Back of the Book — February 9, 2019


We're pitching on this radio program. We hope that you'll contribute while we're on the air, or became a BAI Buddy in the program's name if you only listen to the archive. We plan to get to the below stuff and more on this program, but we'll have to pitch. the more money we raise for the station early on the more time we'll have to do actual radio programming. I will try to update this Web page soon.

Did you know that I've got a brief synopsis of some of the WBAI LSB meetings?

The LSB tried to meet on Wednesday, August 8, 2018, but it failed to achieve a quorum. I made a written Treasurer's Report for that meeting, but was not able to actually give a verbal one as well. You can read the written Treasurer's Report for August 8, 2018.

I have also posted a whole lot of the minutes of the Pacifica National Finance Committee. I'm a member of that committee because I'm the WBAI LSB Treasurer.

At this time there are elections going on in Pacifica. Also, a number of people have either resigned from the WBAI LSB or have reached the six consecutive year term limit for being on the LSB. So the WBAI LSB is much reduced. For a number of reasons, some due to incompetence, the 2018, Pacifica elections, which are to repopulate the LSBs, are running very late. In all likelihood the WBAI LSB will not meet again until March 2019, at the earliest. We'll see how that works out.

WBAI has a program schedule up on its Web site. The site has gotten many of the individual program pages together to provide links and such, so check it out.

Here is WBAI's current Internet stream. We can no longer tell if the stream is working without testing every possible stream. Good luck.

WBAI is archiving the programs! WBAI has permanently switched to yet another new archive Web page! This one is more baffling than the previous one. For some time I was unable to post archive blurbs, but I've found that after this program I was finally able to do so, but only for this morning's program. I still can't go back and plug in any archive blurbs for the programs that are missing from the archive. We'll see how this works out.

This is a link to the latest version of the official WBAI archive. The archiving software appears to have been at least partially fixed. To get to the archive of this program you can use the usual method: you'll have to click on the drop-down menu, which says “Display,” and find Back of the Book on that menu. We're pretty early in the list, so it shouldn't be too difficult. Once you find the program name click “GO” and you'll see only this Back of the Book program. I expect that after next Saturday they'll have the pre-recorded program that's alternating with us now showing up there too.

For programs before January 26, 2019, you'll have to click on the same drop-down menu as above, which says “Display,” and find Specify Date, it's the second choice from the top. You are then given a little pop-up calendar and you can choose the date of the program there. Then click “GO” and you'll see a list of programs that aired on that date. For instance, the previous program will be under January 12, 2019. You'll just need to scroll to the 5 AM to 6 AM slot to get to us. For those previous programs you can get the audio, but nothing else, since I can't post anything to those pages anymore. Yeah, it looks like they'll have the alternating program's name prominently there, but if you have the right date it'll be our program. Good luck.

Since the General Manager has banned Sidney Smith from WBAI he's not alternating with us on the air. At this time there's a regular, pre-recorded, program in the alternate week's time slot.

Things have improved this year on the PNB. I'll be trying to update my pages about all of this in the near future.

Bring Back Uncle Sidney!

Our friend, fellow WBAI producer and Saddle Pal Uncle Sidney Smith has been banned from WBAI by General Manager Berthold Reimers. The General Manager will not say why. He won't even tell Sidney why he's banned! This is grossly unfair to Sidney and constitutes abuse of Staff. Why did Berthold ban Sidney?

There's a posting here about it. More to come.

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The WBAI Winter 2019, 'thon is on. Management has moved programs around based on their evidence of having listeners, which is accomplished in the WBAI Managerial mind by how much the programs raise during these on-air fund raisers and by the Nielsen ratings, which the station is now getting after years of not getting any ratings at all. I hope we raise some money for the station this time.

So for this WBAI Winter 'thon, if you can, please call 1-516-620-3602 during the radio program and pledge some amount of money to help keep Back of the Book on WBAI and help keep WBAI on the air. Remember, the phone pledge needs to come in while we're on the air for it to count, otherwise use the on-line method below.

If you want to pledge to the program via the Web while we're on the air, you need to go here and pick the amount you want to donate, then click on “Add to cart,” and then be sure to pick Back of the Book as the favorite show from the drop down menu. Otherwise your pledge won't be counted towards the program.

Now you can also go here and donate to the program. This is probably less cumbersome than the above method. Under the Support this show line there are options to become a BAI Buddy for this program, or to make a one time donation. Give it a try!

WBAI is fighting for its life right now, and the amount of money raised in this 'thon will be crucial for the station's survival.

Management tells us that any donations made either one time or as a BAI Buddy on this page will count towards the program. Please try pledging to that page if you're listening on the archive. Let's see what the folks who don't listen in real time can do!

We plan to talk about the latest Trumpageddon stuff, but we don't want to load the program with too much of that. Still, it is looking like things are closing in on Donnie Bonespur Trump.

We plan to talk about some current issues around the climate change that we're going through. how much of this we can get to will depend on how well we do with pitching. Whatever we raise, the sea level is rising.

The planet Saturn
Saturn's Day is 10 hours, 33 minutes and 38 seconds long

There's been debate for quite some time about the exact length of a day on the planet Saturn. The difficulty is that you can't actually see the solid part of the planet. Now you can't see the solid part of Jupiter, either, but Jupiter has a powerful magnetic field and that can be tracks to give a precise figure for the planet's rotation. Saturn also has a magnetic field, but it's lined up quite well with the planet's rotational axis, so it shows nothing that can be tracked. Scientists have now figured out that the planet's rotation affects the rings of Saturn by making waves in them. From the variations in the waves in the rings scientists have figured out that Saturn's day is 10 hours, 33 minutes and 38 seconds long, in Earthly time units.

There are a lot of issues that are considered hazardous to talk about on the air at WBAI, even though the gag rule was lifted in 2002. However, there is the Internet! There are mailing lists which you can subscribe to and Web based message boards devoted to WBAI and Pacifica issues. Many controversial WBAI/Pacifica issues are discussed on these lists.

One open list is the WBAI specific “Goodlight” Web based message board. It is sometimes referred to on Back of the Book as “the bleepin' blue board,” owing to the blue background used on its Web pages. This one has many people posting anonymously and there's also an ancillary “WBAI people” board that's just totally out of hand. The bleepin' blue board had to add a step for folks to get onto it because it was under attack by spambots. When you click on the above link you may be asked for a username and password. Type in Username: poster Password: enternow

UPDATE: In of June 2012, I ended up having to salvage the bleepin' blue board, and so I'm the moderator on it now.

When the computer in Master Control is working we sometimes have live interaction with people posting on the “Goodlight Board” during the program.

Our very own Uncle Sidney Smith, whose program Saturday Morning With the Radio On used to alternate with us, has a blog these days. You can reach his blog here.

One formerly popular mailing list is the “NewPacifica” mailing list. Founded October 31, 2000, this list has been moribund for a couple of years due to de facto censorship by the group owner. As of February 2019, it had 696 subscribers coast to coast, but postings on it are very infrequent now.

Back in the day it sometimes also got a bit nasty. All sorts of things used to happen on this list and official announcements were frequently posted there.

You can look at the NewPacifica list here, and you can join the list from that Web page too. If you subscribe to the “NewPacifica” mailing list you will receive, via E-mail, all of the messages which are sent to that list.

There is the option to receive a “digest” version of the list, which means that a bunch of messages are bundled into one E-mail and sent to you at regular intervals, this cuts down on the number of E-mails you get from the list. You will also be able to send messages to the list.

This list also has a Web based interface where you can read messages and from which you can post your own messages.

We like to stay interactive with our listeners. Here are the various options for you to get in touch with us.

You can also send me E-mail.

And now you can even reach me on Twitter Twitter logo


WBAI related links

WBAI Listeners' Web page

WBAI Management's official Web site

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The contents of this Web page are copyright © 2019, R. Paul Martin.