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.
Is that a symbolic commentary on WBAI programming?
ReplyDeleteSDL
...and management.
DeleteWasn't there talk, around the time of the move, about having a kitchen there for station staff use? I'd really hate to see what the bathrooms looks like...
DeleteSDL
I don't recall specific mention of the kitchen, but they originally said (dreamt?) that WBAI would be purchasing the building, so one assumed that a kitchen would be a part of that. Of course one also assumed there would be at least one studio, didn't one? Remember how they claimed that architects and a designer were already being consulted? Fabulist Mitchel Cohen took the lie way beyond its expiry date, but all his BS accomplished was to confirm the BS that preceded it.
DeleteHeard Reggie Johnson say that some Africans had demanded reparations from Queen Elizabeth....
Queen Elizabeth I !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
When the dumpster opens for them, this dysfunctional bunch of idiots will have richly deserve their welcome there.
The budget data is right over uh..yeah and the fundraising tallies are over by the uh...
ReplyDeleteand the premiums are somewhere underneath. I'm going to need a minute.
Is it just me and when I tune in or is the beg-a-thon shifting more towards hocus pocus, self-empowerment and snake oil premiums as it progresses?
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of streams of consciousness, or incomprehensibility, I tuned in Babbling Bob for a few minutes last Friday morning and had to tune out. He literally made NO sense. When I tuned in for a laugh at Brady after 3:00AM, I got "Cake" Davis doing a premium on UFOs that would have made brady seem semi-normal. I ended up tuning to WOR and AM Coast to Coast to listen to a better produced show about UFOs. A spaced out night, you could say...
SDL
I think there has been a mid-drive shift and I hypothesize that it's the result of poor returns on worn-out infomercials. This, I believe, has heightened the desperation, but nothing more. The prominence of Tony Bates is actually embarrassing, if you listen to his jive. This guy is a fast talker, but he is a total sellout.
DeleteI also caught Kathy's UFO thing.... if only one of the would swoop down and take her away.
Since Casanova Bates came in last beg-a-thon, not only has Cake Davis become their First Lady of beg-a-thons, but a rapid expert in many different subjects... or a good parrot of what she's told to say.
DeleteI guess the political premiums don't sell as well as magic, smoke & mirrors, which tells you what The Remnants are really about. However, it's still nice to see Null out of the picture. He must be seething over not being the center of attention.
SDL
Kathy obviously reads a lot of crap and, with increasing frequency, she sees first-hand how WBAI's parade of scammers work their game. She has quite clearly absorbed their fraudulent ways and—knowing that WBAI is a cemetery facing urban renewal—got her ass together and joined the unprincipled. She now conducts her own sessions in gibberish, which she promote on WBAI and charges a fee for.
DeleteKathy's bulb was never bright, but she can scam with the worst of them. I guess her awareness of WBAI's impending demise lit a fire under her.
just heard haskins announce that they are extending the drive for another week .
ReplyDeleteMost likely they will be extending black history month until the bankruptcy .
At today's WBAI, every month is "black history month". Not black history as it evolved... black history as they want you to believe it was. Basically, their's is a black history designed to smash the piggybanks of a listenership dumbed-down to their own level.
DeleteIt ain't working, but they will have killed WBAI—just as they did the concept upon which Pacifica was founded—before that fact sinks in.
If I remember correctly, RPM said something about WBAI management extending the beg-a-thon even before it started. I always suspected they say the beg-a-thons will be X time long, but already know before they even start that they will extent them. I guess they are afraid to say five or six weeks at the start and have listeners run away.
DeleteThe Black History Month gimmick seems to be phasing out in favor of New Age gimmick, though. Can't they get some old Timothy Leary spirituality through chemistry premium going? At least, that's kind of fun.
SDL
Yes, the last-minute extension is another ill-conceived sleight of hand. Black lies really do matter to these unscrupulous people—they thrive on them. That, however, characterizes these scam operations far beyond their running time.
DeleteI can't imagine WBAI lasting much longer, but we can gather a measure of solace from the fact that the station we soon will see drop off the NYC dial ceased to be significant many years ago. Today, its demise is in keeping with anti-pollution efforts.
how weak is the programming , when you have to replace the current shows with other shows , or
ReplyDeletebetter yet have existing hosts hosting other hosts with the other hosts material .
If that doesn't speak volumes , i don't know what does .
Most of the people who produce and/or host shows on WBAI have proven themselves incapable of raising more than petty cash, so—as these drives fall increasingly short of "manager" Berthold Reimers' unrealistic goals—the most successful pitches get recycled and the drives themselves extended.
DeleteIt apparently never occurs to Reimers and his stagnant, inept producers that the steady drop in listenership relates to sub-level program content and presentation. So, instead of turning to people who might raise the quality and intellectual content of the station's offerings, the fossils are temporarily pushed aside to make room for the top scammers among them.
The title of this pic is, "I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter".
ReplyDeleteKGT
Sandy Boyer died, which begs the question, "Does anybody listen to this Irish Republican Radio Free Eirann dreck"?
ReplyDeleteKGT
I imagine the program is listened to by people who do not regard it as dreck. From what I have heard, Sandy Boyer was an atypical WBAI host... that's an asset, these days. He was devoted to a cause for unselfish reasons. I respect that.
ReplyDeleteRadio Free Eirann has listeners in Northern Ireland. A friend of mine is a protestant, whose father was in the police and heavily involved in fighting the Provs in his day. My friend HATES the show and its producers. Wait until I tell him Boyer died...
DeleteSDL
Lefties generally won't listen to shows directed at Righties... I understand the political factor. If WBAI is going to dedicate a show to that conflict, they ought to represent all sides of it and, for that matter, have some discussion. How about spurring cowboys to engage the resident Indians? :)
DeleteIn the case of Northern Ireland, it has some different rules. In the NY area, there is Irish Catholic - period. There is no debate, if you know what I mean. There are only different levels of Irish Catholic sentiment, those who want the peace, the extremists who want war and full union, etc. Even the Protestant friend I mentioned is in the Protestant peace camp. What really pisses him off is how guys like the RFE producers never even really lived a long time in Ireland. Right or wrong, his view. He was also telling me how his father and some of the old Provos are pissed off at these new wannabe Provos making trouble. They are tired of war and are talking with each other about stopping these young trouble makers. Politics makes strange bed fellows.
DeleteHere's a funny little thing that happened to me a couple of months ago. I was somewhere where there were some Germans. I mentioned I was part German and was asked from where. I said my family was Bavarian. One guy said, snidely, "You're not German..." So he and another guy were all of a sudden cold to me. Well, another guy was nice and came over to explain that most Germans don't consider Bavarians to be real Germans but Bavarians because of different traditions, ideals, etc. I asked him, "How did I get myself into the middle of this?" We both laughed. He was cool, though. Funny night.
Oh, and I recently had a Flemish woman get pissed at me for studying Dutch and not Flemish...
SDL
As Archie Bunker would say, I didn't know you were from a barbarian family.
DeleteIt has always struck me as silly that people like putting everything—including themselves—into little boxes. in 1945, the war in Europe was over and Danish families adopted Norwegian children for the summer (I still don't know what that was all about, since Denmark, too, was occupied by the Nazis, Anyway, these kids were called Norwegian holiday children (don't know why the was. either). I had spent the war years in Iceland and NYC, so I was new to all this... I had forgotten my Danish, but was beginning to recover my vocabulary (albeit with an Icelandic accent). When I went to a dairy shop to buy something for my grandmother, a lady detected my accent and asked if I was a Norwegian holiday child. For some reason, that embarrassed me, so I guess I (at 14) had a streak of little box syndrome. I always remembered that seemingly insignificant moment, but it served to spark a micro self-analysis. :)
Interesting story. I didn't know about that historical situation.
DeleteYou know what it comes down to? Everywhere in the world, no mater where, there is some form of bigotry, whether social castes, town to town, region to region, etc.
Here's one my barber told me from his childhood. We were talking about the Italian language and all the dialects. He asked me, "You know who the most racist people are to themselves?" I responded, "No." "Italians." He then told me how when he was a kid he saw some kids playing outside and asked his father if he could go out and play. His father said no, and my barber asked why not. His father told him, look at you, you have white skin, blond hair and blue eyes. Look at them. They are all dark and have dark eyes. They are not like we real Italians. They are more like Africans. (Of course, they were Italians and he used Africans as a slur, not to mean they were actually African.)
SDL
My Danish grandfather was always trying to give me better posture, so whenever I (as a child) slouched, he would say, "Straighten up! Walk like an African!"
DeleteIn the mid-Fifties, I left Copenhagen for ReykjavÃk, because I had applied for a U.S. immigration visa and I decided to seek my visa on the Icelandic quota—it involving less waiting time (I had dual citizenship, Icelandic-Danish). So I spent close to three years in Iceland, working as a disc jockey for U.S. Armed Forces Radio-TV while waiting for approval. This was, of course, on the U.S. Military Base (NATO) and all civilians had to wear a rather large button a an ID. Americans wore green buttons, non-Americans (who mostly were Icelandic, were issued a blue one.
Wearing a blue button labeled me, so it was not uncommon for GIs to call me "Fish head," their derogatory name for us indigenous people. By mistake, my Danish wife was issued a green button, so we took full advantage of her being thought of as American. That included membership in the Civilian Club, one of the watering holes on base. One night, my wife, Hanne, went to the ladies' room and was approached by an American woman as they both did their touch-up in front of a mirror. "Tell me something, honey," she asked my wife, "what made you marry a fish head?"
Without hat button, I was treated in civil manner, and I'm sure that some of the name callers listen to my shows with blissful ignorance. :)
More about this here: http://stomp-off.blogspot.com/2010/05/blue-badge-of-bigotry-keflavik-1954.html
BTW, I think the above is what the late and not so lamented Robert Knight read when he concluded that I am a former secret agent for the U.S.!! What a piece of work HE was!
I knew it was just a matter of time before they broke out joy degrue .
ReplyDeleteSo predictable !. Can sir hilary beckles be far behind ?
This woman serves no purpose , other than stirring the pot.
And selling this garbage to whoever will buy into it.
Everyone has issues with someone. In some cases, it may be prejudice but in others it may be no more than friendly rivalry. A friend of mine who came from Finland and can speak some Swedish once told me how they saw the hand of the Swedes behind everything. We could not stop laughing from trying to picture Sweden at the heart of the conspiracy.
ReplyDeleteIn my Danish youth, we often made Swedes the brunt of our jokes, but it, too, was friendly rivalry. I don't think it had anything to do with the fact that our countries had at one time been at war with each other, but I would not exclude a tad of jealousy—Sweden's natural resources and size were enviable. We, of course, had the greater sense of humor. :)
ReplyDeleteI understand friendly rivalry, like how NYCers make fun of NJ people. In fact, I always explain that one to people from overseas. I let them know it's just "fun" and not serious, at all. However, we still like to say, "He must be from Jersey..." Oddly, Europeans always want me to explain the NYC/NJ/LI area accents. It seems they have a "thing" for that. Must be the movies.
DeleteAnyway. How on Earth did Robert Knight decide you were a secret agent?
Finally. Did the Danes and Swedes unite in making fun of the Norwegians?
SDL
Isn't it obvious SDL? Agent Albertson was recruited in Iceland where he helped spy on the Swedes. After helping get his pal Oswald into the Soviet Union, he was brought to New York to help keep an eye on all those left wing groups. He had the perfect cover as WBAI GM. He did a great job setting up the Fair Play for Cuba Committee. It must have been tough running a radio station and sending regular reports to Washington. Once WPFW joined Pacifica, he had the perfect excuse to go visit his pals at the agency while supposedly working on Pacifica business.
DeleteI think you are correct when you relate European interest in NYC accents to movies (Brooklyn, in particular). Denmark comprises a peninsula and a bunch of islands, barely adding up to a space twice the size of Massachusetts. It has many dialects, one of which, I would guess, is understood by fewer Danes than Brooklyn's. :)
DeleteI don't recall any jokes going down between Danes and Norwegians. Norway is no longer poor, having mined their waters for oil—Denmark and Norway share a kinship that goes back a very long time, but they seized to be a union about 200 years ago. The Kings ere brothers, the languages are very similar, and I think Danes no longer see Sonia Heinie as a blemish :)
As for Robert Knight, he was a rather sick man, mentally. I had never heard of him around 2010 when I criticized an embarrassing show of his, but he and his shill (Pamela Somers) immediately jumped out of a rock pile and attacked me. That awful woman began stalking me online, which is one reason why I started this blog—to avoid her nonsense.
The secret agent tag given me by Knight was funny, although it underlined the extent of his mental problem.
The answer to your question is elsewhere on this blog. Search on "secret agent" and you should find it, with an extraordinary audio from the Bob Fass show.
There appears to be a problem with MediaFire today, but that audio (an mp3) should download. If you can't access it, please let me know.
The only thing good about Robert Knight was Steve Kates– “Dr.Sky”.
DeleteKGT
I have the impression that many people shared that opinion. I am also told that "Earthwatch" was a good program that became little more than an airtime filler. That's the show I heard, an often pretentious mission creep.
DeleteWow. My Agent Albertson joke pales in comparison to the actual accusations made against you Chris. The funny thing is my joke is more coherent. Truth is really stranger than fiction. Anyway, I got to call the Indy folks and see if they're going to the LSB meeting or keep the boycott going.
ReplyDeleteKnight, self-proclaimed network "anchorman", wannabe love child of MLK, "investigative reporter", etc., etc. was himself a work of fiction. Fass didn't quite have the facts straight, but he at least didn't swallow Knight's fantasy.
DeleteBTW, the aforementioned nutcase, Pamela Somers, has stated on Facebook that I killed Knight. Never having laid eyes on the guy, I suppose she means that I did so with my words.... should I take that as a compliment? :)
Yeah, that Knight/Fass audio is something else. Every time Fass tries to say something that doesn't slam you, Knight has to jump in with some new accusation to shut drown him out. Nowhere do I hear how he came up with his accusations nor any proof of them, however. Yeah, Fass was there in the 60s, but Knight is going to tell him how it all went down.
DeleteYou know, Knight was good circa 1980, but he did have an underlying arrogance to him. However, he did do good reporting on current affairs for the night time radio listeners. However, as time went by, his arrogance and stubbornness became ever more apparent. I think he started really going downhill when he got his first award.
It is funny to equate AFRTS with military intelligence. Of all agencies, I think AFRTS was always pretty innocent. We're not talking Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty here.
SDL
I also thought it was funny how Knight kept beating around the bush. Bob had no idea what he was talking about, so Knight came up with hints until he finally mentioned my name!
DeleteDid Knight win more awards? I only heard of the Polk and that, I keep hearing, is for some reportage he and the other guy (his partner) mostly lifted from a real reporter whose name escapes me. It had occurred to me that Knight's award might have gone to his head and messed it up—I've seen that sort of thing ruin careers—but I also thought that he gradually grew unbalanced when reality didn't jibe with his stagnancy. As brilliant a reporter as he believed he was, it must have been somewhat of a shock that he was stuck at WBAI.
Be that as it may, Roget has one less reader now. :)
Try and remember another thing. Knight was part of that crowd, like Samori Marxman, who thought that the world revolution had finally come to fruition in 1979 and 1980. They got a big setback when Reagan rolled into office and turned things around, or, at least, stopped the revolution from rolling onward. I think it was such a great disillusionment to their generation, that it did literal mental damage to many of that milieu.
DeleteRobert Knight is not someone to be remembered. He did his thing, good and/or bad, and has left no real lasting effect of any sort. In this case, I will have to admit that Fass will have more meaning in history, whether for music he brought to the air, the suicide caller, the 1977 shutdown, etc.
SDL
I agree that Bob's show was significant in the years when the flower generation swung its love beads and flashed its peace signs. The generation that was directly impacted by that cultural turn is dying out, its children are probably quite corporate, and memories linger... but that, too, will pass as it drops to a footnote.
DeleteKnight, as you point out, left nothing positive by which he will be remembered. He held a job more so than develop a career.
I wonder how Trump (Drumpf) would have affected Knight... he had spent all his on air hatred on Obama. The current circus would probably have messed him up even more.
The way Knight's "thinking" had gone, I would say that he would be coming up with all sorts of conspiracy ideas about Trump and his Capitalist Fascist racist backers. He'd blather about racist and scared White America, etc. Basically what WBAI does now, but with that veneer of erudition he tried so hard to exude, so he could always correct everyone who disagreed with him, which seemed to have become so important to him. You can see it with Fass quite well.
DeleteSDL
I think you are nailing it, SDL.
DeleteWbai.. Serving the community's racist and slavery needs daily.
ReplyDelete(well at least what's left of it)
Sista mimi will be acting as you guide this morning. Enjoy!
So is that an actual pic from WBAI's offices or is it just meant to be symbolic of it?
ReplyDeleteAs for Robert Knight, he was yet another WBAI host who clung to "his" slot - not for months or years, but for decades. The entire schedule is shot through with people who have been there for 20, 30 or 40 years. Not because they are seasoned talent with large audiences. These aren't Walter Cronkites or Ed Bradleys. These are people who stay on the air even when there is no audience interest in their shows. Instead of giving new talent an opportunity to try out new ideas, the station allows the same small clique of people to monopolize the air. It is worth noting that, about 10 years ago, Robert Knight was let go from WBAI for several years. So what did he do during that time away from the station? Was he snapped up by The Guardian or The Nation as an investigative reporter? Did HBO hire him to work on one of their in-house documentaries? Did NPR make an offer? Did he write an opinion column for the Village Voice? The answer is: none of the above. There is no evidence that I've ever seen that anyone had the slightest interest in Knight. If there had been audience demand, someone would have hired him. But no one did. But WBAI doesn't pay any heed to audience demand, so when there was a regime change at BAI, they hired him right back and put him back on the air to do the very same show.
Not an actual WBAI office. It's a composite of what I can imagine a WBAI office to look like, based upon the disorganization that comes through on the air. These people are a mess.
ReplyDeleteYour observations regarding Knight are correct and concur with my own often expressed thoughts on him. He became what one might expect from an opportunistic self-proclaimed "professional" taking advantage of there not being anyone in charge. This is what happens, you end up with stagnant fossils who—by mere virtue of being on the air—inflate their own importance, begin to believe that they are "special," and stay on way past their expiry date as they focus their efforts on holding on to the imaginary turf.
Your illustration of Knight's insignificance is on the money—nobody really missed him, there were no calls inquiring about his status when his health took him off the air, and few people showed up at his memorial service. It was rather pathetic and the fact is that he left no legacy by which he might be remembered. When he returned after a long absence, he wasted every minute of air time given him, throwing together hour-long fillers downloaded from the internet.
WBAI has more like that and Reimers' new recruits are, in the main, equally opportunistic and insignificant.
MY G-d!!
ReplyDeleteIs that an actual pic of the station now?
Say it ain't so.
It isn't so, Sidney, but—judging by the disorganization that comes across over WBAI's air—it could be close to a grim reality. :(
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