Message from Steve Brown

Stephen M Brown
To wbailsbfinance@yahoogroups.comwbaielections@yahoogroups.
and More...

 I am reposting a message (see email at bottom) from Pacifica National Board Member Cerene Roberts, at her request.

The message is a bit cryptic. But in case anyone is in doubt as to what it means, the translation is this:

 Because Pacifica is no longer able to support the cost of operating WBAI (nor can the station support itself), Pacifica is, and has been for some time, negotiating with one or more non-Pacifica entities or persons to take over management of WBAI under a lease-management arrangement. This will give the new operator carte blanche to do whatever it wishes with the signal.

So although WBAI might not be sold (yet), it seems almost certain to be leased.

But that might not be all bad. I would guess that Pacifica will lease to an entity (or person) with impeccable left- or near-left credentials. Therefore, the thrust of the station’s programming can be expected to remain the same, even if the programs themselves may not. There is at least one, and possibly several candidates offering to take over the station, whose names have been mentioned, but since I have not been able to verify either their identities or their offers personally, I will not name them.

There could be a hitch, though. Since the bylaws specify that WBAI must have a local station board, and also that this local station board must have a hand in the selection of management (or at least of the general manager), it will be interesting to see how the PNB and any new lessee will attempt to evade these requirements. And evade them they must, since it is inconceivable that any lessee (in its right mind) would wish to retain current WBAI management, on the one hand, or desire to be hampered in its decisions by the station’s LSB, on the other.

My guess is that, since WBAI’s LSB is (merely) a committee of the PNB, the PNB might simply terminate that committee, and accept the risk, and cost, of fighting off any legal challenges to that termination from whichever WBAI members might choose to make them.

All in all, depending on the character of the future lessee – that is, how bold, how progressive, and how willing it is to advertise the station vigorously to the general public (as no former management ever has) -- the public might ultimately be better served by a new (albeit undemocratic) WBAI management that can pay its bills, instead of by the current management, which cannot. At least the public will have a live WBAI to listen to, presumably dedicated to the Pacifica mission, instead of a dead WBAI, whose signal has been sold off, for big bucks, to Clearwater or some other right-wing commercial entity (as some on the PNB are in favor of, so that they can divide the sale proceeds among their own stations).

Stand by and watch the unfolding of events. For as mere listeners (or staff), watching is about the only thing you will be able to do.

Stephen M Brown
sbrown13@nyc.rr.com

From: wbailsbfinance@yahoogroups.com [mailto:wbailsbfinance@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Cerene Roberts

Sent: Sunday, October 13, 2013 3:54 PM
To: wbailsbfinance@yahoogroups.com;
wbaielections@yahoogroups.com;
takebackdiscussions@googlegroups.com;
newpacifica@yahoogroups.com;
KPFK; KPFT;
fulcrumsofchange@pacificana.org;
PacificaRadiowaves@yahoogroups.com
Cc: wbailsb@yahoogroups.com;
wbai-lsb-public@yahoogroups.com

Subject: [wbailsbfinance] Emissions from the 2 most recent PNB Closed Sessions  Please forward this email to the WBAI LSB's open and closed listservs. I am blocked from posting to either and from reading the closed listserv. For your convenience, the addresses are in the cc section above.
Thanks,
Cerene
======

On the evening of October 3, 2013, the Pacifica Foundation Radio Board: met in Executive Session to discuss privileged matters pertaining to contract negotiations, and passed the following motion:

The PNB instructs the interim executive director to prepare a release an RFP (Request for Proposals) for Public Service Operating Agreements for WBAI-FM (99.5 FM - NY) for approval at the next meeting of the PNB, with a response date no longer than 30 days after the release of the RFP and the PNB instructs the interim executive director to schedule a conference call with the WBAI Local Station Board in the next 5-7 working days in executive session to discuss responses received to date.

(Editor’s Note: The abovereferenced conference call with the WBAI LSB has yet to be scheduled.)

Programming Changes at WBAI include Thom Hartmann

Programming changes are underway at WBAI and Thom Hartmann is part of the new lineup. WBAI's Interim PD Andrew Phillips announced the changes in a  memo that said the following:

" Until further notice - we are importing a four evening a week general interest public affairs talk show - The Thom Hartmann Show - 9-10pm - http://www.thomhartmann.com/ . The change happens this Monday October 7th 9-10pm.

Thom is a former Air America host and therefore an established progressive talk show host with a growing national audience. The Thom Hartman Program runs very successfully with positive audience feed-back, five days a week on our sister station KPFK in Los Angeles. The program originates in Washington D.C. The program is free.

The Thom Hartman Program replaces the M-Th, 9-10pm strip. Most of these programs will be discontinued in their current format but there will be opportunities to produce segments in a new magazine style format to be announced following the drive.

In addition to changes in the 9-10pm line up, we are also revamping the week night 10-11pm lineup. Programs currently running 10-11pm will also be discontinued and asked to produce segments."



The following shows in the 9-10pm are being replaced by more mainstream liberal strip programming:
Asia Pacific Forum,  Muslim State of Mind,  Joy of Resistance (feminist programming), Largest Minority (programming for the disabled), Haiti, the Struggle Continues, Rape Declaration (womens' issues)

The rationale is that WBAI is in such an urgent crisis that something must change or it will cease to exist altogether. It's hard to argue with that logic: WBAI might no longer be the voice of anything.

Still, this move is controversial to some. For example, there's a controversy on a New York Radio message board about whether or not Thom is an Obama supporter. Some have argued that he is, while others have pointed out that he has stood up to Obama on various occasions (such as his opposition to drone strikes). Regardless, we believe no one will argue with the idea that Thom does in the main support the Democratic Party, and in that sense he is no different from any of the folks on MSNBC. We expect to be hearing a lot more of "us vs. them" political talk, along with more defenses than criticisms of Obama Administration policies. Although this represents quite a departure for WBAI, having him on their air could mean that WBAI will begin to appeal to a wider, more mainstream audience than it has in the past. And we guess that's the idea. But will WBAI lose itself in the process?

Another point being made was that Thom is already on New York radio for 3 hours a day (he's on WWRL from 3 - 6pm), so his fans might be all Hartmanned out by the time 9pm rolls around.  And yet another issue is the removal of programs that are characterized as "the voice of the voiceless". The argument being made for their removal is that they are not being listened to anyway. But listen to what Gary Null has to say about that.
 
Hear now what Gary Null has to say
Gary Null said the following about WBAI's programming the other day:

"Ideally, you would have at least 14 programs a day that would be responsible for carrying the bulk of the station audience and the funding,  therefore leaving all the other hosts to do no fundraising and whatever the size of their audience was would be immaterial to their having a place at the station, because the very nature of noncommercial radio is that there are some programs that will define themselves by their quality of reaching out to some niche audiences that are not served at all. And that was Lew Hill's message: to be a voice of the voiceless. So you can't have every show be a blockbuster and you can't be mainstreaming your programs on themes that are already covered by NPR, CBS, FOX or MSNBC, because then you're nothing more than an extension of them.

What I like about BAI irrespective of my 37 1/2 years on the air, and all the arguments I've heard, is that you can hear some of the finest, most progressive and enlightening voices in the history of media. Irene Celeste. And there is no one I know of in the history of radio that has ever come close to Les Hixon's comparative religions programming. And you had these kinds of voices: Rick Harris as Arts Director-- phenomenal. Peter Boshan-- terrific. Mike Feder-- one of those extremely insightful human beings - he used to be a Program Director at BAI - who gives it to you the way you need to hear it, if not necessarily the way you want to hear it. So you look at all the dozens of outstanding voices over the years -- and we've had them -- and other Pacifica stations have had them as well. And then you get those who make you ask how the hell did these people ever get selected to be on the air, or on the board or anywhere else --  who shouldn't be there but that's the way it's always been and always will be. So what you do is select the programs you want to listen to. And we just need more of that, and right now we don't have it, that's our reality.

I've been keeping track of Arbitrons since I've been on the air because it's one way to see what direction you are going in, but also where the station is going.  And there was a time when we had over 187,000 people listening per day. We were right up there at the top. There was no one comparable to BAI. Today we're at about around 10,000 - 12,000, so we've lost about 90% of our audience.  And our core audience is getting older -  nearing 70, and you can't survive with a core audience of age 70 because they either move, retire, or die.

And also, there's a whole new generation of people out there that we've lost because we weren't quick enough to get organized and we had to have 16 meetings  and 300,000 Yes votes rubber stamped in Latin before the board could get anything done. I've never seen such inefficiency in my life! But again there's no standard they have to be held to. That's the wonderful thing about Pacifica - no matter how good or bad you are, there's zero standards and all it is, is arguments.

Then there's the quality of a Robert Knight, who stands up, does his show, wins the Polk Award, which is the highest award you can get, not because he is threatened, motivated  or cajoled -- that's his standard. If you want to be in Robert Knight's realm, you realize that you have to elevate that. I wouldn't ever recommend Robert Knight for MSNBC because he would have to lower his intellect to such a degree to get the people to even understand what he's saying. But when you listen to Robert Knight, you get that quality.

And you find it on other programs as well. You don't get that kind of programming elsewhere on culture for example, on opera, on music -- James Irsay for example. You hear these people and they're in such a league of their own. Wonderful programs. This gentleman who does the Saturday morning show about Broadway (David Rothenberg).  He kind of reminds me of the social activist Will Rogers. He has these homilies where he breathes this knowledge of  all these people he's been associated with in the theater.  He's a wonderful storyteller and you become enraptured by his stories. And then you want to go see this stuff he's talking about. So that's what we're about. And I'm happy about this."


We're happy about this too. But the times they are a'changin'. We only hope that WBAI will be able to survive this crisis, and emerge with its values intact.

On Dismantling WBAI

On Dismantling WBAI, the Who and Why: or  Why Saving Our Newest Wave of Programmers is Essential!

It is once again with heavy heart and political distress that I write about this next round of dismissals of programs, of my radio colleagues.  I write because of the complete absence of process for those dismissed and in condemnation of an institution that whose public persona of respect for and democratic process towards workers isn’t applied internally.  Pacifica management is as cruel a boss as the worst of the plutocrats we publically critique.

How sad it is to work in an environment where our unpaid staff/worker union was destroyed and the paid staff union, virtually busted. How sad to work as though each producer was an independent contractor, an island onto oneself, alone, without collective support amongst  ones peers, without any input from subscribers and listeners butting up against a cynical, insidious and most definitely an incompetent management, which is the fundamental dilemma Pacifica faces.   Once again we whittle away at staff, whose hard work is ignored, whose important contributions to the public discourse are disregarded, staff whose programming encompassed real consideration for self-determination by racial, ethnic and gender groupings – not merely the platitude of encompassing racial diversity, which we can’t even claim at this juncture. 

Pacifica management is categorically, arbitrarily dismissing producers/workers, dismantling programming, and by so doing showing its distain for and discarding the listening audience,  an alternative perspective to the status quo and liberal social critique.  It is departing from its mission, a mission rooted in activism, and involvement in actually pursuing change and not merely a homogenous, essentially academic critique of the status quo.  There is a repudiation of the “movers and shakers” as management increasingly tilts towards those with a less strident “left” persuasion toward a more social democratic, a more academic and sedentary critique of policy-makers, rather than a systemic critique oftentimes.  There’s a decided preference that management has for catering to those more economically more solvent, as a group and rejecting emphasis on responding to and hearing from the most impoverished, the most disenfranchised and those communities who suffer the greatest indignities within our system, yes those without some “name recognition” and some careful admittance into the media stream.   

So, without any internal process, without any focus groups, and with decision-making concentrated largely in the hands of a small grouping, from outside the listening area, whose own incompetency's  are legion, now another dozen or so programs are to be disappeared.  Those programs are to be disappeared and replaced, at least momentarily with more males,  Caucasian men from the middle class, with generally a social democratic political perspective and familiar and characteristic form of expression.  Management is dismantling the production staff and with it  firing the listeners, particularly listeners with more overt activist perspectives and practice and within those areas dismissing various cultural sensitivities within immigrant communities and communities of color in a city that is increasing Black and Latin in its population.

It certainly wasn’t that the programming now shredded wasn’t meaningful in content, and well-produced in form - programming by activists that gave voice to activism and stirred further involvement in responding to and alternating the political paradigms in our system.

Yes, this is the ideological dismantling of the station, this is the elimination of broad blocks of workers  and the firing of their listeners, which I believe really is occurring to eliminate any resistance to the an inept management across the network.  Ours is a management, without the essential credentials to administer a multimillion dollar alternative media network, in a series of increasingly expensive markets.  Ours is a management installed by fiat, not because of individual knowledge, background, experience and acumen in dealing with alternative media institution financing, changing technologies or simply intellectual study and acumen.  Ours is a management grouping that is given license by an undemocratic, cumbersome, fractious and fractured governance structure that has never since the most recent bylaws were implemented raised a fathering to support the station or produced a single constructive project or process for growing the network and developing the stations.  It is not by-in-large the programmers, or the programs that are pushing the network to its possible demise, but the management and a hopeless governance structure.

As the entire network falters, WBAI is the cow being led to slaughter, that is the cash cow that is being discussed for leasing, possibly for bankruptcy, or sale, possibly to shore up the faltering Pacifica and the California stations.  Of course, lose the programmers, lose their listeners and weaken any resistance for the hierarchal management schemes on the horizon. There a dare say soon to be revealed schemes regarding WBAI that are being fleshed out by Pacifica management and the Pacifica Board that are kept secret, that we need to be wary of and are certain to follow!!!
Replacing programmers with a Tom Hartman, or trumpeting, as labor friendly a returning broadcaster who had cooperated with the infamous Utrice Leid, where all workers were treated as fodder for an administration that virtually destroyed the network is not a formula for success.  Some name recognition of professional, broadcasters, in generally secondary markets, from the failed Air Americas or who sound like and look like the voices and personalities heard over NPR stations cannot grow WBAI’s audiences. 

We must have our own signature, we can’t copy and we can’t compete with NPR.  We can’t compete with WBGO or other music avenues either and progress. WBAI must capitalize on its mission, its history, its own identity, its own unique signature.  That is we must be committed to substantive change, be active in working towards it and engage those in the broadcast process who are the iconoclasts, the organizers, the creators for a better world, particularly in our communities where human and democratic rights, where economic opportunity and equality are the most limited.  The policies and practices that discriminate and create disparities in out cities, our nation and across the globe, always looking towards getting people involved in changing them, not just theorizing about them unconnected to becoming immersed in the process of change is what has and should characterize our broadcasters. 

Seeking activists from across the working class spectrum and certainly those with a  “liberal” and left’  persuasion to listen to WBAI should be an affirmative duty and upheld.  Seeking listeners who are the most sensitive, informed and aggressive in railing against individual, attitudinal cruelty and discrimination as well as institutional forms for discrimination are who we want to be our audiences and programmers.  Catering to social change activists and those who value and give value to oppressed groupings – racially, ethnically, gender, sexual orientation, the disabled, the working class those are not “niche audiences but the audiences we should service and grow amongst. 
Assuming you don’t believe this is about the deconstruction, dismantling entirely of WBAI, “burn the village to save the village” – then surely realize that the notion of predominantly, if not exclusively white, liberal men – formerly from the failed Air American, or those imported from California, or former administrations, attempt to immolate and or compete with the sound and general perspective of NPR hosts is not a workable formula for increasing listenership.

Bringing on board an increasing homogenous group, color wise, class and gender wise producers of “C” or “D” list fame, who can as well be heard elsewhere, will not draw more listeners to our station, but rather further alienate and eliminate the audiences we have – they will continue the process of firing the listeners and disregarding those most in need of a progressive venue of communication for those otherwise locked out of media to tell their stories “Like It Is”.  People fighting for freedom and equal rights aren’t niche audiences.

Lastly, with the unpaid staff/workers union destroyed, with SAG/AFTRA virtually busted and growing numbers of programmers dismissed and their listeners turned away who is left to resist?  Management understands this and the Tom Hartman’s I believe are at best just holding spaces while WBAI as we know it is being dismantled.  Management, the Pacifica executive management and the Pacifica National Board are locked away from view, deliberating amongst the hierarchy, soon no doubt to release their plan for whether a leasing/operating plan for WBAI, a bankruptcy, a sale I dare say will soon be revealed. 

The real problem with WBAI is a management across the network that isn’t competent to administer our beloved media network and a cumbersome, fractured, contentious governance structure that hangs like an albatross over us.  Those are the real culprits in the dilemmas faced by the network.  

In Struggle & with Hope
Mimi Rosenberg
Co-host of  Building Bridges, which airs weekly on WBAI

WBAI Local Station Board Meeting

ARE WE PRESERVING THE STATION, THE SHELL OR THE CARCASS?

WBAI Local Station Board Meeting
Wednesday, October 9, 7PM
Alwan for the Arts, 16 Beaver Street, Downtown Manhattan
Trains: 4,5 to Bowling Green (wheelchair accessible); 2,3 to
Wall St; 1 to Rector, J to Broad St., R to Whitehall St. (but R
is not running uptown from Brooklyn) Please come to the local board meeting. There will be opportunity to share your views on the leasing of WBAI, program changes and other issues.

Does it matter if there is something called “WBAI” if it does not feature programming by and for underserved communities? Four weekly hours of programming by and about Asia and Asian-Americans, Muslims, women, people with disabilities, Haitian freedom and independence,
and rape have been cancelled by the Interim Program Director, Andrew Phillips, whom Pacifica sprung on WBAI in early August.

In their place at 9PM, Monday through Thursday, Phillips has put former Air America host Thom Hartmann whose self-titled program is seen on Manhattan Neighborhood Network (MNN) weekdays at 3PM. Earlier this year, Hartmann was the substitute at Pacifica’s Los Angeles station while a regular host was on maternity leave. (KPFK-Los Angeles’ is the home station of Pacifica National Board Chair and Interim Executive Director Summer Reese.)

WBAI’s Monday to Thursday 10PM slot will also be eradicated after the fund drive. The 7 programs heard there and the 6 programs from 9PM can request segments on a new 10PM show. The shows to be removed, without notice, discussion, or evaluation, are:

9PM

Asia Pacific Forum

Muslim State of Mind (formerly Tahrir)

Joy of Resistance (women’s liberation) / Largest Minority (disability rights)

Haiti, the Struggle Continues / Rape Declaration Forum

10PM

In Other News

Expert Witness

Women’s Collective/The Holistic Edge (formerly The Open Center Show)

Ethics on the Air (Ethical Culture Society) / CUNY: A Mission Deferred

Global Movements, Urban Struggles (incl. The War on Immigrants Report)

 

All other programs, we are told, will be “reviewed”.  Wondering what happened to WBAI’s only youth program, “Rise Up Radio”, produced by members of the next generation of activists? It was one of 3 shows previously yanked by the Interim Program Director without discussion in the 2 months since he arrived.

As Pacifica’s Interim Executive Director (IED) and the Pacifica National Board (PNB) work on leasing the station, the IED and the Interim Program Director she installed at WBAI are flouting the bylaws that require program changes be a result of a collaborative and respectful process. Any consultation that may be happening here is being done outside of the full national board, outside the full local board, and without the involvement of the staff as a whole. Apparently, in the effort to “save” the station by “broadening” the programming reach aka giving more airtime to more white men, management feels entitled to trample organizational rules and staff rights.

If this sounds at all familiar, it may be the rhetorical echoes of those who gave us the P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act and those who justify the NSA incursion into everything.

P.S. While proximity of administrators to programmers matters, how is it that the temporary studios at WHCR in Harlem have suddenly become so unbearable that money can be found to urgently build a studio in Brooklyn when laid off staff have not been paid severance and so don’t have money to shop the health care exchange? And while ownership is generally preferred to forever paying rent, exactly why the push to buy a multi-million dollar building that is not central to he five boroughs, much less to the rest of the metropolitan listening area, instead of negotiating an extension of the reasonable lease there?

From: info@justiceunity.org
Justice and Unity
PO Box 2690, Manhattanville Station,
New York, NY 10027

WBAI needs our help

 

WBAI is currently in a very serious financial crisis. The October Membership Drive, called The Phoenix, which signifies WBAI's rise from the ashes of its past vicissitudes, is crucial.  

The best way we can help is to become a BAI Buddy. This gives WBAI a secure cushion that can be relied on for paying the monthly bills.  As little as $10 a month can make a real difference to WBAI's survival. That's not much compared to what we pay monthly for our TV shows.

Go here to help: http://www.give2wbai.org/

Become a Buddy or become a Member for $50, or give whatever you can afford.

What we cannot afford is to lose WBAI!

Ibrahim Gonzalez

WBAI by the numbers

Interesting post on the Blue Board today:

One thing that jumps out is that WBAI brings in the second highest amount in listener donations (second only to LA's KPFK, by $500,000). This is probably well known by the cognoscenti, but I had thought for sure that the popular CA stations brought in way more revenue. The prevailing narrative is certainly about how BAI's listeners have totally abandoned it, but the numbers belie that narrative. Perhaps it's on the decline (what are the year to year trends?), but it's still got huge support. BAI's expenses are clearly much higher than other stations', largely now because of the Empire State Building costs (can't the station use a slightly less all-powerful antenna? or at least try to modify the terms of the contract?), but at least rent and personnel costs have decreased. I think there's some solace in the fact that it still brings in a humongous $2.186 million a year from listeners. Considering how horribly the management team treats its listener supporters, that shows some incredible loyalty and passion among listeners. The station basically spits in their faces every couple months, yet they still donate more than two million a year in small pledges. There is still clearly widespread support for the station's current programming, flawed though it may be. A competent development team could turn that kind of passion for the station into way more concrete support.

Pacifica on a Stick

Click on image to enlarge it

IBRAHIM GONZALEZ, THE “MAMBO DERVISH”

R.I.P.

IBRAHIM GONZALEZ,

THE “MAMBO DERVISH”

By Robert Knight

“Five O’Clock Shadow”

rknight@wbai.org 

5 Jun 2013

On the evening of June 3^rd, 2013, our dear friend and WBAI colleague Ibrahim Gonzalez passed away at home, in his sleep. Ibrahim was known both personally and institutionally as the “Mambo Dervish,” based on his skill as a bandleader and conga player, for his devotion to Sufi Islam, and for his free-form and musical programs “In The Moment” and “Radio Libre!”

Ibrahim was a co-founder in 1975 of the Allianza Islamica, the nation’s oldest national organization for Latino Muslims, which was then based in his childhood community of East Harlem, before moving to Mott Haven in Ibrahim’s beloved Bronx. Although he was first reared as a Catholic, He said he was not so much converted as he was re-verted to Sufiism.

 

Ibrahim said of the Islamic Alliance that “Islam represented a place for us to be part of a larger community. When we realized that within Islam there was every spectrum of people, regardless of class, regardless of race, we were attracted to that universal principle of human interaction and communion with the divine.” But the organization’s commitment to nonviolence did not immunize Ibrahim from a 1994 visit from FBI agents, whom Ibrahim characterized as”looking for terrorists.”

 

However, the most explosive element of Ibrahim’s life was his dynamic mastery of the conga, through which he has composed for symphonies and led his own eponymous orchestra and quintet, as well as the Nuyorican Jazz Experience, among innumerable projects and performances celebrating the Afro-, Caribbean- and Latin rhythms of salsa and Nuyorican culture.

 

Ibrahim recently headlined a WBAI benefit at the world famous SOB’s, and has appeared at the Bronx Museum, and many other venues. Ibrahim -- always nattily dressed in such trademark outfits as suspenders, bowties, berets, fedoras, Panama hats, sandals, silk shirts and linen suits -- was ubiquitous as the smiling center of a whirlwind of music, daily incarnating his legend as the “Mambo Dervish.”

 

But Ibrahim’s gifts were so bountiful that not even music could contain them all.

He was a highly accomplished still photographer, mastering the artistically demanding film discipline of the twin lens reflex, in addition to modern digital media, including his talent as a professional videographer and television reporter and documentarian. Those skills earned him on-air work at BronxNet Television, where he consistently reported on people and things that matter in the preservation of NYC’s polymorphic culture.

 

Here at WBAI, Ibrahim’s gentle dialogs and grasp of global affairs earned him his highly acclaimed airtime on such programs as “Wake Up Call,” “Radio Libre!” and his mystical morning show, “In the Moment,” which he described as “a spontaneous mix of eclectic sounds, interviews and live performance.” Prior to his arrival at WBAI, Ibrahim was also featured on the broadcasts of our current CCNY studio hosts, WHCR – Harlem Community Radio.

 
This Renaissance man also taught Piano, Composition, Digital Audio Production and the History of Latin-Caribbean Music at our alma mater, Manhattan College in Riverdale, and throughout the NYC school system.

 

Ibrahim Gonzalez is survived by four brothers, five children and eleven grandchildren, numerous nephews and nieces and other relatives located in NY, California, Puerto Rico, Africa and elsewhere, as well as his loving wife, Janet Norquist-Gonzalez, an educator and award-winning cartographer.

 

On a personal note, your reporter recalls the time late last year when he was hospitalized in his own near-death crisis, the complete recovery from which was aided in no small part by the bedside presence of his beloved friend Ibrahim Gonzalez, who on several occasions roused him from his Propofol stupor into the redemptive joy of hearing Ibrahim read aloud his favorite science fiction novel from an edition too heavy at the time for the then-weakened and unsteady hands of your reporter.

 

Ibrahim’s healing instincts also extended to his beloved WBAI, where, with staff and management initiatives, and your kind contributions, we together move to a higher state of institutional health. Among Ibrahim’s most recent messages to your reporter was this: “I just want to help.”

 

This is “Five O’Clock Shadow” on the Pacifica Radio Network, originating at WBAI. I’m Robert Knight in New York.

 

If you, too, would like to help WBAI survive, please consider making a tax-deductible donation at this time with a call to our pledge center, on behalf of the station so loved by our late friend and colleague. The number is 516-620-3602.

 

Meanwhile, we now hear Ibrahim Gonzalez in his own words…

 

Inner Tube 1 - Self Portrait or Getting Acquainted 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0x2-3Rd2S7k



 

 

 

Ibrahim Gonzalez on Open
Bronxnet Community Television
Apr 9, 2013

 

 

Laughing Last: Gary Null Crows while WBAI Struggles

Gary Null was talking with his web master Jason yesterday:

The Gary Null show has had 51 million downloads since July 2010. Our phone service has broken 3.5 million and is now number one in North America, South America  and Mexico, and number two in the world behind a station in Africa.

Twitter your questions to @drgarynull and Gary will be happy to answer them.

We're gonna do that every day now, and we're actually going to start putting up skype so people can skype us and we can see them and anyone watching s here (on ustream) can actually watch them on skype. 

The phone service is helping a lot of people, so  24/7 you can dial the number and hear the show downloaded from the archive if its not live.

And I understand that the average age of the thousands of new people that we get every day, 7 days a week who are coming on to listen, is 37-55. And they are college educated
So we have  a lot of new people coming on every day and we thank them!

Think about it: Did Gary Null steal Pacifica from Pacifica?

Does he owe them a debt? What could he do to help WBAI?

Programming changes coming to WBAI

General Manager Berthold Reimers has announced that in the absence of a Program Director, he is planning to make sweeping programming changes at WBAI.  As one would imagine, this has caused a stir of controversy and protest at the station. Here is the letter of protest from a group of 39 WBAI producers, followed by a few selected comments with which I agree:
 

My own view, as expressed before, is that changes do indeed need to be made quickly, and that WBAI cannot afford to wait for the long process of searching for, hiring and "breaking in" a new Program Director to replace Chris Hatzis, who did nothing but leave after his 6 month breaking-in period.

So yes, changes are needed but no, they should not be the purview of the General Manager.

 I've met Berthold Reimers and he is no Gary Null

Berthold Reimers seems to have problems with delegating, which is what a manager must do to be effective. When Berthold first became GM at BAI there was ths nasty problem of premium backlogs that had been  plaguing the station for years. Berthold took this on as his first challenge. And how did he handle it? By rolling up his sleeves and pitching in, essentially performing the role of Premiums Director. That in my view was a problem. Berthold's approach was to do the work of getting the premiums mess straightened out himself, rather than delegating it. And the results haven't been that great as we have recently seen. The approach didn't work on two levels. First, this was evidenced by Gary Null's refusal to pledge during the winter fund drive due to the fact that his listeners were not receiving their prremiums. Several yeas later, no matter how hard Reimers had worked, the premiums problem had not been resolved. Maybe things were better, but it was not resolved. In fact I thought it was pretty disastrous that Gary Null was refusing to pitch because of it.

 And it also didn't work because the GM was reportedly knee-deep in premiums, instead of directing his efforts elsewhere as needed. He had told us as much in various public reports. This would be fine if he were the Premiums Director but he was WBAI's General Manager! With his previous business background Berthold would probably have served WBAI well as a Business Manager. Now he wants to serve as Program Director and start making decisions that will radically alter WBAI's programming grid.

As I have said here before, I believe that Gary Null is the person for the job and that he should be drafted if necessary, to work on the programming grid. Go ahead and put a Program Council together and then let Gary Null take the lead. Gary has already proved that he can build a successful radio network to which listeners are flocking, offering the same type of programming that is heard on WBAI. There is a need for this programming. Gary owes it to WBAI to help it get its act together. Get Gary onboard!! Now!!!

Gary Null and WBAI

An update on the subject. I just read the following about Gary on one of the listervs.
"He wants very much to pitch during the drives, but management prevents him from doing so, out of what I can only describe as its compulsion to play power games."

And:"Gary has repeatedly told management that he cannot in good conscience continue urging listeners to pledge for premiums that have not been sent ... will not be sent in the near (or even far) future ... and very likely will never be sent at all."

Which is it: is Gary "begging and pleading" to pitch with management  turning a deaf ear to his pleas? Or is he refusing to pitch? 

Obviously I'm not privy to everything that has been going on between Gary Null and WBAI,  but from what I understand, both are at fault:

How WBAI is at fault
For starters, Management apparently did not fulfill its promise to deliver Gary's premiums to his listeners in a timely manner (or maybe at all). For that Gary's anger is totally justified. I can testify to his many on-air promises that problems with delivery of his premiums had been resolved and would not be happening again under the new management at WBAI. So if it did happen again, that made Gary look like a liar. That's Strike 1 against WBAI.

Strike 2: According to a letter from Gary to WBAI management that was published on the listservs, WBAI did not respond to his numerous attempts to get the premiums problem straightened out. If this is the reason why he was refusing to pitch, the blame lies with WBAI.

Strike 3 in my opinion is the mistake management has made of alienating Gary at a time when he could be helping WBAI in ways that go beyond pitching during fund drives.  At a time when WBAI listenership has been flagging, listeners have been flocking to PRN in record numbers. Since Gary has proven himself to be successful in attracting listeners to what is essentially a Pacifica programming grid, his input would be invaluable.

How Gary Null is at fault
Gary obviously took his inspiration for Progressive Radio Netwoek from Pacifa and WBAI, and for that he owes Pacifica a debt of gratitude. Rather than cracking jokes about BAI on his show, as he's been periodically doing these days, Gary should be looking for ways to help the station survive and flourish, in the same way that PRN is flourishing by doing the same thing WBAI does -- offering progressive programming content -- only apparently doing it better. While WBAI languishes, PRN is taking off like gangbusters. Something does not compute! What WBAI needs right now in my opinion is for Gary, rather than poking fun at his alma mater, or refusing to pitch, to pitch in and work to turn WBAI around.
   
It's the programming, stupid!
WBAI has had no Program Director since former IPD Tony Bates left last summer. This was also when their fund drives started taking a dive. My suggestion is that rather than hastily finding a  replacement for Tony, WBAI could ask Gary to step in as Interim PD, primarily to help WBAI find immediate ways to increase listenership. Since the WBAI and PRN programming grids are so similar, with quite a few of the same voices being heard in both places, I cannot imagine that this will be such a difficult task. There is great demand for progressive programming, and with the state of the economy, and all the problems facing the country and the world right now, there is a crying need for sources of information that are not biased by commercial advertising. We hear things on PRN and WBAI on a daily basis that we don't hear on commercial media. MSNBC, which is touted by some as the first progressive television channel, occasionally does good work, but for the most part  is unfortunately narrow in scope.  We simply cannot afford to lose WBAI!

When the Moderator IS the Troll

A troll is a troll is a troll...

What is a troll, anyway? A recent exchange on the Blue Board prompts me to ask the question.

Gary Null laughs while WBAI burns

 I just listened to an amazing interview with William Blum, whose current book is titled America's Deadliest Export: Democracy - the Truth About US Foreign Policy and Everything Else.

This was a particularly comprehensive review of  the sorry history of U.S. foreign policy, which highlights its worst moments. I recommend that you go grab it off the archives--  um, the PRN archives that is, not the WBAI archives. That's right, I'd heard William Blum speak before on BAI, in fact learned about him on there, but what was different this time was that I was listening to him on Leid Stories, Utrice Leid's new show on the Progressive Radio Network.

Time was when I'd not only have been been listening to William Blum on WBAI, but I'd have been listening to Leid's Talkback there as well. Listening to PRN tends to be a familiar experience. Quite a few hosts that we heard (and still do in most cases) on WBAI can now be heard on PRN, which is similar to BAI in content but is Internet-based only. Gary had a stable of hosts from which to populate his new Internet radio station. In fact the PRN programming grid looks much like a Pacifica grid. In the implementation of his vision, Gary certainly owes a huge debt to Pacifica and WBAI.

I submitted the following post to the Blue Board some time ago, but it was never published by Goderator R. Paul Martin who thinks he has the omniscience to determine the course of conversation on this public forum. Yes, I'm moderated there, which means that my posts have to be  reviewed by him for "suitability" and are often rejected as if they were disruptive troll posts, which of course they are not. Most of my posts contain positive views about WBAI, in contrast to the very negative posts of Chris Albertson. Martin is exercising censorship, pure and simple. Those who criticize WBAI are allowed free reign there, while the ideas of those who support the station (like myself, LSB members  Mitchell Cohen and Carolyn Birden and others) have been suppressed. What's Martin's agenda? It's hard to tell, but he has consistently treated the real troll Chris Albertson, who hates just about everything about WBAI with utmost respect, while disrespecting many of us who love the station. But that's a topic for another day.  Today I want to talk about Gary Null.

Here's a post that never made it to the Blue Board:
Just as some say that Amy Goodmam stole Democracy Now! from Pacifica, I'm contending that Gary Null stole Pacifica from Pacifica, when he created the Progressive Radio Network (PRN), the all-Internet station which is growing by leaps and bounds. The PRN program grid reads like a WBAI Folio. Gary drew his ideas and inspiration from Pacifica. PRN's success illustrates that there's nothing outdated about Pacifica programming as some claim. On the contrary, people are hungering for these kinds of programs. It's more than a little ironic that PRN is experiencing wild growth right now, according to Gary, while WBAI languishes. One can't help but wonder if that's a contributing cause. For example, I find myself turning to PRN more often these days, which means that I'm tuning in less to 99.5FM.


Today I heard this interesting exchange between Gary and Utrice Leid, in which it seemed that Gary was almost gloating over his own success in comparison to WBAI's failures.I couldn;t help wondering if the two were connected. I found the part where Gary talks about stealing WBAI's assets interesting, as well as when he talks about the pre-PRN glory days when it was so easy to raise big bucks for BAI. 
 


Gary: Utrice, I thought you'd like to know that I collect all the arbitrons, and those are the monthly
reports that show you who's listening, where they're listening from, their age groups and all, and you now have a larger audience listening to you on Progressive Radio Network each day than you had on WBAI.


Utrice (laughing): That's good to know, that's great to know.


Gary: Isn't that something? You also should know that WBAI is now averaging 9600 dollars a day in fundraising.


Utrice: Ow.


Gary: Do you remember before the coup? There was never a counter-coup, there was just a coup,
where they threw you and the progressive-minded people on the boards and stations out, so they could have a giveaway and steal the assets of the station, which they successfully did.


Utrice: Well one little correction there, nobody threw me out. We all walked out in support of
Bessie Wash, who was Executive Director, who brought in a different style of management - I was
one of the people, and there were other managers as well, and when she decided - she said  she
was going to quit, we all said "We are going to follow you right out the door."


Gary: Do you remember how much we averaged per day in fundraising -- you and I every day?




Utrice (laughs): Oh man...

Gary: 85,000 dollars a day.


Utrice: You would really burn up the air.


Gary: In fact you and I had the largest single amount in the history of the station. We raised 66,000 dollars in one hour. I was in the back seat of a cab, being driven back from the Catskills where I did a
lecture, and you were in the studio.  We raised 1 million, 180,000 dollars in 14 days.


Utrice: mmhmm...
Gary: So for those who thought they were really smart and knew everything and didn't need us and our audiences, and now they're raising 9,000 bucks a day? Well that's a lesson in reality (laughs).

Utrice: That's sad, pretty sad, because you know it's such a very important and necessary asset to the community of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and portions of  Pennsylvania, but it is also
the case where people have hidden agendas that they don't readily confess or even talk about, but you
see it in the end, it plays itself out, and we see what the situation really was.

Gary: You're right, but the good news is, you have your audience back and a new audience, and it's
growing. I just wanted to let you know that.

Utrice: Yes, I see the response also on Facebook which has been fantastic, really good connecting with people.

The gist of my argument was that Gary Null owes a debt to WBAI, and that Gary needs to step up to the plate and take some responsibility for WBAI's future. It seemed in that conversation that he was laughing at WBAI's financial crisis. Right now WBAI is in serious trouble, where a combination of events came together to create a perfect storm. Since Hurricane Sandy they have been struggling to pay their bills, and back ransmitter rent was threatening to take them off the air by end of March. The listeners came through and they were able to raise the money needed to pay the back rent but must pay on time going forward for the next 5 months. Plus they have the issues of having to find a permanent place to move to in the future (hopefully to a building that they can own).

What Gary didn't mention was that he had stopped pitching during that fund drive in question: WBAI's winter fund drive. They were in the midst of their Fall fund drive when it was disrupted by Hurricane Sandy, during which they were evacuated from their offices and also lost their phone system. For Gary to refuse to  pitch in the winter fund drive that followed, means that he was contributing to the crisis.

 I saw a letter from Gary to WBAI regarding premiums not having been delivered to his listeners who pledged. I do not fault Gary for being angry. I recall hearing him promise his listeners that the new management would be sending out their premiums on a timely basis. He was giving his word, and when that didn't happen he had egg on his face. So he refused to pitch any premiums during the Winter dund Drive. He did finally do some pitching for the premium-less Transmitter Fund.

No doubt about it, WBAI's management messed up. Their lack of attention to this issue of Gary's premiums was short-sighted, not only on the immediate issue of fund-raising but in regard to the larger picture of how Gary might be able to  help WBAI face its biggest connundrum: why is WBAI losing listeners while PRN is gaining them? Who better to assist with this than Gary Null, who has demonstrated his ability to build a successful network that follows the Pacifica model?

Gary Null has a deep connection to WBAI, based on his 30-year association with the station. WBAI's unfortunate progression of musical managers over the past decade has greatly contributed to its current problems. There has been one managerial disaster after another. At this point they don't need any more unknowns coming to the station on a wing and a prayer, taking 6 months to analyze the situation before taking  action (or disappearing).

Gary Null understands Pacifca concepts and is familiar with WBAI's problems. He has a proven record of success with a progressive grid. He could either become Interim Program Director for a period of time to get WBAI into shape, or work hand-in-hand with whoever takes on that job. Maybe it could be accomplished  internally, using someone from within the station who could work with Gary to accomplish what needs to be done to get WBAI on track.

Beyond that I can envision WBAI in a  partnership with Progressive Radio Network, similar to the way WBAI has affiliates around the country, which could be mutually beneficial.While PRN is an all Internet-based station, WBAI maintains a land-based radio signal which I believe still plays an important role in peoples' lives. I predict that there will be a resurgance of interest in traditional radio. So hang in there, WBAI!

Sexism on the Good Ol' Blue Board

I saw an interesting exchange on the Blue Board recently, and I'm bringing it up here because a couple of things struck me about it.

First, I was bemused by the irony of how few rose to the defense of  other WBAI folks who were being constantly subjected to endless similar attacks by Chris Albertson, in contrast to how the majority of responders rose up in defense of Moderator R. Paul Martin, when a poster named "Melinda" went after Martin's
program Back of the Book in a similar vein. Obviously what was good for the goose was not good for the gander.  It was just one more example of why I consider the kind of unhealthy group think found on the Blue Board to be not beneficial to WBAI.

Second, I found the sexist nature of the ensuing exchanges with Melinda to be disturbing, with some calling for Melinda's head, after being labeled a "troll" several times by the Moderator Martin for essentially daring to post  the same sort of thing Chris Albertson posts with impunity. Interestingly, Albertson himself admitted that Melinda wasn't  doing anything that he himself didn't do. Duh.

At one point I wondered if the entire thing could be a satire. Was Melinda even a female? She was certainly being treated like one by angry, sexist denizens of the Blue Board. I was remembering what it felt like myself when I would post there. Following is a small sample of what went on.