>As you yourself notice, preserving local autonomy means, to a great
>extent, preserving a parade of music shows presided over by DJs who have
>not wised up to the fact that spinning John Coltrane, world music, blues
>or gospel no longer carry the same "transgressive" punch that they did in
>the 60s. Cockburn, in particular, wails about his "friend Opal Nations, an
>English transplant and one of the world's great authorities on gospel and
>blues" who lost his show "after fourteen years of unpaid, brilliant
>programming." Why gospel music, whose practitioners are generally either
>apolitical or openly reactionary, requires a home on a "progressive"
>station can only be chalked up to nostalgia for the halcyon days of the
>civil rights movement.
Problem is that any programming shift emerging from the national Pacifica authorities is likely to be ratings- and fundraising-driven, which means more health quackery like Gary Null (now also a PBS fundraising star too).
Point on Null: he charges WBAI a fairly high wholesale price for the fundraising premiums he offers, so he actually pulls down decent coin for this apparently selfless activity.
Doug