Breakdown of a breakdown

Surprise, surprise, Randy [Credico] is a prospective candidate for WBAI's LSB. His name was added to the list either today (Tu4Dec) or yesterday. He's a nominee because no-one on the 10 Pacifica lists (listener, staff; five stations) has been verified as an eligible candidate; candidates will be told if they're kosher a week Friday (perhaps after sunset), 14Dec, according to the timeline.

For each station, there are nine vacant listener seats, & three for staff. For the 45 listener seats there are 86 names down, &, for the 15 staff ones, 31 names; so, 60 seats, 117 happy but nervous bunnies. Not surprisingly some stations are more excited about the pseudo-election than others, although the only contest with more vacancies than candidates is 'WPFW listeners': five Duracells for the nine seats. The distribution of candidates is KPFA, 18 & 5; KPFK, 24 & 8; KPFT, 17 & 7; WPFW, 5 & 4; WBAI, 22 & 7.

At the Tu20Nov PNB, two election timeline motions were presented: one from the KPFT Local Elections Supervisor, Ms Alma Viscarra, who now also acts as the National Elections Supervisor (31:59); the other, an ambush from director Carole 'I-was-a-co-founder-of-the-Sojourner-Truth-Organization' Travis (25:12). The former never got voted on because the latter got passed, 11-7 (big kerfuffle about whether it needed 2/3rds: it didn't). Alamo-Alma's predecessor, Graeme Drew, was going to announce the election results on M31Dec. Alma's motion had M15Apr, but obviously that was absurd, pure time-wasting, moving far too slowly for the Grace/Carole juggernaut, in fact, *10 weeks too slow*, so they pushed for Tu5Feb. Maxie made a plea on behalf of the judgment of the newbie, but that was rubbished by the teamster duo. Avanti! Crush the Fabians! After all, Alma is simply the NES, what can she know; Grace/Carole, the Siamese twins, omnipotent, all-seeing, all-knowing, Pacifica's very own gorgon – hopefully Medusa . . .

Hear it here.

Of course, all this means that Maxie isn't Grace's latest best friend. She's burnt that bridge – & it only took her six weeks. Guess CA really is the home of fires. Also noticed that the election website's timeline is defying the Board, with a M25Feb date – albeit with the proviso, "pending approval from the PNB" (sure to come up at Thursday's PNB).

On W28Nov I asked PNB Chair Nancy for a copy of these two motions. Not surprisingly I haven't even received an acknowledgment – nor an early Christmas card, which is more upsetting.

Meanwhile back in PacificaWorld, what may cause the juggernaut to crash is driver error, surprise, surprise. Remember, no evidence has been presented that the pseudo-membership list has been miraculously transformed into a membership list during the last five weeks, since M29Oct, when Mr Drew declared it unusable for an election. The crux is that a corrupt membership list will include lots & lots & lots of Gogol's dead souls. This will artificially inflate the list, bloating the corpse. And that makes it even harder than usual to make quorum, the magical 10% of members (c. 5k). Indeed, someone on the PNB mentioned the big Q question – & how crucial it was to avoid a re-run election, with all that extra cost. Serious self-injury beckons. 

—Jara Handala

Mimi's Metathesiophobia

With all the bogus remedies and "cures" WBAI tries to sell its handful of listeners during Reimers' endless beg-a-thons, one wonders why they haven't come up with a cure for  Metathesiophobia, a mental malady from which opportunistic WBAI inmates commonly suffer: Fear of change.  

In this case, it is not so much change per se that has the JUCs and JUCettes scrambling—it is the fear of their own downgrading coming undone. A fear of change to their own change, as it were. I think most of you know what I am talking about. 

In recent months, Linda Perry has worked hard to pull the station out of a morass of lies, misinformation and, by default, criminality. It is probably an impossible mission, but there is nothing more to lose, so any positive attempt to restore significance to WBAI should be encouraged and supported—even against the odds. The overwhelming majority of dedicated, thinking listener-supporters have already shown their dissatisfaction with what WBAI offers on the air these years. Unlike station management and the individuals behind this insurrection invitation, listeners once admired the principles upon which Lewis Hill and  a few friends created Pacifica almost 70 years ago.

Remarkably, many of WBAI's current voices fail to distinguish between fact and fiction. In its early years, the station functioned in great part as an antidote to bland, misinformed blather and corporate/government spin. It  offered honest assessments of current events and re-examined a past that continued to be distorted.

There continues to linger a splash of virtue at WBAI, but it is too sporadic to draw or maintain a dedicated audience, which is why upgrading the program content is an absolute necessity. Most of us recognize this fact, as does Linda, which is why she has begun the laborious process of wiping the slate where needed and bringing in listenable, intelligent programs. This, of course, means that the dross has to be flushed out and changes made. 

Berthold Reimers, the figurative "General Manager" should never have been hired—it took him less than a month to demonstrate his uselessness, but that decision is solely up to the equally inept and miscast PNB. They must like the way he juggles the books.

So here we are, the bizarre effort to downgrade and sink WBAI while professing dedication continues. Instead of trying to give their shameful shows substance and ceasing to deceive whoever might tune in, the group that posted the letter below has opted for self-righteous, doomed rebellion. However, having told the erstwhile listener-supporters to go to hell, they obviously never stopped to consider why there is no longer sufficient interest in WBAI to keep it afloat—what matters mostly to these audio albatrosses is feeding their inflated egos and making a little money on the side.

They never ask themselves why the station's programming is being "dismantled" or they themselves "discarded." The answer is simple: they can or will not grasp the original concept of Pacifica. They have narrowed the station's "community" down to one that comprises a small fraction of a fraction—alienating thinking people of all races. Now they realize that the fire curtain, too, is finally coming down.

Let us hope that Linda Perry can cure their metathesiophobia.

The following note was submitted as a comment Sunday, December 2, 2018. Neither unexpected nor well written, but rather desperate and pathetic.

Click on Mimi's note to enlarge.

By the way, the last beg-a-thon ended in November and despite the current on-air promo where a poor misled lady falsely claims it was a success, the next one starts tomorrow (December 4)!

Nielsen Ratings

Click on above image to enlarge it.

Tangled Timelines

The election of new Pacifica officers is, as so often, behind schedule. In recent years, it has been a haphazard affair that brought to the various Boards a devastating number of unqualified wannabes and escaped the attention of most eligible candidates.

Now, in its infinite lack of wisdom and with the Election Supervisor having resigned in utter frustration, the PNB has decided to proceed, unescorted, with an election, loosely scheduled to take place in February. That date, however, is likely to be an optimistic rest stop on a tangled timeline.

This extends rather than establishes a concern among people who have come to think of the Pacifica Board as the epitome of sandbox governance. So it came as no surprise that representatives at last night's "Special" meeting of the Board chose to ignore all timelines—and, indeed, Robert's Rules—in order to forge ahead with the election, come hell or high water. 

One devoted insider suggests that a close look at the list of candidates, for that's where the money is coming from. As our informed source points out, the lists are not being updated, and that is the crux of the matter. Careless unprofessional handling of these elections form roadblocks that retard station operation.

It feeds the stagnancy that has gripped Pacifica stations in recent years and keeps the door open for JUCs and others of their ilk. It is a major factor in undermining Lew Hill's vision and to some it provides the delusion of a coup opportunity.

If you missed last Tuesday's streamed meeting on this subject, you may wish to spot-check the audio clips. It will confirm the futility and further explain why your favorite radio station has been brain dead for so long. 

Special PNB Meeting - part 1
Special PNB Meeting - part 2
Special PNB Meeting - part 3

Something in/on the air...

This morning, Sunday, November 18, 2018, WBAI's Program Director, Linda Perry, gave the station's Morning Show hosts notice, and posted the following.

I am trying to have a new schedule in place to begin in January, but it's all exhausting. On a positive note we have our old 212 phone numbers back, most of the phones have been installed and just need to be tweaked this coming week. We have also begun to build Master in the front space. So far windows have been sound proofed. Equipment has been ordered and the room has been painted. Rugs come this week. Begathon begins in December for two weeks again however and I don't think I can change how this is done  much between now and then. Regards,Linda

You may have noticed positive changes already, but you more than likely remain skeptical. Having been there and done that, I know what an enormous, time-consuming task it is to revamp the program schedule, even without being in any way hampered by Pacifica or coworkers at the station. We had a good-sized salaried and volunteer staff back in the Sixties and there existed a spirit of unity—a dedication to serve our listener-sponsors with quality programming.  Only later would I discover how tenuous that common goal was—that we had among our 25 salaried staff two or three harmful opportunists. Today, it is not a matter of making a good station better, it is more of a rescue effort aimed at making WBAI a good station again and restoring a disenchanted departed listenership. To achieve that, it is imperative that WBAI regard the community as a whole and aim at intellect rather than race-based in-groups.

If the powers that be give Linda the financial and moral assistance she needs, and leave her free to make final program decisions, she stands a chance to take the essential turnaround to a point where people once again begin to look to WBAI for intellectual stimulation. If she is allowed to do this without interference, talent will seek out the station—New York, of course, is a wellspring of creativity and original thought.

I strongly urge that we help, even those of us who are disgusted with the way WBAI has been vandalized and rendered inconsequential. If it takes the firing of Berthold Reimers and/or others to fuel listener assistance, I suggest that people make that known to Pacifica. Yes, I know that ineptitude and corruption also has infested the Foundation, but there are a few good people left.  —Chris Albertson