[lbo-talk] please pledge to WBAI during my show on Thursday

Ben Jackson nonplus.plus at gmail.com
Thu Sep 18 07:45:32 PDT 2008


On Thu, Sep 18, 2008 at 12:10 AM, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> Because I've been pretty critical of the management of WBAI, I think the
> program director has it out for me. So if you ever listen to my show - on
> the air, on the web, on podcast - please make a pledge during tomorrow's
> fundraiser as a show of support. You can pledge online at WBAI.org and
> mention my show, but I'm not sure they fully account for those when tallying
> up a host's total. Best would be to call 212-209-2950 between 4 and 6 PM NYC
> time on Thursday. Please pledge big, and tell them how much you like the
> show (assuming you do, of course).
>

Sure thing.

By the way, what is it with community radio stations and their management? I was at a house party recently where three out of ten people in the room had worked in community radio, in three different cities. All three of us had clashed with incompetent, cliquish station management. All three of us had tried to bring about some simple reforms. And all three were eventually blacklisted and/or banned.

Has anyone else experienced this?

My own experience is simply bizarre. Over the years some volunteers at my station have tried to address various problems. During a period of dissent last year we faced inexplicable hostility throughout the organization. Why? Well, it turns out the station manager was dealing with our criticisms by claiming that, not only were we shit-disturbing leftists, our real goal was to personally destroy her.

In fact we had been waging a campaign of harassment against her for years. We had made harassing phone calls and sent written death threats. One of us had in fact shoved her against a wall. Another was a paedophile. She backed this up by Google-stalking us and printing out supposed "dirt", such as Manowar lyrics from someone's Livejournal. This she handed over to campus security. Finally, she claimed that we were satanists who "lived by our own rules" in a satanic commune together. I was the worst, actually, the ringleader, the brains behind the operation. I have to confess I was somewhat flattered by this.

Incredibly, her bosses not only took her at her word but initiated a crackdown against the insurgent volunteers without so much as informing us of the accusations. We only found a year later from a deejay, who had been warned that I might personally come into the station "with a gun" and "take them out one by one". The deejay came to her senses after having witnessed apparent financial irregularities.

Ben


> As my premium, I'll be featuring a long interview with Tariq Ali about his
> new book on Pakistan, the state of things in Afghanistan, and the U.S.
> presidential election, along with the book (The Duel: In the Flight Path of
> American Power, just out from Scribners).
>
> Doug
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> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>



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