Saturday, January 3, 2015

From the rubble of what once was...


Friday morning, I was working on a writing assignment when I needed a break, so I turned on WBAI and heard Bob Fass grunting something about Horst Wessell. This was an early Nazi who died in 1930 and was made into a martyr, so I wondered what Bob had to say about him. Imagine my surprise when it turned out to be a somewhat strained introduction to a lengthy, agonizingly slow and slithering attack on me!

Fass has never taken criticism lightly, but I think you will agree that he went overboard on this one. It is no secret that I have had much to say about Fass' program on this blog—simply put, I think it ought to have been refreshed or discontinued many years ago, when stagnation first set in. That also holds true for many other WBAI offerings, but, unlike most programs, I regarded Radio Unnameable as part of the inventory and very much a presentation that only Bob could host.  My concern was not so much for the program itself--it had already run its course and time had rendered it an cultural aberration. Now, only a handful of the guests who once made this such an exciting free-form forum were around. The great artists who used the show as a stepping stone were either dead of old age, too busy maintaining a successful career, or so disenchanted with the turn WBAI has taken that they no longer felt comfortable at 99.5. Yes, there are aged activists who may call in and reminisce, but that only underscores the obsolescence. 

As anyone who has regularly read my comments here and elsewhere knows, I was disgusted by the station's shoddy treatment of Bob, who was performing gratis and whom management even refused to compensate for having to spend his own money on gasoline. No other person at WBAI was as closely identified with the station or as well remembered, but when his program became the subject of a documentary film, Berthold Reimers and his bunker crowd only wanted to know how the station could generate income from it.

In one sense, Bob himself helped to create the situation, but I believe his ego--somewhat boosted by the film—stood in the way of his doing the sensible thing: Give up the program and work on a book about his half a century at WBAI. He should have done that  at least a decade ago, but the film's release would have provided a natural transition.

Now it is too late to close that chapter with any dignity, so he just goes on and on, a weak echo emerging, although barely, from the ruins of a station he helped to establish many moons ago.

I think his rambling attack on me pretty much speaks for itself, but I would like to clear up a few of the untruths, whether they be deliberate twists or lapses in memory. I will skip the uncalled-for, outrageous analogies he makes of me with a notorious Nazi or a berserk bloodlusty monster, but some of his clearesr lies or age-induced fantasies are listed below this unexpurgated sound clip.



1. I was not fired from WBAI. I quit and Pacifica President Hallock Hoffman offered me a network-wide job that he and the PNB created. I considered it, but turned it down and went with the BBC instead. Here's Hallock's letter.


2. Bob never did my show, nor did I ever do his, and the only time I was drunk was on October 18. 1949, my 18th birthday.


3. Bob had, as he says, been fired by my predecessor when I became manager, otherwise I would not have been able to hire him back.


4. I have never supported fracking, on the contrary. However, I did criticize Bob for letting this very boring guy, Fred, hog so much of his air time every week. I thought Bob should have worked to get some real discussion of fracking on the air at a time when there might have been more than a handful of people listening.


5. I have never practiced censorship on this or any other blog, unless not approving spam can be considered as such. Unlike the Blueboard, this blog has been spared meaningless trollery, so when Bob asserts that I "very strictly limit what can be said" on this blog, he is being rather dishonest.


6. Finally, let me add that one of my criticisms of Steve Post was his use of WBAI's air to level personal, slanderous attacks on people like Tana DeGamez, Barbara Dane and Bob Bisom, people who had created extraordinary radio for WBAI. I am not saying that any of my programs were as good as Tana's commentaries, Barbara's interviews from Cuba, or Bisom's coverage of the Columbia students' uprising, but I did not abuse my WBAI broadcast privilege to air dirt. This is what Bob Fass did Friday morning.

48 comments:

  1. Please post an audio clip of the Horst Wessel Song.
    KGT

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    1. Who knows, it might be played on next week's Radio Unlistenable. :)

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  2. That was certainly some ramble. I really have to wonder if Fass himself looked at this blog or was going by what someone told him. If the former, then, sadly, his brain is jumbled. If the latter, then Fass is being lied to.

    The simile of Horst Wessel to you is really just silly. I have seen people use similes like this in life to compare their personal matter to some catastrophic event, and it’s always silly.

    Out of fairness, I must ask you, Chris: Has Bob Fass ever attempted to post on this blog and been censored? I ask because of his claim of censorship here. It’s rather amusing considering the Blue Board is what people normally point to when it comes to censorship.

    It’s funny how he alludes to the Vietnam tapes situation and just rambles right off it, making NO sense.

    You hired him but he had already been hired and fired. I like the way he stepped into and out of that one.

    The entire fracking spiel is just bullshit. I don’t recall anything about fracking on here. Fass caller wasn’t criticized for talking about fracking but for just rambling off a list of never ending names. I would have found it just as boring if he rambled off a list of names of Congressional Medal of Honor winners.

    I can’t comment on the Steve Post matter, since I was only a few years old at the time. I don’t even know whom the people you mentioned are.

    In the end, Fass should, at least, ask you on the air to discuss the related matters. It would be a hell of a lot more interesting than what he has on these days.

    SDL

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    1. I am almost certain that Bob looked at the blog, but it was obviously a conveniently cursory look. And, yes, his brain seems to be seriously jumbled—perhaps I should send him a weed whacker :)

      As for censorship, Bob has never posted to this blog, but he is always welcome to do so, as is everybody else. I intercept the occasional robo-spam and there have been two or three post submissions in the past three years that I did not let go through, because they were totally frivolous, decidedly trollish anonymous one-liners. Apropos the Blueboard, I heard R. Paul Martin say on the air this morning that he no longer posts to the PacificaRadiowaves list, "because they censure me." Thought that was pretty funny.

      Yes, I assume that Bob was alluding to Chris Koch's false accusation of censorship when spoke of the terrible injustice that has had me festering intense hatred for fifty years! At least he finally acknowledges that the accusations were false, which makes me wonder why he played along with them at the time. You may have read posts wherein I express disappointment with Bob for not speaking up—that's what I was talking about.

      Anyway, he makes it sound as if I have harbored bitterness against Pacifica for five decades, but the truth is that I maintained an excellent relationship with the Foundation, although Harold Taylor, the NY Board's head, was an opportunistic jerk. My beef was with Chris Koch, who created the accusation to make himself look like a martyr, and to people like Post, Josephson and--to some extent--Bob, who hopped on the Koch bandwagon. It never occurs to these people that my staying on a month beyond my resignation, to teach Millspaugh the ropes, belies their scenario. Add to that my continuing to broadcast (as a volunteer producer/host), offering to give about $1,000 worth of my Bessie Smith book for use in fundraising, meeting with the PNB on behalf of three producers who were censored by Dale Minor), etc.

      So, I do believe that Bob's memory bank is failing him or that I am seeing in full flower the two-sided Fass I used to know. Back then, when the flower children were changing things around, I used to half-joke that Bob was apt to choke you with his love beads. It doesn't work, but he tries.

      Truly a sad case.

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    2. RPM said that? Now, that's truly funny. What's the old saying" The pot calling the kettle black? I think he should lift the bans and let people speak. What he lords over now is so dead, it's a laugh.

      You know what I have learned in my decades long association with WBAI? That anyone who hangs there for a while ultimately becomes (if they weren't already) a hateful, spiteful person. Just something about it that seems to bring that out or instill it in people. Everyone wants to hate. Have fun.

      Anyway. Just send Fass some Null multi-colored Stuff...

      SDL

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    3. I'm inclined to agree that there is something foul in the air. Part of it is probably fueled by a survival instinct. One thing for sure, Pacifica is a misnomer... very much so. Can you believe that never-ending exchange of insults that's become a stable of PacificaRadiowaves? These are the people who run the damn foundation and they are acting like pre-schoolers.

      Perhaps Null's soon-to-be-introduced glitter stuff will make him sparkle. Did you see what Kevin White posted after hearing the Fass ramble? Here it is:

      "God, bob Fass speaks four words a minute.

      And three of them are 'um, um, um...'

      What does Bertold do for a living? That man needs to be off the air."
      Kevin White

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    4. Well, why do you think I call it the Pacifica Radiowaves Petty Bickering list? Redundant, I know, but they are politicos and not radio people.

      Yeah, saw the White post. Have to say he is right most... um... um... the... um... time...

      Actually, I also wonder what Reimers does for a living.

      I said it before and will say it again. The greatest threat to WBAI is that the ever aging remnants will slowly but surely die off, and there will be fewer suckers sending in money.

      SDL

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    5. Are you saying that I will need another bucket of blood for those score lines Fass imagines? :)

      I just heard the Irish announce that Murillo is extending the morning show by replacing the 10-12 music slots with New York focused features of no particular color. Hmmmmm

      I also notice that Wolf has been moved from Sat to Fri, and Dr. Ali is now on at 1PM Sat. Now, if he woul move Brady to Mars and O'Brien to the Faroe Islands...

      Delete
    6. Interesting. I know there was talk of Murillo getting rid of morning music for more news/talk, which is a move, I think, may be good. However, that leaves the old hosts having to be given either new slots or fired. You certainly don't want to fire a bread winner like Irsay (Sunday move into a classical block would be ideal, I think). I doubt the rest mean any money, certainly not Massingill (or whatever her name is).

      Aren't the Native Americans in the 10-12 slot? I know they draw money, but they aren't music oriented.

      Wolf is a quandary to me. He is someone with whom I agree with many observations, but not most of his answers. I always found him interesting but a little arrogant. He's challenging, though, which is a good thing.

      Good move for Dr. Ali. He'll probably do better in that slot, which should burn up Null.

      NO! Please don't bring Brady closer to Earth than he already is!

      You know when the first time I ever heard of the Faroe Islands was? As an early teen first tuning around talk radio and discovered Barry Farber. One of the first times I heard him, he was talking about them. I can't hear about them without think of Farber. URG!

      SDL

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    7. "No particular color" is left-speak for anti-white.

      KGT

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    8. It is good that Murillo is making some changes, those morning music slots were the work of Tony Bates and they wasted valuable air space.

      I'm sure he won't dump Irsay, that would be a very foolish move. The Native Americans won't go, either, I don't think, but John Kane is horrible. Have you heard him spew on about Native-produced cigarettes? It just shows what a hypocrite he is, and so full of himself... I wasn't very familiar with Ghosthorse, but I'm sure he couldn't have been as bad as this jerk is.

      Many more changes need to be made, but I don't know if Murillo has enough time left, or the guts it will take to turn so many self-serving, nasty people against him.

      I am somewhat puzzled by the extended morning show. The impression I got was that it will be conducted by the Irish but covering everybody. Surely, they are not going to retain the 6-8AM slot as a soapbox for discontented, small-minded racists, squeeze in Amy for an hour, and then pour in the bleach.

      Apropos pale faces, I'm sorry that I mentioned the Faroes (Færø in Danish). I have been there and there isn't much in the way of anything. It looks a lot like Iceland.

      Delete
  3. On a completely unrelated note, has anyone heard of the schedule change at WBAI?

    Today, I tuned in at 12PM to listen to "Economic Update With Richard Wolff" and found that "Radio Free Eierann" had taken the time slot, while "Update" has been switched to Fridays from 9 to 10 (the announcer of "Eierann" didn't specify if it were AM or PM). I am right now listening to WNYC instead.

    I have been a faithful listener for the past two years, and I think it is an example of what WBAI needs more of - thoughtful, intelligent programming full of valuable analysis and news. As a college student, I have personally benefited from his analysis of higher education in the United States. Furthermore, from what Wolff says about the public support of the program, I think I can say that "Update" is one of WBAI's more well-known shows right now.

    It makes no sense to me then, that WBAI management has moved him to a slot where hardly anyone can listen to him (assuming it's 9AM to 10AM; even at 9PM to 10PM it can be inconvenient). The beauty of the previous time slot was that anyone in New York could listen to him at their leisure and learn. Now, we will have to strain to find time. No one said anything about a time slot change last week, and the program schedule on the WBAI website hasn't even been rearranged to reflect the changes! From that, it seems to me that this was a change made at the last minute.

    In fairness to "Radio Free Eierann", I have nothing against that program. It serves its purpose and at times has some interesting information. However, as far as current events is concerned, I feel "Update" is the more valuable program.

    I am very upset with WBAI and its management, and I think this is a boneheaded move they can barely afford. So, once again, did anyone else have wind of this change? Does this affect only Saturday or the entire week? Is there any way to persuade management to consider otherwise?

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    1. As I mentioned in the comment above yours, there is apparently a major program shuffle going on. As you point out, the online schedule is hopelessly outdated, so one can only hope that they get to fixing that, too.

      WBAI's management is, indeed, boneheaded and unfit to run a radio station. The changes being made right now are the work of Mario Murillo, who is only back at WBAI temporarily and is trying to repair several years of incredibly dumb programming mistakes. This should have been done a few years back, but it has taken a mass exodus of listeners to wake them up. Manager Berthold Reimers is still in a slumber.

      Murillo will need to get rid of a large percentage of the stagnant producer/hosts if the station is to have any hope of restoring its integrity and significance.

      If I recall correctly, Wolff's new Friday slot is in the PM.

      Thank you for posting here, I hope you will visit regularly and share your thoughts on what is happening at WBAI.

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    2. To make your feelings known, try contacting iPD Mario Murillo. Don't waste your time with Reimers, who is notorious for ignoring listeners.

      Also, remember that you can listen or download programs from WBAI.org at your convenience.

      SDL

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    3. Caveat: If you go to the archives mentioned by SDL, be aware of the fact that they are in many cases mislabelled. There are shows listed long after they have been eliminated. Your best bet is to navigate using air time rather than program title.

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  4. I thought this might be of interest. The latest edition of Apple Bites is dedicated to an overview of NYC market arbitron ratings over the past 40 years. Let's play a new version of Where's Waldo? called Where's WBAI? I just can't find it...

    http://www.musicradio77.com/apple/applemain.html

    SDL

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  5. It was common knowledge and shared perception by the late 1970s that Fass was not only long past his expiration date, but that he’d been long past it for a very long time. Folks like Leonard Lopate, Mike Feder, Lynn Samuels, Joe Frank, and others were champing at the bit, hungry for air time – and rightly so – but Fass was this moldering whale of an institutional presence and memory.

    If you look at that pic, it’s clear even in his own words that he simply (literally) couldn’t conceive of things ever changing.

    It would seem that he still can’t.

    None of this surprises, but all of it is sad.

    Realistically, Fass had only a few good years in the late 1960s, possibly at most one or two more in the very early 1970s, but without question by the late-ish 1970s he was no longer a talent, and no longer a presence – only an absence.

    In that sense, also sadly, in many ways his ‘career’ parallels that of WBAI.

    The long, long, ever-so-long-fade….

    ~ ‘indigo’

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    1. I'm afraid you're right, Indigo, and the real attraction was not so much Bob himself as it was the guests his show attracted. Any number of hosts could have had this stream of budding and ready-for-closeup talent if given the air time and freedom Bob enjoyed. Don't get me wrong, he was good at it, but no stand-alone. I did not hire him back because he special... in fact, he wasn't, but he knew the station and I felt it ought to have a loose format midnight program.

      Actually, I always thought that John Leonard was a far greater talent... he had a wonderful sense of humor and an intellect that fed it but never got in the way. His KPFA show was an inspiration to me when I ventured into night radio. Did you ever hear it? I'm sure you must be familiar with some of his writing.

      Amazingly, John started out at the National Review, a sort of Buckley protegé. I think that made him take a sharp left turn. :)

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    2. Useless historical FYI: Before Fass got his gig at WFMU, he was a guest on Lynn Samuels afternoon show one Monday (I think that was the day her weekly show was on, from 3PM - 5PM). They claimed it was his first time back at WBAI since his firing.

      I'm really starting to think that I should jot down all these little memories I have of WBAI, like the night Lopate's guest got mugged outside the station while waiting for someone to come open the side gate for him to enter. Needless to say, he wasn't in the best of moods during the interview...

      SDL

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    3. That may well have been true. I believe Bob was fired more than once. I vaguely recall coming to the station to guest host a program (or participate in a panel discussion) and seeing Bob stand outside with a sign. He looked passé then (probably in the late 70s/early 80s). I don't know if I ever had the details on that.

      As Indigo pointed out, Bob ceased to be an asset many, many years ago. He should have taken advantage of the popularity he had before it dissipated.

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    4. @Chris

      Buckley was the antithesis of most contemporary ‘conservatives’, who are more accurately described as reactionary, atavistic, or primitivistic. I may be wrong, but I think Leonard was at National Review not because he thought like Buckley, but because Buckley enjoyed intelligent and knowledgeable opposition and challenge. If I recall rightly Jeff Greenfield, for example, was Buckley’s in-house opponent for a time on Firing Line. Buckley clearly enjoyed a good fight, from a worthy opponent – and an audience can benefit from such debate.

      Would that it were so now. Then again, now isn’t forever. This unusually stagnant and bitter time of competitive umbrage, offense, and outrage can’t last forever, though it seems that way.

      The best defense of the right to abortion I ever read appeared many years ago in National Review when Buckley was still editor-in-chief. Buckley and NR’s positions were firmly opposed to the right to abortion, but there it was, an intelligent articulate defense, within their pages, not as a set up for a counterattack, just a piece, standing on its own, advancing its argument for the right to abortion.

      Impressive I thought then, and think so still.

      Fass, incidentally, betrays his eternal amateur status in the degree of his being unaccustomed to being the subject of criticism, and unable to make sense of it.

      How many auditions did the man ever go on? How many agents, casting directors, directors, and professional critics did he ever deal with?

      A petulant child, an amateur.

      Feh.

      @SDL

      I knew Samuels when she was struggling for air time at the Church, as I’ve mentioned. She was largely dismissed as a Fass hanger-on at that point, and Fass treated her as a flunky (he always left Master as a pigsty unequaled by any other on-air person, incidentally with whoever followed, either engineer or other on-air talent obliged to spend their first half hour cleaning up his mess, and annoyingly, perhaps a token of something or other, but I prefer not to imagine what).

      Lynn was always in my judgement an exceptional indeed a fabulous talent with a fabulous voice, but even at WBAI her voice was seen as a liability – god fucking knows why. She was prickly and a pain-in-the-ass and I say that with sincere affection. She was a wonderful talent, a damn marvel.

      How they chose 505 8th with that gate situation I’ll never comprehend. At the Church one could of course buzz either the main or the side entrance from Master (and elsewhere). 505 had to be built out from scratch, had that nontrivial access issue… never made sense to me but, hey, what do I know?

      ~ ‘indigo’

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    5. I did not share Buckley's political views, but I admired his intellect and, of course, his appreciation for art. I had a few conversations with him, trying to persuade him to lend his voice to WBAI's regular--albeit, shifting—cast, but he politely declined. Kathy Dobbins did, however, eventually get him to join the War and Peace readers. Have you ever heard of Jeffrey St. John? He was a tagged as a conservative when he ran for local office, but he was really an independent thinker who could handle any subject as if it were his "thing." Jeffrey welcomed the opportunity to conduct a weekly commentary show on WBAI and went on to conduct talk shows on the three major networks and author several books. He and I had in common that neither of us had received any formal education, so curiosity fueled our brain. There really are no people like that on the station today... Jeffrey's horizon was too wide for him to have a political agenda. When I told him that people thought of us as that "communist" station, he laughed. :)

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    6. No, hadn't heard of him, I'll scope him out, he sounds interesting.

      Let's face it, any even marginally competent intellect should be capable of making a solid argument for any position whatsoever. Yet that talent seems no longer expected and certainly no longer valued in the Land of The Great Common Denominator. Democracies in general, and America in particular, have of course a deep-ingrained Leveler streak. It's far easier to belittle high standards than to attempt to attain them.

      Not news, I know, but still sad.

      Can't go on forever, I suppose. If nothing else in time the Chinese will be setting the agenda. Frankly, more power to them – someone has to do it.

      ~ 'indigo'

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  6. I think Bob Fass career can best be summed up like this. He was he right man in the right place at the right time in the mid to late 1960s. However, he couldn't adapt to the ever changing world, and by the early 1970s was left behind as a relic of 1960s idealism. Maybe someone needed to play The Stooges song 1970 for him and no one did..?

    @indigo: I think Samuels was a good host no matter what anyone says. She was just a real person and not some generic ideologue. It's funny how people always talked about her voice, which I didn't think about at all. Hell, I always found Barry Farber's or Don Imus' voices irritating, but not Samuels. She was just a real person capable of talking about many issues, whether political, personal or whatever.

    Did you ever have the experience of waiting outside that side gate at 2ish AM for Max Schmid to get his ass down there to open it? If so, then you know how creepy it was knowing muggers were watching you from somewhere out there. Felt like a damn eternity.

    Correct of Jeff Greenfield. Joe Flaherty did a great Buckley on SCTV.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXqPVAXRO-I

    SDL

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    1. Lynn’s voice was a real obstacle for her getting air time – that was the reality, and she was very aware of it and understandably prickly about the issue. Indeed, off air she was as a rule very prickly about very nearly everything. I don’t say that as a criticism, she was a major talent. Talent as a rule exacts a price. I’m fine with that.

      I only needed access to 505 at that hour on a few rare occasions, and never gave it much thought in the sense that you mean. I’ve lived in New York for quite a while and no one has ever been fool enough to attempt to mug me. I don’t count the one crazed crack head with the knife. Crack heads don’t count.

      ~ ‘indigo’

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  7. Lynn’s white skin and Jewish religion was a real obstacle for her getting air time. Period.
    KGT

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    1. White skin and Jewish religion? That assumption is belied by a showbiz history of facts. Think about it, KGT.

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    2. I disagree completely, KGT. Until the past couple of decades, WBAI was very ethnically diverse. In fact, WBAI had a very large representation of Jews at the station and on air until the mid 1980s, at least.

      If you even look at the 1960s, who were three of the most natable people? Fass, Josephson and Post. Keep going forward and we see Lopate, Samuels, Hershkowitz, Feder, Irsay, Kuhn/Geobold, etc. In fact, one could argue the opposite that there was a lack of "color" until the mid 1980s. In fact, there were accusations of WBAI being controlled by "elitist Jews" by some people, like Bernard White.

      I don't think there was really any racial bias at WBAI until modern times. Political bias? That's another thing, of course.

      Personally, I don't care about a person's race, religion, etc. When I listen to rmy adio, I care about the quality of their broadcast. If I look at my radio, I see the mainly grey of my Sangean PR-D15...

      SDL

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    3. WBAI was generally diverse through the 1970s. At the board level, though, Percy Sutton’s political machine began moving in, with an agenda to fold WBAI into Inner City Broadcasting. The motive was purely financial, but part of the game was to guilt-trip white liberals and to put Sutton machine people into positions of power as ‘representative’ of the ‘community.’ It was these moves, made visible in the installation of Anna Kosof and Yoruba Guzman and their determination to remake WBAI with a latin commercial sound targeting the metropolitan hispanic community as a complement to Inner City Broadcasting’s existing dominance in the black community that led to ‘The Crisis’ of late 1976- early1977.

      The Sutton Kosof-Sutton salient fell short only because of the wide coverage given to the spectacle of the staff’s seizing the transmitter and the studios, but there was no turning back from that point onward.

      The board put in place management that saw to it the station became increasingly overtly political as its raison d’être, and, by degrees, and various ugly twists and turns, it evolved to the failed and hateful place, consumed by resentment, rage, and frustration, we’ve known lo these last many years.

      That’s the short version, pending some poor fool’s having nothing better to do for their doctoral diss.

      (And I do mean ‘diss’)

      ~ ‘indigo’

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    4. Oops. Sutton Kosof-Sutton > Sutton Kosof-Guzman

      [smacks evil typing fingers]

      ~ 'indigo'

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  8. Kuhn wasn't Jewish. He was a WASP from Indiana. He told me so.
    KGT

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  9. I'm really starting to think there is more to be intellectually gained watching porn than associating with anything Pacifica...

    SDL

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    1. Well no offense but duh *yeah*...!

      ~ 'indigo'

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  10. Lynn was a not so closeted bigot, who later on went to kiss the tush of Rush and Hannnity on WABC. That is the REAL reason she was banned from WBAI later on. I heard her rants against Pres. Obama - demented woman!!

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    1. If you have a case that Lynn was a bigot, then make it.

      Guilt by association doesn't even begin to cut it.

      What did she say that was bigoted? I'm unfamiliar with her having done so if she did, but if you have the evidence, I'm prepared to be convinced.

      Make your case, anon...

      ~ 'indigo'

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    2. Lynn said she wouldn't vote for David Rothenberg for City Council because she would rather vote for a straight woman (Carol Greitzer) than a gay man.

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    3. I'd like to know the context of that comment.

      SDL

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    4. "What did she say that was bigoted? I'm unfamiliar with her having done so if she did, but if you have the evidence, I'm prepared to be convinced".

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    5. I’ll assume for purpose of argument that your statement is true:

      Here’s a shocker: People tend, all other things being equal, to vote for a candidate with which they identify most closely and who, they tend to assume, will therefore most closely reflect their particular interests and issues.

      Women will tend to vote for women, men for men, Asians for Asians, Blacks for Blacks, gays for gays, etc.

      Is this news?

      It’s called identity politics, in the US it’s older than the No Nothing movement and in human history it’s older than human history.

      In a democracy it’s an enshrined concept.

      Is it bigotry if gays tend, all other things being equal to vote for a gay candidate?

      Far from it.

      If an on-air talent said they were going to vote for David Rothenberg because he were gay rather than Carol Greitzer, a straight woman, would that prove that they were ‘bigoted’?

      American culture has simply become too aggrieved and easily offended to bear at this point.

      It would be funny if it weren’t so funny.

      As for Lynn…

      Now try again….

      ~ ‘indigo’

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    6. I still wonder in what context Samuels allegedly made that comment. I don't see her making such a bigoted comment without an explenation as to why she felt that way. I have a feeling there is more to the story.

      @indigo: I generally agree with your voting theory/pack mentality, especially as you go down the intellectual food chain to the common dummy. However, there are exceptions. Most notably the masochistic, self-hating soft ass bourgeois white leftist, whose myopic mind is incapable of seeing anything without the spectre racism involved voting for Ralph Nader, reptilian dark forces, sexual molester, illuminists who vote for humans, etc.

      SDL

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  11. Here’s a little history that WBAI management should read and learn from. While it’s not related to WBAI, it is a very similar pattern to the current WBAI, which will probably have the same result.

    A little while ago a friend and I were speaking about record conventions old and current, when the long gone Dexter Campbell promoted Roosevelt Hotel show came up.

    Dexter was a black man who decided to promote a black music (blues, R&B, jazz, etc.) based show, expecting only black dealers. However, as most dealers and collectors in black music are white, and he could only sell a few tables to black dealers, he had to give in to this fact to be able to pay for the room.

    Well, the show did well for a while, with a good cross section of music represented, including non-black music, like rock, etc. and a room full of dealers and collectors. Dealers made money because the show was popular enough to get the overseas store owners to make “buying trips” and spend thousands of dollars, particularly on the black music, which Germans and Japanese LOVE.

    However, Dexter was a racist and treated the white dealers so badly that one by one they stopped renting tables at the show. (In fact, he would even tell people he didn’t want white dealers at the show.) Eventually, because the white dealers, who had the best and most obscure records, were disappearing, the overseas big money German and Japanese store owners stopped coming to the show. Needless to say, that was a bad financial loss for the remaining dealers, who, near the end of the show’s days, were mainly black at this point. In fact, Dexter was such a bigot that he removed genres like “rock” from the $1.00 off invite cards and advertising.

    The last couple of shows featured about ten dealer tables lining one wall in this huge, mainly now empty room, accompanied by much grumbling by the now all black dealers and few collectors to appear. The show disappeared after that, as Dexter got his wish of an all black show, and couldn’t sustain the cost of doing the show.

    I wonder if Dexter said, in those last days, “This is OUR show…”

    SDL

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    1. Now that I remember, let me add another fact. Tom and Fred who did record shows, mainly in New Jersey and Long Island, decided to promote one at the old 14th Street Armory. Well, many of the dealers from Dexter's show rented tables for that show as well. Shortly before the show happened, Dexter sent a letter to all the dealers who did his show that they would be banned from his show if they did the Armory show. Well, people were pretty pissed off about that, which was a topic of conversation among all of us at the show. By the end of the show, we didn't care, as we counted our money...

      Probably needless to say, only the white dealers were banned from Dexter's shows. That way he got rid of a bunch of them. As the months rolled on, no one cared, since tha Armory show was a better show.

      Sadly, the Armory stopped allowing shows because it was turned into a homeless shelter eventually. Tom and Fred moved to the Holiday Inn at 57th Street, where Fred still does it (Tom died some time back), but it wasn't the same there (I only go now and then to say "Hi" to people and make appearences). Add to that the WFMU show coming into being and blowing away the competition.

      SDL, who knows to damn much trivia

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  12. My Friend Citizen Kafka told me he quit his radio show because of the anti-Semitism at the station. Folks, like Fass and Mimi Rosenberg have made a career of out racisming the competition. It's a way of surviving in closed societys , Maos or Stalins or name yr poison. Even more than the black nationalist thing, or the miracle water, what really killed WBAI were the 9/11 untruthers. Yr after Yr, fund drive after fund drive.

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    1. I don't think one can whittle it down do a particular genre of bigotry. I didn't give WBAI much of a thought for a few decades, but I think it is clear that Pacifica's undoing is, in large measure, a result of the so-called "democratization" it underwent. The new system of governance attracted people (on and off the air) who would not have fit into the original fabric.

      Sure, we always had a diversity of political opinion represented within our staff and volunteers, but what we looked for and, indeed, required, was honesty and levelheadedness. Taking our cue from Pacifica, as it was created, we were committed to being the antithesis of mainstream media, both in terms of news reporting and as a public platform for political and cultural visionaries. We were there for the artist to whom other doors were closed---we were never there for personal satisfaction, although that was in many cases a natural byproduct. People generally kept inflated egos cloaked, if they were burdened with such things.

      Looking back, I see where I naïvely failed to detect the opportunism that must have been bubbling under. It came to the fore when management was put into the hands of someone whose ineptitude was exceeded only by his irresponsibility—the fools rushed in and soon bared their prejudices and hatreds. It has been downhill since then.

      Hatred is multi-directional, so the chameleonic nature of WBAI's affliction, over the years, should surprise none of us. At present, WBAI's most evident face of bigotry is the upstream racism of a group that equates "community" with afrocentrism. I think it is fair to assume that these people, in their infinite ignorance, have played a very large part in reducing the station's listenership in terms of numbers as well as intellect, They have not succeeded in turning WBAI into a black station, but taken it far enough so that some of its few listeners actually believe that it is. The reality, of course, is that these propagandists and opportunists have only succeeded in turning the station into a barely recognizable, largely unknown carcass of Lew Hill's dream.

      'Twas beast killed the beauty.

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    2. Chris - you failed to realize that the city has changed - people are not going to sit for your patronizing form of control. People take advantage of opportunities - that is human nature. In that sense, black people are no different than white people. Hopefully, you will start treating black people as human beings instead of opportunities for getting music awards @ the expense of black people. Turn about is fair play!

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    3. If you really believed your own ludicrous conclusions, I rather think you might have lent your name to them.

      Grammys and such are but cheap trophies with a one-night life. We obviously have very different values.

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    4. An above poster is correct - the 9/11 truth programs were the worst programs ever broadcast on WBAI.

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