The morning slop served by Michael Haskins seems to be getting worse. Here are three brief excerpts from the Friday show, starting with a demonstration of Haskins' inability to express himself without stumbling over words and endless repetition. It is painful to hear how awkward he is after more than thirty years at WBAI. He doesn't even listen to his own show or he would have realized that all but one of the events announced on "Earthmom's" Community Bulletin Board had already taken place. Ineptitude of the first order. After that segment, rendered totally useless by Haskins' lack of preparation (it rhymes with reparation) he announces a recorded interview conducted by Mario Murillo (an opportunist who has done much to make WBAI unlistenable (he brought in Pamela Brown, for example). That interview is about gentrification problems at South American malls! Just what New Yorkers need to hear with their morning coffee.
Haskins also talked (though I left it out of this sample) about the dilemma he faces regarding his epic serialized reading from a diary purportedly written by a slave. We were spared further readings during the fundraiser, but now he can resume, but first he must decide if the complaints against this awful production should be heeded. He had better hurry up, for—believe it, or not—yet another fundraising marathon is around the corner!
I offer the following aircheck as proof of not having made this up—one really can't make up stuff like this.
Let me add that Linda Perry's brief newscasts lend this morning program needed professionalism. She should not have to be drowned in Haskins' mediocrity.
Would you rather have Dred Scott Keyes?
ReplyDeleteKGT
Based on his work, yes.
DeleteGlad you like him, Chris. Dred should be in jail for all the crap he pulled @ BAI. Dred brought Haskins to BAI - Haskins was a bus driver for NJ Transit - was in a number of accidents according to sources. Haskins found a lifeline @ BAI - he will never be fired because he has done their bidding for years - he is beloved. Mario loves him, Dred loves him, Samori loved him. He will do ANYTHING to keep his job.
DeleteI did not mean to imply that I like Dred, just that his many flaws re less obvious on the air than Haskins'. The latter has no redeeming value as a broadcaster—Dred, at least, is a skilled producer. Having neither of them connected to the station would, of course, be my overwhelming preference—they belong in the dumpster with Reimers, his cronies, a good percentage of WBAI's current voices, and the majority of Pacifica's National Board.
DeleteInteresting that you are aligning yourself with Dred Scott Keyes. The family of Constance Cruse would like to speak to you. Dred played a big part in her death.
DeleteI have to wonder why you jump to the conclusion that I "align" myself with Keyes. I merely commented on his.production skills as opposed to Haskins' total lack of same.
DeleteAs for the lady you mention, I am neither familier with her name nor her fate. If you are going to accuse someone of such a crime, may I suggest that you dip that pointing finger of yours into a bowl of veracity and come out of hiding, Ms/Mr. "Anonymous."
Haskins seems to be working on being a future Babbling Bob, without the track record of once having meant something to local radio.
ReplyDeleteI heard the Murillo mall thing when it aired and was laughing at the point where Murillo actually got mad that radio stations didn't cover such an important topic, especially WBAI. Let us not forget, nor let him forget, that in less than a year as PD, Murillo oversaw a historic decline in listener financial support.
Was that Earth mom plug for the Hare Krishna temple thing actually for the Hare Krishna cult? Sad if it was.
SDL
Hare Krishna? When was the last time one of them handed you a long-stemmed rose at the airport? If the fumbling lemmings of Reimers' WBAI have reached the Sixties, they have come a long way from Toussaint L'Ouverture and slavery, but they really haven't—their ignorance of history is an oleo that challenges timelines and defies veracity.
DeleteMurillo is a wise man. He knows that that five people—one of them a prospective donor with career possibilities—have an abiding interest in the state of Colombian and Bolivian malls. Never mind that much of his wisdom comes from excessive cracking of fortune cookies. If WBAI listener-sponsors are doves, he is among the station's many scarecrows. Dorothy is making her way to that green curtain, ready to grab it, splash double helix water on Mimi, and squeeze a good laugh through those tears.
Actually, I see the hae Krishna clowns in Jackson Heights during the summer. I think they feel that hanging around Hindus lends a legitimacy to their crap. I always preferred the Larouche goofs, though. I would play devil's advocate and argue with them until they got totally fed up with me, yet I'd walk away with a load of free books and magazines. The more I argued, the more they gave me.
DeleteThere should be a Star Trek spinoff with Mimi as Captain Kirk's daughter, Comrade Kirk. "Reparations on stun, Sulu, you poor oppressed Asian comrade!"
SDL
Coming soon: "MIMI!" the musical. :)
DeleteI assume you are referring to the American-born actor, George Takei, who deserved (and probably received) reparations for the outrageous act of racial discrimination perpetrated during WWII by the Roosevelt administration against Americans of Japanese ancestry.
DeleteIn my mind, the payment of reparations to citizens who were directly affected, uprooted and otherwise set back is justified and very different from the kind WBAI's scammers (and Misled Mimi) beat their drums to obtain.
The Canadians did it too. Not to justify it. In August 1944, Prime Minister Mackenzie King announced that Japanese Canadians were to move east into prisoner of war (POW) camps and internment camps east of the Rocky Mountains or be repatriated to Japan following the end of the war.
DeleteKGT
In 2002, NY City Councilman Charles Barron stated at a Washington, D.C.reparations rally,"I want to go up to the closest white person and say, "You can’t understand this; It’s a "black thing (thang)" and then slap him, just for my mental health"".The audio clip is nowhere on the internet but I saw/heard it on C-Span live. He is regular call-in on WBAI airwaves along with that other prince of peace Father Lawrence Lucas ("the Board of Education resembles the Knesset of Israel)".
DeleteKGT
I have never held Barron in high regard. He is a hair's breadth from Sharpton and Maddox, i.m.o.
Delete"Linda Perry's brief newscasts lend this morning program needed professionalism. She should not have to be drowned in Haskins' mediocrity".
ReplyDeleteInstead, she is drowned in the white-leftist mediocrity of her husband, Richard Barr.
KGT
If so, I wouldn't worry about it—I have a feeling that Linda is a good swimmer.
DeleteCheer up Chris, SDL, and KGT.
ReplyDeleteThere's a new program on beekeeping that debuts on Monday.
The topic for the first show: Do black hives matter?
TPM
That's a keeper, as it were!
DeleteGlad you did not find my comment beewildering.
DeleteTPM
Don't forget, I am familiar with your stinging remarks.
DeleteDon't forget, I am familiar with your stinging remarks.
DeleteYes. And my comment can be appollen.
DeleteChris: Just curious. Did you like the broadcasts of the late Danny Stiles?
ReplyDeleteKGT
I guess I did, because I recall listening to his show. I was familiar with many of the records he played, but this was during a time when I was quite busy as a record producer and doing my own radio shows. As I recall, Stiles knew the music well and, thereby, distanced himself from many of his colleagues on other stations. I also liked (and knew, peripherally) Ed Beach.
DeleteI have always regarded knowledge and a good ear to be essential in that business. When I was in a position to call the shots at WBAI, the jazz programs were conducted by such well-versed people as Don Schlitten, Dan Morgenstern, Dave Lambert, Marian McPartland and, briefly, Mort Fega (when Sid Torin—a nasty SOB—had him kicked off the air so that he could take his place. Then, of course, we had a rotation of jaz hosts on Saturday afternoons, including Jimmy Rushing, Lee Morgan, Eddie Condon, John Coltrane, Joe Williams, Rex Stewart, Zutty Singleton, Art Blakey, Thad Jones, and Sonny Stitt, to mention some. If you can't find great jazz people to conduct a radio show in New York City, you either aren't looking or you have so degraded the station that association with it is no longer desirable.
Thee same can be said of coherent, independently thinking black people in other fields.
How about Symphony Sid?
DeleteKGT
See Sid Torin (above), an arrogant, opportunistic SOB. He abandoned jazz when the trend turned to latin sounds, then returned to jazz when that turned out to be a short-lived fad. In the process of making that u-turn, he used his contacts to have Mort Fega given the boot. Thats when I stepped in and gave Mort airtime at 99.5. He was better than Sid, but loud mouths and callous behavior got you far in this ruthless business.
DeleteBill Farrar was a good jazz host at WBAI. I didn't like his taste that much, heavy on Ellington; I'm a Tommy Dorsey, Harry James, Charlie Spivak fan and the greatest- Ray Anthony.
DeleteKGT
I haven't seen Bill Farrar in many years. He used to live a couple of blocks away from me—a mild-mannered, nice guy. I knew less about his radio show. The leaders you name all had good bands, but Duke was in a category of his own. I once worked for a rather well known bandleader:
Deletehttp://stomp-off.blogspot.com/2009/10/if-you-think-you-have-benny-goodman.html
What is the point of having 'loyal' guy in the most important time slot of the day if he's turning people away? I could barely get through this clip. Put on Sonali, get a syndicated program, give Amy Goodman another hour, put SDL on the air but just do something. Anything.
ReplyDeleteChris, are you familiar with the Pacifica affiliates? There may be opportunities for greater cooperation there.
Vocalists Anita O'Day and Helen Forrest spoke bitterly of their experiences singing with Benny Goodman and each said, "The twenty or so months I spent with Benny felt like twenty years". Did you have the same experience?
ReplyDeleteKGT
No, but I have heard similar things said by several people who worked for him, including Anita.
DeleteTeddy Wilson was not happy working with Benny Goodman.
ReplyDeleteOne evening, I was having dinner at Jimmy Rushing's house when Benny called him about a concert at Vassar. When he offered Jimmy $75, I heard jimmy say, "OK, Benny," I'll do that if you charge me the same for playing on one of my gigs."
DeleteThere was a pause before Jimmy spoke again. "That's a lot better, Benny. I can do that." Then he hung up and returned to the dinner table. "Cheap son-of-a-bitch," he said as he seated himself.
I accompanied Jimmy to Vassar week or so later. We arrived before Benny and Jimmy took the star dressing room, it was bigger and it had its own toilet. At one point, Benny knocked gently on the door and asked Jimmy if he might use the bathroom. Without looking up, Jimmy said, "OK," and gestured towards the WC with his head.
There's more, but I just wanted to say that some people knew how to handle Benny. I can't see Teddy reacting in the same manner, but I'm sure he had his own way of dealing with the King of Swing. :)
Benny had no need to be cheap. His wife Alice Hammond was great-great-grand-daughter of Cornelius Vanderbilt. Not exactly BUPKIS.
DeleteKGT
The list of penny-pinching millionaires/billionaires is as long as Althea Gibson's right arm.
DeleteI know the family of which you speak. John Hammond, Alice's brother, was no Santa Claus. I knew him very well—we were having dinner one night when the conversation turned to Lionel Trains. Someone asked John if he had owned a train set when he was a kid. "I didn't have to," John replied," my family owned railroads."
Financially speaking, Benny became a man not wanting for money, but he grew up in poverty and that can make people pinch what they later earn just a little tighter than needed. :)
Speaking of Lionel Trains, it was owned by Roy Cohn.
DeleteKGT
The insult continued with a bad reading from a bogus "Incidents in the life of a slave girl", which dummy Haskins thinks is real.
ReplyDeleteand it looks like he took it upon himself to start playing that again ,instead of letting
ReplyDeletewhat's left of the listenership vote by email or phone calls , which he said he was going
to do , to determine whether to play it again .
What's wrong with you guys? Playing on white guilt works. All they need is Asiba Tupahache.
ReplyDeleteKGT
I started listening to WBAI back in '66 when you had sharp, witty Jewish people running the place. I know people are going to hate hearing this but everything started going to hell as soon as POC got into positions of power and turned it into a third rate Black Nationalist radio station. The dream is over folks. Pacifica has seen its day. There are too many other options on the internet. People are sick and tired of listening to inarticulate Black people blaming everyone else for their problems. It was nice while it lasted....
ReplyDeleteI agree with you when it comes to the deterioration of WBAI and the general cause of it, but I think we should be talking about intellectual level and personal agendas rather then ancestry and color of skin.
DeleteYou are absolutely correct when you say that it has been turned into a third-rate, black nationalist outlet, but that sort of thing starts with management (or lack thereof). I saw first-hand what happened when Frank Millspaugh became WBAI's manager. He was clueless when it came to the broadcasting field and, I dare say, management. His ignorance left the door open for opportunists and allowed that trait to surface in people who were already on staff. There was an immediate change of direction and abandonment of Pacifica principles when the likes of Larry Josephson and Steve Post took advantage of Millspaugh's ineptitude and seized the microphone to feed their own vanities and general need for attention. It had nothing to do with race, color, or creed, nor were Jewish people running the station in 1966—however, Larry and Steve were Jewish, but more apt to ridicule or insult their own than anyone else. It was no longer a matter of producing good, intelligent radio, it was about creating personalities from sack cloth.
Josephson was more intelligent and less offensive than Post and he eventually got his act together, but they both did the station immense harm with their combination of bland chatter and venom.
Fast-forward to the present-day WBAI and we find a station that has lost its original purpose and, ever so gradually fallen into the hands of people who don't give a damn what that purpose might have been. They have vague notion that WBAI is different from all other NYC stations, but they attribute that to something they call "free speech," which they don't practice, but talk about when begging for money. Another plastic carrot that they like to dangle is that WBAI broadcasts things not heard anywhere else. That's often true, but only because it is so idiotic, trivial or removed from intelligence and reality that other stations won't touch it. While freedom from corporate pressures gives them a unique opportunity to tell it like it is. the irony is that they are often loath to do that—as, for example when it comes to history, which they conveniently and unabashedly rewrite to suit their own purpose. Furthermore, they do not at all mind scamming listeners by selling them bogus "cures" and products. They live a lie and don't mind sharing it if there is money to be had. This hypocrisy and racist propaganda has killed WBAI and driven away thinking people of all colors and ethnic backgrounds, leaving only a handful of stalwarts who appreciate the few remaining intelligent offerings. If the pathetic occupants, i.e. the "brothers", "sisters", "doctors" and "professors" still don't know that it's GAME OVER, they are in for a nasty reality check.
All this to say that I agree with your assessment of WBAI's conversion to a station of no significance, I just see the root cause from a different angle.