Tuesday, February 26, 2019

Mimi's arias—they're flat

WBAI today: Hypocrisy, mindless propaganda and shameless marketing.


I received the following note this afternoon, February 26, from an obviously concerned Pacifica
devotee who does not wish to be named [We have a number of Pacifica insiders who contribute to this blog anonymously].  I know very well what this person is talking about—Mimi Rosenberg continues to be an embarrassment and I find her ongoing presence on WBAI’s air inexcusable—it is this sort of failure to take essential action that gives me decreasing hope for the station’s resurrection in the current PD’s hands.

Meaning well, as I believe Linda Perry does, is not enough—the entire program content and those who throw it on the air must come under professional scrutiny. One serious mistake is, as I see it, to put in charge people who have past affiliation or friendship with the producers and hosts.

I hope this note kicks off a serious discussion of WBAI’s programming, which is something the many useless boards and committees seem loath to do. —Chris


17 comments:

  1. There are near-infinite resources for talent, and therefore for programming, available to each of Pacifica's stations.

    They simply aren't interested.

    Passing rhetoric to the contrary, they are who they are.

    They will not change.

    ~ 'indigopirate'

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  2. Mimi pitches hard and consistently brings in the money (I know you can't see the numbers--trust me). To state the obvious, the station is in dire need of funds, and is on the brink of death. What would you do as PD, ignore some scruples and keep a moneymaker, or be pure and perish? Food for thought.
    On the flip side, some have argued that a principled show must be kept even if it brings in no money. Don't think that's viable either.
    Thoughts?

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    1. Unless ethics, basic morality, respect for listener supporters and that peculiar concept we still refer to as honesty have been nullified or rendered old hat, I believe I speak with some authority as a former manager of WBAI. True, that was decades ago and we have seen amazing changes in lifestyles and mores, but some aspects of social acceptance remain the same, or pretty nearly so.

      The basic concept behind Lew Hill's decision to form Pacifica is not obsolete though no longer practiced at the Foundation's stations. As indigo said, there is still no dearth of talent out there, but there has been a change in the way Pacifica—at least WBAI—regards that fact. The creative talent did not move elsewhere, budding intellectuals did not curb their visionary thoughts, chatty talk shows and bland entertainment continues on commercial outlets, and people have not lost their basic need to be kept informed, to satisfy their hunger for truth. WBAI used to serve the New York area well when it broadcast remarkable programs created by remarkable people.

      When I had the privilege of working at WBAI, we did not see the money rolling in, nor would we have opened our microphones to the likes of Mimi, Geoff Brady, Ron Daniels, John Kane, Kathy Davis and others who ego trip at the station year after year for all the wrong reasons, spewing silly babble, promoting themselves or their "services", twisting political facts into unrecognizable lumps of lies, etc.

      Still. we managed to maintain our integrity, pay 25 staffers, send a correspondent to the South during the Civil Rights struggle and another to Vietnam during that war. The emphasis was on developing and maintaining a trust and wide respect. Some of the reportage Dale Minor sent back from Vietnam was leased by the likes of the BBC and American networks, major newspapers sought us out, major creative people and thinkers wanted to be heard on WBAI, etc.

      We did not think in terms of moneymakers, our goal was to build minds by being a diverse reliable source that filled the void made by Madison Avenue. That was our strength, that was why we attracted listeners, that is how we were able to stay afloat without sacrificing integrity or go against Pacifica's founding principles.

      These were the very early years of WBAI and, yes, we found ourselves on the "brink of death" at least once, but we overcame—not by diluting our program offerings or laying off staffers. This is why our News Director, Joanne Grant and I gave birth to a solution—necessity is indeed that mother of invention. Over lunch, Joan and I came up with a novel idea: a marathon. We saw it as an immediate remedy and, when it was successful beyond our dreams, an annual event. No infomercials, no bogus premiums, just the truth. We talked about the station's financial situation, right down to having our Folio printer come in and discuss his modest, outstanding bill.

      Greed and a gimme, gimme, gimme chorus never turned up—we had the greatest premium of all: an extraordinary radio station called WBAI. We said our marathon would end the minute our goal was met and that did not take long—in fact, we received more money than our listeners had pledged.

      There is no valid excuse for the disgraceful fundraising spectacle that now takes up months of annual airtime and, as any birdbrain should have surmised, scares the listeners off in droves.

      What is the most valuable and honest premium today? Those memory sticks containing amazing audio from Pacifica's past.....past.... PAST!

      That's the food of thought that I bring to the table.

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    2. Mimi is not a money maker. The amount she raises is pathetic for a signal as strong as WBAI in a market the size of the New York metropolitan area. WBAI has defined success so low that even a failure like Mimi looks like the creme de la creme. The top money makers at WBAI, even if all the programs raised similar amounts, will never raise enough to fund a functioning radio station -- a good studio, a news staff, telephones, paid producers and on-air talent. A hundred Mimi's would not raise enough for these things. Mimi only raises enough to fund the bare bones, death spiraling, shell of a station we have now. No one at WBAI thinks beyond the dollars necessary to maintain the amateur hour status quo -- in other words, to keep their own sorry asses on the air.

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  3. Linda Perry was hired as interim PD. Per EEOC, that's limited to six months. I believe that six months has probably come and gone. Will they continue to flaunt federal rules and regulations?

    Kim

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    1. Poor Linda isnt the problem. Its her boss. Why not ask your friends on the PNB to get rid of him?
      Perhaps when they're done rolling over loans and arguing over what kind of meetings they're holding at a particular moment, they can consider the matter.

      Delete
  4. chris wrote correctly "[We have a number of Pacifica insiders who contribute to this blog anonymously]. But he forgot to mention why these insiders have to keep private/confidential/not name-known. 1 reason: other commentators here or elsewhere will immediately criticize, demean, troll and defeat any attempt to offer SUGGESTIONS / recommendations offered. Bad words - mean mouthing is the mode of those involved at any Pacifica outlet [this is an out-letting-out-rage-reign obviously].

    If all that can be said, or done to assist Pacifica's survival is competitive, negative =hating and anger - nothing helpful or useful to anyone actually working in-at any Pacifica radio station, then wonder why this site is not very relevant - except for an occasional comment about what is happening at WBAI - leaving all other 4 stations as outliars [sic].

    Are there other blogs, net sites, that provide more than political-propaganda-slanted info on their own radio station - or on the umbrella called "pacifica" that is no a unit but a PNB apparently????

    do share what /where/ else is providing any listener or maybe even 'donor' where real INFORMATION, data, can be found ?
    Here there is Kim, Jara [excellent research shared here ]and Chris [only occasionally] give more info of value, even if not to those outside this limited NY crowd.

    sure would like to know more - but transparency seems to be dangerous, uncomfortable, to commentators and to all/anyone at any Pacifica station.

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  5. see some other sources and you too, can sign in as a community member, and correct,write and clarify what errors/propaganda lies within Wikipedia sites ... but have 'references' from mass media to prove you are not a mere liar, blogger, individual thinker.

    see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Hill_(radio_company_founder)

    and : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WBAI

    or search for each individual station -- or a programmer/ staff at any station

    tho [most are apparently written by subject him/herself only writing their positive work accomplishments w/little or no personal revelations there - unless someone else can include that part. So they remain self-promotional and self-congratulatory.

    the self-centered self-serving promotional aspects are not what we want to know about but who else they are and what they have done or learned to earn their special 'spot' - that is then clung to for centuries thereafter - so no one else can 'enter'....= bad business practices. Sad. Bad. Not helpful.

    Result - donors turn Away - take their $$$$ elsewhere - if real people and policies/practices can not be validated somewhere believe-able.

    even Chris is on Wikipedia, with a bit more info than most others.

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    1. I don't know who initiated the Wikipedia entry, but that was several years ago. I did, however correct a couple of relatively insignificant factual errors and one or two minor updates.

      That said, I more recently (i.e. within the past decade) took a look at the WBAI listing and added a few alumni that had been left out. I may also have pointed out the many inaccuracies in Steve Post's book, most of which had to have been deliberate, convenient falsifications—rather like today's Pacifica. :(

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    2. interesting to see how wikipedia Actually Operates =
      a few months ago the KPFK info included a lot of history written ever so long ago that their non-monitor deleters who dominate the data claim was 'old and thus saved' but was slanted stories, including Democracy Now and others... who knows who wrote that. But currently - now - the majority of what was visible is GONE ! eliminated !
      but by whom, or why or with whose authority is difficult to find or know or even respond to because the [majority male 'admitted to be not-a-'monitor' rulers of what is put or 'reverted'/deleted on wikipedia ] refuse to allow anything not mass-media-authenticated or reference and HTML expertly written there. After much digital arguing back and forth, many attempting to update actual info just give up and go away...forever...]

      so anyone who has time, wants to correct Wikipedia that often comes up as 1st-2nd site on Google searches - for any and all Pacifica stations, pgms, matters, can offer their data there too.

      Strangely, when a huge hunk is just "gone!" 0 there are questions of who wants to rule, or who wants to edit [take over reportings] or who misleads the rest of readers with the elimination of all the prior work done by various [many] writers previously.

      To assume once it is shown on Wikipedia, it remains there is now proven to be a False and wrong assumption. Based on this : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KPFK

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacifica_Foundation

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Pacifica_Radio_stations_and_affiliates

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WBAI

      all it takes is time, work, effort and willing to repeat work if someone else doesnt want it there. duh......


      each stn needs to monitor regularly it's own data listed there maybe ? more than 1x.

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  6. I happen to tune into WBAI to see what inane premium was being pushed and was not disappointed as I heard a repeat broadcast of Mimi Rosenberg "selling" a Malcolm X premium where she invoked the name of her once "good friend" Gil Noble whose ABC television show she called "Tell It Like It Is". No, no Mimi, that's a tune by Aaron Neville. Noble's show was called "Like It Is".

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    1. Interesting. I was a guest on "Like It Is" a couple of times and Gil brought a film crew to my apartment once, but I saw much more of him and we developed a sort of friendship. I recall when he told me about the great Malcom X footage he retrieved from WABC's trash.

      Mimi is a fraud, through and through.

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    2. Plus Noble held inwardly quiet reservations about some of the historical exhortations coming from some of the repeat guests on his show such as John Henrik Clarke, Leonard Jeffries, Ivan Van Sertima, Yosef ben Yochannan, et al.

      Delete
    3. I had great respect for Gil, but—like most of us—he was not perfect.

      When Geraldo Rivera's report on the conditions at Willowbrook elevated his status at ABC, he was given many privileges, including a staff and larger office space. When he asked for Gil's space and was granted it, Gil's displeasure made him look for his own Willowbrook. We had such and he ran some ideas past me—controversial topics that would draw attention to his show. I'm sure he asked several people for advice—one thing he wanted my opinion on was his producing a series of reports on drug use among jazz musicians and how the almost all-white "bosses" (managers, booking agents, club owner, etc.) aided and abetted.

      I strongly advised against that—not because it wasn't a reality of life in the '60s, but it smacked of yellow journalism and I thought it a mistake for Gil to lower himself to Geraldo's level. BTW, when I first met Geraldo, he was calling himself Jerry Rivers and disowning his Jewish background and upbringing.

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  7. Small world: Geraldo & Willowbrook . . . who would think this would lead to Pacifica & FJC? The other month I quoted from a puff-piece on FJC which disclosed that the letters denote Foundation for the Jewish Community. This article starts with our intrepid reporter, & before getting to FJC this excerpt refers to the fund that spawned it, the Marty & Dorothy Silverman Foundation – which, as I noted at the time, buys FJC loans that are "potentially impaired" (any FJC auditor's report):

    "[i]n 1972 a relatively unknown reporter named Geraldo Rivera released a documentary highlighting the abuse and neglect of disabled patients at Staten Island’s Willowbrook School. Public outcry led to a signed consent decree by New York State transferring Willowbrook’s patients to 200 smaller group homes for better care. United Cerebral Palsy of New York (UCP), a leading nonprofit organization advancing the rights of people with disabilities, played a key role building the new group homes.

    "To finance the construction, UCP received bridge loans from local banks. Upon completion of a group home, New York State would issue bonds to repay the bridge loans. At the height of the Savings & Loan Crisis in the 1980s, the banks providing bridge loans failed, and UCP was in desperate need of financing. UCP leadership turned to their donors for help and [Lorin Silverman] stepped up to provide a bridge loan from his family foundation’s investment capital [the Marty & Dorothy Silverman Foundation] to support the continued construction. The loan was repaid and the foundation began to develop a reputation as a lender to the nonprofit sector.

    "A few years later, [Lorin's] family was approached by United Jewish Appeal (UJA), a philanthropic umbrella organization. As large numbers of Russian Jews were immigrating to the United States, UJA organized a successful fundraising campaign for re-settlement efforts. However, UJA urgently needed cash for housing, food, language training and childcare and couldn't wait for the collection of pledges. [Lorin's] family also had a donor-advised fund (a charitable giving vehicle) administered by UJA and he suggested that the fund would be an excellent source of short-term capital to support Russian Jewry. It had long frustrated [Lorin] that the only investment option UJA provided to donor-advised fund holders was two-­year treasury notes. UJA declined his suggestion and instead requested a loan from [Lorin's] family foundation. The foundation loaned $10 million to UJA against the pledges at a prime plus 3% interest rate, or approximately 10% at the time.

    "In light of UJA’s reluctance to use donor-advised fund capital for mission-related investments, [Lorin] decided to pursue the idea on his own. A new community foundation was created to pool donors’ funds and permit investments for social good before the funds were eventually used for charitable donations. [Lorin's] family and others officially launched FJC (Foundation for the Jewish Community) in 1995."

    Julie Hammerman, JLens Investor Network, Oct 2013
    https://www.mediafire.com/folder/mr2t6dtdeknsd

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    1. Thank you, JH, it's great to see you back.

      Based on my own cursory look at the attachment (links to 6 files), I recommend reading them, although I am not sure how significantly they relate to the topic at hand. If you can unravel my confusion, Jara, I would appreciate it.

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    2. Hi, Chris. As is my wont I gave the source so the quote wouldn't be left standing all alone – after all, QLM, Quotes' Lives Matter, just as DLM, Deplorable Lives Matter, all protected & served by our Deplorable-in-Chief, DOTUS, more & more presidential each & every day . . .

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