Posted by Bill Crosier - Sunday, December 17, 2017
I was told that yesterday morning's WBAI outage was a Verizon problem (those have been frequent) and that the new backup system we have for the studio-to-transmitter link did not work properly.
Then WBAI was back on the air for a while yesterday afternoon, but the transmitter malfunctioned and shut down. I'm told that it appears to be a problem with the controls for a blower, to keep the transmitter from overheating. Our tech people are working on it and I don't have a current update, but it may require getting parts from the factory, which may mean Tuesday or later before it's fully operational. That is an estimate, though. We are trying to see if there's a faster way to get back on the air, with reduced power, until a proper fix is made, possibly using WPFW's backup transmitter if we can get it to NY and hooked up. I'm told our NY tech people are also looking at other options, but I don't have any specifics on that yet.
Everyone should be able to listen, and donate, via wbai.org of course.
Bill
An almost identical note of explanation was posted to this blog by Tony Ryan (See Commentary)
I wonder if this is the same reason the transmitter shuts down now and then during summer months.
ReplyDeleteSDL
As I have said before, these people have warped priorities. I have to wonder if this could not have been foreseen and avoided.
DeleteA Sunday night update from Tony Ryan
DeleteAs some of you already know, WBAI has been OFF THE AIR since Saturday
Morning.
It seems that there was a power surge which caused a HIT on the Broadcast Electronic transmitter which then shutdown the system.
I spoke to Andrea Katz early this morning and asked her to POST a NOTE
of this issue on the WBAI website.
After hours of research and testing, a part is needed to be replaced, this transmitter is almost 30 years old and will require a shipment from the manufacturer(BE).
This shipment(overnight) may take up to 24 hours, in the meantime, Jake Glanz, Graceon Challenger and myself will be at ESB to continue to work on solutions for this issue.
WPFW has offered to give us their backup transmitter, but it would take just as much time(if not MORE) to re-wire and configure to add on our system.
As a reminder, we are still STREAMING on the web and would expect ALL to continue their program in case the system comes back up early.
Also, we are beginning at midnight tonight(Dec 18th) "COPYRIGHT CONFESSOR".
Although I will be at ESB tomorrow, I will have my laptop and access to my email
and can respond to your comments and questions.
Thank you for your patience,
Tony Ryan - WBAI OPS
Why no surge protectors at ESB?
Tony Ryan - world's WORST OPS DIRECTOR - he is also an evil man - praying the station goes to hell soon.
DeleteHe is indeed miscast and, from what I often hear, his personality matches his cluelessness.
DeleteIt looks like someone needs to hang out at Soul Central Station with Tony on Saturday nights. Let all that negativity go Chris and enjoy his mix of oldies, pop, rhythm and blues, and classic dance tunes and funk and Gospel.
DeleteI would probably hang out there if the soul was real, but it isn’t. Besides, I have all those records in my collection and I can hear them at any time without the syrupy veneer of a throwback radio Romeo like the “sledgehammer.”
Deletejumper cable from fm exciter to antenna input. Most exciters will give you 30 watts or so. Depending on gain/loss in antenna multiplexer you get maybe 20-75 watts ERP. You'd be amazed what 10 watts on a tall building will do.
ReplyDeleteFCC lists WBAI ERP as 4300 watts.
DeleteSee how one disaster feeds into another? 1) WBAI has a tiny listener base, 2) which means that it can't afford to keep people on payroll, 3) which means it can't do proper upkeep on its equipment, 4) which means that the transmitter is vulnerable to damage, 5) which means that the transmission from the space which WBAI cannot afford goes dead, 6) which interrupts the latest round of fundraising (now approximately 50% of air time), 7) fundraising which in turn drives people away and keeps the listener base tiny. It's a circle of failure.
ReplyDeleteAll of this could be changed if they would just sell WBAI. They would realize $150 milllion. With just 1/15 of that money, they could pay off all their debts. (With transaction costs, fees and interest, maybe it would be 1/13 or 1/14 of the total.) With the remaining sum, they could create a premiere online radio station, which would need no transmitter, no ESB to house the transmitter, and no fundraising. And there would be enough to run it for many years, allowing it to hire real professional talent. And to run audience surveys and testing, so that the programming could be tailored to what people actually want to listen to.
Just selling WBAI doesn't even begin to be a solution. The fact that it can be seen as such illustrates the problem.
DeleteAs to your first paragraph the question is not as to its existence, nor as to its particulars, but how it came to characterize not only WBAI, but Pacifica as a whole.
As for your second paragraph 1) The figure you cite for the value of the frequency is remarkably high – it appears to be reflective of optimistic maximum possible value guesstimates as to the frequency’s value many years ago at the peak of the market. 2) The critical question in this form of speculation at this point in time is the ‘How would you get there from here?’ problem.
If, for example, your vessel is crossing an ocean and anticipates a rich reward/payday/treasure/whatever at the end of the crossing, but your fuel is running out, you’re a power vessel, with no auxiliary sails, the value of that hypothetical at the end of the journey is precisely that – hypothetical.
You also neglect the most critical factors of all: Pacifica is an organization devoid of any actual talent other than a very few minuscule niches which it relegates to nowhere-much at best. Management is a combination of nonexistent, incompetent, and hopelessly spectacularly fucked up.
How, then, under any circumstances, would this absent/incompetent/hopelessly-fucked-up management somehow be able to take advantage of a hypothetical dreamed-of-jackpot to transform itself into everything that it isn’t?
No offense, but you’re presenting a fever dream.
If Pacifica weren’t Pacifica, it might happen. Then again, of course, if Pacifica weren’t Pacifica, it wouldn’t be here, dying… and dreaming its own fever dreams, schemes, and clawing at itself, the walls, and anyone or anything in sight.
Pacifica wrote itself off long, long, long ago.
Rightly so.
This is simply the most recent near-terminal stages.
If you want to pray for or fever-dream of magical miraculous resurrection, rebirth, and salvation, I wish you well.
I wouldn’t, however, buy any tickets at that particular lottery.
If you’d like to wager, I’d be more than happy to take the other side of that bet :)
~ ‘indigopirate’
1. I have to correct the figure for the value of the license. The $150MM figure has been mentioned as the cumulative value of all 5 licenses. It was mentioned in the October Pacifica In Exile newsletter. WBAI's license would be the most valuable of the 5 by far, as NYC is a far more lucrative market than DC, Houston, Berkely and is somewhat more lucrative than LA. So let's say $50 million. That's still an enormous sum, one which would end their financial problems for years to come, even if they made no changes.
Delete2. The sale is not a fever dream. It will happen eventually. Maybe it will be under the auspices of bankruptcy. Maybe it will come in 2 phases, first a swap (yielding a smaller sum) and then a sale of the less valuable license. But one way or another, it has to happen because there is no other money to pay for their debts. As for creating a new, dynamic, web-based WBAI, with compelling programming tailored to audience preferences and helmed by paid talent, that is absolutely a fever dream. But it could be done. They could free themselves of their never-ending financial crises, reduce their operating costs, and open up a new chapter for WBAI with the possibility of reaching new generations of listeners, young people who do not listen to terrestrial radio and certainly will not hunt for some dismal signal which is 50% fundraising and 50% elderly people rambling at a mic.
So glad to hear the fund drive is over , now we could get back to the
ReplyDeleteregular race based programming , with the regular racist hosts.
The racism at WBAI was not diminished by the fund drive—it might even be said that it was given a boost. Did you hear Tony Bates, Kathy Davis, et al spew their lies?
DeleteApropos race-based scams, now we have the “professor”, Ron Daniels spurting out his nonsense. fortunately, te unmeasurely low listenership has been reduced to an even smaller group by the station not being on the air, in a true sense. Then, too, Haskins is back, so the audio balance is all skrewed up.
We could rightfully say goodbye to WBAI’s significance many years ago, but—bankruptcy or not—I think the time to see it disappear altogether has run out of extentions.
That will be a big step in the ongoing battle against air pollution. WBAI will disappear not as a “victim” of an evil Empire State.Building, but as a victim of ignorance, managerial ineptitude, and self-generated racism.
Im a broadcast engineer, and I'd like to echo what another person pointed out. If the blower on the BE transmitter is broken, you can still operate the exciter and achieve 70% of BAI's usual FM coverage contour. The FCC routinely grants low-power due to emergency requests in situations exactly like these.
ReplyDeleteThere is a listing for a PNB meeting today with the following agenda:
ReplyDelete1. Notice of a new Election for Chair of the Pacifica National Board
2. Consultation with Phil Strok, Pacifica's bankruptcy consultant
3. Authorization of Personnel Committee to conduct ED search
We should start a pool to see if Cerene 'allows' this meeting since her friends are not the targets here.
DeleteI went to the kpftx.org site and see there are two Pacifica National Board
ReplyDeleteEmergency Meetings listed for tonight and tomorrow night. There is also a Pacifica National Board Regular Meeting listed for Thursday. Sandwiched between these are the usual committee meetings.
Lots of free entertainment over the next few days. This is better than any pay service, like cable TV, etc.
SDL
Davis , talking about ufo's , this is beyond funny .
ReplyDeleteWhat's next , the black aliens were here before the white aliens?
The brother from another planet.
DeleteA great pic. Joe Morton was awesome. Always is.
Delete~ 'indigopirate'
I found him less awesome when he played a dirty trick on a good friend of mine—it was movie related.
DeleteActors, just as non-actors, are often imperfect. They are, however, generally larger than life on screen.
Delete~ 'indigo'
I think I watched Morton on my Sony tummy TV. :)
DeletePrescod talking about slavery ... with Gerald "I can't stop saying the word slavery" Horne
ReplyDeleteWow, Who could have guessed that would have been the subject matter?
I don't understand. Does Prescod actually have a show? I thought all she did was fundraising. I wonder if she cleared out her premiums.
DeleteShe usually has on the go to racist like Gerald Horne to turn ANY subject into a white supremacy,
ReplyDeleteslavery , reparations etc. Today she was promoting Horne's book , which of course was about slavery.
I heard enough of that to make me cringe—Horne is as racist as she is, so I'm not surprised that they get along.
DeleteI just listened to the 2 hour PNB meeting where the CA attorney general's office participates. It's unbelievable. They spend an hour on the minutes and the meeting agenda. The mere presence of the AG's office at the board meeting should put the fear of God into them, but they just don't care. One thing I cannot figure out is why these meetings have time limits. The obvious way to defeat the obstructionism is for the chair to shut down as much of it as he can. However, some of it cannot be shut down b/c board members have the right to object and make points of information, etc. Since certain members obviously try to object to everything to run out the clock, why not just take away the clock? Say that the meeting will last as long as it needs to last until every last agenda item is addressed? If that's 2 hours, great. If that's 6 hours, great. If that's 12 hours, great. But the meeting doesn't end until the work is done. There would be no incentive for anyone to delay and obstruct because it wouldn't gain them anything. A 12-hour meeting might be a hardship, but given that the AG is now talking to them about things burning to ashes, that's what they need to do.
ReplyDeleteThey should just summarily remove those members. What are they going to do? Sue Pacifica..again? Just add it to the list of lawsuits and other issues on their overflowing plate.
DeleteAsia Pacific Forum talking about Rwanda ... And here i am thinking Rwanda was in Africa. haha
ReplyDeleteOMG! Its December 18 and they're still asking questions about the bankruptcy process.
ReplyDeleteI guess Cerene ate the how-to book.
DeleteI hope that BAI stays buried forever and ever. They were always irrelevant except to a very few irrelevant people- especially AMy Goodman- who never met a disgusting cause that she didn't champion. When the true story of this station comes out, her hypocrisy will be a shame that stands out for ever and ever.
ReplyDeleteAmy Goodman is an evil genius. She takes control of her show and sells the rights back to Pacifica while giving the program away to others to build an audience. I respect her for not trying to pretend to be objective. She is openly partisan and has said she will never ever have any conservatives on her show. Meanwhile, she is cleaning up with book deals, enough swag to make Hollywood notice and that rich fair trade coffee. Did you ever get it Chris? Amy Goodman is a great businesswoman.
DeleteI'm confused. No fundraiser? No long boring appeals for money with odd premiums? Its strange. Its sounds right. Racism, white supremacy, anti-captialism, conspiracy theories but no mind-numbing appeals for money.
ReplyDeleteI really want to know what their listenership is these past few days. I bet it's down by, at least, 90%
ReplyDeleteSDL
A reasonable assumption.
DeleteBut what's 90 percent of zero?
Delete