When a now occasional WBAI listener recently asked if Berthold Reimers, the station's appointed GM, is in the Witness Protection Program, few were surprised by his question. Never before in WBAI's 54-year history has a person holding that position been so tenebrous—yes,the station has often been rudderless, but there was always somebody in the front office who boldly (though sometimes, unwisely) showed a face.
It is probably not by accident that Reimers is named last and almost as an afterthought in Gary Null's executive roll call, which was a part of this morning's utterances from the station's rarely used confessional.
I need not tell you more, the aircheck really says it all. but I look forward to reading your comments on it.
The usual self-serving blather...it's such a lie when Null -- and others -- talk about the move from ESB as if it were a 'management decision' -- a proactive business move rather than the truth -- ESB kicking them out for non-payments.
ReplyDeleteOn another note, I caught the last portion of Amy Goodman's infomercial interview with psychologist Mario Martinez this morning. It was funny to hear him explaining to her the reality of STIGMATA healing. Of course, she didn't question him about it because he/she were shilling for the station.
rj
Apropos inability to tell it like it is/was... did you notice how readily Haskins agreed with Null? Much of what Null pointed out flies in the face of Haskins' morning fantasies... "we are family," indeed!
DeleteNull has no problem stretching the truth, does he? If WBAI;s transmitting power is less than KPFK's, I think an explanation is owed. Recently, Haskins said that WBAI has millions of listeners... and so it goes.
(JustAListener)
ReplyDeleteSounds Like Null got on the phone with Reimers and told him if they don't get things moving there really won't be a station to pay Reimers 100K/year and provide Null with free infomercials. Thus the "whole new attitude".
Nice to hear Null thank Jim and the volunteers, but being they were the only ones that got the premiums out, they should have been thanked first.
Null somehow skipped mentioning that not only was the station kicked out of the ESB, some of that rent money went to paying Null for his premiums (no altruism from Null here).
And after all this kumbaya and butt kissing, do I believe people will really get their premiums for this drive?...seems they're not raising enough money to keep things going and fund a move to a new antenna, how are they going to pay Null for these premiums?
Remember, the Dingeman-Cohen gang gave priority to Null's products.
DeleteReimers spent the money raised for backrest in the last (very recent) drive, so rent is owed in three locations—given that, will the landlord at the Times Square site even consider renting to the station?
The whole thing reeks. I bet you still recall how we were told WBAI is purchasing the Atlantic Avenue building. Reimers and his gang also said that the NYCC rental was short-term----it's been over a yearn so far. Either these people live in a world of their own or they are chronic liars,,,,, or, very likely, both.
(Just AListener)
ReplyDeleteBTW love the thread title graphic. Null does look a bit like an alien.
"How to Serve Humans"
Human flesh can be nutritious but first make sure the humans you cook were fed a healthy, organic diet. I recommend feeding them my Green Stuff and Red Stuff...
Thanks for the compliment.
Deleteim 58 years old and have never encountered the word "tenebrous". I looked it up, found it to be a really cool word, used incredibly aptly (not the same as the stuff you download to your cell phone), and thank you for introducing me to it. Love your thoughts and comments. So sad to hear that Summer's mom passed away. It seems that, wherever we look around Pacifica, there is death, demise, decay, sadness. Yeats said it best in "the second coming" : things falling apart. The center cannot hold. Mere anarchy is loosed upon Pacifica. The best lack all conviction , while the worst are full of passionate intensity
ReplyDeleteStephen Cohen
Ah, yes. Great word.
DeleteSpanish word is “tenebroso”.
The REAL ACADEMIA ESPAÑOL tell us that “tenebroso” comes from the Latin word, “tenebrosus”, which means “dark, covered with shadows, or black..”
The OED definition of “Null” is:
1. Having no legal or binding force; invalid.
2. Having or associated with the value zero.
Mathematics (Of a set or matrix) having no elements, or only zeros as elements.
Lacking distinctive qualities; having no positive substance or content.
Dosamuno
You too can kill yourself like Gary Null.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/gary-null-suit-supplement-manufacturer-claims-gary-null-ultimate-power-meal-killed-article-1.169589
I like Gary Nutt's schtick on this soundbite. Yeah, he's the interrogator/torturer who mixes truth and fiction to come off as sympathetic to the victim. He's such a hoot.
ReplyDeleteGet back to WBAI's original mission? Well, Mr. Nutt, I don't think ANY WBAI station manager or program director in the 1960s to early 1970s would have allowed you on to sell your crap and try to drain every last penny from the suckers who follow you by constantly selling them more "Stuff," overpriced & rebranded water filtration systems, etc.
Yes, don't forget the apocalyptic ever coming end of WBAI we've all heard for years. Sorry, but I don't believe for a second WBAI is going to be sold. Rheimers is just looking for someone (anyone) to bring in money. Hence, bringing in that pathetic loser Daulton Anderson in, because he thought the arrogant British bullfart was $$$. Well, turned out he was deficit, since he didn't even raise a penny to pay for the electricity used and ASCAP/BMI song fees.
What a load all these characters are. These rats don't even have the brains to leave a sinking ship.
SDL
If they left the ship—as they inevitably must before long--where will they go? Who would want to put on their air people who have nothing to offer? The few exceptions (we pretty much agree who they are) should survive in a non-contaminate broadcast environment. Reimers won't even be able to go back to an accounting job.
ReplyDeleteGary; Did they make you read Shakespeare at your correspondence course Ph.D. program?
ReplyDeleteJulius Caesar; act I Scene iii Cassius to Brutus:
"The fault dear Brutus lie not in our stars but in ourselves, that we are underlings".
Reimers would be great in the financial world. He sure knows how to watch out for his own salary while losing money otherwise.
DeleteBigots, sociopaths, hypocrites, lend me your ears;
I come to bury WBAI, not to praise it.
The stupidity that Pacifica does lives after it...
SDL
@Stephen Bear in mind Yeats had Maud and Iseult to deal with before Georgie – even Pacifica doesn't approach that level of strife/stress/shattering-disappointment – it's only the politics which Yeats held in absolute contempt (witness that wagonette reference) ;)
ReplyDeleteCome to think of it, screaming from a wagonette would probably increase WBAI's reach and influence...
~ 'indigopirate'
Thinking more about the death of Summer's mother. It is sad and symbolic on many levels. The two of them were obviously so close. Summer's mom was with her at the Pacifica national office during Summer's occupation of it.
ReplyDeleteIt is easy to imagine, though I have no evidence of this, that her mother's death was hastened by their defeat and eviction after what was obviously a principled stand in their heart. Easy to imagine a mother's sadness at the humiliation of her daughter. Summer's devotion to Pacifica, from where I sit, seemed so pure and honest. She tried so hard, worked so hard--only to be the latest in the line of those repudiated by Pacifica. Making a mockery of them. Despite giving it their all.
Clearly, Pacifica and WBAI is a "mother" and nurturer to all of you.. Pacifica and WBAI have so many children going back decades. It is the children of Pacifica who are now bearing witness, sleeping in the hospital visitor's room--as they watch their "mother" on life support in the ICU.
The children of Pacifica spend restless nights trying to sleep while sitting upright in a chair, a hospital blanket drawn under their chin, in the family room right outside the doors of the ICU--perhaps even at the bedside of their mother, listening to the ventilator. Looking up any time a doctor or nurse appears, usually for a different patient, hoping they bear good news for them. Checking the mostly averted eyes of the medical personnel, searching for a glimmer of a chance of a prayer of a hope.
Summer has lost her mother. The sweaty summer we are all living through seems to be an orphan too. No one wants to claim it. Pacificans clog the visitor's room. Sitting shiva on the barely living and afraid to call it that. Hearing a loop of the mourner's kaddish. Tearing at already fitful sleep.
Thank you, Stephen.
DeleteThat Gary Null is self serving and avaricious is nothing new, but I caught him in a brand new light when he was spinning tales about his "Survival Stuff". With the world edging toward a new war that could lead to a limited nuclear exchange yet again, and with Peoples Republic of China quietly rewriting its constitution to allow the use of the Peoples Liberation Army outside its borders, and purging its top ranking members, like before a major conflict, we have Gary Null talking about solar flares taking out the world's electricity. Utter bullshit, except possibly for the vulnerabilities of the 1980's aircraft avionics to the Electromagnetic impulses of 150 megaton above ground nuclear explosions, but we have an end of the world scenario from Master Null himself, ok.
ReplyDeleteHe talked about the New York City on the verge of starvation and dehydration. He does not appreciate the miracle that is New York's supply chain, that spontaneously solved the logistical problems that stumped central planners elsewhere, and he does not fully grasp the capabilities of the NYC government or of the FEMA to provide disaster relief; naively, extremely naively, thinking that FEMA couldn't get to the disaster site if the roads are choked with traffic, and that auxiliary power generation would not be available if the main power grid is out. Here is an old man speaking and thinking like a teen-age generation whose perception of the social control is shaped by the shows of the Walking Dead variety. No problem, ignorance is not a sin, and for all you Walking Dead aficionados (and I admit I like that show), just a reminder to you, that humanity existed throughout the middle ages, facing more aggressive and intelligent foes than the fictional undead; military engineering going back to WW1 and definitely after the Korean War, has evolved barriers that could stop any number of the walkers, including a run on by a million and a half live infantrymen, and finally, Social control, quarantine, and public health in Medieval Europe and UK never collapsed during the worst years of the black death epidemics, that carried away at least half of the population, and in some parishes around 75%, and yet, in the ignorance that is out modern age, we have people who dream about social collapse, but, that is not what irked me about Mr. Null.
I heard him talk about a hypothetical example of two neighbors in the middle of a societal collapse. One is a Gary Null-ite with a back pack and everything s/he needs to survive for the next three months in it, the other is a clueless typical neighbor. With all of the pathos of an angry alienated nerd, Null says :"I have everything I need to survive for the next three months, I am going to a secret place in the country, where people like me are going to hang out and survive as a commune. You can't come with us, you should have listened to me a week ago!"
I listened to this and I thought, how stupid! And why does he preach this zero-sum mentality? With minimal knowledge you can survive out of a backpack for a week, six months, a year! Humanity always survived in communities, why not take the guy along and teach him? Then Gary Null announced that New York City is the least progressive town in the US and Austin, Texas is the MOST progressive place in the country. OK, Austin is modern, sits in the shadow of Fort Hood, home to Air Cav, has some awesome women, but you can't compare it to New York, the cultural capitol of the world!!!!! What world are you living in? I get it!!! He appeals to the survivalist types who worship guns, hate New York for its big government and think that a nuclear war will be their chance to get the hated society off their backs. Good going, Gary, good going BAI and Pacifica, so much for your progressive mindset for not calling Gary Null on this.
But there is more. Reaching rhetoric crescendo he asks - Where are you going to get your high quality protein from? I am thinking - hunting, fishing, foraging for canned food, eventually gardening, maybe... but I was wrong of course. It finally dawned on me when he went into his spiel - Where you gonna get your brown rice protein? Your cruciferous vegetable stuff? Your local health food store won't be there!!!! Buy my survival stuff! Buy three months supply for $195, but six months' supply!!! Is he really envisioning his followers trekking across the ruined landscape hauling gallons of dry powder in their backpacks?!! Pssst, Gary, didn't you just tell me, that with the electricity out, there will be no water? Is he that stupid or delusional or is he just selling his brown stuff by any means possible? To call Null delusional would be to treat him kindly. He tells his listeners that they can make a lot of money from hydroponic gardening, claims that it is easy, claims how profitable it is. Maybe it is easy for Null, if he farmed all his life, which I doubt, since lived in Manhattan most of his life and owns a health food store on the upper west side. All I know is that a friend of mine majored in hydroponic farming at a college that takes five years to make an agronomist. I also know that his coursework was intensive, like he was studying engineering, and he kept telling me how expensive the equipment was, more expensive than the BAI's transmitter rent. It seems to me that there is a real world and there is a version of it, which exists in Gary Null's sales pitch. Gary Null makes one strange bedfellow for a progressive - his view of survival as a zero-sum game of me against them, exemplified in his pitch for the "survival stuff", his fear of the other people in the disaster, personified as "criminal element", his fantasy of owning land with a water source and selling that water for a profit at an organic farm market at a disaster stricken world dying of thirst, in a bizarre twist on a get rich quick dream.
ReplyDeleteBB: I mostly agree with your points here. One or two footnotes, though: As you doubtless know, most significant military assets and capabilities are shielded with respect to EMP, and have been for many decades – it’s fairly straightforward.
DeleteNuclear EMP, to which you refer, was the subject of Operation Fishbowl in the early 1960s. The Soviet Operation K was conducted with a view to the same purpose.
What Null is doubtless referring to is the recent news stories with respect to the possible consequences of coronal mass ejections. The principal reference here is to the Carrington Event of the 19th Century, which raises an eyebrow or two.
A massive CME is a Whole Other Thing.
As I said, I agree with your general criticisms of Null’s fear-mongering. I didn’t listen, but from your summary it sounds as if he’s unaware of the fact that New York’s water supply (which is, indeed, a wonder) would be largely immune from CME havoc.
A coronal mass ejection, though, is a real probability, indeed a likelihood, and there’s a significant risk it would indeed shatter much of the electrical distribution infrastructure, a good deal of communication, etc. It would be helpful if the US (and other nations, of course) devoted the appropriate resources to create a more robust power distribution infrastructure.
Of course, the US is the nation that’s twice failed the insuperable challenges presented by the mysteries of the metric system ;)
As for Null, I suppose that as a form of walking dead he’s himself representative of WBAI/Pacifica.
~ ‘indigo’
Bruiser Bear aka Paul DeRienzo:
DeleteYour comments on WBAI, Gary Null, and Amy Goodman are disingenuous because they do not disclose your involvement with the station, the fiasco that resulted when you and Santiago Nieves attempted to replace Ms. Goodman, or your hiring and subsequent firing by Mr. Null after you were unceremoniously kicked out of WBAI.
Your warmed over cold war conspiracy theories, pro-fascist, pro-Eastern Orthodox Church sentiments, and deranged anti-communism and anti-socialism--which includes a hatred of anything not to the right of the New Deal and the Enlightenment, are familiar to anyone who had the disagreeable experience of hearing your hideous late night show on WBAI in the 1990s.
Gary Null brought the other fraud Armand Demile to WBAI. They can both hold hands and walk off into the sunset together.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know that Null brought DiMele to WBAI, are you sure? I question it, because Null frequently says that consultation should not be allowed as a premium.
DeleteGary Null is just jealous of Armand DiMele because DiMele is the only other BAI broadcaster who makes as much money as Gary Null by directing the neurotics in the WBAI audience (there are a couple) to his private practice office to generate some real moolah.
DeleteThe thing I love about Null's survival babbling is that when he gets revved up in his monologue, you can hear the goating over how he will be a "have" and others the "have nots," so he can say I"I told you so..." I really think he is a dark, passive -aggressive, vindictive type. Maybe when he comes out with his spiels about WBAI, it's a passive-aggressive reaction to not getting something he wanted out of the station?
ReplyDeleteI wasn't joking in a recent post where I said WBAI should put Alex Jones on. He is VERY similar to Null - constant accusations without any evidence, has his own powder "Stuff" stuff, GMOs, organic, they are out to get us using food as the weapon, etc. Jones is even the perfect kick ass personality to play opposite Null's more matter of fact style. Of course, they both have narcissistic personality disorders, which would clash...
Simply put: Null is a cult leader out to have his followers buy all their supplies from him and cough up every doller they have to him. He has a compound, too. Will we live to see another Koresh or Rajneesh? Narcissism breeds situations like this.
As for Armand Demile. What the hell is his psycho-babble about?
SDL
What is psycho-babble *ever* about?
DeleteSorry, couldn't resist ;)
~ 'indigopirate'
I have a serious question regarding Gary Null. Does he know he is slinging bullshit or is he really a true believer of his snake oil?
ReplyDeleteMany of us know that he is slinging BS, but only he knows if he knows it. That he might not know it stretches credulity beyond his proven ability to do so. :)
DeleteI believe that Null knows that he is lying. Here is why: I was considering on going on his "stuff" diet, and was trying to find any data on how much nutrition is retained in the freeze drying powdering process vis a vie real food, and came across his mention of the Acerola Cherry. I decided to try and get some of that fruit and see what it tastes like. I didn't find anybody selling it, or offering it for sale! As far as I was able to find out - nobody is importing it into the U.S. in its natural form. What we have, are importers who freeze dry it in the Pacific Rim countries, if the memory serves me right, and importing powder into the US to be used in food and beverage industry.
ReplyDeleteGary claims in his pitches, that he PERSONALLY takes that fruit of the Earth and HIMSELF processes it, so that nutrition value is not lost and we get the highest quality nutrition. I assume that tis means that all processing of his stuff is done in the US under his supervision. Obviously this is not the case if we get the Acerola Cherry in powdered form a place like Vietnam. So, he has to know that he is telling falsehoods when he pushes his Red Stuff.
If anybody can prove me wrong, and tell where I can get some fresh Acerola Cherries, or Goji Berries, or Acai Berries in New York or Stateside, so that I don't have to travel around the world Sinbad fashion to taste exotic fruit, please let me know! I WAS able to score me some Cherimoya fruit and Feijoa (a cultivar of Kiwi fruit, which itself is an Asian variety of the beloved Gooseberry).
On related topic, listening to BAI Hosts doing their pitches, and from of the tome of their voice and how they were appealing to the listener's credibility, I believe that they tend to lie and exaggerate their own use of the products that they pitch. One woman comes to mind, who was pushing the value of nuts in place of Designer Supplements, and on the air she was spinning a story of how she had a case of various nuts for cooking and medicinal purposes that she was constantly using. I believe that she was telling an untruth.
I think Null believes in the basic ideology of his canard. However, I think he will use deception to achieve his aims, whether financial, political or otherwise. The end justifies the means.
DeleteMaybe it would be worth a trip to Null's supermarket to see what items he has? From the sound of it, he sure understands the term "mark up."
http://www.yelp.com/biz/gary-nulls-uptown-whole-foods-new-york
SDL
Just heard Null's missive. Oh Goodie!!!! They gonna get rid of Haskins and Null will voluntarily resign? Great!!! Count me among the 60% of the audience that supports the KPFA bunch! Pacifica has a model that will allow it to operate with no on air fund raising? They should share it with the listeners! No more infomercials? Excellent! I hope they can pull it off. Gary's claim that they will put the classical music shows off the air is troubling, but I wish that he would produce some solid evidence, maybe leak something on air, to show us that he is not fear mongering. And of course, offering a book about reversing the arthritis as a premium to an audience largely consisting of people in their 60's is just more slick marketing and that makes Null a bit less credible.
ReplyDeleteGary Null's "Reverse The Aging Process" is bona fide. He only posts pictures of himself when he was 35 or less.
ReplyDeleteI have been in a couple of abusive relationships in my life. And, I'll admit, I have had others take advantage of me because I live by the philosophy of "innocent unless proven guilty" and that people are good unless they show me otherwise.
ReplyDeleteYet, I must say it's been a long, long time since I've encountered, in person or otherwise, someone who contradicts himself as much as Null does.
He has claimed--truthfully, I think--to have lived on the Upper West Side for his "entire adult life." Yet, now he is claiming to have lived "on an organic farm or organic ranch" for his "entire adult life."
In one segment, he talked about being a teenager in a West Virginia town across the river from Ohio. However, the other day, he said he "grew up in the Deep South".
Also, he's talked about the end of the world as we know it (Thankfully, he didn't try to sing REM's song of the same title!) as a result of a solar storm. In the next breath, he says you can grow microgreens and sell them to restaurants or learn silver- or gold-smithing.
Restaurants will be open when there's no food, electricity, or running water? Even if they were to conduct business as usual, who would be their customers? And, if there are no customers for restaurants, who's going to buy the stuff silver- and gold-smiths craft, however exquisite it may be?
It's almost funny to hear "Dr." Null--until, of course, his mean streak surfaces, as it does in that hypothetical conversation my good friend "Brooser Bear' recounts.
If Armand DeMiele doesn't see Null's pathology, I don't understand why he still has a license to practice psychiatry.
Don't underestimate Null. He is a smart operator going by the cult leader textbook. He understands that his followers are "progressive" in name only, as is convenient to them. They are middle class and upper middle class materialists, who care about self-aggrandizement, financial or otherwise.
DeleteWhy does he talk about how people can grow/make stuff and make money? Well, first, his follows send him hundreds of dollars or more per month for their supplies. He needs to make sure they keep making the money to send him. Also, these same people are materialists, so he appeals to their greed, a good symbiosis.
Unfortunately, Null, as any cult leader picks on those who are somehow needy. Most of his followers started as either chronically sickly, frightened of death aging people, just people who want to take better care of their health, etc. He hooks them and their money with all his health promises. However, they never seem to achieve that healthy status they seek, so he sells them more new "Stuff" which will improve them even more.
The cycle just keeps going on and on. It's like the women who are never satisfied with their self-images and become anorexic or bulimic. Same deal, different genre.
Now add the paranoia aspect all cult leaders use to cut people off from society and push their focus onto the cult and ignore any outside influences. For a better, deeper look read The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements by Eric Hoffer. No doubt Null did...
I'll leave you with this. I love shopping at Whole Foods. However, I have always joked that it's a great place to see the unhealthiest looking healthy people you will ever see.
Just for the record. I am someone who would probably qualify as a health fanatic. However, I am an omnivore and use common sense in my diet and life. You'll do a lot more for yourself with a Nutribullet and making a fresh smoothie with some greens and fruits than by dropping powder "stuff." Just stop eating pre-packaged foods and your health will improve manifold in a week (no crap). Organic? Yes, GMOs? The jury is still out, so better to try and avoid until we have more research.
SDL
A good source inside the station says the drive is going very well - well on the way to making their goal!
DeleteHis rants and pitches are riddled with contradictions, Like Blosdale and some WBAI regulars, he will make up anything, exaggerate any figure to make a sale. Of course, that's the nature of the business, but here the product itself is often bogus and the personal endorsements are not done by actors. Lying to the potential buyer becomes particularly odious when they are drawn in by untruths and sold products that not only can't deliver the promised "cure" but might even be harmful or fatal to someone who ought to be seeking realistic help.
DeleteAs for DiMiele's diplomas, they might be legit, but I bet a scrutiny of accreditation at WBAI would turn up some highly questionable framed certificates... even on the GM's wall.
Anonymous posted: "A good source inside the station says the drive is going very well - well on the way to making their goal!"
DeleteI think you need to look into the veracity of that claim. You might also ask your anonymous "source" why the station posts daily totals that belie it.
You have good reason for not identifying yourself. How are things in Ozone Park? :)
This from the WBAI staff website: SUMMERTHON FUND DRIVE EXTENDED TO AUGUST 10 (07/30/2014) Berthold has extended the fund drive due to poor results from regular programming. Please expect numerous pre-emptions during the final week Aug. 4 -...
ReplyDeleteThe average for the drive is about $15k. Null is driving the numbers with his questionable premiums. All Null all the time. Perhaps $15k average can keep the corpse breathing. I doubt any monies will come from other stations at this point. They have their own problems. And Pacifica is more than broke.I have said before and I say again, it's time to cut WBAI loose. It has very little value any longer. Yes there are a few good programs remaining which actually are supported and it would be unfortunate to lose them. But public affairs programming that usually drives Pacifica stations during fund raising is defunct. The premium debacle continues. The attempts by some on the CAB lead by Jim Dingeman, were heartfelt and righteous but are not the answer and only scratched the surface of the problem. Since Berthold can no longer bootleg premiums, that income stream has disappeared. They plead for a program director but no PD can help at this stage. I tried. I was undermined by Berthold and Summer Reese. There seemed to be a dim light at the end of the tunnel when I arrived about this time a year ago but that quickly faded when I realized just how out-of-touch and damaged WBAI was. Tony Ryan the Ops guy should have been sacked years ago. He is almost entirely incompetent but still pulls a salary. Haskins was a good chief announcer and gives the call sign interminably because he doesn't know what else to say - he is a so so producer and most definitely not a morning host. I "promoted" Haskins who had a late night show - like 2am - and I encouraged him but he is way out of his depth these days. At a time like this with the world in a spin, Ian Masters would be a strong offering but they dumped him for political reasons. He is one of the very few public affairs voices at Pacifica with real talent and we deserve to hear him. Null is a charlatan. Kathy Davis should not be near a microphone. Armand deMille is a very experienced psycho-showman and may deserve one show a week. The music shows, other than Irsay's are lame to say the least. Bochan is an exception. But overall WBAI is a walking corpse.
Andrew Leslie Phillips: Gary Null is a charlatan? Of course I agree, but for all the years you were program director, you had him on 5 hrs per week and defended that decision. I called you on Report To The Listener, decades ago, and told you that Gary Null was a quack and you replied that you thought he was "very interesting broadcaster".
ReplyDeleteThe scam-a-thon is doing so well they decided to extend it. That's good, since the infomercials probably have the highest ratings.
DeleteIt's not that WBAI can't be saved. It's that a program director wouldn't be permitted to do his/her job and fire 90% of the people there. If I were PD, I'd be lynched and burned during my first day...
SDL
Whoeveryouare - Null has changed over the years. I was always leery of him but yes he is a "very interesting broadcaster" when he's on his game. I supported his WBAI five-hour-a-week noon program and promoted him to other stations. He was a big money maker in those days and his ratings were much higher than other programs. I was prepared to overlook some of the unctuousness, fits of pique and self promotion because he certainly raised the bucks - as he does today though far less now. But his audience tuned in and then out. You could see the precipitous drop on Arbitron. He was not building WBAI audience. He was building Gary Null audience. He was doing "Natural Living" in those days and not "The Gary Null Show" where it's more about him and his products than his guests. He was not pushing his product the way he does now. When I was PD in the early nineties he promoted his books - and that was running pretty close to the wind - but now it's his product lines and I he think crosses the line into commercial broadcasting and infomercials. When he is interviewing alternative health people and doing some of his hidden agenda programs he is indeed an interesting broadcaster.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Null changed over the years. Natural Living was less self-promotional, when I was listening to it in 1989-1991. It was an interesting show and Null was a good in-depth interviewer, who took either 30 minutes or 1 hour with his guests and scornfully weeded out those, who were trying to promote their books and tried not to talk about their ideas, trying to get away with: "Buy my book.". It drew Gary's scorn and it was great and he was the only radio talk host doing that. It was awesome! I attended a couple of meetings of his marathon training club. I was impressed. There was a psychiatric patient, who became healthy and recovered through distance running. There was an assistant if his, who gave me some excellent pointers as to my running technique. I did not stick with the club, because I was some 30 years younger than the youngest member. He WAS selling his nutritional supplements out of the back of the compact hatchback that he drove in with his assistant, but there was no pressure to buy, and I remember being surprised at seeing all those plastic jars in the back of the car. Until then I had no clue that Gary was selling anything. Of course, back then I was working my way through college at the rate of $7.00/hr and even if I wanted to buy anything, the prices were hopelessly out of my reach.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I should add to this, is that all of the people I saw at that meet were the types, who would enjoy listening to Armand Demiele, who I think is more prominent as a mainstream psychotherapist than Null being a mainstream nutritionist, and his show is much more informative and more interesting as it pertains to psychology, than Michael Levine's as it pertains to law enforcement, Levine being comparable to Demiele in that he is a retired DEA agent.
Still later, I heard that Gary Null's listeners were their own faction in the BAI wars, though I don't really know other factions of the BAI audience.
Mr. Albertson, you lost me when you attacked Josephson's "In the Beginning". Larry was [ is ] a brilliant guy, full of ideas, and had an uplifting effect on my life. Most notable was his anti war position. Early on he professed that Americans were being lied to; something I already knew, as a Marine, as far back as the Summer of '62. I enjoyed him so much that I started contributing to WBAI ... and have done so off and on over the years.
ReplyDeleteThese days [ and for years gone by] I listen to Simon and David on Saturdays over the internet and that's it.
I'm not quite sure who you are since I never came across your name before. It seems you're trying to save the
station by knocking down present ... and even past ... WBAI associates. From what I've read, you might better serve the listeners, if not yourself, by growing roses. Buzzie Guffanti ... listener in Vero Beach
History often reminds us that brilliant people who have an uplifting effect on others are not necessarily flawless. Sometimes these flaws escape the attention of admirers, either by design, skillfully hidden behind a public facade, or because the human mind has a remarkable capacity to rationalize.
DeleteYou say that Larry's "anti-war position" was the "most notable" factor leading you to WBAI and, I suppose, his morning show. The fact is that Larry came to a station whose core principle was pacifism---Pacifica was founded by anti-war people and a part of its mission was to dispel the lies that came from governments and often found distribution through mainstream media. I was volunteering at WBAI in '62, when you discovered that you were not being told the truth by your government—Larry Josephson was not there, so I don't know how he felt about the war, but I understand that he was doing work for the Heritage Foundation (try to find that in his resumé. He came to us with an early knowledge of computers and what IBM could do to make our record-keeping easier. The possibilities radio offered him were obviously enticing so, soon after I left the manager's position, he made his way to the microphone and, feeding a perhaps latent infliction of self-importance, indulged himself. Radio talk comprised mostly polite, shallow chit chat in those days, so Larry contrasted that and drew attention with an approach of chronic contrarianism that some mistook for moral conviction. Did Larry really mean all those slurs he aimed at gay people? If so, he did not belong at a Pacifica station. Did he hurl those insults only to attract attention? If so, he did not belong at a Pacifica station, but such tactics were not the only reason I came to regard Larry's closer association with WBAI as destructive.
He, with help from fellow opportunist, Steve Post, and the tacit approval of an inexperienced manager, Frank Millspaugh, who lived in a mescaline world of his own, turned WBAI in a new direction—not an innovative, admirable one, but rather one that defied Pacifica's original principles (mission, if you will) and began a shift from intellectual nourishment and a barometer of cultural changes to tabloid-tainted celebrity basking.
The change was not apparent to all, for it was a gradual shift. In fact, it has taken several decades to reach the point where your listening has narrowed down to four hours on Saturday mornings. Your two choices are excellent, but there is still more on WBAI that I would describe as good radio—not a lot, but it's there and streaming.
I am not trying to "save the station" by "knocking down" anybody, as you say, but WBAI is going under, the listenership is no longer there, and much of this is due to mismanagement and false notions of proprietary rights to the station's air time. As I and many others saw it, the only way to get WBAI back on track, restore it's cultural significance, and once again make it a conduit for honest reportage and thought was to remove the warts.
Growing roses makes many people happy and is a delightful occupation to engage in, but I saw a vital WBAI as a worthier priority.
Although reading this blog should eventually give you a better picture of who I am and what I think, you might--if seeing me from a more accurate perspective is of any interest--go to either of the following two links.
http//:stomp-off.blogspot.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Albertson
Thank you for your lengthy reply. There is no doubt that you are truly concerned.
DeleteLet me review, in a disjointed fashion, "In The Beginning". Funny ? Absolutely. Even without using the 'sex' angle, Larry was ahead of Howard Stern. Way ahead. You wrote that "Radio talk comprised mostly polite, shallow chit chat in those days". I listened to very little radio back then but I accept your analysis.. One thing I can say is that one had to be a moron to listen to Herb Oscar Anderson. As for Larry's position on the war, he was definitely against it ...at least from when I started listening to him. [ I can't recall when he first came on the air.] Actually, I believe the station was totally against it ... maybe when you were there ... in '62.
I never listened to Steve Post... He was on late at night ?
I want to be clear that my knowledge that we were being lied to did not come from BAI but from The Corps itself
BAI was the first place in the media where I heard about the lies. specifically from Josephson. But that was when the war was in full bloom. c. 1965
You mentioned his "approach of chronic contrarianism". That comment might very well be applied to David's OUT ON A LIMB and Simon too. Both of them most certainly take exception to mainstream's malarkey.
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I will admit that I know nothing of Larry's intentions but , quite frankly, didn't ... and still don't ...care.
It was his approach to issues that attracted me to his show. I add that he was only a radio personality who had nothing to do with my personal life ... except that his IDEAS were for the most part exceptional and worth consideration.
As for BAI , I don't pretend to know a cure for its ailment and I have no idea if it will survive. I think a major portion of the problem is that every time one turns around these days, one get's a tin cup poked in one's face. The station is one of many pokers and there is only so much charitable cash available, from me and the rest of the 99%.
Bottom line: Larry made my ride to work on Rt 46 almost enjoyable; he gave me something to think about
other than the many idiots on the road.
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Regards