How many times have we been told that everything's about to be honky-dory? Berthold Reimers apparently mumbles it around the bunker and his cronies there repeat it. Mitchell Cohen even goes as far as to predict that WBAI might soon become the financial rock upon which Pacifica will rest.
The subject seems to crop up whenever the studio phone lines are open to the public, and nobody on the inside seems capable of giving a satisfactory answer. Not surprising, because most of them are not told what the status is. Here are a few bits from last night's PC Show, one of the few that isn't afraid to face the music.
This is taken from the archive, which is sounding very bad these days, sometimes so distorted that it can serve no useful purpose.
Wow! Talk about burning like a branding iron. Stevie, controlling some serious anger, gets my respect because he just cut right through it all. Sadly, as we have heard from callers in the past, many of the people aren't capable of going down to the station due to infirmity. Calling Margy could be interesting, if for no other reason than to see the Pacifica big cheese get an earful.
ReplyDeleteOne thing about TPCS and it's premiums. They offer legit(!) DVDs of timely Windows patches or versions of other programs that people may be awaiting to add security to their computers. As time goes, not receiving these means people will have to do more work to update these. Not very nice holding these up.
But really. These are simple DVDs. Is it really that difficult to mail them out to people? The same goes for OTH and their DVD and flash drive premiums.
All I can say is I wanted stuff offered on TPCS and OTH (last beg-a-thon) and held back for one reason - I knew I wouldn't get them. Even at a couple of points when I had my cell phone in my hand I put it back down. I'm probably not the only one. Well, that's a few hundred Dollars WBAI didn't get from me (full Hope X flash drive, the Steve Rambam collection, Windows XP & 7 patches DVDs was about $350.00 I think). These shows really need to handle mailing the premiums themselves.
SDL
Mike Sargent of WBAI is on PBS Newshour - go Mike!!!
ReplyDeleteMike Sargent - a man so boring with so few listeners who makes so little money during pledge drives that he makes
Delete- yes, I mean this! - Bob Fass look good... better... not so bad... less torturous...
SDL
The night show is just local, not even simulcast on a few little stations, like Radio Unlistenable is. He has done some prerecorded movie reviews in the past, but I don't know if they were picked up for national broadcast or not.
DeleteMy guess is "Pacifica Radio film critic" is a self-awarded title. If you're appearing on a national show, you want to sound bigger than you are, since only a few NYC radio market people will know what WBAI is.
SDL
This is the second time in a week, or so, that I have seen him on PBS-TV in the role of "Pacifica Radio" film critic, and labeled as such. Is he heard on any other Pacifica station or does this omission reflect the embarrassment WBAI's call letters now evoke?
DeleteThey do that a lot on WBAI. Robert Knight identified himself (endlessly) as a network anchor, broadcasting from the New York studios. As their efforts to dumb down the station's audience became increasingly effective, so did the ruse. Sometimes I thought Knight actually believed his feigned importance.
DeleteWBAI is an ebbing fantasyland.
While eating dinner and doing my usual FM bandscan, I had to stop on WBAI to listen to one of the most imbecilic shows I have heard in years. Forlano isn't simply one of the stupidest people on the station, barely capable of expressing a full thought AND gigling uncontrolably like some sort of retard, but is so ignorant and such an apologetic nitwit that she should go to the Mid East and dance around with an AK-47 (like Lynn Redgrave did) with some militant mass murderers who use religion as a rational for their bloody entertainment. She's such a gutless wimp.
ReplyDeleteThat said, the callers were... I have no idea what to call them. They were like three year olds trying but not capable of expressing any sort of linear thoughts beyond "I hungry." Of course, the only caller that could express himself to any degree was a Muslim who wants to ban making fun of religion because, It hurts people.". Needless to say, she gave him a major rim job.
After listening to about 30 minutes of this shit, I see why WBAI doesn't put her crap show in the archives, or what exists of it.
Reimers must be the greatest evil genius since Wile E. Coyote to put this show on, so that the dumbest of the dumb listeners have a show they can call into and talk to a host who is on their level. By focusing these morons on her show, they don't call the other shows. Good plan.
SDL
correction: It was Vanessa Redgrave Not Lynn.
DeleteKT
Right. I credited the wrong woman as Mrs. Franco Nero...
DeleteSDL
Forlano comes from the same Reimers box of WBAI misfits as Daulton Anderson. Apropos radio misfits, have you heard the stumbling diatribe (sorry) of John Kane? He is as painful to listen to as Fass is these days--I would love to have been a little fly on King's flatscreen when Henry Louis Gates, PBS's black tracer of genealogy, told Don Cheadle that some of his family once was the property of Chickasaw slaveowners!
DeleteI think Reimers thought Forlano and Anderson were going to be his next two stars. Needless to say, they are flops. The amazing thing is that Murillo, who should know better, hasn't dumped them. Reimers has a sort of reverse Midas Touch - everything he touches turns to shit.
DeleteI've heard Kane but never was impressed one way or another by him.
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chickasaw):
"The Chickasaw gathered at Memphis, Tennessee, on July 4, 1837, with all of their portable assets: belongings, livestock, and enslaved African Americans."
SDL
A heads up: The latest Twit Wit Radio took jabs at bequests at radio stations. I wonder what inspired the comments.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/110240
SDL
Well that was interesting. Living in the hills of New Jersey, I don't get WBAI out here. I have to listen in the car going to work.I usually pick it up around exit 27 on RT. 80 East. ( That is true for all the NYC stations ). I don't get to hear things like this. I'm in the car from about 5:45 until 6:15. These days I listen to 1010 WINS. I have given up on WBAI. It's a shame.
ReplyDeleteI can see why they are being so blunt. They are sick of making excuses for management. They wanted to be in radio, not customer service.
Anyway, I do enjoy this blog. And I'm glad that there are people who see what a slow motion train wreck this all is. I am not gloating, but I am watching this station go down with the same vicarious thrill that I had back in the day watching Dynasty.
Thanks for hearing me out, Chris in NJ.
Compounding the outrageousness of management's inaction is the fact that the PC Show people (like Off the Hook's producers) create their own premiums, and do so legally.
DeleteThank you, Chris, for visiting this blog and taking the time to post a comment.
Just to clarify something. OTH creates the content for its premiums but WBAI is responsible for sending OTH the flash drives to place said content on. The problem is WBAI takes forever and a day to actually send OTH the flash drives. I'm not sure if OTH or WBAI sends out the finished flash drives. If OTH provided their own flash drives (or let me send one of my own) and mailed them, I'd pay more to cover that in order to get the premium without problems.
DeleteFrom what I gather, TPCS sends the finished DVDs to WBAI, who don't bother to mail them.
Also, TPCS is honest in that they tell you the contents of their premiums are available for free on the net IF you want to spend the time looking for it all. What they are doing is saving you the time by compiling the contents for you. So, what you're paying for is time saving, essentially.
Once again, if TPCS sent the premiums out themselves, I'd go for them. Then I know I'm dealing with responsible adults and not scam artists.
SDL
Some have said their program is outdated. Still, I always figured the PCS was hosted and produced by decent people. The clip you provided confirms that impression.
ReplyDeleteMore power to them, the folks on "Off the Hook", as well as to Ivan Hametz and others who are willing to call the nonsense for what it is.
I have said that the PC Show is outdated, only because its hosts stubbornly seem to resent the existence of Apple's operating system, which inspired Windows and continues to be more advanced.
DeleteThey are too glued to those windows to change, so I think WBAI needs an Apple-orientated shows as well.
That said, you are absolutely right about them being decent and I admire their obvious unwillingness to play Reimers' game. In fact, both PCS and OTH have been victims of the station's mismanagement. I bet they can readily find better outlets with more listeners and appreciation from the front office.
I don't think TPCS is outdated at all. In fact, I think Stevie should be made the new GM. However, I do think taking a shot for a few months on an Apple show is a good idea. See how it does when a beg-a-thon rolls around. There may just be an audience for it. I'm sure people at Tekserve could put a show together. Wasn't Tekserve founded by former WBAI people?
DeleteJust for the record. I started on Apple computers before Windows. However, I faded away with OS 9 and stuck with Windows because of things I needed to do on computers. Now I am going Linux. After Linux I will be using semaphore signals.
SDL
There may be less need for an Apple show, because it is a more intuitive system. Some corporations opted for Macs mainly because they saved money by not having to train the staff as thoroughly. I found that out when I spent some time instructing office workers in the use of Macs. Former Windows users were the hardest to train, because they tended to instinctively look for complex solutions to simple tasks. There is a reason why Apple stays ahead, although I should say that Windows has come a very long way since their first emulation attempts. When I was working on a project for St. Croix, I needed a Windows machine, because that was all they had or knew anything about. It turned out to be very easy, because there is software that allows one to run Windows on a Mac. The one I used, Parallels, was perfect: fast, reliable, and un-intrusive. In fact, it allows you to run both systems simultaneously and seamlessly.
DeleteThat said, an Apple OS show on WBAI would have to be of a different nature, more one for solving minor problems, using shortcuts,reviewing new software.
The Tekserve guys came from WBAI and they know their stuff. OS 9 made a giant leap when it hit X, so you left too soon. :)
The Mac does semaphore signals.... there's a free app for that :)
I would see an Apple show fornat as more of an overall Apple tech, devices and software show, dealing with all the items that Apple is involved in, not just computer matters.
DeleteBy the time of OS 9, I was still on a beige G3 and didn't want to spend on a new machine for OS X. Maybe one day. Keep in mind, though, that I am becoming a bit tired of technology. In fact, I still use a simple flip top phone and refuse to get a "smart" anything. Still DVDs and VHS, refusing to go blu-ray.
Anyway, if a Mac can do a real life 3D printed replica of Jessica Chobot, I'm in...
SDLuddite
She cannot be replicated, is now married and no longer licks anybody's Sony.
DeleteI wonder if she has a taste for a big Mac?
You forgot the final nail in the coffin - she now has a son. However, bet she DOES lick Blair Herter's Sony. Lucky bastard!
DeleteNo, her tastes are more Xbox One and PS 4, which leads me to add that I have refused to get either of those consoles. This comes from a life long video gamer.
Actually, I make my own Big Mac sauce, without all the chemicals and crap in it. It's just eight simple ingredients and tastes better. There's always a bowl of it in my fridge.
SDL