Here is a link that will take you to a downloadable PDF of R. Paul Martin's WBAI Treasurer's Report, dated July 13, 2016. Some of the information it contains was already posted here yesterday, but you should read this for his insider's details and thoughts.
I just took a quick glance because I have to go out for a bit and will read it in depth later. However, what stood out was what I wondered about for some time - the price of the call center. 78 cents/minute is pretty high. Remember that these places want to keep callers on the line as long as possible, too.
ReplyDeleteSDL
Did he really put the blame on Verizon for the phone bill? Verizon didn't bill properly?
ReplyDeleteThey never got the bill? Its $30,000! Good thing KPFK has that surplus of $100,000, we'll just.. oh ..never mind.
Watching this is bizarrely and perversely fascinating. It reminds me of those old movie serials where the hero or heroine seems doomed at the end of each episode, only to survive in the following episode.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to congratulate Off The Hook for a fantastic show and guest tonight! If people didn't hear it, download it.
ReplyDeleteSDL
Oh, during OTH, I tweeted:
Delete@SirDarklust
I am so hating WBAI General Manager, Berthold (Butthole) Reimers, right now for not paying the station's phone bill, so that they remain off
SDL
I just listened to OTH and understand full well why you liked it—excellent hour and I can easily imagine how being able to take incoming calls could have made it even better!
DeleteAnd now Amy going to what's really important on bai ... Slavery
ReplyDeleteSadly , the only thing that stopped her from devoting all or most
of the show to blackness , was the attacks in France .
Let's not resort to criticizing hosts or shows for what we think they might have done.
DeleteChris, did you catch John McDonagh calling into Babbling Bob last night? I thought it was funny how he said WBAI has fewer listeners than Bob has stations, and Bob had to babble his illusions in response.
ReplyDeleteSDL
No, I missed that, but I'll check the archive. I did listen to the beginning, by nodded off during the long requiem... I suppose it was for France. I also heard some of Bob's semi-coherent rambling as the 164 or so members of the choir left to disappear into the dark Staten Island night. Now that you mention it, there was a mention of the massive global listenership. I wondered what the handful of listeners who may have tuned in to Bob from their backyard stations thought when, instead of country music fragments, they heard the entire population of Estonia sing their mournful oratorios.
DeleteBob Fass is too pathetic for mumbles,, he really should not have allowed his ego to embarrass him in this way,
I'll go back and listen to McDonagh... I think his statistics were right.
I also liked when McDonagh asked Bob if he missed the old regular crank callers like the guy who would blurt "Commie nudie!" into the phone. I actually miss the cranks, who would be great today, if they had phone lines.
DeleteSDL
Is that the guy who used to yell "Go to Cuba!", or something like that? If so, he and McDonagh finally met, got along great and had a good laugh—I think he's a NYFD guy.
DeleteNot sure, but could be. Maybe why he brought him up? Listening to McDonagh, I kind of felt like he was playing Bob a bit and making fun of him in subtle ways.
DeleteThere were several crank callers over the years who were known personalities. In the early to mid 80s, Frankie The Belcher was incessant and had multiple phone lines. In fact, he sent Paul Wunder a best of type tape he made of his calls, and Wunder ended up having him as a guest via phone one morning.
I don't consider Monroe or Frank crank callers in the strict sense, but annoyances and psychopaths.
Ultimately, David Wynyard had the most crank callers, as he'd get cranked by people who cranked no one else. People just hated him.
Eventually, what happened with some of the regular "normal" incessant callers who called every show with the same old stuff was that producers got tired of them and would rush them or just cut them off for hogging air time. These callers would flip out eventually and become cranks after that.
And, yes. I cranked at some points, too. I was the type who would call in sounding normal, at first, but getting more and more absurd as the call went on until the producer finally figured out I was a crank. I liked seeing how long it would take them to figure it out. Some weren't very bright, like John Fisk, Robert Knight and Paul DiRienzo...
SDL
Now, of course, the cranks are more readily found using the station's Mister Microphone. :)
DeleteYeah, and they aren't even funny...
DeleteSDL