Yesterday on his show, Gary Null looked into his crystal ball and predicted the demise of WBAI and, probably, Pacifica.
That's not an original conclusion to draw, present situation considered, but it comes, significantly, from a merchant upon whose sales pitches WBAI has become reliant. If you don't think do-nothing WBAI GM, Berthold Reimers lives in a sub-world of his own, you should read this letter to the WBAI "Family," which was dumped into circulation today. Reimers is not very bright, but he is devious, without conscience, and morally bankrupt. I don't know who he is trying to appease with this letter, but I doubt if anyone is fooled by it.
Dear WBAI Family,
It's September and our thoughts turn to those of you preparing to send children off to schools, colleges, or heading there yourself.
WBAI has from its inception, the mission to "establish and operate for educational purposes...In radio broadcasting operations to encourage and provide outlets for the creative skills and energies of the community...to employ such varied sources in the public presentation of accurate, objective, comprehensive news on all matters vitally affecting the community."
With this in mind WBAI will bring you many informative and creative programs and activities this fall. Take a look at some of them listed below. We will once again be hosting an extensive internship program for students from universities across the metropolitan area, offering them on-air opportunities few radio stations make available.
Listening to WBAI programming is often assigned to students in local colleges. We will be partnering with some new ones, bringing you their informative podcasts and live streamed lectures by well known progressive personalities.
We wish you all a successful school experience this fall and hope that those of you who are lifelong listeners and learners will pass on the call numbers 99.5fm or our stream at wbai.org to those close to you.
Berthold Reimers
General Manager
Null is just a joke. I wouldn't take anything he spews seriously, whether he agrees with my sentiments or not.
ReplyDeleteWhat a load of crap and pure fluff from Reimers.
"Listening to WBAI programming is often assigned to students in local colleges." Yeah, right! Maybe in 1968.
"...pass on the call numbers 99.5fm..." Is that the telephone number hotline for Bullshit, inc?
Reimers has a good job, makes good money, and does what ever the hell he wants, even when it causes parent Pacifica trouble and money. You have to give him credit for being a good asshole of a bully, if nothing else.
SDL
A nail on the head hit, SDL. That letter is as embarrassing as his resumé. I bet half-wit Haskins can't see through the BS.
DeleteAs I was reading the letter, I found myself recalling the time when WBAI used to bill itself as "The University of the Airwaves".
ReplyDeleteHmm...What sorts of things do people learn these days from listening to BAI? What kinds of degrees might they get?
nellie hester bailey... playing brotha west , doing his whining ghetto rant to the" community "
ReplyDeleteThis is what she is calling "special" . Seems like just more of the same to me.
Boring and predictable
Turned on WBAI a while ago when I sat down for my late lunch to find Nellie Hester Baillie in all her glory. I swear this one sided program sounds more like a Christian revivalist hootenanny more than a political rally.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, if I were black, I would feel insulted by these people because all they do is tell black people how powerless and low they are. They do a better job of, as West called it, "niggerizing" people than any one else. How about one line about making sure kids get an education or some such thing? No, that's too positive and self-empowering. They certainly have some just claims, but the demeaning way they treat their own is going to drive many away.
Anyway, it all reminds me of Victor Vancier and his old cable access Jewish Task Force show. It was a hardcore Zionist show, but Vancier insulted Jews more than anything, calling them stupid, cowards, etc. My Jewish friends watched him for laughs, as did I. Needless to say, he didn't help grow his organization by insulting the intended audience.
SDL
They are the "Uncle Toms" of today—a great source of embarrassment to people of all hues. I fully understand why intelligent black people cringe at the mere sight of Cornell West these days—my initial impression of him was that of a rational, insightful man, but the attention he has received and, to a large extent, sought, appears to have turned him into a buffoon. Sad to say, it is a common road taken, but mostly by those who have neither the motive nor the skill to make their mark legitimately.
Delete“The psychobabbling bromides that elevate recognition and celebration of black agency rest on an ideological perspective that in practical terms rejects effective black political action in favor of expressive display. It is the worldview of an element of the contemporary black professional stratum anchored in the academy, blogosphere, and the world of mass media chat whose standing in public life is bound up with establishing a professional authority in speaking for the race. This is the occupational niche of the so-called black public intellectuals.
DeleteThe torrent of faddish chattering-class blather and trivial debate sparked by Michael Eric Dyson’s recent attack on Cornel West in the New Republic illustrates the utter fatuity of this domain, as if there were any reason to care about a squabble between two freelance Racial Voices with no constituency or links to radical institutions between them.”
Adolph Reed
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/08/adolph-reed-black-liberation-django-lincoln-selma-glory/
Sounds like Mr. Reed has been listening to Democracy Now.
Folly huck! You are the biggest collection of gangsta crackers I have heard in a long while. Listen to yourselves... what a sad decline at Pacifica, from the factions in power to the ones who wannabe. Is there no way out?
ReplyDeleteIf there is a way out, I recommend pointing Berthold Reimers, his cronies, and a good number of Pacifica board members towards it.
DeleteBabbling Bob is really at it tonight.
ReplyDeleteMemphis Slim, self-reassurance he has more than five listeners, first of many nightly readings of the call letters he has trouble remembering, something about Peria... Is there a point to this, other than a public demonstration of his seeming battle with Alzheimer's Disease?
I really feel sorry for him, to be honest.
SDL
I like Memphis Slim, but you are right about Bob being pathetic. His fantasy about having a global horde of listeners and perhaps some in outer space is sad when it's more like a cable that could fit into the WBAI "studio". I wonder if someone told him that the list of stations he used to recite repeatedly is a joke?
DeleteActually, I think three of those five listeners may be in "outer space," when you think about it. You know how that acid comes back to haunt you years later. Anyway, the other two listeners are one each in Queens and Manhattan. ;)
DeleteYeah, to be honest, I only have Bob on for the blues songs tonight, otherwise I would have tuned out forty minutes ago.
Anyway, those stations ARE a joke. I checked them out a while back and found they are all very low power, one even falling under the "Low Power" (under 100 watts) FCC section. However, I bet any of them have more listeners during hours without Bob than with him.
Oh, jeez, he's rambling again...
SDL
As Jelly Roll Morton said at the beginning of "Oh, Didn't He Ramble": He rambled and he rambled 'till the butcher cut him down.
DeleteBob has been fairly restrained this morning, so far. Will reality ever hit him? I think he'll go down with the ship.
They have been doing infomercial reruns--today Prescod announced that February is drawing to a close, the Amino Sisters have been heard doing their thing, and so has Gwen Scott. I don't think the scheduled marathon has started, at least not officially. These things aren't pulling in the money, yet they keep running them. Idiots.
I recently said that WBAI has finally hit the wall and drained the listenership dry, and I think the need to run extendomercials between beg-a-thons is proving it. There just isn't anymore money to be sucked, and that's it. The free fall shall speed up now.
DeleteNot only has the programming killed the station financially, but, I do think, not having phone lines has hurt a little. You know, the phone lines that WBAI can't afford to have installed, according to Joe King? Add to the mix all the begging for money and you have people running to the exits.
I think one reality has hit Bob, and that is the reality of the station's financial status. It's pretty sad when he can see it and so many younger people with more wits about them can't.
The malaise has hit so big that even Null seems to have given up hope. The only salvation will be Pacifica and its stations bailing out WBAI financially, like WBAI used to do for them years back. However, how long will that last, if at all?
I predict that Pacifica will dissolve soon and that will be how WBAI dies, as we know it.
When the history is written, Generalissimo Mario Murillo will be the one we can hold responsible for the final failed offensive on the Eastern Front/New York Market Theater of Operations. He's the one who installed all this slavery/reparations crap that has decimated WBAI in less than a year. To be honest, I am a bit amazed at how much Murillo fucked up. Hopefully, he'll get PD jobs at WABC and WOR next...
SDL
I agree with what you say, it's essentially GAME OVER. Yes, Mutillo turned out to be a damaging dud.
DeletePBS News showed a scene this evening of Hungarian police tricking refugees into boarding a train, supposedly for the purpose of being transported to Germany. Some refugees refused to board, suspecting a trap. They were right, the train took the poor people to a refugee camp. When it stopped and people were ordered to disembark it generated a scene that was alarmingly reminiscent of ones we have seen when the Nazis filled their concentration camps. One scene, a protesting father being arrested and pulled away from his wife and child, was particularly hard to watch. I did not see or hear of this on commercial TV, nor WBAI. Guess the victims were too light-complexioned.
Murillo and Reimers thought they were going to jump on board a new gravy train with the reparations stuff. What they discovered is what I said months ago - the people in this movement expect everything for free and aren't going to give a radio station any money. I guess Murillo thought he was going to be like his mentor, Samori Marxman, and make WBAI "La Voz de La Revolucion!" Disastrous miscalculation, Mario and Berthold.
DeleteThe only place on WBAI you may hear anything about the migration situation in Europe is Mitch Jesserich's show. I hope when Pacifica dies, he finds another radio home.
Well, it is funny that you saw this report on corporate and CPB funded PBS. For all the whining that WBAI always does about being non-corporate sponsored and all their money coming from the listeners, they are finally correct. They don't even take free, no strings attached money from the CPB now. HAHAHAHA!
On another note. I forget which Pacifica station it is that was recently threatened with the potential loss of the ability to even qualify for CPB money due to having too small an audience, but that is no mere threat. On this week's World of Radio, Glen Hauser had a story about about KZMU in Utah which has indeed lost its CPB funding for that very reason.
SDL
The bozos of bai deserve every setback they get, it's just painful to see that they will have left nothing that might restore the station.
DeleteYes, I certainly saw the irony on big bad PBS going where WBAI ought to have gone...once again. When the idiot of the morning, Haskins tells his dozen listeners that they "won't hear this on any other station," he is actually right, only WBAI would carry so much ignorance and bigotry.
They now seem to be escalating their premature infomercial spree. This morning I hear Null put down the Amino Sisters for what he obviously regards as making a miracle out of a molehill.
All is not well at 388 Atlantic... in fact, it's getting worser and worser :)
Gary Null predicted bad times for WBAI/Pacifica? That's like a tapeworm predicting weight loss.
ReplyDeletePerhaps Murillo will eventually realize how insignificant he is. but I think we'll have to wait until he and his bedfellows have finished killing WBAI. It will die a third-rate black station, but be remembered as a noble source of intellectual nourishment for all.
ReplyDeletePeople like Murillo never learn because they are the political version of religious fanatics. Simply put, Murillo's tenure is a disaster. He may have well pushed WBAI over the edge into insolvency. I can't see WBAI being able to return from this point. And you, Chris, know I have been the last one saying it could possibly be saved.
ReplyDeleteAt this point, I am more concerned that the Pacifica audio archives continue to exist so that the history they hold of this nation isn't lost. The Pacifica stations are now a lost cause, if not in actually going out of business, at least in being so marginalized that they are totally irrelevant in any way to society or politics.
No one associated with Pacifica has any cogent argument to make against PBS or NPR. The fact that they take corporate grants and CPB money (the latter of which Pacifica has done and essentially hidden from it's listeners for decades) does not necessarily create an atmosphere that automatically restricts their broadcast content by itself. In fact, as anyone can see or hear, PBS and NPR do a far superior job of reporting news and events than Pacifica does. Corporate and CPB monies can only affect the broadcast content if the powers at the station(s) so permit.
As for the onslaught of extendomercials. What can they do at WBAI? They refuse to live within a logical budget, accept that the listeners are now in flight (seemingly to WNYC FM) and The Remnants have been drained of what they can give. It's financially over. There will be no revolution, sorry to tell you Murillo. It's over and you lost your gamble playing the race card.
Haskins better enjoy his career while he can, because he won't find another radio ever again. I hope Reimers has a good financial manager, because he obviously has NO idea how to handle finances.
SDL
"Haskins better enjoy his career while he can, because he won't find another radio ever again".
ReplyDeleteHell no. He'll work for Gary Null privately on his health (snake-oil) broadcasts.
KGT
p.s.- I can't wait for the all day Ken and Sista Mimi Labor Day special. It will provoke premature Labor.
DeleteKGT
A labor of hate? They will be wasting their efforts on an imaginary audience, I think.
DeleteAt this point , they should just go out in the middle of times square with a megaphone.
ReplyDeleteThey would save money , and probably have more listeners too. I don't think this
could get anymore pathetic . But than again they have surprised me in the past .
I am listening to Out-FM and can state that we are in dire need of the return of David Wynyard to inject some tongue-in-cheek (and who knows where else) humor into a dry, pointless program.
ReplyDeleteKGT