Web links related to the Back of the Book program of February 9, 2009
It's Sunday afternoon, February 15, 2009, 17:58, and this page is finished, I've updated this Web page with the audio of the short clip I played on the air of the Pacifica Auditor's comments and I've added some more about our Coney Island excursion in the days before this program. I'd previously added the location of the next LSB meeting and the tally total. Oh, we need some economic stimulus, all right! We're pitching on this program, but we're going to try it in a different way to see if we can make it less awful for the listeners. Please pledge to the program tonight.
Did you know that I've got a brief synopsis of many of the WBAI LSB meetings? Well, I do.
The next regular WBAI LSB meeting will be held on Wednesday, February 18, 2009, at 7:00 PM, at 125 West 109th Street, between Amsterdam Ave. and Columbus Ave. in Manhattan.
There were meetings of the WBAI Delegates' Assembly and LSB held on Wednesday, January 21, 2009, at the Judson Memorial Church Assembly Room, 239 Thompson Street in Manhattan
The LSB voted to hold the rest of its meetings for 2009, on the following dates:
All of these meetings are set to begin at 7:00 PM.
I had all of the faction members sitting next to me during this meeting. They just never shut up! They chatter on all throughout the meeting and make nasty, insulting remarks to and about others. And they just keep this up. I suppose that they're bolstering each others' delusions.
In an amazing move the LSB approved the minutes of the April 23, 2008, LSB meeting. This is important because the LSB under that faction, which I'm calling the FoBs completely screwed up the minutes of the meetings. In fact we have yet to see the minutes of the March 16, 2006, LSB meeting! The minutes are important because they're the business records of the LSB. I think that the FoBs are ashamed of what they pulled at that March 16, 2006, LSB meeting and that's why they haven't produced the minutes of it yet.
There are no minutes for most of 2006, no minutes for almost all of 2007, and none at all for the first months of 2008, when the FoBs had the majority on the LSB.
The LSB passed a motion reconstituting the LSB Radio show committee and asking the Program Director and General Manager for air time for it on a monthly basis. There was only one LSB radio show in 2008, far fewer than when the Program Director's faction had the majority on the LSB.
I gave a Treasurer's report. The news is not so great. And we are not sure about what's happening with WBAI's FY09 budget because I'm not getting the information from the Pacifica National Office.
The General Manager wasn't there but he sent along a written report. He talked about the premiums being dealt with. I've also heard from others that folks are coming in to volunteer their labor to get the backlog of premiums out at long last. If you haven't gotten a premium you should contact WBAI Management about this and see if you can get the long delayed premium now.
The Delegates' Assembly elected the following members to the Pacifica National board: Nia Bediako, Carolyn Birden, Kathy Davis and Jamie Ross. These are the same folks elected last April when the FoBs lost the majority on the WBAI LSB.
And this LSB meeting was over before ten o'clock at night! A definite improvement over the last one that went on into the next morning.
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 10:12 PM last night.
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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!
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We are pitching on this radio program! If you can please call 1-212-209-2950 during the radio program and pledge some amount of money to help keep Back of the Book on WBAI and help keep WBAI on the air.
Update: Well, this wasn't as successful a fund raising program as we'd hoped. We did raise $720, and we're hoping that we'll do decently for the next radio program when we have to pitch again.
We've been informed that we'll be pitching on the next program on February 22/23! Well, WBAI needs to pay the rent. And with changes on the PNB and in Pacifica Management things may be looking up.
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 or via the 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, 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
We are only a few months from the start of the next WBAI LSB election process. I hope that all of you will join WBAI as members and be not only eligible vote in those elections but be able to run as candidates for the LSB. And I hope that none of you votes for any of the crumb bums who will run on the so called “Justice & Unity” slate.
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.
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The Pacifica National Board (PNB) met last weekend. There were some dire financial reports, but there was some hope. There is a new Chair of the PNB, she has issued a statement to everyone in Pacifica. She is also the interim Executive Director. Pacifica also has a new interim CFO. Things may start to improve now.
We spoke about this PNB meeting a bit on the air. There was an Auditor's Report at that PNB meeting. It was delivered by a Mr. Tony Paul who is the Auditor of the Pacifica Foundation, which owns WBAI. I played a very short excerpt of his remarks to the PNB. It's 91 seconds long and it consists of four of Mr. Paul's statements. Each statement is separated from the others by a short “beep” sound. The four statements themselves are presented unedited. Pacifica Auditor's comments 1:31 — download the mp3 file
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On our previous program we talked about the tragic scene that was playing out at Coney Island. We talked a little bit more about that on this program, and also about our walk there soon after a snowstorm.
The snow covered Boardwalk at Coney Island was criss crossed by tire marks, probably from cop cars and Parks Dept. vehicles which use the Boardwalk as a highway even at the height of the Summer season when it's crowded with thousands of people. The Boardwalk was never built to withstand that much vehicular traffic.
To the left of the fence can be seen the snow covered beach, beyond that the dark waters of New York Harbor. In the distance are the iconic red structure of the Parachute Jump and the green Wonder Wheel in its winter configuration without cars on it. To the right is the white Astroland Tower, the fate of which is now uncertain since Astroland no longer exists.
While the Parachute Jump, Wonder Wheel and the Cyclone, which is not visible in this photograph, are landmarked the Astroland Tower is not. What will happen to the Astroland Tower is not known yet. Does anyone even have any plans for it? Will the “developers” just demolish it? Will it survive the current crisis and go on to become landmarked and as iconic of Coney Island as the other rides? Nobody knows yet but it's facing perilous times right now, as is the rest of Coney Island.
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Oh, we're going to talk about that place that's been putting out the tainted peanut butter. We'll also talk about the dry roasted rat that inspectors found there.
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. UPDATE: The bleepin' blue board has had to add a step for folks to get onto it because it's under attack by spambots. When you click on the above link you may be asked for a username and password. Type in Username: poster Password: enternow
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.
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The contents of this Web page are copyright © 2009, R. Paul Martin.