredit WBAI. The year was 1967, the news was dominated by the Vietnam war and the Civil Rights movement, two polarizing events in our country's history, both of which generated major public clashes and outrage. WBAI, then a Pacifica station in the original sense, was deeply involved in coverage that often was at odds with that of the mainstream media.

For several months, Dale Minor submitted extraordinary reportage from Vietnam. often painting a picture that starkly contrasted the glimpses presented by wire services and the mainstream press. Before he traveled to Saigon, Dale had experienced tumultuous times in the South of our own country, reporting alongside Chris Koch on that violent struggle. Archived Pacifica programs like "The Battle of Danang" and the series, "This Little Light," are among the highlights that represent WBAI's past as a producer of exemplary radio documentaries.

Such memorable work as WBAI's News and Public Affairs Department produced during the station's early Pacifica years, enhanced the station's image as an independent voice in what FCC Chairman Minnow described as a "vast wasteland." It also belied any notion of the station having become an object of government infiltration, but events later occurred that raised doubt in my mind.

At the time when Chris Koch's Paris vacation turned out to have been a news-gathering trip to Hanoi, I was taken by surprise, but it did not occur to me to question why he chose to spent a holiday without his family. 

Soon after his return, as the second in his new series of Hanoi reportages was about to air, Chris surprised me again, this time by falsely accusing the station of "suppressing" his program, and me of having censored it. It was a rather clumsy setup on his part, but it does not take much to stir up sensibilities at a station so deeply running on ideology. I will not go into details of this incident now, for it would take many pages to do so. I am, however, always prepared to answer any questions put to me on this matter.

Briefly, let me say that Chris Koch resigned, publicly painting himself as a victim of censorship. He knew better, of course, but when NY Board Chairman Harold Taylor and I spent the good part of an evening trying to dissuade him, Chris told us that he "was going to resign, anyway," because he had other career plans. The next thing we knew, he was lecturing on his Hanoi experience and hinting that he had been a victim of censorship at WBAI. It was quite extraordinary and confusing. Why, one had to wonder, was this dedicated Pacifica veteran out to destroy WBAI?

Not surprisingly, a group of devoted listeners saw through this and formed a committee to "save" the station. One thing they dug up on Chris Koch was that he had been a U.S. student delegate to a Helsinki peace conference at which—according to the NY Times—all the official American attendees were recruited by the CIA.

When I mentioned the strange possibility that the CIA might be behind a willful attempt to smear WBAI's image, my friend, Nat Hentoff, wrote in the Village Voice that I knew a lot about jazz, but that I was "apolitical" and should know that the CIA did not get involved in domestic matters. He was, of course, wrong on that point, but I had only thrown it out there as one possibility. The fact was that Chris Koch was deliberately blemishing WBAI's image, and it just didn't make sense. It still doesn't, nor does the seemingly impulsive hiring, by Hallock Hoffman, of a totally inexperienced out-of-towner, Frank Millspaugh. At Hallock's request, I had set up a screening procedure that yielded three highly qualified candidates to replace me. Delighted, and impressed by their backgrounds (one came with glowing recommendation from his previous boss, Norman Cousins), Hallock asked me to set up appointments for him to conduct the final interviews. Imagine my puzzlement when he arrived and told me to cancel the appointments, because the position had already been filled! I spent a month trying to teach Frank the ropes, but he seemed disinterested. I later found out that he had been recommended to Hallock by Chris Koch (who purportedly was now persona non grata at Pacifica); that he and Chris had been co-delegates in Helsinki, and that he was a fairly heavy mescaline user. The plot thickened...but wait! There was one other thing that didn't make sense: Dale Minor introduced censorship to WBAI and the Board refused to hear complaints from the affected producers (including Barbara Dane).

I am still not afflicted with paranoia, but I sure wish someone could dig up these old WBAI mysteries, and solve them.

All may not be lost, as it turns out. Enter, from stage right, the uncrowned king of WBAI, Saint Gary Null. As you may have heard, he is back on the station's air, very chummy with Berthold Reimers, and more intolerable than ever. On Thursday last, he told his listener(s) that he is an "investigative reporter" (move over bobby K) and that he highly suspects government intervention at Pacifica/WBAI. He acknowledged that WBAI's listenership is at an all-time low, but the blame was not the programming (although he has suggested that it suffers when he is not on the air), but the government! He seems convinced that the Feds see WBAI as a major threat, because it is the only voice of truth on the radio band. That has led Mr. Null to conclude that there are rats sneaking around at CCNY and the house on Atlantic Avenue—they are there to extinguish this beacon of all that is good and just. Null went further and swore that he and his investigators will get to the bottom of this—it's a promise. What the stuff maker-cum-political-analyst did not explain is why the government—or any other entity, for that matter—would wish to silence a radio station few people have ever heard of, a station so abandoned that it ranks at the very bottom of listenership in a major market like New York.  

Well, here it is in his own words. Both segments are from the same show, but you will notice an abrupt change in audio quality. Haskins was operating the console.