Web links related to the Back of the Book program of January 29, 2007


This will be a pitching program. No, don't run away! We'll also do some interesting stuff. Well, I hope we will anyway. We do need to raise dough on this program.

The next WBAI Local Station Board meeting is scheduled for February 7, 2007, at 7:00 PM, Location to be announced.

Did you know that I've got a brief synopsis of some of the WBAI LSB meetings? Well, I do. And I update them from time to time.

The January 9th, 2007, WBAI LSB meeting started out with a Delegates' meeting to elect new Directors to the Pacifica National Board. The faction currently in charge re-elected one guy who has now exceeded the term limits in the bylaws. I brought up the illegality of that, but the faction doesn't care. We'll see if this has repercussions later in the year.

WBAI has a program schedule up on its Web site. The site has gotten many of the individual program pages together to provide links and such, so check it out.

There is a new, official stream for WBAI! You can go here and pick which type of stream you want! If this stream isn't working let me know. It was working all right at 10:50 PM (ET) last night.

The Pacifica Foundation, which owns WBAI, has something called the Pacifica Lounge where you can post messages about Pacifica, WBAI and other Pacifica radio stations. This may be a good thing, and of course there are other, long term fora in which to participate.

WBAI also has a forum on its Web site now. You have to register to post messages, but anyone may read the messages.

WBAI is now archiving the programs! Just go here and you'll be able to listen to the program any time for the next couple of weeks. Unfortunately, Back of the Book is not one of the programs that you can download, you can only listen to it on line. But maybe someone will change that at some point. NOTE: The archives have not always been behaving properly of late. They have been fixed, but we can't guarantee their condition. If Back of the Book isn't archived this time I'll post an archive myself. Also note that they have been calling the Back of the Book archive the Carrier Wave archive. You should go by the date of the program until this gets rectified.

The most important thing that we're going to be doing tonight is pitching.

WBAI is a non-commercial radio station and so we fund it primarily by donations from listeners. The main way we get these donations is during pledge drives, which those of us who've been here for a while refer to as “marathons,” or 'thons.

Well, Back of the Book is pitching tonight. We hope that you'll consider calling 1-212-209-2950 and donating to the radio station during our program tonight. If you contribute $25 or more you'll become a member of WBAI and you'll be able to vote in the LSB elections scheduled for later this year.

I'll note that all of the overnights are preempted next week while Management plays repeats of daytime programs in the overnight time slots. Gosh, why would they do that? Certainly any pledges made during the time when the repeats are on wouldn't be counted towards the overnights' tally.

A 'thon program is always a bit turbulent and I'm not sure exactly what we'll get to tonight, but I plan to talk a little bit about yet another new form of energy that's hypothesized to permeate space.

On a walk to Battery Park after the last program we were displeased to find that some jerk had spray painted graffiti on the wounded Peace Sphere, which was reconstructed from its parts after 9/11. What sort of a creep would deface that? Was it done out of malice or ignorance? It had stood there for about five years and no one had done such a thing to it. As I said, we were not pleased to see that.

There are a lot of issues that are considered hazardous to talk about on the air at WBAI, even now that the gag rule has been lifted. However, there is the Internet! There are mailing lists which you can subscribe to and Web based message boards devoted to WBAI and Pacifica issues. Many controversial WBAI/Pacifica issues are discussed on these lists.

Probably the most popular list that's sprung up is the “NewPacifica” mailing list. This one is very lively and currently includes over 400 subscribers coast to coast.

Being lively, of course, it sometimes also gets a bit nasty. All sorts of things are happening on this list and official announcements are frequently posted there.

You can look at the NewPacifica list here, and you can join the list from that Web page too. If you subscribe to the “NewPacifica” mailing list you will receive, via E-mail, all of the messages which are sent to that list.

There is the option to receive a “digest” version of the list, which means that a bunch of messages are bundled into one E-mail and sent to you at regular intervals, this cuts down on the number of E-mails you get from the list. You will also be able to send messages to the list.

This list also has a Web based interface where you can read messages and from which you can post your own messages.

There is also the more WBAI specific “Goodlight” Web based message board. It is sometimes referred to on Back of the Book as “the bleepin' blue board,” owing to the blue background used on its Web pages. This one has many people posting anonymously and there's also an ancillary “WBAI people” board that's just totally out of hand.

When the computer in Master Control is working we sometimes have live interaction with people posting on the “Goodlight Board” during the program.

And then there is the historic “Free Pacifica!” list, which has been used to help organize resistance to Pacifica Management hijackers since the mid-90s. It's become a low volume mailing list because it's been eclipsed by some of the newer, more technologically advanced, lists. Just click on this link and follow the instructions, and you'll be subscribed. This is a mailing list only, it doesn't have a digest option nor does it have a web interface.

My voice mail number at WBAI is 212-209-2996. Leave a message.

You can also send me E-mail.



WBAI related links

Free Pacifica Web site

WBAI Listeners' Web page

WBAI Management's official Web site


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The contents of this Web page are copyright © 2007, R. Paul Martin.