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WBAI Struggles

Theater of My Mind said:
WBAI is currently off the air, apparently for the past couple of hours. Unpaid transmitter bill, or technical issue I wonder?
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Yeah, its off the air. My SONY DHC-ZX50MD says tuned and it is crystal clear in Brooklyn, no stereo; there is nothing but dead air!
 
Very strange, no TOH either, just dead air. Maybe shutting down the signal would mean a clear indication for the end, or a message looped over? Even on the facebook page one person wrote about them off the air. Strange, just strange...
 
Hmmm, Pulse 87 had a mysterious day of dead air on the 87.7 signal a few days before they went bankrupt. Wonder if the dead air is foreshadowing of WBAI's future.
 
Mediafrog+ said:
Extremes at both ends of the political spectrum tend to attract lots of socially dysfunctional people, who have great difficulty working constructively with others and have a hard time finding common ground or consensus in a group setting. Such people tend to be absolutely certain of the "correctness" or "truthfulness" of their particular world view, and are quick to dismiss or ridicule anyone who might have a different opinion. When you have many such people involved in a single entity, you will have trouble getting anything done, as the extremists will try to force an agenda on everyone else (an imposed "groupthink.")

Political extremists also tend to ignore or dismiss cold economic realities. They really don't care where or how money is raised or provided; just that their "cause" has a "right" to funding. Of course this leads to a financial mess, many examples of which can be seen at all levels of society anywhere in the world.

The intolerance and delusions of those involved with Pacifica will probably be their undoing.
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Extremely well stated.
 
Democracy Now??, regardless of the politics, to listen to Amy Goodman drone on in a boring rapid fire monotone is just BAD radio.
 
Another shoe drops.

After WBAI laid off its entire news staff the station used Free Speech Radio News as its news provider. Well it turns out Pacifica was FSRN's biggest customer, but the network hasn't been paying its bills so now FSRN is broke too.

Goodbye from FSRN
 
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Check out the World Channel 'America Reframed' show "Radio Unnamable"
"The story of radio DJ Bob Fass and his program "Radio Unnameable," which was an important voice of the 1960s counterculture and featured early performances by Bob Dylan and Arlo Guthrie. Original Air Date: Sep 17, 2013"
 
I cut my teeth at a community radio station much like WBAI back in the 70s. The Pacifica/WBAI problems were/are the exact same issues faced at the station I worked for.
There is a need for stations which provide alternative information and music. Where these mostly well intentioned people almost universally fail is they fail to understand the psychology of communication. They fail to understand that radio listening is mostly habitual and if you've ever tried to quit smoking or eating desert you know how difficult habits are to break.
I work for a college station where the kids insist on adding 80-100 new groups every week and never play the same cut by any group more than 3-4 times. The problem with this approach is that the audience never gets familiar with ANY of the music/groups they play. It's wonderful to provide an outlet for new music but how does it serve the artists or audience if the listener doesn't hear a song enough to decide if they like it?
Pacifica should take send their Mission Statement to a few program consultants. Spell out the "mission..." then leave it to professional broadcasters to "package" the programming. Stop ignoring the human factor in their radio presentation.
It might be interesting to see what Randy Michael's approach would be to NYC progressive radio...
 
It's amazing how WBAI manages to have its internal board elections cost $200,000 each. The NJ special election will cost about as much, and that's to operate polling places all over the state.
 
Of course they're going to pick another lefty organization, if there is indeed one that's doing noncomm radio on the scale needed for WBAI...

But I for one would love to see WFUV on there.

WFUV and WBAI would be a good swap, and may afford WBAI the ability to soldier on with the fellow travelers.
 
I'm calling it now: If anyone actually leases it, they'll fall behind on payments, fold, and never actually cover the operating costs.
 
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