Monday, March 23, 2015

Selfie Radio's last gasp?


More and more, I get the feeling that every cliché uttered by Michael Haskins on his dreary morning show heralds another day in the death of WBAI—indeed, perhaps Pacifica itself. The process has been slow, but, under the alleged management of Berthold  Reimers, it is accelerating to a point where some of us feel rigor mortis will set in this year. I thought 2014 would be it, but Reimers re-kneaded the dough while the PNB majority continued to look the other way. If a miracle were to happen, that, in and of itself, would be a miracle, so expect to hear WBAI's last gasp this year. The frequency will stay, but the few weekly hours of listenable radio will be silenced for good.

For "good" may be understood as meaning with Finality, a sad acknowledgement of the station's present advanced state of deterioration, or it can be interpreted as being to someone's Advantage, the beneficiaries then depending upon one's perspective. To the vandals—including the below pictured Mario Murillo, Dred Scott Keyes and Michael Haskins—the perceived benefit is a WBAI that fulfills their personal agendas and common goal of redefining "community" as a black, brown, largely uneducated populace with a bold stroke of likeminded  Hispanics. To others, the advantage of WBAI ceasing to exist is tantamount to air cleansing; the riddance of years of bad radio and the possibility for a better station emerging. There was a time when a "better" station could only mean a further developed WBAI, but now it would seem that any professionally operated radio station might constitute an improvement.

Once New York City's most significant radio station, a breath of fresh air in what FCC Chairman Newton Minow described as a "vast wasteland," WBAI has suffered the mismanagement of a "new" reshuffled Pacifica under a succession of unfit management teams. Several approaches have been attempted, most of them reflecting the personal agenda of a current GM or PD rather than the mission and principles upon which Lewis Hill established the Pacifica Foundation in 1949. 

In recent years, management teams have seriously misjudged the audience as they chopped away at WBAI's ethnic and cultural diversity to narrow the focus. The station has become a doctrinaire political propaganda outlet where a fixed group of single-minded irresponsible people sag to a lower intellectual level as it redefines the term "community radio," making it a euphemism for vengeful black activism of a low order. 

This has only resonated with a small, gullible faction of listeners—the choir preached to—which is unconscionable for several reasons, one being that the obsessive, vitriolic approach detracts from very real problems that affect us all. Another outcome unforeseen by these opportunists is that it has exacted a heavy price: the loss of an overwhelming majority of WBAI's once loyal listenership.

This translates into a major drop in revenue, necessitating—in the absence of improved programming—the airing of  multiple fundraising marathons that in recent years have taken on the form of endlessly rebroadcast infomercial that serve outside scammers well as a marketing tool for highly questionable "premiums."

The watering down of WBAI began several decades ago when self-serving "celebrity" wannabes saw a door left cracked by GM Frank Millspaugh and slithered in. His at-work drug use, lack of broadcast experience and rudderless "management" created a vacuum that two new employees, Larry Josephson and Steve Post, used to personal advantage. WBAI's open microphone was perfect for those who placed their own desires and need for attention before any concern for WBAI. 

Although his importance would change in coming decades, Fass played an important role in the shaping of WBAI as a cultural barometer and soap box. The freedom Pacifica's broad scope allowed him to exercise on the air would later be dubbed "free form radio," but this was not an original concept as much as it was a natural cultural evolution. WBAI's ownership by the Pacifica Foundation coincided with the rise of a counterculture that had a new generation of Americans rebelling against convention, seeking new freedoms in many areas, including music. The so-called bubblegum ditties were pushed aside, jazz invaded the campus, and a pseudo folk music paved the way for a re-entry of age-defying pioneers whose careers were thought to be over. Commercial radio continued to play it pretty safe, but at 99.5 there was something for every thinking person, a spot on the dial where one could glimpse the future and savor the past. 

Fass' live midnight show offered the most glaring departure from the norm. Its introduction preceded the advent of on-the-air telephone call-ins, so he played records and talked to his audience in an ad-lib style that owed much to WOR's Jean Shepherd. His taste in music and embrace of the post Bebop hippie sub-culture made him the ideal host, a perfect lure for young performers, poets, and other members of the trending anti-establishment movement. Our little studio on East 39th Street became the place to be if you had something unconventional to say or sing.

The Fass show was not Jack Paar nor Joe Franklin, but neither was it far removed from them. The difference was WBAI's inherent freedom of expression and lack of any need to serve commercial interests. Therein lay the station's broad appeal—WBAI did not aim its signal at any particular ethnic or age group; it clearly leaned more to the left than to the right, but not by design—the ideal overall political position was somewhere in the middle and the ideal listener-supporter was the independent thinker. Producers and commentators came from as many sides of the political spectrum as we could find among the willing, including the idiosyncratic Ayn Rand. It worked because the audience did not tune in to hear confirmation of set beliefs as much as it did to broaden its horizon. The same eclecticism applied to WBAI's literature and arts offerings. 

Beyond the obvious low standard of its programming, WBAI has closed its microphone access to an invaluable resource: the extraordinary mix that makes up New York's population. It is madness to give permanent air time to a group of unmotivated, stagnant amateurs who have nothing of substance to offer, spread misinformation, and have the vision of a bat in the sun. This treadmill of tedium is maintained at the cost of fresh thought and energy from  that extraordinary talent pool we call New York City.

Add to that the ridicule WBAI is exposed to by the steady airing of make-believe "doctors", conspiracy theorists selling their self-published books and DVDs, inane disc jockey pop shows, pseudo spiritualism, empty rhetoric, etc. There was a time when changes could have the positive effect of keeping listeners interested, but those days are gone—there are hardly any listeners left.

A former PD who has cost Pacifica a great deal of money by filing a frivolous lawsuit and is known for engaging co-workers in physical combat, among other things, was banned from the station by a previous management, but has now been invited back on the air. That invitation came from the same management team that recently staged a trumped up charge against Sidney Smith, calling the police to the CCNY campus but never personally confronting Mr. Smith. The NYPD found nothing to warrant action on their part, but Berthold Reimers ordered a sometimes sledgehammer-wielding member of his "management team" to take Sidney's campus ID card, escort him off the premises, and inform him that he is "banned forever."

This happened last year and Smith—a 30-plus-year veteran of WBAI—has yet to receive any explanation. Reimers, on the other hand, was told by an angry CUNY official (the President, I believe) that WBAI must vacate the CCNY studio by the 31st of this month. This is the sort of irresponsible behavior one has come to expect from Berthold Reimers, whose skin was saved by CCNY when they rented him the studio at  $5,000 a month and—when he got a few months behind in the rent, allowed WBAI to stay anyway. Now Reimers has killed that relationship and nobody knows what will happen as the station becomes homeless again. Reimers claims to have had "engineers and architects" look at the Atlantic Avenue location and that a studio is being built there. He has had many months in which to find a solution, there is no money for sound-proofing, which is essential, and there is every reason to take this as yet another instance of Reimers fantasizing.

More details on this to come, but one has to wonder why the ruling Pacifica Foundation National Board faction has allowed this to happen? 

118 comments:

  1. Good overview of WBAI. One thing is that we disagree on the station dying. You know my feeling that the station will limp along as long as they can suck just enough money out of their shrinking audience to pay the minimum bills. The biggest threat I would see is the station being sold off rather than go bankrupt. If WWRL were still around, it might be a different story, but it isn't.

    The NYC radio market is beyond a "vast wasteland" now, it's a corporate graveyard. Changing the rules as to how many stations could be owned by a company DESTROYED radio. I am an ardent capitalist, but I am an intelligent one, too. I know their must be anti-trust, some restraints, etc. Without rules, there is no competition, and, hence, monopolism, which destroys creativity and choice..

    "...vengeful black activism of a low order." Let me add opportunism. Gimme gimme gimme... These same dolts who demonstrate about Brown or Garner won't do a damn thing about education, public housing safety, etc. I guess black lives matter, but black education doesn't...

    Perfect summary of Fass. I like to say he was the right man in the right place at the right time. Without him, I don't think WBAI would have been as succesful in the 1960s. Sadly, he couldn't move on and accept a changing world. Sorry, but peace & love went out with RFK, MLK and Manson. Later on came SLA, etc. I just don't think Fass could accept the change and stayed in his own little world, pretending Wavy Gravy and Paul Krassner still mean something.

    "...one has to wonder why the ruling Pacifica Foundation National Board faction has allowed this to happen? " Because they are as big a bunch of morons as WBAI management. Maybe worse, snce they could stop it at anytime.

    The only way WBAI will change is if Pacifica comes in and changes it. I don't see that happening.

    SDL

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    1. Thanks, SDL. Fass' last show was a pathetic reminder of the inevitable changes he should have foreseen and prepared for. I think he received three calls, two of which contained news of newly deceased "cable" members. Bob was obviously made uncomfortable by the reality checks—he continues to delude himself, and you are right about the predominance of white country music... at whom is he aiming that?

      Hey, Reimers has painted himself deeper into the corner with his latest blunders and the studio situation. Perhaps WBAI will soon start emanating from his closet broadcast center. :)

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    2. I heard a piece of that show and laughed. Fass said something about how if there's another death, he's going to do something about it. OK, Bob... Unless you know some voodoo to raise the dead... We're not talking The Pentegon while you're on acid here... However, it is an example of how he likes to live in an insulated world. It's really too bad because Fass could have been a true legend. In fact, maybe the only man who could have been THE major left wing talk radio host in history. If he were less of an egoist, he could have carried an attempt like Air America. Oh, well. I'd still love to see the Barry Farber/Bob Fass show. The debates would truly be mind numbing.

      The country music? I don't know. I guess that's what he likes these days.

      All in all, I think for all Fass did for a lot of people back in the 60s, some, like Dylan or Guthrie, could at least drop by one night, or at least give him an on air call to say hello and chat a bit. I guess they got what they wanted and that is really what they were ultimately about. Too bad. Whatever you think of Fass these days, he does deserve some respect from some of these people for having given them a microphone.

      The new, as RPM called it, "studio"?
      I can see the top of the hour with Reggie Johnson,,,

      "You're listening-"
      [BEEP BEEP]
      "To WBAI-"
      [Kids screming]
      "And coming up is-"
      [People screaming and cursing at each other]
      "Me murdering anyone in the vicinity!"

      I still say the outside noise will make for the new station motto: WBAI - The Sounds of New York

      SDL






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    3. I wonder why we haven't seen any photos of the Atlantic Ave. premises. Remember when word had it that WBAI was going to purchase the building? When I think about it, no positive news/plan announced by Reimers has ever come to pass, nor has there been a valid, unsolicited explanation as to why that is. The man is so full of BS (echoed and often embellished by Mitchel) that nothing coming from that quarter can be believed.

      Regarding Fass, he did well originally, but he is the eternal temp, unable to accept change... much less bring it about. What happened in the Sixties suited his approach perfectly, but he was to a large extent more the beneficiary of circumstances than the spark he is so often given credit for.

      One problem, as I see it in retrospect, is that the Sixties generation so longed to go against convention that it almost blindly embraced unorthodoxy. Post and Josephson knew that, so their hook was to shock the listener, whether they themselves believe what they were saying, or not. Teenager found it ever so cool and groovy when they heard A described as Z, but one can only do that for so long. Mark Twain allegedly wrote, “The radical of one century is the conservative of the next. The radical invents the views. When he has worn them out, the conservative adopts them.”

      I think artists like Dylan owe WBAI more than Bob himself. Rather than just drop by to see him, I think there are many artists who should have performed to raise funds for the station, but I bet they were never asked and that they are pretty disgusted with its all-around deterioration.

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    4. At this point it's probably better to not even waste time listening to Reimers, Cohen and company. Anything they say is just total nonsense. It's almost as if they are trying to see how much BS they can come up with for fun. I see the bunker as Hitler and cronies in The Producers.

      I don't want to make Fass seem like he did it all himself, of course. He had a good spot and circumstances on his side. Like I said, the right man in the right place at the right time. I don't want anyone else at WBAI to be denied any credit for their efforts. However, my knowledge is limited due to my not having been born until July 1966. Fass gift at the time seemed to lay in being able to react to what came his way, knowing how to use good fortune and guests.

      I agree about many artists owing to WBAI. These days, though, why bother? However, the funny thing is that a few benefit concerts from some of these people in a year could probably take WBAI out of debt and give them a cash surplus. One Dylan show could raise a few hundred thousand, providing Bernard White wasn't handling the cash. Guthrie, Collins, etc. would make nice money, too.

      Hell, even get a benefit CD together with songs donated by people of note.

      Sorry, I'm using my brain again. I know when talking about anything Pacifica I should turn it off.

      SDL

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    5. A celebrity alumni concert is almost too obvious an idea,certainly for the present management. I recall that I was not the only one suggesting that a major "Thank you, WBAI" concert be staged at least once a year. A regular listener-supporter whose name/handle I forget had experience and valuable contacts that he offered to Reimers, but—as I myself experienced—calls and e-mails were ignored.

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    6. I've said before that I don't think the bunker buddies like suggestions from outsiders.

      SDL

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  2. WBAI has been dying for the last quarter of a century, I went to wake after wake. Someone or some foundation, George Soros anyone, will keep throwing it a lifeline. This is the way the WBAI ends, in terminal tedium

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    1. He funds democracy now & democracy now is the anchor for WBAI, he'll throw it a lifeline

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    2. What also happened is that the old joke, "What's the definition of a conservative"? Answer: "A liberal who's been mugged" rang true to a large extent. Even the old liberals wanted their muggers wasted. Even the old liberals who were in favor of "turn on and drop out", wanted the crackhead who smashed their car window to steal the stereo, locked up for life. Even the free-lovers of the sixties got good and pissed off when they caught HIV in the eighties. The Jewish liberals of the sixties got really ticked off during the Crown Heights pogrom of the nineties and wouldn't listen to Utrice Leid repeating that it was the Hasidics' fault. The only one who ever told the truth on WBAI was Sidney Smith and where is he now? WBAI is irrelevant to the new millennium.

      KGT

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    3. @Anonymous.- Hmmmm, the Soros thing is a bit of a stretch, don't you think?

      @KGT - Yes, it's called hypocrisy and we see/hear it in action at WBAI every day. Calling the cops on Sidney was a recent glaring example of this.

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    4. Soros a stretch? Of course. But what of the big mouths who do promos for WBAI, like Phil "Marlo Thomas" Donahue, Jane "Ted Turner" Fonda, Tom Seaver, Alec "Shut The F___ Up You Spoiled Little Little Bitch" Baldwin ......? They're liberals, but try to get one cent out of them. LMAO

      KGT

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    5. I have a problem with these celebrity promo endorsements. Some of the voices belong to dead people who obviously are encouraging the living to listen and donate to a station that is very different from the one they know. Then there are the Jane Fondas, Sillers and Donovans, who—I bet—haven't heard WBAI in years and very likely would not endorse the present version. It's all phony, like the women Haskins rounds up who simply can't do without 99.5 so they look for wireless hotspots in the wilds of Dobrudja. Hell, even the GM doesn't listen.

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    6. Siller did a puff interview with the cat eat fish no talent no improv show, he was so puffed up he must have then done the promo. I doubt he's ever listened to BAI

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    7. Those star promos are sometimes pretty old. However, even if recent, the people probably don't know what they are actually doing a promo for. You see, radio station people will go to events and ask stars to do promos for their station, and the stars usually do it, as it's pretty much de rigueur. I used to know someone that worked for a heavy metal program years ago. He'd bring a small cassette recorder to all the shows he went to, and, when he went backstage, get promos for the show. If anything, the small number of promos shows you how few events the WBAItes go to that they don't have a wider variety of promos.

      You're right about getting money out of leftists. You think the socialism for you and capitalism for me crowd are going to give money to Pacifica? No way. Just ask Ed Asner, Alan Alda, Michael Moore, Susan Sarandon, etc. for some money...

      SDL

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    8. When Hillock Hoffman appointed me station manager, I told him that I would only accept the position if the staff unanimously agreed and if Pacifica would help me raise the $25,000 that we absolutely had to have. The latter condition was—as I explained—because I had no fundraising experience whatsoever. Both terms were agreed to.

      Hillock returned to California and called me a couple of weeks later. Things were really getting tight, so I had to increase the annual membership fee from $12.50 to $15. Just before the increase went into effect, Hillock called to tell me that he had great news—he had finally talked his father, Paul Hoffman, into contributing to WBAI.

      That was very good news, because the elder Hoffman was rather well-to-do; a former President of the Studebaker Corporation and President of the Rockefeller Foundation, he owned and lived in a fantastic house at Sutton Place. I told the staff this news and a sigh of relief could be heard at WBAI.

      The cheque arrived a couple of days later. The amount was $12.50 and it was right under the wire, 24 hours before our membership rate went up!

      A few months later, I received a call from CBS. It was Dr. Stanton's private secretary calling to verify our address, because "Dr. Stanton is donating money to your station." That cheque was better, but I still think the President of CBS (and chairman of the Rand Corp.) could have given us more than $100.

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  3. If Bill Cosby wanted to throw WBAI a million dollars, should it be accepted?

    KGT

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    1. BTW, I remember in the spring of 1987, Marilyn Sokol had Stephen Collins on her afternoon show for one hour.

      KGT

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    2. I think they should take it. WBAI is no more morally corrupt than lawyers. And, besides, if they don't Cosby's lawyers will get it, anyway.

      SDL

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    3. Actually, why not? Cosby and Reimers have in common more than a shared lack of moral values.

      By the way, this damn spelling corrector insists that Reimers is "Reimburse." Hmmm

      Reminds me of the time my friend and colleague Ira Gitler called me about a problem his new (and first) computer was giving him. It routinely changed his last name to "Hitler"!

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  4. Well, my life just took a turn for the surrealistic. Maybe there was something hallucinogenic about the garlic butter I made while I was listening to the radio? I just can't believe Geoff Brady is actually doing an excellent show about Scientology, or, as I say, the psychology cult's younger brother and chief competitor.

    FYI: I consider psychology total and complete bullshit and the state religion, because they were able to veil psychology in a secular suit.

    SDL

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    1. Old Mother Hubbard always gave me a chill.

      Only had 3 hrs. of sleep this morning, so I'm going to retire, but I will dig Brady up when Morpheus lets go of me.

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  5. SDL,

    Psych is not all bullshit, you can take a normal person and drive them to permanent and irreversible catatonia with nothing more than alcohol, sleep deprivation, caffeine, and a few other things, but no real drugs, poisons of physical torture. Psychology is real. Carl Jung was able to bring people out of catatonic states with words alone. That's not bullshit, since they were in a vegetative state for years. And BTW, he built the first polygraph machine prototype for the Nazis, after they buttered him up and stroke his ego on the eve of WW2. It's might all be bullshit to you, but it works.

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    1. Yeah. And Professional Wrestling is real.

      KGT

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    2. @BB: Nothing you mentioned is actually psycholgy. It's all physiological. If you want to know how good psychology is, ask the stupid people who "have been in therapy for years" and never get cured. They are just paying a pseudo-preacher neurotic scam artist to listen to their shit everyone else has grown tired of hearing. Astrology is more real than psychology.

      "you can take a normal person and drive them to permanent and irreversible catatonia with nothing more than alcohol, sleep deprivation, caffeine, and a few other things"

      Well, hasn't worked on me or Malachy McCourt...

      SDL

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  6. Care to provide some facts to refute the historical record? Or have you been listening to BAI for so long, that it muddled your thinking?

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  7. Booser Bear: Read "The Myth of Mental Illness" by Thomas S. Szasz (1960)

    KGT

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    1. Well, I agree that listening to WBAI without any other input will indeed muddle one's thinking. Listen to most of the callers...

      SDL

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    2. Like Monroe
      KGT

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    3. Oh, what a great example, actually. And he was supposed to be WBAI's longest listener, too.

      SDL

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    4. Monroe Litman was a pathetic, lonely guy in desperate need of attention. Some of his hand-penned rants were actually quite interesting (the looks, not so much the contents). He was (or became) a nut job, a vindictive, nasty one who would tie up all the lines to a show, etc. Like Fass, he was also stuck in time.

      As for being the "longest" WBAI listener, that was pure BS. I had neither seen nor heard of him when I left the station, in 1967. I figure he might have popped up in the Seventies.

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    5. Monroe popped up in about 1989 as an obsessive caller to Paul Gorman and then he metastasized to the rest of the
      station's hosts. I loathed him. I was always hoping someone would whack him.

      KGT

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    6. Thanks, KGT. I knew he was lying and when I pointed that out, he launched a silly attack on me on the BlueBoard, much to the delight of Pamela Somers, the hare-brained Knight shill who was allowed to troll there at the time. They had much in common when it came to sandbox mentality.

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    7. Sorry to say, but you're both wrong. Monroe was a caller, albeit anonymous, from at least the early 1980s. I remember him calling into Lenny Lopate, Lynn Samuels, etc. at night. However, he didn't use a name, rant and rave or tie up phone lines in those days. Something must have happened as time went on to make him the loon he became. Initially, he was just another caller.

      I can also tell you that "Frank from Queens" was calling into radio before anyone knew who he was. The first time I heard him was on Tom Leykis show back in 1979 or 1980 when Leykis did his show about atheism. Frank made an amazingly stupid call where he asked why young people, like Leykis, needed "proof" of god's existence and didn't just believe? That was one hell of a show that night. Yes, WBAI, lefty atheist radio, had more nasty religious listeners than you can imagine. However, to Leykis credit, he handled the show well. Too bad he turned into a jerk later on behind the scenes.

      Know about the station phone book and Leykis firing? He copied the station staff home phone numbers from it and gave them out to his pirate radio/crank caller friends as a prank. Well, he got caught and fired for it, rightly so, after the staff were bombarded with crank calls at their homes.. Well, this was at the time when David Wynyard (w-Y-n-Y-a-r-d) had put Charles Pitts back on air, trading places every other week without station consent (Pitts was essentially banned from WBAI after a few episodes). Leykis called into Pitts to bitch about being fired the next week. Pitts was nice at first, but seemed to get smart and realized he was being put into the middle of other peoples' issues and dispatched Leykis kindly after a while.

      Funny thing is this. No matter how horrid Pitts' ideals were/are, he was fired in the 1970s for what he said, not anything he did. So many are still at WBAI even having actually commited criminal acts against staff and station. Tell me what's worse...

      SDL

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    8. One thing I should have pointed out is that we were not able to take calls on the air when I came to WBAI in 1961. Only after I had been made Manager did AT&T make that technology available, and I ordered the installation immediately. I'm saying this to point out that Monroe and other pesky callers couldn't operate before that.

      In my opinion, the moment Charles began advocating or condoning pedophelia on the air, he qualified himself for firing. We caught Steve Post stealing package mail and I understand that grander property thefts took place on and off the air in more recent years (the latter in the guise of "fundraising"), but I don't think freedom of speech figures into any of this.

      I would have fired Pitts, but I would also have taken people like Robert Knight, Sally O'Brien off the air for biased reporting, Kathy, Brady, Haskins and a slew of others for insulting listener intelligence, and—of course—Berthold Reimers for gross ineptitude and taking a salary under false pretenses.

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    9. You know I'm not defending Pitts, right? I was just pointing out hypocrisy. By the way, you would have had to fire Wynyard also, since he was Pitts Jr.

      I don't remember who it was, but back during the first Giuliani inauguration, the man on the air at the time hated his winning so much that he said his waving son should be smacked around. I was rather amazed by someone advocating child abuse. Needless to say, nothing came of it. Me? I would have fired him right on the air.

      Personally, I feel if someone commits a crime at a station, they should be fired and banned immediately. No pussyfooting around. Once you let one slide, you start a snowball effect.

      I would fire a lot of people at WBAI these days simply because I feel a person should have a certain minimal audience financial support to warrant their having a show. There is a point when someone has so few supporters that it is a waste of money to even put them on the air. Also, it isn't fair that they get a free (or nearly free) ride while others have to raise the money to cover them.

      As for taking calls on the air. Through the years I heard so much stuff about who "invented" taking calls on the air. I don't know what may be true. Barry Gray used to say he was the first one. However, when it was pointed out that the technology didn't exist at the time, he backtracked to the story that he would take a call on the studio phone then repeat what the caller said onto the air. Another was that Long John Nebel actually designed the technology that was used to make on air calls possible. Maybe he got the knowledge from one of his UFO friends..?

      SDL

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    10. Of course I know that you aren't defending Pitts.

      Several on-air call-ins were probably initiated around the same time; I imagine the availability notice went out to all stations.

      If Monroe hadn't lobbied so hard for it.... :)

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  8. KGT,

    I suggest that you hang around a schizophrenic person losing their prodromal state to a full blown onset, and convince them, that what they are enduring is a myth... or take an agoraphobic out to lunch in the middle of Union Square.

    The man was writing in the 1960's, before the advances in genetics found hereditary basis for certain mental illnesses.

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    1. @BB: Schizophrenia is often/usually a physiological matter, not a psychological one, as is the case with most or all conditions. Psychology likes to co-opt these things to puff their own mythology and (lack of any) credibility. However, the answer is usually in medication, which, again, is physiological (i.e. medical science), not psychology. A good simile is the creationist who claims god created evolution and guides it, as opposed to the scientist who knows there is no supernatural involvement.

      Just so you know, I can speak about schizophrenia from a personal experience, as the jackal who gave birth to me was a hyper violent schizophrenic, who would explode for no reason out of nowhere. Lucky she took off when I was seven, or I may not even be alive. My father? Just a life long drug addict, but not a bad person. Functional, but barely.

      Those are the reasons that I learned to take care of myself and rely only on myself in life.

      "...before the advances in genetics found hereditary basis for certain mental illnesses"

      Proving my point, as genetics are physiological. Treatment for these things should be done in the medical science field, not by a neurosis driven religion that has no real record of curing people after a good century and a half of abusing humans.

      As odious as Scientology is, it has probably helped more idiots function and even be happy than psychology ever did.

      SDL

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    2. Brooser Bear: True, but psychiatric diagnoses do not have the same strong foundation as, say pneumonia, leukemia, diabetes mellitus, etc. That said, WBAI, particularly Bernard White, Amy Goodman and Gary Null continuously put on insane bastards like Peter Breggin, who is more insane than any mental health patient I have ever known of.

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  9. Hey, Chris. I was looking at that traffic feed list several times today. I knew this forum was popular, but wow! You get people from all over looking and reading about the dedicated topic. Like I said before, there are a lot more people out there looking here than will admit to it. Good going.

    I wish more would join in, though.

    SDL

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    1. Thanks, SDL. I, too wish more people would post comments here or, for that matter, submit more ambitious pieces.

      Delete
  10. I was a wee tot when Ayn Rand was doing programs, and no one in my milieu (blue-collar Italian-American southwestern Brooklyn during the 60s and early 70s) knew of BAI or any "progressive" media. And if they did, they probably would have denounced it for, among other things, the voices that opposed the Vietnam War.

    Even though I find most of what she advocated to be odious, if not simply wrong, I would have loved to hear her program. At least she could make something like a real argument based on facts. That's a skill too many of today's BAI producer/hosts lack.

    When someone in his or her right mind can say that Brady's program wasn't too bad, you know the station is in an abyss. Folks like Fass got stuck in the opinions and rhetoric of a particular moment in history even though they're not the conditions that produced them no longer exist, or have changed.

    The scary thing is that every time I think he, or the station, has sunk to a new low, they manage to outdo themselves. Yes, even after Julianna Forlano "interviewing" Kathy Davis: a blowhard babbling along with an airhead.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. I missed the Forlano/Davis exchange, it must have ben one of the books. Apropos that and Ayn Rand. there are a huge number of vintage Pacifica/WBAI programs that should be aired—they are not all great radio, but even the worst is better than much of the crap they waste air time on now.

      I realize that we hear something called "From the Archives", but they always air truncated versions—perhaps they don't want to detract from their value as "products." Who knows? These people are so screwed up and—as you point to—and they seem bent on bottoming (as opposed to topping) each other.

      This morning on "From the Soundboard," Reggie Johnson devoted the entire program to a concert recordig by the Argentinian singer, Mercedes Sosa. Wonderful performance that set a great mood, but then Reggie totally disrupted the ambiance with forced laughter as well as inappropriate and painfully inarticulate comments. Reggie is among the better staff remnants and he doesn't seem to harbor the hate that surrounds him, but this was a case of poor judgement and insensitivity.

      Delete
    2. "...Julianna Forlano "interviewing" Kathy Davis: a blowhard babbling along with an airhead."

      HAHAHA! That Forlano/Davis episode was frighteningly mind numbing.

      Brady's show about Scientology wasn't good because of Brady but because he had a good guest. Many years ago, Lenny Lopate did a great show about Scientology. This was almost like an update. A good guest can make a big difference, if - IF - the lousy host keeps his mouth mostly shut. The strange thing is that you would think Scientology is exactly what Brady would like.

      SDL

      Delete
    3. I wish I had heard it.

      I knew someone many years ago who came home from serving in Vietnam, couldn't get a job and ended up homeless. Then someone lured him to Scientology with the promise of an inside place to sleep. When I happened to run into him, he had been there a month and he was a nervous wreck. He told me that the Scientology people were worse than the Army when it came to regimentation—they had just "demoted" him for not following some silly orders.

      I told him he could stay with me until he got himself together and got a job. When he went to collect his things and "sign out" at Scientology, they were quite nasty and gave him several sheets of paper, questionnaires, etc., all filled with military-like acronyms. Once at my place, he started going to the VA hospital; they gave him meds that made him gain a lot of weight, but they never addressed the trauma he suffered.

      He had become a very different, confused guy from the one I knew before he joined the Army. I rented a car and asked him if he wanted to help me drive to Chicago, where I was going to visit Lil Armstrong. I think the trip did him a lot of good, he got a job and returned there.

      That's my closest contact with Scientology.... I found them to be frightening... still do, and wonder how they ever were granted a tax exemption.

      I started to listen to Brady's show, but my ex-wife called (she was the victim of an ID theft scam where some woman she never met set up a joint bank account with Hanne as the other party, and took all her money. She has the money back and the law has the perp's ID, but she is still going through hell restoring credit cards, etc.

      Sorry, getting carried away! I will try to hear the rest of Brady's interview. I'm assuming that it did not put Hubbard in a favorable light, so Brady must actually have a line to draw... I would have thought not. :)

      Delete
    4. There is a Scientology documentary which will be aired on HBO this Sunday night which has the Scientologists supremely upset called "Going Clear".

      KGT

      Delete
    5. Yes. Brady's guest, Tony Ortega, mentioned the film several times.

      http://tonyortega.org/the-underground-bunker-guide-to-going-clear-scientology-and-the-prison-of-belief/

      My ex had a Scientology run in. When she was about 16, she and her best friend were walking down the street where the local Scientology center was. They got talked into "watching a movie" inside. Well, after said entertainment, they decided to leave but found the door blocked by the workers telling them the whole spiel. They weren't physically restrained, but they couldn't get out the door without pushing these guys out of the way. Finally, after like 20 minutes, the girls lied and said their fathers were cops and would be looking for them. They were allowed out. As my ex said, as soon as they got out, they ran for a few blocks to get away.

      Scientology may be the most advanced form of Fascism there is.

      SDL

      Delete
  11. SDL, physiological problems can lead to psychological conditions, just as psychological issues can lead to physical illnesses ulcers, asthmas, and eczemas, the diathesis-stress theory is founded in heredity. Jung brought people out of catatonic psychosis before Oliver Sachs did, and used nothing but words and a stop-watch. That's pure psychotherapy. On the opposite end, the indigenous people of Australia can command their tribal members to die. Process is 100% psychosomatic and takes about a month.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Chris: I cannot find this famous/infamous blueboard. Can you post the URL?
    KGT

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Try this:

      http://www.listenerforums.net/cgi-bin/issues2/issues2config.pl

      Delete
    2. thanks but it says that I need a username and password which I haven't got. fuggedabaudit.

      Delete
  13. Go to

    listenerforums.net

    Click on "Join the discussion"

    Username is: poster
    Password is: enternow

    ReplyDelete
  14. Frank of Queens is a friend of mine. His keen intellect and true patriotism are a breath of fresh air in the New York radio airwaves. He and his broadcast partner, John of Staten Island, can be heard over the internet every Fri. night from 9 p.m. to midnight ET at their website www.therightperspective.org . I have been listening to it for 10 years and I suggest everyone give it a listen especially those who have missed these two Conservative pundits on terrestrial radio. That's every Friday at 9 p.m.ET. They have special guests and eagerly take listener phone calls.

    KGT

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    Replies
    1. Thanks, KGT, I'll try to catch them tomorrow night.

      Delete
    2. Frank from Queens is second to Monroe Littman as the all time worst caller for one reason only - sheer volume by Monroe. Frank is a pure neo-fascist Mussolini worshipping piece of crap. He went so far to try to play WWII era fascist music through the phone when he called Lynn Samuels once, with the excuse that "it's so beautiful."
      KGT is either having a good laugh playing a prank on you or not the devil's advocate I always thought he was, and rather liked.

      Frank is not a conservative pundit, as you need some brains to be defined as a pundit. He is a person who calls for the execution of homosexuals and just about anyone he doesn't like. He should convert to Islam and join ISIS and get killed.

      Just total scum, even by neo-fascist standards. But what do you expect from a person who spent so many of his years calling talk shows all day and nght. In fact, he was so dumb, he couldn't even pronounce words like homosexual, capitalism, or soviet properly.

      Tell Frank and John to go hang out with their convicted criminal buddy Hal Turner.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hal_Turner

      Now, Chris, you know I have never spoken like that here before. And no, I won't backdown or apologize.

      SDL

      Delete
    3. SDL, as I read your Frank from Queens Stripped comment, I happened to be listening to Linda Barr's little piece on the Steve Post mortem, which can be described as a bowl of sugared water overflowing with hypocrisy.

      It is quite sickening. Fass is his phony self... no, he is actually worse than I have ever heard him. Millspaugh is equally insincere, but he, at least, does not pretend to be the Flower Child mother. They also have a recording of Post relating how he was hired... that story is totally false and very much in keeping with his self-serving inability to tell the truth. Fass, of course, knows that it's a made-up story, but these people interweave their fantasies.

      Having heard Kathy and Bernstein blather on about Knight this morning, we can expect another farce on Saturday.

      This is not a very articulate post, but these "tributes" are so artificial and embarrassing that words escape me.

      Now I'll go back to nursing my cold and look forward to seeing the Frank from Queens story unfold. :)

      Delete
    4. You focus on taking care of your cold, not on us nuts who had too much of the WBAI Kool Aid all our lives.

      I guess Fass will tell all of us about Post tonight. Err... Ummm... No Josephson on that report? I guess he kind of went his own way, in the long run. If it weren't snowing that night, I would have went just to see who showed up, and probably would have been the youngest person there. I guess Lynn Samuels doesn't qualify for a tribute, sadly.

      Linda Perry Barr was sort of the "Cake" Davis of WBAI in the late 1970s/early 1980s. She was into the whole Wicca thing. Not as insane as Davis, though, but annoying enough.

      The Knight thing just sounds like pure torment,

      SDL

      Delete
    5. Thanks,SDL. I just solved the problem by changing my password.

      Bernstein was a torture to listen to with Kathy and Paulette this morning. Kathy took over that time slot under the pretext of it being a weekly tribute to Knight. Wasn't.long before it became another Davis blather show.

      Delete
  15. After March 31st, WBAI will emanate from the offices of the two supreme con-artists, Gary Null and Armand DiMele, just what these witch-doctors want- free advertising.

    KGT

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    Replies
    1. Is that your guess (quite plausible) or have you heard such an announcement?

      By the way, I will be away from my computer most of the evening, nursing a nasty cold. I can easily read incoming comments on my iPad, but a password problem does not allow me to send them on to the blog. I'll be working on that, however.

      Delete
    2. About 15 years go at 120 Wall Street, there was a manhole fire and all all phones were out at the station. All station producers went to Armand DeMile's professional office and they broadcasted from there for the next 72 hours directly to the transmitter, bypassing the station headquarters. Both DeMile and Null have that setup. Vu den? That's Latin.

      KGT

      Delete
  16. Armand De Miele is okay. He was more successful as a Wall Street broker, than Summer Reese, before retiring to become a shrink. He is pleasant to listen to. At times he gets too boring on a topic, but he has a decent collection of music, AND AND AND, he is more honest and forthcoming, than that guy, Michael Levine, who had the Expert Witness Show, same format, his friends and family came to speak, but for all the years he spent as a DEA agent, he shared NOTHING, absolutely NOTHING with the WBAI audience of his life experiences, it didn't have to be privileged information, but the man kept going over the same information over and over and over again. What was the point of his show and how did he get on the air? Armand Demiele, is honest and forthcoming in comparison and less of an egotist than Gary Null. What's the problem, with Demiele?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Armand DeMiele makes my skin crawl. I can't clearly articulate it. It is the lisp? Is it the Italian accent? nah, fuggedabaudit. Is it the smarmy sweetness he emanates that says, "If you like me on the radio, how about coming over and being one of my clients"? Is it All of the above, none of the above, A but not B or C, A and B but not C? I dunno. I have to watch Dr. Phil and figure it out.

      KGT

      Delete
    2. I think it must be all of the above. His "come hither" injection into the spiel would not have been condoned by a Danish/Icelandic GM. :)

      Delete
  17. I don't know why, but I get the impression that deMiele is actually a bigot.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I haven't listened to him long enough to reach that conclusion.

      This morning, however, I tortured my senses by listening to both hours of Haskins' "Good Morning Afrika! It was all black, all embarrassing, all BS. Haskins was more dim witted than ever, his co-host was someone with what sounded like a
      N artificial African name, and there was much talk about reparations, which made Haskins declare that he was "very excited" and make one of his "THIS IS OUR STATION AND WE'RE NOT GOIN' ANYWHERE!!!!

      Pathetic!

      Delete
    2. Armand DeMiele just always struck me as psychobabble to make unhappy dummies feel good. I guess most people can't figure out for themselves to take their past experiences, learn from them and move forward in life. Whatever... Want the secret of how to really make changes in how you feel? Go out to different places and have new experiences. Staying in the same old environments will help keep you down.

      Haskins is just full of crap. Also, I think his brain is starting to go on him. He has repeated the same old BS mantra so long he may actually believe it now.

      It's "our" station? Really? Whose name is on the ownership papers? Wouldn't be Pacifica, would it? OK, Hay-tie, now I know why you're babbling about reperations. And be sure you're asleep when Santa comes calling this December...

      Anyway. I was doing paperwork last night and had Fass on. The Post thing was just a standard mushy tribute every dead person gets from a tribute. The rest of the hootenanny taught us how Fass can play DJ. He sounded like one of those more laid back college radio DJs doing a country music show. Oh, and he got a call. Yippee! Oh, and he got to announce the call letters for the nothing stations that carry his crap to all 5 listeners. Yippee! I guess Krassner wasn't around to keep you yapping. What a waste of wattage. Seriously? Fass couldn't use Post as an excuse to talk about the old days of WBAI? Get a few of the old timers on the phone for some memory lane? Another blown opportunity. Well, I guess after Pitts made him look like an ass a few months back, why risk it again.

      SDL

      Delete
  18. Graffiti knows no color, as it were.

    ReplyDelete
  19. SDL, going out to new places and seeking out new experiences can easily turn into running away from something. It is dramatic and beautiful to watch someone do it, and often self-destruct. If someone can step in, and talk them of it, when their parents, friends, and significant others can not, that is the power of gods and demons, and mercy of angels. Before there were shrinks, the same function was fulfilled by clergy in the Christian world and by philosophers in the pre-Christian one. Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Leibnitz, and Kierkegaard did their share of head-shrinking, and laid the foundations for modern psychoanalysis.

    DeMiele makes your skin crawl, KGT? You may not be secure in your identity, brother. I always get the kick out of this. For decades, parents been sending their daughters off to college, knowing full well that by the end of the four years, their little girls will turn into little women, that everyone will be putting the moves on them, and eventually some undeserving schmuck will get into her pants. Stuff parents' nightmares are made of. Reverse the tables - downtown Manhattan prep school, a flamboyant gay promoter ages more mature than the college kids, who throws awesome parties and commands all the trendy club kids. Grown college men old enough to carry a rifle and Type-A personalities future MBA's going to his parties hoping to hook up with some nice tail and sweating like little girls, that the Evil One will put the moves on them, and they wouldn't have the balls to say NO to him and his entourage, lest they be off his guest list. Their parents were shocked and outraged... but I laughed! Now we had the equality of sexes in the Greek life! Why should male students be treated differently from the female ones?

    Anyway, Armand Demiele is a lover, from the time long gone, when men wore flip flops in the late sixties and early seventies. I wouldn't mind spending a couple a hundred bucks to discuss myself with him. You know why? Because he is erudite and well-rounded in his knowledge, and he is a professional clinician. He has the best chance of telling me about myself something that I don't know.

    ReplyDelete
  20. I know a lot about DiMele - First of all, there was no "manhole fire" 15 years ago - it was 9/11 and he lent his offices as a temporary studio. Second, he is a huge man, who used to have sex parties years ago. More later...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's quite a statement. I notice you haven't followed up.

      Delete
  21. DiMele's show is infused with psyco-babble but he has a soothing voice and is certainly healthier than popping a Zoloft.
    I don't get the beef with Mike Levine.
    True, he was putting out few new programs and he had an annoying "producer" Mark, who knew nothing, but liked the sound of his own voice. Still :Levine is the real deal and the info and authoritative outlook on law enforcement abuse, misuse and "boobery", particularly regarding informants really opened my eyes to how agencies like the DEA and FBI work and how they drop the ball stopping the bad guys and too often setup the innocent.
    Just the story of how the FBI bungled the 1993 WTC bombing was worth giving him a show. And his illumination of "the war on drugs" is vital.
    This isn't history, it's happening today - think about the Boston bomber trial.
    BTW if you want to see a very different (perhaps factual, perhaps demented, perhaps both) view of Steve Rambam and the OTH crew check out A.J. Weberman's rant on http://stevenrombom.com/

    ReplyDelete
  22. (JustAListener)
    FYI I wrote the above comment on Mike Levine etc.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Levine did air too many repeats, but he was, indeed, the real deal. I liked that show and, like you, gained valuable insight from it. Did he quit? Was he "discontinued"? Perhaps they hated that hi wife is Hispanic :)

    ReplyDelete
  24. Interesting page on Rambam, etc. However, once I see homosexuality and child molesting accusations anywhere I become very wary, as that is the most common accusation crackpots like to toss around.

    As an aside. Infamous hacker Kevin Mitnick was associated with the JDL in his youth. I believe it was an uncle who brought him into it. Later on, he had an Israeli contact who he used to exchange hacking information with. It was never really looked into who this Israeli contact was, which leads me to think intelligence, otherwise we would have heard more about it, I think.

    As for Emmanuel Goldstein, I always thought he was a tempermental and immature person, as seem most hackers. However, I always enjoy OTH, whether to a greater or lesser extent, depending on the episode and topics/discussions.

    I have floated through a lot of "scenes" in my life and can tell you most people who are part of a "scene" are generally disfunctional personalities. I just had an experience in my old shortwave DXer scene and am wondering if I should ever associate with these people again.

    OK, so the Irish show comes from a bar, right? How is it they never seem to have tech problems? Yet Fass comes from his house and is often a disaster.

    SDL

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    1. That last question is a good one,SDL.

      Apropos Mister Microphone-level technical quality, WBAI's marching orders from CUNY calls for them to vacate the uptown premises in 3days, by March 31. The producers have apparently not been given any real information in that regard. R. Paul Martin said on his show this morning that he hadn't heard anything, so he is assuming that Reimers doesn't have a new location ready.

      Truly amazing.

      Delete
    2. Has anyone actually seen any proof that WBAI has to move? I'm talking a CUNY issued letter or something. Considering everything WBAI is such a load of BS, I'll believe it when I see it. Could be an interesting April 1st. Remember the opening to episodes of Monty Python's Flying Circus? Replace it with "Now... It's... WBAI..."

      I really would like to know what equipment the Irish guys use to broadcast, since it seems to work perfectly. I just don't suggest letting Fass touch it. However, may be good for more remote broadcasts from the station.

      SDL

      Delete
  25. Mike Levine Is A Kvetcher. Mach Meir Nisht Mishuga.

    KGT

    ReplyDelete
  26. Just because you are a real deal, doesn't necessarily mean that what you have to say is very good. I heard five or six of his shows, and he was going on and on about the same topic - informants and the 1993 WTC bombing, and what he presented as far as the WTC 1993, it's all open source and I read it before hearing him. He did not have to be the real deal to cover that particular topic. There is nothing wrong with this, except that he covers a much wider spectrum in his books, and what he wrote in those books, he never presented on his show. To understand the limitations of his show, you have to listen to other law enforcement professionals who do public commentary and put their life experiences. Read Blue Blood by Edward Conlon, here is a Harvard grad, who joined the NYPD at 30 with ambitions of becoming an author, and he pulled it off. The fictionalized TV series is based on his non-fiction memoir. Frank Serpico is still a public figure and he speaks on issues of police integrity and corruption, hear one of his interviews and compare to the Expert Witness show. Finally, the set enamored with Snowden and Co, has no concept of what a whistleblower is. Google the Dallas Observer Article, Tijuana House Of Death, it is an example of excellent journalism covering the same beat the Real Deal and doing a better job of it. It also features professionalism of the drug cartels, mishandled informants, and a real DEA whistleblower, who did not hide, flee, but blew the whistle, remained in place, and received protection under the law. Point is, there is excellent journalism out there, and if see it for yourself, the Expert Witness will fall in its appropriate place along with Amy Goodman.

    Second, regarding your assertions about the Boston Bomber, it is not a domestic US issue or a conspiracy, but something more akin to Columbine High. You have the phenomenon of a popular pretty boy in the American society who comes from another culture. He gets his ego stroked, because of youthful athletic looks and type A aggressive personality, problem is, the prima donna's ego is not stroked enough, and he does not get the kind of privilege he can get back home if he were a prince, and even if he did, the kids in the US will never submit and genuflect the way social inferiors will do in his home country. That starts eating at them, and eventually some snap and start shooting others. Racism plays part in some, but not all incidents. The earliest was an Algerian or Moroccan exchange student in Canada in the late 1980's. He went into a student center with a hunting rifle and killed 18-20, before killing himself. Then there was that Korean in North Carolina or Virginia recently, and a rich Malaysian in Beverly Hills, who was shooting at college girls from his BMW, finally, we have the petty egotistical losers Boston Bombers, consider their family and their messed up country of origin Chechnya, whose statist political ideology patterned after Hafez Al Assad's Syria has been intertwined with Islamic extremism almost since they got their independence. See for yourselves, go check out the Kavkaz Center.org in English, their news portal, to have an idea what you are dealing with, see what their world view is, and how it harmonizes with your own.

    ReplyDelete
  27. (JustAListener)
    Levine did years of shows. He did a 4 part series on the House of Death (named by Bill Conroy of "Narco News") at the end of 2005. Sandy Gonzalez, the DEA whistleblower was on the program.
    You can listen to some of the shows here: http://expertwitnessradio.org/temparchives/

    You really think Ed Snowden would have been "protected under the law" had he not fled? Not all whistleblowers are saints and not all are alike but would the abuses Snowden revealed have been known (or believed) had he not released the documents?

    The older Boston Bomber (the type A athlete who was killed) was the obvious suspect in a triple homicide committed well before the bombing yet he was never brought in. The Russians issued a warning about the brothers yet they were not checked out - why? The lawyers for the brother on trial tried to get the Gov't records on the older brother but they were blocked - what is there to hide? Could the FBI been trying to use the older brother as an informant? Ever hear of Whitey Bulger?

    ReplyDelete
  28. I did not hears of the Expert Witness show on BAI, maybe one show re-run six times.

    The Russians lie, or more correctly, they don't present evidence to hold someone in the US Court, or gets someone extradited legally out of the US. They just saying that someone is a terrorist is like anybody else claiming another person to be a terrorist. In the 1990's Russia's chief prosecutor showed up at the US Embassy with a file a few inches thick and requested that a certain organized crime figure be not given a visa. When the US Embassy showed him the Russian police records, the chief prosecutor said that all of the Russian police are corrupt and their documents are not to be trusted, only stuff coming directly from him. Similar story with authenticity of most third world records. That's why international extradition does not work too well.

    Criminals lie and informants are dangerous, so what? Yeah, I know Whitey Bulger, who claims the FBI protected him, so did his brother and parts of the Irish community in Boston in all likelihood. Boston Bombers come from a family of chronic shoplifters, so he got some attention from the FBI, big deal. The other one needs to ride a needle. I don't have a problem with middle class Americans discussing in principle investing in drug deals going to prison on DEA drug conspiracy charges. It's very simple - someone comes along claiming to be a drug dealer or a drug trafficker or drug anything, don't talk to them, don't hang out with them, let the cops know, treat them like child molesters, and you will be ok.

    By law, whistleblowers are supposed to go to Congress, not the investigative journalists. Leakers of classified information are not whistle-blowers. Snowden is a privileged punk, who was not suitable for his job. Had his father not been a Commander (Mid-level commissioned officer rank) with the US Coast Guard, he would have had to go through the hiring process like anybody applying from the street, and would not have been hired in all likelihood. By the way, same story is with Aldrich Aimes, he had no education qualifications for his job (just like Snowden), and was hired based on his father's service in the OSS during WW2. Best argument against favoritism and old boys clubs.

    Thanks for the link, I will check it out.

    ReplyDelete
  29. Who went to the seance on Saturday?

    KGT

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    Replies
    1. Maybe they ended it with WBAI's recently introduced Doublr Helix Hypnosis act. I have not heard any mention of the evening on WBAI. Did I miss it? Did it fizzle like the memorial "event"?

      Poor Randy Credico posted a YouTube clip wherein he takes another stab at humor ... It may have been fatal, it certainly isn't funny.

      Now, this little group is probably sharing Mitch Cohen's box of organic tissues as it weeps for Mumia. He has apparently been hospitalized after overdosing on phony profundity. That would be self-inflicted, would'nt it?

      Delete
    2. Mitch should be made to clean Mumia's bed pan while Ed Manfredonia makes fun of him...

      SDL

      Delete
    3. I would not be concerned over Mitch if I thought he was hateful, but I still don't think he has fallen into that WBAI hole. His lack of integrity, good judgement and clarity is,however, helping to bring the station down.

      With so many genuine causes needing attention, the obsession with "Mumia" and the like is puzzling.

      Apropos misplaced idolatry, has anyone heard anything about last nights meeting of the Knight riders?

      I checked the program schedule thi evening and saw that Kathy Davis' occupation of the Wednesday midnight slot is now a fait accomplis...it is now "Heart of Mind", adding another hour and a half of Kathy's embarrassing psychobabble to the weekly BAI barfs.

      Delete
    4. Spinning around the dial, I fell on her saying the night slot was going to replace her afternoon slot.

      Maybe if Mumia dies, Mitch will rediscover Leonard Peltier?

      No, heard nada on the Knight night.

      SDL

      Delete
  30. Won't it be funny if on April 1st Reimers, Murillo, Cohen, Haskins, etc. pop on the air and yell, "APRIL FOOLS!" because they are still at CCNY?

    SDL

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    1. Wouldn't surprise me. We know that the magnificent WBAI Broadcast Center exists only in the Yo-Yo mind of Mitchel Cohen.

      Delete
  31. I saw the documentary, "Going Clear" about Scientology on Sunday night. What a scary group. I couldn't understand the premise of their organization, except that it is an authoritarian, money making machine. David Miscavige is a cross between Jim Jones and David Koresh. I doubt they'll take the KoolAid or firebomb themselves out of existence but something will happen someday and nobody can say, "I'm so surprised. They were such nine bunch of folks". John Travolta seems like he is distancing himself from them, but Tom Cruise is all in. He and Miscavige are particularly "friendly".

    KGT

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    Replies
    1. Didn't Hubbard start it on a dare? I seem to recall something like that. I don't have HBO but they will be premiering "Bessie," allegedly based on my biography, on May 16 and they told me this evening that I'll be able to see it...

      ...and weep, I suppose. :(

      Delete
    2. I downloaded the Going Clear doc earlier today but haven't watched it yet. It's been busy. I wouldn't be surprised if a lawsuit puts The Church of Scientology out of business at some point. When you have money like that around, people want a piece. Reminds me of the old joke "where there's a will, I want to be in it."

      If you need a copy of Bessie, I'm sure some pirate could help you out in seeing it...

      SDL

      Delete
  32. Chris: Did Bessie Smith die because they wouldn't take her to a closer "white" hospital after a car wreck or is this a myth?

    KGT

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    Replies
    1. Myth! Go to http//:stomp-off.blogspot.com

      And search on death of Bessie Smith

      that should give you all the details as I have them in my book.

      Sorry, I'm still on my iPad and don't know how to get a direct link. Let me know if you experience a problem.

      Delete
  33. OK, so who wants to make a bet as to whether the bozos at WBAI are out of CCNY by midnight tonight? Maybe they should hire Bernard White to help them move? I've heard he's good at moving stuff out of WBAI.

    SDL

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    Replies
    1. With no place to go, my bet is that Haskins will still be at that studio this morning, playing his favorite audio clip: someone yelling,"We ain't going' nowhere!" He played it today, during a DN! music break.

      I am told that Scott Keyes is also good at moving stuff in the deep of the night, but I'm sure Steve Post and these guys have had plenty of competition..... can you say, "premiums"?

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    2. If what you have said about Post is true, then he was a small fry, just stealing some records. It takes a lot of records to match the value of one laptop, you know. Bernie be smarter.

      After Mamamia dies, do you think WBAI will name him honorary GM?

      "We ain't going' nowhere!" Don't overstay your welcome, or you won't be welcomed to overstay.

      WBAI - Funnier by the day...

      Seriously. Radio Habana Cuba is better...

      SDL

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    3. What I have said about Post is, indeed, true. It was disturbing, because—as far as we knew—it was without precedence, and it was particularly upsetting because it was theft of property belonging to co-workers. Remember, we were a more cohesive staff back then. When I found ripped-open boxes and envelopes, including my own, I had left the staff and only later was I told that they caught him in the act. As his boss, I would probably have fired him.

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    4. Without doubt I would have fired him AND called the police. I would never tolerate any criminal activity by the staff as a GM. The moment I discovered John Fisk was dealing drugs at WBAI, I would have had the narcs on his drunken stoned ass.

      SDL

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    5. After I left WBAI, staffers told me that my replacement, Frank Millspaugh, was not only using Mescaline at the station, but that he also allowed two dealers to come in and sell it there. I told Goodman, stressing the possibility of the station losing its license. He arranged a lunch at the Americana with Millspaugh and NY Board head, Harold Taylor. When confronted, Frank verified the allegations. I would have fired him immediately, but they just told him to stop such activity!

      Frank had been given the job by Hallock Hoffman under inexplicable circumstances, so this just made that whole episode more unreal. I know that I'll never find out what brought on Frank's hiring, but, as Sister Rosetta Tharpe so memorably stated, "Strange Things" were happening.

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  34. I think the WBAI frequency would be perfect for a station which broadcasts Sinatra, Sammy, Dean and Bobby Darin 24x7.
    Can't wait

    KGT

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    1. Pacifica should donate the frequency to WFMU. Their budgets are about the same, so it would be possible for WFMU to thrive with the extra power, especially if they moved the transmitter to a cheaper building. Eh, I still like my WBAI - New Age Radio idea or giving it to Gary Null, finally. He will most probably end up with it in the end, anyway.

      SDL

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    2. #KGT: The frequency can transmit anything, but non-stop Fifties MOR was a bit much, even in the Fifties. WBAI already has a weekly 2-hour show of cabaret singers, many of whom are barely running on low batteries. Kenny is professional, however, so he puts on a smooth, well-planned show. I don't know what I find more cringeworthy. Liza's time-worn wobble or (on Rothman's show) Merman's labored belt.

      I shouldn't be so critical—at least the two Davids come to the studio prepared.

      #SDL: WBAI will never again approximate the significance it once held. I think the best we can hope for is that it does not become Rap-Around-the-Clock, or something equally uninspiring.

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    3. These days Spanish and sports talk seem to be the big formats when it comes to changes. With Spanish you get to target market specific national groups, which is good for gaining listeners. Another format being attempted is is based on how Latin and Jamaican DJs act - playing a song and talking/shouting over parts of it, using it more as a soundtrack. Generic top ten music is being used with English DJs in some markets to try it out.

      Another format is the one name DJ character, who, like old WWF, can be replaced by different people using the same gimmick.

      The corporate radio business is trying to get young people to tune in but failing to understand young people don't even listen to radio. In fact, we now have a generation who never even owned radios! Demographics show that the average age of the radio listening audience is increasing and while the total audience is shrinking.

      I personally feel traditional English language radio has a limited future in any format. The future will be with foreign languages targeted at immigrants, and specific national groups, like Mexicans, Dominicans, etc.

      Bored enough to sleep yet? Trying to help you avoid Ife...

      SDL

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    4. My first radio job in the U.S. was at WCAU, a very large RADIO/TV station in Philly. Owned by the Philadelphia Bulletin, it was the country's oldest and largest CBS affiliate. That was back in 1958 and one of my first shows was a live noontime half hour called "Surprise Party", which I wrote and produced. It had a small band, a male and female vocalist, an announcer, a host, guest celebrities pushing their latest movie, and an audience of about 200 obese ladies who showed up every day with their shopping bags (we gave away products and such) and got downright nasty if they found someone else occupying "their" seat!

      Sorry, I got carried away. What I really wanted to say that we had on radio an afternoon guy who played innocuous music for the little housewife. He had a mellow voice that these women just loved, and his name was John Trent. Well, I thought it was, but one day I walked past his studio and waved to a stranger... on the air, it was John Trent, sounding the same as always and making the same little jokes, but this was a temporary replacement sent by the sponsor. John Trent was an incorporated name and, I was told, there's one in every major city!

      What a strange place this America is, I thought. We also operated the area's Muzak franchise, which was even weirder.

      So,the playlist, impersonal personality thing is quite old.

      WCAU is today an NBC affiliate.

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  35. Last night, I heard a Korean on Asia-Pacific forum blame the U.S. for the excesses of the Kim family in NK. "They have to be tough and belligerent with the threat of invasion of the U.S. an imminent possibility. If the U.S. just left, the peninsula could be peacefully reunified and harmony restored".

    KGT

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    1. In other words, the U.S. helped Kimland to create such amazing examples of cultural exposition as this? Obviously we didn't help their advancing in the dental world. So much for self-reliance...

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUgGaksNoVI

      SDL

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  36. I knew the move stuff was bullshit, like everything else WBAI.

    SDL

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    1. You were right, it seems. This is yet another instance o devious, inept "management." Berthold Reimers is corrupt and obviously has no moral guideline to observe. Not only has he greatly advanced the destruction of WBAI, he has done so without showing any regard for individuals who—in his hare-brained mindset—stood in the way of restoration. Pacifica, too, is a victim, but those bozos are, in large measure, responsible for giving him the job and extraordinary tenure.

      It is easy to understand why Frank Lefever all but disappeared himself.

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  37. The only "move" stuff WBAI takes seriously is that MOVE stuff from Philadelphia that Sally O'Brien shoves down our (your) throats every Thursday.

    KGT

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    1. The embrace of the self-named "Africa" family is ludicrous, as is the related sainthood the O'Brien idiots (sorry, but they are that) bestow upon the Cook who plays the part of killer "Mumia." The Philadelphia bombing was, of course, a case of outrageous over-reacting, but—in the new WBAI tradition of suppressing pesky facts—we never hear these WBAI propagandists talk about what the decent families on that block were subjected to by the slobs and social misfits who made up the "Africa family."

      With all the genuine accomplishments deserving to be held up as models, only ingrained hatred and racism can explain why otherwise intelligent people pursue such destructive paths.

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    2. Having to pull The Move out of mothballs is utterly pathetic. I believe it shows how fragile the arguements of the Ghetto Politic element really are, having to go back that far. I guess Brown and Garner have burned out, since they turned it into a racial matter of limited interest, rather than the more all encompassing matter of police abuse in general.

      I agree that the police handling of the situation was an abomination. The funny thing is that the people who lived in the vicinity were initially happy the police were actually doing something, until they lost all they owned because the police decided to play war. I feel sorry for those who were first subject to the Move trash (literal and figurative) and then had their homes, memories, etc. destroyed by the police.

      SDL

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  38. Did you hear the news? Mario Murillo is stepping down as iPD effective next week.


    HAHAHA! APRIL FOOLS!!!

    OK, at this point I have to say the OTH opening song really has to bo diddley go. I am so sick of it.

    SDL

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    1. Don't get my hopes up, but—truth be told—losers like Mario Murillo are trapped in a downward path.

      Sorry, gotta go.... i'm designing the guided tour booklet for the new BBC (Berthold Broadcast Center) and adjoining Mumia Memorial Mall, where Double Helix water will flow from the lobby fountain. I am tempted to feature a photo of Kathy Davis (in repose, au naturel) as a scratch-'n'-sniff centerfold.

      By the way, the new studio will be equipped with two Atari 800 computers, refurbished and souped up to 96KB of RAM. Thanks to the generosity of Mr. "H", the last surviving conscious member of the "Cabale", there will also be emergency access to a battery-operated bullhorn.

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    2. Sounds like the future Mecca for the WBAI Remnants. Will the double helix water come in different flavors? Sounds like the place to go after the "historic" reperations mental masturbation shindig. Well, may as well go there, since these dopes don't have the brains to go to school and learn an occupation. Just the way hateful, avaricious people are.

      I never fell for the scratch and sniff thing since seeing John Waters' Polyester. No, won't get fooled again.

      Correct me if I am wrong, but wasn't Murillo's return because he had some time off from his university job? Pretty long hiatus so far. Is there a way to check if it is actually a hiatus or if he was actually fired? On the other hand, maybe he still has his teaching post and that is why he barely does anything at WBAI, lack of time but an extra paycheck. Murillo is no idiot, just an ideologue

      Know what hit me as ironic? This past week I really got back into shortwave listening and sent out twelve reception reports (the first ones I've sent out in years), and OTH talks about shortwave tonight. Just weird.

      SDL

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    3. I think Murillo just needed to get his toes in the door. As long as he still has his self-created Friday morning spot and Haskins remains in place to juggle the puppets, I bet Murillo can continue at Hofstra. These are not deep thinking people, but they are resourceful and Reimers continuing in his role as something the cat dragged in is important to the fulfillment of their fantasies.

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