Thursday, July 2, 2015

Heart of what mind?


Kathy Davis is known for blabbering fiction week after week. She cleverly maneuvered herself into the Wednesday midnight slot that used to be wasted by a fake "anchorman", who hopped the Oblivion Express to Obscurity City. She also managed to keep her regular Monday afternoon show, so she now has two and a half hours a week in which to embarrass intelligence with her utter nonsense.

This morning, she announced that she is starting her own "practice" (presumably a pseudo-spiritual scam center), so we can expect her to start promoting that soon.

She also talked about WBAI, telling her sometimes guest/co-host (Robert Knight's girlfriend, Paulette), how white and radical the station used to be before she ever heard of it. I don't know where she picked up the revised history, but it is amazing, so I wanted you to hear it (assuming that your intellect precluded you from tuning in).

As you listen to this amazing history update, bear in mind that WBAI has always had black-oriented programming and black producers (on and off the air). The News Director was a black woman and—we hired our first black engineer (Tom Tracy) in the mid-Sixties, when I became manager. Knight apparently told his girlfriend that he was the first black console operator/engineer, but this was a man for whom reality was fiction.

I hope Sidney chimes in here and tells us how he had to sneak in through the back elevator! I think people like Kathy have lied so much and so often that they simply don't know what is and what isn't... if you know what I mean.

Listen to the revised history and have a bucket of salt by your side!

32 comments:

  1. Ms Davis clearly has no idea what she’s talking about.

    ‘For a very long time there were no black programmers here, at WBAI.’

    Julius Lester, who hosted his own free form program for a number of years from the late 1960s through the mid-1970s, and who was a major figure at WBAI both internally and as a talent, a public figure, might be surprised to know that – as would a number of others.

    Delores Costello was Coordinator for Black and Third World Programming from the early 1970s onward. She hosted her own free form program, Taking Care of Business, which was prominently scheduled, and with a wide listenership . She personally produced other programming in addition to TCB, and as Coordinator for Black and Third World Programming she brought in other programs, produced by minorities in the communities of New York and in New York schools. Costello was an extremely forceful, powerful, and influential advocate for black, minority, and third world causes and concerns.

    While those were two extremely prominent, very well known, influential and indeed in the case of Ms Costello in particular, very powerful figures at WBAI, there were others as well – Pepsi Charles comes immediately to mind, and digging through ancient folios would provide more names and particulars.

    On a minor, trivial note, contrary to the impression offered by Ms Davis, programming was always scheduled, with some programming and blocks consistent in time and position, and other time set aside as open, available to be scheduled as seemed best in programming meetings, or in the course of events as they developed – whether artistic, educational, or political.

    On an equally minor, equally trivial note, Knight’s point of entree to WBAI was that he presented himself as a technical ‘expert’ on the basis of his knowledge of COBOL. He was hardly the first black person to operate a board at WBAI, but he may have been the first who was, at least at first, *solely* a board operator.

    Ms Davis’ perspective is purely political, offensive to those who preceded her and her particular cohort at WBAI, and appears to have very little if any relation to what most people, of any color or set of beliefs, would recognize as reality.

    ~ ‘indigopirate’

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    1. Yes, the ignorance these people show when it comes to the station's past is exceeded only by the size of their ego and their seeming inability to block out reality.

      As for historian Kathy's remark re program length (which she somehow equates with "radicalism"), there was the Folio, a printed menu that gave the station's subscribers a detailed, up-to-date daily schedule. If a program ran short of an hour, or half, it was followed by a "miscellany" of the announcer's choosing. We had intelligent announcers in days of yore, so some interesting fillers were heard. Station breaks were always made at the required time—not a la commercial media, where a series is aired back to back for several minutes.

      Knight was a super selfie when it came to hyping Knight, and he was not even the first black person to solely operate the board. As I mentioned, Tom Tracy was the station's first black engineer. He was not an announcer, he was our audio engineer, the guy who recorded and often edited programs such as commentaries. We also had a Chief Engineer, Tom Whitmore (white), who maintained the equipment, taught us how to use it properly, and recommended purchases. Both men were professionals (I lured Tom Tracy away from WNEW).

      I should have mentioned that the News Director was Joanne Grant, but she was no token black—other producers included Charles Hobson and A.B. Spellman, and black guest hosts were heard conducting all kinds of programs (John Coltrane, Jimmy Rushing, Freddie Hubbard among them).

      You are right about the political aspect of Kathy Davis' tale—she is in step with the fracturing faction.

      Channel 13 had good reason to call me back in the Sixties when they had a race-related problem. "Uh-m, we have a minor dilemma here," the voice on the other end mumbled. "We need to borrow one of your Negroes."

      Enuff said?

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  2. Forget being technical about exactly the points Kathy made. She had over 6 minutes of valuable air time and said nothing of any consequence, even if it were hypothetically all true. A complete waste of 6 minutes wherein some broadcaster of substance could make a valid, important point. Are we supposed to pay for that?

    KGT

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    1. Six minutes? How about making that 2 1/2 hours a week? Kathy Davis, former Double Helix Water spokeswoman, never has anything meaningful or intelligent to say.

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  3. Chris: Do you have feedback that those to whom you refer critically in this blog, Reimers, Michael Gee, Kathy, Bernard, read this blog and follow it?

    KGT

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    1. Michael G once read a critique from the blog on the air to Hugh Hamilton, who went into a ranting, infantile hissy fit. Bob Fass has also reacted, and someone recently posted an anonymous defense of Reggie Johnson after I posted an audio of Reggie fumbling around in a most unprofessional manner. The funny thing is that I am, more often than not, positive when I refer to Reggie.

      I suspect they either read the blog or hear of it from others who do. Berthold Reimers goes through life in a coma, so I can't be sure if he even listens to the station. :)

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  4. Why even waste the time on "Cake" Davis? She is, without question, psychotic, and probably schizophrenic. The woman has no touch with any reality, believing in every and all sorts of pseudo-science, occultism, mysticism. She reminds me of the victim of a bad event who makes up and lives in a fantasy land to block out said event. You can also see her obviously massive over-eating, which many victims also do.

    This diatribe just demonstrates her total lack of knowledge of WBAI. While there are many at WBAI with a selective memory syndrome, some are like Davis, not even having tried to independently find the true history of WBAI. This is why I would like to see a history of WBAI book exist. Sad truth is that I probably know more history of WBAI than most of the people woking there, particularly that lost period of 1978-1982 or so.

    Another revisionist rant like this was the opening of Forlano's first episode, where she paid homage to Pablo Guzman, who, she said, was trying to bring a greater commercial aesthetic to WBAI. These people know nothing about WBAI, and you have to wonder who feeds them this crap.

    There are still a few old timers at the station, like Irsay, Bochan, Rothenberg, Fass, and one has to wonder what they think if they hear this crap.

    Happy? you got me going?

    SDL

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  5. A few notes - Kathy is a good woman whose big mistake was to fall in love with Samori and Robert Knight who she dated for a while. Knight was a smart man who began to decay quickly through his erratic behavior and destruction of station property. Armand Dimele, who died, was a bon vivant and a collector of vaginas - he was known for his orgies with people like a former producer named Alice. He was an enormous man who had trouble sitting in his chair. Many stories remain to be told about the life of WBAI - to be continued....

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    1. Thank you. Kathy's inference of racism manifesting itself in Sidney's having to enter via a back elevator is outrageous. So is her teaming up with Tony Bates to sell tap water as a cancer cure (Double Helix couldn't even abate thirst). A "good" person would not do many of the things Kathy is guilty of. If she does not know that her on-air blather is pure nonsense, she needs to spend some time in the real world, with eyes open and ears perked.

      Yes, please do continue...

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  6. Ya know one 'can' actually "fumble around on the air", but professionally. I, and others had done it any number of times. "Fumbling" is an opportunity to be funny weird informative, and cutting...if done with timing humor context, and the constant knowledge that you are "on the Bleeping air!"

    Also WBAI was always, I mean always a mixed neighborhood which is how I managed to move in. That freight elevator job was a happy experience. Not only did I get above minimum dough, but ended up on the air. Earlier personalities came in similar ways. Doing work not directly radio oriented. However there were pockets of resistance here, and there. This must be acknowledged. For many years the Engineering Department, and Department Head gigs were called by all...including the women at the station,..."The White Boys Clubs". Because it was. 'Took a while to kick those doors down. Otherwise back in the day we were all gleeful stoned weirdos doing good radio, and having fun at it too.

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    1. Thanks for responding, Sydney, but there is a very big difference between being hired to run a back elevator and being forced to use the back elevator for racist reason. Kathy very clearly infers that you were being discriminated against because of what you were. When distorting fact is convenient, that's what these opportunists do.

      Your "white boys club" reference tells me that WBAI must have regressed. Now, of course, there's what might be called a "hate whitey" club of irresponsible ignoramuses. This former radio station is a paint-by-the-number horror with small patches of black velvet and a few specks of glue-on mink.

      Now the Amino Sisters are back, aiming their acid tongues at leftover dummies. The train is at the station, the fat lady is on the platform, poised to sing her swan song.

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  7. Short, quick list, from memory, by no means definitive or exhaustive:

    Celeste Wesson – Director, Public Affairs; Director, News Department
    Delores Costello – Coordinator, Black and Third World Programming
    Margot Adler – Program Director; Head, Free Form Radio
    Lindsay Ardwin – Chief Announcer
    Margaret Mercer – Director of Operations

    ~ ‘indigo’

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  8. Hmm...What I'm reading here makes me wonder whether some of the opportunists and other knaves at the station are using Davis for something. She fills the bill: She is enough out of touch with reality to believe whatever folks like Robert Knight and Ron Daniels might tell her but has just enough presence of mind to be able to carry out parts of their schemes (e.g., selling Double Helix Water).

    Then again, the same might be said of Berthold Reimers.

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    1. I think they all USE each other, Justine, and should it personally benefit them, they would just as readily LOSE each other. As for being gullible? My guess is that she is selectively so, and her angry dismissal of Alton Maddox supporters is a case in point. The DH Water episode may have been a reflection of a more personal interest in Tony Bates, or just another I-need-to-keep-this-job misstep.

      Financial wizard Reimers is a special case.

      Happy Fourth to you and yours.

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  9. Tuned by We Broadcast At Idiots a few minutes ago and heard a promo for a CAB "teach in" on why WBAI isn't getting CPB funding. It's August 2nd at The Atrium place, as usual. What I wonder is how a "teach in" about a radio network (in name only) not finishing proper tax papers every years could posibly consist of? I have a feeling it will be mainly factional propaganda of some sort.

    SDL

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    1. It will be a brutal condemnation of this one by that one, of these by those. It will be eminently insignificant.

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  10. A Pacifica National Board Special Meeting was scheduled for 8:30p ET yesterday on the kpftx.org calendar, but there was no stream and, thus far at least, no archive. Anyone happen to know if this was a false listing, a cancellation, or a Super Secret Double-Secret Executive Session?

    ~ 'indigopirate'

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  11. Faulty memory regards the department heads gigs...but that's how I remember it. ...maybe most being white made me confabulate the thing. The engineering situation was stone cold as I said. Indeed when I was a remote engineer in the mid-1970's I had bad experiences with that. They we happy for me to do the shit work of recording stuff, but that's all. The last time they wouldn't even let me in the station. They took the tapes, and equipment at the door..a "thank you",..and Slam! I didn't go back, and had no intention of 'ever' going back. Several years later David Wynyard had heard about my Queer Press, and what I was doing, and invited me onto the Gay Show. By being around I was there for when our freight elevator guy left, and I got the gig. Btw it was Paul Wunder that helped break the color thing in engineering by training myself, and several others into the fraternity. As for Robert being the first black engineer...ummm,..no. A look at the old folios would prove that. Though it's possible he really 'thought' he was...he did have a rather serious ego on'em. We used to joke with him about that. Which was as far as he could come to admitting it. The Station is still in my heart. I just dreamed about it again last night...I was with David Noland while he was doing his show. In this dream he played the "Fuck YOU!" punk song he always wanted to play. Maybe it was his Spirit saying hi to me. I like to think so. Also a point...like many of the characters spoken about here...Haskins, Kathy, and such. I was pals with them while there. That they've changed is a sorrow to me. However if I run into any of them on the street I'll greet them with the goodwill we once had. Stay Tuned.

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    1. As always, Sydney, your input is highly valued. I hope your health is improving and that podcast plans are on track.

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    2. @Sydney – For whom / for what department were you doing these remotes? What equipment, given to you by whom?

      I can tell you that as a general rule folks who were outsiders and who did remotes were not taken seriously and were often treated dismissively. In that sense it was the same as phone volunteers. People who did phone volunteer work often thought they could use that as a point of entree. It didn’t work that way, though there were of course a few exceptions, and those exceptions were happily pointed to during fund raising as an indicator of how ‘open’ WBAI was. It was, of course, an insular society in many ways, which is what one would expect, I think.

      If there were no female engineers, technical people, or department heads under the enlightened revolutinary leadership of Samori Marksman, that would surprise me, but it would be an interesting irony.

      Paul Wunder, the original quote whore, was the only person I knew who would sit in a chair for hours happily browsing the PDR looking for interesting new drug combinations – quite a sight, really. I quite liked him. Setting himself on fire proved a bit of a drawback, though.

      ~ ‘indigo’

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    3. Setting himself on fire??? Never knew that! I did hear of the porno movie Paul Wunder was involved with @ the station along with Max Schmid and a producer named Jack Shugg. Filmed @ the station!!BTW, Donna Nieman knew a lot about Samori Marksman - she produced programs for Samori and engineered his situation at times too!

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    4. Twice, at least. Think Richard Pryor. The apartment fire made the papers once, I think.

      ~ 'indigo'

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    5. Wow!! I bet Chris is getting an education here!

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    6. Education? Please explain :)

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    7. Jack Shugg was max Schmid's partner with the old time radio show and eventually had his own graveyard shift show. (Anyone remember Jack's "mystery lady" who hosted the show a couple of times? I believe it was Sharon Mitchel.). He was also involved in the porn industry, becoming the president of one the porn film critic organizations. He was fired bcause, without informing/asking permission of WBAI, he snuck in a porn film crew to shoot a scene in an unused studio. I agree he should have been, at least, punished. If there were a fire or injury from the shoot, I doubt insurance would have cobered an uninformed WBAI.

      I spoke to Paul Wunder not long after the fire in his apartment. Here is the story he told me. After "wining and dining" his girlfriend, they both fell asleep, forgetting to blow out the candles (I guess they only remembered blowing something else). Anyway, nearly his entire collection of records and tapes was destryed, including many one of a kind items. As for him, he had a bad case of smoke inhilation that nearly killed him. However, a good thing happened. See, back in those days there were some nice listeners, who sent him copies of their own copies of the one of a kind things they had recorded off his show. Hence, he was able to get some stuff back.

      SDL

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    8. I'm familiar with that version of that fire story. It may have been true. It may not. I do know for a fact that at least one incident was indeed freebasing gone wrong – it happens.

      ~ 'indigo'

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  12. David Nolan? A real nasty dude - died of AIDS a few years ago. He was an engineer @ the station for years - again a real NASTY dude. Don't know why Sydney has such fond memories of him. People treated Sydney like SHIT and he is forgiving?Hope the station goes to HELL!!

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  13. Thanks for the support,...but David was my good friend for over 20 years. If he did serious foul shit I didn't know about it. I hope he didn't. If by chance he did...Forgive the Dead. People were very angry at Paul Williams for his behavior during his last year of life. Esp. as OPS Head. There were reasons...a drinking abuse problem, bad relationships, and the sudden death of his son. Yet when I spoke of him during my eulogy for Fred Kuhn. I said "...we may have been upset with him for a year, but he was our friend for the previous 20 years." This got a standing ovation. There's more forgiveness out there than we imagine.

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    1. Your capacity for forgiveness is commendable, Sydney, especially when one considers how you were treated by a station to which you gave such a huge chunk of your life.

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  14. Yes,...the Pod-casting is on track. However as I think I posted here it will be a bit later in the summer than I planned. My bleeped up health got in the way...no I ain't about to die or anything as some say. ...I don't think so anyway. Just the usual bullshit of being in my mid-sixties. I just got the equipment...most it that I need. Will be on-line late this month or early August. I'm going at my own speed on this so be patient. Thanks for your interest, and good natures to all. BTW I've been contacted to be the voice of a cartoon character in a series that's being developed. Other than that I can't say more till shit gets signed. Imagine someone wanting a broken down elderly engineer to entertain the kiddies. Stay Tuned.

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    1. Got my fingers crossed (yup, I can still do that in my mid-eighties :)) re the voice job... I can so easily see you doing that.

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  15. Looks like Dimele's buddies are going to be doing what Davis did with Knight in taking over a dead man's time slot(s). Eh, why the hell not, considering they have their own phone lines AND Dimele made money for the station. They should rename the show The Golden Age of Psychobabble.

    Seems the several times I passed by WBAI in the past few days I heard extendomercials almost every time. Let's remember there is an August beg-a-thon coming up, where we will hear yet the same extendomercials more often. You think they could come up with some new products, like Null's Organic Kitty Litter Stuff, Agua del Grifo (magical cure all), find some new free DVDs and sell burned copies to the remnants, etc.

    SDL

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