AshValentine’s Day, or: Something of an En Passant Pissant
Sam Agarwal, Pacifica’s CFO, seems unable to adapt to or comprehend the fact that he can’t find well-qualified accountants at $35,000/yr in the Bay Area, part-time, which would mean, prorated, roughly, say, $17.50/hr – with no benefits, and for no more than a short term hire of, perhaps 3 months or so.
Huh.
He appears to be capable only of expressing wonderment, disappointment, regret, and befuddlement at this state of affairs.
Keeps scheduling interviews, though.
Hoping.
As does, indeed, all of Pacifica, in All Things.
Also, interestingly, we can’t expect Pacifica or its units to have financial records in digital form. It’s necessary, you see, to ‘adapt’ and ‘adjust’ from whatever records and partial records might exist. It’s The Pacifica Way, you see.
It seems to be a bit of a challenge.
New hires seem to leave after one or two days.
Huh.
Another challenge referred to in passing was the minor detail of, oh yes, Programming.
One participant pointed out that it’s entirely possible, even without hard numbers, to figure out which programs actually have listeners and which, effectively, exist because the ‘Producer’ feels (s)he has a ‘Message’ that ‘Needs to be Communicated.’
Response to this observation was, as it has long been, effectively nil.
Incidentally, does Pacifica actually have an iED?
~ ‘indigopirate’
Chris,
ReplyDeleteJim Dingeman had a copy of the Nielsen Audio Ratings for WBAI. The program with the smallest audience was R Paul Martin's program.
Thank you.
Ed Manfredonia
[Note: The following statement contains irony, a concept with which most Americans are unfamiliar. If you feel you may suffer disorientation, random outrage, or projection upon exposure to irony, please avert your eyes and thoughts and never return. [Further Note: The preceding Note is certified as Irony Free, Imprimatur and Nihil Obstat granted by relevant imaginary authorities] ]
DeleteLowest! Inconceivable! {Copyright for use of the word ‘Inconceivable! in this ironic context granted courtesy of Wally Shawn, LLC, a Delaware Unincorporation]
Wait! Is it possible that with WBAI’s shy-high ratings The R. Paul was low by comparison with other widely-praised and widely-followed programs?
Wait! Is it possible that data was released on April Media-Fools Day?
Wait! Is it possible they were unable to find any listeners to any programs at all and a quasi-random number generator (preferable quantum-driven) kicked in?
Wait! … Oh, what the fuck, nevermind….
~ ‘indigo, pirate’
To have heard that wasted hour is to understand why R. Paul is mostly speaking to himself on the air.
DeleteAs are pretty much the lot of these folks – and I say this deliberately and meaningfully, not simply as an insult – he's a wannabe. He wants to be able to do the sort of thing he's heard other people do, mostly in the past in his case.
DeleteThey simply lack talent. It takes talent to recognize talent, and they lack that talent as well.
Thus their confusion as to their ‘message’ mattering.
It’s as if they’re aesthetically tone-deaf and, being tone-deaf, they can’t hear that they’re tone deaf – and in their case, if and when they’re told they’re tone deaf they can’t grasp the concept or the reality.
Thus, the never-ending sounds of wretchedness and delusional presumption with which WBAI/Pacifica’s airwaves are filled.
For a while only, one would hope, if only for the sake of world peace in every conceivable sense :)
~ ‘indigo’
Rarely if ever is talent attracted to a place that so totally lacks spirit.
DeleteI can’t imagine anyone with any talent being willing to work at or with WBAI.
DeleteThat applies at all levels: Management, technical, on-air, any and all aspects of production and promotion – you name it.
These people are poison. Anyone who didn’t know of that in advance would quickly come to that conclusion and move on.
~ ‘indigo’
That is perhaps why the WBAI inmates are so bereft of even the most basic of requirements—they know that WBAI's door is the only one open to them. When all that matters to you is to get on the air and stay there, what option is there?
DeleteI find it difficult to believe that so many people are without integrity, so I assume that it is something readily lost once inside WBAI.
Mike Sargent is doing quite well - he works @ Fox News too!
DeleteI have far more Twitter followers than RPM, and don't have a 50,000 watt radio station to use for publicity. 'Nuff said...
ReplyDeleteSDL
R. Paul has always been a part of management - that is why he is still on the air. He has helped management remove people they did not like. He was a fake "Union" leader.
DeleteI assume this post by indigopirate is a reaction to Tuesday's Finance Cttee meeting, 13Feb (https://kpftx.org/archive.php). Indigopirate says "Sam Agarwal, Pacifica’s CFO, seems unable to adapt to or comprehend the fact that he can’t find well-qualified accountants at $35,000/yr in the Bay Area, part-time, which would mean, prorated, roughly, say, $17.50/hr". However I took Mr Agarwal (Part 1: 37:36) to be speaking of hourly rates for the temporary worker: in California the required "middle-level accountant" costs not "35 to 40" but "55 to 60 or maybe even higher".
ReplyDeleteJara Handala
Some additional points re Sam Agarwal's Chief Finance Officer report (https://kpftx.org/archive.php 21:31-31:58):
ReplyDelete1) summarily, this was the first time I've heard him speak, & I was surprised by his poor powers of expression, his lack of clear reasoning, & his inability to answer directly & succinctly. Given the pickle he's in, it could easily be inferred that he finds his verbal tangles useful, using them to evade responsibility (witness his retraction (32:08) about the WBAI cashflow statement he prepared, having called it (29:36) "a tentative budget"). I strongly sense he tries to play the Cttee, relying on the members' technical ignorance;
2) not just Sam, but the participants as a whole, fail to clearly distinguish between two kinds of work: preparation for the audit (so by Pacifica), & the audit (so by Regalia & Associates; it's a great advantage they did the FY2015 audit, given Pacifica's chaotic book-keeping & the time pressure imposed by third parties);
3) somewhat disturbingly – & astonishingly – Sam seems to be admitting he doesn't know how to record ESRT's claim for late fees & interest due (30:07). (It's debit expenses, credit current liabilities.) But perhaps his motivation is that although these charges are incurred in FY2018 they have a consequence for the FY2016 audit: the auditor's report must disclose if, at the time of writing, they doubt whether Pacifica is still a going concern (cf. 01:00:43).
This might also explain why no division budgets have been approved (the five stations + Archive + National Office), in this the fifth month of the current FY: any 'true & fair' consolidated budget would surely show a net cash outflow. Indeed, Sam hasn't even done a budget for the National Office (5Feb Audit Cttee audio https://kpftx.org/archives/pnb/audit/180205/audit180205a.mp3 01:06:38 & 01:11:34);
... back to Sam's report to the Finance Cttee:
4) re ESRT judgement: "I've not seen any loan documentation" (28:39) – has the perhaps $1.8-2m SoCal loan fallen through, perhaps in part because ESRT say monies received will first contra the latest debt incurred, so working backwards from Jan2018, thereby not satisfying the court judgement?;
5) re ESRT: the late fees they've charged, & the interest accruing, are "pretty disappointing" (28:59);
6) still the case, after more than 18 months, that no-one has been hired to help Sam prepare the FY2016 audit (& presumably that for FY2017, & the two pension audits for however many years) – 34:34;
7) re second attempt to extend the 14Feb deadline of the California Charitable Trusts Section to 31May, thereby preserving Pacifica's tax-exempt status: the audit has started – before consolidated accounts & statements have been produced! "Adequate progress" has been made, the extension request has been sent (on 31Jan – Audit Cttee 01:07:55), & the auditor has written a supporting letter (Finance Cttee audio 44:28);
8) Sam didn't know how quickly tax-exempt status would end if the second extension request was rejected (45:39);
9) Sam: "I have submitted a plan [when, & to whom? PNB?], how can we be current in all the audits, 2017 & 2018, if we have any chance of applying for the CPB funding in 2019, but I have yet to see any response" (48:14); &
10) Sam: ESRT now owed $3.092m (58:09).
Who hired Sam? What are his credentials? Berthold Reimers Institute of Funny Numbersat Psychotic State U?
DeleteThis will be in two fairly short parts. This, the first, I jotted down in response to Jara Handals's first post above, and my second will be in reply to his second.
DeleteWith respect: I wasn’t as clear as I ought to have been, for which I apologize. The thing that struck me, at that point, to which I’ve re-listened (thanks for specifying the time-point) is this, if I may try again: Agarwal refers to what seems to have been an emotionally professionally formative period of having spent twenty years in Minnesota, and marvels at the wage differentials between then and now. Fine, that’s his business. Professionally, however, he seems to find it unthinkable, not merely difficult because of Pacifica’s financial straits, to pay what’s necessary to secure competent help for the tasks needed.
I see that as a serious shortcoming.
Perhaps you feel similarly, perhaps you feel otherwise.
My take is fairly straightforward: You have to pay what it takes to get the talent you need. If you can’t get that talent, you can’t do your job. If you can’t do your job, you resign.
At Pacifica, it’s seen as complicated.
It isn’t complicated.
~ ‘indigopirate’
As for the second…
DeleteAll excellent points, with which I fully agree. Agarwal, for whatever reasons, appears simply to not be up to the job. I agree that he’s unable to communicate effectively, and he also seems in perpetual distress over his inability to prioritize and get things done.
He seems to see as extraordinary and heroic what most would, I think, see as simply part of the job.
He seems in general to find the job overwhelming.
Fine. Let him move on.
~ ‘indigo’
It is time for a forensic audit, transparency and confusion reign!
DeleteSomeone remind Sam of Account Temps, they can take the burden off his shoulders, or maybe he has something to hide?
DeleteI knew him (not well, but in person) as Jerry Rivers. He was half Jewish, apparently. I don't know if he is one of the WBAI inmates' heroes (because of the Young Lords association, which came later), but I wonder if the WBAI bozos know what a slime bag he was, even then. The late Gil Nobel told me how Geraldo's success with the Willowbrook program made him even more intolerable. Now the darling of WABC, he was offered a much larger office, so he told them he wanted a space that was occupied by Gil and his Like It Is crew.
ReplyDeleteThat sent Gil off looking for his own Willowbrook. He called me for lunch and asked me for advice. His own thought was to do a series on racism in the jazz world. He knew that field quite well and had himself observed the veiled racist attitude that existed mostly on the business side (management and record company executives). I advised Gil against going there, but he never got over his resentment as far as Geraldo was concerned.
I knew Gil as well - a good man. He should have been pleased when Geraldo was fired from ABC News for extensive drug use on the job
DeleteGeraldo's second claim to fame as an investigative reporter during the energy crisis (late 1970s), was a shot in front of oil tankers, saying there is no shorter because of the ships moored behind him. Is Geraldo a graduate of the Robert Knight University of Non-journalism, Institute of Fake News?
ReplyDeleteInteresting analogy—neither jerk was on the level. Knight's "investigative" reporting was flawed way beyond his "discovery" of CIA/FBI agent Albertson. When he came up with that one, I knew what a colossal fraud he was.:)
DeleteTwo final points re Sam Agarwal's report to the Finance Cttee, Tu13Feb:
ReplyDelete1) audit preparation: required schedules (what proportion?) have not been submitted by KPFA & KPFK; everything's been done by the three other stations, the Archive, & the National Office (22:11) – but then he contradicts himself, saying WBAI & WPFW still have to submit some schedules (22:46); &
2) as mentioned previously, two other FY2016 audits are underway (24:11): the retirement plan, & the 'pension plan' (the "403(b)"). Sam said a problem with the former is that some station collective bargaining agreements (two, three?) are unclear about Pacifica's obligation; "in the process of hiring an [indistinct] attorney"; & a recommendation received (from whom? when?) "says that we are not obligated for certain stations [...] definitely it will not fit well with the employees" (25:33). Worried, unhappy Pacifica workers? KPFA workers? Watch this space.
WBAI has had a "Pissed Off Workers" (POW) for several years. Where does SAG AFTRA stand?
DeleteSAG/AFTRA's history with WBAI was not peaches and face cream in the Sixties.
DeleteThe tides were changing in the 60s, radio waves and listening habits were being replaced by waves streaming through the talking box, later called the idiot box, TV. Cable, video, audio books had many artists looking for an organization to counter the multinational media outlets. AFTRA came to BAI to replace the UE in the early in the new millennium.
DeleteWhat was the 1960s experience?
http://www.mediafire.com/file/zshslbs210535pn/AFTRA_Bars_60.pdf
DeleteThanks for the 1967 NYT article – albeit with their crucial typo. It shows the diminution of the reach of Pacifica in NY. To think that WBAI was able to make original programming, here of Lorraine Hansberry's work (directed by Robert Nemiroff), presenting readings by, amongst others, Ruby Dee, Ossie Davis, Lauren Bacall, Bette Davis, Anne Bancroft, Joanne Woodward, Paul Newman, Lee J Cobb, Sidney Poitier, Rod Steiger, Eli Wallach, Rip Torn, Geraldine Page, Laurence Olivier, Claire Bloom.
DeleteSo were the two programmes never broadcast? Even so, as they were made, are they in the Pacifica sound archive? Wonder if they would ever figure in a fund-drive?