As one has come to expect when General Manager, Berthold Reimers, surfaces to issue a decision or memo, his recent note to the staff (see below) and the attached pre-emption schedule did not make much sense.
We still can't be sure whether this do-nothing GM is really as dense as he appears to be or if he is deliberately drilling additional holes in the tub we call WBAI, but there is no rhyme nor reason for his directives.
Even the dunce at dawn, little Mikie Haskins, expressed (as best he could) his displeasure with being replaced by an infomercial. He couldn't contain his anger at the impending pre-emption last Tuesday when he interrupted his somewhat dizzy co-host, Pam Brown, and bitched as she pitched. A less than wonderful e-mail note from a dissatisfied listener had him looking for the "delete" button. Delusional as to the quality of his own show and size of his audience, Haskins has hissy fits whenever someone can't see the emperor's clothes. Hear it for yourself.
And here is Gary Null's more articulate response.
This is pure Gary Null schtick. Don't let his artificial calm demeanor fool you. he is seething angry and is ready to punch his fist through a wall and strangle somebody.
ReplyDeleteKGT
Hay-tie Haskins is really just rambling on in the face of the reality that he is a failure and so meaningless.
ReplyDeleteNull's ego is so bruised, which is funny to watch. I still think it's the right decision to not let him pitch and to break his power. I say just fire him already.
It's just so funny to hear the WBAItes ramble on about increasing their listenership, making more money, getting more publicity, etc. while the membership dives down to 6,800(?) now. It's like they're cursing themselves every time they open their mouths.
SDL
How about those make-gobs-of-money premiums they are trying to sell? The other day they themselves couldn't even come up with $160 needed for postage stamps!
DeleteBTW, it looks like Reimers has pre-empted his pre-empts. We were not spared Hasky and the Horse this morning. The keep-it-insignificant policy rules.
Well, I turned on the radio and hear Ghosty. For all that memo crap, Reimers backs down?
DeleteWhat was the official ending date of this beg-a-thon? Have they even made half the goal yet?
SDL
Yes, he either backed down or someone dropped a Cosby capsule in his beer. Haskins the Hallucinator thinks he is the goo that holds the station together, so he might have taken an overdose of Null's green stuff and pulled a runaway bus driver number.
DeleteWhat will these fools do when King Kong pulls the plug and Uncle Am points his finger at them. I doubt if anyone else will want them.
WBAI needs to either cut a deal with Null or cut him loose. You can't have someone on your own air bad mouthing you and threatening to sue every five seconds. He's making money with WBAI but he doesn't need them. Does WBAI need him? If not, just end it and be done with it already. As for Haskins, I'd like to send him to the cornfields and get someone intelligent in the mornings like Sonali. She's doing a great job inadvertently raising money for KPFA why not have her inadvertently raise money for WBAI as she prepares to jump ship from KPFK.
ReplyDeleteIf ignoramuses of color (real and imagined) such as Haskins, Bates, Daniels, Mimi, Prescod, O'Brien, and their co-players in this race game, knew how damaging to black people their nonsense could be, I think it might shock the hell out of them. I say COULD be, because there is no measurable audience. They are preaching to a small, inconsequential choir of tone deaf lemmings.
DeleteIt is only possible for me to make light of Pacifica/WBAI's destruction because group incompetence took it beyond the point of restoration a long time ago. A strong wish for the organization's rehabilitation and growth once fueled this blog, but it has modulated into my widely shared wish that the vandals get their due. Some belong behind bars, others have simply earned obscurity.
I really don't understand why Null stays with WBAI. Is it ego? Is he really not as successful financially, as I suspect, and WBAI made him a greater percentage of his money than we realize? Does he think he is going to somehow control the programming, as I suspect? That lawsuit of his seemed to be mainly about manipulating WBAI into his control.
ReplyDeleteMimi in the Morning has a certain ring to it. Maybe replace Hay-tie with her William Shatner style of ham and eggs. Beam me up, Berthold...
SDL
Terrestrial radio is way past its prime, pushed out there by ever evolving digital technology and all that it has to offer, but there is still something about being on the radio that no smartphone or tablet can quite replace. To be sure, much of all that is in the mind, but it there and I am inclined to think that Null sees a radio spot as giving legitimacy, if you will, to a listing of outlets. That suggests regarding WBAI as more of a PR asset. After all, Null claims that his online shows reach an audience of astronomical size and he knows that WBAI basically has been reduced to a megaphone for the few.
DeleteHas anyone noticed how many inconsistencies are a part of the loosely-woven, synthetic Pacifica fabric?
Based on old WBAI budget data made public, Null is making around $50-60,000 in different forms. I don't know if that is a lot or a little to him. He owns a studio and runs his own programming. I'm just guessing but my impression from the tone of his voice is that he is someone who has raised a lot of money for WBAI and just doesn't understand why he is being treated as just another programmer. In a normal non-profit, he would probably be on the board of directors or some advisory role. Pacifica/WBAI on the other hand barely acknowledges him but is all too willing to take the money he raises. They really should just cut a deal or cut him loose.
Delete(JustAListener)
ReplyDeleteI share SDL's suspicions.
I suspect Null isn't nearly as wealthy or successful as he makes himself out to be.
I think he wants to get back to the good ol' days when WBAI had tens of thousands of listeners and Null made some real green hawking products during fund drives.
And he may have some underlying scheme regarding wresting assets from Pacifica.
It's notable that it's not just Null who complains, his partner Steve Brown always joins him.
Yet, Summer Reese was right when she realized that oily as he is, Null does raise money and it's absurd to take him off when the station is at death's door.
My theory is Reimers knows Null will make a fuss to get paid and will push Reimers to actually send out the premiums. So much easier to use bootleg premiums and not bother sending them out...
Agreed; I also think that Gary Null's books are not written by him. They are too coherent and well formulated to have that scatterbrain having any significant part in them. He has a consortium of "health writers" write them particularly his brother and daughter and publish them under Gary Null's name and share the profits. Kind of like "Profiles in Courage" "written" by JFK.
DeleteKGT
Back when I co-hosted a show at WBAI (Valerie van Issler days), there was an unwritten rule that if you said anything negative about Null on the air, you were fired. That rule seemed more important than not saying the 7 dirty words.
ReplyDeleteSDL
I've heard of that, it's called free speech radio. 😔
DeleteValerie Van Isler -interesting woman - she lost a lung to lung cancer - refused to give Samori Marksman a raise - directly contributed to his death, because she refused to provide life insurance and there was no money for his burial
DeleteSteve Brown wrote an e-mail in which he stated that he had supported Berthold Reimers to be General Manager because Reimers had two MBAs in Finance (I only have one) and Reimers is a CPA.
ReplyDeleteWhen I wrote that was not true, Brown wrote that he had seen Reimers' resume. I then posted Reimers' resume.
Berthold Reimers
ReplyDeleteEmblemHealth Plan
BERTHOLD REIMERS●1250 Fifth Ave.●Apt. 5 K ●New York, N.Y. 10029●(212) 289-3222 OBJECTIVE Improve financial performance through value creation and foster high performance, customer focused culture throughout the enterprise that ensures outstanding operational execution. EXPERIENCE HIP Health Plan of New York, 55 Water Street New York, NY 10041 5/07 – Present Director of Financial Reporting and Analysis • Supervise preparation of statutory Medicaid, Family Health Plus, and Child Health Plus reports to the State Department of Health and other regulatory agencies. • Prepare monthly and quarterly administrative expense reports and analysis by department and line of business using the new activity based costing mode. 5/06 – 5/07 Director of Corporate Business Development • Identify ineffective business process, design plan of action, implement business solution, train pertinent department and evaluate ROI and P&L. • Recovered $7.2 M in Medicaid Premium and identified $10 M in claims. 2/04 – 5/06 Director of Product & Customer Management • Oversee statistical analysis and interpretation of collected survey data. • Conduct market research and feasibility studies to implement new products. • Recommend modification based on product performance and profitability. • Profit and Loss (P&L) analysis of products and contracts by market segment. 12/00- 2/04 Assistant Director of Capitation • Oversee the financial administration of 25 medical service agreements. • Distribute, manage, and document monthly financial payments of $80 M. • Financial analysis of contracts and input data in G/L and product line report. 5/99 – 12/00 Manager of Capitation • Manage monthly Capitation disbursement and implement internal control. • Analyze and interpret large managed care information systems. HealthFirst PHSP, Inc. New York, New York 10004 4/98 – 5/99 Manager of Financial Operation • Manage monthly Capitation and Claims Payment Disbursement. • Implement internal control polices and procedures to monitor payment. • Develop resources to measure efficiency and reduce payment cycle. 11/95 - 4/98 Manager of Claims, Claims Payment, QA and Customer Service • Manage staffing needs, scheduling, production and accuracy of 17 examiners. • Recommend, design and implement policy changes, workflow and process. • Generate annual budget, staffing projections, productivity and quality reports. 9/94 - 11/95 Premium Billing Supervisor • Monitor, document, recoup and reconcile accounts receivables. • Prepare annual operating budget, revenue and expense projection analysis. East Meadow Mgmt, 1400 Old Country Rd. Westbury, NY 11590 11/92 - 9/94 Coordinator, physician billing/coding • Enforce collection and reimbursement guidelines for medical billing. La Guardia Hospital, Forest Hills, N.Y. 12/85 - 9/92 Paralegal, Correspondent • Responsible for EBT, and release of legal medical information. EDUCATION B.A., Political Science, Queens College/CUNY (1988) M.B.A., Executive MBA, Baruch College/CUNY (2003) PROFICIENT Fluent in French; good speaking/reading knowledge of Spanish. INTERESTS Sports/Tennis/Reading/Traveling/Natural and Political Science.
This looks like the resumé Reimers has up on Linksys, portions of which I posted here two or three years ago. As I have said many times, Berthold Reimers' fraud is by no means something that blew in with Sandy—it shoe-horned him into a position for which he has never been qualified.
DeleteAll that radio experience is just so inspiring...
DeleteSDL
When was the last time anyone took a résumé seriously?
DeleteOther than this one, it seems, that is.
~ 'indigopirate'
Gary Null raised, conservatively, about $35 million for the station, probably closer to $45 over the years. How much money did you raise?
ReplyDeleteShort of some sort of tangible evidence, posting this sort of data under a real name might lend it some credence.
DeleteEven if he did, what is the trade-off? How much did the AIDS denial and delayed HIV and cancer treatments cost in human suffering?
Deleteanswer: Add a couple of zeros onto the amount he raised.
KGT
Lynn Samuels raised that much money and she didn't kill anybody. She just broke your eardrums.
DeleteKGT
The amount, which is provided by Gary Null's supporters- whether true or false, is a gross amount. The cost of the premiums is not deducted. The sum provided is always specious.
DeleteThank you for pointing that out. There is a reason (or two) why a true accounting of donor money is kept from the listenership. Do we ever see how undelivered products increase the profit? Are we ever told what the station does with pre-paid s&h fees that are neither spent on shipping nor handling?
DeleteNow, we aren't even given the fake tallies.
No doubt, Null has made the station money. How much is the question. I think everything with Null and money is overestimated.
DeleteSDL
You're a Null hater, that's pretty obvious. His shows are heard all over Europe and the United States. No one knows who you are. And that's probably the problem.
ReplyDeleteI don't know who you are calling a "Null hater," but I can tell you that I have lived in NYC since 1960. Here I read the papers and pretty much try to keep up with what is going on both culturally and politically. I also have vegetarian friends who are heavily into health food.
DeleteYet, I had never heard of Gary Null until I saw a in a post on the WBAI Listener board (aka blueboard) that he was returning to WBAI. A woman named Pamela Somers seemed to be having orgasms at the mere thought—she was Robert Knight's shill and devoid of reason.
My work has made others aware of me, so I don't have invisibility as a "problem" when I critique and doubt the veracity of Null's claims.
Hal Turner's shows are heard all over Europe and the United States. So are David Duke's who is a big hit in Iran. You can do better than that.
DeleteMost radio shows are heard all over the world now, due to webcasting. What does that have to do with the content of a show?
DeleteSDL
First, I'm sure that Reimers is thrilled that his home address and number were posted for the whole world to see. Second Haskins trashing a listener on-air during a FUND DRIVE sounds like something an ESPN "talent" would do. Both ESPN and BAI continue to lose money and lay people off. In addition, more ESPN people are leaving because they see what's happening. Lots of reasons not to listen to either one.
ReplyDeleteVarious Pacifica PD's keep talking about having national "names" in key drive time slots. Volunteers just aren't cutting it, ratings wise. How come none of these people (Brad Friedman, Thom Hartmann, etc.) weren't made contractually obligated to pitch during their shows as a condition to be carried on Pacifica? Just doing a generic "public radio is important. Yadda yadda yadda" isn't good enough. That just shows the desperation of Pacifica management. We're so desperate for money we'll literally do anything.
ReplyDelete“How come none of these people (Brad Friedman, Thom Hartmann, etc.) weren't made contractually obligated to pitch during their shows…” Legal reasons, I believe. I don’t think you are allowed to pitch for one station when on other stations. Bob Fass uses that as his excuse not to have to pitch.
DeleteSDL
Meanwhile, you have various people pitching live in the morning. Then that hour is played back UNEDITED. It doesn't matter that it's 4 p.m. and the talent is saying it's 8 a.m. It doesn't matter that pledges called in happened 8 hours ago. Does any management person care that this sounds really weird? Not only that, but you're blatantly lying to your listeners. And if you can't even be bothered to say the pitch line number live (even if you have to do it 100 times an hour), why are you even pitching to begin with?
ReplyDeleteWhy is being dependent on Null for fundraising money such a horrible position to be in? Because now you have not all but many people essentially saying this. He's a quack, he's fake. He's destroying people's lives. But we're so desperate for money I just have to shut up, suck it up and support him.
ReplyDeleteAnother angle. Like Trump, Null knows how to manipulate the media. If you dare to criticize him, he threatens to sue you for defamation. It doesn't matter that you never know if he's serious or not. That's how the game's played. This also means that the NY and national media will cover this. For better of worse this gives BAI national publicity. So while BAI management maybe be incompetent, even they know they value of that press.
Null isn't afraid to use his power. And BAI management is scared to death of him.
@Anon [Please, incidentally, at least choose a pseudonym to minimize confusion, okay?]
DeleteNull gives WBAI national publicity?
Do a search. The few items that show at all are a few pieces here and there about WBAI/Pacifica being in trouble. Or the abrupt resignation of John Proffitt. Or the death of a WBAI person, as a rule from long ago, during the ‘Golden Era’ (which preceded Null’s arrival).
Yup, vast benefits from Null.
The reality is that Null was able to raise good money from his shtick – good money by WBAI standards.
The problem that long troubled many people about that was that people were paying for merchandise, not for programming.
Try and figure it out.
Try and keep up.
Okay?
We’ll wait :)
~ ‘indigopirate’
Zeitgeist the movie ,FREE online . A great a mighty walk, FREE online . Doctor Ben, Black man wake up,
ReplyDeleteYou guessed it , FREE online .
Just another example of how bai insults your intelligence .
And as far as why the mainstream media doesn't play this stuff and bai does , is because it SUCKS,
and NOBODY wants to hear it . They just don't get that part.
You.are absolutely right. Some people, those of severely limited thinking capacity, cannot distinguish between a scholar and a scammer. Hustler Tony Bates and those who afford him the opportunity to exercise his criminality on Pacifica's air should be publicly exposed for fomenting racial hatred, but they are/were people of such great insignificance that their lies and schemes don't matter in the long run. Real Inequities continue to be a blight on humanity--they need to be fought against rather than perpetuated through the exaggeration and greed of a few shameless opportunists.
DeleteWhat I am hearing this morning (for the umpteenth time), Bates pushing the fantasies of John Henrik Clarke, "Dr." Ben and others of that ilk, are justified reasons for thinking people to not reach for the Kleenex when WBAI goes silent. It won't be much longer.