The following text was updated August 3, 2013 and now links to the latest marathon program schedule.
Yesterday, July 22, they kicked off the so-called Summerthon, having barely finished its Spring precursor. That one was extended, but it nevertheless failed to meet its goal. This one will be tougher for several reasons: Summer is traditionally the worst time for fundraising; there are even fewer listeners; the backlog of "premiums" was never eliminated; people are onto the game or just plain tired of it; the rent bills that were to be paid with money from the previous marathon have still not been satisfied (but the money was spent on other things); trust in the station and the future Reimers and his cronies see through their rose-colored glasses has largely dissipated.
UPDATE: This fund drive wasn't making it (what else is new?), so Reimers has extended it until August 10. One would think that excessive drive experience might have made this bozo and his amateur group better equipped to calculate marathon results in advance, but when one cannot see beyond the tip of one's nose...
So what miracle are these people expecting to see this time? Here is the August 4 - 10 marathon program schedule that currently is meant to put a cap this not-so-mini fund drive. You will note that it reflects the desperation and no longer attempts to maintain normalcy. As I predicted, Reimers brought out the worst of the past to fill the many slots marked as "specials." Even so, the result put but a dent in the immediate debt, so he has now escalated to the veritable deja vu orgy of scams and shameful solicitations many of us saw coming. Much of it is Null, Null, and more Null, which always leaves an intellectual void, but new scams have been added.
WBAI is now truly a commercial station with an intermittent sprinkling of amateur shows and a dash of good radio. It's a self-defeating approach that is meant to be a stopgap but actually brings WBAI closer to its ultimate collapse.
So what miracle are these people expecting to see this time? Here is the August 4 - 10 marathon program schedule that currently is meant to put a cap this not-so-mini fund drive. You will note that it reflects the desperation and no longer attempts to maintain normalcy. As I predicted, Reimers brought out the worst of the past to fill the many slots marked as "specials." Even so, the result put but a dent in the immediate debt, so he has now escalated to the veritable deja vu orgy of scams and shameful solicitations many of us saw coming. Much of it is Null, Null, and more Null, which always leaves an intellectual void, but new scams have been added.
WBAI is now truly a commercial station with an intermittent sprinkling of amateur shows and a dash of good radio. It's a self-defeating approach that is meant to be a stopgap but actually brings WBAI closer to its ultimate collapse.
Blosdale is back with new hucksters and gimmicks, the unbearable Natalie has returned with her nuts, and hypnotism has been added to the menu, but these things only compound WBAI's outrageous trek into the tabloid world; already on the first night, Geoff Brady was interviewing a fellow nutcase and selling his book as a premium. Again, the amazing thing about his show is not so much that the guest are bonkers, as it is that Brady—who has been underestimating normal intelligence for many years on WBAI—continues to be in awe of utter nonsense. Here's an example from which, for the sake of brevity and purely humanitarian concerns, I have removed the direct sales pitches:
SUMMERTHON TALLY FOR JULY 21- August 10, 2014
Final total in pledges $286,240 (Buddy count = 68)
Click on below images to see daily details
Why is this sh*t ever put on the air? This man has no critical thinking skills whatsoever. It sounds like schizophrenic babbling to me.
ReplyDeleteIt is schizophrenic babbling brought on and--as you well know, Kevin--perpetuated by a long succession of inept management.
ReplyDeleteSadly, I think WBAI may have found a "winning" steady-state in which they can solicit just enough listener support to just barely stay on the air in this grotesquely degraded form. The paid employees are so bereft of qualifications for any other job in human civilization that their crappy $45K a year gigs are genuinely the best jobs they will ever, ever get (as demonstrated by the fact that nobody from WBAI has gone on to do anything else in radio in many, many years). So if the potential listenership dwindles, well, whatever. There haven't been any listeners in a long time, anyhow, and that's not what the real motivation is for keeping the station going. There are no longer very many (if any) true believers among the paid staff (though the true believers among the deranged listeners and yet-more-deranged unpaid producers/factionistas regularly fulminate and storm the castle in various vile ways). At this point it is mostly just a bunch of loser opportunists without any other opportunities doing whatever it takes to keep this charade going, merely for the sake of their paltry self-interest.
ReplyDeleteSomeone take this crippled horse out back and shoot it.
Listeners have moved on to more intellectually satisfying radio stations or online outlet. That was not easy to do before the wrecking ball was hoisted.
DeleteDId you hear Max Scbmid when he was introducing Geoff Brady's program?
ReplyDeleteHe sounds like someone who knows that his young-adult son is going to get a completely ridiculous tattoo.
He's been sounding that way more often of late.
Justine: Nicely put.
Delete~ 'indigopirate'
Schmid is one of those smart WBAI survivors who knows how to look, listen and keep quiet. He's better off just doing his thing while he can. Guys like Schmid, Irsay, Whent have been kept there because they make money and don't make waves. The day they don't keep making good money during pledge drives may change their on-air status, however.
DeleteSome of them white folk be OK...
SDL
Max Schmid is an intelligent person--I liken his remarks, sighs, etc. to a nervous giggle. I think he's got to be embarrassed by some of the ignorance and lunacy that surrounds him at the station.
DeleteChris, do you have the joke... err... tally for yesterday, July 22?
ReplyDeleteSDL
They haven't come up with it yet, but I'm ready to post it as soon as they do.
DeleteI can't listen to it for more than 3 minutes anymore, while driving. If they are not recycling premiums, you got Null and Blosdale regurgitating the same stories to pitch their products. And then the ultimate hypocrisy of the left wing BAI subletting its signal to a religious Catholic broadcast and keeping silent about it. I know how to raise the money for BAI - you know those se through dunk tanks - where you throw a rotten tomato and if you hit a target, they drop into the water, well for $5 a throw, you get good ole Berthold or any other of your favorite BAI characters take the hot seat and do the plunge if you can hit it...
ReplyDeleteYes, I knew those "specials" on the marathon schedule would turn out to be recycled infomercials. If "Dr" Gwen Scott hasn't popped up already, I bet it won't be long.
DeleteThe fact that they don't/can't lure the listeners into buying the station (as it were) and its programming is an admission that the programs/shows fail to attract an audience. So why do they keep the same old stagnant fare on the schedule? Because they are colossal idiots.
@Brooser Bear: I posted that idea here a while back. I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who thinks Reimers has something about him that makes you want to see him dunked. For some reason I'm envisioning Hay-tie spending eternity with the Gerard Damiano character at the end of The Devil in Miss Jones...
Delete@Chris: Yes, it IS an admission of distrust in most of their own programs. Why keep the same old crap? Politics and friends. It's as simple as that. But why not? Hell, if hocus pocus can make more money than whining about slavery or Ife Duncy/Ms. ID(unno) playing disco, you may as well play the crap, so the donating dunces pay your ego ticket for a bit longer.
I had an odd thought. If WBAI isn't sending out premiums, then the people donating for health items (like Boku) aren't getting their items, which they wish to use to take care of their health. Ergo, WBAI management doesn't give a crap about the health of their listeners.
SDL
It's slam bam, merci Boku ma'am!
DeleteHow about Madame Catherine's Double Helix Water? It couldn't even get you high enough to forget the pain that made you shell out the money! And there wasn't enough in that little bottle to make lemonade....
OMG that was crunchy granola, super crystal friggin awesome!
ReplyDeleteYou squares just don't get it, if you keep up with the negative vibes you'll never get a telluric lay.
(Just A (mellowed out, mind fogged) Listener)
Isn't Madame Catherine offering positive vibes? Does she deliver? Does she give telluric lays?
DeleteCatherine always has good vibes but I'll seek telluric lays elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteI sometimes use a recording of her interviewing a rep of the Dalai Lama to help me fall asleep (really!).
Maybe I should be covering my walls with sheets of mylar instead...
Make sure it's modem-resistant Mylar.
DeleteMadame Catherine is really Mrs. DiBlasio (Chirlane McCray).
ReplyDeleteAnd I am what's left of Gloria Swanson.
DeleteI have an idea. How about a sort of inverse pledge drive where you donate AGAINST shows. The top three money making shows get cancelled. Could make a lot of money. I know I would donate against some people.
ReplyDeleteYes, you are saying that their listeners are so stupid they won't understand the concept. That is exactly the alternative plan. You see, if they don't get the idea, we get rid of Null. The listeners to decent people are still smart enough, so Schmid, Irsay, Whent, etc. won't get screwed.
SDL (The "D" is sometimes for "Devious")
We employed a variation of that idea in the first marathon, plying awful records as an example of what might be expected if we didn't meet our goal. It lit up our phones.
DeleteThere is so much awful stuff aired by WBAI today that one would be hard put to come up with a worse record--of course, with the current, shriveled audience, Landa Wandowska or the Carter Family might do the trick :)
More like The Star Spangled Banner, God Bless America, The Halls of Montezuma, Ballad of the Green Berets played by a Dan Ingram imitator saying "Hey, commiesabe..."
DeleteSDL
We used to go off the air around midnight or 1AM (whenever the last scheduled program ended). We did not offer a sermon or prayer before signing off, but we played the Star Spangled Banner. Everybody did that, so we assumed it was required by law. When I found out that it wasn't, I had a better idea, so I contacted the UN and asked if they could get us a tape containing the national anthem of every member country.
DeleteThey did, so we went off with a new anthem each night. "Ladies and gentlemen, the national anthem of the USSR" brought a protest, or two, but WBAI listeners soon fell in love with the idea. It was also an education, which made it perfect for 99.5. I never liked the Star Spangled Banner, ut there were some wonderful anthems in the bunch.
Oh, I LOVE that idea! Hysterical and informative at the same time.
DeleteI used to love the interval signals shortwave stations would use for a few minutes before broadcasting. I know some people used to record them and make full tapes.
SDL
Holy smokes! Null is just smashing the competition! Hell, just run his crap 24/7 for the rest of the pledge drive and WBAI will be rich. Survivalism rules. They should put Alex Jones on in place of Forlano. He'd fit perfectly. Sad comment, really...
ReplyDeleteOh, Julliana Forlano? HAHAHA! What did I tell you? Not one penny!
Awaiting the Sunday result for Pastor Paranoia.
SDL
Null paints just the right gloom and doom picture to scare the money out of the paranoided audience. After all, who can find fault with a SURVIVAL kit?
DeletePerhaps, when the feel-good-breathe-better premiums have run their course, there will be an order issued from Reimers' war room to offer pain. Are you ready for the Buddy Whip?
Berthold Reimers has put a Haitian Voodoo Curse on all of you who speak ill of present WBAI management.
ReplyDeleteNothing to worry about, Reimers suffers chronic disorientation intensified by the chant-like Voodoo query of parting listeners:
Delete"Voodoo you think we are? Voodoo you think we are? Voodoo you think we are?..."
Maybe he is too influenced by Screamin' Jay Hawkins..?
Deletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kGPhpvqtOc
SDL
Jay put a spell on me years ago. Love potion #9 lifted it
ReplyDeleteMargot Adler lifted it and a lot more.
DeleteWe could use Margot to lift the level of intellect, again.
DeleteToday I heard, again, Null's pitch (pitched as an offer of a "gift" in exchange for a pledge) for his latest "survival kit." You can get it for only $195.
ReplyDeleteHe made that pitch after denouncing the mainstream media because you'd never hear the information he's offering if you throw your money at the sinking ship of BAI.
Am I the only one who thinks he's being hypocritical in putting a price many listeners can't afford on information that, he claims, could save their lives?
You are by ni means alone in making that observation, Justine. The formula pits the slick and callous against the gullible and ill-informed—the odds still favor the former, but they are changing with every lie, every undelivered "gift."
DeleteI listened to Null's generous survival kit "offer" and it took 42 Q-tips to remove the residue of honeyed hypocrisy from my ears. More and more, I hear Haskins as Igor to Null's Frankenstein.
For $195.00 you can make a good survival kit with a hand cranked radio, handcranked lamp, first aid kit, food, water, matches, etc... I know as I made one.
DeleteSDL
You left out the organic farm in Florida.
DeleteYou're a gredy one, aren't you? How about I put some potting soil in a shoe box, add a couple of seeds and you can grow some alfala sprouts? What's next? Your wanting a Soylent Green recipe book?
DeleteIn all seriousness. Null knows his followers, who are what the far left would call bourgeoisie, essentially middle class and upper middle class white people who have jobs, unlike Hay-tie's listeners. Yes, bourgeoisie save WBAI each and every time.
I see after I ripped Forlano on youtube she made a few dollars. Since I don't listen to her tripe, I don't know how. Maybe she orgasmed on the air.
SDL
Don't forget, real humor has been missing from WBAI for a long time, so this audience can easily mistake her for having it. Then, of course, there are relatives.
DeleteThe transformational hypnosis did fairly well, according to yesterday's tally report, so it could be that just the thought of possibly receiving that (certificate?) is inducing trances.
Amazing! People will spend hundreds of dollars for a crap certificate in hypnosis but not take the very cheap Red Cross first aid class and get THAT certificate, which with that knowledge you may save someone's life one day.
DeleteTalk about the messed up priorities of these New Age doofs. They really are just spoiled, moneyed brats.
Ever youtube and check out the Gary Null dance party videos? Let's just say Null is a better nutritionist than dancer.
By the way... Isn't Hay-tie's call in segment supposed to be comedy?
SDL
(JustAListener)
DeleteYikes, I just had to look at those dance vids.
Null clearly has practiced his dance moves, but he looks so creepy...
You've got to love the"Transformational Hypnosis Certification Weekend" offer. I haven't listened to that one yet, but hypnosis can get people tp do the weirdest things.... like waste their money on these going out of business products. :)
ReplyDeleteWas that the snoozefest that was on sometime yesterday afternoon? I turned the radio on and forgot it was on, it was so boring. I love the way they tried to make it sound like it was a new regular show on WBAI. A total infomercial. Just more NLP new Age crapola.
DeleteI really wonder if the bourgeoisie that buy this stuff, Null's "stuff," Brady's bull, etc. even listen to the rest of WBAI.
SDL
SDL
If Juliana Forlano is a political satirist, then George Will is a public intellectual.
ReplyDeleteAnd that was a pig's tail feather I watched descending onto Central Park West.
DeleteForlano would be more intellectually stimulating with a ball gag in her mouth. Hell, Hay-tie is a better political satirist. Hay-tie's callers should be given a free bus tour ala If It's Tuesday, It Must Be Belgium, with Mumbles Jabu Jabal, or whatever his name is, as leader.
DeleteSDL
Because I am addicted to "The Haskins Hour of Hilarity and Ho Hum," I have heard several Mamma Mumia moments, but not a single one that dug beneath the mainstream press in any meaningful way. I recall the old days hen cops were "pigs", but that was in a bygone post fuzz era. I'm sure that these bi-assed, pompous "commentaries" sound profound to a bus driver who can't shift gears.
DeleteSDL--Your comment reminds me of what someone once said about Pele: "He's a poet when he keeps his mouth shut."
ReplyDeleteA good one, Justine.
DeleteYeah, Pastor Paranoia isn't hosting a Christian show. Sure... That's why we have church praises... Arrogant prick asking for churches to donate $100/month. He must have sold his show based on that to Rheimers.
ReplyDeleteI have to admit that I am also addicted to the Hay-tie call in segment. It's like an accident you can't avert your eyes from. Every time you think you've heard the biggest dunce of a caller, you get someone even dumber.
SDL
Hallelujah! This is pure pecuniary praise—"inspirational" music devoid of inspiration, and mostly without artistic merit. Daulton Anderson is a mercenary manipulator who has all the markings of a charlatan preacher.
DeleteLately, he has had Marc Reddick in the studio every Sunday—they are recruiting people with "songs" for a "compilation" CD that allegedly will benefit WBAI. Well, I think what we really have here is two slick operators who either put one over on Reimers or found in him a like-minded fraudster. This is from Reddick's "Universal Praise" Facebook page:
"Don't forget to tune in this Sunday and every Sunday from 6am-8am at "High Praise",WBAI 99.5FM radio with Daulton Anderson. Yours truly will be there with him getting our praise on.
Also we're looking for artists to submit their songs for our upcoming compilation cd. Please submit your best song by logging on to www.marcreddick.com. God bless!"
Daulton's show is free advertising for Reddick's recording business--the periodic plugs include the fact that Reddick's CDs are available on iTunes and I think we will find that his recordings are a part of Daulton's unholy Sunday mix. Notice, too, that every program opens the phone for callers who plug their church and pastor. The music often sounds like just so much racket, but that, I believe, is basically what this "gospel show" is all about.
At WBAI, the cheat goes on....
I only caught the piece of the show today because my radio was tuned to WBAI when I turned it on and heard him yapping. the man is beyond just arrogant, he has a serious narcissistic complex. I'm starting to think he may even be psychotic. He sures seems like someone on the verge of a violent outburst given a small nudge.
DeleteI agree that Anderson is nothing more than a radio version of a televangelist, with all the same tricks.
I think that most or all the callers are shills for him. Notice how stunned and nearly speechless he was when he only got one call? I guess his friends didn't get the cue to call the first time. The callers are simply too well trained to seem natural.
Interesting how he harps on the $100/month and $10,000 donation targets. Those must be the numbers he dangled in front of Rheimers. Like I said in a previous post, this pledge drive is time to deliver or look like a fool or scam artist, if not both.
Something seriously smells about all this. No doubt he found a sucker in Rheimers to help him advance his career and that of his buddy. The question is whether he will be able to make his listeners pay his way.
Anyway do you have the tallies for the past few days?
SDL
Tallies not yet posted to the staff, but I keep checking and will have them here asap. What does it tell us that these tally figures are not posted for the listeners, but rather in a "staff" area?
DeleteYes, the Anderson/Reddick combine reeks to high heaven, as it were. Starting in 1959, when I worked at WHAT, a black station in Philly, I witnessed much off-air eye-opening behind-the-scenes activity and chatter in the gospel arena. In Philly, we had an annual gospel caravan in a huge theater on Market Street. The money was collected and dumped into two huge backstage machines that spun it around and did a neat sort. I was extremely naïve when I came to the U.S.,thinking of performers like Mahalia, Sister Rosetta, et al as being deeply religious people, but our station's "Gospel Queen" took me by the hand and showed me the light. Sure, there were true believers around, but mostly on the consumer side--this was a well-oiled and lucrative business with a lot of scamming for the lord, on all levels.
Listening to Daulton Anderson brings it all back and even if Reimers isn't in on or aware of this abuse of WBAI, he certainly knows that what Anderson is doing is wrong for a Pacifica station.
Apart from all that, the show sucks.
Are you kidding me?! Pastor Paranoia made zero dollars?! Maybe there really is a god, and he ain't into High Praize! Lawd aff mecy! I is laughing so hard!
ReplyDeleteAs usual, glad to see the good guys held their own. Yes, WBAI still has some classy listeners.
SDL
Also bear in mind that the good guys made it without offering a tangible product, which makes their result all the more impressive. No surprise that the heavies were hypnotism and survival—what's left of the listenership are alumni of Gullible High.
ReplyDeleteThe chart took quite a dip... I wouldn't be surprised if Reimers made this disaster longer. I don't think he'll bring out the Double Helix, but he'll take it down as close as he can.
I'm just amazed how Anderson comes in like he's the loud mouthed savior of WBAI and doesn't make a damn penny. Even those callers with their church/pastor shout-outs didn't donate. You just know he is pissed as all hell and looking like a total ass. What I'd give to be a fly on the wall during the next conversation between he and Rheimers.
DeleteThe whacky premiums always do well. What can you say? The people who are into that come out during pledge drives to scoop up the brown stuff and make it the multi-grain bread and veggie butter of WBAI.
SDL
I think these old church ladies are more likely to give to their pastor rather than to a tone-deaf self-import. Can't give to both.... those hats are expensive!
DeleteLenny Bruce once said that if a man proclaims to be a man of God and has two or more suits while another man doesn't have even one, then that self-proclaimed holy man is a hustler.
ReplyDeleteNow, DA doesn't claim to be a man of God. But I think that anyone who uses God to raise money for anything is a hustler.
Either that or hopelessly delusional. I think Anderson is a hustler, so he feels right at home at 99.5.
DeleteWhile tuned into BAI last night, I had a revelation:
ReplyDeleteDave Kenney is David Rothenberg with a lobotomy!
An overdose of Judy Garland will do that to you.
DeleteHave you noticed how often Kenney plays painfully bad vocal performances? They are a blight on the gay community, but I am convinced that Everything Old is a hustle.... and that ain't new.
Once upon a time WBAI had serious gay programming that was an important part of the local gay rights movement. Now what little it has is stereotyped programming that makes it look like all gay men are about is show tunes.
DeleteSDL
So true. Apropos friends of Dorothy, I am reminded of something that happened on Bill Maher's show, years ago.
DeleteOne of his guests was a married man with children, who told of having been gay and, in fact, a drag queen several years back. He was a Republican and he heard about this GOP-supported conversion program, so he enrolled. It worked, turning him completely straight!
A young actress and fellow guest listened with keen interest to his tale of transformation, and seemed quite impressed.
"Fascinating!," she said, "Tell me, do you still like show tunes?"
I am a gay man, and happen to like music created for theatre, film, and cabaret. Does that mean that I am a stereotype in your eyes, Chris Albertson? I think people tune into David's show because it is the ONLY intelligent programming of this sort in NYC, not to find out what "stereotyped"(in your words) gay people like! Your "THOU SHALT NOT" pronouncements reinforce gay men's stereotyped image of being judgmental and catty!!!
DeleteI believe SDL was referring to Dave Kenney's Sunday evening show, which seems to aim at the stereotype gay Broadway musicals fan. There is nothing wrong with liking "Mame" from the musical adaptation of "Auntie Mame," or going gaga over Diana Ross, Bette Midler or Liza Minelli—even the latter has made memorable recordings, butI hope I'm not old-fashioned when I suggest that mediocre performances ought not to be encouraged from anyone. The young actress I mentioned seeing on the Bill Maher show several years ago was making fun of the former drag queen who claimed to have been "cured" by the Republican party. Ignorant homophobes may now believe that the earth isn't flat, but they do often make ridiculous statements such as declaring homosexuality to be a personal choice. Are there gay stereotypes? Of course there are, and gay people themselves capitalize on it, just as a black actor of early film days created the Stepin Fetchit character. Every ethnicity has its stereotypes and few seem adverse to cash in on it on stage. That is slowly changing, but so it has been for as long as entertainment generated incomes.
DeleteAs for show tunes, I enjoy the genre, but, like all music, I don't see any reason why poor performances should be encouraged, regardless of the artist's past performing achievements. Dave Kenney likes to play recordings by Liza Minelli and other singers whose days of sounding good, or even acceptable, have long since passed. I see no excuse for that. In fact, it's an insult to the listener's intelligence and it certainly does not do the performer any good. As a gay person, I am often embarrassed by such lack of taste, just as I know that many black people cringe when the station's petrified propagandists talk about their "community" and reveal their ignorance.
Other than that, Dave Kenney runs a professional show—does it deserve a long prime time slot on WBAI? Well, that's something else.
Margot Adler is dead - sad news!
ReplyDeleteVery sad news, I really liked and respected Margot.
DeleteAre you sure?
Yes!!! Her website says she is dead!!!!
Delete68 years old.
DeleteThe scourge of cancer.
(JustAListener)
I was just listening to the two yo-yos on WBAI (Hay-tie & Null) and heard Null say that KPFK (or was it KPFA) has twice as much power as WBAI. Now, to my knowledge, 50,000 watts is the FCC power limit for domestic broadcasters, FM or AM. OK, Null, explain this one to me.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I think 100,000 watts is only permitted to shortwave/international broadcasters. However, they aren't permitted to broadcast to the United States. That's purely technical, of course. You simply can't list the USA as your target, even if you have fine reception here.
SDL
A good example of huckster Null's disregard for facts.
DeleteI am still trying to figure out how he finds time for WBAI when the activities he claims to be involved in would take up far more hours than any of us can squeeze out of a day.
I imagine that ERP to be attributable to the tower's mountaintop location.
DeleteOK, that makes sense. Being on a mountain with a lower density of buildings will carry your signal further and stronger. Not like an old Mexican border blaster, but still...
DeleteHow does Null have so much time? He's really a shape shifting lizard illuminist...
SDL
You mean to say that he belongs to the Brady bunch?
DeleteDidn't you hear how Nikola Tesla was an alien sent to destroy the shape shifting lizard illuminist cabal by using the weather control matrix he created? He was liquidated by members of a super secret government agency that doesn't actually exist, and made to sound like an obsessive lunatic.
DeleteSDL
AM is limited to 50 Kilowatts. There are various classes of AM station, everything from 250 watt local to the 50 KW clear channel stations that were meant to serve large regions of the country.
DeleteFM was originally on a lower FM band around 40 MHz (Mc) until World War 2, at which point the FCC took over the FM band for military purposes. After the war the FCC set up a new , bigger FM band.
Initially the FCC didn’t have any power limits on FM in the new 88.1-107.9 MHz band, but soon realized that by allowing mega-power FMs on high tall mountains, it would limit the number of stations. Station that were already on the air at the higher power were grandfathered in at the higher power. It includes KPFA and KPFK.
The FCC divided the county into two zones, one had a limit of 50,000 watts at a height of 200 feet (Class B) and zone 2 was 100,000 watts at 200 feet. (Class C). Since that time the FCC has added a number of lower powered FM classes to shoehorn in more stations.
Wikipedia says: The U.S. is divided into three zones for FM broadcasting, (I, I-A and II). Depending on which zone a station is located determines what class a FM station may elect to be.
Zone I in the U.S. includes all of Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and West Virginia. It also includes the areas south of latitude 43.5°N in Michigan, New Hampshire, New York, and Vermont; as well as coastal Maine, southeastern Wisconsin, and northern and eastern Virginia.
Zone I-A includes California south of 40°N, as well as Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
In Zones I and I-A there are no Class C, C0, or C1 stations. However, there are a few Class B stations with grandfathered power in excess of 50 KW, such as WETA-FM licensed to Washington, DC (zone I), which has a power of 75 kW ERP, and KPFK in Los Angeles (zone I-A) at 110 KW ERP.
The FCC rules say as you raise the average height above average terrain , you must decrease your power. For example if a station is on the ground in a flat region, they can have (Zone 1), 50,000 watts at 200 feet. They will have a very strong signal, but it will only go out about 20-30 miles and die due to the curvature of the earth.
If they are able to put it on a mountain at 5,000 feet elevation (with surrounding terrain, it might be 4300 feet above average terrain), they would have to reduce their power to 2,400 watts. However their range will increase, to a radius of 175 miles or so.
With FM, height is your friend.
That was wonderful – many thanks :)
Delete~ 'indigo'
The hypnosis premium is doing pretty damn well, I see. I guess people like the idea of having the power to sing along with Screamin' Jay Hawkins...
ReplyDeleteSDL
Yes. Expect that to get a run similar to "Dr." Gwen Scott's. The occupation of Palestine and associated horrors are doing week, too. WBAI used to report on such things with rare integrity, but now it's what many of their infomercials are made of. No integrity in that.
DeleteGary Null is the Nikola Tesla of alternative health information.
ReplyDeleteI fail to see any similarity. Tesla had legitimacy, Null has hype.
DeleteI meant it as a joke. Laugh goddamnit.
DeleteWow, I actually listened through the entire hypnosis thing. Interesting how they are selling it with your ability to go out and make money with the knowledge once you take the course. Yup, these new Agers are indeed materialists... when not feigning being progressives. I love the line about the guy talking to his cancer cells, "We're all in this together." Yeah, but they want to kill you, stupid!
ReplyDeleteThe smoothie/juicing thing is doing well, too. I googled Metz and have to say that she's a nice looking lady, indeed. She does charge $350 for her DVD set on her site, which is one hell of a good mark-up.
Forlano must be losing listeners, as she didn't make a penny this week. Poor girl $85 to $0. She's so damn funny and self-important.
SDL
Perhaps Daulton has his mojo working on Sunday ... it hasn't functioned too well so far.
DeleteI think the next step may be an attempt to hypnotize listeners to fork over their savings, but the technical quality of WBAI is so bad that it might not work... or it may have them send the money to WNYC.
I hope Daulton has prayed a lot this past week, because if he doesn't do well, he'll be the biggest fool on WBAI in a long time. Blowing in with all that huffing and puffing raises the bar of expectations. His earning NOTHING last week is beyond the realms of pathetic. Not only that, but it shows the lip service of his listeners and what they are really like.
DeleteThe sad part is that the same old crap is doing better than ever. At this point, there isn't really a point in having any regular programming at all, pledge drive or not. However, if I were head honcho at WBAI, I would simply filter in a couple of these infomercials a day during non-pledge drive time, since it would probably nab $3,000 or more per day. That would probaly pay for many of the monthly bills. $3,000 x 30 days = $90.000. Nothing to sneeze at and better than Forlano or Hartman earning nothing. I'm being purely pragmatic.
SDL
The infomercials are getting worse and worse. My mother listens to Rush Limbaugh (groan) and if you listen to the ads, there's not much difference. All end times, don't trust the government, hoard your stuff. Very negative and paranoid. I do keep wondering who is paying for these premiums on BAI? How can they possibly make $186K??? The commercials are so bad I can't listen for more than a few minutes. The hypnotism one was unreal - but then again they managed to sell a lot?? Weird.
DeleteConnie
Yes, Connie, we live in odd times when high-priced junk can be sold on a station that has practically lost all of its audience.
DeleteIt won't be much longer and it's getting so unlistenable that almost anything that comes in to replace this WBAI will be an improvement.
From the dropping ratings and what I have read, talk radio is a dying format on commercial radio. What you're seeing is stations selling time to quack infomercials. Remember the old days of the Mexican "Border Blasters?" It looks like we are falling into a domestic modern version of it.
DeleteSDL
I hate to admit it - I can only listen to the infomercials (for laughs, or groans). However, I have never bought any of these crazy premiums, it's the equivalent of rubber necking at an accident. But that they could get $186k in donations for what they are offering is just mind blowing. I know I need to get over it - but I can't! Very true Chris we live in odd times!!!
DeleteConnie
You have to give Hartman credit for consistency - consistently not making a single Dollar. Why is he even on? Does Pacifica force WBAI to carry him or some other reason? And this guy is supposed to be a big time leftist media personality?
ReplyDeleteI am finding it very curious how there seems to be this hidden audience that only comes out of the woodwork to buy crackpot health and New Age items, otherwise they remain silent.
SDL
Have the tallies for the past couple of days come out yet? Work is boring and I need a laugh.
ReplyDeleteSDL
Monday and Tuesday are not in yet, but I'm ready for them.
DeleteNo surprises, other than Hartman finally making a whopping $50.
ReplyDeleteI guess the hypnosis certificate hit a chord.
When will there be a steel cage match between Null and Blosdale?
Know what I would do if I were manager bossman? You know those overstock mail order book companies like Hamilton Books? Well, they sell tons of books for $4 or $5 each. I'd go spend $200 or so and get a big box of books that would be relevant to WBAI themes and let the regular hosts just grab one or two as premiums on their shows. They could do things like that for $35 - $50. At least they would be honest and cheap premiums.
SDL
I think a fundraising bonfire of the inanities should be staged, one where recordings of all the awful infomercials and patches are tossed into the flames along with a huge box containing programs unfit for airing. Well, let's make that as many boxes as it will take. To top off the evening, pink slips could be ceremoniously distributed to about 80% of the producers and hosts.
DeleteThe WBAI can go with a clearer conscience. :)
I'm gonna huff and puff and blow your house down with High Praize! A whopping $250 in three weeks! Yeah, so much for $100 Buddies and $10,000 donations. What a jackass, Daulton is the single most pathetic person on WBAI's airwaves bar none. I wonder what's left after electric and BMI/ASCAP fees are paid.
ReplyDeleteHartman, $50 in 15 hours. At least Forlano made $85 in 12 hours... Pardon me while I laugh.
Fass made nothing. So much for the living legend...
The good guys carried their weight and proved that hip hop and disco are losers against real arts.
SDL
Sunday's High Praize may well have hit an all-time low for that show and its host. His opening selection, a lumbering, uneventful number with a four-word "lyric" repeated throughout, was played twice in a row, other selections were repeats from last week's mishmash. Daulton seems to get his jollies from an organist who performs substance-free music with cheap flashes, so there was some of him, too. Mildred Falls had a conservative approach, but her soulful accompaniments complemented Mahalia's superb singing.
DeleteApropos Mahalia, Daulton may finally have gotten the message. He announced that next week's show would feature traditional gospel artists like Mahalia Jackson and Leontyne Price! We all remember Sister Leontyne, don't we?
Finally, there's the call-in segment. As usual, Daulton gave out the number a few times and urged people to call in their praise for pastor and church, etc. There was, however, just one call. It came from Marc Reddick, his very good friend and business associate... yes, the same Mr. Reddick whom Daulton pretended not to know last week!
They discussed their joint project to gather new song and performers, record them for a future "premium," and feature them at a special church contest that Daulton predicts will be sold out. Phone numbers were given, not all of them meant to ring at WBAI. Hmmmm, what has Reimers dragged in this time?
Finally #2: It was interesting that Chris Whent and Through the Opera Glass brought in the kind of money Daulton Anderson can only fantasize about.
Chris, Con Sabor Latino brings in what Daulton fantasizes about - more money AND a few Buddies.
DeleteI think another thing is just his top 40 radio loud voiced antics are bad for a Sunday morning show on WBAI. It just doesn't fit.
He's just all wrong for WBAI and a con man, as he keeps showing the world.
SDL
I agree with you on Daulton's grating style, but he also demonstrates very poor taste in music. Yes, all wrong for WBAI (what was Reimer$ thinking of?), but also for most other stations. Con man? Well, churches attract them and that makes him a perfect fit for the current WBAI.
DeleteI don't know why they are talking about on Con Sabor Latino, but it sounds good to me.