Thursday, March 16, 2017

Report to the Listener: March 15, 2017


Yesterday, an almost secret Report to the Listener was aired on WBAI from 4 - 6 PM. The participants were Berthold Reimers, Tony Ryan, Tony Blake, Kathy Davis and a mysterious couple, Louis Songster and Aaron Green, who appeared to have been recruited by Davis and hired by Bates.

Who are they? That's a good question that they answered with convoluted verbosity. When an inquisitive caller wanted to know how much the duo was being paid, her question was totally ignored. She also wondered—as do I—why it was necessary to bring these guys aboard when they obviously had no fresh ideas for restoring WBAI. Let us know what you think.

Other than that, there was not much news dispensed with in the two hours—no preparation by "management" but a great deal of self-praise. Much talk about the success of the drive that was just completed, but here, too, they did not tell it like it is, for example that the healthy sum collected for that $200 voices-from-the-archives stick is for Pacifica, earmarked to pay for the audits that stand between receiving or not receiving the CPB grant.

Here, in two parts, is the complete "Report" as aired live. I have removed musical interludes and corrected audio balance. The caller mentioned above is heard towards the end of Part 2.

WBAI Report to the Listener - Part 1
WBAI Report to the Listener - Part 2

9 comments:

  1. Louis Songster and Aaron Green operate "Yellow Magnet" (http://www.yellowmagnet.nyc/who/). Green refers to himself as a "technology evangelist" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology_evangelist) and Michael Beckwith (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Beckwith) will soon be joining the WBAI lineup after Daulton Anderson in the 8 AM slot on Sunday morning. Go figure!

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  2. Chris,

    Trump's budget has no funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Guess WBAI is going over Niagara falls- without a raft.

    Ed Manfredonia

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    1. Thanks to their own bungling, it's been years since Pacifica received any CPB funding, but I don't think that loss of revenue is what directly landed them on a rotting raft. Indirectly, however, it has been a significant loss, because it forced them to increase and more desperately push their marketing of "thank you gifts". That, in turn, began a steady exodus of listener-supporters.

      They reap what they sow, and that "yellow magnet" will only attract more problems for the misguided gang at the helm.

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  3. The Report to the Remnants love fest was a snooze fest of NO value.

    What I want to know is whose dick did Louis & Aaron suck to get this absurd "job" of acting like commercial radio demographers for WBAI? They literally had nothing to say of any value, but I bet they will make salaries.

    What a joke. They just don't learn that there will be no new listeners. The trick is to suck more money out of the scared Remnants.

    SDL

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    1. Precisely my point—Louis and Aaron have nothing new to offer. They will also meet opposition from Bates and the station's foaming-at-the-mouth incompetents. LA LA land ain't gonna work—just another blind grope in the dark that Reimers squats in.

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    2. Their best strategy is to focus on Trump and forego the black nationalist stuff. The more they can convince The Remnants that Trump is coming to take them off to concentration camps, the more money they can shake out of them and their fear.

      WBAI should be thanking Hilary Clinton that she insulted the voters she needed and handed the election to Trump, who is a gift to Pacifica.

      SDL

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    3. Listenership being what it is, I think Trump can be a little more than a bump.

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  4. WBAI needs to find its own identity instead of just focusing on opposing Trump. Fear and loathing of Trump is not a strategy. There is an old story about a guy who hated his father and loved his mother. When his mom died, he was sad but did not cry. When his father died, he cried like a baby. He had become consumed by his hatred of his father and his life lost all meaning once the object of his hatred was gone.

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  5. OMG! Why doesn't WBAI die already???

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