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WBAI Struggles

DavidEduardo said:


Most of the major broadcasters, past and present, and a lot of smaller ones, too, have tried to buy WBAI and they have been "aggressively" rebuffed.

I made a pass at it for the company I headed back in 1979 and the response was quite bizarre and included statements like "capitalists don't understand our mission..."
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That is downright amazing...for going on 40 years a station has pretty much told everyone under the sun in the same manner "No thanks, we'd rather wallow in our own filth". BTW, if it was a formal on paper rebuff, I'm sure that would be an amazing read for Mr. Eduardo's site!

Random unrelated to this question:

Is there anyone under the age of 35 with a significant pull on the station? Used to be Pacifica was kind of an intellectual, younger crowd on the airwaves in the 60s-70s. From what I can tell, a lot have aged with the station...and you don't see any "new blood" really hitting the air these days. Like management, it seems like those who try and do something new/innovative since after about 1975 or so are quickly shown the exit.

Radio-X
 
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TVCOOL said:
Will 2017 finally see these issues that WBAI have been going through be resolved?
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History would tell us no. According to Mr. Eduardo, they have been offered the chance to sell/trade the station for close to 40 years and have rejected it. Their finances have been in shambles for nearly 20 years, and just when you think "Geez, this can't get much more ridiculous/worse than it is right now", it does. Somehow, none of their licenses have been pulled out from under them by court order.

That being said, depending on how the ESB back rent/eviction debacle works out, it may be tough for the status-quo to be maintained for much longer. One thing is for certain, unless the folks at ESB give them a sweet deal to pay off the back rent, they will be dragging their heels as long as they can legally.

I'm sure even if its forced out of their hands through sale or trade, a group of folks will perform an act of "civil" disobedience at the transmitter site to try and stop it from going off the air. Of course, tasers and a lawful order from a police department tend to stop those kinda things dead in their tracks.

Radio-X
 
wavo said:
I have no idea regarding the accuracy of the blog - it may be misleading, or intentionally false. According to the blog, she demanded, and received rights to the program. I'm guessing she has collected millions in fees and broadcast rights, much of that from Pacifica affiliates who HAVE been paying. The financials are not published so we are not privy to where the money goes.
Money IS the focus. The disdain of capitalism, mainly because of the disparity in income, is hard to stomach coming from wealthy hypocrites. In my opinion, amy goodman personifies elitism and exactly why WBAI is so dysfunctional
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I find this odd that Amy Goodman is being attacked for getting out of the dysfunction of Pacifica according to my link. Wait I thought the left loves Goodman Very much? If this is true wheres the SEC documents at? Lawsuit Documents? I think this is going to end up like Pizzagate where a mentally insane guy shows up with a gun at Democracy Now Studios and pull an Edgar Welch Type incident here. The Allegations over Goodman's money is an issue here.


https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/07/us/edgar-welch-comet-pizza-fake-news.html?_r=0

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news...y-gunman-i-regret-how-i-handled-the-situation

http://wbai-now-and-then.blogspot.com/2013/11/steve-brown-on-pacificas-debt-to.html
 
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Note the long-running thread on the New York board - "WBAI Struggles." Nothing ever changes at Pacifica in any significant way.
 
https://www.wbai.org/

Here is an update on WBAI they are off the air note they mention technical difficulties.

https://radioinsight.com/headlines/121797/wbai-off-air-not-due-empire-state-judgment-yet/

The ongoing drama surrounding the Pacifica Foundation and its 99.5 WBAI New York has taken another turn as the station went off-the-air on Saturday due to transmitter failure.

The station remains off today and Pacifica Interim Executive Director Bill Crosier states it may be until the middle of the week at the earliest for them to resume broadcasting. Crosier stated in an e-mail forum that the station first went off due to a Verizon related STL outage but then returned briefly before the transmitter “malfunctioned and shut down”. They are awaiting new parts to be delivered or for a backup transmitter to be delivered from 89.3 WPFW Washington DC.
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I was picking up WJBR in WBAI's place, only 10 miles North West of NYC. WJBR is at least 100 miles away from my location and had little static while driving around
 
RadioPatrol said:
https://www.wbai.org/

Here is an update on WBAI they are off the air note they mention technical difficulties.

https://radioinsight.com/headlines/121797/wbai-off-air-not-due-empire-state-judgment-yet/
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They figure they can ship, and install, a used, backup transmitter from Washington before they can fix a blower problem. Geebus!!
They could plumb their exciter into the antenna and stay on the air albeit with low power. You might be surprised at how well 50-60 watts does at 1300 feet HAAT! That would require about 1 hour to accomplish in most facilities.
There just has to be more to it than "the blower quit..."
 
TVCOOL said:
WBAI has one hell of an guardian angel watching over them.
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they must have an angel - seems like every other month they have one kind of crisis or another - and that's a wasted frequency, in my opinion.....
 
BTW I mentioned in another thread that the Pacifica National Board met this past week, and approved taking out two small loans. One will be used for the Empire State Realty Trust lawsuit. The other will cover some of the foundation's other debts. They had been talking about filing for Chapter 11 reorganization, as the above article indicated, but apparently decided against it.
 
other board reports WBAI is only streaming as of this morning but i tuned just now and they are still on the air. Anyone have more info about this ?
 
This is what was posted January 8 today...doesn't seem like from a older discussion...

Posted by Eddie Goldman on January 08, 2018 at 10:48:43:

It was announced on WBAI, apparently for the first time this morning, that the station is not broadcasting on the air, but can be listened to through its stream on its web site. What a slow, senseless, and needless death.

TheBigA said:
They reported transmitter trouble before the holidays.
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