They may in many ways be as race-obsessed and dishonest as WBAI, but KPFA—Pacifica's mother station—will at least allow themselves to be the subject of satire. I don't know about Washington and Houston, but WBAI has Randy Credico, whose humor belongs on milk cartons, KPFK has predictable Jimmy Dore, whose weekly attempts are better, but have too much in common with Credico's, and KPFA has the Twit Wits, who know what's going on and have the intelligence topical humor demands. The following link will take you to last Sunday's ungodly goodie.
I always download the twits because they are the one true shining light in WBAI dog crap. The Dawkins fiasco simply demonstrates, yet again, how the loonie left is so similar to the retarded right.
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing that you have this mass of technological advancement in our society, yet people are becoming dumber and more contemptuous of freedom day by day. Maybe the comforts of technology are helping cause people not to want to expend energy or effort in thinking.
SDL
I don't think there are current-air WBAI people who could do a show like Twit Wits. Remember the CCP show? It was embarrassing—same can be said of Credico's pedestrian impersonations. When we had an intelligent listenership, the sophisticated humor we imported from England was very popular, but I think its satire and subtle comedy would be lost on today's dumbed-down audience—not to mention those who, often by default, weeded out the thinkers.
DeleteI disagree. There are many inadvertently funny people at WBAI, like Reimers, Mimi, Davis, Bates, Diaz, Fass, etc.
DeleteOh, I'm sorry. You mean people who are capable of writing funny sociopolitical humor, and not people who are funny due to their innate stupidity and ineptitude.
SDL
There was a time when the inadvertent humor a la BAI made me laugh, but it ain't so funny when it kills.
DeleteIt won't be money, a mule, or six acres of anything, but reparations are due the listeners from whom the station was stolen by these creeps. So. reparations will take a different form... an island trip and dining on a stale bologna sandwich at Café Rikers.
Will "mumia" try to free them?
SDL has a good point. Today's technology helps people stay in their little safe spaces by confirming their beliefs and evaluating events from their perspective. If its not in the Times or Post or whatever media you trust, it didn't happen. It just did not happen. It does not exist until 'your media' confirms or debunks it. In the case of Pacifica, its actually worse. They truly believe they're free speech advocates but they're too invested in their ideology to tolerate other points of view. Amy Goodman freely admits she does not have and will not have conservatives on her show. The folks doing WBAI news and talk boast about not doing the stories that mainstream media is doing. This they say is what we should be talking about and doing something about. With the support of the others in their little bubble, they just keep on going without any attempt to grow their audience, change their format or broaden their appeal.
ReplyDeleteAnother part of the problem is the unwillingness to take chances in programming. How many times now have I heard from different affiliate mngmnt. on this? On "consultants" say that volunteer producers won't cut it. We need established names in drive time slots. Jimmy Dore. Ralph Nader. Michio Kaku. Thom Hartmann. I'm assuming that these people don't work cheap. If the money problems are so bad, how do they justify these contracts?
DeleteAnswer: Pacifica is taking a BBC approach to this. If we don't pay for "big names", they'll go elsewhere. We pay talent what the market demands. If we don't, they'll go elsewhere. So when Pacifica management has questions, do they talk directly to these people? Or, is it a matter of our people will talk to their people, because that's how things are done?
Gary Null was on his Tuesday mid-day show where he delivered a mild tirade against those who criticize his work most likely because of the YouTube links posted on this blog of his retreat in Texas. Perhaps Null needs to be reminded that "criticism" does fall in the category of free speech. What was most interesting is when he said that he and "maybe" 4 other producers at the station bring in the most revenue for WBAI. A very revelatory comment about the quality of broadcasting and lack of listenership there . Ironically, as I write this I am listening to Reggie Johnson's "From the Soundboard" which he is co-hosting with his intern/assistant, Giovanni. What a waste of 2 hours replete with mediocre music and conversation.
ReplyDeleteI think Reggie has become insufferable.
DeleteI find most stuff that they are playing on WBAI/THEAFRICANHISTORYCHANNEL, is bacically
ReplyDeletea complete waste of time .
So, it would seem, did the overwhelming majority of listeners.
DeleteAmy Goodman won't have conservatives on? I wouldn't go on her program. And I'm not a conservative. She gets paid by Pacifica and has global syndication with DN. If she's so great, why doesn't she have reporters in the US outside of NYC? Does she still her her "Super Duper Awesome Intl. Correspondent based in Cairo"? When was the last time he filed anything? The last time I saw her doing "election coverage", it was her literally sitting in her studio with "analysts" as she checked her I phone.
ReplyDeleteWhy won't she call in Pacfica's debt? For the same reason the Chinese won't call in our debt to them. In both cases, it gives them leverage.
Not surprised she will not have conservatives on her show - many liberals are hypocrites. WBAI got all hot and bothered when Shelton Walden had Pat Buchanan on his old show.
DeleteWhat I don't understand is how Null finds an attorney to handle a lawsuit against anybody who dares to criticize him? Has any judge ever just ripped up the suit and then said don't ever waste my court time with shit like this ever again? Or have I been watching too many Law and Order reruns?
ReplyDeleteHow many of the threatened lawsuits does Null's lawyer actually file? To my knowledge, not many. I think he likes to use threats of legal action as an intimidation factor, more than anything. I guess he learned that from corporate America.
DeleteRemember the actual lawsuit last year, was it, against WBAI? Whatever happened to that? It was pulled, and things seem to be worse than they were when Null sued over them.
SDL
Null sued over illegal copies being made of his DVD's. What he doesn't understand is almost 40% of the premiums they hawk on-air can be found on line (usually on You Tube). Also, there's no way to stop every person who downloads his content from You Tube, Video, Daily motion and other sites. Content creators, media corporations, the RIAA and others know this. What they occasionally do is selective prosecution. Occasionally they'll sue somebody for "illegal downloads". This is just to make an example out of them. But it's financially impossible to have enough online cops to police all of this. In a sense, Null is just like these media firms. Use money, power and fear to intimidate.
DeleteOne reason I'd never go to hear Amy Goodman speak? Hypocracy. She markets these as "Checking the State of the Union". We're concerned about what the average people think and feel. No you're not. This is just another book tour. When she does these, who pays her expenses? Is it Pacifica affiliates? Is it bookstoes? If I donate to Pacifica, is my money going to pay Goodman? If paid Pacifica employees get laid off or work more for less money, why can't she re-negotiate her contract? Or it that just beneath her?
ReplyDeleteIs Ralph Nader still doing his weekend show on KPFK? Somebody's syndicating it, and he has two comics that you've never heard of on there. Which means they're following the belief that the only way to talk about politics is to have comedians on. It doesn't matter that they're not funny. Other shows have them, so we have to as well.
ReplyDeleteWhile he has done lots of good things in the past, keep some facts in mind. People like his buddy Chris Hedges keep saying Nader is so selfless, so wonderful. Well actually he's not. He's a multi millionaire. Also, I saw an interview he did on Rockwell Presents on CPAC (the Canadian C-SPAN). He actually said that when he ran for President, if he got money legally, he'd take it from anybody. How does this connect with him now saying, there's too much money in politics. It's terrible? The impression I got was if he said this on US media, his career would be over. Besides, no Americans ever watch Canadian TV. So he can get away with it.
Frank Luntz did the same kind of thing on Rockwell re: climate change. Look, I'm not stupid. I know that climate change is real, it's serious and it's dangerous. Now, if I said that in the US, my career would be over. But here I can talk about it because no Americans ever watch Canadian TV. So who's gonna know?
ReplyDeleteIt is 10:00 AM on Thursday, and I just caught the tail end of a pitch by Kathy Davis for something called "Consciousness Unleashed". The pitch was especially odious in that it was designed to play on the fears, insecurity, and desires of people who are depressed and unhappy with their lives. It bears repeating: These people have no shame.
ReplyDeleteI haven't heard that Pitch several times. Kathy Davis is disgusting and without scruples.
Delete(JustAListener)
DeleteBrings to mind the "Pursuit of Happiness" pair that pitched their motivational CDs and personal consultations then committed suicide about three weeks later!
(Wonder if anybody pledged for the personal consultation - how do you fulfill it if the hosts are dead?!)
Wouldn't the absence of a personal consultation be a more valuable premium in this case?
DeleteIf anyone would know how to communicate with the dead, it would be Kathy; or, maybe she could consult with Geoff Brady.
DeleteI think WBAI should get some voice actors to do up pitching promos for dead people, like MLK, Malcom X, Paul Robeson, etc. Then, to make them sound genuine, Tony Bates should come on and say they found a box of old lost pitching promos from the '60s by these people, and push them as being genuine. I bet The Remnants would believe it.
ReplyDeleteSDL
For this crew of losers, that's all within the realm of possibilities.
Delete"Hi, this is Martin Luther King for WBAI. You should give everything you have to WBAI to keep it alive and well."
DeleteSDL
Why stop with people who were alive in the 20th Century? Why not put together a pitch voiced by Frederick Douglass?
Delete"...and I'm not just saying this because I'm Credico and Bobby Knight posed as my possible love child."
DeleteAs for Frederick Douglass, the White House, where he now works as a butler, won't give them his number.
DeleteTony Bates: "Hi, friends. Tony Bates here with an incredible guest on our phone line. The man who defined a generation of black rage. The LIRR shooter himself, Colin Ferguson!"
ReplyDeleteSDL
Free mumias—as long as supplies last.
DeleteI think "Cake" Davis, Earth Mum and Geoff Brady should do a Halloween show together. It would be totally out of this world (pun intended).
ReplyDeleteSDL
There they go again. The PNB is meeting and all they have for the open meeting is minutes and they can't even do that. These people are so dysfunctional they would mess up a coffee order.
ReplyDeleteA farce. They spent an hour and 21 minutes cross-shouting and allowing the disrupters (led by Cerene and Adriana) to play their game. The saboteurs won and the meeting was adjourned without accomplishing anything that might remotely benefit Pacifica. We don't know what is happening in the subsequent non-streaming "Executive" meeting, but I think we can make an educated guess.
DeleteForget their ordering coffee. Imagine them having to order Chinese take out? Holy smokes, that would be a blast to listen to!
DeleteSDL
Anyone remember when WBAI ran a humorous takeoff on Gary Null?
ReplyDeleteIt was "The Gary Void Show", a heavy-handed, hippie-dippie takeoff on Null in which the host droned on about eating whole groats for karmic health and goodness, etc.
Null angrily spoke out against the humor on-air, and within weeks the show was blasted from the station, because... Free Speech!
Clearly, to the likes of Null, "free speech" denotes air time available for him to talk about himself and his imagined benevolence. Several times this week, I have heard a long-since worn out commercial in which he continuously interrupted the pitch to focus on himself.
DeleteHe is indeed a narcissist whose self-generated hype begs to be satirized.
I turn on the radio every now and then just to hear what is being pitched. And each time it's Gary Null and I am so "GD" tired of hearing him and Tony Bates pitching to fill up a two-hundred seat theater to see his latest award winning film. Apparently no one is buying the premium which includes a free video. The world is not going "vegan" anytime soon. Null advocates "free will" but I've always wondered if he employs "non-vegans" or non-runners to work in his enterprises.
ReplyDelete