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I've gotten several things up here that I said I would, and I think that's it for this Web page. It's Thursday morning, December 3rd, and unless something big breaks I don't expect to have a new page up here until the next program. A “special meeting” was held at WBAI on the night of Wednesday, December 2, 1998, to discuss the deficit which Pacifica claims that WBAI has. This deficit is being quoted by Lynn Chadwick, the new Executive Director of the Pacifica Foundation, as being “around $180,000,” although she has also quoted a more precise figure of $188,000. The initial claim made a couple of weeks ago by WBAI General Manager Valerie Van Isler was that the deficit was caused by premiums costing too much. Van Isler was attempting to blame the Staff of WBAI for the deficit. At the meeting on December 2nd, Lynn Chadwick apologized for this “miscommunication.” She admitted that they really do not know exactly what caused the deficit. From what Chadwick and Van Isler have said so far, however, we do know that operating funds were sacrificed for, and sometimes even converted to, funds that went into the WBAI “Capital Campaign.” So the Capital Campaign looks good and the operating budget discovers a deficit. After some flattery and psycho babble from a Pacifica “facilitator” named Loretta Hobbs, the WBAI Staff kept asking for proof that there even was a deficit. It was brought up that WBAI has “reserves” which it is required to keep on deposit with Pacifica. These reserves are in six figures and the WBAI Local Advisory Board has been trying to get an accounting of these funds from the Pacifica Foundation for two or three years now. This money from WBAI sits in a California bank earning interest at a rate which no one at WBAI knows, and Pacifica won't even tell WBAI how much is in there. To say that WBAI has a deficit while it has money sitting in a bank in California is absurd. The WBAI Staff wanted to know what was really going on with this deficit and also wanted the problem of the incompetent General Manager dealt with. If there is a deficit, the Staff mostly believes that it's the result of mismanagement by General Manager Van Isler of the move to 120 Wall St. last June. When the Pacifica facilitator tried to go to “the next phase” of the meeting, which was some sort of plan that Chadwick and maybe some others had shown up with, the Staff said that we couldn't listen to a plan that had no foundation. They said that if no one knew how big the deficit was nor why it had come into being then there could be no coherent plan. It is believed by many that this Pacifica plan includes layoffs at WBAI. Lynn Chadwick said that Pacifica will be sending us details on the deficit in January. I know that many of you like to see photographs I put up here. So I'm including a link from the last program to a photograph, not one of me, but it's one I took. It didn't really get up here in a timely manner for the last program, so I figure that many of you missed it. Hell, at least it's showing up, unlike the Leonid Meteor showers, which got completely clouded over in this area. I went to the now closed Royal Greenwich Observatory once in 1976, and got to straddle the Greenwich Meridian and look around the observatory. However, the only photograph I have of it is of my male ex standing on the Prime Meridian of the World. The photograph is used with his permission. Open Announcement to Dennis Rodman - I'm flattered that you left her for me, but I'm taken! Hey, if you missed the Forum on Unions and the Media held on Monday, November 16, 1998, at PS 41, located at W. 11th St. & 6th Ave. in Manhattan, then you missed a good event. Even the infamous Monroe behaved himself! People attending got to see the rare instance when he kept his mouth shut for three whole hours! I spoke as the Chief Steward of WBAI's Union, even though I was there direct from the endodontist's where I'd had root canal work. We're part of Amalgamated Local 404 of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America. If you had any doubts at all about Big Brother and the FBI's aspirations in that direction, then you might want to read this about the old song Louie, Louie, and how the FBI was going after it. Clearly I've been finding this “The Smoking Gun” Web site interesting over the last fortnight. It's not to be confused with a Web site named simply “Smoking Gun,” which is run by a graphics guy and which has some pretty odd visuals on it. Here's the New York Times' list of sites that have something to do with digitizing information and making it available to the public at large. I expect to be talking about this topic, and some of these sites, on the next program on December 13/14. Never let it be said that I passed up a chance to disagree with someone. A listener wrote in to correct my use of a word used to describe a photograph taken of something seen through a microscope. She said that my use of the word “photomicrograph” was incorrect. Well, click on the word and see what the Merriam-Webster Dictionary says! There are a lot of issues that we can't talk about on the air at WBAI. But there is an internet list called "Free Pacifica!" which you can subscribe to, and these issues are discussed there. If you subscribe to it you will receive, via E-mail, all of the messages which are sent to that list. You will also be able to send messages to the list. If you want to subscribe to the Free Pacifica! list just click on this link and fill out the form, and you'll be subscribed. Could open your eyes a little bit. |
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