Pacifica death watch: this time it’s really real
Because WBAI is broke, almost listenerless, and run by idiots, the station didn’t pay its transmitter bill to the Empire State Building for a long time, and is now $3 million in arrears. The ESB has sued and wants to seize Pacifica’s assets, which would include KPFA and KPFK’s bank accounts and buildings. Because the Pacifica board is staffed by idiots, the network is not filing for bankruptcy or taking any other meaningful measures to protect itself. The rational thing to do would be to sell WBAI’s frequency (at 99.5, it’s on… Read More
WBAI not paying Chuck D
So the person who “confirmed” to me that WBAI was paying Chuck D $2,000 a week mistyped: he said “Chuck D is getting $2,000 a week” when he meant to say “Chuck D is not getting $2,000 a week.” What a difference four keystrokes make. He was getting $2,000 a month until October 2010; now he’s getting nothing. He’s still not fundraising, though. Sorry.
Another purge at WBAI
WBAI’s program director Tony Bates has ousted another critic of his fondness for quackery and conspiracy theories: Bill Weinberg’s Moorish Orthodox Radio Crusade has been “terminated.” Read about it here. It’s highly likely that these purges—coming along with those at KPFA (recap here)—are being directed by Pacifica management. It all makes me wonder how much longer I’ll be on at KPFA. So a radio network with strong signals in five major metropolitan areas, with the capacity to reach about 20% of the U.S. population on terrestrial radio, is being turned over to advocates of… Read More
WBAI fundraiser: snake oil sells
WBAI—where I used to do my radio show until program director Tony Bates got other ideas—just finished a fundraiser. Management—meaning Bates, station manager Berthold Reimers, and local board chair Mitch Cohen—have been bragging about its success, and the station’s return to financial health. Close examination of the results make you doubt this analysis. Management has circulated a spreadsheet showing the fundraising results by show. Here it is, for those wanting to score at home (and those are my calculations of the Null vs. ex-Null performance at the bottom of the sheet called… Read More
Pacifica death watch (cont.): Gary Null edition
Why care? Perhaps the wider world does not share my interest in the internal goings-on at Pacifica. I do have a personal interest. I grew up listening to WBAI and it helped make me who I am, for what that’s worth. Back in the 1960s and 1970s, it was an exciting and lively thing that showed a kid growing up in the intellectual wasteland of suburban New Jersey that there was a fascinating world out there. It not only featured radical politics (of all kinds—the coverage of the early gay movement was… Read More
My farewell to Thursdays at 5
I read this intro to today’s show on WBAI: Hello, and welcome to Behind the News. My name is Doug Henwood. This is my last show in this timeslot, and perhaps my last show on WBAI. Back on Monday, November 1, as I was walking to pick my kid up at school, I got a call from the station’s interim program director, Tony Bates, informing me that he and his colleague on the interim management team, interim general manager Berthold Riemers, had decided to move this show to Saturday mornings and to… Read More
Another reminder to support BtN
Just reiterating yesterday’s plea: if you listen to my radio show, please contribute during WBAI’s fundraiser. Without WBAI, and without WBAI airing “Behind the News,” there would be no “Behind the News.” Ways to do it are online (see links here), or phone in a pledge to 212-209-2950 during my fundraising shift today, 5-6 PM New York time. The show will feature, as a fundraising premium, my June interview with Norman Finkelstein on CD and/or Norman’s latest book, This Time We Went Too Far (description here.)
Support “Behind the News” on WBAI—really!
WBAI is in the midst of a crucial fundraising marathon now, running through most of this month. The station is in very bad shape financially, and unless we raise a bundle in the coming weeks, there could be dire consequences. And the interim program director has made some noises about bringing in some “big names” in the 5–6 PM slot. That’s my slot, at least on Thursdays, and I doubt as I qualify as a “big name.” In pursuit of a similar strategy at KPFK, Pacifica’s Los Angeles outlet, they brought in… Read More
More Pacifica: Marc Cooper writes…
My old friend Marc Cooper has a long post on Pacifica that concludes with some comments on my own recent rant on The state of WBAI (dire). Since it’s always nice to be noticed, I’ll overlook the rather patronizing tone of his “means well” and just respond to his conclusion that it’s all too late—the game’s over. If the game is really over, Marc, why did you devote 1,247 words to the topic before you get to that point? Me, I think the situation is, as I said, dire, but not necessarily terminal…. Read More
The state of WBAI (dire)
[I just sent this to Mitch Cohen, chair of the WBAI local station board, to be read at tomorrow night’s board meeting.] To Mitch Cohen and the WBAI local station board: I’ve been around WBAI for more than two decades. I started as a frequent interviewee on Samori Marksman’s show in 1987, moved on to regular commentaries on his show a few years later, and then began doing the Thursday editions of his Behind the News in 1995. I’ve watched the station go through considerable turmoil over the years, but the current… Read More
WBAI elections: endorsements
Dear friends, We are writing to enlist your support for some important changes that are in the works at WBAI, where Beyond the Pale, Asia Pacific Forum, and Behind the News have been broadcasting for many years. If you are a dues-paying WBAI member, you should have likely just received a ballot in elections for the Local Station Board (LSB). We are asking for your help in electing some strong, independent candidates. The LSB plays an important role at WBAI, by making recommendations to Pacifica’s director for the hiring of the station’s… Read More
Support WBAI, and my show
WBAI is fundraising, and I’m doing my major stint from 4-6 tomorrow (Thursday). If you like the show, and you’ve got some spare change, please make a pledge during my time slot. I’ve got some good news about WBAI, for a change. The station was been under a mix of toxic and ineffectual leadership since the death of Samori Marksman in 1999. Morale sank, listenership dwindled, the airwaves were filled with drivel, and fundraising sagged badly. The station fell months behind on studio and transmitter rent. It was years behind on its… Read More
LBO News from Doug Henwood 
Posted on November 13, 2010 by Doug Henwood
Radio commentary, November 13, 2010
Pacifica • deficit commission • QE2 • education “reform” Before that, and before some comments on the news, a few words on the Pacifica situation. I did this show on WBAI in New York for 15 years. I was given the show by our late program director, Samori Marksman, who was a very intelligent and charismatic man with contacts all over the world. After his early death at the age of 52 in 1999—a death I’m certain was hastened by the pressures of Pacifica infighting—he was succeeded by an endless procession of… Read More