A Revealing Bates Selfie

The following was written by Tony Bates and posted April 2, 2018 in response to a comment by Alex Steinberg. Alex rightfully pointed out that WBAI "should not be broadcasting trash, even if some people find it intriguing." Bates, as you may know, pops up during fund drives and is responsible for some of the most outrageous distortions of afrocentric history and baseless medical claims. He and Kathy Davis were the disingenuous hucksters of Double Helix Water, which they said could cure cancer, autism and just about anything. That one was so glaringly fraudulent that he was forced to take it off the air, but he has since come up with several equally dishonest pitches and continues to underestimate the intelligence of the station's listenership, even as it all but disappears.

If you have wondered why the station features and encourages such shameless programming and why the audience exodus inspires endless repeats rather than cessation, this Bates selfie says it all. Let us hope that the good news announced by Pacifica yesterday will facilitate the firing of Bates as well as Berthold Reimers. WBAI needs professional, dedicated management, and there is no time to lose.

From the fumbling mind of Tony Bates. No attempt has been made to correct his writing.

That content will always sell.  It's specifically the content which large amounts of the Pacifica audience tune in to receive.  The problem is that those whom see themselves as the 'gatekeepers for the intelligentsia' don't see a value in the programming which our audiences value.  We're convinced that we know better than our audiences, therefore, like missionaries, we're delivering our stories and perspectives (as ancient as they may be) without concern for audience interest.  Most of our political perspectives are commonplace,  the same can be heard on NPR, CNN, or MSNBC.  Why tune into Pacifica to hear a poorly produced version of the same perspective, which is on NPR with better production values or seen on CNN with video?  We like the former "Air America" are becoming a mouthpiece for a Democratic Party which has moved  rapidly to the political right.

When I worked at WPFW, despite my protestations, the GM, who'd come from outside the network insisted to me that I become host of a new program I'd created, "Because you're the only person on this station who talks up to people, everyone else talks down to people."  It's a truism for Pacifica radio. (Read one of our email chains if you think otherwise.)  We're so convinced of our points of view, we air them whether or not the audience is interested, we'll air them even if no one is listening.  So instead of talking to the audience, we end up talking at the audience, that is the few still tuned in.

Recently, WBAI producer Geoff Brady, hosted a debate on geoengineering, a topic most in Pacifica positions of power or in 'gate keeping' positions would laugh at or dismiss.  Post broadcast, the debate has garnered more than 25,000 listens on Youtube alone.  Again this topic would be dismissed generally by the 'Pacifica Intelligentsia" and I use the term loosely, but the  audience is widely interested. 

100s of milliions of people are debating the 'flat-earth' topic  online.  The debate has become so overwhelming online, that Neil Degrasse Tyson has practically been forced onto late night talk show circuit to debunk  the theory multiple times.  On late night television millions more are exposed to the topic, which is big enough for Stephen Colbert, but not for Pacifica, we apparently know better, so we don't need to have that stupid debate.  It's the obvious 'missionary position, 'we'll learn these heathens yet...'. 

To be successful, we have to reach the audience WHERE THEY LIVE, rather than where we live.

Pacifica audiences tune in largely for TOPICS, not just perspectives, and intellectual discussions which can't be easily accessed in the mainstream media.  Tune in to our news coverage and note how similar our perspectives have become to the 'alternative mainstream' as well as CNN and MSNBC, it's the antithesis of Lew Hill's vision.  When we ask questions anymore, they are often based in the already created narrative of the mainstream story.  We are often parroting CNN & MSNBC.  We're losing audience because we've lost our way.

Here is a current example:

  

In the last week, David Hogg, Parkland, Florida school shooting survivor, completely changed his story about his whereabouts the day of the shooting. (See video below.)  Not altered... completely changed his story.  He now claims that he was at home when the shooting began, not on school grounds.  Rather, he rode his bike 3 miles from home to the school, arriving  before the news media and before the police.  Then sneaking past an active shooter, he joined his fellow classmates in hiding.

From my perspective this is news.  After all there was a national march based in part on this guy's reporting of the event just last week. 

One is left to wonder if any Paciica News Department finds this dynamic change in the story meaningful.  How have we become so homogeneous as a network, that none of our news departments, are even questioning  this huge anomaly in the biggest news story in the country?  

HOGG CHANGED HIS STORY ON CBS NEWS, but we're so caught in the narrative, we've neither noticed nor questioned it.  It's a failure of our duty to our audiences. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fk2vPHaVevg 

Interestingly, no mainstream media, from either side of aisle is reporting this story.  Oddly Pacifica has the same position as the mainstream media, we aren't reporting the story either.  So we have that in common.

If our plan is truly to draw and build audience, our product at the very least must be unique, because the Pacifica mission requires it and the audience demands it be so.  Their dollars, which we're no long seeing are speaking louder than our words.

Tony Bates

Programming Manager

WBAI 99.5 FM

388 Atlantic Ave

Brooklyn, NY 11217