Sorry for the tabloid-like heading, but Gary Null is offering WBAI's small group of listeners a DVD portal to sexual fulfillment and, knowing how unfulfilled shoppers at WBAIMART have been lately, he is once again promising to take matters into his own hands.
During a pitch, he made another aside to express his concern for the station's future. The outlook, he says, is not good—in fact, this may likely be WBAI's last fundraiser. Note that Michael Haskins seems to agree, which points to his oft-demonstrated insincerity—he is a member of the Reimers crony team, the painters of rosy pictures that hang only in their minds.
Reimers himself? Well, he has crawled out of the shadows of allusion and now finds himself in Florida—did he bring a tin cup?
Yeah, that's a good one... a mythical audience that Arbitron can't see!
ReplyDeleteIt is sad to see, how the show's hosts are pimping themselves, a - because of the incompetence of the management, that is not capable, mentally and physically, to support non-commercial radio, and b - how they monetize on human isolation and loneliness. I do not care to break with Amy Goodman, not for $1,000.00, not for free, not for the current going rate, I thought $2,000.00 was mentioned. If I WANTED to support the BAI and Pacifica, I could go for that $1,000.00 dinner date with Thom Hartmann. I will make a decent mini-vacation out of it - Acela bullet train there and back, my mom says that Intercontinental DC hotel is worth checking out, but alas! I am sorry, I can't help seeing my donations supporting a middle class life style for the Reeses and the Reimerses of Pacifica. So, that leaves... Armand Demiele as the BAI show host I's like to talk to, and I will just pay HIM cash on the barrel ha! ha! ha!
But seriously, it is just sad. Hearing BAI listeners talk on the call in segments, especially with Summer Reese, one constant theme that ran through the calls was loneliness. In American society today, the elderly are the most isolated group of people followed by the adolescents. And so, we have Gary Null taking people out for the evening, those who pay to support the BAI or pay for his retreats, I think. The sad thing is that he is knowledgeable and would have made an excellent coach, if he didn't have a commercial streak running through it. I am not going to rush to judge him, maybe he IS available to hang out with the regular listeners on occasions free of charge via public parties open to all BAI listeners etc.
The ironic thing about the BAI community is that you have an audience of people who want to belong want to help. I heard a building contractor or a handyman call Summer Reese and offer his services pro-bono. Reese, of course, deflected the man's offer, saying that what Pacifica needs is an adequate cash flow. The funny thing is that Jimmy carter would have done a better job mobilizing the listener volunteers and turning the station around, than all of the progressive talent laying around the halls of Pacifica and various local listener communal boards full of self-styled self-appointed activists political arroganti. They can't mobilize for anything, but they will offer a premium to make sense of your life on six DVD's...
Here is a problem with the University of the Airwaves: If a group of rocket scientists read the Upanishads, for example, they will interpret it one way. When another group of people reads it, that has no inkling of the Dravidian culture that produced it, is not sure of the basic physics and science, they will interpret it on a different level altogether, and when a buff does a personal analysis of an ancient text armed with previous translations and a dictionary, you get New Age. People who did not study behavior of complex organizations, and aren't even aware that such animals exist, and are ignorant of sociology, fall easy prey to peddlers of the conspiracy theories. Finally, you have Gary Null offering the promise of sexual fulfillment. That's a loaded promise. If you take away the promises and delusions of the cinema, pretty much all of the rest of your stuff in your life has to be together and functioning adequately for it to be fulfilled. There are three blessings in life - a great lover, real friends who understand you and to who will listen and talk to you, and work, that you enjoy doing and that pays a living wage and gives you a sense of accomplishment. If you achieve ONE in life, then you have really accomplished something. How many people do you know, who have all three?
The most troubling aspect of the BAI culture as I see it, is that you have a vulnerable audience of listener supporters, and you have show hosts at BAI/Pacifica, who sell the audience a sense of community and belonging in order to make money. 'Tis NOT a non-commercial endeavor!
Wait, at 4:48 does he say that the premiums should have been purchased (aren't they donated by the host??) by WBAI before the severance was paid?? I hope not! Outrageous! And I wonder if the amount he paid out for the dinners and mailings (which he says he expects to be reimbursed for) is less than the amount he makes off of WBAI? I also like the beginning when he asserts that WBAI should be supported through premiums, hmmmmmm....
ReplyDeleteYou heard right. Gary Null is not a philanthropist—there is a reason why he stays with WBAI, decade after decade: it's good for his business. Mix his red stuff with his green stuff and you have a color that reflects what this guy is full of.
DeleteBy the way, nobody seems to be bothered by it, but the station made an enticing offer to people who bought into the "buddy" system: they would automatically participate in weekly drawings for Apple products. The outrage here is that there were no such drawings, because, Reimers told Andrea Katz, they station did not have the money to buy these prizes. False advertising... the way the station runs these days.
Outrageous does not begin to describe the current WBAI.
If WBAI is so important for the listeners to support, why are the producers not donating the premiums, especially things like DVDs that cost $1 each? Why are they charging the station when it is oh so important for it to stay on the air?? The hypocrisy is amazing.
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