Fifty years ago, as 1965 entered its last lap, we were busy looking ahead and preparing WBAI for the future. As a giant step in that direction, we sought and received permission to increase our power and install a new transmitter atop the Empire State Building. Their powerful antenna had undergone a major upgrade, allowing it to carry a multiple of radio signals, and we were among the first to sign up.
A major improvement was the extended coverage this gave us. Now people could tune us in on small transistor radios from locations that hitherto required, at the very least, a good outdoor antenna. We could also be heard in several in spots that previously had been dead, and we were equipped for stereo broadcasting. Lou Schweitzer had experimented with an early form of stereo transmission a few years back, when WBAI was a small room in the Sherry Netherland hotel, so he was delighted to hear me speak of this "dream" and volunteered to lend us the money we needed.
When your programming has the quality and uniqueness that characterized ours at that time, a powerful transmitter in an ideal location pays for itself. As we predicted, this move increased membership and was thus a sensible investment.
The current mismanagement blames everything but their own ineptitude for the present crisis, including the cost of transmitter room rental and hook-up. True, we did not pay anything near the amount the ESB charges today, but when you scare off nearly your entire listening audience by stagnating at a sub-standard level of audio and content, and target one small segment of a single community within the listening area, the transmitting cost becomes relatively prohibitive. There are other factors in play here, but they have not been addressed in many years.
One of those factors is the lack of information program-ming and otherwise—shared with the audience. A monthly publication called the Folio was sent out to paid WBAI subscribers, giving them not only an extra incentive to send in their annual fee (it was $15 when I left), but also a thorough, detailed listing of our on-air offerings. A look at the Folio Notes for our January 17-February 13, 1966 issue (Click on image to enlarge it) reflects the pride with which we anticipated the switch to our new transmitter.
I started to listen to WBAI in 1978. I do not know what it sounded like prior to that. Is it possible to get a transcription tape that is more than a quick soundbite of some of the programming that highlights what you refer to as the 1960s and early 70s WBAI and post them here?
ReplyDeleteKGT
I probably have a bigger slice of that pie, but I am unable to play my reel-to-reel tapes, because both my machines malfunction—I think it's a simple matter of replacing the belts.
DeleteThe folio listings should give you a good idea of what we did (several are among early posts in this blog). Then there is the first marathon, which I recorded in its entirety on one 7" tape, but using 4 tracks and the slowest i.p.s. The quality is amazingly good (I plugged my recorder directly into a line output), but finding a machine to run it on is not easy.
Perhaps someone out there has some airchecks.
One would think that the Pacifica Radio Archives would have some such, in theory, but the reality may be suggested by the fact that their web page still promotes their 2014 fund raiser, that when I've emailed to enquire about whether or not they have an interview I know was sent to them to be archived and would be part of a museum exhibit there was no reply (twice) and that and others I know for a fact they were sent in the 1970s and 1980s don't show in their search engine – not even in the 'we haven't converted these to digital yet would you like to donate to convert them' category.
DeleteIt's Pacifica, it's fubar, sad but no surprise.
~ 'indigopirate'
If you can find a quarter track reel to reel, you could play it back at a higher speed, digitally record it on your computer and then slow it down in software
ReplyDeleteThanks, that's an interesting solution worth exploring.
Deletevery, very sad and poignant
ReplyDeleteTwo points:
ReplyDelete1. At the risk of extending a compliment, your foresight, planning, guidance, and management were exemplary.
2. The contrast between WBAI then and now is always striking. The move to the Empire State Building was at the leading edge of its time, whereas at present neither WBAI nor Pacifica have any idea of either the present time or of what the future of their content or of media might look like – ‘progressives’ incapable of envisioning either evolution or progress, still dwelling in a small café in Zurich in the mid-19th century within the small, dark cave–cafés of their minds.
~ ‘indigopirate’
Thank you. indigopirate, but when one runs a radio station whose existence relies on the size of the listenership and the depth of its interest, isn't such an upgrade a no-brainer? I like your Zürich analogy.
DeleteI used to think of WBAI as an oasis, so I had to smile when your BlueBoard post more or less said that Pacifica governance is a mirage. :)
You’re being modest. It was obvious because you were a good manager, grasped the opportunity, and built upon it. It wouldn’t be so obvious to everyone, and not everyone would risk the move, execute it well, and derive benefit from it.
DeleteThese fools are still, in their minds, in their beings, in a shabby little café in Zurich of a century-and-a-half ago, still waiting for their magical sealed train.
They drive away the other patrons, and the owner will soon have no choice but to turn them out. They’ll blame the owner, they’ll blame the patrons, they’ll blame the coffee and the weather.
Yet they’re not even very good at their nasty little blame-games – and, in the end, that’s all they have and all they will ever have.
~ ‘indigopirate’
I had predicted a last gasp for WBAI in 2015, but with only 2 1/2 months left, they just might survive into 2016, but the odds for hat happening are not good. The current fund drive may well prove to be the red flag Reimers and Mitchel can't see. We know the "when" is around the corner, but what about the "how"? Will the piggybank starv to death, will the authorities finally act, or will the rogue PNB faction give WBAI the final shove?
DeleteAnybody here have their own theory as to these speculations?
We have so very little hard information I think, speaking only for myself, that it’s impossible to meaningfully speculate as to particulars.
DeleteI think we might safely say that WBAI and Pacifica in their present form do not exist for another two years.
How long this will drag on… who knows?
Two years? One? Three? A week? A month? Tomorrow morning? Yesterday evening?
How long does the patient in the ICU who’s clearly doomed have left, exactly, and what’s the proximate cause or causes of that approaching death?
Who knows?
We seem to have less and less information as we move forward (forward?). A committee meeting on governance yesterday was cancelled. A meeting of the PNB tonight had no posting of its agenda, and lasted five minutes. There’s a financial committee meeting scheduled for the evening before Proffitt’s scheduled departure, but no PNB Special Meeting until the day after his departure.
Those meetings may tell us something or nothing at all.
We don’t know whether or not they scraped up or borrowed the monies necessary to pay their health insurance premium due 30 September or whether WBAI scraped up or borrowed the money to meet its payroll due on or about that same date.
Or how, in objective as opposed to anecdotal terms, fund-raising is going.
Or the present state of partial-partial payments to Empire State, or the accumulated monies owed Empire State.
Combine this sort of stuff with the parlous state of drift, mismanagement, and chaos at any and all levels, and to my mind we’re way into unknown-unknown territory so far as any guesses go.
I think we know with a high level of confidence that they’re dying, and that they’re unconsciously merrily and in a sense both lazily and busily exploring all possible options as to their death, but other than that… ?
I have no clue.
~ ‘indigopirate’
It's anybody's guess, of course, but I think it is reasonable to assume that they realize there's no way to save the total package, so they are undoubtedly trying to figure out a way in which to keep at least one of the stations, either KPFA or KPFK. As we have have ample proof of, they will stoop as low as they need to in order to hold on to something.
DeleteWhat we have is two vaguely distinct factions, neither of which has a clue when it comes to the broadcasting field nor the inspiration and spirit that drove the Hill group—idealism, what little I detect in the minority faction, is feigned.
A bunch of losers in a protracted act of losing.
They will try to save KPFA at any cost, and they will likely succeed.
Delete~ 'indigopirate'
As I recall, KPFK is the more powerful of the two and isn't LA a more desirable market?
DeleteK has had a race problem similar to WBAI's, I don't know what that situation is at A, but when the dumping becomes an irreversible fact, the biggest problem will undoubtedly come from the race card dealer, do you agree?
In NY, there is that enormous debt owed the ESB and others, including the lady who owns the Atlantic Avenue building. The "premium" mess could also be worse than we imagine. A torrent of lawsuits lawsuits may soak Pacifica just as Pacifica soaked its listener-sponsors.
As for saving KPFA, what is there left to save? There is no reason to believe that these people will ever get it. so to speak. I have not seen anything that indicates their interest going beyond money.
My reasoning, such as it is, is as follows:
DeleteAll evidence seems to me to indicate that KPFA people and in particular the Dan Siegel-associated faction are the dominant force within Pacifica. They dominate meetings, and the agenda. They made short work of both Summer Reese and John Proffitt. KPFK is also their concern, and their interest, judging by the management traffic between Berkeley and Los Angeles, but given the simple fact that the core of their faction and Siegel are centered most critically on Berkeley, and given Berkeley’s historical role, symbolism, and ‘progressive’ demographic base, I’d think that though they would very much iike to hold KPFK if they can, if they had to retreat to a single locus it would be KPFA.
Pure speculation, but I continue to think they’ll look to shed WBAI and WPFW for a profit, let KPFT be free of Pacifica, and attempt to consolidate KPFA and KPFK, but if they can only ‘save’ one station, it would be KPFA.
I can’t imagine their letting KPFA go in an attempt to save anything else.
Also, though it hasn’t always been the case, KPFA is presently the strongest station financially.
Whether they can pull-off any of this is an open question, but I’d think those are their priorities.
~ ‘indigopirate’
Even if they somehow manage to get out of this with a station or two, I think they will fuck up and lose it all.
DeletePerhaps, and that would arguably be a just outcome, but how often does one see anything that might pass for justice in this world, other than by random chance?
DeleteKPFA, if free-standing, can very likely survive indefinitely. If you’ve heard their financial reports it’s clear that their accounts are clear, well-organized, and well-understood. They have an ideal location with respect to presenting a ‘progressive’ presence to a largely ‘progressive’ community.
Their priorities with respect to fund-raising seem to be sound, having bitten the bullet to reduce the number of pitching days, and informal report indicates their current fund drive is going at least fairly well.
If they were free-standing their administrative costs and overhead would be drastically reduced, and management far less clumsy, complex, and dysfunctional, since the national office need no longer exist.
If free-standing they still hold the Pacifica name, which is of value with respect to a limited but real and likely sufficient ‘progressive’ audience and the possibility of its increase via effective use of the net.
There’d be no need to consider loaning any future windfalls like bequests to other struggling stations – though I note that the loan to KPFT for the transmitter was a very sound move in every sense.
If they’re able to set up a trust fund, as was speculated some months back, from the sale of, say, WBAI and WPFW, or any future bequests, they might be fairly well off.
With respect to KPFK, I don’t know. KPFK appears to be on the ropes, but with a consolidated base in combination with KPFA it might be possible for them to turn it around, and the management, board, and personnel overlap between KPFA and KPFK seems pretty strong, which is a positive.
Bear one thing in mind: All the concern with respect to evil machinations centers on KPFA, and to some degree KPFK. No one in recent history has thought that WBAI, WPFW, or KPFT were plotting to take control and sell off other units if necessary to do so. There’s been some noise that KPFT might want to be free of the network or a loose association, but there’s absolutely nothing suggesting WBAI or WPFW are in a position, that is that they have the people, capable of possibly taking control of the whole show. That strongly suggests that the more capable (it’s a relative term) players are and have been at KPFA and KPFK. I’m not impressed by them, no, but they appear in relative terms to be the more capable, and that argues for their possible survival.
It should be entirely possible for KPFA, at least, and possibly KPFK, to survive as Pacifica, given the present situation.
There are possible wildcards aplenty, though, with respect to that happening, no argument.
I’d bet a dollar, though, that KPFA, at least, is still standing two or three years from now. I’d bet fifty cents that KPFK is as well. I’d be neutral or perhaps put a dime on KPFT, and I’d be short on WPFW and massively short on WBAI.
As I say, simply speculation, with too little information to be meaningful, for what little it’s worth.
Get back to me in late 2018 and we’ll see how it went.
~ ‘indigo’
Let me make my feelings simple. For a few months now I have felt that WBAI no longer controls its own destiny. It will plod on, even if it must rip-off fewer people and tighten financially. However, WBAI has no bearing anymore on the more important events which will decide its future, which are the events in California - Pacifica, KPFK and KPFA. California is where the drama will be played out to the forthcoming end. WBAI will simply be subject to the end result, but not have any real hand in it. Pacifica will implode, with many not even knowing it. The stations will be assets to be sold, before or after implosion. One day, Pacifica will just be no more.
ReplyDeleteSDL
Agreed.
Delete~ 'indigopirate'
I think you are right about WBAI being a football of sorts. It will definitely not survive and I'm not so sure that the same can't be said for the entire organization. I expect a long period of finger pointing and a hopeless tangle of law, larceny and lunacy. A hard-boiling fizzle.
DeleteI heard Tiokashit Horsesass (aka Kirby Veaux) yesterday afternoon, "the first time in a year" (since they let him out of federal prison for not paying child support to his white baby-mama). If he has a regular spot, I will meet my ancestors.
ReplyDeleteKGT