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.
I just wonder when they will finally bleed the remnants dry.
ReplyDeleteOn another note. There was a premium I wanted, but wouldn't be stupid enough to get via WBAI. I contacted one of the producers of the show to see if I could buy it direct for the same money, telling him he's welcome to give the money to the station after he gets it, for all I care. Well, seems station rules prevent him from selling it to me directly (even though Null and others can sell stuff directly because they are bigger fish). He gave me a convoluted way to get around it, but it required me giving money directly to WBAI. I'll pass.
SDL
Not a double standard. There simply isn't any kind of standard at WBAI. Did you catch the OTH people talking about the station not wanting the audio improvement they suggested, even though it was gratis?
DeleteWhen they brag about things not found anywhere else but at WBAI, they should begin with how it is managed/operated.
If an idea doesn't come from the inner circle, it is dismissed immediately.
DeleteOTH Has become a boring show, sadly. Seems they have run out of stuff to really talk about. The last great episode was the Steve Rambam one during the previous beg-a-thon. Even the one rerun of it made money. Of course, no one got their Hope X or Steve Rambam flash drives yet...
Now, Chris, be serious. WBAI has some unique features. Mimi Rosenberg is one. Let's all be glad she is, indeed, unique to WBAI. One is more than enough. There err ain't no ummmm one like errrrr Bob Fass. Those archives are always an adventure. John Kane? Come on, now. He travels by train about 7 hours per week to do a couple of hours of radio featuring the same three topics show after show after show. You think he'd spend all that train fare on a way to phone the show in. Last, but not least is, of course, Mumbles Jabu Jabal and his prison based phone calls. They are almost as funny as when Lyndon LaRouche ran for president from a prison cell and had to call in for his TV specials.
SDL
Again I'm amazed that 'Bai is still there. I had expected it to go down this winter. Perhaps there's just enough support to keep it breathing. As I said before this is good. Because it keep alive the Hope it may change. Btw I'm told that the Manager has been libeling me publicly for some time...I didn't know this. He's saying I'm an active pedophile etc. My heavens. My family...which has means wants very badly to sue the station. Whereas I just wanted it to be all behind me. This is such sick shit.
ReplyDeleteI suppose you'll need a witness, or two, but I think your family has the right idea. This is so outrageous and that cowardly little bastard, should not be allowed to get away with it.
DeleteDon't underestimate protective melanin, especially if it speaks Creole.
DeleteKGT
@sydney smith: I understand your feelings about not suing WBAI, so let me make this suggestion. Perhaps have a lawyer send a letter to Pacifica explaining the matter and asking that they take action against Reimers, and stop him from making any further comments/accusations, as well as an investigation into the scandal. If they don't, just sue 'em all, because at that point, you owe them nothing.
DeleteSDL
Excellent advise, SDL.
DeleteSDL: Lawyers rarely write nice letters. The letters that get action are the ones that engender fear in the recipient.
DeleteKGT
@KGT: It's up to Sydney and his lawyer what they choose to do, if Sydney should talk to a lawyer. Personally, I think he should go talk to one just to see if anything can be done to clear his name. However, it is up to him, of course.
DeleteSDL
Please sue. You are truly being slandered, regularly and cruelly, and Reimets should not be allowed to get away with it. A cease and desist would be too little too late since the damage is done. He has turned your name into mud using bai as his pulpit. His actions must be held accountable.
DeleteOf all the despicable behaviors Berthold Reimers has exhibited in his years at WBAI, none can compare with this case, Sidney. I predict that you will find many supporters on both sides of the BAI wall.
DeleteStandard behavior @ WBAI. When the producers of Radio Bandung were let go years ago, both Valerie Van Isler and Samori Marksman made calls to ensure that she would not get employed anywhere. Samori called a fellow colleague a "light-skinned negress". Hope the station falls to its knees!!
DeleteFYI: Gary Null's The Joy of Juicing is available for free on youtube posted by Null himself! Save the $75 on the premium, view it for free and spend the money on fruits and veggies.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkbdM_I-PnA
The book? $15.51 on amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Joy-Juicing-3rd-Edition/dp/1583335196
OK, so The Joy of Juicing pack comes to $125.00 for the DVD and book via WBAI. Get them elsewhere for a total of $15.51. I stress the word "get," because if you do youtube and amazon, you will get them. Pay much more via WBAI and you'll probably be dead before they arrive...
SDL
But think of it, you will be dying so that the words and wisdom of Haskins, Brady, Rosenberg, Mumia, Chuck D, and Lady Catherine of Davis will live.
DeletePersonally, I am looking for the Juicing of Joy, as in it-seems-like-only-yesterday DeGruy.
Notice that, true to form, Reimers has extended the drive by another week!
DeGruy is just a big nothing. A big "who gives a crap?"
DeleteHas Reimers extended the party? That's good. Maybe WBAI can bore more people away with repetition. Just hand the station to Null and his PRN already.
To be honest, all this Pacifica stuff has gotten to the point it isn't even amusing anymore. It's just monotonous. Pacifica Radio Waves Juvenile Bickering List is just unreadable at this point. I have heard kids in Gamestop arguing more intelligently about video games. I'm not joking, either.
The blue board seems to exist for RPM to tell us when the blue board has technical problems.
WBAI should start airing a promo telling listeners to put WBAI in their wills. "Sign up before you sign out..."
I'm better off watching 1980s slasher films. At least they can be funny.
SDL
They somehow have the notion that WBAI stands between the world going to hell and some idyllic alternative. Earl Caldwell is not responsible for the endless airing of his cancer rant, but does he not realize that it takes his on reputation down several pegs each time Haskins or another clown presses that RUN key?
DeleteDelphine was so right a couple of years back when she expressed her disgust at BAI giving people false hopes—it is irresponsible and morally reprehensive. I wonder if the PNB members on the West Coast follow what is going on at the station, and whether they even care.
Delphine should know - several people said she was assaulted by Mario Murillo some years ago and was bullied into silence. Same old story.
ReplyDeleteWBAI is like Professional Wrestling. They pretend to beat each other up. They even cut their foreheads with razor blades. But in the end they hug and kiss each other in the locker room out of sight and earshot.
DeleteKGT
(JustAListener)
DeleteI'd say it's the opposite of Pro wrestling. On the air it's love and harmony, out of sight and earshot they assault each other.
The "Peace and Justice" station...
This is a calumny created and spread by Paul DiRienzo and no one else--including Delphine. Anything you read on this or any other blog that involves personal slanders against Amy Goodman or Mario Murillo are probably posted by PDR. I know why he hates Amy Goodman--he was reviled by the DN audience when he and Santiago Nieves took over her morning spot during the Utrice Leid regime. I'm not sure why PDR hates Mario. Perhaps because he was well liked, well-respected, and taken seriously by WBAI listeners. DiRienzo is taken seriously by no one who knows him.
ReplyDeleteTPM
I know PDR and he speaks the truth. He is writing a book on WBAI and he will include the dark side of Mario, Samori, Amy, Dred and the rest the thieves @ BAI. Stay tuned!!
DeleteI was watching some old documentaries today of which one was about Jonestown. It struck me how the same demographic who died for Jim Jones are one of the same demographics WBAI appeals to. They are poor, not very bright, lack critical thinking, want a saviour to lead them to prosperity and "justice." Needless to say, I am excluding the New Age/health nit wits, who are stupid, scared, monied people afraid to even breath air anymore.
ReplyDeleteKnow what is surprising? That there aren't infomercials on WBAI for some of the more commonly hawked crap as appears on TV. You'd think they would offer a cure for baldness, a healthy food cooking oven, organic house cleaning supplies, etc. Hmmm... If I were GM, I'd be more of a menace than Reimers, wouldn't I?
As I have said before, they will slowly die off and that will truly be the end of WBAI.
SDL
When it comes to describing the current WBAI audience, I think you hit that nail square in the middle of its head. There is also a smaller group of politically indoctrinated zombies who feed at the WBAI trough, and an even smaller one that seems to find hare-brained radio and deleterious infomercials a relatively small price to pay for a few programs of substance. WBAI is a stale stew into which a tumbler of good wine has been emptied.
DeleteWe are not far from hearing your second paragraph come true, but—as you hint in the final sentence—time may be on our side.
SDL: You're wrong about a good portion of Jonestowners. Some were white, educated, intelligent and were drawn to the multiethnic philosophy of Peoples Temple and their philosophy of doing public service. They were mislead by Jones. Watch this documentary and you'll understand it better. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9o1vUSLhOs
DeleteKGT
Sounds like you are equating white with intelligent. That does not work, nor can I see characterizing as "intelligent" anyone who did not see through Jones' madness. By the time that madness climaxed, the writing on the wall was a blinking neon warning.
DeleteSorry for butting in here, SDL, this comment was directed at you.
Not butting in at all, Chris. It's you list and a public forum. I always say that once you put something in a public forum, it's public information for all to comment on. Same feeling I had about the five names of potential Pacifica ED condidates, once posted.
DeleteKGT is partly right. There were some monied and poor whites in the Peoples' Temple, who, mostly, held elite positions. However, they were a minority. I would equate them with a Mimi Rosenberg type empathy.
As for other cults in the USA (past and present), I think they mainly appeal to and are targeted at middle class or better off whites. I guess that's where the money is, to rip-off Willie Sutton.
Is anyone intelligent who belongs to a cult? Maybe, in general. However, they are also needy, and put aside their critical thinking for acceptance.
As for the smaller group of supporters who put up with all the crap. I think that the classical music supporters are more people who only tune in for those shows and support them. I know there are people who only listen to Schmid or OTH, or Null, etc. The general political and music programming has the ghetto politic pack for listeners. I bet I am in a small group that likes Jesserich, since no one ever seems to mention his name.
Anyway. Some more premium ideas:
Michael G Haskins broadcasting course (Limited space, act now!)
Penis pumps
In depth one hour long astrological readings.
Find a chef who wrote an African or Carribean cookbook and hawk it
Colon cleanser (popular as shit these days)
Organic pet food
Go to free online libraries and download lots of titles for a flash drive of "supressed" books
Charter a bus to drive a mob to Mumbles prison for a demonstration. $150 for a ticket on the bus. (A friend of mine actually WAS a bus driver for one of these once. He had a VERY poor opinion of how these people behaved during the ride there and back.)
Get some of those 10 movie double sided DVD cheapo packs of black action films that costs $5.00 in a bin at stores and hawk them for $100.
Sell juicers, smoothie makers, etc.
SDL
WBAI proved to be interesting during the couple of times I tuned in while rolling around the dial.
ReplyDeleteHoly hay-tie, Haskins! Stumbled on Haskins all surprised that Kane and Moccasin Horse's Ass got 20 or more phone calls each show during the past couple of weeks. This just tells me how out of touch these people are that they are surprised that the listeners actually like to call in and express their opinions and views. You have a primarily political station, what do you expect? Yes, the listeners want to participate on the air. More call-in shows are needed, especially duing the overnight.
"Cake" Davis actually had a good idea in having a financial adviser on. From the response of the callers (surprise, Haskins!), there is a need for this topic. I'd like to see a weekly show like this, which could actually help people with real life advise, and not hocus pocus "cures." Personal finances are reality, not shamanism.
It kinda crossed the border to free advertising when he guest gave his own office number and Davis asked him to repeat it, several times. They guy, however, seemed to be a decent sort, because he reminded listeners that this was a fundraising program for WBAI. They might do well to give him Kathy Davis' air time.
DeleteSeems every time I have rolled by WBAI today I hear Talkstomuch Ghostbuster doing a premium about - guess what? - cures. Is this the new WBAI quack cures-all star? Finny he mentions being away for a year without mentioning prison or child support, but the feministas wouldn't like him much if he did...
ReplyDeleteSDL
His lo-o-o-ong rambling blather was disingenuous and repetitive. He is more fluent than nicotine pusher John Kane, but equally tiring. Lots of mumbo jumbo, and I loved the lengthy excerpt Haskins played from the product—surely, they could have found a segment of that length where something other than heavy rain was happening. Not really suitable for radio, neither are horse and cane. I wonder how much of the income from product sale goes to help the rain forest and how much goes into Reimers' piggybank. What we have here are a couple of hustlers.
DeletePreceding the horse we had the empress Catherine. Talk about mumbo jumbo, she laid it on thick and played an extraordinary, seemingly endless ooze of verbal nonsense my some guy who appeared to be half asleep and all crap. WBAI has never been as embarrassing and isolated (from listeners) as it is now. Kathy described this guy's gobbledygook as "very powerful."
John No Cane & TalksTooMuch NoHorse were brought in by Mario Murillo. Murillo is close friends with Mr. NoHorse - has stroked him for years on BAI. Blame Murillo for those fake and crooked Indians.
Delete...including Craven (Raven).
DeleteWho remembers Asiba Tupahache of the Matinecoc Nation?
DeleteKGT
Chris, I demand reperations! DeGruy just taught me and made me realize my ongoing ailment - I suffer from Post Traumatic Muslim Occupation Syndrome! You see, I am half Spanish, and my ancestors were subject to the illegal occupation for several hundred years by Muslim invaders. (Shhhh... If you don't tell anyone that my family is actually from Northeastern Spain, where the Muslims where booted out pretty swiftly, I'll split the reperations with you.) I want the rich governments of the oil rich muslim nations to fork over some money for this occupation and obviate any ill mental state I suffer from due to this incursion suffered by my ancestors.
ReplyDeleteOK, how about just some reperations for the Post Traumatic WBAI Listenability Degeneration Syndrome I suffer from? It is more current and really is causing me mental anguish.
SDL
What happened to Raven?? Asiba Tupahache? Is she dead?? What about David Nolan??
ReplyDeleteIfe Dancy just got a nice gig on HOT 97FM!! Good for Ife! Best broadcaster on WBAI - best looking woman too!
ReplyDeleteWhile dubbing Ifé Dancy "Best broadcaster on WBAI" is over the top, I have always said that she comes off as a professional. My reservations—often expressed—have to do with her DJ approach and music, which I regard as being at odds with the original Pacifica mission. In other words,Ifé's move to a commercial station is, in my opinion, a good one. Others currently heard regularly on WBAI need to take a longer leap... away from radio.
DeleteIfé handled Galloway's program very well and she is also a far better studio engineer than Haskins, for example, but he was named "Chief Engineer" by Reimers, which continues to be a bad joke.
Good luck to Ifé Dancy.
I always felt Dancy was a decent DJ, but that her commercial disco show had NO place on WBAI. My problem was always with the program, and not so much her. But if she moves to a commercial station as a DJ, good for her (in fact, on the now gone post I made on youtube, that's what I told her she should do). Now, as for best looking woman? Well, as much as I detest Forlano, I think she is, at least, slightly attractive (especially with a ball gag), which is more than I will say for any other woman I have seen at WBAI.
DeleteNow for a funny Mitchel Cohen story. I was talking to a friend of mine, who went to Stonybrook and was associated with Red Balloon at, it seems, the same time Cohen was. Anyway. We were yapping and I mentioned WBAi and then Mitchel Cohen. He stopped me and asked, "Mitchell Cohen? The leftist?" I said, "Yes." He then told me how he knew him way back then. I told him what a goof Cohen is. He then told me he was an OK guy "and sometimes even funny" back then. I told him he's a propagandist and parrot for Reimers these days. However, he is often inadvertently funny, in a Joe Isuzu kind of way.
SDL
Poor Mitchel, he really has lost it... well, at lest I once thought he had it, but perhaps not.
DeleteWMFU started their pledge drive today. In the first program, they raised 20,000 dollars, better than WBAI does on their best day. And they're a 1000 watt college station. Makes you think that BAI should be doing a whole helluva lot better.
ReplyDeleteBlind, clueless, wrong-agenda-driven "management" has steered WBAI into a nosedive and disabled both flaps and rudder.
DeleteWFMU has a large national and international listenership via their website, which is fully functional and doesn't have any Katz pissing/marking on it. They also have the only record convention in the NY/NJ area worth attending, which makes for good publicity. Add to the mix that it is run as a radio station and not a political party arguing over ideological minutiae.
DeleteGranted that WBAI is a different format. However, they both target non-mainstream audiences. WBAI could learn a lot from WFMU.
Related note: WFDU recently did a fund raiser. No idea how they did, though. However, they also have diverse programming. Add to that they are doubling their power.
Unrelated note. Remember the new shortwave station, Global24, that I mentioned recently? Well, they shut down due to a lack of funds the other day. I guess they have a management that knows how to cut and run. Too bad, though. They were getting programs like DN! and Kaku on.
SDL
The amazing thing about all this is the fact that WBAI's failure to communicate and breathe is so obvious. The station is barely on life support, but it has by now been disfigured beyond recognition... it is a sad thing when a radio station is readily identified not so much by the content of its offerings (although that is often abysmal beyond compare) but by the sub-quality of its presentations and audio.
DeleteWBAI is the "Let's Pretend" station fools only a small, tone-deaf choir.
By the way, I have been offline for the past couple of days, due to a Time-Warner foulup. That company is very poorly run, but that's what so easily happens when there is no competition. My building also has Verizon, but they won't give me an internet only account, which is what I want.
I have to go back to my Blueboard comment a few weeks back about how management doesn't trust its own producers to raise money. RPM called me mean, but it is true. Management knows most of the programming is crap and can't raise much cash. Hence, having to go to a home shopping club format to get funds. Well, at least the CPB isn't taking WBAI's shit anymore.
DeleteDealing with Time Warner is like pulling teeth. I know as I have had the treatment. They never get anything right the first time, or even the second time.
SDL
Since my phone is internet dependent, I couldn't even call them. I spent couple of hours checking out my wiring, thinking that was the problem. Compounding the problem was the fact that a program called "American Routes" (Public Radio from New Orleans) sent an engineer to my apartment Saturday afternoon to record my end of a one-hour phone interview. Fortunately, the guy was packing an iPhone, so that problem was solved. By the way, he had a neat-looking little recorder (Tascam), which BAI would have several of... if they only had a brain.
DeleteOut of curiosity, do you know the model number of the Tascam? Just curious to take a look at it. Some of these smaller digital recorders would be ideal for any "on the spot" recording jobs at rallies, etc.
ReplyDeleteRight now I am using a Sangean DAR-101 digital recorder. It's perfect for recording off the radio, AM/FM/SW. The only hitch is that it doesn't have a genuine line out port. You have to pop out the card and, in my case, put it in a card adapter then plug the adapter into a USB port on the computer. No biggie, though. Quality is good and I like the size, menus are simple and logical, etc. It goes through batteries in 12-15 hours, though. However, I use rechargeables, so no problem.
http://www.amazon.com/Sangean-DAR-101-Desk-Recorder-Black/dp/B003XU76QK
At some point soon I am going to be uploading airchecks of local pirate radio stations to youtube. I have had some people who live outside the area, ask for samples of what this city's ethnic based stations sound like. Youtube will make it easy for people to get their samples with minimal work on my end.
Now I need a high quality audio cassette player with a variable speed option to digitize old cassettes. Some of my old tapes were recorded on a cheapo cassette recorder with a malfuntioning slightly slower than normal speed. Well, you have what you can afford when you're a poor kid.
SDL
I believe it was a 44 something. It had some great features, hours of battery time, two channel, etc. Under $200, I believe.
ReplyDeleteI wish I had a machine that can handle my 3 ¾ i.p.s half-track reel of a 1968 pubic meeting at the Hotel Diplomat. It was a hot meeting where the WBAI listener revolt was the subject at hand. Speakers were Bob Bisom, Tana DeGamez and Barbara Dane (3 producers whose tapes had either been "lost" or censored by Chris Koch and Dale Minor), Florence Kennedy, feisty as ever and disgusted with the Millspaugh regime and the vandalism of Steve Post and Josephson, and yours truly.
Koch was in the audience along with other culprits. They had an open invitation to join us on stage, but note chose to do so, which in part brought upon them the anger of some of the listeners who showed up.
Apropos tapes I wish I could digitize, I have the entire first marathon, tapped right off the line in master control, but recorded at a speed of 1 ⅞ i.p.s. quarter track. The sound is remarkably good (thanks to my B&O deck), even when it comes to music, which there is plenty of.
I have 2 reel-to-reel machines (a Tandberg that handles 10 ½" reels and 15 i.p.s.) and a conventional 7" Roberts, but both need a new belt.
Just downloaded the latest Twit Wit Radio special two part episode and noticed something. Part one is posted as normal, but part two says, "This audio archive will be available until Sunday, March 22nd 2015." I wonder why.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/111907
SDL
It might be that Part 2 contained licensed music (BMI, ASCAP, SESAC, SoundExchange)
ReplyDeleteThat was my thought, too.
DeleteThen wouldn't leaving part 2 up for any amount of time be a violation?
DeleteSDL
That does heighten the mystery.
DeleteAlso, probably a TASCAM DR-40. Nice unit with XLR inputs *and* built in mikes. You can actually record with both at same time. It has a line input that is a pro-level, none of that wimpy consumer line level, so if you take a feed off a mult box or sound board it doesn't distort
ReplyDeleteThe DR-40 is probably fine for much of WBAI's uses for such a machine. I think it's about $100 less than the 44. BAI should have bothe, but how long will they last at a station that attracts the light- and fumble-fingered?
DeleteActually, the question is how long they will last with Bernard "Klepto" White around WBAI...
DeleteSDL
The Klepto tag can go back to Steve Post, but I think he only stole LPs. That said, more recent and other current names have been cited in this connection.
DeleteThe rules say you can keep an archive file with licensed music up for two weeks. You are supposed to set it up for no downloading, no fast forwarding, rewinding or pausing and each link is supposed to be a minimum of 5 hours long. Those are some of the DMCA rules.
ReplyDelete