The other day, that long-standing on and off relationship Berthold Reimers and Gary Null have too a new turn. When the former excluded the latter from the Summer fund drive, it did not make sense to anyone who knows of Gary Null's success as a fund raiser for WBAI over many years.
Predictable grumbles were heard from his supporters and courtier—silence from Reimers. Apropos quietude, it did not take long for the Call Center's dormant phones to herald yet another dismal marathon, possibly the worst ever, so Reimers' panic intensified and he called Null, begging for a reconciliation.
The ball having been thrown into Null's court, he came up with a plan to save the day, and a condition that Reimers promised to meet. It had to do with dusting the cobweb off hundreds of unsent "thank you gifts" and mailing them to customers whose money WBAI had long since spent on other things. Some of these unfulfilled purchases went back over two years and Mr. Null would only raise the money if absolute priority was given to clearing up the backlog. If this was not done, there would be no further huckstering by the health merchant.
Well, guess what? There was no pitch made on Thursday's "Gary Null Show," but there was this explanation:
Today's update from Null.
Null is an honorable person - he will do the right thing. He has been the station's savior for 30 years. Null has dirt on WBAI and Amy Goodman. Amy Goodman lied on Null during the Christmas Coup in 2000 and she lied on many staff members including Sydney Smith. Sydney should come forth soon and tell how she stole Democracy Now from Pacifica. The woman should be in jail, as Null as said in a speech a few years ago.
ReplyDeleteActually, both should be in jail.
ReplyDeleteInteresting, isn't it? I wonder what premiums were ordered that they arrived so fast. Probably just Null stuff from his warehouse. Other owed premiums would come from far and wide, so I doubt they would all have arrived yet.
ReplyDeleteLet's see where it all goes...
SDL
Perhaps they were ordered from the WBAI duplication room, but they may also not have materialized--like so much that exists only in Reimers' micro brain.
DeleteApropos illusions, one could most likely fit an entire day's worth of honest WBAI broadcasting onto one or two discs.
We know for sure that Amy Goodman has defected to the dark side of WBAI opportunism when she lowers herself to selling blather by Joy de Gruesome and calls it a "major address," which she just did. About the only people who don't sell out and maintain integrity are such listenable host/producers as Chris Whent, Michio, the Opera Glass duo, Wolfe, Prairie Miller, and a sprinkling in the moonlit banishment zone. They will find another outlet while the rest will, in the main, soon be forgotten.
Once again, I think Null is as full of shit as usual. That plan is nothing but getting WBAI listeners to pay for building (partially or entirely) a retreat place for him, while giving back some crumbs to look good. I bet the premiums he wants to ship are his, and this was a means of paying him for them. If so, he has a win-win situation. I want to know what those premiums are!
DeleteAs for Reimers, is he even around anymore? Hey, one of you WBAItes get a picture of him, please. He's more elusive than Bigfoot now.
Goodman was always a sleazebag, but she had a decent overall show, especially by Pacifica standards. Now it sounds more like an old leftie whining and bitching.
As for who has any integrity remaining is a Daliesque landscape of the unknown, as far as I'm concerned these days.
Well, if nothing else, I laughed like crazy listening to Babbling Bob meeting hi ummm.... errr... counterpart on the ummm... phone. Holy smokes...
SDL
Haskins makes daily references to "our general manager, Berthold Reimers" when he finds that his "show" has been pre-empted. Little Mikie doesn't like that one bit. It never seems to dawn on him that pre-emption means that he is useless as a fundraiser. The fact that the remnant listenership has had it with his slavery obsession and general ineptitude just won't sink in.
DeleteI agree with you re Bob Fass, who must have pressed his mumble button more than once on this morning's Naptime with a has-been show (aka Radio Unlistenable). I sense that even Krassner has had his fill of him.
Inflated egos are a sort of neural novocaine.
A simple question here. Did it ever strike you that WWRL never hired the WBAI nitwits? Yeah, a ready pool of people who would have fit right in at a black political talk station weren't hired. Hell, they hired that dumbass Paddles owner, Michael Aulito, who had no radio experience, before they hired WBAI idiots. In fact, Aulito probably had even fewer listeners than Fass, since he'd get 5 pairs of tickets for things and only be able to give away 1 or 2 pairs.
DeleteSDL
No, I never thought of that, but it makes sense to me—I know and am associated with many black people, but I have yet to find one who either isn't embarrassed by the BAI Bozos of Color or, simply, never hear of them.
DeleteAlmost without exception, Pacifica attracts the dregs.
What is remarkable about what Null said is this: In so many words he said that money that was solicited based on promises of premiums was diverted to other purposes and none of it was used to acquire the promised premiums. I don't think that anyone has so explicitly described WBAI's fraudulent behavior on WBAI itself.
ReplyDelete"Earmarked" is not a word in Reimers' little vocabulary. He must think that he can keep his job through his sleight of hand approach, but them days are just about over.
DeleteIf his m.o. is rarely brought up, it is probably because it is self-evident—this poor excuse for a man has nothing positive going for him, but he has company on the National and Local boards. Locally, they call themselves JUC, but a more common label comes in the form of a reaction: "Yuck!".
You will not believe this but I heard Tom Metzger say that the only news he trusts is Amy Goodman on Democracy Now
ReplyDeleteKGT
I believe it. Metzger is more mistrusting of the right wingers than the left wingers.
DeleteSDL
What are some reasons why nobody in corporate media will touch Democracy Now? One is the management. I know that Juan Gonzalez recently retired as a Daily News columnist. While he did good things in print, he should be banned permanently from radio. Literally every time he's on it's endless rambling. Does anybody ever get airchecked at DN? Then again, when you're at the top like Gonzalez and Goodman, basic things like that don't apply.
ReplyDeleteThe other is that Goodman on air frankly puts me to sleep. Yes, her hardcore fans can say she did good work in PNG w/Allan Nairn. But that was what, 25 years ago? Now, it's like EVERY SINGLE TIME, it's the SAME STUFF. Chris Hedges. Sam Harris thinks you're short, an idiot and a scumbag. Your response. Then, with 10 seconds left she of course ask the most complicated question she can think of.
All it is is ego, ego ego.
R.Paul Martin's "free form radio" show is one of the most boring on the FM spectrum. I am totally sick and tired of his analysis and perspectives concerning scientific theories and discoveries. Why doesn't he analyze and report on the reasons Pacifica and WBAI is going down the proverbial drain and why no one is donating money to the station?
ReplyDeleteR. Paul Martin has been a management stooge for 30 years - he ran a fake union that fooled its members, refused to represent workers and finally was decertified by AFTRA. He is allowed to stay because he has the ear of management, everyone knows that. People are afraid of him -he offers no hope, despite what he says on his web page.
DeletePDR
Chris,
ReplyDeleteApproximately three weeks ago I wrote to the Federal Communications Commission and described WBAI's Poni scheme of promising premiums and not delivering permiums. The FCC, not wanting to investigate, merely informed Reimers of my letter. Reimers contacted Gary Null and an agreement was reached concerning Gary Null's pitching for WBAI. The reason that the money is earmarked for past premiums is because I detailed the refusal of WBAI to provide premiums.
Reimers merely wishes to avoid an indictment for a Ponzi scheme. I sincerely hope that he is indicted for fraud. Thank you. Ed Manfredonia
About 3 weeks ago, I also wrote to the FCC re: they're not having any phone system at all. Some might say, you can get by with cell phones and Skype. All Skype at Skype's head office? Yes. But in the rest of the world, no.
ReplyDeleteNo response to me. No contact with BAI. Nothing. Again, why would any business period want anything to do with a business w/no phone system for almost 2 months?
Recently I checked with the FCC re: Null making tons of money off of his premiums. They said as long as he's not a paid Pacifica employee, he can charge and keep all the money he wants from each one.
ReplyDeleteIsn't Bob Fass the former television host who fired Julius La Rosa on air?
ReplyDeleteSometimes, his mumbling words have the depth of Godfrey's.
DeleteIf the FCC were to finally crack down on Pacifica and take away BAI's license, could they also take away the other 4 station licenses? I can't believe that the FTC, various state attorney generals and other offices think investigating Pacifica wouldn't result in some prosecutions. Then again, you have to justify spendig the time and resources on it to the top.
ReplyDeleteIs Fass making any money off of the documentary on him and his memorabilia collection?
ReplyDeleteWhen the film was being shown around the country, Bob was paid for participating in the Q&A, and he was given free trips, hotel, etc., but I don't think it ever amounted to much. As for his memorabilia collection (I assume that you are referring to the many reels of tape), I understand that Bob has the notion that he is sitting on a pile of money, so he becomes suspicious when offered a reasonable price.
DeleteLet's face it, Bob's path to obscurity was cut by himself. As I have said numerous times, he knew that the documentary was being produced, so he should have been working on a book. Thanks to WBAI and the freedom it gave him on the air, he came in touch with an impressive list of talented, interesting people, including some who became cultural icons.
Now it is too late, I think. The momentum is gone, many of the noteworthy guests are no longer alive, those who are still around don't care, and later generations have moved on (as he himself should have) and he is left in a Staten Island house (no mansion) with diminishing memories and about as many listeners as he used to be able to accommodate in the studio on East 39th.
It is a sad story that could so easily have gone a different route if that huge ego hadn't been allowed to get in the way.,
Chris,
ReplyDeleteWBAI's license could easily be terminated because of the fraudulent financial reports. There is so much financial fraud at WBAI that Reimers should have been indicted years ago.
One had to attend meetings of the WBAI Finance Committee to understand that everyone with responsibility for financial decision making (especially Berthold Reimers and R Paul Martin) has consistently lied and covered up illegal hiring at WBAI and fraudulent financial reporting.
Mitchel Cohen once opined that there was nothing wrong with R Paul Martin providing false financial information if I could find the correct information in another place. The problem is: Which financial report is correct. Ed Manfredonia
If you still believe that some corp will come along and buy BAI (or all 5 stations), odds are it won't be one of the giants. Overall, crippling debt load, dropping audiences and ad revenue is hitting them. CBS (among others) is still trying to dump their radio network.
ReplyDeleteThis means one of the minors. Sirius XM? I doubt it. At least 50% of their overall content is reruns. Why would pay $95 a month for 50% reruns? They thought that signing Stern would make them instantly rich. In fact, the opposite has happened. Just listen to one of their stop sets. Who are the clients who do buy time? Buy gold now, Get out of debt, Big Louie's health insurance, and others.
If a station got a hold of 99.5 and played 24/7 Sinatra. Martin, Davis, Darin, Buble, Connick, Dorsey, Goodman, Harry James...they'd be rich.
DeleteKGT
What you really need in the US is a commercial jazz station that doesn't sound like every NPR jazz format already on. The closest I can think of is Jazz-FM in London. I was there when they were starting up. Had an interview w/the PD. HE heard my tape and wanted to hire me. But, there was no money in the budget. Blame it on the recession.
DeleteNiche formats are incredibly tough to set up and maintain.
DeleteOnce you start a commercial "jazz" station, the thing quickly turns into a soul, rap, reggae, spoken turd, Afro-cubano station with its obligatory Cuban revolutionary host.
DeleteYou may not like what I say, but in your heart, you know I'm right.
KGT
Sorry, not so, KGT. and I think you know it. You seem to be allowing your biases to skew your assumptions.
DeleteI think I've found WBAI's niche format.
Deletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_%28broadcasting%29
J.
interesting! That could give Reimers 30 days to make up new excuses, and listeners could see it as blessed relief. :)
DeleteChris,
ReplyDeleteNull's PRN has been off the air for the last two days.
I hope that you, Indigo, and SDL haven't done anything drastic.
TPM
And silence the profound philosophizing of the guru once known as Kathy Davis? Are you mad???? My twilight years are based upon her wisdom, and I don't get enough of that on WBAI.
DeleteInnocent, I tell ya!
DeleteAnyway, I checked and prn.fm is off, however, the audio is piping on their tunein.com channel. And what should be on when I checked on tunein? Kathy Davis and some drunken, brain dead sounding lunatic wannabe shaman. And Null thinks anyone is going to take his station seriously with crap like that? No wonder he wants to be on WBAI with its handful of listeners. I doubt PRN has any sort of listenership.
SDL
The nullometer allegedly registers tens of thousands, but that could be misleading, because I understand that the homemade, freshly baked spiritualista attracts the unseen in much the same manner as moths are fatally drawn to a flame.
DeleteFirst, there is NO ratings system for webcasting, so you can claim any number of listeners that you want.
DeleteAnyway, I had to leave Davis on because this is so insane. Now she has some lunatic woman rambling and singing in some nonsense language, like Christian preachers ramble in tongues.
Davis' crap on WBAI is tame compared to this. I wonder if she is actually held back on there.
SDL
I can't imagine her being held back at Reimers' asylum, but I can imagine that the closet with its skylight and extraneous noises offers limited inspiration.
DeleteOne trick with niche formats is to re-package them so they sound new (even though they're not). One example? KFOG in San Francisco in the '70s. Imagine if you had every cool tune in the world in your living room. Of course, they were lying and didn't. But it was the IMAGE that they created that worked.
ReplyDeleteNow, everything's pre-programmed with a consultant's algorhythm. But I've seen everything. All Elvis. All comedy. Even all commercials.
All commercials? How is that different from a WBAI beg-a-thon?
ReplyDeleteLet me count the ways, Jusine...
DeleteThe products are actually delivered? They actually work? They do not foment hatred? They cannot be had free or for a very small percentage of WBAI's price? They...
This morning, Margaret Prescod was hawking the Paul Robeson premium yet again. Although this premium is not objectionable (as opposed to the other stuff being hawked on WBAI on a regular basis), how they can they think that hawking the same product again and again to the same dwindling audience will produce significant revenue ? I know that these people are masters of denial, but this seems to be too much even for them.
ReplyDelete12:16 PM: Null, in twisted English, claiming he has raised enough money to pay for all old premiums, he can't get the mailing info, he isn't pitching, etc. I'm still not trusting this.
ReplyDelete12:18 PM: The Feds knocked out PRN... Yeah... Sure...
SDL
None of them are to be trusted—all we can do is sit back and observe as they stab each other in the back and sink the tub.
Deleteit is now mandated ... you must say the words Slavery, jim crow , reparations etc... on every show
ReplyDeleteTrue Story. haha
Yes, that has become quite obvious. This morning they ran an old Amy Goodman pitch (she refers to Manning by her old male name) trying to sell the DeGru scam. As I listened to this Gru woman, it struck me that she is doing a comedy routine swiped from Chris Rock and other black comedians who turned racism into humor.
DeleteThen there was Tony Bates with his "Dr. Ben" crap. Endless repetition of lies aimed directly at that remnant of ignorant listeners. People like Bates, Kathy and West Coast scammer Christine Blosdale may think that they are "educating" black listeners, but they are really making fools of them with those outrageous lies and the very notion that they will buy into them.
Mimi and Ken Nash .. now how braindead are these two? Playing "Dr" Ben .
ReplyDeleteThis is a fucking embarrassment! This station has to go .
Nothing is changing here , in fact it is getting worse .
It is embarrassing to us, but not to them—we are talking about opportunists who will do or say anything to keep their "show," listeners, or not.
DeleteLeave it to bai to double and triple down on a LOSING strategy , expecting different results.
ReplyDeleteINSANITY ?