And you're listening to Radio Station WBAI in New York, time once again for Off The Hook.
And you're listening to Radio Station WBAI in New York, time once again for Off The Hook.
And you're listening to Radio Station WBAI in New York, time once again for Off The Hook.
And you're listening to Radio Station WBAI in New York, time once again for Off The Hook.
And you're listening to Radio Station WBAI in New York, time once again for Off The Hook.
And you're listening to Radio Station WBAI in New York, time once again for Off The Hook.
And you're listening to Radio Station WBAI in New York, time once again for Off The Hook.
And you're listening to Radio Station WBAI in New York, time once again for Off The Hook.
And you're listening to Radio Station WBAI in New York, time once again for Off The Hook.
And you're listening to Radio Station WBAI in New York, time once again for Off The Hook.
And you're listening to Radio Station WBAI in New York, time once again for Off The Hook.
And you're listening to Radio Station WBAI in New York, time once again for Off The Hook.
And you're listening to Radio Station WBAI in New York, time once again for Off The Hook.
And you're listening to Radio Station WBAI in New York, time once again for Off The Hook.
And you're listening to Radio Station WBAI in New York, time once again for Off The Hook.
And you're listening to Radio Station WBAI in New York, time once again for Off The Hook.
And you're listening to Radio Station WBAI in New York, time once again for Off The Hook.
And you're listening to Radio Station WBAI in New York, time once again for Off The Hook.
And you're listening to Radio Station WBAI in New York, time once again for Off The Hook.
And you're listening to Radio Station WBAI in New York, time once again for Off The Hook.
And you're listening to Radio Station WBAI in New York, time once again for Off The Hook.
And you're listening to Radio Station WBAI in New York, time once again for Off The Hook.
And you're listening to Radio Station WBAI in New York, time once again for Off The Hook.
And you're listening to Radio Station WBAI in New York, time once again for Off The Hook.
And you're listening to Radio Station WBAI in New York, time once again for Off The Hook.
Some other time, I guess.
Moving on.
I'm sure you'll get lots of people following you on that one.
Yeah, turn your mic down for a little while.
Okay, so anyway, now Congress is getting involved.
There's a bill called the Domain Name Piracy Prevention Act of 1999.
How could you vote against the Domain Name Piracy Prevention Act,
as well as the Domain Name Privacy Prevention Act, which I'm sure they'd also endorse.
It'll next be addressed by the full Senate.
The bill passed by a voice vote with no dissenters.
The legislation was sponsored by a bipartisan group that included Judiciary Chairman Orrin Hatch,
Republican of Utah, who strongly criticized the practice of registering names in hopes of selling them.
In many cases, the domain name that takes consumers to the Internet site
and the graphical interface that greets them when they get there
are the only indications of source and authenticity,
and legitimate and illegitimate sites may be indistinguishable in cyberspace.
Well, you know, that's sort of the point.
When you are in cyberspace, pretty much anything goes.
It's not like real life.
So if somebody gets there, if a 12-year-old gets there first
and figures out a way to get a name before a big megacorporation does,
he wins, just the way it is.
Look at the early names.
Look at who has, what is it, privacy.net and things like that.
You know, people who are clever, people who got the names first.
Thank God we got 2670.com before somebody else did.
Anyway, so Congress is getting all involved in that.
It's pretty silly.
You had something, Isaac, something involving John Markoff, I believe.
Markoff?
Yeah, John Markoff.
My mic is still down.
No, your mic's up now.
Yeah, tell us about this.
His little article on FIDNET.
It goes page one.
Oh, well, you know, it's a little tiny article.
Those page one articles of John Markoff wind up with a lot of...
Causing a bit of, yeah, a ruckus there.
Yeah, quite a bit.
Yeah, he had been passed some papers outlining a system known as,
or to be known as FIDNET, the Federal Infrastructure,
what the heck was the D?
Something or other network.
Regardless, he had reported that it would kind of be like the domestic version of the NSA,
where they would be roving around the government sites looking for intruders,
and they would expand into some certain private networks.
It turns out, as reported by a U.K. paper, that he didn't quite read it too well
in that the G.A.S., the government...
Geez, why are my acronyms going out the window today?
It's strange.
At any rate, the G.A.S. is supposed to be running it,
and they're only supposed to be turning around and getting the FBI involved,
the National Infrastructure Protection Council, the NIPC,
which is a happy little FBI kind of group, when they notice something.
Just another example of our dear friend, Mr. Markov,
taking a little grain of possible truth and blowing it way out of proportion
and getting a lot of people overhyped about something
that wasn't exactly that bad to begin with.
Now, I've been hearing reports that the government's backed off.
Are those inaccurate as well, based on the misconception that the article brought up?
They had gotten a lot of flack from it,
but they basically just kind of said,
well, we're doing it anyway, folks, so get used to it,
in typical government standing.
There's another case, too, which comes out of Canada, sort of,
involving a satellite phone company.
I believe you have some information on that.
Well, I was handed a printout, but it kind of got a little choppy.
FBI is trying to institute a particular provision
where they are supposed to be able to tap digital communications.
And there's a couple of satellite companies who are somewhat on the out,
so far as wanting to comply, and they keep saying,
yeah, we're going to comply with you real soon now.
Well, the FBI finally just kind of said,
all right, enough of this, and suspended their licenses.
Basically what it boils down to is this company from Canada
wants to offer service in the United States,
but they can't because they don't have the ability to monitor their users.
Correct.
I have a very simple question here.
Now, this obviously is because of the problems with drugs
and child pornography and terrorism that we have in this country.
That's the excuse given in any event.
What about Canadian drug dealers, Canadian child pornographers,
Canadian terrorists?
How did the Canadians spy on those people?
And are they not spying on their own people?
And if not, how can they possibly run a free society
without spying on their own people?
Ooh, that's really interesting.
I ask the tough questions, but I expect some kind of an answer.
Can't we just mark it as rhetorical and move on?
You have no answer for me, do you?
It would be a show of its own.
Yeah, I guess so.
That's the question, though.
That's the question.
Why are we so...
We basically are obsessed with spying on our own people.
And I think we're very disappointed when we find that we're not that interesting.
I don't know.
I don't know.
We convince ourselves of all these problems.
I don't know.
They just really aren't there.
Here's a letter from a listener.
Dear OffTheHook,
You know, I hear you guys talk a lot
about how you are running out of numbers
and getting new area codes left, right, and center.
Spelled center.
R-E.
Ooh.
It's from Australia.
Yeah.
You know, here in Australia, we are running out of numbers,
but we have less area codes than we used to.
Basically, instead of new area codes,
they moved over from a 7-digit number to an 8-digit number.
For example, the West Australian number of 094329467
has become 0894329467.
I don't know why the...
Oh, they added an 8?
They just arbitrarily added a number?
Well, yeah, they just added a number to...
You just kind of go into a hat and pull,
Ooh, 8!
Well, that allows 0884329467 to be used for another exchange.
Why can't you guys do that?
Signed, Chris.
Because that would be smart.
That would be smart.
We're the U.S.
We totally, totally blew it with the area codes.
I mean, I'm still imploring whoever is in charge here
to just go back, forget about all these stupid area codes,
732646, you know, whatever, whatever things they come up with.
Let's just go back to the way it was before,
add a digit to the area codes.
We can all keep our nice, you know,
geographically symmetrical area codes that way.
You know, 212 can still represent the entire metropolitan area.
It'll be a 4-digit version, and there'll be different ones.
No one's going to remember where anything is really soon.
Everyone's going to dial 10 digits to get to anyone else,
and you won't be able to tell where you're calling.
And you're already seeing the problems,
because people have to call the Bahamas,
and they don't realize they're calling something that has a surcharge on it,
because calling a certain country in the Bahamas
can cost $9 a minute if they decide that.
Well, do we really need to peg down geographic location with a number anymore?
It seems like we have to.
Think about the Internet.
You have IP numbers that can be, you know,
one number up could be here across the city,
or the next block up could be in California.
Isaac, let me ask you a very simple question.
When's the last time you woke somebody up with a piece of email?
True.
You ever try calling somebody in Hawaii when it's 5 a.m.?
There's also no long distance on the Internet, too.
Yeah, well, the thing is,
when you actually call somebody on the phone,
it's a good idea to know where you're calling,
just for all kinds of reasons.
So you could say,
oh, how's the revolution going in Idaho?
You know, or something like that.
So you can basically have something to talk about.
Email is very impersonal.
You just send something.
It's like a broadcast,
and they reply to it,
but they don't reply in real time.
They reply when they feel like it.
Well, sometimes they can.
Yeah, but it's not interactive.
My point is it's not interactive.
You don't know where it's actually going.
Someone might reply to your email from the dry Tortugas
because that's where they happen to be picking it up from.
You don't know exactly where they are.
Whereas when you call somebody,
it just tends to be,
except with cell phones, of course,
it tends to be in a geographical location.
Okay.
But I can definitely see numbers and identifiers
starting to pull away from actual geographic location.
It just kind of doesn't really make a difference.
Well, it seems that way.
I guess it seems that way,
especially when we're traveling all over the place.
But I always like to think
that we'll still maintain some semblance of location.
The zip code.
The zip code, yeah.
Come on, that should make you feel better.
Well, yeah,
because you don't call people by their zip code.
You mail people by their zip code,
which goes back to that whole impersonal email thing.
Speaking of the mail,
speaking of the mail,
guess what I got in the mail this week?
A bill?
No, my passport.
My passport showed up.
You got your passport.
Yay!
I even called to make an appointment.
Okay, I was all set to do this as I agreed.
Did you cancel it since?
Of course not.
Well, they'll yell at you.
You know, I don't care.
Let them yell.
You know, they haven't yelled at me
because they don't call me.
They don't tell me anything.
They have never...
Actually, that's not true.
They contacted me once,
only a few days before the passport arrived.
I found out all this after the show last week.
Somebody was listening.
Well, no, it had nothing to do with that.
In fact, I don't think it had anything to do
with the congressman I wrote to either
because the date of the passport,
I wrote to all of them.
Not all of them, but all the local ones, yes.
And I also wrote to the Department of State.
I also wrote to the U.S. Consulate.
Yeah.
Cool.
I mailed a lot of letters out.
The thing is I spent $60 mailing these letters
overnight with return receipt requested
and all that kind of thing.
All right, well...
And I got all my return receipts
so they all got their letters
but I haven't gotten a single reply from any of them
because I want to know what happened.
I want to know why it took two months
to get an expedited passport
and why they refused to give it to me in the first place.
Did you get both of them back?
Yeah, I did.
I got my old one back.
Ruined my entire summer.
I'm supposed to be in Europe right now.
I'm supposed to be at the German hacker thing.
There's a German hacker event going on right now.
It's a total eclipse of the sun on August 11th
I wanted to see.
Yeah, that would have been cool.
Yeah, that happens every day.
That's something.
And I wanted to ride the Trans-Siberian Railway.
Instead, I'm stuck here in hot, humid New York
for the whole summer.
Well, that's where I would have been.
Well, the point is,
the point is,
I got it,
but a couple of days earlier,
I also got a request for my birth certificate
saying,
we cannot process,
without any reason,
we cannot process your renewal
without your birth certificate
even though I'd already sent them my old passport.
No explanation.
Just, we need that birth certificate.
And then a couple of days later,
I get the passport anyway.
So, some shenanigans are going on over there.
So, I'd like to know what that was all about.
I'd like to know why they delayed this.
I paid for something to be done in a week.
It took two months.
You know.
In all honesty?
I have my passport.
That's great,
but I'm not satisfied
because I paid a lot of extra money
and I had to cancel a lot of plans.
So, you guys down there,
you tell me what that was all about.
I'd like to know.
In all honesty?
Yes.
I've never heard of anybody
having so many problems
with the State Department before.
I've never had to deal
with the State Department before.
Outside of, you know,
communists trying to get in.
I'll tell you this.
I'm going to avoid all dealings
with them in the future.
You know,
ten years from now,
I guess I have to renew my passport again.
Maybe I should start the paperwork now.
I don't know.
Just, like, date it way in the future.
To all the listeners, though,
who had suggestions,
helpful suggestions,
only a couple of nasty suggestions,
but, you know,
most of them were very helpful.
And, um,
as it turns out,
it just happened to happen anyway.
Maybe it was just
complaining a little bit
before the show last week
because it was waiting for me
in the mailbox when I got back.
Cool.
Kind of weird.
Kind of scary, actually.
It's almost like someone
drove out there
and just dropped it off.
I'm telling you,
somebody might have been listening.
You think they drove out
and dropped it off
because it was already
in the mailbox?
Well, you never know.
Yeah, that's true.
That's true.
That's pretty scary.
Well, it's been a quiet week
at Lake Pacifica
where, uh,
we had a, uh,
bit of a crisis going on
over the past couple of weeks
probably the most intense crisis
of, I'd say,
the 50-year history
of the entire organization.
Threatens to,
threatens to
knock the whole thing awry.
That's right.
Station's being boarded up,
shut down.
The, uh,
Berkeley Station KPFA
shut down three weeks ago.
Still off the air.
Now, the interesting thing,
a couple of really interesting things
have been going on.
Uh, there was a demonstration
on Saturday in Berkeley.
15,000 people showed up.
Can you imagine that?
15,000 people showed up
to protest
what happened
to the Pacifica Station out there.
Now,
we're Pacifica Station
in New York City.
Berkeley's a lot smaller
than New York City.
So if anything happens to us,
I expect 100,000 people out there.
And it's good too
because we're right on Wall Street.
So when you come to protest for us,
you can just continue
for the rest of the day
and go to any multinational corporation
you want
and make a full day of it.
You know,
they're all conveniently located.
Maybe that's why we moved down here
in the first place
so that when,
when this does happen,
people can, you know,
save some money
by protesting several things at once.
And, uh,
we're right on the East River too.
So,
you can hang out at the,
at Tennessee Port afterwards
and go get some fries or something.
It's a very scenic protest.
It's, it's, it's a very nice,
a nice time of year too.
Wonderful time of year.
But, um,
what's happening there
is, is really disturbing.
It's really, uh, depressing.
And it's also very inspiring.
In fact,
one thing that,
one thing that's come out of this,
and it's going to sound
very surprising to,
to almost everybody listening,
is that I've never been
as proud as I am now
to be part of Pacifica.
Never.
You might think I'm, I'm, I'm
on some kind of drug
to be saying that at this time.
But how can I be proud
to be part of Pacifica?
All the crazy things
that are going on.
Well, here's how
you have to look at it.
We're in our 50th year.
KPFA was founded
back actually in 1948,
put on the air in 1949.
We just celebrated
our 50th anniversary
here in New York.
I remember going to the, uh,
to the church over the spring,
seeing a lot of the listeners
that, uh, that came
to celebrate
the 50th anniversary.
A lot of the producers.
It was, um,
a place to really celebrate
the past and the present.
And I'm sure a lot
of the future as well.
A lot of the future
is probably in that building
to pay tribute to, uh,
to Samori, our,
our late program director.
And you realize
in a situation like that,
just how important
the place really is.
How important
the whole organization is.
What we've done
over the years,
whether, whether it be, um,
Amy Goodman getting
almost killed in, uh,
in Indonesia,
covering a story.
Whether it's Robert Knight
talking to Manuel Noriega
at the height
of the Panama crisis.
Whether it's the,
the many, many things
that the station uncovers,
that Pacifica Network uncovers,
having to do with, uh,
tenant rights or,
or hacker rights even,
or all kinds of things
that just no one else
ever talks about.
And that, that is
what Pacifica is.
It's us.
It's all of us together.
It's those 15,000 people.
It's the people listening.
It's the people at the church.
It's the people everywhere.
So, we can't
let that disappear.
We can't let that
just be taken.
Because we are all part
of that organization.
And that organization is,
is an amazing accomplishment
over the last,
the last 50 years.
So, it's ironic
but not surprising
that the, uh, the biggest,
the biggest crisis to face us
comes from within.
But I think when you get
a lot of people responding,
when you get a lot of people
actually speaking up
and not being afraid
to stand up and,
and challenge something
that's unfair,
that's something to be proud of.
And that's something
to definitely talk about
and to, uh,
and to spread.
A lot of, uh,
very weird things are going on.
Right now, in fact,
I was just listening to KPFA
right before I came over here
a couple hours ago.
And unless anything has changed,
they're still playing
recorded music.
Which, from what I understand,
and again, a lot of this is,
uh, is unconfirmed
because there's really
no way to tell.
But what I understand
is being piped over ISDN lines
to the transmitter
and being piped from Houston,
from the, the Houston station.
Now, you may have read
in the papers,
and this, this has gotten
an awful lot of media play.
Um, one very interesting thing,
though, if you read
the Associated Press,
the Associated Press
ran a story saying
that more than 1,000 people
showed up for this demonstration
on Saturday.
Which is true.
15,000 people showed up,
so that's considerably more
than 1,000 people.
But it was a typo.
It was a damn typo.
They left out a zero.
It was supposed to say
more than 10,000 people showed up,
but instead it said
more than 1,000.
And guess what?
The Associated Press
is the main supplier of news
to every newspaper
in this country.
Yes, the good old
Democratic USA
has one news source
that everybody quotes verbatim.
So guess what?
History has been rewritten
and that rally on Saturday
only had about 1,000 people.
See how easy it is?
See how easy it is
to control things?
We've known this for years.
We've talked about this
on this show.
We've been the victims of it
many, many times.
It's just kind of ironic
to see it be thrown
in our face yet again
on such a massive scale.
How many of you out there,
and I know we have listeners
all over the country right now
and all over the world, in fact,
how many of you saw
a newspaper article
talking about that demonstration
that said more than 1,000 people
showed up,
when it was actually
more than 10,000?
How many of you saw
the correction the next day
also on the same page
that the story ran
saying,
whoops, we were wrong.
We undercounted
by 9,000 people.
We are so sorry.
Here's a big headline
to make up for it.
Now, I don't think
they even ran a correction.
It's old news.
Yesterday's news,
nobody cares.
But people remember.
People remember
small versus big.
The important thing
to remember is
that this was big.
This was extremely big
and it meant a lot
and it was very inspirational.
It's for that reason
that we have this
and it meant a lot
and it was very inspirational.
It's for that reason
that I say I'm proud
to be part of all this
because that is what
this is all about.
Not people meeting in secret
and deciding the fate
and having all kinds
of conspiracies going.
That's not what it's all about.
Remember that.
That's what we have to overcome.
A couple of interesting things
being passed,
a lot of interesting things
being passed over
and way too much for us
to talk about
but basically a press release today
that came out of KPFA
or some members of KPFA actually.
It's kind of hard to define
what KPFA is.
I'll just read the first paragraph.
KPFA staffers showed up
to their boarded up station
only to be met
with management's refusal
to allow repair
of the station's transmitter.
Despite orders to staff
to return to the station
by 2 p.m. Monday,
only 10 people were allowed
in the building
because Pacifica has not yet
repaired damage to the station
that occurred during
its watch of the premises.
So while you may have read
the story saying
that the station was open again
to the staff,
yeah, the station has been open
to the staff
but the transmitter
is still being run
by somebody else
and that's apparently why
there has been
no live programming
on that station.
Now it's going
into the fourth week.
So that's a real tragedy
because if you listen
to that station,
if you ever listen
to that station,
they have some really
cool programs on.
And the folks at Negative Land
did a show there.
I don't know if you guys
are familiar with Negative Land
but talk about media hacking.
These guys,
these guys are the champions.
They've messed with the media
so many times
that there's a big asterisk
next to their name
in everybody's contact list,
I'm sure.
They have many similar programs
to us,
a lot of programmers
that are basically,
literally out in the street
right now waiting
to get back in,
waiting to get back on the air.
We have to support that.
Everybody has to support
community radio nationwide.
There's a station
in Philadelphia
a number of years ago,
WXPN.
I don't know
how many people remember this.
This is quite a story.
In the 1980s,
a leader with a market
share consciousness
was brought in
to manage the University
of Pennsylvania's
FM station, WXPN.
He succeeded
in enlarging the station's audience
with more mainstream
and light programming
and a sharp drop
in controversial
public affairs material.
He terminated Pacifica News,
substituting for it
All Things Considered.
Yeah, wonderful program
from NPR there.
All Things Considered,
even though,
even though that program
was already available
in Philadelphia
and Pacifica News
was only heard on WXPN.
In this guy's mission statement,
he indicated that news
and public affairs
should elicit
a positive response,
calling to mind
happy hour news
on commercial broadcasting.
And of course,
if you ever listen
to Pacifica News,
you know it's not
exactly happy news.
It's realistic news.
It's all kinds of
factual things,
things you won't hear
anyplace else.
Might not be quite
what you want to hear,
but it's stuff
you won't hear
anywhere else.
Let's put it this way.
We don't have sports scores
and traffic reports,
things like that.
All Things Considered
met this standard
better than Pacifica.
WXPN's market-oriented leader
quickly became a popular consultant
to other stations
eager to increase market share.
An important place
has been carved out
for such realists
who are practical
and are prepared
to compromise
on matters like
admission of advertising
and the need to attract
larger audiences
and tone down
controversial programming
in order to facilitate
fundraising.
When combined with
a contempt for those
over 50 white folks
who listened in protest
and for free speech
and the democratic rights
and traditions
of the workforce,
this can lead to a desire
to dissolve the people
and to a seriously
dysfunctional management.
And WXPN, incidentally,
was a station,
I believe it's hooked up
to Temple University
down there in Pennsylvania.
If I'm confusing
another station,
someone please let me know,
but I think it's
the same station.
And they, at one point,
were broadcasting a speech
by Momia Abu-Jamal.
The administration
of that college heard that
and really went ballistic.
They terminated
the feed completely
and they barred Pacifica
from ever airing a program
on their network again
just because of that.
So you see how tenuous
the whole radio station
situation is.
It really is open
to the whim of the licensee.
And that's true
in commercial radio.
We see it all the time.
We just don't care about it
with commercial radio.
One day, K-Rock is playing
progressive music.
The next day,
they're playing country.
It's like, all right,
who cares?
So that's pretty much
the way of the world
as far as that goes.
Some 50 demonstrators
chanted for free speech radio
in front of KPFK.
That's the Los Angeles station.
Former KPFK broadcast journalist,
talk show host,
and Golden Mic winner
Gil Contreras met with reporters
from Spanish TV.
I resigned from my position
as a reporter
and morning news anchor
in the newsroom
in protest of the cancellation
of my afternoon
drive-time talk show.
Contreras told reporters
there is a distinct movement
by the general manager
at KPFK
to turn what was once
progressive alternative radio
into moderate Anglo male
ethnically clean talk radio.
It's really something.
And some more words
from someone I really
respect a lot.
And if you're lucky enough
to get this radio station
out of Bridgeport, Connecticut,
WPKN,
they've been airing
Pacifica News forever.
And they're basically
one of these radio stations
that just will survive anything.
Their campus was taken over
by Moonies.
That's right.
The University of Bridgeport
was bought by
the Reverend Sun Yung Moon.
Now, can you imagine
what would have happened
to that radio station
had there not been
a strong community interest?
Because one of the things
you hear a lot
on the non-commercial band,
and I think this is horrendous,
is religious broadcasting
all the time, 24-7, powerful.
You know, the voice of God
type of thing.
And the reason is,
religion has money.
But they're also non-profit,
so they qualify to be
in the non-profit part
of the dial,
and they can afford it
at the same time.
So when you hear religion
on the radio,
think about that.
That's why you're hearing it,
because they got the bucks.
And like it or not,
they're selling a product.
Harry Minot,
the general manager
over at WPKM,
has a few slogans,
a few slogans that
I think we can all use,
we can all learn from.
Little mistakes
add up to big errors
and are never seen
as mistakes at the time.
Money must never be allowed
to call the shots.
Smaller is better
because smaller is sustainable.
Artists and persons of passion
must have freedom
to do their best work.
And from Ralph Waldo Emerson,
a foolish consistency
is the hobgoblin
of little minds.
How true that is.
And finally,
this from another Pacifica station,
KPFT in Houston.
This is the station
that is currently
piping a signal
towards KPFA,
if reports are accurate,
from a former program director.
As a former program director
at that station,
I have an intimate knowledge
of just what's going on.
The record here
speaks for itself
and paints its own picture
as to who and what
is being served
by the Pacifica five-year plan,
as it's so called.
KPFT's locally produced
news programming
has been completely eliminated.
Midday public affairs programming
no longer exists.
There is no longer
a single public affairs program
rooted in the Latino community,
a community that makes up
fully a third of Houston's population.
The Persian program,
founded by anti-Shah,
anti-Khomeini activists,
was eliminated at a time
when there was imminent danger of war
between Iran and U.S. imperialism,
as the U.S. had warships
in the Persian Gulf.
The Arabic Hour,
one of the most intellectually
respectable programs on KPFT,
was eliminated
during Desert Shield,
as the U.S. prepared
to go to war against Arab Iraq
to seize strategic control
of the world's oil supply.
Gay programming
has been significantly cut.
It's been depoliticized.
It is no longer the force
or the threat it was
when KPFT volunteer programmer
Fred Pais,
a high-profile gay activist,
was murdered by Houston police.
Lesbian programming
has been driven off the air,
including Breakthrough,
a hugely popular program
that was one of the station's
highest revenue generators.
There is now one hour
of feminist programming each week.
Peace Pipes and Visions,
the Native American program,
is gone.
The atheist program is gone.
The Vietnamese program is gone.
The Chinese program is gone.
The Pakistani program is gone.
Only one black program
remains today at KPFT,
an African music program.
Variety in musical programming
has been dramatically curtailed.
While there has been an increase
in overall listenership
for the station,
what they are listening to
is a homogenized blend
of NPR-style talk programs
with a kind of country music format
that bears no resemblance
to the kind of programming
the original Pacifica Mission
statement required.
The Music of India program
is gone after 19 years of service.
There is not a single Asian program
left on KPFT.
Gary Coover's brilliantly produced
Celtic music program.
Shepherd's Hay has fallen
because Gary stood up
and spoke out against the changes.
Indeed, all organized opposition
was crushed.
KPFT once broadcasted
in eight languages.
Today, the trend is English only.
So folks, the danger is everywhere.
Commercial radio has changed
over the past decade.
Non-commercial radio has changed
in the last decade,
and it seems even that
Pacifica has changed
in the last decade,
but it doesn't have to
because where this goes,
where we go, what we do,
is something that we all
have a say in,
and that's something
we can never forget.
We can never give up.
We can never say that
we are not part of Pacifica
because we are.
We control what we do.
We control what we air,
and we must never forget that.
We have a letter
from a listener.
Dear Off the Hook,
I really love the wonderful work
that you and all the people
at WBAI do for us
because without shows
like yours,
all we would have left
is commercial radio
and commercial TV.
Don't forget the religion.
We have that too.
Now, I am upset
because I no longer
can get Democracy Now!
programs online
from the WebActive website
because of recent problems
with KPFA.
I was wondering
if you or someone you know
might be willing
to approach WebActive,
who is actually owned
by Real Networks,
and who claims to serve people
who, like me,
listen to online radio programming
like WBAI's Democracy Now!
through the Internet.
I think that because
WebActive is owned
by Real Networks,
they must actually be budgeted
to record and post radio programs
like Democracy Now! online.
This is what they seem to claim.
So I would think
that they might actually
be willing to pay
some sort of compensation
to someone for providing them
with a Democracy Now! program
on a temporary basis
from WBAI itself.
Well, this is not about money.
That's something people
really have to say
and continue to say.
It's not about money.
It's about getting
the information out there.
And yes,
it's about getting
the Democracy Now! program
onto the net.
And the reason given,
if you go to
the Pacifica webpage,
you'll see a message
from WebActive
saying that
since March 31st,
there has been
a growing dispute
between Pacifica Station,
KPFA,
and its parent organization,
the Pacifica Foundation,
that Democracy Now! programs
that you normally hear
on WebActive
originate from
the KPFA broadcast
of the show.
As a result of the dispute,
WebActive has not received
recent Democracy Now! broadcasts
from Pacifica,
including the July 14th program
which covered the situation.
WebActive cannot provide
its visitors
with Democracy Now!
if Pacifica
does not provide
the broadcasts.
We apologize
for the inconvenience.
So basically,
the way I read this,
if somebody supplies them
with these programs,
then they'll be able
to put them up
on the web
and then everybody
will be able
to hear them.
What's odd about it,
though,
is that if you look
at the schedule,
you'll see
that there were
two days after KPFA
was shut down
that there are
Democracy Now! programs
available.
So I'm not quite sure
where they got those from
or if there is
another supplier,
but it's not
a hard thing to do.
It's not a hard thing
to supply somebody
with a cassette tape
or encode it yourself
and get the word out
to lots of people.
There are people
right now volunteering
to put various radio stations
onto the net
so that the whole world
can hear what's going on
and it really is fascinating.
The net has changed everything.
The net has been
an organizing point
and no small factor
in getting 15,000 people
out there
the other day.
Or 1,000 people
if you look
at the Associated Press.
Whatever it was,
it was significant,
it was inspiring,
and in my opinion
it was the future.
That's the news
from Lake Pacifica
where all the listeners
are important,
their programmers
are progressive,
and the future
is way above average.
Now we have no time
for music, though,
because we have
to get back
to the show.
We have to get back
to the show.
We have to get back
to the show.
We have to get back
to the show.
We have to get back
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We have to get back
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We have to get back
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We have to get back
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We have to get back
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We have to get back
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We have to get back
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We have to get back
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We have to get back
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We have to get back
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We have to get back
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We have to get back
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We have to get back
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We have to get back
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We have to get back
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We have to get back
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We have to get back
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We have to get back
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We have to get back
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We have to get back
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We have to get back
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We have to get back
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We have to get back
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We have to get back
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We have to get back
to the show.
We have to get back
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We have to get back
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We have to get back
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We have to get back
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We have to get back
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We have to get back
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We have to get back
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We have to get back
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We have to get back
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We have to get back
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We have to get back
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We have to get back
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We have to get back
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We have to get back
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We have to get back
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We have to get back
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It's
I mean, people basically are affected by society.
Sometimes we lose our way a little bit and start doing it.
They're experiments.
I don't know if you ever heard of these experiments
where they put people in a room and they say,
you're the captor, you're the captive,
and the person has to prevent the other person
from escaping, all right?
And it's been shown time after time
that the person who is the captor
inevitably develops various mannerisms
that people in that real position in life have.
In fact, they even inflict physical harm on the person
if they try to escape.
And this is, it's just, it's a role-playing game,
but we fall into it so easily.
And I think we have to recognize that.
If we see people falling into something,
we maybe should stretch out a hand
and try to bring them back to sanity, you know,
rather than just throw out the rhetoric
and condemn people and label them in certain ways.
I mean, look at the Telecom Act of 1996.
I mean, it's absolutely disgusting.
I mean, they're just gobbling up stations.
I mean, look, where's the variety at?
Yeah, you're referring to the deregulation
that allowed for companies to own
massive amounts of radio stations,
and now we have-
Yeah, we have a maximum of eight stations in the market.
And now it's something like a total 400, 500 stations
I think AMFM Corporation owns.
It's disgusting, it really is.
Of course, now you don't have to,
you don't have to just buy off, you know,
hundreds of stations to get your record played.
You can just buy off one person.
What is the point of owning so much stations?
I mean.
Money.
Well, no, it's not money.
It's power.
It's control.
Yeah, power money.
Yeah, well, it's control over what people hear,
what people think.
I mean, why is there only one source of news
for most newspapers, the Associated Press?
Why did that story go out and rewrite history?
You know, it's so much easier
when there are so few points of control.
I remember years ago, I don't remember this actually,
I remember hearing about it years ago
when New York City had like a dozen newspapers.
And yeah, it was a form of anarchy, I suppose,
but it was also a lot of variety out there.
And that's what used to be on the FM dial.
Used to have a lot of variety going down
the FM dial in New York.
Now I just hear a lot of the same stuff, different places.
Yeah, I heard the station,
I don't want to pick on KROQ too much,
but you know, they can afford it.
I can pick on them if I want to.
They basically were saying how their New York's,
no, it wasn't KROQ, I'm sorry.
It's the other one.
It's 104, the classic station.
What is it?
Weebee 104?
No.
Or am I just like years in the past?
There was a Weebee 108 in Connecticut a bunch of years ago.
I don't know if that's the same one, but no.
Q104, it used to be.
I don't think it's called Q104 anymore.
I don't know.
You see, all their slogans are lost on me,
but they're a classic station now,
and their slogan is New York's only classic rock station.
And I was like, why do you need a second one?
They're the same song.
Why would you need a second station playing the same song?
Oh, classic rock.
Yeah, it's really silly.
I thought you meant classical music,
which has really got me confused
because I know where the classical music is on the dial.
That used to be a classical music station.
It used to be WNCN.
And I don't know if anybody remembers
when it turned into WQIV for a little while,
which was a hard rock station,
turned into that for like a year,
and then the listeners bought back the station,
but that didn't last too long.
Yeah, there's a lot of history in New York radio.
Somebody should write a book.
All right, let's go over here.
Good evening, you're on the air.
Oh, great, thank you.
A couple of questions.
Yes.
The sound, that broadcast that comes over
saying this is a test of the emergency broadcast system,
I believe that's, is that FEMA operating?
Who's saying this?
Yeah.
You know when you hear that,
that old station, this is a test.
EBS is under FEMA control.
Well, it's not EBS anymore.
It's EAS.
EAS, I'm sorry.
It's like they have these,
I don't know, has anybody actually heard an EAS alert?
A real one or a test?
A real one.
Or a test, even.
I've heard the test many times.
Yeah, there's this weird kind of fax type of tone,
which I want to translate those tones.
I want to see what's going on.
What I'd like to know is the idea of that
is so that in the event of an emergency,
whoever's doing the EMS can interrupt
all the radio stations and tell you
what to do and where to go and all that.
Not only that, but cable TV systems,
not the channels, the entire system.
The entire network, yes.
I mean, being the anarchic station as it is,
what if you don't comply with that test?
You don't have a license?
I imagine there are all kinds of penalties now.
You see, the thing with EBS,
if you ever listen to the old EBS announcements,
this station in voluntary compliance with the FCC.
EBS was voluntary.
EAS is not.
No longer voluntary.
EAS can override your signal.
They can take over your signal.
Okay.
And that's the scary part there,
is that they can just cut in.
Another question about KPFT.
Changes that you mentioned about the Gulf
when they took off the Arabic programming.
What was that?
You're talking about 1992.
I believe that was during Desert Shield.
So that would be 1990, wouldn't it?
And that kind of change happened then?
Apparently this has been going on for some time.
Changes don't occur overnight.
Changes occur gradually.
I mean, that's what's kind of shocking me about it,
that the person that now was at that station,
is this the same person that went over to Berkeley this week?
I'm not sure about who did what when.
I'm trying to avoid personalities here,
only because I don't think that's relevant.
I think what's relevant is where people are going as a group.
And I think we're definitely heading somewhere as a group,
and sometimes it's not quite the right place,
and we have to check that.
Everybody assumed when Reagan got elected
that we were all just going to go to hell in one year,
and it took longer than that.
It took 20 years.
We didn't go to hell from Reagan.
Well, we're on the way.
We're well on the way.
It's kind of amazing to me that it has been building up
for so long, and nobody's...
I mean, if anything, I would have hoped
that we would have had a Serbian program on this year.
I mean, I thought that we're supposed to be the voice
of the alternate voice.
Well, you know, I think it's really up to the people
to decide what kinds of programs they want to do.
If a bunch of Serbians came to the station and said,
hey, we want to do a program,
I'll bet we'd have a Serbian program on the air.
I don't see us stopping them.
We had a program council,
but that's something I don't know about.
One in seven stations now are religious programming,
not counting shortwave.
One in seven. Really?
And if you include shortwave, it's one in 3.8.
And the last thing is-
There's a lot of lost souls out there, I guess.
Oh, well.
Oh, my God.
A lot of broke radio stations
who need to get the funding.
We need some anti-religion programming.
That's what I think.
The anti-God, the anti-Christ.
How many atheist programs are out there?
How many, really?
I've never heard one.
There's one just canceled.
There's one canceled in Houston, yes,
but there should be things like that.
If you go to a TV station and say,
I want to do a Sunday morning atheist show,
do you think they're going to accept you?
Probably not.
But it's a good idea.
It's also a good idea that we need the radio guide
and not just the TV guide,
because the whole point that people
don't listen to enough radio
is partly that it doesn't have
the same kind of promotion as TV.
That's true.
There's never been a radio guide.
Most stations, though, don't have programs.
They just have formats, unfortunately.
But there are enough stations out there,
including the college stations,
that do have programs.
And yes, it would be nice to have
some sort of compact guide that included everything.
Maybe somebody could throw something together on the net.
Uh-huh, yeah.
Last question I have.
Great idea.
Last question is,
do you know about this graffiti layer
that's supposed to be a program
where you can sort of overlap someone's website?
Oh, yes, I've heard about that.
What's the name of that again?
It's basically some company
that allows you to put comments on websites.
But actually, you're putting comments on their site.
Right.
And anybody who goes to their site
and types in the URL of the site
that you've commented on will see your comments.
You're not really doing something to the site itself.
But you just kind of,
it's sort of like another location
where people can comment on it.
It's really nothing all that unusual.
I thought it was a lot more.
All the copyright lawyers are, of course,
going crazy over it.
But I don't think there's anything they can do.
You guys haven't heard about this?
It's really, it's been around.
I thought that you would go to the website
and then see it,
but it wasn't harming the page.
You'll see it if you go to the other way.
I'm not exactly sure how it works.
I've never used it myself.
It requires you to download the program.
If somebody out there has the name of the company,
please call in.
Okay.
Thanks for the call.
212-209-2900 is our phone number.
GSA, by the way.
What about GSA?
General Services Administration.
What about them?
I'd said JS before.
I'm having a very bad day.
Don't say anything else
because if you have to correct yourself,
you'll have to break in on the next show to do it
by the time you remember it.
I just suggest everybody go to hackernews.com
and read the thing for themselves.
Good idea.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Thank you, gentlemen.
Now, I have a question.
This is Wayne from Manhattan.
Hello.
You've already mentioned the guy's name.
To thine own self be true.
Who said that?
To thine own self be true.
I feel like I'm back in school now.
Who said that?
Well, think of the scholar.
Shakespeare said that, didn't he?
Didn't Shakespeare say,
this above all else, to thine own self be true?
Sounds like Shakespeare.
You didn't say Shakespeare's name yet tonight.
You did say this man's name.
To thine own self be true.
Let me prompt you.
The scholar's letter.
Ralph Waldo Emerson?
Correct.
Okay.
Yay, I got it right.
Bye.
What just happened here?
I feel like I just took a final exam.
You pass?
I don't know.
All right, let's go over here.
Good evening, you're on the air.
Hello, speak up.
Yes, go ahead.
Finally, I didn't think I'd get on.
Hi, Emmanuel and guest, or the other guy,
I don't know his name.
Pork Chop and Isaac over there.
Pork Chop and Isaac, hi, you guys.
I wish, you know, frankly,
there are a handful of BAI programs
that are suitable to me now.
I think it's already happened here.
When all those changes were happening,
I very seldom can say anything on the air.
And the kind of things that I say
would be the very kind of things
that would be cut off the air.
And I don't think it's necessarily not money.
I think the money of people who have it
is why Pacifica wants to be a big conglomerate
the way the others are.
Why would they have this goal
to have some central station in DC?
And why did they change democracy now?
And now that they even had democracy on now,
they're editing democracy now.
The point is this malaise,
this middle of the road is where the money is.
And I'm sorry, I think making that zero AP,
that is really disgraceful.
What the heck kind of new service
makes a serious error like that and doesn't correct it?
That's suspicious to me, Emanuel.
See, it may be where the money is,
but it's not where the passion is.
And I think what we have to recognize
is that we have the passion.
Oh, I know we do.
And we have to exercise it.
I know we do, but I think BAI
is already a middle of the road station.
You are an unusual, you are, and you,
do you know why I say, I don't meet my friends.
I was supposed to be at a film thing today.
Plus there were meetings.
I wanted to tell the public,
we're having save the station meetings.
And I don't like to say it on the air
because I don't want the wrong people to hear it.
Because we are, we were not treated well.
And we're always the ones outside.
From the hacker perspective, okay.
We've been having meetings in public areas now
for over 10 years.
And we had the same concern.
What happens when the federal authorities hear about this?
We're going to get the wrong people.
But you know, you need to take that chance
because the benefits of getting other people to show up
and the benefits of having openness far outweigh any risk.
And that risk has to be confronted head on.
And we're proof.
You are already in an elite situation
because you can get on an internet.
Those of us that can't do that, we are nobodies.
We're peons.
And those of us without money,
and for instance, the money I used to contribute
to the station, I would have wanted BAI to be more local.
We should have monitored a lot of things here
in this country that Samori never paid attention to.
We should have known, as the former caller said,
that that happened way back at the Gulf War.
We needed to know this.
And just because people show up, Emmanuel,
doesn't mean they're going to pay for things.
Once we can pay for our own station
and keep our own license, why you don't,
I don't believe that the government's going to help us,
Emmanuel.
That's why we need you and that man's question.
What will happen?
Will you still be on the internet
if BAI goes by the wayside?
Because I don't have the faith in BAI as I do in you.
I have more faith in the hackers and in you
than I do with the station.
Well, the thing is, you have to consider yourself
a part of BAI, and you have to work towards change
of things that you feel are not right.
You're going to obviously disagree with other people,
but you can't give up and say,
I'm not a part of this organization, it's going to hell,
and there's nothing I can do about it.
Middle of the road?
Listen to the programming, it's so average and boring.
Well, that's not true of, I would say,
the majority of our programming.
It's really cutting edge there.
Compared to 10 years ago, there's no comparison.
Well, I don't know.
I didn't listen as much 10 years ago,
but I think if you leave your radio on
for the next 24 hours, you'll hear some pretty
cutting edge stuff that you won't hear
on an NPR station, for instance.
I do, and I'm saying I hope you have an alternative
for those of us if BAI goes the way,
because they're definitely intent on selling stations.
I guarantee you that.
They're going to sell stations.
Let me just address that because we really have to go now,
but that prospect was brought up a couple of times,
two different people in Berkeley and in New York as well,
and a couple of times people said,
well, why don't we just get together
and buy the station ourselves?
And the overwhelming response to that was,
wait a minute, we already own the station.
The station is for the people.
The people have been keeping it on the air
for these many years.
So how can anyone say they're going to sell it?
Who has the right?
And I think when you look at it in that way,
it suddenly becomes a lot more talk and a lot less threat,
but you have to be consistent.
Let's take one more quick phone call.
Good evening, you're on the air.
Hi.
Hi, speak up, please.
Hi, good evening.
Yeah, Danny from Manhattan here.
How are you doing?
Just a few quick things.
First on that AP story, which had the wrong number
of the demonstrators.
It may have been an honest mistake, maybe not,
but generally the AP is pretty good.
If you send them a note and it can actually point out
where they were wrong, they tend to send a correction out.
Obviously it's not going to help a great deal.
I know they've been sent a note.
So what I'm asking now is, has anyone seen the correction?
Yeah, it may be on a regional level out there.
So I wouldn't necessarily see it.
The other thing is the group you were thinking of
that throws the overlay on the webpages
is a company called Third Voice.
And as you described, you go through the Third Voice
software through their proxy
before you get to the final page.
So it's the Third Voice location
that has the extra comments.
Okay, you have one second left and we're out of time.
Okay, thanks for calling.
Couple of websites for people interested
in following this whole drama, which is really fascinating.
And I think it's a lot of what radio is all about
and we should take a keen interest in it, all of us.
www.savepacifica.net has a lot of really interesting links.
www.realradio.org has a lot of audio links.
And of course, if you wanna write to us,
oth2600.com, send us email,
let us know what you think of things going on.
And we'll be back again next week.
I say that with confidence because we operate
in an open society here at WBAI.
And hopefully that will remain for many years to come.
I think it will.
And we'll see you next week
with another edition of Off The Hook.
We'll have more information on the Kevin Mitnick case
and on other things in the technological
hacker and free speech world.
It's Emanuel Goldstein.
Have a good night.
♪ The telephone keeps ringing so I ripped it off the wall. ♪
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♪ I hope that's understood, vanilla, no! ♪
♪ Vanilla Bond for the best, expect the worst. ♪
♪ Vanilla Bond for the best, expect the worst. ♪
♪ Vanilla Bond for the best, expect the worst. ♪
♪ Vanilla Bond for the best, expect the worst. ♪
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Forging Peace in Guatemala.
A video documentary on the peace process in Guatemala
will be screened on Tuesday, August 3rd
from 6.30 to 8.30 p.m. at the Downtown Community Television Center.
That's at 87 Lafayette Street.
Featured speaker, Raul Molina,
Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs of the New Guatemala Democratic Front.
Forging Peace in Guatemala.