Web links related to the Back of the Book program of September 8, 2008


It's Sunday night, September 21, 2008 20:09, and this Web page is finished. I've updated this Web page with the updated location of the next LSB meeting. This is the 22nd anniversary program of Back of the Book! We plan to get to the below topics and maybe even more. We're also going to try to get to some of the mail. I'll be updating this Web page over the next few days, so check back for those thrilling updates.

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

There will be a regular meeting of the WBAI LSB on Wednesday, September 17th, at 7:00 PM at the Broadway Housing Communities (at the Dorothy Day Houses), 583 Riverside Drive between 135th & 136th Streets in Manhattan. Note: this is a change from the previously posted location.

The first meeting of the WBAI LSB this month was held on Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008, in the Assembly Room of the Judson Memorial Church, just south of Washington Square Park.

We elected a new Secretary, Gail Blasie. She's not a member of the WBAI LSB but the bylaws allow non-members to serve as Secretary.

We postponed a whole lot of things, but we did pass a motion regarding excused absences in committees. And then we went into a committee of the whole to discuss the budget. Oh, these are interesting financial times for WBAI.

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 8:11 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!

This is the 22nd anniversary of this radio program! We'll be doing the usual traditions and reading Kafka's “Before the Law” and whatever else we think of to do.

In fact this radio program first aired on September 8, 1986, so this anniversary is exactly 22 years from that first program.

On the first ever Back of the Book program we had to immediately pitch! We don't have to do that tonight, but we'll be pitching on the next program on September 21/22.

We hope that you'll pledge to WBAI while Back of the Book is on at that time.

If you listen to the radio program on tape 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, if you can, please send a check made payable to “Pacifica/WBAI” and send it to:

R. Paul Martin
% WBAI
120 Wall St. 10th floor
New York, NY 10005

And we hope that everyone who listens pledges or sends in a check.

I should also point out that we'll need help answering the phones. In order to answer the phones you'll have to get into the building. The building Management now requires that you get your name added to a list so you can enter 120 Wall St. So if you want to volunteer to answer phones for this 'thon you should call the WBAI switchboard at 1-212-209-2800 during business hours and let the folks in charge know you want to volunteer so they can put your name on the list. We always need more folks to answer the phones so if you want to volunteer to answer the phones for another program during this 'thon the above procedure is the way to do it.

Astroland Park, Coney Island with a big rocket

The famous Astroland rocket, and Coney Island Boardwalk concessions

Pickles of the North will be reporting on the closing of Astroland Park, one of the last two amusement parks in Coney Island. Their lease has not been renewed and they closed the amusement park on Sunday, September 7, 2008. Pickles of the North was there and will tell us about it.

We plan on talking about dark matter and dark energy on tonight's program.

Of course the political conventions are over. And as it turns out the goddamned Republicans are trying to steal my intro! But Ann and Nancy Wilson are having none of it!

Ohhhh, I'll have more to say about all of this, especially this Palin weasel, on the program.

The Autumnal Equinox will occur on September 22, 2008, at 11:44 AM (ET). You can find out about when the seasons turn here.

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.