WBAI's shameless, bungling "management" knows how to collect high salaries, but when it comes to operating a radio station...
This is another post regarding the outrageous allegations and treatment Sidney Smith has endured after decades of excellent work. With so many unanswered questions and Reimers and his gang dodging them, the subject refuses to go away, yet the cowardly opportunists who called the shots are still driving the station farther into the ground.
As might be expected, the Pacifica National Board and its double-edged iED are too busy with their own schemes to pay any attention. Even people in the Atlantic Avenue bunker deplore this abuse of power. Here, as posted to the Pacifica Radiowaves listserv January 21, 2015, is R. Paul Martin's point-by-point response to Jim Dingeman's angry demand for answers. I have posted it as a PDF file. R. Paul's censorship has all but killed the infamous BlueBoard at this point, but—as I have previously said, he has his good side, too, and one of them is his staunch defense of colleague Sidney Smith. To read the latest installment, which contains new details, please click on the "PDF file" link above.
For earlier posts on this subject, use this link:
Sounds like a job for Jesse Ventura... or Inspector Clouseau...
ReplyDeleteSDL
Perhaps Maxwell Smart, shoed with a mobile Testing phone could kick up the real story. :)
DeleteI didn't hear that particular statement, but Fass is muddled these days, rambling on and on In search of a an original thought. He has few listeners and only a handful of listeners, it seems. Cracking Fred never seems to have trouble getting through, apropos people who go on and on ad nausea.
ReplyDeleteI miss Monroe. Well, almost.
ReplyDeleteKGT
I don't. not at all.
DeleteNor do I. Monroe had more (undeserved) airtime than any host/producer in the history of WBAI. Of all the regular callers, I detested Monroe the most. Yes, Frank was a neo-facist, but kept his calls short, in general. Monroe, on the other hand, had no consideration for anyone, calling the same show over again as soon as he hung up/was cut off, etc.
DeleteMonroe was the icon of what I term "caller as unofficial co-host." I don't believe in cutting people off for their views, but there is a limit to how much time any caller should be able to monopolize. Other people would like to get on the air and express their views also.
Oh, well. If you're Bob Fass these days, maybe it's good to let your one caller monopolize your airtime, since it gives you less chance of saying something exceptionally stupid.
Hmmm... Actually, WBAI doesn't have any callers worth listening to these days, anyway. In fact, the callers are even dumber than the on-air nit wits.
SDL
Well, there was this guy who called Daulton Anderson's Christmess show. :)
DeleteAll I know is Michio Kaku is lucky his show is prerecorded. Imagine if he took calls? He has a lot of IQ points he stands to lose.
ReplyDeleteKaku: "WBAI, you're on the air."
Caller: "Hi, Mitzio. Does you think there be life on Mars and that if they done come down to Earth that the police would shoots them in a racially charged murder?"
Kaku: "Well, I've discussed life on Mars before and-"
Caller: "No, thats nots whats I means. I means that would the police shoot him 'cause he's an illegal aliens?"
Kaku: "Um... Well... This has been the final episode of Explorations on WBAI. I need to reserve my IQ for future research. Bye all"
(Max Schmid laughing in the background)
Schmid: "And next on WBAI, a special infomercial - How To Make Millions Of Dollars In Voodoo..."
SDL
Yeah. I'm glad Monroe is dead.
ReplyDeleteKGT
I am not glad that he died, but I would not have mourned if his phone had concked out.
DeleteI just wish there were a Hell where Monroe is a talk show host for eternity and has but one caller - a right wing version of himself...
DeleteSDL
There is such a place down there, Knight is the anchor.
DeleteI hope Bob Grant is spending eternity in a ghetto full of black militants and homosexuals...
DeleteSDL
WBAI?
DeleteNot yet, but give it time... a little time... That will cover the black militant part. However, WBAI doesn't seem to care much for homosexuals anymore. I guess if it's a gay/lesbian program or a pseudo science, metaphysics, conspiracy crap show, the latter wins out.
DeleteImagine if Stonewall happened today? I doubt WBAI would say a word about it.
SDL
If Stonewall happened today, they would talk about General Jackson, get through him to the Civil War, and do a long, highly embroidered discussion on Haiti, Oklahoma, and slaves, leading up to Haskins' stumbling through a promo to raise money for "the community" as he introduces his very own "documentary" on Lynching, an American Tradition.
DeleteA musical interlude will have Haskins, Sally O'Brien and Dred Scott Keyes singing a song about reparations. John Kane will step in and spend a half hour explaining how "his people" suffered more than black people. Throughout this production number, Mimi, working under burnt cork, will hum "Solidarity Forever" and Mumia (via cell phone) will read an obscure poem about nasty white pigs with a tom tom background by Hennelly and Murillo, simultaneously reciting the number to call.
Berthold Reimers, nestled snuggly in the arms of Bernard White, will end the show with a prediction, echoed by Mitchel Cohen, of glorious years ahead.
Good outline! Going to do a treatment next? However, I'd have to agree with Kane in this case. What's the working title? Putney Dope?
DeleteNext we'll have to think of casting. Too bad most of the great black actors are now dead, especially without ever having received their due credit.
Remember a while back I sent the link for the video featuring the Crofts and David Wolfe hawking zappers? Well, if you haven't seen, Wolfe has just joined the Crofts as official loons...
http://www.americanloons.blogspot.com/2015/01/1268-david-wolfe.html
Now we need to get Brady his eternal award.
SDL
From what I hear, Brady already has five Reppies on his mantle and the Wolfes are at his door.
DeleteDid I ever mention I have custom T shirts made for me? I come up with the lines and send them off to be printed on a shirt. One of my favorite creations says, "YOU SHOULD PUT MORE EFFORT INTO WINNING YOUR DARWIN AWARD!" Now and then someone laughs and/or gives me a thumbs up. I just wish more people would take my advice, though.
DeleteMaybe it's time for a shirt with some WBAI sentiment. These days WBAI must stand for We Be All Insane...
SDL
How about a simple:
DeleteGO, GARVEY!
We'll catch up
Thanks for the supportive mention. You're kind. Most all of the staff supports me in this strange affair. As I said I don't think I want to go back,...but I would like my name cleared. That's really all I want. Peace.
ReplyDeleteMy mother raised me not to like the bad guys.
DeleteHad to check the same Fass episode a bit earlier. The quote is correct ("The definition of an antisemite is someone who hates Jews more than they deserve") BUT(!) he was quoting Prof. Irwin Corey. It was during a call where Fass was making the point that both Jews and Arabs are considered Semites. He was correct in this case.
ReplyDeleteSDL
I'm glad you did that, SDL. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteIs it possible that somebody could go into the archives and produce a "Best of Monroe" CD to sell as a premium and bring the station into financial solvency.
ReplyDeleteThere can be no best of Monroe, he was the worst from jump street.
DeleteI disagree, Chris. A best of Monroe would be a series of clips of his being hung up on by the various hosts. It would be almost as funny as Tom Whisker passing out on the air...
DeleteSDL
Sydney--After what was done to you, I gag whenever I hear WBAI referred to as "Truth and Justice Radio".
ReplyDeleteMichio Kaku taking live listener phone calls would be like that Monty Python sketch in which Sir Kenneth Clarke is put in a boxing ring with the British champion--I forget his name--of that time.
ReplyDeleteYes, it would...
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPl-YHsYyN0
SDL
Fass said it because he meant it. He only put on "Prof." Irwin Corey to give himself cover. Fass is a
ReplyDeleteself-hating Jew.
KGT
That is a mean-spirited assumption on your part. I have many issues with Bob, but in all the years I have known him, on and off the air, I have never known him to say or do anything that merits the "self-hating Jew" label as commonly defined. To me, it is a meaningless inarticulate insult usually applied when words escape the finger pointer.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that he would state a "joke" like that on a 50,000 Watt transmitter in the middle one of the most densely populated areas in the U.S. and sheepishly attributed it to someone else, proves my point regardless of his previous good behavior. His senility uncovers what he has been repressing.
ReplyDeleteKGT
I think you might be allowing your dislike for Bob Fass to get the best of you. He has run out of energy and whatever spirit that used to fuel him—he is neither senile nor anti-Jewish, but he has stuck himself into a forty-year-old cultural groove, turning what once seemed refreshing into a sad relic.
ReplyDeleteI believe that Bob knows full well that fracking' Fred constitutes a sizable percentage of his present audience, powerful transmitter and dense population thus makes no difference. My assessment is that the only thing Bob "represses" is his need to move on.
Before we praise R. Paul Martin too much, the only reason R. Paul Martin defended Sidney is because he is a fellow gay man - anyone else, forget it.
ReplyDeleteThat is an assumption you make. I don't believe either's sexual preference has anything to do with it—they have been off-air friends for many years. That said, I don't see what would be wrong with that--many decades ago, your reasoning might have made some sense, but not in this age.
Delete