Bits and Pieces

Sometimes I come across things that relate to Pacifica/WBAI and thus may be of interest, perhaps even significance, but not sufficiently earthshaking to warrant a featured piece. Here are some current items:

Chair Pro Tem Pauline Park posts that John Brinkley, a JUC member of the WBAI LSB, submitted his resignation yesterday. He appears to have been somewhat rushed, which is sure to generate speculation as to his reason for stepping down.

Dear Pauline,

This is a follow-up to the telephone conversation earlier this week. Unfortunately at this time, I must immediately resign my seat on the WBAI LSB.

Regretfully,

John Brinkley 

You may have noticed that Bob Fass isn't doing his show live these days. The person who introduces the substituted reruns only gives a vague explanation, telling us that Bob will be back but not why he is absent. To allay rumors, I can tell you that Bob has had a pacemaker installed and is now in rehabilitation. All apparently went well and we wish him a speedy recovery.

The Pacifica Archive tapes currently spotted on e-bay are still the subject of contention. Some are suggesting that the seller—who purchased them from a storage company—hasn't the right to put them up for sale, but Pacifica lost ownership when it failed to meet its contractual rental obligations. Thus the fault lies with the Pacifica National office. Of real concern is the possibility of valuable as yet digitized aural documents becoming lost forever. There is no excuse for such neglect, but it reflects the lack of responsibility that continues to prevail within Pacifica.

With the departure of CFO Sam Agarwal, Pacifica finds itself in a deep financial crisis without a CFO—or does it? It has been reported that his predecessor, the controversial Raul Salvador, who abruptly departed last year and rode into the sunset trailing a cloud of questionable activity, is back in some capacity—perhaps his old position? This has not been officially announced, so suspicion is high.

Yesterday, José Feliciano hosted the first of what is scheduled to be his regular show, the Friday morning 6 to 8 slot. As one reasonably expected, it was a a bit of a self-love fest with Feliciano more or less revisiting the kind of blather he so glibly spews. Still, he offers relief from the unimaginative nonsense Haskins has been delivering for a couple of years, including the embarrassing slave girl series of ill-produced, inept readings and the tired, irrelevant "this day in history" data he digs up.

It looks as if Haskins is being eased off that morning slot. He is still heard with Pamela Brown, another amateur who seems destined to remain clueless, and he continues to run the audio panel, though not too well. To compensate for the diminished role, he uses station breaks to repeat his name and tag himself as "chief engineer" and "program guide". 

Finally, don't be surprised if Tony Bates moves back in and becomes involved in programming again. Reimers is featuring him prominently in the upcoming (but already started) fund drive, so expect to hear more greatly distorted black history and a bogus "cure" or two for the next four or five weeks.