Quinn Bashing Backfires for WBAI

[WhiskeyRobber]

http://www.nypost.com/seven/07082007/gossip/pagesix/quinn_bashing_costs_station_pagesix_.htm

From NYPost:

"July 8, 2007 -- AFTER a bid to name a street after race-baiting activist Sonny Carson was blocked by Council Speaker hristine Quinn, FM talk station WBAI has made her Public Enemy No. 1 - but the campaign seems to have backfired."

It appears that WBAI is losing its audience after anti-white, sexist and homophobic slurs uttered by on-air hosts including Father Lawrence Lucas calling Quinn a 'nasty lesbo.'

 

[LinoNYC]

What you are seeing here is a symptom, of what has made WBAI go from a major alternative voice in the 1960s through mid-seventies to a moribund drain on Pacifica's national organization.

I have spoken to three of the longtime hosts there and they largely agree with my opinions of the situation.

1) As the old upper-west-side co-op dwelling socialists (mostly Jewish) have died off or moved to Florida, WBAI has been "Bronxed"..taken over by minorities who have focused more on personal ego and agendas than items of mainstream concern.

There is nothing wrong with a station addressing minority issues, but look at the type of issues they choose a crudsuch as sonny carson.

2) There is also the problem that black and hispanic listenership is for music, not talk. Ask Percy Sutton and/or the management of WWRL, both entities tried to make this sort of talk work for over 15 years and couldn't.

3) The young, educated, affluent listeners have been spoken-for by WNYC, which has a coherent approach without childish diatribes.

There are good reasons why this station raises over $30 million/yr and WBAI with a full power comm-band signal can't raise $3M/yr. There is also the issue of the number of "employees" and the fact that their studio lease expires in 2012 they are unlikely to afford to renewal, where to next?

Pacifica has already started to complain that WBAI has become a drain and I expect that at some point they will impose a much needed "new order" on the place.

Lino

 

[dustintv]

Which in a way is sad because WBAI should be a more friendly station seeing it is "public airwaves" at Pacifica. I would be surprise if they do ever dump the station, but WBAI has been in this same mess for years now. Considering that Quinn was once a major backer for WBAI during the 2000-2002 crisis at the station it can't be good relations if the station is bashing her. It's a good thing the respectable reporters left, and it looks like the only respectable programs they have left are DN! and FSRN.