And here is the meeting, a dramatic prelude to what looks to be a not so grand finale
An unvarnished blog that dips into the past and comments on the present of WBAI-FM, a once significant, intelligent New York radio station that for years has suffered chronic abuse from within and now nears extinction. Your comments are welcomed and will not be censored.
(JustAListener)
ReplyDeleteI have to disagree with your graphic.
There is no sign Reimers is feeling the pressure as the jaws close.
He's probably on the ship telling Denham there's nothing to worry about because he (Reimers) tamed Kong and he's sure the natives said it'll be ok, even though Reimers, despite presenting himself as a native wiseman, doesn't understand the native's "Plains" dialect.
Besides Reimers doesn't care if Kong tramples the village as long as Kong leaves some coconuts for him.
You have created an interesting tableau, JAL.
DeletePerhaps Reimers has deluded himself into thinking that Kong is a capuchin monkey. That would be in keeping with his customized bottom lines.
Reimers earns $100,000/year? So he's made $500,000 or more so far, correct? He has already won. I doubt he earned anywhere near that in his previous employment. Truth is he's still here, they are gone. He even stood up to an ED. I guess it helps that WBAI is in New York while the Pacificans are focused on their local California stations.
DeleteAnyway, let's arrange a meeting to set up a meeting about setting up a meeting to deal with setting up a meeting about the financial crisis at Pacifica. We'll do it after the elections, OK? That should give us plenty of time. We'll do it by conference call, so we have lots of sound effects (be-doop, bloop, beep beep).
SDL
Yes, and at the end of all those meetings the big goodbye waits patiently... only there won't be much good about this bye. Reimers will end up a big loser with a fat piggybank. Not so enviable.
DeleteI can't wait to hear the WBAI scum apologists deal with the France attacks today.
ReplyDeleteSDL
Don't they have an hour of news coming up at 6 PM? The scum apologists have no interest in the truth, whatever that might be, but will probably urge a boycott of Freedom Fries and drag out whatever they have on France's role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade and persecution of Haitians. Haskins will find some way to use this for fund raising. They might also have Mama Mumia comment on these attacks as seen from a Pennsylvania prison cell.
DeleteThe idiot who does Burn, Baby,Burn" will chuckle and totally blame the country he has chosen to live in.
There was a time that WBAI would have broke in and covered this story. Not anymore! After all, French lives don't matter, unless they are Muslim. Once upon a time WBAI would have been the place I would have tuned for info next to shortwave. Not anymore. Now there is some idiot blathering about who the fuck knows what.
DeleteSDL
And when they finally give some mention to this, what they say will not contain anything new. It's the Robert Knight style of "investigative reporting": You do a Google, grab some audio, and throw it on the air.
DeleteReuters and The Guardian are live streaming events well.
Delete~ 'indigo'
I heard a part of Byrd's opening. He mentioned some of the usual suspaects—Elijah Muhammad, Bob Law, et al—and told his audience group to dress for cool weather.
ReplyDeleteWNYC will have the BBC do several reports, as usual.
BBC isn't doing a good job. I think they are holding back. France is under censorship now. I am going to tune into Cuba, who have very good news, actually, at 8:00 PM on 6.000khz. Deutsche Welle later is usually good.
ReplyDeleteSDL
Xinhua has added coverage of Paris to their coverage earlier in the day of the suicide attacks in Baghdad. NYT lags, but is large, as expected, WP is pretty much on top of it.
ReplyDelete~ 'indigo'
Events of this sort throw the absolute irrelevance of Pacifica into extremely sharp relief.
ReplyDelete~ 'indigopirate'
Off topic, perhaps, but also, perhaps, worth a read
ReplyDelete~ 'indigopirate'
This is a translation of the Libération editor Laurent Joffrin’s op-ed.
The barbarity of terrorism has just taken a historical step. A massacre coordinated in the heart of Paris and the Stade de France was conducted with cold determination, in order to kill as many as possible.
Even at the height of the clashes linked to the Algerian civil war in the 1990s, France had never experienced this level of violence. And it is France, its policies and its international role which are targeted by the killers. Unlike the attacks on Charlie Hebdo or the Hyper Cacher, which were precise in their execution, tonight’s attacks are acts of indistinct cruelty unleashed to inspire terror across the nation.
The sites of the attacks were all dedicated to entertainment and friendliness, were purposely in the line of fire, as a way to underline the fact that French people are now under menace in their everyday life, as they simply go out with friends.
We are horrified in front of the vastness of this massacre, and compassion for the victims is the most humane and immediate reaction to have. We first and foremost think of the victims and their families. As for the rest - it has to focus on cold blood and civism. French society should arm itself with the courage to not give an inch to the killers, and has to show vigilance and the undying will to face the horror with the force of the law and solidarity.
The Republic, its mobilised state and the law will take on the battle without trembling, with great efficiency. It is impossible to not link those bloody attacks to those taking place in the Middle East, where France plays its part. Our country must continue its action unblinkingly. Only our country’s unity, as with stand strong and voluntary and carried by our values, will allow France to take its greatest challenge.
Hell, we have a better news reporting from multiple sources going on in the shortwave chat room right now than WBAI, including translations from France Info. http://swling.com/blog/chat-room/
ReplyDeleteSDL
I have no doubt.
DeleteThere's also a lot of chatter on twitter, of course.
Not to mention things like france24.com
~ 'indigo'
bai's idea of news ... replaying linda perry "news" from 14 hours ago.
ReplyDeletePATHETIC doesn't even begin to explain this train wreck .
WBAI has lost any last itsy bitsy bit of credibility that may have remained as of today. They have shown their true self-centered colors. They are no longer a station that is on top of things. They are not even an "alternative." As of now, they are the lowest form of worthless scum on local radio. I tuned around and found more news about the Paris attacks on the worst of the corporate radio stations. Is it any wonder WBAI attracts such a dumb audience of ignoramuses? I guess selling slavery products is all they have left.
DeleteWe're lucky Vietnam isn't happening now, or the tapes would be of Grand Master Koch and the latest hip hop groups.
SDL
Wholly agree, SDL. WBAI was, as always, struggling.financially when we sent Dale Minor to Vietnam with nothing more than a microphone and one of our two portable tape recorders. He went into the middle of the war, recorded things as he heard them, wrote down editing instructions, and gave a WBAI-friendly PanAm stewardess (as we then called them) a reel of tape and his scribbled notes. As soon as she delivered, we went into overdrive to assemble Dale's puzzle and air a program containing a picture of this "conflict" that was clearer and more detailed than any one could hear or see elsewhere. I recall getting requests from the networks for permission to use clips and/or information from our coverage. Some of the big ones overseas purchased rights to broadcast entire programs (the BBC, for example, licensed Dale's "The Battle for Danang" and aired it in its entirety. Income from such sales and earmarked contributions from listeners allowed us to keep Dale in Vietnam until he needed a rest, we even paid for his brief r&r in Rome on his trip home.
DeleteWBAI had the spirit and our listener-sponsors knew that we were dedicated to telling the sadly conflicting truth. When I see how lies and propaganda have become the norm at the station--and, indeed, Pacifica itself--I also see why there has been an audience exodus.
You can listen to 1010 WINS repeat the story every ten minutes--perhaps with an upward revision of the death toll--and still learn more about what happened in France than you would if you tuned into WBAI.
ReplyDeleteAt times like this, you realize that Gary of GBE is really for the birds. And I ain't talkin' about that group that sang "Turn, Turn, Turn".
I agree, Justine, Byrd is but a glib Dee-jay catering to simple-minded listeners of similarly low intellectual needs.
DeleteWNYC, the subject of continued critique from WBAI's bozos, is pre-emptying Leonard Lopate's show today in order to make room for coverage of the Paris attacks. As I write Thisted, they are covernumre BBC's Special Report om the situation.
Chris--Say what you will about Leonard Lopate, but I'll bet that he's not upset about having his show pre-empted. I don't think he'll find any conspiracy theories or personal vendettae in such a move.
DeleteOn the other hand, if Gary Byrd or any of his ilk had been pre-empted, they'd see it as part of a "bleaching" of WBAI and Pacifica.
I have heard good and less good Leonard Lopate shows, but never one that wasn't thoroughly professional. You're right, he is not in any way to be likened to the single-minded leeches today's BAI attracts, and I am certain that he has his priorities in order when it comes to interviewing authors and covering a murderous spree that could very easily spark another outright war.
DeleteAt and on WBAI, we have a group of self-serving people whose narrow minds and selective vision keeps them preoccupied with past atrocities committed against blacks by whites. We should never forget the sordid side of our country nor should we base our fingerpointing solely on anybody's ancestry. These idiots do that, because they are trying to appeal to a listenership of their own making while—to exonerate themselves from all things bad—they twist historical facts and turn their alleged pedagogic blather into doctrinaire propaganda that a dumbed down audience can fall for.
When we look at WBAI's rapidly dwindling listenership and income, we can readily conclude that this approach has backfired. Now, having long loomed on the horizon, the predictable end is close at hand, but only some of these bozos see it.
Gary Byrd is transparent, but he is not dumb, so he remains a level or two above the occupying racists.
I never thought I would wish for WBAI's demise, but neither could I imagine that it would sink so low. I just don't see any solution to this, which is why I am all for pulling the plug. The good people will, as someone pointed out, find higher ground.
Perp walk, anyone?
I tuned by WBAI a few minutes ago and heard some slavery stuff (again). I bet the dopes are laughing and thinking they are smart and good for whitey imperialist, but what they actually accomplished is probably driving away for the day, at least, any listener with even a modicum of intelligence, probably to WNYC, who wants news of a major story like the Paris attacks. Yeah, keep relying on that audience that wants your current shit. I see how well they pay your bills, WBAI.
ReplyDeleteAnd I have been meaning to say something else. For all the attacks people make against WNYC and NPR for corporate sponsorship, I don't hear any examples of how this corporate sponsorship has affected programming. Maybe it has and I don't know. I'm not a daily listener. What I do know is that WBAI has corporate and non-corporate sponsorship and has played favors to this support. I know one of the first things I was told during my short tenure at WBAI was that criticism of Gary Null was not allowed. And Pacifica used to receive funds from the U.S. government for years via the CPB. Oh, and a couple of days ago I heard a promo on WBAI for the re-opening of Revolution Books.
Cut the bullshit, folks. Where the money comes from isn't important. Whether a broadcasting entity gives into threats of pulling funds/sponsorship if they broadcast something is the real question.
I bet WNYC gained listeners at WBAI's expense over the Paris attacks, even if only a few listeners. I bet there are more people than us asking why WBAI isn't covering this.
You know next week with trash like Forlano and Halper should be utterly disgusting apologias to the extreme. Remember Charlie Hebdo? Don't worry, we'll hear how it was all our fault.
SDL
Wbai ... commercial free and pretty close to listener free radio now .
ReplyDeleteNo doubt soon to be completely listener free in the not to distant future .
Ron Daniels ... one of the many reasons bai is going down the toilet .
With his ad nauseum slavery and reparations" lessons"
I agree. Ron Daniels is not close to what he used to be without Asiba Tupahache.
DeleteKGT
Daniels is an opportunist so full of himself that he almost becomes a joke—perfect for the current WBAI. Were he not such a con artist and user, he could probably be an asset rather than an ass. WBAI attracts self-centered people, cling-ons who see it as a trough from which to nourish their imagined self-importance. Daniels is a lot like the late "Dr. Ben", John Henrik Clarke and other peripheral figures who ride the coattails of Marcus Garvey in hopes of gaining prominence. One problem is, of course, that Garvey was a delusional fraudster who led a rickety "back to Africa" movement", dressed—to many black people's embarrassment, in a costume that would not have looked out of place on the HMS Bounty. Such uncle tom-ism and the thought of Garvey's rusty tub moving thousands of black people to a far away land with which they had little or no familiarity, had racists inking their stamp of approval. The KKK went so far as to meet with Garvey, a get-together that reportedly was congenial. The truth is that every atrocity performed against people of color is candy to people like Daniels—something that momentarily allows them to step into the present from the days of slavery—a dismal past they never experienced but embrace for its retro promotional value. Garvey's maritime misadventures were built on lies and hypocrisy, very much like scams con artists like Daniel try to pull off today. Isn't it interesting that so many of these fraudsters come from the West Indies, like Garvey did?
DeleteIt is all very disgusting, because the victims are really black people of meager means—intelligent, realistic folks do not fall for such schemes, even if advertised on WBAI. A non-commercial station? What BS that is—there are more commercials at 99.5 than there are at most stations. As for slavery, it is still practiced in other lands, but where are the protests fro, Daniels and others of his ilk?
"As for slavery, it is still practiced in other lands, but where are the protests"?
Deleteanswer: "Yo. It's a black thang. Nomesayin"?
KGT
Extreme self interest is not solely a black thing, but it certainly is prevalent at WBAI. Every once in a while, they will remind us that geneticists figure we all stem from Africa, not realizing that this contradicts their efforts to keep black and white separate. By the same token, they condemn (and rightly so) white supremacists for wanting to do just that. The bozos we are talking about don't base their arguments on fact or reason, just convenience. We are all black, they say, because our ancestral trails all lead beck to an "Eve," other than the one fantasized in a best seller called "The Bible."
DeleteSomeone on Facebook recently wondered why paintings of Adam and Eve so often show their navel. Hmmmm
sista mimi giving bai listeners their bi hourly dose of racist rumblings . you go girl !
ReplyDeleteSeems like most of the listenership already did .
Chris - I know you are upset with Michael Haskins and his stupidity in the morning, but the person you should really be angry with is Dred Scott Keyes. He is one who found and brought Michael to the station. Michael was in danger of losing his bus driver job because of his driving record and heroin use, so he came to the station and became chief announcer some years later. Dred, who is a known and convicted thief, who stole equipment and thousands of dollars from WBAI, is responsible for this person.
ReplyDeleteThank you for filling.in the dwindling nummer of blanks. There's tons of baggage at WBAI these days.
Delete