National Day of Emergency Programming for WBAI

Today all Pacifica stations are participating in a day of programming for their sister station:

KPFK 90.7 FM in Los Angeles
KFCF 88.1 FM in Fresno
KPFA 94.1 FM in Berkeley
WPFW 89.3 FM in Waghington D.C.
KPFT 90.1 FM in Houston

and *streaming on wbai.org

There's a nationwide call for volunteers to go into their local stations to take phone calls.

WBAI was badly hit by Superstorm Sandy and has not yet been able to return to their studios after being evacuated from their building at 120 Wall Street in the downtown area of Manhattan. The building was badly flooded and is still unusable.  WBAI's fund-raiser was interrupted and the station doesn't have the facilities to continue fund-raising, and can't raise the money needed to meet payroll, so their entire staff faces layoffs. And if that happens, WBAI will go dark.

It's been two weeks since Hurricane Sandy hit the area, when the entire NYC transit system was shut down, and many parts of the New York/New Jersey area are still in crisis.  Seven WBAI staff members camped out at the station to continue live coverage of the storm on Sunday night, but by Monday evening the waters were rising to the 2nd floor, the electricity wa cut and WBAI was off the air. 

WBAI has since then been broadcasting from a temporary studio at Gary Null's headquarters, and has been playing archival material and has been unable to cover what was happening on the ground; the voices of the community and the organizing of relief efforts by grass-roots groups such as Occupy Sandy. Please help this historic radio station get back in their studios, so they can start reporting on the devastation in the many communities in New York and New Jersey that were so hard-hit.

Call 877-435-4386 and make a donation now!

You can also go to http://give2wbai.org

The Old Man Who Lived in the Archives

There was an old man who lived on the Bleepin' Blue Board.
He had so much time on his hands,  he didn't know what to do -- bored.
So he constantly posted about the glorious past;
When he was in charge; before things went down fast.
And he mocked his opponents for whatever they said
And whipped them all soundly and put them to bed.


What a silly goose I am!

WBAI has been airing presentations from the Pacifica Archives recently. They are wonderful. It's great to hear radio from the past. But this guy Chris Albertson who is from the archives himself, has shown himself unable to appreciate the present.

 

What he appears not to understand is that it's a different century now. Pacifica can't go back to what it used to be back in his day, it went forward to reflect the times. If Albertson doesn't like that it's because he's too stuck in the past (and too stuck on himself).

 

So those who have not yet been "put to bed", so to speak, must "put up" with his daily releases and continue to counter them with common sense.

 

Note: WBAI continues airing Pacifica archive material throughout today (Nov. 14). Tomorrow there will  be a special fund drive with all 5 sister stations participating, to help WBAI recover from Hurricane Sandy. WBAI was forced to cut short its Fall Fund Drive and vacate its studios because of damage done to the building by Sandy. They are still not back in their own studios.   

Listen in the New York area at WBAI 99.5 FM or listen on the web at http://www.wbai.org/playernew.html

The Rules

Outgoing WBAI LSB Board Chair Mitchel Cohen further discusses his banning from the Blue Board. Seems, according to R. Paul Martin, that it's all about following The Rules.

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Mitchel's Response to Chris Albertson's usual half-truths (remember, a half-truth is a whole lie). 

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We get it: you can lie all you want, and insult, mock and libel others with impunity, but... if you don't follow The Rules, get out of town!




Anarchists Not Allowed

Hang 'Em High

"All right, now that makes four mistakes we've made."

In keeping with the latest Pacifica "hanging" meme (Chris Albertson has yet again called for WBAI's GM Berthold Reimers to be hanged on his blog), Blue Board Moderator R. Paul Martin has been working overtime to build his reputation as a hanging judge.

In addition to myself, and and some other good people like Doctor Kiel Basy ( a long time WBAI listener-supporter who I had the pleasure of meeting at sidewalk protests outside WBAI after the Christmas Coup), a few more people have been added to the list of the banned.

Banned from the Blue Board
Now none other than the WBAI LSB Chair Mitchel Cohen has not been banned from the Blue Board. According to Mitchel, his only "crime" was to posting one of the WBAI GM's updates "in the wrong place". 

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Another One Bites the Dust
And then comes this from esteemed long-time  LSB member and BAI activist Carolyn Birden.

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So now we begin to see why the Blue Board has become such a Ghost Town.



I'm gonna clean up this town!