Monday, January 26, 2015

Dingeman: Dump the Governance!


Jim Dingeman has been grumbling with and at us for a very long time, but his spurts of anger at the WBAI situation has often been somewhat diluted by interjected, well-meant but irrational solutions.

It is difficult for any rational observer of the current situation to disagree with the following thoughts, posted on Pacifica Radiowaves by Jim today. It's a bit late in the game, but many of us ignore that in our zeal to see the "bums" thrown out, as Jim puts it. A few years ago, when some of us first saw this coming, there was still time to get WBAI back on track—or so we thought—but the extent of the Pacifica National Board's damage turned out to be beyond our imagination. The underhanded maneuvers that put Margy Wilkinson in the iED seat was the reality check, but we continue to vent, not so much to affect restoration (now mission impossible) as to avoid seeing the abusers' power grab succeed.

The listening audience was way ahead of us when it decided to go elsewhere for the enlightenment Pacifica used to offer.

Here is what Jim Dingeman had to say. Most of it has been said before, by him and others, but—coming from the inside, without the excuses and rationalizations we have been fed by Mitchel Cohen and Berthold Reimers— I think it bears repeating here.


At the meeting of the WBAI CAB at 60 Wall Street today it became obvious that the lack of elections for the LSB in two years has had deleterious effects.

We have been stuck as participants to the grid lock of the LSB in terms of policy issues. It is my opinion that for 14 years the LSB's have NOT seriously questioned the problem of why the audience at all the stations continues to be pathetically small or slowly shrinking. The later, the JUC and their allies, are certainly more responsible for this situation than anybody else since particularly in NYC they dominated the tone and control of the airwave in various ways since the early nineties.

To me, this is due to the simple fact that the nature of the product, the content of the air, has not and will  not be questioned or dealt with in any meaningful fashion by the present players of both the Independents and the JUC and their allies nationwide. Bringing back in NYC a updated version of the grid that existed in the nineties may offer a short term improvement but IMHO is not sweeping enough  to create an audience large enough to permanently sustain a budget larger than currently in play. Far more creative and drastic measures are needed to turn this around.

This requires a immediate attention on all levels to why the current programming mix cannot grow an audience here in NYC to at least a weekly cume of 250,000 and even greater...500,000. The present number of 100-120,000 is simply inadequate and we all know that regardless of our clash of visions.

The last time the audience in NYC reached even close to 400,000 was after the Gulf war. That was a fleeting number that reflected the fact that at that time WBAI or any Pacifica station was still the alternative go to for many when a crisis erupted. That situation no longer exists.

With the growth of digital media, the decline in traditional media of all types and the perpetual lack of willingness on the national and local level since the overthrow of the old board to deal in any serious way with the gradual decline of audience this situation has simply slowly but surely tumbled downhill. 

Any rational look from the perspective of folks in California at their state AG office will be a sobering look at the amalgamation of facts that they will assemble. For example, anybody running a fiscally starved non-profit would rightfully be taken to task for several years running not working hell bent to get money from the CPB.

At this point seeming stupidity moves into the sphere of calculated demolition. There is simply no excuse from any perspective for the possible loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars of revenue being rationally justified at this point in time. This goes for all those in management or governance positions who have willfully allowed this situation to come to pass.

The next step is to figure what additional practical actions are needed to solve this problem. It is clear to me that the leadership of both sides in the embittered governance structure need to be taken to task on this by the tens of thousands of people who have gladly and willingly supported the stations for years with their hard earned money. This needs to be a national outcry and campaign to simply throw the bums out. —Jim

16 comments:

  1. O when the rats, go jumping ship
    When the rats go jumping ship
    Jim Dingeman wants to be in that lifeboat
    When the rats go jumping ship

    Now let's count the days until Mitch Cohen looks to save his own skin and starts singing along.

    These scumbags were part of the problem all along and now want to look innocent, like a snowflake after the dog pissed on it and a car drove over it....

    SDL

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The bunker people's m. o. has always been to include one or two (usually vague) asides admitting to errors, but—like my recollections of real cream in post-WWII ersatz coffee—it doesn't work as naïvely anticipated. Now we are seeing the balance shift and, as you point out, some of the culprits are coming to terms with reality, so they attempt to cover their tracks or, as in the case of Frank Lefever (he used to brag of having given us Reimers), disappear from view.

      Jim has always been genuinely frustrated. This has led to the occasional outburst wherein emotion got the best of him, but I think that is something many of us can identify with.

      Delete
  2. I would of course agree with some of what Dingeman has said. Yes, the problem is the programming and the audience. Of course. Also, duh. Also, of course, duh, again.

    In the late 1970s WBAI and Pacifica transitioned to seeing their principal raison d’être as political advocacy.

    That led, over time, through various stages, to the present place.

    There is no useful point at this point in attempting to analyze that evolution in any detail as anything other than an academic exercise.

    These institutions, these organization, are dead. They are the equivalent of a terminal patient slowly ebbing away, a little bit at a time, with the occasional spasm as the only sign of ‘life’.

    Well, there ain’t no ‘life’ left here.

    The only – the only – thing of any worth in any sense, whether we’re speaking of finance or of morality is the value of the frequencies.

    That value, which the existing organization(s) is/are incapable of actually accessing is effectively lost and will in time be literally lost.

    Just give it a bit.

    Delusions about ‘saving’ this that and the other through this that and the other…?

    Oh, please.

    Never happens.

    ~ ‘indigopirate’

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jim Dingeman looks like John McDonagh.

    KGT

    ReplyDelete
  4. About 25 years ago, Jim Dingeman did an investigative piece about the documentary about a black platoon of U.S. soldiers who purportedly, but in fact did not, liberate Dachau. It was very good. Does anybody remember it?

    KGT

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I didn't hear the Dingeman piece but remember the situation. I recall a comment from a black historian somewhere, at the time of the exposure, to the effect that it doesn't matter if the claim is true or not, as long as it makes black people feel good about themselves. I wonder if that historian is also a creationist...

      Anyway, around that time I purchased Dachau: The Hour of the Avenger by Howard A. Buechner. which was for more illuminating and factual about the Dachau liberation.

      http://www.amazon.com/Dachau-Hour-Avenger-Eyewitness-Account/dp/0913159042

      Anyway. At least around the same time the Tuskegee Airmen got due attention.

      SDL

      Delete
    2. The problem is that U.S.forces (not this black brigade) executed surrendering SS guards at Dachau and they didn't want that taint on their record.

      Delete
  5. Just have to add (as a mere observer) that Jim D. has really done things for the station.
    I doubt anyone would have received premiums without his efforts (Even Reimers felt compelled to offer acknowledgement once).
    And the CAB is probably the only thing running in Pacifica that would meet CPB approval without raised eyebrows.

    If the station was in the hands of such "true believers" it might not be great but it would at least survive and not be an embarrassment.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. From what I have observed, I can't argue with any of that. His frustrations occasionally boil over, probably because he does not have the advantage of distance, as many of us do, but even when I seriously disagree with what he posts, I don't for a moment doubt his sincerity.

      Delete
  6. Hi.

    My name is Rufus and I’m an intern at WBAI.

    At WBAI, I’ve acquired many skill useful to young people: I’ve learned to lie like Tony Bates, brownnose like Paul De Lorenzo, steal like Bernard White, and whine like Mimi Rosenberg.

    At WBAI, despite my lack of education I can tell people who are smarter and better educated than me what to do. And I get to rub shoulders with accomplished charlatans like Kaffy Davis, Michael “Bus Driver” Haskins, and Geoff Brady. I get to work with unskilled announcers and engineers like Tony Ryan and Ifé.

    And I get all the food I can eat plus free supplies and equipment paid for by gullible WBAI listeners who think they’re supporting free speech.

    If you’re a person of color or a Ukrainian fascist with few skills and fewer scruples, call 212 209 2950 today and see if you have what it takes to do a job you are unqualified for.


    Rufus Johnson

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The above is obviously posted in jest, but it has an alarming ring of truth about it. I have left it intact, but you should know that I am bothered by the anonymous poster's racist "signature."

      Delete
  7. Boring trading day at work (one of those buy early in the red, sit around all day just watching numbers on a screen and, finally, good green sales in after hours), so I rolled around the FM and AM dials a bit here and there. Well, stopped on WBAI a few times for short bits, and...

    Kane vs. Forlano... Let's get ready to raaaaaaaaaaammmmmmmmmmmmmmble!

    Jeez, can Kane ever ramble on without saying much of anything. I had to listen for 15 minutes to finally figure out what he was talking about. Eventually, he said, "I am a conversationalist," or something similar. No, you just take 15 minutes to say what can be said in 15 seconds. Tighten it up! This is one time I was glad to hear Hay-tie interjecting. Too bad, because I am on Kane's side when it comes to Native Americans.

    Forlano, WBAI's version of Sarah Palin, without the restraint, was her usual self - hopelessly stupid and delusional in thinking she's funny. She's on one side, then the other. She agrees with anything anyone on her show says, no matter how much she contradicts herself. I don't think Purple Passion has a ball gag big enough for her yapper, but maybe Hilton can special order one...

    Verdict? I'll take Kane any day, because he may ramble, but he doesn't think he's God's gift to political satire. Also, the callers I heard were a mixed bag. Are a few more intelligent people popping out of the woodwork now that there is more call-in programming? Of course, there was a moron complaining about the classical music shows. The interesting thing was how either Kane or Hay-tie made a comment about how that was looked into. I guess, as I have said in the past, management would love to get rid of it, but it brings in too much money, unlike hip-hop, disco, house, etc.

    Have I rambled enough, yet?

    SDL

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That woman is more interested in pseudo intellectual circumcision chit chat than in Corelli. She didn't complain over all that warmed over hiphopp or Daulton's din for christ. Tells us something about the dumbed down audience, as did the other calls.

      I think John Kane is another abomination. He often does not finish his sentences, rambles on and on—often incoherently—in his quest to spread tax-free cancer and respiratory diseases to Indians, going bonkers over the government apparently having caught tribes red handed (pardon) cheating the tax people. If he really had concern over the plight of impoverished native Americans, he would advocate not selling them cancer sticks and, instead, do something to combat ethnic discrimination and give them a better life. I have a feeling that it's all a hustle for him and Veaux.

      Now Kirby Veaux (stagename: Tiokasin Ghosthorse) is coming back after a long absence (in the slammer, as I understand it) so Kane has been given his own talk show! How can you have someone that incoherent host a show? Well, it's WBAI.

      His blather is difficult to describe, so I am going to past a sample from today's nightmare.

      Delete
    2. Tiokasin K. Veaux, aka Kirby Veaux, aka, Tiokasin K. Ghost Horse, age 55, was indicted by a federal grand jury on January 4, 2011, for failing to pay over $30,000 in past due child support that he incurred by impregnating a white girl student. He appeared before US Magistrate Judge Veronica L. Duffy on February 8, 2011, and pled not guilty to the indictment.

      KGT

      Delete
    3. WBAI - home of thieves and crooks. Long list of felons and future felons @ that place. THANK YOU, Chris for exposing this huge heap of fecal matter @ WBAI!

      Delete
  8. When do they serve the Kool aid?

    ReplyDelete