Back of the Book links for the August 3, 2024, program

We talked about former WBAI Arts Dept. Director Matthew Finch on this program. We also talked about the FCC regulations that prohibit producers from talking about candidates for political office, even if that candidate is a criminal who is trying to destroy democracy in the United States of America and the world and who has already tried to destroy democracy on January 6, 2021. Strange world, this. I may have some more to post here soon, so it might be worth it to check back for an update.

The next regular WBAI LSB meeting will be held on Wednesday August 14, 2024, at 7:00 PM. That meeting will be held on ZOOM, even though ZOOM compromises privacy and security.

Some years ago the WBAI LSB voted to hold its regular meetings on the second Wednesday of every month, subject to change by the LSB, so we have the following schedule:

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 is archiving the programs! WBAI has ~~permanently~~ switched to yet another new archive Web page! This one is more baffling than the previous one. For some time I was unable to post archive blurbs, then I could, and then I couldn't again. Now I can again and there are a whole bunch of archive blurbs up there now.

This is a link to the latest version of the official WBAI archive. The archiving software appears to have been at least partially fixed. To get to the archive of this program you can use the usual method: you'll have to click on the drop-down menu, which says Display, and find Back of the Book on that menu. We're pretty early in the list, so it shouldn't be too difficult. Once you find the program name click GO and you'll see only this Back of the Book program. Management has fixed some problems that we'd been having with the archives.

For programs before March 23, 2019, we're all out of luck. The changes that took place once WBAI Management took control of the WBAI archives seems to have wiped out all access to anything before that date in March. You'll have to click on the same drop-down menu as above, which says Display, and find Specify Date, it's the second choice from the top. You are then given a little pop-up calendar and you can choose the date of the program there. Then click GO and you'll see a list of programs that aired on that date. For those previous programs you can get the audio, but nothing else, since I can't post anything to those pages anymore. Yeah, it looks like they'll have some alternating program's name prominently there, but if you have the right date it'll be our program. Good luck.

Since the General Manager has banned Sidney Smith from WBAI he's not alternating with us on the air. As of November 2020, Back of the Book airs weekly.

Former WBAI Arts Dept. Director Matthew Finch passed away this past week. I remember Matthew when he was Unpaid Staff, and when he was doing substitute engineer jobs at WBAI. He became the Director of the WBAI Arts Dept. In the late '90s and left WBAI in the Autumn of 2003. I can see that he left quite a while ago, but it doesn't seem that long ago to me. I suppose that that's an artifact of my being old now.

Matthew really worked at being the Arts Dept. Director. He facilitated a lot of music and other programming, and he overesaw the production of new radio plays during his tenure. He also endured a lot of turmoil at WBAI. He left in 2003, to become the Music Director at radio station KUNM in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In an E-mail dated October 14, 2003, Matthew wrote to Kathryn Davis at WBAI and I think his E-mail tells a lot about Matthew. So below is what Matthew wrote.

Feel free to circulate as you wish.

I'll tell you, it's a lot easier moving when you're in your 20s: cancel the phone, pack the futon & bring your life savings in your wallet. Here we are in our 40s opening 3 separate bank accounts, buying a '97 Mazda 626 ($2900 - thank god for the Repo Man), sniffing out a mortgage on a 100 year-old house and finding a last-minute rental in the working class side of town. The truck with all our possessions appears to be lost in Virginia so at least we're living like 20-year-olds, something that lost its charm for Cinthia on Day One.

Today is the first day Albuquerque has seen rain in months, and the mountain that normally fills my office window is lost in cloud. They tell me this is tradition, since the city's marquee event, The Balloon Fiesta, always begins in bad weather, thus ensuring another year in debt. Of course the plant life takes advantage of moisture anytime it can so sprouts and blossoms shoot out of the most withered scrub within just a few hours. Speaking of wildlife, saw my first coyote on the road to Santa Fe (scrawnier than I'd expected) and my first road runner (a lot bigger - he looked like a pheasant training for the Olympics). As for the domestic front (this is for you, Sharan), we got quite a surprise. Since Boudreaux is a seasoned traveler, we assumed he'd be the trooper and Zelda the bird would go into cardiac arrest. Not so. Evidently Boudreaux was having constant flashbacks of his abandonment as a puppy by a family who packed up & drove off, leaving him on the street. He was needy through the packing, the move, the flight and the hotel stay, and now that we have a real home he's barking at every passing sound, something he never did on Elizabeth Street, even with our domestics, junkies and late-night visits from NYPD. Zelda on the other hand came through like a champ, sailing through plane travel and hotel living in a 10"x6" carrier. Yesterday she got a new 3' tall parrot cage and this morning I took her outdoors for the first time in over 15 years. I think she likes New Mexico.

I'm at the end of my third full day at KUNM, and like the dog I'm having flashbacks of my own. When I hear Counterspin in the mornings or Amy in the afternoon or hear one of our DJs play Michael Franti (very popular here), I feel Rod Serling standing behind me. Most of the time though I'm consumed with learning a new system at a station with as large a volunteer staff as 'BAI. It seems there are some personalities that pop up at every community station in the country, and the issues of ego and elbow room, tradition and experiment are not so different from NYC. But there is a term used here - manana time - and I think it helps people to see that such things are not issues of life & death. Maybe the life&deathness of all things 'BAI has been the biggest obstacle to getting the place onto an even keel. Maybe life&deathness becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Of course, KUNM is a primarily a music station, and the system here is designed to discourage the my show psychology - with mixed results: you don't learn much about the people behind the mic, but the broadcast day is engaging and absolutely seamless. Since we're loosely connected to the University of New Mexico (loosely is the result of an era the vets here refer to as The Radio Wars) I have 3 work/study students to help me out with reviewing & tracking the music and planning for specials and new programs (attention TXC). Three days in and I've already dubbed them Teamo Supreme.

KUNM Has a Web page devoted to remembering Matthew. They say, Longtime KUNM music director, Matthew Finch, died Sunday at the age of 64. His family said his death came unexpectedly from natural causes and he went peacefully, in the arms of his family and two dogs. They also note that Matthew also loved animals, and he and Cinthia have had many pets over the years, including dogs, cats, and a parrot named Zelda. Cynthia was his significant other. The Web page continues, Their family moved to New Mexico in 2003 when Matthew accepted a job as the music director at KUNM. For over 20 years, he oversaw the station's expansive music library, which they say included around 80,000 CDs and vinyl records in 2022.

Eileen O'Shaughnessy is a local Albuquerque musician who worked with Matthew and she said, I just can't imagine what the music scene will look like from here on out because he held such an important role in terms of holding the big picture of the New Mexico music scene. Albuquerque on the one hand, but really New Mexico.

All WBAI Staff got an E-mail from the brand new interim Program Director this week. We were reminded about the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations regarding endorsing, or dis-endorsing candidates for political office.

Pickles reminded me that we had to do the same stuff during the 2020, election. Since certain people in Pacifica, people from the west coast have already filed complaints about WBAI in an effort to get the FCC to deny WBAI's most recent license renewal. And since Pacifica Management just rolled over and didn't even give the people who had been accused to doing improper things on the air any kind of due process, not even hearing their side of the story, WBAI really have to be careful in this election cycle.

Subject: Political Broadcasting
Date: Wed, 31 Jul 2024 16:01:02 -0400
From: Keziah Glow
To: WBAI Staff Announce

Greetings,

I hope this message finds everyone in good health and mind.

As we approach the 2024 general elections, our status as a non-profit license holder enables us to foster diverse conversations. However, it is important to remember when on air the individual host must take on the role of convener.

As dedicated activists, journalists, and scribes at WBAI, it is crucial that we serve as facilitators, allowing our guests to convey the facts with passion and enabling our listeners to share their thoughts. Please keep in mind when hosts/producers are on-air we can not broadcast opinions of candidates running for office
This can be challenging, especially given the impact of the presidential election on us, but we must adhere to FCC regulations.

Please take your time to review the documents shared by our Compliance Officer.

§399. Support of political candidates prohibited
No noncommercial educational broadcasting station may support or oppose any candidate for political office. (June 19, 1934, ch. 652, title III, §399, as added Pub. L. 90-129, title II, §201(8), Nov. 7, 1967, 81 Stat. 368; amended Pub. L. 93-84, §2, Aug. 6, 1973, 87 Stat. 219; Pub. L. 94-309, §7, June 5, 1976, 90 Stat. 685; Pub. L. 97-35, title XII, §1229, Aug. 13, 1981, 95 Stat. 730; Pub. L. 100-626, §10, Nov. 7, 1988, 102 Stat. 3211.)

Best regards,
Keziah Glow
Interim Program Director
WBAI 99.5FM New York
[personal phone number redacted]

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to staffannounce+unsubscribe@wbai.org .
Pacifica-Political Broadcasting for NCE Station Guidelines for Programmers April 12 2023 final

So apparently I can't refer to Donnie Bonespur Trump at all until the 2024, presidential election is over. This means that I can't hope that he goes to prison for his felonies on the air. But the Internet is free of those FCC regulations. So I will say what I please about all of these right-wing creeps here.

There are a lot of issues that are considered hazardous to talk about on the air at WBAI, even though the gag rule was lifted in 2002. 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.

One open list that no longer exists was the WBAI-specific Goodlight Web based message board. It was sometimes referred to on Back of the Book as the bleepin' blue board, owing to the blue background that was used on its Web pages. This one had many people posting anonymously and there was also an ancillary WBAI people board that was just totally out of hand.

In June 2012, I ended up having to salvage the bleepin' blue board, and so I was the moderator on it for its last seven years, until it got too expensive.

Sometimes we used to have live interaction with people posting on the Goodlight Board during the program.

There used to be a number of mailing lists related to Pacifica and WBAI. Unfortunately, they were all located on Yahoo! Groups. When Yahoo! Groups was totally shut down in December 2020, all of those mailing lists ceased to exist. One year earlier their file sections and archives of E-mails, had been excised leaving only the ability to send E-mails back and forth among the members. Now it's all gone. Older Back of the Book program Web pages tell a little more about those lists.

Back of the Book — August 3, 2024