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An unvarnished blog that dips into the past and comments on the present of WBAI-FM, a once significant, intelligent New York radio station that for years has suffered chronic abuse from within and now nears extinction. Your comments are welcomed and will not be censored.
Oh My God! Fifty Five Minutes to settle on an agenda and they still can't keep it straight. How much time is left? What are we voting on? Point of Order, Point of Information, Point of something, etc. etc. How long have these people been directors? Do they even talk to each other between meetings? I wonder if they're deliberately padding the agenda but that would be giving them too much credit. Its like they're just throwing things to the agenda the day before and then seeing what sticks. There were a couple of important items touched upon but its hard to tell because they all seemed distracted by one thing or another.
ReplyDeleteGood, now WBAI has its license, so Pacifica can sell it off.
ReplyDeleteSDL
This is a valid point, but I am more intrigued by the fact that WBAI did not make payroll. What happens now? Will Pacifica bail them out yet again? If Pacifica does not, what happens then? Will WBAI's paid staff continue to work for free? If not, how will WBAI function without its paid staff? As they used to say on the Carol Burnett TV show: Tune in next week for another installment of "As the Stomach Turns".
DeleteYes, they will work for free, because it is all they have in life. People don't understand that most of the dolts there have nothing beyond the station, and it's the center of their existences.
DeleteSDL
This DVD [https://www.amazon.com/Book-Negroes-Aunjanue-Ellis/dp/B00RUT3DWG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1470435969&sr=8-1&keywords=the+book+of+negroes+dvd] being offered for a $125 donation by Gary Byrd. And they have the nerve to call themselves non-commercial and anti-capitalist.
ReplyDeletelying and deceiving remnants of an audience has become routine with these con artists. Other than being slicker, Byrd is just as much the opportunist as the rest of them.
DeleteQuestion: What would happen if WBAI dished out holocaust stories 24/7?
DeleteKGT
My educated guess is that Mimi would revert to being Jewish and Haskins might convert.
DeleteHaskins would get a Metzitzah B'peh.
DeleteKGT
Byrd and that bunch are in denial—they just can't believe that their "community" has the intelligence to recognize as lies and crap what WBAI is dishing up. The station is now getting close to 24/7 "coverage" of 200-300-year old slave stories (real and imagined).
ReplyDeleteWWRL had such star talent as Al Shapton on and still failed and went Spanish.
ReplyDeleteSDL
Chris,
ReplyDeletePercy Sutton and his fools ran the Apollo Theater into the ground. They were not indicted because of political influence. I knew an Assistant Managing Editor of the Daily News; he told me that millions were stolen.
But I must add that WBAI ran into the ground under the aegis of the Steve Brown Incompetents. While many individuals, who post on this blog, deride Kathy Davis, no one mentions the fact that Kathy Davis ran for the WBAI Local Station Board as a member of the Steve Brown Group.
It was Steve Brown, who was responsible for the appointment of Berthold Reimers as General Manager of WBAI. It is Steve Brown, who is championing the sale of Gary Null's useless products.
And no one is examining the business relationship between Steve Brown and Gary Null. Steve Brown is interested in money- and only money. Brown would not be advocating so vociferously for Gary Null unless Brown could earn money.
As for Brown's minion, Carolyn Birden, she is a fool, who overrates her intelligence, and underestimates her lack of intelligence. Birden is such a fool that she was advising attorneys on how they should proceed in court.
Thank you. Ed Manfredonia
It might be worth noting as well, as I’ve pointed out previously, that it was Sutton’s Inner City Broadcasting people who took over WBAI in 1976–1977 – they were legion at the year-end party at Margot Adler’s, I assure you.
DeleteIndeed, they dominated – it was impossible to move without tripping over one or another of them.
When the attempt to reformat and redefine WBAI as quasi-commercial with the presumed intent of bringing it into the Inner City fold was resisted by staff, with the following occupation of The Church on E 62nd Street, and the accompanying media visibility, Guzman and then Kosof moved on, and The Church was sold.
A read between the lines of the real estate records shows that at least a fair bit of money disappeared in the process.
~ ‘indigopirate’
Dutton was a slimy one. I think Tatum (Amsterdam News) was a part of that group.
DeleteNot surprised to hear that money.vanished, BAI began to attract undesirables at that point. It was already beginning that slow dumbing down process. I found a big attitude change--for the worse--in the late Sixties, when I returned from the BBC.
Chris,
ReplyDeleteSeveral years ago at meetings of the WBAI Community Advisory Board, Jim Dingeman said that he had attempted to find the records of the sale of the Church- but he could not find the records.
During the financial crisis, Rangel led the Black Caucus demanding that Goldman Sachs rewrite the loan agreement to Inner City Broadcasting or the Black Caucus would not vote for financial reform. The world was collapsing and all that Rangel could think about was bailing out his friends. Ed Manfredonia
Thanks for reminding me that Charles Rangel was a player in that mob.
Delete@EdManfredonia
DeleteAre you aware of R. Paul Martin's misrepresentation of the FCC's ruling re your objections to WBAI's license renewal as posted on the Blue Board?
He seems possessed of some considerable personal animus.
~ 'indigopirate'
Licensing letter extract:
DeleteLicensee timely filed the Application on January 30, 2014, against which
Manfredonia, Miller, and Heyden all filed numerous Informal Objections. The four Informal Objections filed by Manfredonia allege the Station engaged in: (1) theft;2 (2) fraud;3 (3) bribery;4 (4) improper business practices;5 and (5) public file violations.6 The Miller Objection and Heyden Objection both take
issue with the Station's programming.7 Licensee did not respond to any of the Objections.
The FCC denied Manfredonia's objections for lack of evidence. The other two simply objected to programming. Thee FCC denied all objections although they seem to have taken their time about it.
There are a few interesting points as to the FCC’s dismissal of Manfredonia’s objections and the renewal of WBAI’s licence.
DeleteThe original document may be found here http://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/getimportletter_exh.cgi?import_letter_id=66696
Dismissal of Manfredonia’s objections to licence renewal is based not upon facts, but, rather, upon the fact that the FCC will simply not consider any ‘third-party hearsay’ evidence. This means that unless a member of staff or the board were to present a formal objection, no objection will be considered.
Unless, for example, a Berthold Reimers or a Bernard White were to present formal complaint, or R. Paul Martin were to present formal objection, preferably with documentation, the FCC will dismiss the objection.
The dismissal of Manfredonia’s complaint is not on the facts, but on evidentiary and procedural formality – precisely the sort of thing people complain about as to the American system of jurisprudence giving Jesuitical casuistry a run for its money.
So… so long as none of the principal players complain against themselves the ship will sail on, ever lower in the water, until and unless it doesn’t.
~ ‘indigopirate’
I think a criminal conviction may apply, too, as that is a statement of "fact," isn't it, as long as it effects the proper running of the station?
DeleteI keep saying that people need to start locally with agencies like the Consumers' Affairs, D.A.s, etc. and try to get Pacifica and its stations' personnel investigated, indicted and, maybe, convicted of various charges. The FCC doesn't go around stripping licenses easily.
Come to think of it, the last time I know of a license being stripped from a station was when Allen Weiner was using his one station to broadcast illegally, and that's years ago. I forget the exact story, but he was using a repeater(?) meant to broadcast audio station to station to actually broadcast publicly or some such thing.
SDL
It’s also interesting, I think, that R. Paul Martin, who of course controls the Blue Board, chose to misrepresent the FCC’s ruling in a fashion worthy of a Clinton, and even more interesting that he chose to do so clearly directed at Manfredonia.
DeleteNow I have no meaningful take on Manfredonia, but we do know that R. Paul Martin seems to think it extremely important to discredit him.
Why that may be important to R. Paul is another question.
~ ‘indigopirate’
Well, Manfredonia makes a lot of accusations against RPM, including child molesting.
DeleteSDL
Well, as I’ve said, I have no meaningful take on Manfredonia one way or the other. He may be credible, he may not, he may be the ‘nut case’ R. Paul Martin frequently labels him as being.
DeleteI’m neutral as to his credibility.
I am however sensitive to the fact that WBAI once long ago gave Charles Pitts air time to spend hour after hour advocating for man-child-love or whatever the euphemism was at the time, and that included explicit description as to how wonderful an experience it was for, eg, a seven year old to be ‘loved’ by a man.
Eventually that was too much even for WBAI, and he found a new home as a tech at QXR, if memory serves.
~ ‘indigopirate’
In complete agreement. What I always asked, though, is what about his strong following in the gay community? Makes you wonder.
DeleteAnyway, one of them eventually had a show on WBAI, David Wynyard, who even brought Pitts back for a couple of weeks without management knowing it. When they learned of it, it was stopped, of course.
WQXR is correct, I believe. Have to wonder if they knew about him.
Weird fucking world...
SDL
The FCC is such a small agency now that i doubt they'll do much of anything short of obscenity complaints.
ReplyDeleteSDL
Chris,
ReplyDeleteI did not accuse R Paul Martin of child molesting. i stated that R Paul Martin is a pedophile, who believes that he has the right to contact 10 year old boys on the Internet. R Paul Martin has praised the individual, who molested him when he was at camp.
I have not read Martin's comments; but, essentially the FCC wants individuals, who were cheated by WBAI's Ponzi scheme to complain to the FCC. I also documented to WBAI has perpetrated accounting fraud concerning the rent for the Empire State Building. I did present factual evidence that Berthold Reimers did not file an EEOC report for the hiring of Andrea Katz.
Look at WBAI. Individuals, such as Mitchel Cohen, R Paul Martin, Alex Steinberg, Carolyn Birden, etc, with an inflated view of their intellect and importance, control WBAI and have led WBAI down a path of self-destruction.
And who pays attention to R Paul Martin? Pickles Martin?
Thank you. Ed Manfredonia
Chris,
ReplyDeleteSeveral years ago at a meeting of the WBAI Finance Committee, I said "Beetlejuice. R Paul Martin lowered his head to the table so that his bald pate was holly visible. Martin shook his head and mumbled that is not how it is pronounced.
I had to inform Martin that I was referring to the movie, Beetlejuice," and not the star Betelgeuse.
These fools at WBAI are always attempting to prove that they are intelligent and well-educated when they are neither. I laughed when I read Steve Brown's recitation of the most famous line of the Cataline Orations. This asshole Steve Brown likened Berthold Reimers to Cataline, who plotted to overthrow the Roman Republic. What a fool.
Or Alex Steinberg pontificating on Hegel
You have never attended a meeting of the WBAI Finance Committee to understand that not only is R Paul Martin totally innumerate concerning accounting principles. R Paul Martin constantly referred to depreciation as a cash expense. I attempted to explain to Martin that depreciation is an accounting concept. William Heerwagen gave the best explanation: If depreciation is a cash account, where is the check?
One of the best was Mitchel Cohen, who wanted to perform regression analysis on two annual figures for a decline in pledges. Cohen was speaking of two points, year to year analysis. Two points, which means that that there is a straight line, and no variance and of course no correlation analysis.
Or Mitchel Cohen, who stated concerning my career as a member of the American Stock Exchange, "or so he says." Cohen is such a fool that he threw away the article, Scandal On Wall Street, which was the 26 April 1999 BusinessWeek cover story. More than one page of this article was devoted to me. Cohen proved his stupidity by throwing away the article and then stating that he had not received it. Except that the volunteer at the desk had given him the article- and told me that she had given the article to Cohen when he came to 120 Wall Street.
Mitchel Cohen told me that he had a problem with me because I was wired by the FBI for an investigation into money laundering, narcotics smuggling, Mafia stock frauds, cocaine smuggling, etc. at the American Stock Exchange. But Cohen has no problem with the Reverend Al Sharpton, who was wired by the FBI because he was caught in a sting when he attempted to buy cocaine to sell to pregnant black women and young children.
These people are assholes. Thank you. Ed Manfredonia
Let me just say that the reason that I haven't written to the FCC is because most of what Pacifica and its stations are accused of isn't the province of the FCC to adjudicate. It is possible criminal activity for local D.A.s or, maybe, the Department of Justice or some such agencies. People forget that the FCC is about broadcasting, interference, communications equipment, etc.
ReplyDeleteWriting to the FCC to tell them to take action because of what we talk about on this forum really isn't applicable to their mission, especially now that they are such a stripped down agency.
SDL
Isn't there something called the Department of Consumer Affairs?
DeleteYes, they are local and where people should complain about past due premiums. That is what they are there for. Call 311 to get their number if you have a past due premium and file a complaint, people.
DeleteSDL
@EdManfredonia
ReplyDeleteWe talkin’ ‘O tempora o mores’ here? Just curious.
Q: When you say R. Paul Martin is a pedophile, you said that he ‘believes that he has the right to contact 10 year old boys on the Internet’. May I assume we’re not talking an innocent context? It’s entirely possible for an adult to have a perfectly innocent conversation with a ten year old, after all.
~ ‘indigopirate’
By 10 year old boy, he means Pickles of the North.
DeleteKGT
Chris,
ReplyDeleteR Paul Martin is a member of NAMBLA. He wishes to contact 10 year old boys on the Internet so that he can talk to the 10 year old boys about their weenies. Martin praises the older boy, who molested him.
R Paul Martin is a sociopath. Worse, Martin is a coward. Martin attacks those, who cannot defend themselves.
As for the FCC, whatever the FCC has said is a lie. WBAI could have lost its license because it was running a Ponzi scheme. The FCC has lied. The evidence is not hearsay. Many individuals have stated that they assisted in mailing the overdue premiums. The FCC is a scam. Thank you. Ed Manfredonia
Lots of potentially libelous accusations against RPM, but not one shred of evidence presented. I don't like him one bit, but I don't make accusations without proof. I am of the OPINION he is a coward, however.
DeleteWhat I want to know is where the Illuminati fits into all this. I wonder if this conspiracy goes higher than just the FCC. Will Tony Bates be selling a DVD? Will there be beeps on the pledge line because "They" want to stop the information from getting out?
SDL
I did a bit of googling. Nothing definitive, but perhaps a few things worth mentioning.
DeleteIt seems that Peter Lamborn Wilson/Hakim Bey, of the Moorish Orthodox Radio Crusade, has been criticized for his ‘celebration of pederasty.’ It shows, for example, in the entry for him on Wikipedia. There also seem to be things like this https://libcom.org/library/paedophilia-and-american-anarchism-the-other-side-of-hakim-bey
As I’ve pointed out, Charles Pitts was for quite some time given air on which he advocated for ‘man-boy love’, all under the rubric of ‘free speech’ not given voice elsewhere. It was informal understanding at the time he was forced off air that WBAI’s feminists had led the maneuvering necessary to have him removed.
Also, so far as I can tell from googling, NAMBLA keeps a very low profile indeed at this point, so offhand I doubt anyone merrily declares being a member – if indeed they keep membership.
I suppose one can consult the relevant episode of South Park for a further sense of the issues ;)
~ ‘indigopirate’
@EdManfredonia
DeleteThere’s no question that WBAI/Pacifica are deeply corrupt – that they systematically cheat and defraud their listeners, and have done so for many years.
I question, though, your statement ‘The evidence is not hearsay. Many individuals have stated that they assisted in mailing the overdue premiums.’
As I understand it the FCC requires that for it to consider denying license renewal complaint must be made by station staff or other party or parties directly involved and/or that it be supported by documentary evidence.
While I’m sympathetic and in full agreement as to the truth-claim of your complaint, it seems to me clearly to be hearsay as legally and bureaucratically defined, ie, you reported statements of others.
I have no doubt as to the truth of those statements, and of your representations. They are, though, so far as the FCC’s rules of the game are concerned, hearsay, since they are reports of the statements of others, and as such will not be considered – a rule of the game, clearly stated.
That it’s a game is lamentable, but that’s the character of American jurisprudence and bureaucratic procedure, as we all know, all too well.
I think it ridiculous and offensive that American jurisprudence and American bureaucracy are indistinguishable from quasi-Jesuitical casuistry, but that is, in fact, their essential character – they too are in varying ways deeply and systematically corrupt in my unhumble opinion.
If I’m missing something here, please correct my understanding.
~ ‘indigopirate’
I remember Peter Lamborn Wilson's show on WBAI back in the 1980s or early 1990s, was it? He was nothing but a babbling, double talking (at best), incoherent (at worst) bullshit artist. The only Wilsons I ever cared to read were Colin Wilson and Robert Anton Wilson.
DeleteSDL
R. Paul Martin used to air programs featuring NAMBLA - that is well documented.
ReplyDeleteVisit R Paul Martin's homepage. He praises the individual, who molested him when he went to camp. R Paul Martin has railed against the government for legislation against contacting children on the Internet.
ReplyDeleteTracy Rosenberg stated that I had revealed Martin's private thoughts when I had stated that Martin s a pedophile.
As for private membership Alan Ginsburg (Howl) was a member of NAMBLA. I have had members of the WBAI Community Board tell me that there is nothing wrong with having sex with a 10 year old boy- as long as the boy gives consent.
Martin is a sociopath. Like many individuals at WBAI and Pacifica, Martin overestimates his mental acuity. I laugh when I recall Steve Brown quote from the Cataline Orations and substitute Berthold for Cataline. What a jerk! And whoever assisted Brown in writing his little piece about Berthold is an even bigger fool. Yes, Brown has an editor for at least some of his writings.
There is one autistic individual, who provides legal opinions. When I inquired why he had not attended law school, he said that he could not afford law school. Well, that was not true. He is my age. Law school was perhaps a few thousand dollars per year and student loans could cover tuition. (My brother resided in California and knew several individuals in California. They had attended night law school and they had taken out student loans.) Thank you. Ed Manfredonia
I caught the tail-end of "Off The Hook" last Wednesday. That program is one of the few bright spots remaining on WBAI.
ReplyDeleteI didn't tune in again until today--just in time to hear Gary Null congratulating himself on what a wonderful cookbook he offered in a previous pledge drive. That, instead of Chris Whent's program.
Is it any wonder that the BAI ship looks more and more like the Titanic?
Since Allen Ginsberg was mentioned, I thought you might be interested in this.
ReplyDeleteI was his student at Brooklyn College--in a workshop one semester, and in tutorials for a year. I must say that I did learn a few things, some of which I didn't expect.
Anyway, I was living as male in those days. I don't think I was particularly attractive, but I was in really good shape, as I was doing a lot of cycling and working out. And, for what it's worth, I was rarely "read" as gay--and, in fact, was living as heterosexual.
But--you guessed it--he hit on me. And all of his other male students, too. During one of ou tutorials, the subject of man-boy (or older man-younger man) love came up. He said, in essence, that if it was good enough for Walt Whitman, he could not understand why anyone would have a problem with it.
Oh, by the way, he was dismissive of almost anything his female students did. And, as far as he was concerned, there were only two female poets: Sappho and Ann Waldman. He didn't say so in so many words, but it was enough to discern.
I will now vomit, and then move on...
ReplyDelete~ 'indigopirate'
A last comment from me about RPM. I still want to see some proof of the allegations against him for a simple reason - I never paid enough attention to his lousy show to hear any of the stuff he's accused of. I just remember first hearing him in a weekend morning slot as a replacement for, I believe, Ira Levin, who had moved to Mexico. I couldn't stand RPM then, and think he's even worse now with his Pickles.
ReplyDeleteSDL
Can't really comment on his personal situation, but the show , from the little i have heard it ,
ReplyDeletewas , shall we say .exceedingly underwhelming. From what i remember it wasn't racial or racist,
so maybe by that matrix , it was good?
Curtis Ellis, former WBAI host and producer is all over the cable programs as an advisor to Donald Trump.
ReplyDeleteWe need David Wynyard more than ever now.
ReplyDeleteKGT
Bai and Haskins just can't help themselves .Digging up more useless crap to hawk.
ReplyDeleteHaskins is so obsessed with slavery that it has, I believe, affected his brain. He speaks in spurts, skipping around and seemingly unable to retain his fragmented thoughts. He comes to the closed totally unprepared— which can work for intelligent people—and throws stuff at his little group of listeners. His "this day in whatever" is a strained reach for anything pertaining to slavery or more recent government injustices, but his thoughts are random bits of whatever rattles in his head.
DeleteHis pitches for money are nonsensical and nothing gets carried through to a conclusion. He will play meaningless fragments of a "documentary" video, often passages that are meant to be seen—strictly visual snippets of a video's sound effects. This morning, there was dialogue, but it was all in Japanese!
This is a guy who has spent a couple of decades at a radio station without grasping anything. Many of WBAI's regular on-air people are stagnant—their scope and vocabulary unaltered from show to dreary show, but Michael Haskins is the scribble in the wastebasket.
We may eventually hear of a fund raising tally, but it will not reflect the reality Reimers cannot face. We are not many who stick round to see the perp walk to and beyond the edge of the cliff, but when it comes, it will be recognized as a long overdue delivery of the ultimate "thank you gift."
I think that you're right about the tally. The only evidence of the fund drive failure will come from third parties, when WBAI can no longer maintain the shell game of stealing from Peter to pay Paul. At that point, they will default on one or more obligations (salary, health insurance for employees, the partial rent they pay to the Empire State Building, etc.), and consequences will ensue.
DeleteSomeone needs to send Linda Perry's ignorant ass a book on how the Japanese Empire tortured and slaughtered Asians by the millions during WWII. Her anti A bomb report is utterly disgusting. Even the Nazis didn't drop plague infected fleas on Chinese cities. Ever notice how Asians don't protest it? Go ask some old Chinese.
DeleteSDL
Linda had potential, but I'm afraid she's fallen into the trap.
DeleteThis afternoon, Kathy Davis and Wuyi Jacobs, the host of Afrobeat Radio did a fundraising "special". It started with about 20 minutes of unannounced music—about 3 numbers separated by silence. Then the hosts came in and chatted mindlessly about having 10 tickets to give away for a payment of $50 each.
The event is an African Food Festival in Brooklyn, but the description was short and general. With only 10 tickets (each for 1 person only), the most that could be raised was $500, but there were still tickets available an hour later, when the awful Gloria J. Browne-Marshall came on to push a reading of a race-based play she wrote. Her co-host for this event will be Haskins. The mind boggles.
Apropos Haskins and racism, he was pushing his "Let's do Lynch" thing as he re-ran that embarrassing commercial for a 1811 slave revolt that "they don't want you to know about". This is the hour (from Wall Street) wherein Caldwell and Haskins engage in a hysterical duet and compete for volume with the latter fool's bicycle bell.
One can't make this up nor will the money they raise buy a shopping bag of fast-food burgers. :)
Gloria J. Browne-Marshall is offering listeners tickets to her play "Class" for a "WBAI 'Class' Night" on 8-9-2016 for $75 where listeners/donors can enjoy an evening with her and Michael G. "shooting the breeze" about racial injustice. Yet her internet advertisement for the "stage reading" have the tickets going for $10-$15 for the general public during the 4-day run. I wonder how many seats have been filled based on the constant BAI promos for the event. At the other end of the candle is Jeannie Hopper advertising her August 13th 4-hour musical cruise. After Hopper's overhead is paid, how much money is really going into Reimer's coffer. Berthold is a person who only see's "dollar signs" instead of offering intelligent and progressive programming which might possibly gain new listeners. Self-aggrandizement is all I ever hear most of the time I tune in and then out. I cast no aspersion on those WBAI shows that have redeeming value. Unfortunately, they must suffer with the bad.
ReplyDeleteMimi and Ken are doing this in black face ... true story . haha
ReplyDelete