Web links related to the Back of the Book program of July 28, 2008


It's Sunday evening, August 10, 2008 18:08 and this Web page is finished. It's mid-Summer and WBAI is almost broke again. We'll be getting to a variety of things on this radio program, but it is a pitching program and so chaos will reign.

Did you know that I've got a brief synopsis of many of the WBAI LSB meetings? Well, I do.

There are a couple of LSB meeting scheduled for August, so far.

The first meeting is on August 7th, 2008, at 7:00 PM, at the Judson Church Assembly Room, 239 Thompson Street (just south of Washington Square Park, between W. 3rd & W. 4th St.), and this one's a special one where we're supposed to convene as a “Committee of the Whole” to discuss WBAI's FY09 budget and also the topic of violence and intimidation. At this meeting not only LSB members but anyone who attends will be able to speak on these issues.

The second meeting will be held on Wednesday, August 13th, at 7:00 PM, and this will be a regular LSB meeting. The FY09 budget will probably be discussed here too and may get voted on by the LSB. The location of this meeting is not yet determined.

The July 23, 2008, WBAI LSB meeting started off with an agenda that got re-written at the start of the meeting. One thing which got done was an executive session that I can't talk about because it was an executive session.

Once again the meeting got seriously disrupted by that same large nutcase who's made a habit of doing this. This time the building security people called the cops on him and he eventually left. That faction sycophant who's verbally attacked me at these meetings in the past also didn't want to leave the room for the LSB to hold its closed session. Lots of time wasted on getting that nincompoop out of there.

We passed some motions and the WBAI General Manager gave us a rundown on the first draft of the station's FY09 budget.

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 has an official Web stream of what's on the air at any time! You can go here and pick which type of stream you want! If this stream isn't working let me know. The stream was working at 9:04 PM last night.

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 months. When you first go to the Web page you'll only see the WBAI programs for the past 7 days. If you want to see older programs you can click on one of the “See ALL Shows” buttons.

Back of the Book is now one of the programs that you can download, as well as listen to on line.

I'm glad to announce that with a new person doing the archives there have been some positive changes. In the table on that Web page Back of the Book and Carrier Wave are both in the Show column. The “Date and Category” column shows the date of the program. After the program I go in and write the details of the program and say which program it is. Of course I'd recommend that you just listen to both programs in this time slot!

We're pitching on this program!

If you call in to 212-209-2960 between 1:00 AM and 3:00 AM when we're on and pledge it'll help both Back of the Book and WBAI.

The theme of this 'thon is “Free Speech.” So we'll exercise ours as usual.

And we hope that everyone who listens pledges.

UPDATE: We raised $1,240 on this program, thanks to the listeners who pledged and the folks answering the phones in the tally room. If you pledged for this or any previous 'thon please pay your pledge as soon as possible, it really does help to keep the radio station running.

A fleet of 5 NASA satellites has uncovered the events that trigger auroras, better known as the Northern and Southern Lights, to become more active. As some suspected, these sudden changes, which can affect communications on Earth, are triggered by magnetic fields “snapping” after they've been twisted by other forces in space. Astronomy magazine has more on this discovery.

We've updated Pickles' Web page on the Mermaid Parade held in Coney Island on the first full day of Summer. You might want to take a look at it.

On this program we also talked a little bit about the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit finding unfair the F.C.C.'s fine for the 2004, Super Bowl half time show's fleeting exposure of one of Janet Jackson's mammary glands.

Some think that this will result in the F.C.C. not being able to fine radio and TV stations for broadcasting “fleeting expletives.” I'm not so sure. While I think the entire F.C.C. “indecency” and “proganity” rules and fines are just stupid I also think that the Supreme Court is largely stupid these days. So if this goes to the Supreme Court they may well lock such F.C.C. practices in stone and we'll have that hanging over us from now on.

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.

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

You can also send me E-mail.



WBAI related links

WBAI Listeners' Web page

WBAI Management's official Web site


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The contents of this Web page are copyright © 2008, R. Paul Martin.