They can't blame this one on hurricane Sandy. It's the not atypical 2009 WBAI LSB meeting from which the sledge hammer still of Tony Ryan stems. The frustrated suspendered finger-pointer is BlueBoard overlord R. Paul Martin, getting an overdose of free-for-all speech. I could be wrong, but I believe the most prominent disrupter is the late Monroe Litman, best known for his perennial call-ins.
The "family" that shouts together goes down together.
Why would anyone ever want to work with or in any way be associated with such people?
ReplyDelete~ 'indigo'
Tradition? Birds of a feather? Self-loathing? Clashing agendas? Turfing?
DeleteThere is something angry, vitrolic, narcissistic and plain nasty about many people on the left -- I know this from experience.
ReplyDeleteThe *funny* thing on this video is the hammer guy and his female friend in the doorway smirking at all the fools arguing over nothing -- they (the doorway duo) know who is really in charge at BAI.
There is something angry, vitrolic, narcissistic and plain nasty about many people...PERIOD. None of these traits/characteristics can fairly be attributed to any one side of the political spectrum.
DeleteNobody is "in charge" of WBAI, it is rudderless—that's a major problem.
Is this for Real? I thought that the guy with the sledge was crazy until I turned up the volume and realized that some of this crew made him look sane! If this is typical then maybe it is a good thing that this is just a chrade and the station is really controlled by other forces.
ReplyDeleteOn another note I've seen various posts here stating, or implying that BAI represents the "left". Well it may represent some bizarre Rush Limbaugh type caricature of the left but it does not represent any left that I am familiar with. The left, as I know it, does not promote quack medicine, spiritualism and conspiracy theories!
The station does not represent the Left nor any other single political direction. As you saw in the video clip, it is, basically, a bunch of discontented, directionless misfits. It wasn't always thus, nor is it wholly thus today, but most of these people have neither the erudition nor dedication to follow any ideology. They are ne'er-do-well opportunists who latched onto WBAI and have enjoyed its lack of leadership. My sympathy lies with the few good people whose attitude and behavior is not predicated on what WBAI can do for them.
DeleteThey think they are on the Left for no other reason than that they know it is not pc to be on the right.
Look, you can deny this all you want but if you had video of a Tea Party meeting where there was -- a guy toting a sledgehammer, middle-aged and elderly people ranting and screaming for over an hour, a disabled older guy having a chair pulled from under him so that he hits the floor, the sledgehammer guy and another guy exchanging threats of violence and obscenities and finally, the police breaking up the meeting -- well, I bet you would ascribe that behavior to the "right". These are politically left people. You have to own this.
DeleteWhat the heck did I just watch? Is this typical of how the station is run? If it is, it is no wonder that they are in such trouble. I have been to many meetings in my time,for work, my homeowners association,city government, and I have never seen anything even close to this. This, to me, is just sad.
DeleteIt is amazing. That the station is sinking and this is a gathering of people who really believe they will make a difference. It needs to be watched by everyone in the room and at WBAI to see how lack of problem solving
Deleteincorporates most of their time. If the premium problem gets solved it is by the listeners. We are the real losers in all of this.One of the only ways to solve the problem is to open up the air to the listeners.Create training ground to bring more listeners on the air and people get 15 week stints, as Andrew had proposed.
The original idea was to open the microphones to budding as well as established talent, in every field. People with real talent, who came to WBAI because they had a grasp on the concept and respected it, automatically moved on to new opportunities. It worked very well until a couple of people decided that they, not the station, should be the stars. That eventually led to a major shift in policy, one which pushed aside the principles and soon began to attract opportunists of the kind that today has, essentially, destroyed WBAI.
DeletePeople tend to dismiss my assertion that Steve Post, Larry Josephson, Frank Millspaugh and, to some extent, Bob Fass, led the way to a gradual erosion of what Lew Hill had in mind when he founded Pacifica. I was among those who saw and heard the downgrade begin, but I don't think any of us foresaw the extent to which the station (and, indeed, Pacifica) would sink.
Chris--I am not going to dispute what you say about Post, Josephson, Millspaugh and Fass. I wasn't there to see them when they changed the course of the station. I only want to say that, whatever their faults, people defend them because they at least made listenable radio. The same cannot be said for the kooks, quacks, cranks and crooks that now run the show and produce many of the shows.
ReplyDeleteTrue, Justine...it's the relative factor. Compared to what WBAI has become, it was not as bad in the early days of its extensive dumbing down process as it was when compared to that which went before it. Also, there were several years when most of the schedule continued to reflect the original mission. Now that is down to the hosts you mentioned in an earlier post, and a few more—very few, and dwindling.
DeleteDear "malicious former users" of the Blue Board,
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of "angry, vitrolic, narcissistic and plain nasty", while doing a random search I came across this insight on R. Paul Martin's ban obsession posted shortly after he assumed possession of the BB in 2012.
http://tetrabb.com/forum/WebBBS/index.cgi?page=1;md=read;id=10716
I've caught his "book" show at 5:00am a few times and for the life of me could never understand the purpose of it (other than stroking his own ego) or how he managed to get on the air in the first place. A big waste of expensive transmitter resources at any hour. Could it be Paulie the wannabe dictator has blackmail on one of the PDs? Hopefully when WBAI is reorganized his program will be one of the first to be discontinued and the airtime will go to someone who has talent.
Thank you Anon. Since the comments option excluded posting direct links, I have retrieved the content, which is as follows:
DeleteIs Google offering a proxy service these days?
By:R. Paul Martin
Date: 8/2/2012, 1:22 pm
I'm getting some folks who've been banned showing up with IP addresses that resolve to Google in Colorado. Is Google offering a proxy server service these days? I know that there are lists of proxy sites posted to some Google Groups, but I'm getting those Colorado IP addresses which seem to indicate that the malefactors are posting via Google's servers.
And I can ban an entire range of IP addresses, right? I saw that in the docs, but before I do something that might really screw things up I just wanted to get confirmation that I've read that right.
I may end up making a long list of IP addresses to ban. Sheesh.
PS - Is there a limit to how many IP addresses can be in the banned list?