WBAI FM----Moribund and unwell in NYC

[fasstrack]

How long can BAI broadcast from CCNY for? Is there a limit?

I mean is this a space-leasing favor for a struggling entity or can they hunker down there until they (presumably) get it together?

[Christiern]

How long can BAI broadcast from CCNY for? Is there a limit?

I mean is this a space-leasing favor for a struggling entity or can they hunker down there until they (presumably) get it together?

When WBAI moved in, the word was that it was a 5 to 6-month agreement, with one option to renew, because WHCN had plans for that space. I may be a month off on the time limit, but there was—as any reality-based person expected—an unceremonious renewal. Now, without any mention of the state of the agreement, the delusional GM speaks of the Atlantic Avenue location as becoming ready a year from now.

Pacifica and local management has been fantasizing for so long that they themselves have but a blurry picture in a glass ball.

Pacifica's interim ED, Summer Reese, went on WBAI's air for an hour yesterday evening (speaking from Berkley, CA) and said just the right things—the problem is that she appears to be playing a game. I am not the only one who failed to sense sincerity in her message—she wants to remove that "i" from her title.

[fasstrack]

So they either sweet talk WHCN into extending use of the space or become a homeless vagabond station. Sad in itself.

[fasstrack]

And James Irsay is back! Mornings.

[Leeway]

Memories of WBAI when I was a teenager in NYC back in the 60s. Listening to Steve Post and especially Bob Fass late night. IIRC, Fass was good friends with Jerry Jeff Walker, who would come on the show and perform live. I remember one such performance of "Mr. Bojangles" that was utterly moving. Those shows were a beacon to kids like me that there was a counter-culture out there. Anyway, moved out of NYC in the 70s and lost touch.

For WBAI and other Pacifica stations to succeed they need to come up with a new game plan, one not dependent on the '60s; those days are gone. But the same social role is still possible. Lord knows there is still a need to challenge the military-corporate interests. Circular firing squads are not the answer. If I had a magic answer, I'd happily provide it. It will come down to good leadership and people who place the station's aims and goals above their own. Importantly, they need to draw on the the Millennial generation to form the corps of the new station.

[Christiern]

Not going to happen. It's a worse mess now than it ever was. The entire organization, from Pacifica's Executive Director on down, is backstabbing and manipulating in a very ugly game of survival that will have no winners. This is by no means new, it has just finally reached the end of the line with a manager who may well be the worst in a long succession of inept dabblers.

[fasstrack]

I just listen selectively: Shmid, Irsay, Loekle. They seem to have survived the bloodbaths. If intersictine warfare kills the station they'll get what they deserve and these fine talents will turn up elsewhere, as will the rest of the BAI staff.

[Christiern]

I just listen selectively: Shmid, Irsay, Loekle. They seem to have survived the bloodbaths. If intersictine warfare kills the station they'll get what they deserve and these fine talents will turn up elsewhere, as will the rest of the BAI staff.

You have named three of the very few on WBAI's air who wouldn't have been misfits back when the station had a brain. Now, of course, their intellect and talent sticks out like a sore thumb amidst all the mediocrity. There is a lot of name-calling, back stabbing and throat cutting going on inside WBAI and the Pacifica Foundation right now. It cannot last much longer.

[fasstrack]

I just listen selectively: Shmid, Irsay, Loekle. They seem to have survived the bloodbaths. If intersictine warfare kills the station they'll get what they deserve and these fine talents will turn up elsewhere, as will the rest of the BAI staff.

You have named three of the very few on WBAI's air who wouldn't have been misfits back when the station had a brain. Now, of course, their intellect and talent sticks out like a sore thumb amidst all the mediocrity. There is a lot of name-calling, back stabbing and throat cutting going on inside WBAI and the Pacifica Foundation right now. It cannot last much longer.

The late Ibrahim Gonzalez told me a week before he died in June that the station was either on the verge of a breakthrough or extinction. Let's hope the former is still possible.

[Mary O'Shaughnessy]

Former WBAI news editor Andrea Sears is doing news at LeftVoices.net and is starting to solicit financial support since severance is nowhere in sight. Check out the site and/or follow her on Twitter at @LeftVoices.

[fasstrack]

I just read that longterm WBAI stalwart Robert Knight has passed away.

[Christiern]

I just read that longterm WBAI stalwart Robert Knight has passed away.

At WBAI, his departure is missed only by a handful of fellow scammers. The man had become a disgrace to the journalism and broadcasting professions. WBAI is on its last leg and one reason is that a succession of inept management kept people like Knight on for decades beyond their point of stagnation.

The station has been comatose for a long time—with my WBAI/Pacifica-dedicated blog, I try to keep up with what has become a sad farce.

Edited June 24, 2014 by Christiern

[Brownian Motion]

Steve Post has died.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/05/nyregion/steve-post-sardonic-wit-on-wnyc-is-dead-at-70.html?ref=obituaries

[Leeway]

Used to listen to Bob Fass and Steve Post back in the mid/late 60s, when I lived in NYC. WBAI was an important window into the counter-culture at the time, and the free-form music programming was an education in itself.

[mjzee]

Saw this article in The Forward:

Margot Adler, Witty NPR Correspondent, Put the Witch in Jewish Granddaughter of Psychoanalyst Alfred Adler Dies at 68

[Christiern]

Simon Loekle passed away this month. He was among the few left who knew what Pacifica's original mandate was, and he lived up to it. Like Ibrahim Gonzales and like Knight, his presence on the air will be missed. WBAI has now become a third-rate, exceedingly racist black station, but it will not last much longer. A do-nothing manager has pushed WBAI to the edge of oblivion with bad programs and a huge debt. Every month, they owe the Empire State Building another $40,000 and that debt alone is approaching a million dollars. The listener-sponsors were ripped off for several years, paying outrageous amounts for so-called "thank you gifts" (premiums) that often were not shipped. A product for which the station charge 100-200 dollars for could be had at Amazon for $15-25 (with guaranteed delivery). Bogus cure-alls were sold at every fundraising marathon, which now have become 1-2-hour infomercials and are given almost as much air time as regular programming.

Not surprisingly, the audience has reached an all-time low, now consisting mostly of the sort of disenchanted ignoramuses one used to see with a sidewalk table on 125th Street. It is appalling and beyond repair. It would not surprise me if the Feds pull the plug and some of the perpetrators (at WBAI and the Pacifica Foundation) see some jail time. It's that bad.

Check out some of the recent entries here http://wbai-nowthen.blogspot.com

 

[l p]

30 minutes ago, Christiern said:

Simon Loekle passed away this month. He was among the few left who knew what Pacifica's original mandate was, and he lived up to it. Like Ibrahim Gonzales and like Knight, his presence on the air will be missed. WBAI has now become a third-rate, exceedingly racist black station, but it will not last much longer. A do-nothing manager has pushed WBAI to the edge of oblivion with bad programs and a huge debt. Every month, they owe the Empire State Building another $40,000 and that debt alone is approaching a million dollars. The listener-sponsors were ripped off for several years, paying outrageous amounts for so-called "thank you gifts" (premiums) that often were not shipped. A product for which the station charge 100-200 dollars for could be had at Amazon for $15-25 (with guaranteed delivery). Bogus cure-alls were sold at every fundraising marathon, which now have become 1-2-hour infomercials and are given almost as much air time as regular programming.

Not surprisingly, the audience has reached an all-time low, now consisting mostly of the sort of disenchanted ignoramuses one used to see with a sidewalk table on 125th Street. It is appalling and beyond repair. It would not surprise me if the Feds pull the plug and some of the perpetrators (at WBAI and the Pacifica Foundation) see some jail time. It's that bad.

Check out some of the recent entries here http://wbai-nowthen.blogspot.com

 

 

i wonder what this m.f. is so bitter about. a walking cautionary tale.

 

[fasstrack]

I am a major fan of Simon. He is irreplaceable as an extemporaneous speaker and storyteller. His Bird Lives broadcast of a few years back should have been a lesson to Phil Schaap on how to do such a show. Eddie Diehl and I have been bonding over his passing.

There are still decent shows on WBAI. The Golden Age of Radio; David Kenney's Everything Old is New Again; Off the Hook; Morning Irsay, Housing Notebook, and a few others are worth hearing, and I'm glad BAI at least in these instances is still a vehicle for creative, alternative radio.

All is not lost. 

Edited December 23, 2015 by fasstrack

[Christiern]

On December 17, 2015 at 0:46 PM, fasstrack said:

I am a major fan of Simon. He is irreplaceable as an extemporaneous speaker and storyteller. His Bird Lives broadcast of a few years back should have been a lesson to Phil Schaap on how to do such a show. Eddie Diehl and I have been bonding over his passing.

There are still decent shows on WBAI. The Golden Age of Radio; David Kenney's Everything Old is New Again; Off the Hook; Morning Irsay, and a few others are worth hearing, and I'm glad BAI at least in these instances is still a vehicle for creative, alternative radio.

All is not lost. 

Truth be told, all is actually lost when the listenership dwindles down to a its lowest number ever. That's what has happened at WBAI.Even Bob Fass (who was re-hired by me when I became manager) is less than a shadow of what he once was. Time has passed him by and I think he made a big mistake by not moving with it—he should have written a book about his experience in days of yore when so many people who shaped our culture found their way to WBAI's microphones. It was quite extraordinary, but he stagnated a few decades back.

Sad to say, WBAI is, essentially, dead and that plug will be pulled before 2016 has completed its run.

For details, go to http://wbai-nowthen.blogspot.com

[fasstrack]

9 hours ago, Christiern said:

 

Sad to say, WBAI is, essentially, dead and that plug will be pulled before 2016 has completed its run.

For details, go to http://wbai-nowthen.blogspot.com

I hope you're wrong about that.

[Christiern]

I, too, wish I were wrong, but only if there is a radical change in the how the station is run and what it airs. With very few exceptions (of which Simon was one) WBAI is for all intents and purposes already brain dead. In other words, it is not worth saving in its present state and nothing short of a top to bottom change warrants another donation.

Someone whose identity is unknown to me posted the following in a WBAI-oriented forum last week. I'm afraid the opinion and assessment it contains reflects common thinking,

"I have subscribed to WBAI since the early 1970s, and I'll probably continue to give the minimum 25 bucks to the station, but i'm not too happy about it. WBAI has changed its format and agenda, and it's become mostly irrelevant for me, and many like me.
BAI has become an entirely black radio station. virtually every time I tune in, it's in my face with the 'white supremacy' or slavery, or racial injustices, or white racism, or reparations, or 'white privilege', etc etc ad nauseum.

 
everything is BLACK. and that's ok if all your listeners are black. it's also ok for these issues to be an important part of the station's agenda. but constantly, all day and all night? jesus christ, it's become predictably annoying. what? I'm supposed to feel guilty 24 hours a day for being a white guy? 

so, most of this programming has nothing to do with me, so why should i continue to support the station? in a city of 7 million, BAI has a pathetic 24,000 subscribers. that's ridiculous. there are plenty of wealthy white people out there who would probably donate big bucks to the station if BAI had more relevant shows. I suspect that most of them tune right out as soon as they hear the same old crap

. 
I wish things were the same as back in the 60s when we were all on the same page. the progressive movement included all races. it was a political thing, not a racial thing. and btw...police brutality isn't limited to black victims. it's about bad cops. stop making EVERYthing racial."

[fasstrack]

Even Mimi Rosenberg sounds like she wishes she were black...

Edited December 23, 2015 by fasstrack

[Christiern]

12 hours ago, fasstrack said:

Even Mimi Rosenberg sounds like she wishes she were black...

Yes, she's even begging for reparations! I'm afraid poor Mimi has become somewhat of a joke.

[fasstrack]

On ‎12‎/‎17‎/‎2015 at 10:44 PM, Christiern said:

Simon Loekle passed away this month. He was among the few left who knew what Pacifica's original mandate was, and he lived up to it. Like Ibrahim Gonzales and like Knight, his presence on the air will be missed.

There will be a memorial for Simon on Monday, February 22 at the venue he used perform in, the Swift. 34 E. 4th street NYC, 7:30 PM.

[fasstrack]

Last night I heard Peter Bochan's wonderful year-end collage of 2015 people and events. He does great work, and I still say---despite management, etc. there is hope for the station and quality programming.

Edited December 30, 2015 by fasstrack