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.

Changing Times

Times sure have changed on the Blue Board recently. Not too long ago so-called "scatalogical" posts were cause for public censure and banning. Remember how She was called out publicly for daring to use the phrase "takes his daily dump" to describe the way wacky Chris Albertson dumps on WBAI on a daily basis? Remember how She was publicly named and shamed by Moderator R. Paul Martin in an attempt to humilate her before banning her? BTW She was never contacted privately by Martin, who cannot use the excuse that he didn't know her email address, which is publicly available on the NewPacifica list.  She never received the promised warning prior to being dismissed from the list .

But as we can see, the times they are a'changin'. Nowadays there is more attention being paid to form than to content.  After a particularly nasty bout of anti-WBAI postings, we were sort of waiting for a comment from the Moderator, if not for some posts to be disappeared. Instead we have the following: 

So Moderator Martin was fiddle-faddling over netiquette, while not even bothering to address the scatological post by Albertson protégé The Pacifica Maven, that refers to WBAI management as "fecal matter":

Wow! This went completely unchallenged by the Moderator. Perhaps the tempest in a teapot over the "dump" posts had been just that, and merely a ruse to remove She from the message board.  The fact that the above post remains posted is the proof of the pudding, we think.

And guess how the post in question was received by the hypocritical Mr. Albertson, who continually castigates anonymous posters as "cowards"?

Not a word against his Maven. An emboldened TPM then goes on to start a thread that mocks Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and in the process, the radio station that often celebrates Dr. King:

Nuff said, no need to go into snarky details on this one.

Not one to rest on laurels for long, TPM then offers this clumsy doggerel:

Oh and this just in tonite... a bit more scatalogical "fun" from none other than Blue Board regular and Martin saddle pal, "Uncle Happy":

Come on girl, don't get your panties in a twist over all this doo doo about nothing. It's all in good fun. The boys will be boys, you know.  Just so long as the ladies remain ladies.

And besides, what's really important right now is that everyone should be working on improving their anti-BAI posts, striving make them more attractive-looking and readable.

One small addendum: we must admit that Moderator Martin has made the Blue Board less patently sexist than it was. And how did he do it? By eliminating a strong (female) voice of opposition to all that anti-BAI stuff that passes for thought there, which used to inspire those poor, hapless posters to make all their sexist comments. Disappear the woman and voilà -- the sexism disappears -- in in one masterful stroke. 

Stop the Insanity!

Chris Albertson

End of the line, but for who?

Once again we're treated to the loonatic apocalyptic ravings of our favorite Blue Boarder (Chris Albertson)

For decades, WBAI has been a last refuge for incompetent but slick opportunists, who never heard an intelligent sentence that didn't discourage them. They are proud of their
ignorance, for that is all they can identify with. Now the inevitable day of
reckoning is so close that even they can feel it—a long tradition of faux
intellect, of self-delusion, of putting up with the few who really cared (and
knew the truth) is coming to an end.

If the station is saved, they themselves become sordid history.

A fitting reply comes from one of the wiser posters there:
Maybe for you.

Ha! This loon went to sleep for 50 years and woke up to find out that he really hates WBAI. We used to think he was a tool of the JUC, but upon further reflection, we don't think they would have him.

Altogether now boys and girls, whistle down the wind!

Remembering the Disappeared

We're talking about remembering those disappeared from the Blue Board of course. And of course the current policy there makes remembering them rather hard to do.

There has been yet another disappearance from the Blue Board: prolific poster Pam Cooke seems to be the latest disappearee, with her last post occuring sometime in late December. What happened? Who knows? Because there's not a single word about it on the Blue Board, and that's the way it goes:  somebody disappears and you never hear their name mentioned again. 

1/15/13 Editor's Note: Ms. Cooke came roaring back today, perhaps in response to this post. However, it still illustrates a point: nobody dared mention her name during her absence, as any mention of  the banned is verboten. This moderator runs a tight ship with a tight grip.    

For once I actually find myself agreeing with Chris Albertson when he protests this policy, although I certainly don't approve of his motivation which is purely selfish hypocrisy.  Albertson only got ticked off after one of his posts got removed. He has watched the rest of us getting our posts deleted and even getting banned from the message board altogether, without so much as a single righteous peep of protest against the violations of our free speech.

But now that one of his own precious posts was removed, he expresses the following outraged indignation:

The following brief exchange took place on the BlueBoard January 9:
Someone—anonymous, of course—posted:
Can't help noticing that now that Pamela seems absent from the blueboard, Chris has turned his considerable ire on Frank. It's always gotta be someone, huh?


To which my response was:
Knight's shill would still be trolling were it not for her being banned by the moderator, and I would have continued to show her for what she is. LeFever is someone for whom I lost respect a long time ago, when I realized that he was in it for himself rather than WBAI, and when I saw how off the mark his various ideas are. I suppose I could just sit back and watch as he turns the LSB into an even greater mess. In the meantime, check out his posts and tell me if you think this is someone who should be on a governing board. The real culprit in the present imbroglio is, of course, LeFever's current "friend", Berthold Reimers, the only person on the local level who could make a positive difference, if he were so inclined.

If you search around on the BlueBoard, you will find the original, anonymous, post, but not my response, It has been removed by the moderator because we are not allowed to mention people who are denied access to the BB, reason given is that they thus cannot defend themselves. Noble as that rule sounds,it becomes a downright nuisance (bordering on censorship) when applied. A major flaw in that procedure is that we who post there are not informed of anyone's banishment, so you mention a name, however casually, in a post that might have taken up much of your valuable time, and you click on the "post" option. The software detects the dreaded name and you are informed that your message will be posted upon the moderator's approval. Chances are that it remains in limbo until you receive an e-mail from R. Paul Martin and are given an opportunity to remove the unwanted name and re-post. In some cases, that means that your amended message is delayed up to a couple of days and the immediacy of your response is lost.

In the above case, the offending name, Pamela (i.e. Somers) did not warrant moderator intrusion, but my message (note that I deliberately avoided using the banished name) was removed. The explanation came in an e-mail from R. Paul advising me to "just leave the aspects of moderation alone." So now, a worse sin than naming a banished poster is to mention the fact that he/she has been banished!

I am adamantly against censorship, but I realize that some rules must be applied to a public forum. Here's a link to the BlueBoard's don'ts —there are 14 of them and many are routinely ignored, but one sticks out—it is No. 12:

Criticisms that the moderators are censoring too much or too little
What do you think?

When it comes to WBAI, I consider R. Paul Martin to be one of the good guys, but frivolous infringement on my right to speak freely puts a dent in that appraisal.

Note: Of course all of the above was expressed on Albertson's own blog,  because were it posted on the Blue Board, he would surely have joined the ranks of the disappeared by now and let's face it, that wouldn't do at all. 

Sometimes a Great Notion

WBAI's Program Director Chris Hatzis has departed from the station suddenly and unexpectedly and somewhat mysteriously. We're hoping that he will at some point come forward and provide some explanation and perhaps some analysis. But will it help?

Musical Managers
One thing we know is that the endless progression of managers in recent years has not helped. WBAI is still like Ken Kesey's story of "a family of fiercely independent Oregon loggers struggling to keep the family business alive amidst changing times."

Although Chris Albertson and a few others wanted Chris Hatzis to be the great white hope, there were reservations among others about the advisability of bringing in yet another manager who was unfamiliar with WBAI, with hopes that they would magically provide solutions to the station's programming problems.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Here's a novel idea: let the inmates run the asylum! Seriously though, there is a strong core of knowledge at WBAI, existing in people who have the depth of experience to provide the kind of guidance that's so desperately needed at the station. Why not give that a try? Rather than importing from the outside someone who is bound to be unfamiliar with the culture of WBAI, why not utilize the practical insight that already exists within the station?

Rather than imposing rule in a top-down manner, why not try governance from below? Assemble a consortium of workers - a super Program Council if you will, to figure out how best to proceed. That changes are needed is a given that everyone can agree on. But watching a newcomer like Hatzis react in an almost paralyzed manner and end up doing nothing to improve the station makes one realize that this approach is not working, and that it's time to try something else. And time is of the essence. The station really cannot afford another 10 months of someone getting their feet wet, only to find that they are not a fit, or have no idea what to do.

The New Sanity
The approach we're suggesting would be consistent with what economics professor Richard Wolff has been preaching on WBAI's airwaves for some time now: an alternative to the capitalist structure in which workers have little say;  one in which the producers of an organization participate in running it. Why not put this idea to work at WBAI?

Of course it would take beaucoup de cooperation, congeniality and fellowship that WBAI is not famous for. Would it even be possible with the warring factions that still exist inside the station? We think that the balance of power is such right now that it could be possible, and that it might be important to seize the moment. Just an idea to be thrown into the mix, but one thing we can all agree on is that there have been too many failed managers at WBAI for too many years now, and that this has been hurting the station. Albertson's idea of a clean sweep has been shown to have backfired. In the end it may only be WBAI people themselves who can solve the station's problems.

Black Attack

Chris van Winkle, the gentlman who after sleeping for half a century, woke up full of piss and vinegar to start attacking WBAI for not living up to his delusional fantasies, is at it again.  Every day it's something new -- a new angle on the same old song. So what is it this time? He's urging people to add comments to his blog so "all of us can get a focused picture" on WBAI. Focused on what? The latest has racist undertones. It's very black indeed.

Comments have so far been limited to the usual suspects: blog insider TPM (The Pacifica Maven) who refers to WBAI as: "Where Black is all they is", and station insider, stooge and the blog's house negro Uncle Happy (Sidney Smith) who says: "Hell I'm colored and it drove me crazy."

The assault never stops 
The oldster never seems to run out of energy.  For someone who slept for all those years, he never seems to sleep now. Guess he's making up for lost time. Does he never take a vacation?

WBAI LSB Election Results

ELECTED
Manijeh Saba
Luis Barrios
Frank LeFever
Cerene Roberts
Ken Laufer
William Heerwagen
Jeremy Taylor
Sharonne Salaam
Patricia Logan
RUNNERS UP – in order
Robert Young
Russell Dale
Murray Gordon
Ebon Charles
Cookie Palmer
Eugene Hamond
Thomas Barton
Mario Mastrandrea
Diana Crowder
Shahid Comrade
Carlos Canales
 WBAI Staff election
ELECTED
Janet Coleman
Reggie Johnson
John Riley
 RUNNERS UP – in order
Jeannie Hopper
Camille Raneem
Vajra Kilgour

Update:
Due to resignations there have been some changes: Runners up Robert Young and Russel Dale have been aded to the board. Congratulations to Robert Young,  the new LSB Chair.

A special shoutout goes to Frank LeFever, who has worked so hard as a listener to promote WBAI.

We're glad to finally have Frank on board!

How to Shut Down the Blue Board

 

Here's a post that got removed from the Blue Board today. Whether the poster also got banned remains to be seen. I'm posting it here because I believe  it shows the current mindset about the moderation that goes on there. Most are afraid to criticize der Führer's modus operandi out of fear of being banned themselves. But might there be safety in numbers? What would happen say,  if all the posters there spoke out at the same time? They could shut down the Blue Board! Well... almost. No doubt there would still be one person busily posting away, and that would be the brown nosed Chris "Tartuffe" Albertson, who always makes a point to post a hypocritical "thank you" whenever the moderator criticizes something said or lays down the law.

Note that the post being replied to was referring to a particularly nasty ad hominem attack by Chris Albertson, which out of respect to the target we will not repeat, but which was allowed to remain on the board for 2 days and 52 viewings, until this particular poster caused the entire thread to be disappeared.

WBAI is moving

The word's out  that WBAI is in the process of relocating from 120 Wall Street to Harlem. The new digs will have a well equipped broadcast studio that is solely for the use of WBAI. Meanwhile management and key staff personnel will be temporarily moving to the World Financial Center downtown for the next six months, while the search for permanent space continues.
  
WBAI never fully recovered from the devastating  impact of Hurricane Sandy, but  has learned some lessons  in the process, which has made it easier to find workable solutions. Logistic problems which may have seemed insurmountable at one time are now being dealt with in creative ways.    The plan is to have a flexible arrangement in the future, where hosts will be able to broadcast and hook into the station from various offsite locations.

Check back for more details of  WBAI's move as they become available.

January 2 update
It was announced that WBAI will be moving to the studios of WHCR at City College, which is located at 160 Convent Avenue, New York, NY 10031. They have two main studios and one performance room. One studio will be dedicated for WBAI.

Albie needs a laugh track

This is part of a post that we found on the Blue Board recently, along with some commentary.

I'd be interested in Armand DiMele's diagnosis of Chris Albertson, based on the self-serving papp he posts to his blog regarding BAI in general, and this discussion board, in particular.I mean, why *this,* happened upon the other day when I ran a TOTALLY unrelated search :

"Also happening on the BB is Pam Cooke's persistent effort to have a censorship order against Edwin Johnston lifted. I have no idea who Johnston is, but I gather that he played a not so nice role in a past coup.

Commentary: Of course he doesn't. This is a typical example of how little Chris Albertson actually knows about the WBAI/Pacifica community, even though he's constantly sounding off like an expert.

Post continues:

Anyway, Cooke—who appears to be a selective free-speech advocate—is very eager for him to be allowed to speak freely. Johnston is probably a nice guy, but one has to wonder about anyone who is endorsed by these native habitués of the infamous snake pit—they'll hiss on you in a New York minute if you say something that doesn't sit well with them."

 Edwin Johnston is an activist, artist, writer, renaissance man, who happens to have done ten times as much for KPFT in just *one* of any number of years, than Albie's done for BAI throughout ALL the years since he, unfortunately, *discovered* the station. Why try so obviously to cause a rift between people - ? Someone who plays those kind of anti-social, manipulative games is just a low life control freak. 

Commentary:
Chris Albertson is indeed all that, but not JUST that. We think there's much more to his continual assaults on WBAI, and that his disruptions are the mark of a professional, well-thought out plan.  Before you discount that idea, let me remind you that WBAI and Pacifica have always been targets of disrupters, in assaults that go beyond any one particular individual's narcissistic need for attention.

Post continues: Albie has literally CLOGGED the search engines with BAI-and-BlueBoard related pages from his crappy blog.

Commentary:
Sad but true. It's an abomination that when anyone searches on WBAI now, they have to wade through all thst sludge.  In his overweening egotism, Chris Albertson has set himself up as some special arbiter of what's supposed to be good about WBAI and Pacifica, and he has been using the Internet to promote himself and disparage WBAI.

Might I add that Albertson has been given free reign on the Blue Board by the short-sighted and near-sighted R. Paul Martin, who pretends to like free speech, while curtailing the free speech of several  people in the WBAI community.

Post ends: What an arse Albie is.

Commentary:
True, but that single term does not totally sum up Chris Albertson, who is more than a stupid and foolish person who acts like a buffoon. There's a method to his madness. What's mind-blowing is how some others have acted like "arses" by paying so much attention to this guy  -- who have actually courted his opinion. Usually they are those who have some sort of ax to grind, or suffer from some degree of sour grapes syndrome - and there are even a few people who seriously love WBAI and have sincere insights to share who fall into his traps. Why they would pay any attention to him is the question.

Thread killer
Chris Albertson  shuts down any reasonable discussion about the station with his over-the-top screeds. He seems to sit stationed on the Blue Board, ready to pounce on every poster that shows up, to turn every thread into an Albertson-directed attack on WBAI. The hapless poster who dares offer legitimate concern or criticism immediately gets walloped, and will usually retreat at that point. Result: end of what could have been an informative thread. Albertson's really quite a master of that. Sadly, a couple of the posters who could actually respond to this because they have clearer heads when it comes to WBAI, and were able to give the guy a run for his money, were prevented from doing so by the short-sighted moderator R. Paul Martin, who decided to ban them on some inconsequential pretext.  One of them posted a message from management, which Martin didn't like. R. Paul Martin, who has been exerting his control freak power on the board that he now owns,  apparently believes that he's the only one who should be posting "official" management memos (never mind that the poster in question was the outgoing Chair of the WBAI LSB). The other poster  got banned for  daring to refer to Albertson's daily regurgitations as "dumps". Well off with that poster's head for using such a "scatological" term! These were mere pretexts of course.

To be continued...