An unvarnished blog that dips into the past and comments on the present of WBAI-FM, a once significant, intelligent New York radio station that for years has suffered chronic abuse from within and now nears extinction. Your comments are welcomed and will not be censored.
The reason crazy right wing radio, on the other hand, is booming (Limbaugh , Savage, Levin, Hannity) follows directly from my assertions about Pacifica and here is the how and why:
ReplyDeleteThe right wingers present a very jingoistic view of America and her citizens. They tell us that we, and our country, in contrast to Pacifica, can do no wrong. That racism doesn't exist anymore, that we've paid our bill for it, that our country and its various wars are always correct, that if we go and take something from another country, by god, we deserve it. If we want to poison the atmosphere, it's okay, cause there is no global warming. And even if there was such a thing, that's the rest of the world's problem to fix, not ours. The message they preach is that we as individuals and the country as a whole can do no wrong, and has done very little, if any, wrong in the past. And when we did, it was somebody else's fault.
The right wing provides a form of collective amnesia about our past, and absolution and priestly forgiveness to all who enter their audio tent to talk about our present and future.
Is it any wonder which is more popular with the majority (not minority) groups in this country?
Now, it is a basic tenet of psychology that people gravitate toward praise, and run away from criticism--even if it deserved. Thus we love those crazy mothers (right wing radio) who say to us: "You are perfect bubala--no one is good enough for my son" and seek distance, ear plugs and a suture kit to seal the lips of those crazy mothers (pacifica) who do nothing but criticize us.
Not to mention that the right wingers, actually all wingers, other than crazy Pacifica, base their radio product on a sound, though offensive and extremely annoying, economic footing wherein they package up listeners and sell them to advertisers so that, in between the ads, the talk host are given a couple of minutes to express their, usually if not always wrongheaded and oversimplified, opinions.
Go back and watch your late night rerun of Cabaret--Joel and Liza will tell you what makes the world go around.
Joel and Liza do not sing:
"Repetitive and endless listener shakedown and extending fund drives makes the world go around
the world go around, the world go around..."
they don't sing:
"Selling Gary "grassy" Knull shamanism and DNA water and cancer cures for $19.95 makes the world go around,
the world go around, the world go around..."
Not only do they reject these lyrics out of hand when they sing their song in Weimar Berlin--but the meter of the song would not have worked even if they wanted to use these words as lyrics.
Thus, they sing of the bi$yllabic "Money" making the world go around. I didn't say it--Liza and Joel Grey and Pink Floyd and countless others have said it long before me. Besides, while I may exceed Liza in the breast department with my man-boobs, I don't have her legs--even in fishnets.
Continuation of Mr. Cohen's corollary...
ReplyDeleteObviously, the solution to all this is, as always, in the middle. But that would require nuance, patience, a willingness to dig, dig and dig some more, with data mining instruments and tools more substantial than twitter and facebook. It would require drawing conclusions by a technique other than text messaging, would require time spent in researching an issue--time, sweat and tears and the effort put into laborious research (like that put into writing a definitive book about Bessie Smith), rather than the quick fix that we naturally gravitate toward because it supports our go to position of simple, black and white thinking. It would require an end to black and white thinking--he's pure evil, she's pure good. And end to:
"I'll take a Lipitor to counteract my BigMac."
An end to:
"I'll burn down and destroy Ferguson--and hurt myself and minority owned businesses first--after I'm done with the flame and the bullet --why then I'll download and read the thousands of pages of testimony and evidence released by the grand jury--released the night of the verdict-- that might put water into, and thus reduce the effectiveness, of my Molotov Cocktail. And cause me to understand that what went on in August may have been more complex that the simple story I want it to be. Or make me put down my sword and my flame and read the testimony and study the evidence--all put before me with the same technology I use to communicate with my friends where the riot will begin--before I make the decision to make a weenie roast of my friend's bakery."
But the middle doesn't sell. Nobody wants to write the story that 150 planes landed safely at Oakland Airport today. It is the plane crashing with no survivors that titillates (black and white thinking--he's alive, she is dead). That's a story the crazies on the right can use (Obama went to the airport and drained the gas tanks and sliced the tires on the plane) as well as those on the left (The evil corporation, EyeHatethePublicAirlines, killed all the people on board because it put profits before people, cut down on maintenance by firing union workers and hiring untrained scabs, and thus has the blood of all those innocents on its hands. Never mind that this is the fist crash on EyeHatethePublicAir in ten years--we only want to focus on this one crash--as if it were the only flight the airline ever put up into the air.)
AND GOD FORBID, ANYONE SHOULD EVER ACKNOWLEDGE ON A PACIFICA SHOW THAT PEOPLE OR THIS COUNTRY HAVE MADE ANY PROGRESS WHATSOEVER. GOD FORBID ANYTHING POSITIVE ABOUT OUR COUNTRY, DESPITE ITS WARTS SHOULD EVER GO OUT OVER THE AIR. 7 DIRTY WORDS? NO PROBLEM IF WE CAN SNEAK THEM IN? ANY PRAISE FOR OUR COUNTRY?--VERBOTEN!!!
DeleteELECT AN AFRICAN AMERICAN PRESIDENT--NOT ONCE BUT TWICE--AGAINST 2 OF THE BIGGEST SYMBOLS OF WHITE AMERICA (MCCAIN AND ROMNEY)--PSHAW PACIFICA SAYS--THAT COULD HAVE HAPPENED IN 1940 OR WHEN MLK WAS PREACHING--USA AND ITS PEOPLE GET NO CREDIT--WE ARE STILL ALL VICIOUS RACISTS TILL PROVEN OTHERWISE--AND ON AND ON AND ON.
BECAUSE AS CHECKERED AS OUR PAST AS A COUNTRY IS, THE MISTAKES WE MADE, THE LIES OF OUR GOVERNMENT, OUR IMPERFECT SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT, ALL THE OTHER COUNTRIES AROUND THE WORLD ARE JUST AS CORRUPT AND MORE SO--THE KEY DIFFERENCE IS THAT , AT LEAST FOR NOW, WE HAVE FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND RELIGION --WE CAN TALK, AND CAJOLE AND PRESSURE TO MAKE CHANGES AND IMPROVEMENTS, AND NOBODY WILL BE BEHEADED FOR NOT CONVERTING TO JUDAISM (THE FAIRY TALE WITH THE IMAGINARY FRIEND THAT i AM MOST ASSOCIATED WITH)--THAT IS THE SECRET OF AMERICA.
the only way in the end that pacifica survives is with quality programming that appeals to a broader swath of people politically speaking. Programming to such a narrow band of ideology can't work--there aren't enough people and they don't have the money and its not fair to keep shaking them down so much.
By the way: Pacifica says it won't take commercial underwriting. BUT PACIFICA SPENDS AN OBSCENE AMOUNT OF THE YEAR IN FUND RAISER WHICH IS NOTHING MORE THAN EXCRUCIATINGLY LONG INFOMERCIALS FOR DNA WATER ET.AL. THESE FUND DRIVES ARE ONE BIG COMMERCIAL, AND ARE JUST AS DESTRUCTIVE TO A STATION AS EXCESSIVE ADS FOR COLGATE OR EXXON ARE. PACIFICA IS ONE LONG ADVERTISEMENT WITH OCCASIONAL BREAKS FOR PROGRAMMING---WHICH IS ITSELF OFTEN DOCTRINAIRE, AMATEUR, COMPLETELY WACKED OUT ETC.
Sounds like someone has let the radical left march up their chest and plant the red flag right through their forehead. Especially, someone who forgets their own sense of self-worth and becomes an apologist for a cause that is run by a bunch of angry activists entrenched at BAI.
ReplyDeletewhere is Mary Houston? Maybe she would like to come back to WBAI.
ReplyDeleteKGT
In Dallas? Well, the crackpot would fit right in. She could hawk brewer's yeast as the great cure all during beg-a-thons. She was just a Gary Null wannabe.
DeleteSDL
We call them "Nullettes/"
DeletePretty much. Just imagine a jumpy woman without Null's "education" and "research" babbling that you should eat brewer's yeast every day.
DeleteI'm surprised Linda Perry doesn't have her own show again. Talk about another crackpot. Her whole thing was wicca. I remember one night she wanted to do a group "Ommm..." chant thing with the listeners joining in. Sure enough, all ten lines lit up. Sure enough, it was a disaster that went like this:
"Ommm..."
"Ommm..."
"FUCK YOU!"
"Ommm..."
BELCH
etc...
When you have ten callers on the air, it's hard to pin point the cranks. She gave up after a while.
SDL
Linda Perry "unlinked" me on Facebook, because she read something I had written about Steve Post! I don't know what so upset her, but everything I have stated as fact has, I in fact, been true :)
DeleteSome people find the truth difficult to deal with.
Did you try asking her?
DeleteAnyway. Remember that a lot of people from her generation (the one that came into WBAI in the late 1970s) grew up on Fass, Post, Josephson, etc. They really didn't know the behind the scenes activities of the people they listened to. I'm not saying anyone is right or wrong here, just that they only knew what they heard on the air.
SDL
No, nor did I ask Irsay, who did the same thing. You know what they say about sausages, you don't want to know what's in them.
DeleteDid you see the Cohen and Dingeman posts on Pacifica Waves Petty Bickering list? I realized what they reminded me of. Remember Amy Fisher? Well, every time she is interviewed, she says what she did was wrong but... Always a "but" to infer it was someone or something else that caused it. It's never her full responsibility. Same mindeset with these idiot cultists.
ReplyDeleteSDL
Yes, I read those posts and cringed. You describe the m.o. of Cohen/Dingeman perfectly—this is indeed how they operate. The station is not less doomed because they are playing their game.
DeleteDid you read "who"'s posts on the Blueboard today—I think there are 5 of them and he was the only poster, the last time I looked.
Yes, and responded a little while ago to some of them.
DeleteSDL
I was itching to respond, but Herr ûbermeister has some of us barred for life... a la Berthold. :) Now I will read your responses.
DeleteJust wanted to wish everyone a Happy New Year!
ReplyDeleteSDL
Thank you, SDL and I wish a HAPPY NEW YEAR! to all who have helped to keep this blog going.
DeleteAll things considered, I have serious doubts that WBAI will make it for another twelve, but let's hope that it does and grows back its brain in the process.
Gary Null just said that WBAI is getting a mobile, portable radio station to broadcast directly from the sites of demonstrations?
ReplyDeleteFor real?
KGT
Haven't heard that one before. I can't imagine that it's a gift from Null, or why I haven't heard anyone else talk about it. I heard John Kane this morning and afternoon... he's the guy who replaces the Ghosthorse and he advocates smoking cigarettes, as long as they come from a Native enterprise. These people are such hypocrites. He was on with Tony Ryan and at one point they were trying to outdo each other as to whose people have suffered more at the hands of paleface.
DeleteI forget what it's called. It's like a production studio in a box that can send the audio back to the station via wifi or phone lines. It's no big deal. Essentially a portable broadcasting computer.
DeleteSo, Kane and Ryan were trying to out do each other over who suffered more watching Bob Hope? Hell, I'll jump in on that one, too. I always called Hope the most unfunny American ever.
Well, speaking of Null, here's a critical review of Seeds of Death you may enjoy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boj6Vw3gd9A
SDL
I think the most common such system is made by Comrex. There are different models for various functions, the cheapest one is under $200. As you say, no big thing. Not likely to improve programming, not at WBAI. Hare-brained Haskins had something like that when he was broadcasting from his kitchen.
DeleteI also never found anything funny about Bob Hope. he always sounded scripted by someone who shared his lack of humor.
Thanks for the Null review. That doctor looked quite mad.
Fass fassing you now on air, yo.
DeleteI had just turned his show on when he began that sad little tirade, much of which is either a direct lie or distortion by omission.
DeleteI will post it so that people can hear what I am talking about when I join those who suggest that Bob has overstayed to his own detriment.
Thanks for the notice.
Of course if you're depending on wifi or cellular data at a crowd with thousands of peo[buffering]ple you'[dropout]ll probably have [pop click squack] som-som-some issues.
ReplyDeleteDid you see that Gary Null reverses the aging process by using Clairol?
ReplyDeleteKGT
Bob Fass is on the air now. He thinks you are a Blue Meanie.
ReplyDeleteI'll have to look in the mirror to see if he is right about that :) As I replied above, this is rather pathetic. Bob's embellishments of the truth are perhaps due to memory loss, which is very much in evidence.
DeleteAs I said, I will post his rambling interlude and make some corrections, more for his sake than anyone else.
Appreciate your pointing to this.
You must really be getting to them if they are talking more and more about you around town.
DeleteI await your posting of Fass' tirade. Can't believe I said that...
SDL
Take that with a grain of salt, SDL, Bob also believes that he has a vast internet audience (he said so this morning). Unlike all the other things he gets wrong, that one can't be attributed to fading memory.
DeleteI missed that part of last night's Fass show so look forward to your posting that. Oh, and wishing you a healthy good new year :)
ReplyDeleteSay, I heard some music on Fass' show last night -- a guy with a very good vocal range playing acoustic guitar -- he played with a guy playing an upright piano -- low-fi recording. Who was the guy singing? Thanks.
rj
Thank you, rj, may you too enjoy a year of good health, with many more to come.
DeleteI'll try to find out who the singer was. The Horst Wessel-inspired ramble against me will be posted early tonight.