The attached Crisis message from Bill Crosier and Sam Agarwal was posted for distribution today:
Public Statement re financial crisis..
An unvarnished blog that dips into the past and comments on the present of WBAI-FM, a once significant, intelligent New York radio station that for years has suffered chronic abuse from within and now nears extinction. Your comments are welcomed and will not be censored.
What's the underlying message here? The various warring factions in Pacifica just don't care. They're this close to disappearing, and their attitude is we don't care what we have to do to seize control. Pacifica can secure a loan and then another loan to help pay off the first loan? Get in line behind various other networks (Cumulus and others) who took on too much debt load in mergers and now have to struggle to not go out of business.
ReplyDeleteWhat are the various boards really saying? In "closed session", fuck Crosier. Now they're going to destroy Pacifica, and what does that accomplish? Satisfies their massive egos. But nothing else.
Bill Crosier took on a weighty task and, I believe, he is doing this pro forma. Even if we disagree with some of his decisions, we should be grateful to him for the time and effort he is donating. I certainly am.
DeleteI agree. The PNB will do nothing and ESRT will dismantle Pacifica. This is essentially a CYA memo, so Crosier can say that he did everything possible to save Pacifica from itself. At this point, there is nothing else that Crosier can do.
DeleteBad blog host. This is a private message intended for National Finance Committee, Audit Committee, Local Station Boards, General Managers and Business Managers and the General Counsel. Please delete immediately. Now then, about that loan..$2 million at 15%..
DeleteCould you explain this whole thing about points again? It just doesn't seem right somehow.
I heard Reggie saying something about listeners writing down their questions and Reimers being on, but I didn't get the time. Sounds like an impromptu Report to The Remnants is coming. I checked the archive, but the end of the hour cut off just as he was about to announce it.
ReplyDeleteSDL
Nah, Crosier forwarded it with the following at the top:
ReplyDeleteHere's another public statement from me and Sam, so you may share it with whomever you wish.
Bill
Just announced by Reggie: Reimers will do a "report to the listeners" on WBAI on Thursday, at 4:00 PM.
ReplyDeleteIs Reimers back from vacation? Is it safe for him to emerge from hiding? I can't wait. I want to hear the web of lies and innuendo as only Berthold can deliver. Nothing is his fault. He is somehow the victim. Don't quite get that part. I wouldn't be surprised if his list of people to blame grows by leaps and bounds. Perhaps even you Chris and maybe that SDL fellow. I demand to hear from the man himself. I don't want to hear the alleged program manager or the sledgehammer. I want to hear from the man himself. Make sure the mics are level Reggie. I just hope the station is on the air at the time.
DeleteIt's 3 PM, which means that Haskins is not operating the audio—he can never get the audio level right. Reggie I better, but—of course—he its not the "chief engineer", a title that is apparently bestowed to the most incompetent of the lot.
DeleteWho will bring suit against PNB members for dereliction of duty? Send the names to the California Attorneys General? Here is a start https://oag.ca.gov/charities/contact
ReplyDelete"Guns and Butter" had another anti-Semitic conspiracy theorist on today. The theory du jour was that a Jewish conspiracy was behind the JFK assassination. Pacifica is a disgrace, and deserves to be wiped out.
ReplyDeleteAt 9:00 am, I heard Guns and Butter on WBAI. The entire show was a speech by a far-right, anti-semitic conspiracy theorist who was claiming that Israel assassinated JFK. This person, who died last year, wrote for a white nationalist publication and spoke at a Holocaust denial conference in Iran. How does a station, which excludes from its programming all opinions other than the far-left, turn its the airwaves over to the extreme far right and nobody notices?
ReplyDeleteNobody notices, because nobody is listening, except the remnants.
DeleteThe exclusion of any views that are not far-left makes a mockery of the mission statement. In response to calls for greater diversity of views, they will say who wants to hear Rush Limbaugh as if its only a binary choice. That's how they justify censorship.
DeleteA succession of WBAI management hires have routinely made a mockery of the mission statement, bringing it up in name only when they weave it into a sales pitch.
DeleteThere are a number of personal missions at play here and the actual one has been reduced to one of convenience.
I remember Michael Collins Piper being associated with the Institute for Historical Review many years ago, also. He was an associate of the late Willis Carto, one of the leaders, in the 1980s, of what we now call "alt-right."
DeleteOddly, while The Spotlight was a far right newspaper, there seemed to be a lot of lefties who read it. I think that's because the left hadn't co-opted many of the right's conspiracy hypotheses yet, and the conspiracy bug had to go to the right for their fill
SDL
Will we hear a blending of conspiracy and convenience on MLK day for Mr. Jingle?"
ReplyDelete