Back of the Book links for the September 24, 2007 program

We'll be talking about a bunch of stuff tonight. We have a number of scientific things to talk about plus some political stuff and even a bit about WBAI itself. I can't get it all in here right before the program, so be sure to check back later on when I update this Web page. and now that I've got a new HTML editor on my machine I can get updates to this page done without jumping through too many hoops! And it's now Tuesday, October 2, 2007 01:28 and I've updated this WEb page. I may still have nore updating of it to do.

The September 18^th, 2007, WBAI LSB meeting was really both a waste of time and a toxic stew.

We were supposed to have had two meetings that night, the first was to be a Delegates' meeting where the WBAI LSB would vote on some proposed amendments to the Pacifica Foundations bylaws. The second meeting would be a continuation of the September 5^th LSB meeting.

Well, the minute the meeting started the Vice Chair said she wanted to make an amendment to the agenda. That amendment consisted of a motion to remove a non-faction LSB member!

We argued about that for an hour. Then we got to the bylaws amendments. The faction currently in charge all voted for them, the rest of us voted against them. Since it's required that a majority of all of the delegates vote in favor of bylaws amendments in order to pass them they failed at WBAI. I don't know how they're faring at other stations. I voted against all of them.

And then we got to the motion about removing the member. The member whom they want to remove is the same one whom they've been libeling on the air for a few weeks. They're trying to make believe that they don't know that he's allowed to collect checks made out to the station and then hand them in to make 100% certain that those listeners' donations got recorded.

This is just all about smearing that non-faction member. The faction wants people to not vote for whomever he endorses in this election that's going on.

And if you want to run for the WBAI LSB you need to contact the Local Elections Supervisor Dale Ratner. You can E-mail him or call him at 1-212-209-2828. But remember that the deadline for getting all of the election materials in is September 25, 2007. Mr. Ratner will be collecting the candidates' materials at WBAI from 7:00 PM until midnight on Tuesday night.

There will be an “emergency” LSB meeting on Tuesday, September 25, 2007, at 7:00 PM at 310 West 43^rd Street west of Eighth Avenue in Manhattan.

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.

WBAI is 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, or just listen to both programs in this time slot!

With all of the talk about WBAI's budget problems there has been a lot of talk about laying off the Paid Staff. I've been one of the people saying that if anyone should be layed off it should be management! Well, the following has been posted on WBAI's official Web site.

Notice from AFTRA

Notice from Shop Steward, Jose Santiago, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, the union that represents WBAI's Paid Staff.

AFTRA’s legal counsel has presented to management the cost saving ideas discussed during our last union meeting. They include our concerns about such issues as the charging of administrative fees to entities that run grant programs out of WBAI’s offices, the hiring of a full-time Development Director, which management says it no longer plans to do, and the need for management to comply with the provision in our contract that calls for better planning of fund drives.

The union also informed management that we will exercise our right to perform an independent audit of WBAI and Pacifica’s books, if they go ahead with some of the layoffs and staff salary concessions they have been discussing as they work toward finalizing the next budget.

Thank you.

J. Santiago, Shop Steward

And, as usual these day, I'm having some computer problems. But I've prepared enough for this that I'll get everything done on time. However, I'll have to leave some stuff off this Web page and plug it in after the program.

If you listen to the radio program on tape or via the Internet archives you probably won't be able to pledge during the program, but you can send us a check ahead of time. A regular one year membership is $25. So please send a check made payable to “Pacifica/WBAI” and send it to:

I should also point out that we'll need help answering the phones. This aspect of things now requires that you get your name added to a list so you can enter the building. So if you want to volunteer to answer phones for this 'thon you should call the Volunteer Coordinator at 1-212-209-2826. We always need more folks to answer the phones.

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.

Our very own Uncle Sidney Smith, whose program Carrier Wave alternates with us, has a blog these days. You can reach his blog here.