In case you were listening last night and this morning, I first thought Ryan was swinging the old sledgehammer, but here's an explanation by good old Max, who had additional problems from down the hall. I added a sample from Reggie Harris' Soundboard—that's Jimmie Scott under Verizon/WBAI attack ...
Max deserves better than to have to deal with this nonsense. He's been there for years, been loyal and his old time radio show makes more money in one episode than many of the protected VIPs make during an entire pledge drive. Add to that his engineering skills having probably saved the day many times.
ReplyDeleteSDL
I couldn't agree more.
DeleteDitto.
ReplyDelete~ 'indigo'
Who cares if it's scratchy, choppy or hissing. As long as the content is worth listening to, and it ain't.
ReplyDeleteSome listeners remain. I, for example, listen to James Irsay's Friday morning program and Off the Hook, which come on tonight—I don't know what Verizon has been doing for the past 24 hours, but the audio problem is still there at 16:50. I wonder how much money is owed Verizon.
DeleteMichael G. Haskins never sounded so good!
ReplyDeleteA duct tape would have worked better for him and Mimi, but I grant you that this is a step in the right direction. :)
DeleteI kind of like when Hay-tie falls asleep and we get several minutes of dead air...
DeleteSDL
Points taken, Chris and Anon!
DeleteDid you hear the disability rights show that was on last night? It was so choppy I couldn't hear most of it. It was horrible. Why bother?
ReplyDeleteConnie
If this keeps up much longer, the listenership will shrink further. If this is the fault of Verizon, as they claim, they really need to make periodic announcements explaining the problem and apologizing to the listeners. I suppose that makes too much sense, so they won't do it.
DeleteTalk is, as you point out, difficult to listen to, but music is impossible.
6-6 2:15 p.m.- The clicks have gone away. Is that title of a song?
ReplyDeleteYou're right, it sure has gone. Did Ryan take his sledgehammer to Verizon? Did Reimers pay the bill? Did St, Catherine of the Double Helix summon a squad of homeless angels?
ReplyDeleteWhatever was done has worked... for now, at least, and the inferior sound we had grown accustomed to hearing from WBAI sounds relatively acceptable. We have moved from Mattel™ to Mister Microphone™
At midnight, however, the Fass nightmare begins and we can all hum along...
Chris: This third party jive has gone on long enough. Call in to Bob Fass tonight and have it out, octogenarian to octogenarian - rocking chair to rocking chair.
ReplyDeleteActually, it would be interesting to get staff from the mid to late 1960s period together in one place at one time (regardlessof personal feelings) to discuss WBAI's past, present and future. I think it could be very illuminating.
DeleteWBAI should schedule 2 or 3 hours for an in studio special of this nature.
Also, while I was cooking I had WBAI on and heard a pledge promo making fun of the crackpot cures and conspiracy premiums. The theme was if you pledge now, we won't have to play the crazy premiums shows. I thought this was VERY interesting. You have to wonder who was behind it.
SDL
I don't know who you are or what you mean by suggesting that Bob and I "have it out". Do you think I should have refrained from critiquing Bob's show because we know each other? I have long said that I find his very public decay disturbing—nobody likes to see a friend self-destruct. Mind you, Bob and I were never friends in the closest sense of the word, but we worked together and the decision to re-hire him was mine. I was great admirer of his ability to intelligently and insightfully contrast the pap found on the rest of the dial.
DeleteBob did not let me down, he built that show into an extraordinary New York focal point for an emerging culture, and the station's reputation benefitted greatly. But, like all decades, the Sixties came to an end and moved on while Bob stayed in his groove—one can only do that for so long before becoming a memory of things past. The memory Bob created was wonderful, and it lingered on pleasantly for several years. The documentary captured some of the magic that was, but the show lost it as the station itself was reduced to its present sorry state.
With the disappearance of WBAI, New York has been robbed of a priceless asset, but few people are aware of that at this late stage. Bob is among the enlightened ones, but—more by default than design—he joined the abusers when he failed to act on the reality he surely recognized. They took him off the payroll, wouldn't even give him cab fare, treated him with disrespect, and saw the documentary film as a fundraising tool rather than a tribute. Still, Bob—fueled, I suspect, by ego and force of habit—continued to do the weekly program. As someone who had a vested emotional interest in WBAI and its fate, I hated to see the abuse it was undergoing and how an icon like Bob Fass was clinging to the carcass. On more than one occasion, I expressed my belief that he ought to retire and turn his many years of amazing interactions into a book. That would have been a graceful exit and a natural extension of his broadcasting career—a move that real friends would have understood. The alternative is the sad scenario now playing out and the victim is Bob Fass himself. Nothing I say to him can change that. You suggest that we "have it out," which implies that there is a feud—I hope Bob does not see it that way, I hope he realizes how easy it would have been for me to say nothing and simply go on with my life.
Assembling alumni is a worthy program idea, SDL; it would undoubtedly bring to light many interesting stories, but it won't make a difference to the fate of WBAI.
DeleteThe promo you heard may well have been done by Paul Fischer—if it mentions the "heartbreak of psoriases," it's definitely Paul's. I don't think anyone at the station does not wish to see the end of snake oil marketing, but most of them know that they owe their tenure to the mindset that keeps the scams coming, so they embrace the status quo... and the deadbeats go on.