Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/10/07/sorely-missed.html
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It’s sad to hear that they’re going QRT, but OTH would benefit from just admitting that they’re a podcast and moving on.
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I thought KPFT in Houston made a mistake when they reduced the amount of music for more talk. But that was over 10 years ago, so what do I know. Still it seemed like they have more pledge drives than before.
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I don’t like them…they wet their nests.
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Volunteers and listeners are stakeholders, as well as existing donors. There is more to the story here, as one should fundraise while one is able to transmit the need before calamity shuts down operations.
Perhaps another option is finding another non-profit to take over operations even if that means a change to how it operates.
My opinion is that blindsiding those that run the operation isn’t going improve public opinion of the senior staff, board, and the supervising non-profit. That said,some npos have survived and even thrived with change.
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WBAI has a long history of being run by idiots.
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They do? Do most other birds not? And how do you know this? Are… are you watching them pee?
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Forever immoratalized though-
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I didn’t know (or, didn’t remember) that Al “Grandpa” Lewis hosted a show on WBAI.
I’m hoping this doesn’t happen to WPFW (which is in their fall pledge drive; I’d already renewed).
I gather that Pacifica is always in some kind of financial, organizational, and/or legal tumult but, recently, I received an email asking me to sign a petition to restructure the local and national boards. I am not sure what led to this (much less why I should or should not sign it); the internal disputes do not seem to be as public as they once were (for example, 6 or 9 years ago).
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They eat brains
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a few years ago there was talk that Pacifica was going to sell KPFA’s (Berkeley) place on the dial and a lot of talk about how WBAI was dragging the whole network down
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Radio Pacifica was of course started by pacifists who were COs during WWII. Like many who did time during the war for opposing war, they channelled that into changing the world after they got out. Pacifica, paperback bookstores, and extending Gandhi’s work with civil disobedience against war and in the civil rights movement. And just as WWI pacifists made it easier for WWII pacifists, WWII pacifists made it easier for antiwar protesters during the Viet Nam war.
That said, Pacifica has had it’s problems in recent decades, likely around money and control. But.I hadn’t heard anything in recent years, so I thought things had been smoothed over. Wikipedia goes into detail.
I would. add that a local radio station that’s non-profit and comunity based has had its own problems in recent years, not yet closing down but big battling meetings between various parties. A lot of long term shows were either cancelled by the station or stopped by the people doing the shows. I thnk money is an issue, but control seems to factor in too.
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That’s so metal - I like them even more.
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WBAI are one of the four stations directly owned by Pacifica, they’re not giving it away
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I wonder if Democracy Now! is affected.
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It’s crippling sad to lose WBAI. Yes, the station, and Pacifica, have had long periods of terrible management and ridiculous disputes. And, I suspect, eventually, we’ll find out that both the station and Pacifica were targets of, oh, the police, the Koch network, and a half-dozen dodgy Wall St. PR firms. They made plenty of enemies over the years and at least some of their internal mess was caused by, or was fallout from, nefarious plots. That said, the left in general has had to deal with all kinds of interference and, in the end, only WBAI and Pacifica could have saved themselves. Maybe a more straightforward non-profit structure and a more clear-headed mission would have saved them. Maybe.
It’s hard to say how much we’ve lost from WBAI going under. Looking at individual shows and thinking “Oh, this could be a podcast.” doesn’t address the loss. Over the years, WBAI was a training ground for hundreds of people who otherwise would have missed out altogether on media careers and home to dozens of shows that may seems tame now but some years ago found that only WBAI would support them. And, of course, what community there is in the NYC left owes a deep debt to WBAI and Pacifica. Where will our cab drivers get news from Haiti? Who’s going to sponsor a show about Jewish left history? And on and on. Some many little but important communities were held together through WBAI. Sadly, as wobbly as WBAI has been recently, there’s really no institution that might take its place.
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DN! split awy from pacifica quite a while ago (in 2002), so probably not in a negative way…
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It used to have one, and it turned into a personality cult around Mary Frances Berry
Maybe after everybody who remembers that era dies off
