Saturday, October 1, 2016

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. 

44 comments:

  1. Thanks Tracy. Why do I have a strong feeling that the election is rigged?

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  2. Um, Jose Feliciano? We can only wish. Then we could get some live music. Felipe Luciano is the replacement.

    I said for a while Fass sounded bad. If this is true, now I know I was right.

    SDL

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    1. My bad, mea culpa, etc.

      That said (with crimson face), Josè would have been my preference over Felipe.

      I sincerely wish Bob restored health, but I also wish WBAI his retirement from broadcasting.

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    2. I still say Bob blew it. Had he played his cards right in the early 1970s, he could have made a career in radio as the resident lefty talk show host on commercial radio. He also should have written an autobiography some years back, considering all the people he's met and stories that must have been still lucid in his head.

      I heard a bit of Luciano and will say he is more professional sounding than WBAI standards, but he is so damn arrogant and got some historical facts very wrong. In the end a failing grade.

      SDL

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    3. I loved his revelations, such as the one spotting Latinos among the tribes of Israel. Next, Felipe will have us believe that departed scamsters John Henrik Clark and Benny the "doc" weren't chronic liars. Well, with Tony Bates in his lap and WBAI successfully vying for asylum status...

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    4. Felipe Luciano did prison time in the 1960s for manslaughter of a boy who beat up his brother. Just a fact.

      KGT

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    5. True. It was a stabbing, as I recall. He was also closely associated with opportunist Jerry Rivers, who became Geraldo Rivera when it became advantageous to identify with Latinos. Felipe has the same problem--he works hard to establish himself as an "Afro-Latino". It's the Post-Selma Traumatic Ancestry Mix Syndrome that afflicts closet chameleons. There is nothing wrong with wishing one's skin were of a different hue, but neither Nadinola nor Mantan will cut it. 👦🏻👦🏼👦🏽👦🏾👦🏿

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    6. You have to say one thing, the Young Lords made good money for themselves from the big bad establishment. I guess they knew how to manipulate it better than the Black groups. maybe there is a lesson there...

      SDL

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  3. Great to hear Martin Galvin, an international terrorist, again, as host of Radio Free Erin.

    KGT

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    1. I have always been bemused by the nostalgia on RFE about the "good old days" when the IRA was planting bombs in London at train stations, pubs, restaurants, hotels and department stores.

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    2. (JustAListener)

      I've had the same reaction as "Anonymous".
      I remember listening to one RFE show where they were reminiscing about the good ol' days when they could administer beat-downs to suspected Unionists. I thought "this is the "Pacifica" network, the one founded by conscientious objectors?"

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  4. On, "the possibility of valuable as yet digitized aural documents becoming lost forever."

    Yeah that is possible. From a technical point of view, depending on quality of the original tapes, how they were stored -- old archived reel-to-reel tapes can often be played ONLY ONE MORE TIME before the oxide falls off. I mean falls off as in a pile of rusty dust on the play head. When that happens, yep it's lost and gone forever. Has something to do with entropy ...

    Jim

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    1. Yes, a very real possibility at Pacifica stations, where tapes were often of low (inexpensive) quality, recycled in order to further cut down expenses.

      Sometimes, more acceptable reproductions of Pacifica-aired programs could be found in the collections of dedicated listeners. I bet some valuable "lost" material still exists in such hands.

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  5. I think the best way to preserve the aural history of WBAI and Pacifica is to put out a call to people who might have recorded programs over the years. (Much of what's on YouTube consists of tapes and videos people made at concerts and other kinds of gatherings.) Some foundation or the NEH could underwrite it, the appropriate technically-competent people cound make the transfers and historians could archive it for a university, museum or some other place.

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    1. Good idea except that I think a lot of the people with tapes have long since stopped listening to the station. I don't know how you would reach them. I imagine many people who used to have shows would probably have some tapes.
      Also, many of the people would be older and maybe dead at this point. Sadly, many tapes have probably been tossed by family.

      SDL

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    2. All points well taken, but there may be tapes collecting dust.

      I would rather hear Pacifica stations make sporadic requests for such tapes than the conmercials that seem to be accepted and, thus, proliferating these days. These are not-s-cleverly disguised spots that raise money for outside, non-Pacifica groups and individuals. A current example is Ron Daniels' frequently aired conmercial soliciting registration fees for his November race racket in Newark. There are other such schemes being advertised these days and they think they can get away with it by not mentioning the price of admission—that breach of the official rule is circumvented by giving out phone numbers and website addresses.

      Non-profits have lost their status for less, but WBAI/Pacifica has been mismanaged into near oblivion.

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    3. Of course, Pacifica/WBAI should ask for peoples' tapes IF they had a serious archive that would protect them. We have seen what Pacifica does with their tapes, though.

      I have some old cassettes of shows around here somewhere, but I'm not handing them over. You know they will get junked, if I'm not told cassettes are too low quality and to get lost, even if they are the only copies available of the shows. Maybe one day I will digitize them myself and toss them on youtube or something.

      Once again, Pacifica and its stations get away with their crap because they are so under the radar no one cares or even knows they exis.

      SDL

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    4. Since there is little or no reason to believe that Pacifica will ever regain its health, perhaps the prudent thing to do would be to sell the Archive (including rights to missing items) to an organization that is professionally run and financially secure. The money derived from such a sale should be used to pay outstanding bills.

      Of course, the crooks and incompetents who are currently in place must be given their packing order, otherwise the Archive sale becomes meaningless. The agreement should also have in it a provision for Pacifica to air and/or utilize the material in a limited way, one that would not hamper use by other organizations.

      I think such an arrangement is doable. There should at least be a digitized copy of the collection at the Smithsonian. At this point in Pacifica's history—given the vandalism it has suffered at the hands of crooks and inept opportunists—the focus ought to be on preserving the legacy of Lew Hill's concept rather than the pile of nothingness it has been reduced to.

      BTW, I, too, have tapes that ought to be digitized and stored securely. A few years back, I contacted the Pacifica Archive and offered to hand this material over, but I never received a response. I did not yet know how typical that disinterest was.

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  6. Note from National Election Supervisor:

    KPFT: Election extended until Friday, October 7th at 2pm central time.
    WPFW: Election extended until Friday, October 7th at 3pm eastern time.
    KPFK: Election extended until Monday, October 10th, 12pm pacific time.

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  7. bai.... where you must say the word slavery at least once every 3 minutes or you will be shunned.
    No matter what the subject is , you MUST say that word .

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    1. Slavery is not something we should forget or put aside, but the reality of it is such that there is no need to force it into every conversation. The poor idiots who dominate WBAI these days don't have the intelligence to realize that they are actually diluting the true horror and inhumanity of slavery by making routine references to it as a way to express theories own odious hatred.

      The truth is outrageous beyond imagination, it cannot be embellished without taking away from that fact. WBAI's opportunists are not deploring racism as much as they are exploiting it.

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  8. WBAI is asking for money again, I see. This should be a really fun beg-a-thon.

    Null rambling his unhealthy shit without mentioning that Asians are generally the healthies, longest living people on Earth. Let's see, Asians eat meat, wheat, white rice, fried food, drink alcohol, smoke cigarettes, etc. The difference between here and there is Asians generally eat fresh made food while Americans love their processed crap.

    Have you heard the promo and seen the add for the benefit with the film The Best Democracy Money Can Buy? I like how they make it sound like dead people will be at the showing. Maybe Null is reviving them...

    SDL

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    1. The drive began, officially, with Haskins being bumped, then Bates came on wishing us a good afternoon at 6 AM, and spent the next two hours rewriting the history a la Clarke and "Dr. Ben." At ten, the "professor", Ron Daniels offered as premiums registration to his upcoming scam in Newark... and so it will go at least a week into November.

      Dead people promote dead WBAI all the time, and the list just keeps growing. The station's website is still offering tickets to September showings of the Palast film—the showing is over but the show goes on, in their little minds. Null is now talking about having counseled over seventy thousand people, so time does not exist for him.

      Gotta go to dance class... we're doing the Mumia Mash today.

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    2. You know what's funny about these vegans who follow these health gurus? They are the most stressed out, gaunt looking people I always meet. A trip to Whole Foods is always fun for people watching. As I once said to my ex when we were there shopping, "These are the most unhealthy looking healthy people you will ever see." She laughed...

      SDL

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    3. My grandparents ate typical Danish food, lots of pork, butter, etc,, few vegetables...they also had their drinks and cigarettes,,, they died in their nineties, without hospitalization. Ditto my mother, uncles and aunt.

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    4. My grandmother (Italian/German side) lived until ninety-three and had a diet to make Null cringe. However, she made all her meals fresh, not from packaged crap. She didn't smoke, but had her shot of cognac every day. She also enjoyed her nightly Kit Kat bar while watching TV. Add to this that when she was born her family was dirt poor, so she and her siblings were malnourished for the early years of their lives until her father started doing better in life. She really only conked out during the last year and a half, when her mind went. Her sister died at 97, btw.

      My father, a smoker and pot head since his teens, ate crap all his life and died at 73, outliving all the other men on his side of the family by about 20 years, more or less.

      From what I understand, the thing that gave birth to me still exists in Barcelona and is in her eighties.

      Am I going to be cursed with a long life, forced to watch this devolving world? Ugh!

      SDL

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    5. The most robotic people I've ever seen were pushing carts in the Tribeca and Columbus Circle Whole Foods stores.

      I got a chuckle, though, out of the guy who bought organic wild salmon, mountain grown beets, cheese from goats who did yoga--and a case of Coors Lite.

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    6. When you can sell bottled NYC tap water (or, for that matter, drops of double helix), you can put anything out there :)

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  9. What makes Gary Null think that he's so healthy looking? And if people spent all their low hourly wage money on the vitamins [not to mention his expensive green, red and purple stuff] he's constantly recommending they would have none left over for food or rent. Screw all this bourgeois health cult BS. It's all about the "money" with Gary.

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    1. Gary Null looks like walking death. His face sags. He obviously dyes his hair. He looks like an anorexia nervosa/bulimia patient.

      KGT

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    2. The key word is "bourgeois." These people have too much money and want to be immortal, but are mortally stupid. They're really no different from the fools who give money to televangelists for a prayer rug or magic water. Just scared little people who want to buy their way to some sort of security.

      SDL

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  10. Mimi is on and it's still Rosh Hashana. Bet she'd take Kwanzaa more seriously.

    KGT

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  11. Obviously this guy hasn't listened to bai lately . Where all they talk about is race and slavery.

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  12. "You know what's funny about these vegans who follow these health gurus? They are the most stressed out, gaunt looking people I always meet. A trip to Whole Foods is always fun for people watching. As I once said to my ex when we were there shopping, "These are the most unhealthy looking healthy people you will ever see." She laughed..."

    except for the owner of the health food store. He goes in the back for lunch and has a pastrami sandwich with a medium french fries and a bottle of coke or pepsi.
    -The above is a Jackie Mason joke

    KGT

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    1. My one visit to the Carnegie Deli left me with utter disgust—those oversized sandwiches offended my European sensibilities. I do not mourn its passing, but wish the equally repulsive Coney Island eating contests would disappear as well.

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    2. You ever been to Katz's Delicatessen or Yonah Schimmel's Knish Bakery?

      KGT

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    3. I think my late friend, Larry Hiller (who was my engineer at Columbia Records) took me to Katz's. We worked at the studio 5 nights a week and always had dinner together. He introduced me to Jewish food, much of which I had grown up with as Danish food.

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    4. Katz's isn't what it used to be since they got all the attention in recent years on the Food Channel and all. Now it has that tourist trap feel.

      Personally, I usually go to Ben's Best, since it's good and not far away from me. It still has that neighborhood deli vibe.

      SDL

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    5. @SDL: check this out:

      http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/queens/workers-queens-kosher-deli-ben-best-suing-wages-article-1.2444902

      KGT

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    6. Interesting, but the article is almost a year old. I'd like to know if there has been any follow up.

      SDL

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    7. I dunno. A better place is Ben's Kosher Deli & Restaurant  
      211-37 26th Ave, Bayside, NY 11360- back end of Bay Terrace Mall-
      Totally different ownership and a lot cleaner.

      KGT

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    8. Too far for me to travel.

      SDL

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    9. Schlep a bissel. It's voith it.

      KGT

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