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| Alan Jennings |
A few weeks ago, Jennings sent me an email that announced, "I quit." I thought he was kidding, and that the delay in the podcast was due to Summer Hours. After all, WDIY's new Executive Director, Wagner Previato, is an LVEDC alum who was shown the door. Also , anyone named Wagner Previato is bound to be a bit off. He sounds like an opera singer.
Then I saw Molovinsky's blog claiming that we had been banned. I decided to call Jennings.
It's apparently true, even though it's reported on a blog. Jennings told me that before the show ever aired, Previato called to express concern about hosting bloggers. Jennings went ahead anyway, but the podcast was poofed.
Previato told Alan that he wanted to listen to the show first, which sounds reasonable. But as it happens, he had listened and reportedly told a Board member that Jennings lost control of the show.
That's nonsense. Alan had a script. We went over it before the show, and we stuck to it. Michael was really on. He was perhaps the best I've ever heard him, with a mix of good humor and pithy commentary. We were both decrying the urban growth regime in Allentown, where a handful of oligarchs are running the show. Democracy there is a charade.
Mind you, we were making our case to a NIZ Board member who is also one of Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski's biggest supporters. I've never heard anyone accuse Jennings of being a shrinking violet.
My guess is that one of the oligarchs, perhaps J.B. Reilly or Joe Topper, was able to bully WDIY into silencing the message.
Losing Jennings is collateral damage - the icing on the cupcake to these guys.
bernie, some clarification, if i might. jennings had an outline sheet of topics he hoped that we would cover. i prefer outline instead of script, because jennings never told us what to say. although you talked about the urban regime in allentown, i spoke about my campaign for state representative. several days after the show, a regular listener of wdiy told me that she would be supporting me as a candidate after hearing me on the show, and was going to suggest that her acquaintances listen to the podcast. regardless of the station manager's motive, because podcasts are their standard procedure, he has disenfranchised a candidate for state representative.
ReplyDeleteMM, You are right. It was more outline than script. He just explained briefly what he wanted to discuss. He did not tell us what to say, nor could he. You did speak about your upcoming campaign as well.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the show was just boring? The "urban growth machine" .... hahahaa ...that's prime bullshit dude. Lighten up and enjoy some hockey or Tom Petty. Or just stay in Nazareth.
ReplyDeleteFreedom of speech should never be silenced. The problem really started when newspapers,T.V stations and radio stations became slaves to their sponsors and not to the Freedom of the Press. Very sad state of affairs my friends. Wars have been waged over lesser issues. Keep writing Bernie!
ReplyDeleteSilenced? You are reading his words right here.
ReplyDeletecomments 8:26 and 9:04 are most likely from the blog mentor, who spends his day demeaning the many people on his enemy list. the main point of this post (and mine) is that the host, alan jennings, felt that his show was censored. how inappropriate for a public radio station, financed by the public, to censor political dialogue.
ReplyDeleteThe poverty pimp has enough resources to make up for any lost income via WDIY, maybe he will donate some loose change to MMs campaign for the lulz
ReplyDeleteThe program hosts are volunteers. They don't get paid.
ReplyDeleteSounds like the powers at WDIY are real cup cakes when it comes to controversy.
I listened to the show. There was nothing new. It verged on boring
It was certainly nothing new, but we did broadcast nude.
ReplyDeleteBernie,
Deletenow that would be almost as funny as the ron angle shit slingin stories¿ I could really use a gut busting laugh¿
redd
patent pending
OK, CRazy Old Lady is confused: the show did air, but something called a "podcast" met with a premature end? Anyway, this is most troubling. We have seen the so-called mainstream media commit hari-kari by being co-opted into the grasp of fewer and fewer, bigger and bigger, corporate owners. What happened to them? Nobody pays them any attention any more. We have found alternative sources for our information. WDIY is formally run by an elected Board and its station manager, and supported by individual donations, as well as by grants from various...corporations. The worm turns. Perhaps WDIY will also become irrelevant in the community? Sad to say, this whole controversy has arrived just in time for the October fund-raising campaign.
ReplyDeleteWDIY did air the Lehigh Valley Discourse show. But what it refused to do is prepare a podcast so that it could be heard on the Internet. This is something it histrorically has done for other shows.
ReplyDeleteThey were afraid of offending of offending urban growth advocates in Ubekistan.
ReplyDeleteIt took some time, but I just pored through the WDIY archives. Only about half of the shows aired make it to podcast.
ReplyDelete@4:43, what an frantic troll you are today, from early this morning. again, the point of the post is that the station director censored the podcast, and the show host resigned as a consequence.
ReplyDelete"It took some time, but I just pored through the WDIY archives. Only about half of the shows aired make it to podcast."
ReplyDeletePretty much 100% of Jennings' shows were podcast until he hosted MM and I.
Blog Mentor, once podcasts became available, Jennings insisted on them. He insisted on them. As usual, you are full of shit.
ReplyDeleteHmmm..
ReplyDeletehttp://wdiy.org/post/modern-day-town-criers-lehigh-valley-discourse
Not one single comment... shocking....
The archives for the show for July and August 2014...
http://wdiy.org/programs/lehigh-valley-discourse
The podcast list already posted above clearly shows LESS than half were released as podcasts...
You ladies want some cheese with your whine?
Blog Mentor, The censorship started in July. Pay attention. No wonder you get notices from the Sprague firm.
ReplyDeleteYou know... part of the reason no one votes in this area is because nobody knows what the hell is actually going on. We're bound by the FCC in that we can't run an independent radio station, because no new licenses are allowed, and the ones who have them are corporations that aren't budging.
ReplyDeleteThen we have the corporate newspapers that spout syndicated bullshit and cut to the bone on local reporting. I'm sorry, but reusing newspapers to wash windows because I'm a cheapskate and an old white guy eating his way through Musikfest isn't news.
I have some ideas on how to skirt the FCC legally, but it takes a pretty significant investment to run a full-blown news media outlet.
I'd love to get the ball rolling somehow, but I'm not 100% sure where to start.
It would be interesting to cross-reference the WDIY donor list with the NIZ interests, particularly 'when' they made any contributions. Reily, Topper, et al have lots of power. By the way, why the hell do we need 'public radio'? It's nothing more than a plaything for some liberals.
ReplyDelete9:44 the reason why we need public radio is that the local commercial stations are crap. Especially WAEB which is nothing more than a cesspool of the speech.
ReplyDelete