Well, those were not Mr. Null's exact words, but the following lengthy audio clip (captured in Thursday morning's "encore," was his lead-in to a pitch for his outrageously costly, eye-opening video warning—tens of thousands of dollars, over 12 months of exhaustive work went into the production, but the crusade for freedom can never be too expensive. Hey, you can't even ingest it! Nor will it cure cancer or prevent hangnail, but—between you and me and the lamp post—it might save you a web-surfing trip. Oh, yes, let us not forget that one reason Mr. Null is so amazingly generous is because he does not want WBAI to slip away from him—thar's gold in them thar Lew Hill stations! Sure, it took a long time to dumb down the listenership to a point where it accepted and, indeed, invested in the Gary Null business, but it is paying off.
Null also reveals that his undercover contacts say there are people working for Pacifica at this very moment who will soon be exposed as agents of the government. He can't tell us more right now, because this is all very hush-hush, but we will soon see that exposé, and it will knock our socks off. So, get ready to break out a bottle of the good red or green stuff, treat your hair to the "Heavenly" shampoo, and prepare for a purely organic Fuck the Fascists Feast!
Gary Null is part of Reese's strategy to make money off BAI listeners. In the true McCarthyite fashion, he will try to discredit those PNB board members opposed to Reese. He is also stoking paranoia to draw attention from himself and his making money off the endless fund drives, just as Democracy Now! does. The irony is, as I said before, if BAI goes off the air, Null will lose a considerable revenue stream, and so will Democracy Now! DN! will also lose a lion's share of its genuine on-air broadcasting and will become an internet/podcast news channel.
ReplyDeleteNull is not incorrect. My own highly reliable sources inside the station have discovered three dopplegangers so far; there may be more.
ReplyDeleteThree known agents of the government working to destroy WBAI:
Kaffrin “Sun Ra” Davis:
Mission: Lower IQ of average listener to two digits.
Shorten lifespan of listeners by convincing them to cure serious diseases through stigmata, crystals, appeals to angels, and double helix water.
Undermine science by blending it with obscurantist nonsense like astrology and homeopathy.
Michael Gilipollas Haskins:
Mission: Drive off all non-black listeners by subliminally reminding them that they are not part of the “community”.
In an emergency, take the station home with him and run it from his kitchen.
Bertholt Dimwit Reimers:
Mission: Gross mismanagement.
Destruction of station’s credibility through his continuous faux pas and verbal ineptitude.
And there may be others. We're watching Ife closely as well as Jeannie Hopper.
TPM
TPM: Well done, sir :)
DeleteCan you or your sources confirm: Is it my imagination, or is it the case that in many photos Null is the third shape-shifting alien from the left?
~ 'indigo'
Esteemed Mr. Pirate,
DeleteThank you for the kind words.
Regarding your inquiry, my people tell me the person in question is the obsequious Luanne Pennesi, Null’s flatterer-in-chief. However they may be mistaken: never underestimate the powers of Green Stuff.
TPM
It's been months (years?) of the same fundraising programs repeated over and over. By now, wouldn't anyone who was going to donate have already done so? Since ratings show that BAI has few listeners, who is donating and buying the premiums? Are they really getting substantial donations on a daily basis? Anyone know any specifics on this?
ReplyDeleteThey are not getting substantial "donations," even when the day's income is relatively high. Most of the money is derived from sales of products and services as opposed to actual support for the station. This means that WBAI and its regular programming can no longer attract new sustainable listeners (nor keep old ones, as we see). Berthold Reimers and those who share his delusions refuse to face the facts, which is why stagnant producer/hosts and their stale programs are still in place. That they are able to run the same infomercials over and over again, month after month, indicates that the new, intellectually bereft listenership is fleeting.
DeleteSo, WBAI is not building up a new audience, as it needs to do if it is to survive as a source of substantive alternate programming. The station now offers little or nothing to listeners in pursuit of intellectual and/or cultural enlightenment, nor is it any longer a platform for fresh thought and talent—it is a dud in the middle of the country's most eventful and desirable radio market.
Judging by the tally breakdown WBAI furnishes, most of the money comes from DVDs and books that present outrageous and mostly undocumented tales of intrigue and government deception (not entirely unfounded, but grossly exaggerated and embellished in supermarket tabloid style) and from equally false claims in the physical and mental health fields. High on the latter list are Gary Null's products, which he aims at the paranoid, and those needing more tangible medical help. Kevin Trudeau, a former WBAI-featured quack has just been sentenced to ten years in prison for making claims of a similar nature. Since I know you must have heard all this, I won't go on—suffice it to say that we have a station that lost its significance several years back and now is almost certainly facing its last days. It is not difficult to understand who is to blame, but the fact that the death knell is generated by greed, opportunism and gross ineptitude makes it all the more painful. Unfortunately, as we are so clearly see these days, Pacifica itself is manned by power-hungry misfits, so it's a case of trickle down irresponsibility.
Chris,
ReplyDeleteHow many weeks or months do you give BAI and Pacifica because it goes off the air for lack of money?
Can't say exactly, but I stand by my early prediction that this is WBAI's final year in the present, fumbling, greasy hands. It will slip in '14.
DeleteMy first thought is that I really didn't care whether bad or worse came out on top on the current squabble - but now I'm given to understand that one of the factions wants to be rid of Null and, presumably, the entire parade of quacks, kooks and conspiracy nuts. This is more then reason enough for me to support this faction!
ReplyDeleteI am not certain which faction that would be, but neither is without poor judgement. That said, getting rid of all that dross is a prerequisite for survival. Opting for the lesser of two evils isn't going to do the trick.
DeleteI'm sure that somewhere here it was stated that one of the factions does not want Null. The implication is that this would extend to the rest of the quacks, unless, of course, their objection to Null is personal rather then philosophical.
ReplyDeleteIn the quack category, Null is the dominant blight, so I think he symbolizes that gross error in judgement. Any faction that does not see him and his ilk as detriments to WBAI's welfare does not get the picture Lew Hill painted in the late Forties.
DeleteThe stock excuse for having scammers (including the fringe variety) aboard is that the station needs the money in order to subsist. Such nearsightedness would have killed the concept at birth—if Pacifica stations cannot stay on the air without diluting their program offerings and resorting to morally corrupt gimmicks, their plugs need to be pulled.
Assuming that I am not alone, I count myself among those who firmly believe that the extinction Pacifica now faces could have been averted if the fear of convention had not been force-fed to amateurs, lemmings and opportunists who equate any form of unorthodoxy with profundity.
Summer Reese represents the quack and conspiracy BAI faction. Apparently she used to work for Null, Steve Brown, a long time Null supporter, Blosdale, and Null himself all support her. Reese is using allegation of embezzlement at Pacifica to draw the attention away from the fact, that during her tenure at Pacifica, she has been running the organization like a marketing outfit, on the commercial model, where instead of taking the advertisers' money, they market directly to the listener. Blosdale and/or Reese talked about the value of Pacifica audience as a base for marketers and advertisers. Reese has no education, knowledge, inclination, or experience, to govern a non-commercial service organization operating in public interest. A skillful manager does not allow factions or divisions among his people. Under Reese tenure there was noticeable tension and conflict at the Berkley station between the public affairs people, the real journalists, and the Health and Nutrition people, who raised more money by pitching premiums and were allowed to look down on the journalists.
ReplyDeleteIf you want more of Null, Haskins and Reimer's, you want to keep Summer Reese on. Reimers too, runs BAI like a marketing outfit, assigning individual producers something that looks amazingly a lot like sales quotas.
On the other side of the equation, you have the KPFK or KPFA faction that will make the Pacifica broadcasts more professional and more mainstream, but will likely sell or lease the BAI. Look at flurry of postings at the sister website to this one.
BB-- which website is the "sister" to this one? Not one of Tracy Rosenberg's, Reese's co-conspirator, I hope. She is making it her business to tell East Coast people that the West Coast people she opposes are gonna sell WBAI, and West Coast people that East Coast people want to liquidate real estate belonging to the Berkeley or LA stations to "save" WBAI. Rosenberg's the name; vicious rumors is the game.
DeleteIan Masters dot com website dated March 19 has a broadcast interview about Pacifica/BAI. Not sure if it says much.
ReplyDelete