As another lengthy fundraising effort ends short of meeting its goal, the financial situation at WBAI grows worse by the hour. Morale at the station (reborn black and crippled by gross incompetence) has taken another dip, and listeners continue to flee.
It is a time when the need for unified effort has never ben greater, but there continues to be a failure to communicate with the mostly vacant front office. While many wonder where in the world Manager Berthold Reimers is, even more want to see him disappear altogether, but he i still drawing his $110,000.00 annual salary and he still holds the reins, albeit limply. There is, however, a failure to communicate with this amazingly inept person.
Even the LSB Treasurer, R. Paul Martin, is totally ignored—his email and phone calls unanswered. R. Paul Martin finally resorted to addressing a public plea to him, Pacifica Executive Director Lydia Brazon and Chief Financial Officer Sam Agarwal. Here it is:
R. Paul Martin' rpm@glib.com [wbailsbfinance]
Attachments4:22 PM (14 hours ago)
to Berthold, Lydia, Sam
Berthold, you have been uncommunicative for months now. I have been asking you to tell me when you can meet with the local Finance Committee and you have not given me an answer.
I have sent you a number of E-mails and I have left voice mail for you, on those occasions when your voice mail box wasn't full. You know I am trying to set up a time for you to meet with us.
As I noted in my last E-mail to you the FY17 budget needs to be worked on. The' timeline, another copy of which is attached, calls for the, "Local Finance Committees/LSBs, in consultation with General Managers/Business Managers," to, "Identify and rank budget priorities in order of importance: Scale of 1-5 where 5 is high....," by June 15. By June 30, a draft FY17 budget is supposed to be submitted.
It is a part of your duty as General Manager of WBAI to prepare a budget, and the timeline shows that you're supposed to do that along with the local Finance Committee. How are you going to do that without meeting with the local Finance Committee?
Please contact me regarding when you can make a meeting with the local Finance Committee.
(I thank Ed Manfredonia for bringing this to our attention —CA).
Its interesting that the chair of a committee whose parent body is not meeting is having trouble contacting an GM who submits budgets with implausible estimates. Of course, he could try actually going to the station before sending emails to the imaginary ED and a CFO who is still struggling to close the 2014 audit.
ReplyDeleteFrom what I hear, physically showing up at WBAI is no guarantee of personal contact with Berthold Reimers. He apparently has a second job—I know, unbelievable—and this is all about soldiering. As I have said, the question is: why do the Board bozos allow him to get away with it, year after year?
DeleteReimers doesn't simply thumb his nose at RPM, he flicks snot into his face, too. It amazes me that RPM can't admit to himself how much contempt Reimers has for him. I remember the last time I mentioned that to RPM on his list, all he could do was call me names.
ReplyDeleteSDL
RPM is full of shit - a control freak MF. His BlueBoard is constipated - if he would let other real voices in, it would be a vibrant board, but he is always protecting someone. He was always tight with management, that is why his so-called union leadership was a fraud. This is why AFTRA cited him years ago for fraud and decertified his union. They said it was a fake union that gave no support to union menbers. BAI workers have been screwed for years, mainly by RPM.
DeletePDR
Not a savory WBAI inmate, for sure, but you have to admit that he is successful in keeping listeners and Blueboard posters away. When reading his reports, I keep a tub of coarse salt at hand... that works.
DeleteThe way they have treated ex-staffers in the past, many people are eagerly anticipating the end of BAI. RPM will have plenty of time to organize his papers soon.
DeletePDR
@RPM: Just quit.
ReplyDeleteKGT
I would add that all talk radio has fallen apart in NYC. WABC is a piece of dreck, ABC-Always Broadcasting Curtis. Nothing else. WOR has turned into all-sports. AM 970 has a 5 kW transmitter in Hackensack and can't be heard in Queens. Why would we expect WBAI to be any better?
ReplyDeleteKGT
I can get 970AM here in Western Queens with ease. Unfortunately, it total ultra right wing by the script mindlessness.
DeleteCommercial talk radio hasn't been worth used toilet paper since the 1970s, anyway.
SDL
Excerpt from WBAI Treasurer's Report 6/8/16:
ReplyDeleteThe WBAI Spring 2016, on-air fund raiser ran for 35 days, from 5/2-6/5. The final tally from the information Management has given out comes to $280,282 which is a daily average of about $8,000 a day. The goal for this on-air fund raiser was $460,000 with a daily average of $12,432. So this on-air fund raiser came in at 60.9% of goal. The CFO has sent a document regarding WBAI’s FY16 cash flow to the NFC. This document was prepared by the WBAI General Manager. It shows the goal of this Spring on-air fund raiser as $470,000 and the daily goal as $15,000. By these criteria, the on-air fund raiser results were even lower than 60.9%. With WBAI’s monthly operating expenses averaging about $152,000 for the first seven months of FY16, and with the GM’s projected fulfillment rate of 78% resulting in a projected revenue of about $360,000 WBAI will go through the revenue from this on-air fund raiser in less than 2½ months. And the revenue will take longer than that to actually come in.
It looks like the CFO has joined the bandwagon on the need to change programming as in this following excerpt from the Treasurer's Report of 6/8.:
ReplyDeleteThe CFO is calling for decisive and bold Management action to turn WBAI and WPFW around. Among the short term initiative proposals the PNB has approved are, calling lapsed donors, having WBAI’s interim Development Director devote 100% of her time to business development activities, and ask for managerial/technical help from other stations to run WBAI’s operations more productively. The PNB is directing stations which have failed to meet their payroll commitment (which includes WBAI) to review their programming and make appropriate changes to increase Listener Support within three months.
The CFO said that he’s in the process of moving the accounting for WBAI and WPFW to
the National Office, and that there is a lot of work to be done with respect to those stations’ accounting.