Web links related to the Back of the Book program of November 24, 2003
All right, it's Sunday night 12/7/2003 22:07:50 and this page is done. Well, I was a little bit pissed off here. Uncle Sidney Smith, whose program Carrier Wave alternates with Back of the Book has been given notice that he's going to be laid off from his job at WBAI! I think this is unfair. Sidney actually performs a function at WBAI, as opposed to Management's pals. I certainly had something to say about all of this on the program, along with other things. We also read a bunch of mail on this program.
Okay, the only thing that counts now is the fact that Pacifica is finally running elections! Find out more details regarding these elections here. These elections will determine what happens to the Pacifica Foundation, which owns WBAI, and WBAI from now on.
Mr. Roger Manning from the listener group Coalition for a democratic Pacifica New York (CdPNY) attended and has posted his notes from the meetings, along with other documents on the group's Web site.
As of September 15, 2003, the Pacifica Foundation has new bylaws! More about that here.
WBAI now 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. Here's a schedule made by a listener who has Web links for various programs and producers.
Our colleagues from Off the Hook now have both a RealAudio streaming web cast operating, and a new MP3 stream both of which were working at 10:34 PM last night. The MP3 feed is now the preferred feed.
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The Pacifica Foundation, which owns WBAI, has revamped its Web site and now 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.
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As I related on the previous program, WBAI is still in serious financial trouble. Layoff notices have been given out to about 14 Paid Staff people.
The laws of economics are not quite as ineluctable as the law of gravity, but in their most basic sense they damned near are.
WBAI Management has been burdening the payroll with patronage jobs for quite a while now. Carol Spooner, Secretary of the interim Pacifica National board, and the person whose lawsuit strategy saved Pacifica, and WBAI, from being destroyed by the old hijackers has said that current WBAI expenses are about $120,000 a month more than projected income for the period from October through the end of January 2004. You can read her entire letter to WBAI listeners here.
Will WBAI survive? That's an open question right now. Unfortunately, there are those who insist that there is no crisis and that we can somehow just raise a little more money and we'll be okay. Yes, there are people at WBAI who are delusional. I've had some of my say about this publicly.
Is the current WBAI General Manager preparing his exit strategy? Is this a conflict of interest on Mr. Rojas' part? Isn't he being paid to Manage WBAI? Where does the General Manager of a radio station that's in such serious financial trouble get the time, at least, to re-start his old business?
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Part of tonight's program is going to involve some reading from a really old book. This is one of those experimental things I try from time to time, so we'll just see how it goes. I'm hoping that you'll enjoy it
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We did get to some mail on the program. Besides a very long snail mail letter about presidential IQs we got to some E-mail, which we are presenting here.
We are all glad that Miz Pickles made it back okay, but admit it you old fairy, no matter how docile and somewhat dopey and don't give a damn liberal the Canooks are, they will never accept an old Fag as being a part of their family.
Anyways, nice of you to talk about Miz. Picles being a part of the Coney Island's Mermaid Parade, but you try to hide your participation in the said parade.
But a picture of you in full costume has surfaced...see attachment....
Have fun,
Gene, Gene The Dancing Machine
Gene includes an image of a guy in a rubber suit. I'm not posting the image because I don't really know its provenance, but suffice it to say that the name of the image is “Bonerman.” No, it was not a costume I wore to the Mermaid Parade. Thanks for thinking of us though, Gene.
Yes, Al is talking about the segment I did reminiscing about my first time in real school 50 years ago. As a 6 year old attending my first Catholic mass all alone I thought I heard the priest say as he administered Communion to people “Ketticaw went on vacation.” Of course he was speaking Latin and it turns out he was saying, “Corpus Domini nostri Jesu Christi custodiat animam tuam in vitam aeternam,” which is a bunch of mumbo jumbo that translates to, “The body of our Lord Jesus (H.) Christ preserve thy soul unto life everlasting.” Well, I did add the “(H.)” part.
Yeah, I had a hypoglycemic event on the air. What happens is that my blood sugar drops pretty low. The symptoms are a jittery feeling and sometimes I'll sweat. For a really bad one it feels like the bottom of my stomach has fallen out. I've confirmed to my personal satisfaction that this is a hypoglycemic event by using the blood glucose montior to see what my blood glucose levels are during such events. they are definitely low.
My cousins went to Holy Name on 9th Ave. in Brooklyn. Small world.
The candles are in the refrigerator because otherwise they'll melt in the Summer.
And in fact thanks to Susan and some other listeners we made $1,015 on what turned out to be a rogue pitching shift! Thanks again to susan and the other listener-sponsors.
As they used to say on an old time radio program, “It Pays to be Ignorant!”
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.
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