A dash of this and a dash of that as WBAI limps, bad ideas keep coming, and more listeners drop out of sight. Here's some of what's been going on recently. I will update this post as more stuff comes in.
Here is Reimers Report to the LSB, dated July 9, 2014 (hit the "download" option when you see it). We don't know how juggled it is, but Berthold Reimers has a history of not getting along with the truth, Still, there is some information of interest here. I should add that Thursday morning, after a half-assed "tribute" to Steve Post (who took the down elevator last Sunday), Jim Freund very casually mentioned that the station has hired a Program Director.... we'll see.
Apropos Post, Bob Fass's alleged tribute this morning did not go far. He read a couple of twisted facts from Steve's shameful book and told a story about Steve editing Dale Minor's Vietnam reportage, which is pure BS—it never happened. Bob's memory has always been selective, but I'm afraid it has sprung a leak at this point. About four people called before another unremarkable Radio Unnameable fizzled out on a long series of music segues. Hypocrisy is rampant around WBAI, but it gets taken to new heights when one of the wreckers leaves.
ADDENDUM: Haskins, who has added a year to WBAI's Pacifica existence, is heard underestimating listener support while also overestimating listener support. Huh? Well, listen carefully. Then feel sorry for Earthmom, she was having a bad day. Perhaps Haskins could show her how to edit audio... Nah, he needs a course himself. Future occurrence of this problem might be prevented by the old sledgehammer, Chief Operations Officer Ryan.
ADDENDUM: Haskins, who has added a year to WBAI's Pacifica existence, is heard underestimating listener support while also overestimating listener support. Huh? Well, listen carefully. Then feel sorry for Earthmom, she was having a bad day. Perhaps Haskins could show her how to edit audio... Nah, he needs a course himself. Future occurrence of this problem might be prevented by the old sledgehammer, Chief Operations Officer Ryan.
Reimers BS to Pacifica:
ReplyDeleteYawn...
Interesting that in the "Programming" section at the end he mentions adding Forlano but makes no mention of his new found star attraction, Daulton Anderson. I really think something is going on there and Daulton has fallen from favor...
As for the Post tributes:
I think Freund's was heartfelt, but jumbled, as he usually is. Freund is one of those people that really needs to write down what he wants to do on the air, in order not to go off on rambling tangents. Notice how the first caller didn't even seem to be listening to the show, called in to talk about WBAI internal politics and Freund, trying to be polite, ended up losing sight of his program's theme, even after the caller offered to hang up a few times? The meandering mind of Jim Freund. Nothing against him, at all. He just needs to focus more, I think.
As for Fass... I actually feel sorry for him. It's obvious age has hit and he just isn't all there anymore. Rather than reading from Post's book, Fass should have just told stories from memory, but itseems to be gone, I guess. Maybe Fass just needs to be Propped up a bit? Anyway, I fell asleep near the end.
Too bad he didn't get Josephson or Pitts on the phone. At least they are still sharp in the brain.
WBAI could make some money by doing a lottery - a deadpool as to what staff
member or alumnus will die next. By a ticket for $5.00 and write down your
candidate... That or take a deadpool on how many months the new program director will last...
SDL
I also took note of the failure to mention the Daulton show. I wonder who Dave Zirin is and what he does. I have nothing against Freud, either, but he's too jittery and unfocused for me to listen for long.
DeleteHad Fass received a call from Larry Josephson, I probably would have tuned out----he is even more hypocritical than Bob. If you had been there back then to witness how these guys treated co-workers,you would understand why I get sick when I hear their BS. I used to say about Bob that he would strangle you with his love beads... he was/is very two-faced.
Your lottery idea is up there with Dingeman's proposed broadcasting school!
Freund is the kind of host who needs a co-host who knows how to keep him on track. The kind of co-host that sees him going into a tangent and intercedes with a comment or question that gets him back on topic. Otherwise, I actually enjoy him at times. He actually could teach many hosts how to interact with callers and have this old thing called a conversation.
DeleteOK, so your hypocrite comment begs a question. How did the the triumvirate of Fass, Post & Josephson treat each other? Were they really fake friends? Or did honor amongst thieves show through?
Broadcasting school... WBAI itself used to be a broadcast school! People would go there, man the phones during pledges, etc. and learn until they were deemed good and responsible enough to get on the air. You earned a spot with your effort, not by promising $100 BAI Buddies and $10,000 donations. No, you earned it, not purchased it.
SDL
I agree with your assessment of Freud.
DeleteHonor among thieves played a role in the triumvirate. Fass, of course, was already in place and doing well. He didn't need those two opportunists, but they had their elbows ready so when I left and they saw that Millspaugh was a wet dishrag, they moved in.
Post, as I have said, came from Korvette', where he announced sales on the PA system. He took the bookkeeper position to get his foot inside. When we ha an opening for an announcer, I taught him how to operate the console, do the transmitter check, etc. He was a quick learner and our system of filling gaps between shows with a "miscellany" gave him an opportunity to go on his own for 5 or 20 minutes.
I don't know how long he had been planning his heavy elbow movement, but he found in Larry a person with similar ambitions and nasty streak, Bob had once been fired by Joe Biinns, but I brought him back. He may have latched on to Steve and Larry because he saw strength in numbers. Anyway, he proved to be a fair-weather friend. The three of them might have found real friendship in each other, for they were cut from the same cloth, but it was a game of the kind such people play. I survived the backstabbing, but others at the station were deeply hurt by it. Remember, there were many decent folks there back then.
Yes, you are so right about WBAI having been an unofficial broadcast school, but to think that the bozos in Dingeman's group can teach anybody anything about the radio business is a joke.
BTW, Reimers' report does not tell us how much of the money taken in is net... or, for that matter, how much has gone beyond the pledge stage.
I thought to pledge these days you needed a credit card when you called in (or, alternately, a bank account if becoming a WBAI Buddy). Do they still do the taking a name and address and sending an invoice out to you to return with a check or money order thing, like in the old days?
DeleteBack in the early 1980s there was a fiasco once. WBAI did a pledge drive and discovered that something like 40% of the pledges were frauds. Evidently, one of the regular crank callers kept phoning in pledges with fake names and addresses. WBAI had to go do an emergency pledge drive soon after to make up for it.
SDL
I think that applies to the sustaining donations (buddy—I hate that dumb name), but they are apparently still sending out invoices—I heard Kathy Davis offer that option when she and Null plugged his cheaper-than-Amy's dinner yesterday.
DeleteHas Rev Al ever been involved with WBAI? No reason to ask- just wondering.
ReplyDeleteNot that I know of, but I'm sure h has been a guest.
DeleteSome folks have said 'someone ought to write a book'. Freund would be far and away the best possible single source, if anyone were to be fool enough to undertake that task.
Delete~ 'indigo'
Freund has tons of knowledge about WBAI. However, I hope is a a more focused writer than speaker, or his editor is going to have a hell of a time editing down 15,000 pages to 300 - 400.
DeleteSDL
Source? I'll agree with that, somewhat, but the writer should not be an insider--not even a former one.
DeleteGood point, SDL. but in the case of Freund, I would be more worried about his accuracy. Perhaps it's because he's on the air and at the mercy of vindictive amateurs, but he has skirted the truth too often for my comfort.
DeleteSDL:
DeleteNot saying Freund should write a book on BAI. He has no illusions about his ability as a writer. He’s intelligent, and articulate. He could easily be a co-author. He’d be ideal, though, as a source.
He’s been at BAI since 1967. He was never a threat to anyone, and so his position as an observer is unparalleled. Since he was never seen as a rival or threat to anyone, those with ambition didn’t tend to hold back when speaking with him or in front of him. Since he never had a leadership role with respect to policy, he has no positions to defend or distort, as so many would.
His only position, really, is and was as an enthusiast and advocate for good and interesting radio – he came to BAI in the first place because of that enthusiasm, that set of values, drawn to his enthusiasm for the mad brilliance of The Outside.
Chris:
Jim has ‘skirted’ the truth on-air, yes – he’s actually been clear and explicit as to that. Note that I’m saying ‘on-air’. For a reason. Note, too, that he’s *skirted* the truth on air. Where it would be dangerous or threaten his survival he’s been diplomatic, avoided confrontation, accepted the political types relegating him to far-less-than-ideal time slots. Consider, though – he hasn’t lied or misrepresented. Rather than do that, he’s dodged some issues on air.
He’s the mouse that goes unnoticed but hears much, and in private tends to be caught up in his desire to tell the tale – which makes him an ideal source.
Note, too, that he tends to take into account and note his limitations – his tendency toward hero-worship for example. Again, that actually only adds to his value as a source.
His principal limitation as source, which a researcher would need to take into account, would be that tendency toward hero worship.
Still, overall, Freund has been at and around BAI for most of its history – not during your tenure, granted, he would be little or no help as to that time period. But ever since…?
Who else practically lived at the place for most of its most interesting span of time, with few axes to grind, who was at each and every interminable ‘union’ meeting at Margot Adler’s leading up to the occupation as well as at some of the meetings with Engelman that led to the board’s decision to take the station wholly political and put Kosof and Guzman in place?
Freund is the key witness to far more than any other player.
Far, far more.
~ ‘indigo’
ps: No, I still don’t think there’s a market, or even anything more than the most trivial academic interest. I’m not advocating for publication. I’m just saying that if anyone were to take on that folly, Freund’s the best single source for 1967 onward, and as a source he leads to all the others still surviving.
As usual, Indigo, you make sense. Apropos chroniclers, how do you feel about Sidney Smith?
DeleteSmith may be a good source. Irsay has been around a long time, too.
DeleteI was thinking about a good author for a WBAI history and thought of Legs McNeil being an ideal choice. If he did it in the oral history style of his classic Please Kill Me, it would be great.
SDL
Sidney Smith would be a bad historian. He is invested in projecting himself as a manic individual. It might have some basis in reality occasionally, but 90% of the time it is pure schtick. He is uncomfortable projecting himself as normal and prefers to put on this, "I'm going out of my mind" schtick. He does not know when to turn it off.
DeleteIt is one thing to spontaneously pour one's thoughts into a microphone, quite another to sit at a keyboard and conjure up the past. Sidney is an intelligent, keen observer who tends to see a broader picture than the blobs he works with. Nobody writes as impulsively as they speak,
Delete(JustAListener (but not a believer))
ReplyDeleteReimers in wonderland.
By his own numbers the fund raising is slumping and National isn't going to be coughing up $ anymore.
So how are they going to pay the interim Program Director, Program Director, Operation Director and Development Director they placed ads for?
And the "months long investigation" to figure out the phone bills?
Once in a while I see a report in the local paper that after a "months long investigation" the cops determined that such and such massage parlor was a front for prostitution. I wonder how long and how many visits does it take before the cops are sure a sex act is being performed on them!
I suppose Reimers can blame the mess on the guy running things a couple of years ago...but that was him!
This: "met & negotiated terms with 4 Times Square, negotiating for financing
- negotiate installation – without charge, as well as 4 months free for build out."
- sounds great, but Reimers good news has a way of quietly evaporating as time goes by.
Gotta love how the guy now telling us how the station is months behind on ESB and other rent, is the same guy who months ago was telling us everything is just about paid up!
And so it goes...
Berthold Reimers is an Investigative Retorter.
DeleteWhat is a "Development Director?" Sounds like the kind of job title you give a friend for doing nothing more than drawing a salary.
DeleteHow about a "Utility Item Director?" He/she could spend the day shining and maintaining Ryan's sledgey...
SDL
Andrea Katz is a runway run-away who occasionally manages to smack Reimers with a soft-gloved reality check, but she is ever aware of that paycheck. That said, she is somewhat of a tightrope walker whose main concern is to maintain a balance. She also has a relative involved: a husband or brother who masters the station's website, though not so well.
DeleteShe is not getting by on her looks.
As for possible sources chroniclers: I agree that James Irsay and Sydney Smith would be good sources. So, too, would David Rothenberg.
ReplyDeleteI was never impressed with Steve Post. Granted, I heard him mainly during his post-BAI days. But he always seemed more snide than sardonic to me. Even before Chris mentioned it, I always had a feeling that he was mean and hypocritical, and that his self-deprecation was an act.
I don't think David Rothenberg would deliberately give the truth a twist, but I have noticed that his memory is slipping. There are probably those who think I am exaggerating when I recall the dark side of Post, but I am not. Ditto Josephson. Fass is another matter--I have been somewhat reserved in my judgement of him, because there ere redemptive qualities---not so with Millspaugh, Steve or Larry. This is not to say that the didn't have a better side, but I never saw that one, nor did people like Tana DeGamez, Bob Bisom, and others whose talent and honesty they seem to have felt threatened by.
DeleteThe only times I ever heard Post or Josephson were when they had morning shows once a week on WBAI circa 1980. I don't recall a word either ever said. I guess that means they didn't impress me. I liked Mike Feder and his messed up life stories better when it came to people talking about themselves.
DeleteSDL
David Rothenberg is invested in, "Everything the blacks and hispanics do wrong is a product of the white man's racism". In the case of the black criminals, it occasionally has some little basis but in the case of the Hispanics, it has NO basis. Rothenberg is totally invested in white man's guilt. He was better in the 1980s when he was totally involved with gay rights.
DeleteI did not know that David had been immersed in gay rights, but I can understand that. As for white man's guilt, there may be some of that, but the David I knew in the Sixties, when he came to WBAI, had a deep and sincere concern for victims of our prison system's abuse, and I never sensed any racial bias on his part. Racism was clearly there, but on the part of the penal system, and it was also directed at Hispanics, so I don't know where you get get the notion that they were somehow exempt. True, the darker the skin, the less accepted people were by the system.
DeleteYour assumptions—and that's all they are—do David a disservice. I don't know who you are or what you have accomplished in life, but I wish I could leave a fraction of the legacy David Rothenberg will be remembered for.
Mario Murillo has been named as interim PD - he has a very long and controversial history @ the station. Interested to know what people think!
ReplyDelete