My impression garnered from this Town Hall meeting gives it to the Summer exiles. What do you think?
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.
Your hearing, or your computer speakers, must be far superior to mine, Chris. I have no idea who any of the people not already familiar to me, are, and the audio quality about equals "Radio Unmentionable." As for the content... "a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest," I suppose.
ReplyDeleteThe audio quality could be better, but it's really not so bad. I caught the names of most people as they were introduced. I didn't notice any dropouts and the level was pretty even. I take it you feel that your side is underrepresented—or am I just misinterpreting your post? Anyway, there it is, and it is what it is, as they say. :)
DeleteNo, I have no complaints about "representation" in that venue; I just literally can't hear what anyone is saying and don't have the patience to listen to more in hopes of *hearing* any of it.
DeleteGot it. You're not missing anything earthshaking, it just an atmospheric sample, as it were. I find it interesting to see that the KPFA area and NYC complaints mirror each other.
Delete"... the KPFA area and NYC complaints mirror each other."
DeleteYou seem an intelligent man, Chris, so tell me-- do you think that this is a coincidence? Ever read an Anthony Burgess novel called "The Wanting Seed"? It's most instructive about the tactics used by those for whom the prime directive is power/control. Telling each of two groups of people not in good contact with one another that the other is trying to destroy it-- works surprisingly well a lot of the time. 'Course, all it would take to thwart this ploy is for the two groups to talk together, to assess common interests and how to cooperate to achieve them. Not providing a megaphone to those intent on fomenting suspicion and inter-station conflict-- that would help, too.
Core interests can be identical, yet mutually conflicting, no? :)
DeleteThe only core interest that is identical yet mutually conflicting that pops to mind in "winning" a zero-sum game, where something is in contention and only one party can get it, at the cost of the other side losing it. I would be sorry if you thought that Pacifica is the prize in such a game. For one thing, it means that NY has lost, by throwing in your lot with rumor-mongering that inured you to the bad management that has likely done it in. Please keep in mind that for the last couple of years, said management has been presided over by Summer Reese, enabled by her biggest supporters at WBAI, and 'splained by Tracy Rosenberg in her unflagging PR. These people, I gather from what you've said here, are the sources that make you sure of all your bad intel about Save KPFA.
DeleteYou seem to have confirmed my original contention. Thank you.
DeleteI have yet to watch through the whole thing, it's an hour and a half, will have to do it in spurts, but it seems to me that we have a cultural revolution at Pacifica. If Reese wins, the NPRish KPFA will end up pitching premiums and sounding a lot more like WBAI today.
ReplyDeleteWell, KPFA has a head start—Blosdale being part of the inventory. Perhaps KPFA can offer WBAI as a premium—it certainly is sufficiently bogus to qualify as such.
DeleteCan't imagine what you're talking about Brooser Bear. Save KPFA is the side forever asking "Why can't we be more like NPR?"
Delete@Brooser Bear: And KPFA pitches premiums during every single fund drive, as they are right now, and as does every other Pacifica station. So what can you possibly mean by saying that KPFA will wind up pitching premiums if Summer Reese, or rather, Pacifica Directors for Good Governance, wins?
DeleteChris, you are wrong again. Blosdale is at KPFK, not KPFA. KPFA has fairly intelligent programming, and not because of the people on this video, who are the same bad actors who have been turning up at the same small 20 person gathering complaining about Pacifica for years and years. No wonder they support Reese. No one pays attention to them. That's why they are the only ones at their little gathering (and no pix of the audience, because it was embarrassingly small.)
ReplyDeleteChris-- you seem to be mistaking every anon who counters your take on Save KPFA, with me. That's why I gave myself the "THAT West Coast anon" handle. So now there seem to be three of us... I suspect that others whose names would mean nothing to you because they're not on lists you hang out on, are from the West Coast, are newer to the whole debacle than your regulars, similarly just go with "anon," as I did the first 2-3 posts.
DeleteBlosdale is, indeed, a part of KPFK's inventory—thank you for correcting me.
DeleteThat said, your efforts to shine the light on the Siegel faction and cast a shadow on Summer are ever so transparent and—so far, at least—lacking any substantiation. You won't even put your name to your assertions, which is a small but not minor detail. If you were present at this meeting (assuming that you did not pull your attendance figure out of thin air), a simple click of your camera could have saved you numerous words. As the old saying goes, "A picture is worth...."
I am not a Summer fan, as you may know, but I do have an odd affinity for the truth.
Anonymous: Why not respond to the content, instead of spewing venom about "the same bad actors complaining" and "no one paying attention." I could make the same nasty remarks about your crew but they would be no more than that: nasty remarks. They give anyone else who might visit this blog the idea that Pacifica is just a nasty, hateful, anti-intellectual environment.
DeleteThere is no "Segal" faction. That's Reese and Rosenberg's language to try to make you think someone's pulling all the strings, which is completely false.
ReplyDeleteThere are a huge number of KPFA listeners who are concerned about the direction of the network and its interference in KPFA's affairs. Just like WBAI's listeners, KPFA's are rather parochial, and really care most about what they hear on their air.
SaveKPFA itself is a large and diverse group, and they don't all agree on everything. They do seem to agree that it wasn't a good idea to run KPFA into the ground by dismembering it's morning show, killing Free Speech Radio News, driving out talented staff and managers, and putting Gary Null on every station except KPFA to sell crap.
Margy Wilkinson wasn't "covertly crowned" - she was elected a regular meeting of the board, according to it's bylaws. You seem to be backpeddling now trying to seem neutral, when you've spent weeks channelling Rosenberg's crap. Why don't you just admit you don't know what's going on at KPFA (or KPFK for that matter) and leave it at that? When you stuck to writing about WBAI what you said made a lot of sense, but lately it has veered way off course.
DeleteI have always been neutral in this matter—that's a default position one must take when one's focus is on that light called Pacifica rather than the moth's it attracts. Not being able to discard and replace the current cast (a somewhat mixed bag rendered more or less useless by mandatory loyalties) one inevitably finds oneself leaning one way or another. Then, too, as one gets into the nooks and crannies, one turns, as in a restless slumber.
DeleteYou, on the other hand, obviously have not the flexibility needed to view the situation with any kind of objectivity. I don't see a solution on the horizon, and certainly not one that can approach mutual satisfaction.
It will be interesting to see what the system decides tomorrow, but a prudently processed clean sweep needs to be initiated. Oh, how I would love to be able to once again spend an evening with Vera Hopkins—you probably don't even know who she was, do you?
In other words, the Siegel faction (I still don't think that's an inappropriate tag) is not all bad. I, personally, never thought it was. The same applies to the Summer camp. Both sides (and it's a shame that there is such a deep division) have good and bad aspects. I cringed when the KPFA morning show incident occurred, and likewise when Wilkinson was covertly crowned. As these fraction frictions tend to go, Pacifica is now faced with such internal strife that I really don't see any acceptable way out short of a major overhaul of those ridiculous rules and a new cast—one that adheres to the original script and prioritizes the welfare of Pacifica and its stations.
DeleteAs for Gary Null, I totally agree that he and others of his ilk—i.e. opportunistic marketeers—should be kept out of hearing range. Ditto the fanatic-beyond-reason "truthers" and anyone who either can't or won't grasp the fundamental premise upon which Lew Hill and his associates built the foundation.
Response to THAT West Coast anon... "all it would take to thwart this ploy is for the two groups to talk together, to assess common interests and how to cooperate to achieve them".
ReplyDeleteMy understanding is that this was in fact the point of the forum. It was made very clear that everybody was invited and welcome to speak. It was only a "megaphone" as you put it for one side because hardly anybody from SaveKPFA showed up.