And if you want to participate in that and become a financial supporter to this radio station, you can call
212-209-2950 or go online to give2wbai.org. That's give2wbai.org online.
All right, it's 7 p.m. Get ready for Off the...
I screwed that up. Get ready for Off the Hook, coming up.
At the third stroke, it will be 2, 23, and 50 seconds.
At the third stroke, it will be 2, 24, precisely.
At the third stroke, it will be 2, 24, and 10 seconds.
At the third stroke, it will be 2, 24, and 20 seconds.
We're sorry. The number you have reached, 99.5 WBAI, is now off the hook.
The telephone keeps ringing, so I ripped it off the wall.
I cut myself while shaving, now I can't make a call.
We couldn't get much worse, but if we could, we would.
Funding it won't, but the best is paid for worse.
I hope that's understood. Funding it won't.
Funding it won't.
But it, I think, brings up a lot of, like, it's a little bit of a projection, sort of,
of his own obsession over medical science and, like, well-being and stuff.
Well, he's the one saying that.
Yeah.
He's the one that's saying, a parasite ate part of my brain, please vote for me for president.
You know?
Campaigns are not what they used to be.
Yeah, and also, like, take this other unsolicited medical advice I've given you.
All right, well, I want to thank everybody who called in last week when we started the
fundraiser.
Apparently, we got a very good reaction, and we'd like people to continue to call in, 212-209-2950,
or give to WBAI.org.
We'll have some more details in just a couple of moments, but, you know, I wanted to call
attention to this story because I think it's very important because it has to do with radio.
And radio is something that we all love.
That's why we're involved in it in the first place.
And this particular story here in Business Insider is entitled, Radio Isn't Dead, Yet.
Thank or Blame Your Car.
And just a couple of words from this, it's mostly an opinion piece.
Radio is an old-timey medium that made sense when there was no other way to listen to things.
But it makes no sense in the age of Spotify and podcasts and listening to what you want
when you want to listen to it.
Well, not exactly, at least not according to a new survey from Nielsen, which argues
that lots of people still listen to radio.
And obviously, you're one of them.
Whether you're listening to us online, over the air, you're listening to radio.
Now, specifically, Nielsen says that radio accounts for nearly 70 percent, that's seven
zero percent of all listening time to ad-supported audio, which obviously is not us, but we're
definitely radio.
And that's for adults in the U.S. with the remainder cut up between podcast, streaming
audio, satellite radio.
But not surprisingly, those numbers are weighted towards people 35 and up who are likely to
remember a time when radio was the only way to listen to audio other than people speaking
directly to you.
But radio is still strong for a younger demo.
I can't believe I just used a term like demo over the air.
Yeah, demographic.
Nielsen says it accounts for 45 percent of ad-supported listening for 18 to 34 year olds.
Again, we're not ad-supported, we're listener-supported.
And I would argue that we have an even higher number of people that listen to this brand
of radio because it's not ad-supported, it's not filled with garbage that doesn't come
from the heart.
See, when you listen to a station like WBAI, you're hearing people, individual people who
are speaking from the heart, who are saying what is on their mind at the moment.
It's 7.07 p.m. in New York right now.
It's live.
We're individual people.
We're not artificial intelligence.
We're not pre-recorded.
We're not piped in from some faraway place that's never heard of the place that we are.
And radio is always under threat from one source or another.
But in particular, lately, AM radio, yeah, that other band, that kind of radio is really
under threat.
There is a bipartisan group of U.S. senators, and I don't say that phrase very often, but
there is a bipartisan group of U.S. senators.
They're fighting back against automakers who want to remove AM radio from their vehicles.
The Senate is looking to pass the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act.
I'll say it again, AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act.
Does that spell something?
Miva.
Okay, they probably could have come up with something better.
But that would require the Department of Transportation to issue a rule that requires all new motor
vehicles to have devices that can access AM broadcast stations as standard equipment.
Now, last year, my old friend, Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts, surveyed 20 automakers,
found out eight had removed the radio from their electric vehicles.
Why?
Because of strong interference between the motors and the AM frequencies.
Yeah.
So because these electric vehicle manufacturers haven't figured out yet how to stop all the
interference from being generated from their cars and blocking out AM frequencies, their
solution was simply to remove the AM radio.
You know, all of that interference, if you will, is still there.
It's still being broadcast or piped or whatever the technical phrase is.
Who knows what kind of health effect that has on people in those cars, if it can block
out an entire AM radio frequency.
The solution, rather than have a crappy radio in the car that you can't hear, is to get
rid of the radio.
I think the solution should be fix the technology so that that doesn't happen or come up with
something better.
A total of 60 senators have co-sponsored the bill, including John Hoeven, a Republican
from North Dakota.
And if you get a Republican from North Dakota to agree, you've got something.
He said AM radio is critical for rural communities that rely on stations for information.
Now, Kyle, we were just out in Texas after the eclipse.
We were driving into Dallas and the sky was getting dark and we saw lightning and we knew
something was coming.
We knew there was a storm literally on the horizon.
And luckily, we had an AM radio in the car we were driving.
In fact, I even remembered from my childhood days when I would turn on an AM radio in my
bedroom and listen to distant radio stations because you can do that.
After the sun goes down, AM radio propagates and you can hear stations from all over the
country or at least up to the Mississippi pretty much here in New York.
And I remember listening to a station called WBAP, 820 AM.
I remember listening to that station and saying, wow, I'm here in Dallas.
I'm here on Long Island, but I'm listening to Dallas on the radio.
I remember that frequency.
I remember that station.
I tuned to that station.
And sure enough, they were activating the emergency alert system every 10 minutes or
so warning people about severe thunderstorms, possible tornadoes, dangerous hail, all kinds
of things.
And then a few days later, we were driving into New Orleans and there was this massive
flooding going on, flash flooding, dangerous, life-threatening flooding.
I remember WWL, 870 AM.
Also when I was a kid listening to distant AM stations.
This is important.
This matters.
When you're on the road, even when you're in a community, local radio is super important
and it must be preserved.
Can't be replaced by Spotify.
Can't be replaced by your MP3 player.
It's hugely important.
Well, yeah, it isn't even that our memory of what it was is as important, but it's that
distance, the propagation distance.
I think that's part of the argument for situations where you need to get the word out over a
tremendous amount of terrain that may be varied and so needs that kind of power.
I think regardless of what the history is, we have to kind of agree on a way to get critical
information out.
This is kind of a difficult thing to say, but I think I'm in agreement.
I think most people would agree.
The AM spectrum itself may not be filled with that much of a variation across the country.
I think this is a reflection of recent experience traveling around and just generally what people
understand of the kinds of content on AM radio.
It's religion, right wing radio and sports.
That's pretty much it.
Indeed.
Exactly.
And stations from Cuba occasionally.
However, in a situation, yeah, and stations from Cuba with a clock.
There's a station.
A metronome.
I forget the frequency, but you will find a station, you can hear it all throughout Florida,
that has a ticking clock and they're giving the time, but they're also giving headlines.
They speak over it.
But those things in a storm, you don't have to and say there's talk that you don't necessarily,
of course, much as the kinds of and very much like what we do here and say at WBAI, we may
not agree necessarily with the talk that's going on in between those alerts, but those
alerts are critical if you're unfamiliar with an area, if something is emerging that
is incredibly impactful to your visit and your transit of an area.
So weather, of course, but all kinds of emergency situations.
We need to agree upon something and this, I'm not an expert in radio frequency or anything.
I'm not going to purport to be, but the manufacturers have to come on side with like, okay, can
we insulate or otherwise protect the ability to receive on whatever channels we agree upon?
History, nostalgia aside, is it important to be able to broadcast in a variety of situations
to these new vehicles as a backup or as an option, regardless of content and how it's
used now?
And I think that is AM.
It's also important to have that service be available, not to be substituted by this new
high tech way of doing it that requires a phone signal or a phone or all kinds of internet
access.
No, there's nothing simpler than turning on a radio and there's a signal that's coming
through the air.
You are not identified.
You're able to simply pick up the signal and get information.
And that is something that, you know, as I said, what they broadcast usually is probably
not my cup of tea.
That doesn't mean I cannot support the medium and I certainly hope it goes both ways.
I certainly hope there are people out there who listen to different kinds of radio stations
who see the importance of WBAI and why a station like this is vital in many ways.
But Alex, do you have a point on AM radio or have you listened to AM radio recently?
Yeah, I have.
And I'm wondering if the nature of the bipartisan support is because AM radio, as you noted,
is mostly a bunch of Bible banging, Jesus preaching xenophobia that's out there.
Quite possibly, maybe.
But on the other hand, I see this as an opportunity.
If this AM radio for every vehicle act does, in fact, pass, you're going to have all these
cars that are going to be manufactured in the future that are going to have AM radios.
And why is it then that we can't change the content that's out there?
It doesn't have to be religious content.
Why can't we broadcast or maybe this is an opportunity for, dare I say, a bunch of pirate
radio stations taking over the AM spectrum if it's going to be an unregulated space out
there that nobody seems to care about?
Or perhaps we do it the right way and we get some kind of FCC license to broadcast on AM
radio.
It's probably a lot cheaper to do so now.
But I think that there's a market there and this is a really niche market and I think
it could be really interesting to change the entire perspective of the content that's out
there on AM radio.
I think it can be done.
We could call it Air America.
What could go wrong?
I'm sorry.
That was a cheap shot.
But yeah, I agree with you.
I do.
It's just these things always seem to be a lot harder to pull off than we think.
I think that's so interesting, that trade-off.
If this does go through, what will then become of that landscape, of those frequencies, how
it's used?
If it's abandoned and it doesn't have the reach and value it does to current holders
and the consolidated forces of the market of today, then of course that devaluing will
make it much more approachable for entities that may not have the same tax-free religious
status or other variables that allow them the largesse in the market.
You can have low-power AM, like Alex suggested.
So it's either way, like, okay, so are we on board with this or not?
Because if it's not that valuable and that market seeds, and of course you lose people
with older vehicles, all of those AM radios then become less useful.
It is a loss to the value it has had.
Right.
The technology is extremely important to preserve.
People always want to fill that.
I don't want to see us making the same mistake that we're making with all kinds of other
old bits of technology, assuming it's not relevant anymore, getting rid of pay phones,
getting rid of copper, and basically suffering when something goes wrong and our new technology
fails, not having something to fall back on.
And certainly being able to broadcast and listen to something with just a radio, that
is the basic that should never go away.
Yeah.
And there's a lot of equipment and modernization does have fall-on effects for the ways that
you might transmit over AM in a vacuum in the market.
So it's not something that is necessarily going to go away.
It may be costlier than things like FM or satellite.
It's not an advancement if you can no longer hear the radio signal you could hear 50 years
ago.
That's not an advancement.
We're doing something wrong, and I'm sure there's a solution.
Let's get on that.
Let's make it a priority.
Okay.
Another priority is keeping this place on the air so that we continue to broadcast.
Again, thanks to the people who called in last week.
The number is 212-209-2950.
The website is give2wbai.org.
And we are offering, I guess we're offering a radio station here.
We're offering an amazing broadcast facility.
It brings you all kinds of differing opinions, all kinds of perspectives.
And I guarantee you, many of them you will not agree with.
Many of them you will have problems with.
Many of them you will find yourself shouting at the radio.
But that is what we bring to you.
That is what this place has been about since 1960 when it first went on the air.
If that means something to you, then please join the family.
Call, pledge, go online and pledge.
And for every pledge of $150 or more, we will send you a thank you gift of an off-the-hook
anthology flash drive.
What that is, is a collection of every single radio program we have done since 1988, if
you can believe that, up until the end of 2023.
In each of these shows, we have conversations very much like this one.
We talk about radio.
We talk about technology.
We talk about computers, phones.
We argue.
We have different people.
We have all kinds of guests.
And it plays back now as interestingly as when it aired live.
You know, you can go back to the 1990s.
And not only do you hear what the news was then, but you hear technology, how technology
sounded different.
You hear how a phone used to ring differently.
You hear how people, when they call in, sometimes a phone call sounded better than they do today
because people use landlines more.
And that was a good thing.
We talk about encryption.
We talk about technology development.
We think about the future, and we're in the future now.
We talk to ourselves now from then and say, future selves, what kind of world are you
in?
Now we can answer them.
Some enterprising listener can piece those two shows together and have us talk to ourselves
in a healthy way this time.
And we'll maybe answer some questions, or maybe our predictions will come true, or maybe
they'll be so fantastically wrong that it'll be amusing.
Either way, you're supporting the radio station, and that's what matters more than anything,
is keeping 99.5 FM non-commercial in New York City as it has been for over 60 years,
64 years now.
That is incredible.
That is an achievement.
That is an achievement that belongs to the citizens of New York City and the tri-state
area, and in later years, globally, around the world, people who have joined the WBAI
family and supported this place.
Because a radio station like WBAI is rare, doesn't exist most places.
Sure, you have national public radio stations everywhere.
You have different non-commercial type stations, but a station like WBAI, which has so many
different voices and perspectives in the middle of a huge city like New York, that has managed
to survive longer than any commercial radio station in that same period of time.
I challenge any commercial station out there, AM or FM in the New York City area, has anyone
been on the air consistently with a particular format, or in our case, kind of a multi-format format?
Nobody has been able to do that.
Go ahead, Alex.
And correct me if I'm wrong, Emmanuel, but I think that WBAI is unique among even Pacific
stations in that we are a station that is devoted to dialogue, to talk, as opposed to
some of the other Pacific stations that have been playing music for a very long period
of time.
As I understand the history of the Pacifica Foundation as well, is that these stations
were put into the hands, or the licenses were put into the hands of the Pacifica Foundation
with the idea of pacifism in mind, which is where the origin of the term Pacifica comes
from, in that the notion behind the stations was that dialogue and talk was what the world
needed and was what could avoid future world wars.
And I think that WBAI has really held true to that notion, and I think that's why it's
one of the longest-running stations, I think, probably in the country with this particular
type of format.
I would go so far as to say not even New York, but I'd love to know if there are other older
radio stations existing in the country, and so does my beagle, apparently.
Many dogs listen, many cats listen to this radio station, but as your beagle is saying
right now, call 212-209-2950, go to give2wbai.org, join the people who have pledged to support
this place over the years and into the future.
Without you, we're nothing.
But am I wrong about that, though, Manuel?
Are the other Pacifica stations – I think KPFK in Berkeley is still a mostly dialogue-talk-focused
station, if I understand correctly.
The other stations –
I can't listen to all the stations.
I just know that different stations do things differently, but we all share the same goals
in the end.
WBAI has always been rather unique, mainly because our call letters are different.
The other stations, KPFK, KPFA, KPFT, WPFW, you see kind of a trend here.
And what are we?
WBAI.
We're totally different.
We kept the call letters that the station before us in 1960 had.
So I think it was – was it World Broadcasters of America?
I don't know what it stood for exactly.
But yeah, there's tremendous history.
But each station is unique in its own way and they've all been around for quite a
while and we want them all to stay around for quite a while.
So yeah, that's hugely important.
We're honored to be a part of that free formatting and it is varied.
It's changing.
It meets the needs of listeners in the New York area and you can count on WBAI, especially
with your support, to be here, to be covering news events, cutting to national events and
bringing you the kind of eclectic talk and other formatting and programming that people
have come to enjoy and new stuff potentially.
This is a place that allows people to get on the air, have shows like ours and introduce
them to the public and have broader reach in their message and in their discussions.
Absolutely.
Again, 202-209-2950, give to WBAI.org, please.
Keep those calls and visits to the website coming in.
Of course, if you have any questions or concerns, oth at 2600.com.
As we pointed out last week, yeah, there are people trying to shut us down, trying to shut
us on the show down, trying to shut the radio station down, trying to shut down the concept
of non-commercial radio.
Always has been the case, always will be the case, but I think all of us together are stronger
than that and we seem to have proven it many, many times.
All right, moving on.
Hacker happenings.
A lot of hacker happenings this summer.
I just wanted to outline a few of them, starting with this month.
We have a couple of different conventions going on, including a couple you might never
have heard of before.
How about CackalackyCon?
Have you heard about that one, Alex?
No?
Can't even guess where it is, can you?
Wait.
Cackalacky.
We don't have time for you to ponder it.
Yes or no?
Do you know what it is?
No.
Okay.
I don't.
Let me guess though.
Somewhere in Pennsylvania?
No, it's not.
It's somewhere in North Carolina.
I would not have guessed.
If you go to CackalackyCon.org, I'll spell it, C-A-C-K-A-L-A-C-K-Y-C-O-N dot O-R-G,
and that is a hacker convention taking place down there in North Carolina on May 17th through
19th.
Also on that date is NOLACON.
You want to give a guess for that one?
It's a little easier.
NOLACON.
Same weekend.
That would be New Orleans.
That's correct, Alex.
That's correct.
You win the prize.
No, New Orleans.
That's NOLACON, N-O-L-A-C-O-N dot com, and that's taking place also May 17th through
19th in New Orleans.
There's RVASEC, Moravian Security Conference in Richmond, Virginia, June 4th through 5th.
That's R-V-A-S-E-C dot C-O-M.
June 14th through 16th, we have the Vintage Computer Festival Southwest.
Never been to that one.
That's taking place in Richardson, Virginia.
That's taking place on May 17th through 19th.
And then, of course, one we're familiar with July 12th through 14th, HopeXV.
That's the one that a bunch of us are involved in as well, Hope.net.
That's taking place over in Queens.
And one reminder to people that want to submit talks and participate in that conference,
deadline's coming up on May 20th, and I know a lot of BAI listeners have given talks in
the past, and it's a great way for you to reach out and meet people and basically share
your expertise.
We'd love to see you there.
Hope.net, more information on that.
Speaking of expertise, coming up at eight o'clock, we have our own Michio Kaku giving
a special edition, a live edition of Exploration, and a renowned theoretical physicist who graces
our airwaves.
All I know about this show is that it's the Wormhole Certificate Edition.
All right, so take that however you will, but Michio Kaku coming up at eight o'clock
here on WBAI.
Now, getting back to news and getting back to Congress, because apparently Congress is
in the news quite a bit, Lindsey Graham might be getting hacked as we speak.
He has relinquished his cell phone to authorities after communicating with someone who impersonated
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
Yeah, the sergeant at arms is investigating a possible hack of Senator Graham's phone.
His spokesperson, Taylor Reedy, said in a statement, yeah, and I'm sorry, folks, I'm
reading this from the New York Post.
I don't like to read from the New York Post, but sometimes that's where Google directs
me and I have no choice, and they're the only ones really talking about the story in this
way.
So, yeah, the Senate's sergeant at arms oversees cybersecurity in the upper chamber.
Not sure if people knew that.
On Monday, the sergeant at arms reportedly warned members of a phishing scheme.
Now, Senator Graham recounted the ordeal.
Ordeal?
It was a phone call or it was a text or something.
Ordeal?
OK.
During a discussion about artificial intelligence at the Hill and Valley Forum on Capitol Hill
last Wednesday, he said, you know, my phone is in the hands of the FBI now, so I get a
message.
I love when Congress people try to talk tech.
It's just so amusing.
I get a message.
I think from Schumer.
It ain't from Schumer.
And next thing you know, my phone's, I don't know what.
He doesn't know what his phone is.
Anything you can create apparently can be hacked.
Well, yeah, I mean, there's some truth to that.
Anyway, the FBI has declined to comment when when the New York Post contacted them.
But probably what that means is they hung up the phone when the New York Post called
them.
Anyway, Schumer, by the way, is known for using a vintage flip phone.
Good for him.
You know, I'd love to get one of those myself.
So sick of the smartphones.
They're good for some things, certainly.
But the way people are glued to them.
I mean, look around you.
If there are people around, you guarantee somebody staring at their cell phones, their
smartphones.
When we were on the floor or in the gallery looking at the floor of Congress, both Senate
and the House, so many people were staring at their phones, not paying attention to anything
that was being said.
This is the government.
This is C-SPAN.
You know, you think people are riveted to it.
Nobody is.
They're all staring at the at their screens.
I believe that type of it's a feature phone is what it's called.
Which the flip phone.
Yeah.
OK.
All right.
Hook me up.
And they make them for the modern network.
Anyway, Lindsey Graham used to use a vintage flip phone.
Then in 2015, remember this former President Donald Trump?
Is he still around?
Is that guy still around?
I haven't heard his name in a while.
He revealed his cell phone number to the world as the two bitterly sparred on the campaign
trail.
And then, OK, you might remember this.
Lindsey Graham later cut a video of himself flexing some samurai skills while dramatically
obliterating his old flip phone, slashing it with a kitchen knife, burning it and tossing
it into the blender, among other acts of destruction.
You know, we might need to have some kind of that intervention here, because there's
some there's some issues, I think, unresolved with that is definitely excessive raging on
on hardware.
Yeah, I think that that is a more suspect, like suspicious sort of a situation.
Yeah, I think it's kind of like he's lashing out at himself.
You know, there's something about himself that's that's troubling him anyway.
There's probably the best line I could read in a New York Post story.
It is possible to change phone numbers without destroying the original cell phone.
You've been told by the New York Post that, yeah, you don't have a clue here.
So OK, if I understand this correctly, what happened was Lindsey Graham got a message
that said it was from Chuck Schumer, but wasn't from Chuck Schumer.
And so he gave his phone to the FBI, because how else could somebody have done that unless
they hacked his phone?
First of all, if you get a message from somebody that claims to be that person, anyone can
do that.
Anyone could do that from any phone.
But even if they did it from the phone number of the person that they're they're pretending
to be, that means that person's phone maybe got hacked.
You know, not yours.
You're receiving them.
I don't know.
You can't you can't talk to Congress.
Yeah.
Let's go ahead.
I mean, I wonder if it was a text message or if it was through some kind of messaging
app.
If it was through a messaging app, let's say perhaps WhatsApp, it could have been done
in a more believable fashion.
Namely, you could have a name associated with a telephone number that does not belong to
Chuck Schumer, and you could have the name associated with that number as being Chuck
Schumer.
And then you could even post up a profile picture on WhatsApp of Chuck Schumer.
And that would make the whole farce thing a little bit more believable to Lindsey Graham.
But apparently it doesn't take very much to trick or deceive Lindsey Graham.
No, it doesn't seem like the brightest bomb.
I will say, too, just one anecdote about Chuck Schumer and his flip phone is that several
years ago, on the way back from D.C. to New York, I had the extremest pleasure of sitting
across from Chuck Schumer on the Acela train back to New York.
And almost the entire time, Chuck Schumer was on the phone.
And he was just calling people back, telling them that he couldn't speak to them on the
phone at that moment because he was on the train and he couldn't speak freely.
Also, you know, he was being considerate to the people around him by calling them to say
that he couldn't speak because it would annoy the people around him if he did.
No, it wasn't that he was annoying everybody around.
I don't think he really cared about that at all.
But he was just calling people back simply for the to be able to say that he called them
back. But then he was telling the people whom he called that he couldn't speak because there
were other people around and he was on the train.
So the whole point of calling them back was just, yeah, it was more form over
substance. And had he had some kind of smartphone, maybe he could have sent them a text
and saved all of us.
I don't know. You know, to me, I hear a congressman, I hear a senator who is aware of
the security vulnerabilities and is not giving out private details and specific
information that somebody like you, Alex, might have intercepted, written down, used
against him in the future. He was very much aware of your presence and everybody else
around him and seeing them as potentially hostile.
And that's why he called everybody back and said he was not free to talk.
That's a very, that's a very shrewd, one way of looking.
I'm trying to be supportive here.
I really, but yeah, aren't they quiet cars on the Acela?
There are quiet cars in the Acela.
I wasn't in that one. Yeah, I've got stories about the quiet cars, too, as I'm sure you
know.
There are also cell phone jammers, but I think it's illegal to use us on congressmen.
I don't know, I just I heard that.
OK, so speaking of government and
hacks and things like that, the FBI is investigating a hack of its own computer
network. I got this story, too, right before the show from Reuters.
The FBI is investigating a hack of its computer network in an isolated incident that
has now been contained, the agency said on Friday.
The FBI is aware of the incident and is working to gain additional information, the
agency said in an email statement to Reuters without providing further details.
Now, you might not have heard of this story.
The reason for that is because, well, Google sends these stories to us.
We look for keywords such as hacker, hackers, hacked, hacking, things like that.
Don't tell them all. OK, I left out a few.
But in little tiny print at the top of the story, this story was written on February
17th, twenty twenty three.
And for some reason, Google decided this was a new news story.
There's absolutely nothing to indicate that it is a new news story.
There's no new developments or anything like that.
And it's very tiny print that you could easily miss.
So I'm just wondering, Google can't even figure out how to how to sort by date and
just simply push stories that are new, sending stories that are over a year old.
I wonder how many newsrooms fell for this.
We almost fell for it, but no, we looked at the date and sometimes there isn't a
date on the story, though.
Sometimes these stories don't have dates included and you could easily read
something old as new.
I just don't get why something as basic as when the story came out is not included
so many times.
I don't think they want Google News to be that useful.
You know, maybe it's just Google doesn't want Google News to be that useful.
Yeah, it's just like it's run its course and they just they want other people, other
products to take its place or something.
OK, well, you know, I'm happy to oblige.
Well, or if something weird is going on with it being boosted in other ways.
It's not isolated to Google, though.
It's you know, if you look at the Daily News or something and you'll see related
stories to the one you're reading and many of them will be from years ago and
sometimes they don't even say that they're from years ago and you wind up thinking
something's happening that actually happened a long time ago.
OK, so shall we remind the folks again that we want them to call?
Yes. All right. The number is two one two two zero nine two nine five zero.
The website is give to WBAI.org.
And basically this radio station exists on listener support and that's pretty much
it. That's pretty much all we get.
We don't get corporate funding.
We don't want corporate funding.
You know, we don't want Exxon paying for our shows.
We don't want Verizon paying for our shows because if we had those companies doing
that, we wouldn't be able to criticize them.
We wouldn't be able to expose them for the things they're doing.
We wouldn't be able to speak freely.
The only way we're able to speak freely.
And again, that involves sometimes many times saying things that you don't agree
with or saying things that other people don't agree with, causing controversy.
We live for the controversy.
You know, we live for the discussion, for the argument.
And that is what a democratic society is really all about.
So your contribution, your phone call, your visit to the website, that's what keeps us
going. That's what has kept us going over the years.
And we really, really, really appreciate that from our listeners and off the hook,
from our listeners, 24 hours a day, seven days a week here at WBAI.
What you will get if you pledge one hundred and fifty dollars or more as a thank you
gift from us is the Off the Hook Anthology flash drive.
And what that is, is an almost incomprehensible amount of audio.
I think it's over a hundred thousand minutes.
I can't even conceive of that.
It's over fifteen hundred shows.
Imagine that. Fifteen hundred shows of us.
Well, it's not always the same people, but we're talking about technology.
We're talking about all kinds of different things that have happened over the years.
We're talking about society around us.
One time the WTO protest in Seattle was going on live over the air while we were
broadcasting off the hook.
Everything, 9-11, wars, you name it.
And things have been happening that we have covered.
It's super important to have these archives.
So it's not just an archive of Off the Hook.
It's an archive of society, an archive of everything that's been going on around us.
And that's why the flash drive really is so interesting and appealing, I think.
I find myself just clicking on shows.
I mean, they're all recorded, you know, sometimes off of cassettes from many years
ago, but they're all there.
Might be a couple that are missing, but pretty much we've archived everything.
And, you know, the advice I give to people who record anything, whether it's video,
whether it's audio, save it.
Save it because it becomes fascinating in the decades ahead.
Everybody wants to hear that.
So, yeah, that's our thank you for people who pledged that amount.
And you can call in 212-209-2950, give to WBAI.org.
And again, there are all kinds of other thank you gifts for different levels that are on
the website that the person who answers the phone will be able to tell you about.
The most important thing, though, is you're giving WBAI a lease on life so that we're
around to cover the new technology of the years ahead, the new wars that happen, the
new strikes that occur throughout our society and various businesses, all kinds of
things that you hear in a typical day here on WBAI.
Yeah, please keep those phones ringing.
We're here volunteering.
We do our best to bring you interesting programming of all types, including this show
Off The Hook. And we really, really thank you for your pledge of support for this radio
station, for the free format, the community that we provide here in New York City, meeting
the needs in times of crises and outside of that with provocative and thought provoking
content. So please give what you can and pledge your support for this radio station.
Go ahead, Alex.
I think as a testament to what WBAI has meant to our listeners over the last 30
something years that Off The Hook has been on the air, I have to say part of this
anthology is going to be some really amazing radio that Off The Hook produced.
And I'm thinking in particular about 24 and a half years ago when WBAI had its own
protesters in the lobby and the NYPD was literally in the station at 110 Wall Street.
When you were live on the air, you had a cell phone at that time when not everybody had a
cell phone. And I went into the hallway and held that cell phone up while the police were
claiming that anybody, sorry, I don't know if I lost you there, but the police were
claiming that anybody who remained in the hallway at 110 Wall Street was going to be
arrested. And they had no idea that their voice was being broadcast over the airwaves to
New York, New Jersey, Connecticut.
And when we came out of the station that night, when WBAI was under siege and in battle,
there were, it was incredible, right?
I mean, we were like heroes to the people.
And I don't know, there was a massive number of protesters out there with drums and
supporting WBAI.
And that's what the station has meant so much to people over the years.
And make no mistake about it right now, WBAI is in crisis and we need that support.
We need you to call 212-279-2950 to make sure that we're here.
And I think it's and we need that support as a testament to the legacy of those people that
were there at that protest who aren't with us anymore.
They need our support to keep the station going.
Yeah, I think, you know, the way we go into this is we don't ignore things that are going
on around us. If there happens to be a protest at the radio station and NYPD is in the
hallways, we're not going to discontinue business as usual.
You know, some people do radio differently.
What we do is we focus on what's happening around us.
And we'll we'll point that out and we'll say, by the way, this is going on right now.
This is what we are seeing.
And yeah, as you said, doing that, doing that over the radio, we wound up getting a lot
of people showing up outside.
That wasn't our intent. We weren't trying to rally people.
We were just reporting what was going on.
And you can you can hear the whole thing.
You can just hear how it all unfolds.
It's like a massive soap opera.
I think we've been on the air longer than than General Hospital at this point.
Quickly now to finish off again, phone number two and two to zero nine two nine five zero
and give to WBAI.org United Health, as the CEO, has been testifying before a Senate
Finance Committee about a recent cyber attack at the company's technology unit, its
impact on patients and providers.
And according to what they are saying, hackers potentially stole a third of Americans
data. Yeah, a third of Americans.
That is some some lax security there.
If that many people were on one system and a system was compromised.
Now, according to the CEO, Andrew Whitty, he said they now use multifactor
authentication. Didn't do it before, but they learned their lesson.
So, yeah, it's good to see corporate executives learning.
Of course, having Congress be the ones to grill them.
Not sure how much you're going to learn from that, but this was this was one hell of a
hack. It really was damaging.
Go ahead, Alex. I mean, it remains to be seen for me that, you know, how that amount of
data could be compromised in one fell swoop like that.
You would think that data of that magnitude should be segregated in some way or
hopefully encrypted at rest.
So, you know, there's there's a lot of explaining and I think unraveling to do from that
particular incident.
It's specifically health care is a target in in ways that it just has not been.
The systems are are disparate.
They're often not as well protected or funded in some of these provider networks.
So it's it's a huge problem and it can really shut down an entire region from critical
services. So and it's it's a trove of of a lot of, by definition, personal, intimate
data across the board, whether you're talking billing or or personal identify personally
identifiable stuff. So it's it's a huge issue right now.
Another huge issue, fraudulent Taylor Swift tickets being sold over Facebook.
If you see a Facebook ad for Taylor Swift tickets, don't do anything because it's probably
fraudulent and Facebook is doing nothing to fix the problem, according to multiple news
reports. So that is typical.
They don't answer the phone.
They don't contact you.
They don't email you back.
And a lot of people have lost money so far just on that alone.
And wow, that is that is something.
OK, we're almost out of time.
Alex, I just want to ask you, who do you like in Eurovision this year?
I like Moldova.
Well, they got eliminated.
Oh, did I? I don't know.
I'm just guessing. Yeah.
I still like.
Well, well, well, you're not taking this seriously.
Just guessing.
I'm just guessing.
Yeah, I don't know.
Did you even know Moldova was in it?
I mean, yeah, they had a pretty decent song.
I wish they weren't eliminated, but they were yesterday in the semifinal.
Well, they ruined it for me now.
I already happened.
How did I ruin it for you?
Well, spoiler.
OK, but seriously, who do you like?
I have no idea.
I'm not watching this nonsense.
What's the most important thing going on this weekend?
Is a Eurovision final.
Really?
Oh, my goodness.
You know, tell me who who's the favorite.
Well, I don't know who the favorite is because they haven't voted yet.
I know the second semifinal is tomorrow.
And the way that see it in this country, if people are interested in this,
I know there are very few people interested in this country.
You can pay for Peacock and have commercials as a result of paying for it.
Or you can get a VPN and come in from a country like Denmark, like we're doing,
and get no commercials and have the whole thing broadcast live
and experience the excitement.
Yeah, I know it's silly.
I know it's something that is beneath our standards in most cases.
But you know what? There are exceptions in my case.
I got to say, I like Ireland.
I think I think Bambi Thug is a name that we will be very familiar with.
They're the first
performer that
is a they, you know, not a he, not a she.
And that's that's history in Eurovision.
But the song, the song is what really is amazing.
Yeah, the energy definitely matched the moment.
There was there was theatrics and
a huge range.
And it did it provided all the
all of the aspects of entertainment
you would come to expect from a show like Eurovision.
I am equally interested purely just even
at the very least to be able to relate to people who are from the area
that understand it and know it very, very well.
I think it's a cultural reference point that we can take an interest in at least.
Well, in addition to being non-binary, Bambi Thug is
diagnosed with ADHD, a member of the LGBTQ plus community
and the target of a lot of right wing hate
and is also practices neo-pagan witchcraft.
You know, they're they're just so cool.
But the song, like I said, is what I think is really amazing.
I also like Croatia, Estonia, Armenia.
I think those are really good pieces as well.
I hope any of them win.
But I really I'm really thinking Ireland has has the best chance right now.
And we're going to go out with that song.
Alex, first, go ahead.
Yeah, my my five year old son, Ido, has wants to just weigh in.
You know, who's it that you favor in Eurovision?
Pennsylvania. All right.
Well, you know what?
Australia was entered into it.
So maybe Pennsylvania can as well.
I don't know what they were thinking with the video this year,
but that's a whole other topic.
Anyway, this song might have scared a few people.
The video is worth watching.
You can find that over on YouTube.
Right to us, OTH at 2600 dot com.
We'll see you next week, hopefully with overtime, which will not be on this week.
And remember, stay tuned to WBA on New York for
the program that follows.
Exploration with Mishukaku.
Good night.
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Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
Brooklyn's annual Atlantic Avenue Art Walk returns on Saturday, May 4th through Sunday,
May 12th from 12 noon to 6 p.m. on Atlantic Avenue from 4th Avenue to the waterfront.
This nine-day self-guided tour running through Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill, and Lorim Hill
showcases 150 artists at 70 locations.
This free event with activities, guide, booklet, and map is held rain or shine and sponsored
by the Atlantic Avenue Local Development Corp online at atlanticav.org.