Having MNN agree to "pay all bills going forward" means the rest of Pacifica would be stuck with the $2.6 million (and growing each month) debt that is owed to ESRT for unpaid tower rent, with no way to use WBAi to help raise money in the future to pay it back.
While it would be a good deal for MNN to get a station like WBAI (whose license is worth $40-$50 million) practically for free, the rest of Pacifica would be stuck with figuring out how to pay all that debt owed to ESRT as well as WBAI's share of the rest of Pacifica's debt (which is another $5 million). Also remember that WBAI also owes at least $4 million in Central Services to Pacifica. That's IN ADDITION TO what we owe to ESRT.
As we have pointed out numerous times before, the FCC does not allow PSOA's to pay debt or anything other than current operating expenses. MNN could pay nothing on the ESRT debt, or other debt, even if they wanted to, and that's our big problem, which a PSOA would do nothing to resolve.
The FCC has fined stations a lot of money for trying to use a PSOA to pay more than current operating expenses, and also made them pay it back.
Do we want to risk the wrath of Trump's FCC for violating their regulations and federal law? I don't think so.
I hope those of you at WBAI will share this with your local e-mail lists, that I cannot post to. They need to know the other side of the PSOA story. —Bill
@Bill
ReplyDeleteThe minor detail you overlook is that there are no credible viable plans to extend Pacifica’s life, let alone to do the Lazarus Trick.
If so, what the fuck are they?
The opium dreams of aging leftists mumbling to themselves while throwing excrement at one another?
Planning to have plans to have plans?
Ch 11 is the nearest thing to a credible approach. It has only trivial flaw – it, too, absent programming of interest to more than four aging ‘progressive’ leftists, simply keeps the dying patient on life support a bit longer as consciousness continues to fade, a mixture of blood and vomit visible at mouth’s edge.
There is nothing worth saving here. The empty invocation of ‘ideals’ not manifest for many decades is not worth saving. An overwhelmingly talentless collection of ‘progressive’ advocates incapable of appealing to anyone other than their own feeble-frebile imaginations/delusions, is not worth saving.
Anything that might, potentially, be worth presenting, is already extant on the net, Bill.
Yet this pathetic assemblage barely manages to grasp that, uh, oh, there’s a sort of shift in the media landscape and there’s this thing called the net, and, uh, well, you know, man, would should we do that, man?
Your time and Pacifica’s time expired long, long, long long ago, Bill.
It’s Ch 7 that will come for you in the end, and if you haven’t the sense or the modicum of courage to grasp that, you’re a worse excuse for a mind than even I imagine.
Let it go. Stop deluding yourself that prodding the corpse will call it forth from the walls of death.
You good folks did this to yourselves, for many years. It was your one true dedication, other claims being nonsensical.
Your great accomplishment.
An exemplar of progressive ideals and idealism, right?
Enjoy the ride, for pity’s sake.
You earned it.
~ ‘indigo’
Views from the left coast.
Deletehttp://www.berkeleyside.com/2018/01/10/loan-offered-pacifica-likely-shielding-kpfa-crisis/
https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/2018/01/17/a-2m-loan-could-help-kpfa-stay-alive-but-for-how-long/
My first reaction would be that FCC commissioners are always political appointees/hacks that do as the President tells them to. Or, giant corporations that they used to work for who now have expensive lobbyists. If BAI is such a mess, how come up until now the FCC hasn't touched them?
ReplyDeleteThey only look into official complaints from current employees. Not outsiders.
It's a well known secret that FCC investigators (like federal prosecutors) operate on a quota system. The more people they fine, the more political points they score. Having said that, whne was the last time a nationally known network was fined for anything? Usually it's some pirate station.
The FCC won't prosecute unless there's a good chance of getting a conviction. It has to be worth their time.
Unfortunately, Pacifica is still convinced that rich donors will bail them out. But keep in mind that ultra rich and powerful people never do anything without saying what's in it for me?
Point of information. The FCC has "touched" Pacifica. WBAI received a fine for having an incomplete transmitter reading log in Master Control about 10-12 years ago.
DeleteActually the FCC can, and routinely does fine broadcasters for license violations. Here's one from just last month, surprisingly against a company that's quite friendly to the current administration:
ReplyDeletehttp://variety.com/2017/politics/news/sinclair-fcc-fine-sponsor-violation-1202647175
The FCC very much does look into complaints from outsiders. In fact, that's probably the most common way broadcasters get caught, as the FCC relies on complaints to investigate infractions. Here are some useful links:
https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/filing-informal-complaint
https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us
As an aside, WBAI is probably lucky it hasn't also been investigated for sponsorship-type infractions such as running blatant commercials masquerading as fundraising premiums on a non-commercial station. Most likely no one ever files FCC complaints complains about them, they just complain on the message boards instead.
Anyway, Crosier is right, violating the FCC's rules on PSOA financial arrangements would be a serious enough violation for the agency to issue a fine and even cancel its approval of the agreement.
From a listener's point of view, cable access TV tends to be the butt of a lot of jokes and I can't see people clamoring for a radio station programmed by the same people. Granted, WBAI already has no listeners but I can't imagine MNN would be much of an improvement, either in its programming or its business model (financial viability).
Think of the tens of thousands of dollars they have paid Berthold Reimers in all the years that he has been known as nothing more than a worthless crook.
DeleteHow big is the payroll, and why?
Open the books! Forensic audit now!
DeleteOk, Sinclair got fined. But can you name another major network or broadcaster who got fined? No you can't.
DeleteWBAI was fined by its listeners—they left in droves.
DeleteAnd won't be returning.
I'll read all this later , gotta get back to Kane talking about race . NOT! haha
ReplyDeleteJohn Kane is a true opportunist who would not have lasted through a station break back in the day when WBAI was an honest, principled radio station. It was sad to see how quickly he managed to maneuver into that 2-hour air time.
DeleteDoes not speak well for Native Americans. And that ghost horse.... wasn't his year off spent serving a jail sentence for a child support crime? Correct me if I'm wrong... that year in the slammer—or wherever—was Kane's cue to hog the air.
No matter what option they follow, it's kicking the can down the road. They aren't going to gain more listeners and, hence, revenue. They refuse to learn to work within their means, and get leaner.
ReplyDeleteRPM stated their stubborn mindset when he recently wrote, "I would like to see all of Pacifica stay together and change in such a way that more people would want to listen to what's being broadcast."
They just don't get it. Like cult members, they probably never will...
SDL
These are people of no interest to anyone other than themselves – it's a limited audience.
Delete~ 'indigo'
RPM's expressed wish is laughable. If he really hopes "people would want to listen to what's being broadcast", he would not host/produce his show, which is among WBAI's most unlistenable offerings.
DeleteThe guy is too full of himself to realize that.
If most of them gave one fuck about WBAI, they would retire.
DeleteSDL
If "management gave a fuck, he's retire them as well as himself.
DeleteAnd what is Bates up to these days? His most recent addition to the program roster is the show that replaces Haskins on Thursday mornings. It's a very what-the-hell-is-it-doing-here two hours of nothing. One can almost hear Haskins' teeth grinding in the background; he, of course, thinks he has a monopoly on morning destruction.
The show is called "The Best of the Best" so one senses a whiff of humor. It is a directionless mess with a chatty mile-a-minute female and a palatable, laid back male host.
I really haven't listened much at all to WBAI this January, so I haven't heard the new show. I have been sticking with WFMU, WFDU and WBCQ. There just isn't any reason to listen, except to those hysterical shows about the Pacifica/WBAI mess. Those seem to get more listener response than anything. maybe The Remnants like the drama?
DeleteBy the way, after midnight I tend to listen to George Noory and his nonsense on WOR and hear WBAI regulars like Tom from The Bronx seemed to have migrated to his show.
SDL
You know you're in trouble when even the trolls drop out!
DeleteThat said, Tom was a far cry from Monroe, the nasty attention seeker who died a few years back.
I heard Monroe go from petty nuisance to rude to vicious over the years. He was, as I have said before, truly psychotic.
DeleteSDL
I believe that WBAI could survive in its current state for many more years if they get Pacifica to somehow deal with the current debts, then reduce their monthly expenses. They've settled into a pretty lucrative scam of using their powerful radio spot to reach JUST enough lonely, desperate old people to buy their snake oil. The revenue every year is surprisingly high for such a worthless radio station, due entirely to their unscrupulous business model (selling snake oil to deluded desperados who don't listen much to the actual radio but just randomly tune in). They could keep this scam going more than long enough for Berthold to finish paying off his kids' tuitions at the very expensive University of Bridgeport.
ReplyDeleteNot firing Berthold Reimers a few years back, when Summer Reese called for it, is a Pacifica mistake the damaging consequence of which is surpassed only by his hiring.
DeleteIf you hear him talk or peruse his curriculum vitae, you are likely to regard the WBAI committee that moved him to the front of about sixty candidates as numbskulls.
Bridgeport? Really. A truly elite institution. Love the P T Barnum association.
DeleteAll in all, a perfect fit.
~ 'indigopirate'
Let's remember what Reimers said about his daughter recently on a Report to The Remnants. He said that she laughs at WBAI and it's dogma. Think abut that. His own daughter laughs at him and his work.
DeleteSDL
To keep from crying?
DeleteI heard something similar about Haskins saying he couldn't get his kid or kids interested in MLK .
DeleteFunny , their own siblings don't give a shit , so what makes them keep trying to shove it
down the throats of the New York area population ?
It's their only rationalization for their being on the radio...
DeleteSDL
Basir is stuck in a puddle of toxic, racially charged slop. The show's title lost its meaning a very long time ago when the JUCidiots overtook his mind.
ReplyDeleteWord has come down that former WBAI host Julius Lester has passed
ReplyDeleteThere were two sides to Julius, I saw more of the Darkside— not so praiseworthy.
DeleteWas that before or after his conversion to Judaism?
DeleteIt was before his conversion. I recall going into Master Control to set up the next show while he was on the air. As I was leaving, some listener had apparently angered Julius, causing him to. declare (in his alternate, black street, voice), "I ain't talking' to no more white people".
DeleteI calmly asked him what he would do if his wife called. This did not sit well with him—I didn't look back as I exited, but I felt those taser-like eyes on my back.
He was very two-faced, which—accomplishments notwithstanding—made me feel uncomfortable around him. I wouldn't call it race-based (although it might have been), but it was definitely a personality flaw, i.m.h.o.
Amy going with half the show on race yet again .
ReplyDeleteI guess you gotta go with what the "community " want's to hear.
I listened to the morning show today. Believe it or not, I think that Jerry Otero (aka "Mistah Oh"), is much more annoying than Haskins.
ReplyDeleteHe doesn't seem delusional or obsessed with race.
DeleteNever thought i would miss David Rothenberg after hearing the drek that he was replaced by.
ReplyDeleteDavid had become a caricature of himself—his show was as predictable as finding Liza on a gay bar's jukebox.
Deletedaniels living up to the "reparations ron " name sake .
ReplyDeleteWhat a one dimensional racist douchebag .perfect for bai!
Sounds like al angeloro may have gone away .
ReplyDeleteHopefully not replaced with this rubbish .
Update: Tom Livingston is hired. Check it out at Spark News: http://acrnewsfeed.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeleteHey folks get a load of this real estate opportunity -- 1921 .. 1925 MLK Jr. Way in Berkeley is for sale hard by the KPFA studios. It used to be the home of a long gone restaurant called Nakapon. Currently, half of this building is being used for office space.
ReplyDeleteThis property is offered by Norheim & Yost. Details available at http://norheimyost.com/property.php?listing=82
Maybe Pacifica could use some of the loan money and pick up this prime property as an investment?