[lbo-talk] Why WBAI Has No Money

ravi lbo at kreise.org
Fri Aug 12 07:42:42 PDT 2005


Joseph Wanzala wrote:
> Why WBAI Has No Money
>
> According to White, the listeners actually loved his policies, loved his
> programming, and were delighted that Gary Null, Mike Feder, and Robert
> Knight were no longer on our airwaves.

count me in as one of those listeners (pledge every year). take out arundhati roy tapes, the DEA fellow and the phone phreak / PC radio shows, and i will double my pledge!


> In the past, we foolishly believed that listeners sent us money because
> they wanted to support our programming -- but we were mistaken.
> According to Bernard White, listeners merely send us money to buy premiums.

look, i sent money to WBAI because i felt it was a worthwhile thing to have on the air, *even* if it provided a forum for gary null. almost all of WBAI's shows (minus amy, doug, FAIR's weekly bit, michio kaku sometimes, and potential others that i may not have heard) are boring and doug comes on at a time i am sitting at my desk (yeah, i know about podcasting and all that!). i send the money anyway.

my question is: have you or others looked at all the possible reasons for WBAI's problem? perhaps the arrival of air america radio took away a chunk of audience?

if WBAI is to survive purely by broadcasting "alternative medicine", "global beat experience", and such, what's the point of WBAI as a genuine voice of left politics?

--ravi



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