Wednesday, November 15, 2017

That fly on the wall...


November 13, the day of reckoning set by the court in the case of King Kong versus Pinocchio, has come and gone without any decisive action by either party.

In the wee hours of this morning, rumors mixed with dilettante radio to pollute the air from coast to coast with a network-wide fund raiser. Some of us wondered why this drive was aimed at supporting the Pacifica Audio Archive; not because that isn't a worthy cause, but the timing seemed odd since Pacifica itself is in a hopeless situation, facing the biggest financial crisis in its close to 70-year history.

The schedule became less perplexing as the Wednesday sun came up on the East Coast and Pacifica finally focused on the more immediate problem. There was little mention of the actual problem, and barely a hint of it being self-afflicted, but one again had to question the wisdom of Pacifica's National Board. How much money did the Foundation expect to raise by repeating the previous day's pitches and offering the same flash stick sampler? Remember, the listenership had already been reduced to its all-time low—did they expect to reach a different remnant of shoppers?

It is this sort of naïve, inexperienced dabbling that has Pacifica's demise tagged as a suicide mission.

The second day of imploring is still going on as I write this—same slightly skewed pitches, same games of tag with reality, same emphasis on black-oriented material. That little stick is a remarkable collection of sounds that reflect Pacifica's past, but it obviously has not occurred to the drive's dimwitted architects that nearly all the little stick's enduring, precious content stems from the earlier years, a time when honesty, integrity and intellect mattered to Pacifica's producers as well as its audience. 

They are attempting to sell exquisite vintage wine to Koolaid connoisseurs. They are not recognizing the fact that Pacifica abandoned loyal, appreciative listeners by lowering its standards beyond recognition and gnawing at credit cards instead of nourishing absorbent intellect.

So, how are they doing? Are the fish biting?

The PNB doors are still closed to the paying/listening public, so we don't know exactly what is going on. Last heard, bankruptcy and signal swaps were neck-to-neck options, but who know what else they might come up with? 

As for the current drive, there are flies on the wall and one of them gave us a little tally buzz.

From the looks of it—and here I have to be deliberately vague—the total pledged by 10 PM EST is close to $70,000. A small sum when one considers the 2 million owed the Empire State Building so far—Although this figure does not include KPFA, which probably uses volunteers instead of a phone service, this is not very encouraging.

The WBAI area calls have so far amounted to about a dozen out of 250 and the number of pledges reported by WPFW, Washington DC, can be counted on the fingers of one hand!

None of this is surprising.

Bear in mind that these are not net income figures: the memory sticks cost money, as does packaging and shipping.

There was not a lot of urgency in the few mentions I heard regarding the drive's raison d'etre, but here's how Brian Edwards-Tiekert put it as the second day began:


21 comments:

  1. Okaaaay... So we want $150,000 for... we don't know exactly. Really good to see they have a plan of action in place.

    Anyway, I won't be surprised if they didn't make their goal. From what I heard of this beg-a-thon, it came off as very vague, so people didn't really know what they would be donating for. It's just not how I would have handled it.

    Also, the attacks on WBAI aren't about to make The Remnants want to give money to a beg-a-thon that insults the station they support.

    Brian Edwards-Tiekert did a nice little job sounding like he was going to cry, not that it probably did any good. I liked when he said how the listeners came through after Sandy to find WBAI a new place. Um... Yeah, that's why we're here today.

    Finally, their doing the same old mainly race based shit, which has been failing for years, just shows how they refuse to learn any lessons. They should have played Carlin, Seeger, Kunstler, Hoffman, etc. much more, so as to show the diversity of the USB sticks.

    SDL

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    1. Did you notice that Brian Edwards-Tiekert credited Pacifica with the acquisition of WBAI?

      I have a feeling that they have ceased painting themselves as a "victim" of the big badd ape. I wonder if somebody finally realized how stupid that false story was.

      Also wonder what Bates was doing during this drive—I don't think he made as much as a walk on, so perhaps someone at HQ also realized how stupid it is to have him around. Reimers, of course, stayed in hiding, as did Andrea Katz.

      Finally, I wonder if Pacifica or WBAI hear from any of the remnants. I suppose they are beginning to see how they have been played by these opportunistic oafs.

      I looked for you at the Cerene Beauty Pageant. They say that the JUCettes are the fat lady's new backup group. What do you suppose they will sing as the curtain comes down?

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    2. Chris, you have to understand something about this Pacifica beg-a-thon - it was a PACIFICA beg-a-thon. It was about California, not WBAI and New York. That's why you didn't hear WBAItes on it. To many of the Californians, WBAI is nothing but a problem, and they'd rather be rid of it, which I can understand.

      Remember how I have said multiple times in the past couple of years how WBAI's fate was no longer in its own hands but in the hands of Californians? Well, I think we are seeing that now. I believe we will see both a bankruptcy AND a signal swap. A signal swap would pay all bills and leave Pacifica with a nice treasury for people to steal from.

      I don't think any of The Remnants really understand what's going on. When I hear them call in, I hear simpletons rambling nonsense. I doubt Pacifica hears much of anything from them. As for Reimers with the infamous filled up voice mail and email boxes, he can't hear from them.

      Speaking of... I think Reimers is a broken man, at this point. I believe that is why Bates took over. Reimers has been shown to be inept and a liar. That's why he just spouts shit like broadcasting should be free, all the rich past guests should save them and all that. He's broken.

      Considering how delusional Cerene & Co. are, maybe The Jefferson's theme... We're a movin' on up!

      SDL

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    3. Harsh SDL but true. Why should they do anything else? There is just too much money lying there with a signal swap. Its a quick fix. They could swap WPFW but the money is not the same. Meanwhile the programming at all the stations remains unchanged. Its reached the point where the fundraiser programming is arguably better than the regular programming.

      Even with overwhelming evidence of the bad programming, They just will not change. Think about that. After everything that has happened, there are still people defending the programs as popular. Popular with who? Not only that but the folks (at least at WBAI) are on the air criticizing WBAI on WBAI like they're the victims. Now the word is these people are mobilizing to save the station. Good luck with that and say hello to acting GM Tony Bates.



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    4. No, they won't change. They are "right," no matter how wrong the evidence shows them to be. Unfortunately, the myopic thinking goes from bottom to top, so no change can be applied from within. These people live in a fantasy land - a fantasy land that will cease soon.

      These goofs really believe they are in the forefront of the revolution. They really believe they have swarms of hidden listeners. Their inability to get people to LSB or CAB meetings should tell them something, but it doesn't.

      Credico's City Hall press conference should have been a wake up call that they could neither get listeners nor press out. Instead, they sang and blabbed to themselves like anyone even knew whom they were.

      They are more delusional than LSD.

      SDL

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  2. Tuned in for Letters and Politics but instead picked up a lecture on the Russian Revolution.
    Bored now. This could be dangerous as it could bore drivers to sleep and cause them to crash their cars.

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    1. Were they doing a series on things that didn't quite work? Which side of the revolution did they say comprised Africans? Was Anastasia fathered by Rasputin?

      In other words, how did WBAI distort this slice of history? :)

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  3. I have no inside knowledge of their Star Chamber struggles and machinations of course, but it may be that they underestimate the possible challenges presented by what we’ve heard of their proposed options. WBAI’s signal is worth a fair amount of coin, granted, but if and only if that bit of coin can be realized, and unless the fate which sometimes smiles upon fools and knaves chooses once again to smile upon them there are a number of possible problems in bridging from where they are now to the west coaster’s dreamed of nirvana.

    A bridge loan on their real estate will pose challenges with respect to cash flow. Will it be adequate, given their anemic audience, to keep up payments until the principal becomes due and will they be able to raise the principal or roll it over…?

    Ch11 poses the problem of non-trivial by their standards legal expenses and the potentially problematic hurdle of presenting the court and trustee(s) with a credible non-dreamscape plan for survival.

    A possible positive of Ch11 would be that the trustee(s) might impose new governance structure. The problem with that possibility is that would require the trustee somehow securing competence at the board and management levels – from where?

    A court will not go so far as to recreate all of Pacifica board and management at all levels, that’s not their job, and that’s not what they do.

    Thus far it’s worth noting that none of the challenges to date has resulted in any meaningful focus, coherence, or cooperation on their part.

    That alone, under present financial circumstances, is a clear warning.

    Which they are as always incapable of actually addressing, as opposed to the occasion passing verbal acknowledgement.

    ~ indigo, your occasionally friendly occasionally not-so-friendly neighborhood pirate

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  4. Chris,

    What Alex Steinberg and the other "revolutionaries" believe is relevant and appeals to the new listeners of WBAI.

    Ed Manfredonia

    Special Programming

    Thu, Nov 16, 2017 4:00 PM
    100TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION

    Alex Steinberg is hosting a special show on the 100th Anniversary of the Russian Revolution from 4-6pm.
    headline photo

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  5. Perhaps some empathetic Russians here and abroad will tune in and PayPal some funds to the ill-fated station.

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  6. Chris,

    My favorite was Jim Dingeman's proposal for a fundraiser by reading the complete edition of Das Kapital.

    In what century does Dingema's mind reside?

    Ed Manfredonia

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    1. I think his voodoo doll is a likeness of Rasputin.

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    2. Is this serious? When and where did Dingeman propose that?

      SDL

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  7. At 8:30PM tonight we have another mind numbing excursion into The Cerene Zone on kptfx.org

    SDL

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    1. Mr Chair: "I'm not playing this evening, people!" Yes, you are. You're allowing people to disrupt with the same old shit yet again.

      SDL

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    2. Roberts Rules - On page 643, of ROBERT’S RULES OF ORDER NEWLY REVISED, it states, “The chair can appoint a committee to escort the offender to the door, or the sergeant-at-arms can be asked to do this.


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    3. The door in this case would be a disconnect button.

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    4. The mute button unfortunately hasn't been used as much as it should. Cerene and friends object to the phone system at every meeting. Its become a routine part of the meeting.

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  8. Raising $72,000 of an expected $150,000 Is "pretty good"? my math must be rusty...

    SDL

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    1. Well, it's almost 50%.

      I wonder how hungry Kong is?

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  9. Given Pacifica's track record, any bankruptcy attorney with half a brain will want big retainer upfront, to avoid being screwed.

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