>Say Doug, since you are still broadcasting on WBAI as of yesterday [hell, I
>have to admit that your on air voice is kinda sexy],
Why thanks.
> do you want to offer
>your take on the latest turn of events there? Is Utrice Leid the second
>coming of Benedict Arnold? Has Amy Goodman gone off the deep end? Or is it
>all a tempest in a tea pot?
I don't know what to make of it all. I think the hardcore Savepacifica types are way overdramatizing, but on the other hand, I don't really know what the Pacifica people have in mind either. When I got to the station to do the show there were about 4-5 picketers/leafletters outside who looked like the very picture of marginalized leftwing losers. It's ironic that the station staff wanted to get rid of station manager Valerie Van Isler - who is almost universally despised - and to have Utrice made program director. VVI, who can't stand Utrice, rejected the staff preference and made Bernard White program director. So the Pac people come in, fire VVI and promote Utrice - a version of what the staff wanted - and this is viewed as a "coup." Utrice is quite smart and disciplined, and she could be a very good station manager.
As for the broader issues, the Pac people are right in one sense - the 5 stations are a resource that's being squandered. Listenership is too small and, as far as I can tell, too weird. A 50,000 watt station in the middle of the FM dial in NYC should have a peak listenership higher than 20,000. But how do you broaden the audience without blandifying the product? I really don't know the answer to this. But I don't think the cause is helped by the Manichean terms that this is being portrayed in.
Doug