Jennings Gives Lehigh Valley Discourse an Enema

Moshe O'Hare

Earlier this month, I taped a program with Trump apologist Michael Molovinsky and host Alan Jennings for WDIY-88.1FM.The show is called Lehigh Valley Discourse and airs every Thursday at 6 pm. It touts itself as "[p]rovocative, informative and newsworthy," but is none of those things. It is instead a snooze-fest with boring hosts and terrible guests. The opening music is totally out-of-sync with the Lehigh Valley and sounds like something you'd hear on an elevator, not a radio station that prides itself, and for good reason, on excellent music. And who the hell calls conversation "discourse?" Snobs. Elitists. Me. The show needs an enema. After a four-year hiatus, CACLV's Alan Jennings was there to give one. He provided a CD containing his own musical selections and had two guests who pretty much despise each other.

Alan used to be a guest host, but quit the show in protest a few years ago when it refused to publish the first show he did with Molovinsky and myself. At that time, the big topic was Allentown corruption, and the show we broadcast was all about Allentown Mayor Edwin "Fed Ed" Pawlowski. The former station manager, like most of the mainstream media at that time, had no interest in doing anything that was provocative, informative or newsworthy. Though Alan completely disagreed with what we were saying and is still a friend of Fed Ed, he quit when the station tried to bury the truth.

He's funny that way. I heard it’s called integrity.

Michael Molovinsky, constipated

Now there's new management, but the show has still been the worst hour of radio in the Lehigh Valley. A one-hour infomercial about fish oil is better. That changed with the show that Alan Jennings hosted, which will air tonight.

For one thing, there's no love lost between myself and Michael Molovinsky. For years, he's been taking petty little shots at me. I did defend myself when he falsely accused me of impersonating reader Monkey Momma. She would later introduce herself to him and prove him wrong. Except for that, I've pretty much taken the high road and acted like Jesus Christ, turning the other cheek. Maybe I could convert a Jew, I thought, with all my Christianity.

But at the radio show, it was "eye for an eye," baby. I turned into a Jew, a Mossad, and even considered wearing an eyepatch like Moshe Dayan. Alan wanted to talk about the decline in civility, and I pointed to Molovinsky and his creepy hate blog in which one reader actually argued without contradiction that Ethiopian immigrants have low IQs. Since Trump's election, Molovinsky has become his biggest cheerleader in the Lehigh Valley. He denies this, but finds an excuse for every cruel and vicious thing that hedonist does.

producer jumps out window mid-show

I laid into Molovinsky, even catching him in a vulgar sexist remark. When a break in the show came up, Molovinsky headed to the can and was gone for some time.

I think he shit himself.

At least it smelled that way.

Molovinsky kept trying to steer the conversation away from Trump, saying he wanted to talk about local stuff like Wehr's Dam and choo-choo trains. I refused to let him. A man who wants LV kids to go hungry or supply them with boxes of moldy cheese has a direct impact on the Lehigh Valley. A man who supported ripping children out of the arms of their mothers, a policy that he quickly reversed when he realized this will cost him votes, should be condemned in the strongest possible terms. A demagogue who appeals to the dark nature in people, and not their better angels, should be called out. Molovinsky, like Trump, appeals to the dark side. His racist and xenophobic readers are proof. If anti-Muslim, so much the better.

At one point in the show, Molovinsky chided me for allowing anonymous commenters on my blog, and then attacking them as cowards. I do attack people who hide behind anonymity to engage in personal attacks. He knows that. He complained that I bully these poor cowards by demanding that they identify themselves so we all know who to sue. I do. If someone engages in defamation, I want his or her identity known so that the victims can take action.

The show was certainly provocative, informative and newsworthy. I was able to tell readers about the outrageous $810,000 in legal fees charged by Norris, Mclaughlin and Marcus in 2016 and 2017, which were improperly funneled to this firm by former Executive John Brown through the General Purpose Authority. Brown did an end-run around Northampton County Council, which has called for the resignation of that law firm as well as the General Purpose Authority Chair.

Just as it slept through most of the political corruption in Allentown, waking up only after the feds raided City Hall, the mainstream press is napping again. Aside from this blog and one story at WFMZ-TV69, there has been no coverage during the war between Northampton County and its General Purpose Authority. Newspapers are mere shadows of what they once were. They no longer have the staff to cover the inside stories. This is nobody watching the hen house.

That's where Lehigh Valley Discourse could provide a real public service. Right now, it is nothing more than a vanity show. My suggestions: Change the name; get rid of the stupid music; have one or two hosts who will ask hard questions; allow call-ins; and feature weekly guests.

Jennings Quits WDIY Over Podcast Poof

Alan Jennings

As I've explained in a story published below, The Express Times has been encouraging trolls to bash me at their online forums, in complete violation of their terms of service. I learned last night that WDIY is trying to silence me, too. It has actually refused to podcast a radio show that fellow blogger Michael Molovinsky and I did with CACLV's Alan Jennings in early July.

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.

Molovinsky and LVR on WDIY, 6 PM

When Mayor Pawlowski finds this out, somebody is gonna' have to throw him on a lift. He's gonna' blow a head gasket. Two of his biggest critics, Allentown's Michael Molovinsky and yours truly, will be on Alan Jennings WDIY at 6 pm tonight.

Alan Jennings don't care. He doesn't give a shit. He's a bad ass honey badger.

"Lehigh Valley Discourse" Will Analyze Local Races Tonight

Express Times editor Jim Flagg and yours truly will be Alan Jenning's guests tonight at his radio show, Lehigh Valley Discourse. The show airs 6 PM on WDIY-FM 88.1.

Last time I was there, I cost the station a few sponsors. And that was before I even got there.

They must have forgotten.

We'll be discussing last week's election. Who really won? Who really lost?

If you have any insights or points you want made, post them below as a comment.

Parsons, Mazziotti to Appear on Jennings' Radio Show

Scott Parsons 

CACLV's Alan Jennings is the occasional host of WDIY's Lehigh Valley Discourse, which airs every Thursday, 6 PM, at 88.1 PM. It's a great show, devoid of the partisan rants and name-calling that has become standard fare in political dialogue today.

This week, his guests are Northampton County Council member Scott Parsons and Lehigh County Commissioner Vic Mazziotti. Both are newcomers elected last November. Vic is a conservative Republican who shocked the established order by suggesting, perhaps not so seriously, that federal CDBG grants be returned. Scott is a blue-collar union Democrat who still opposed Allentown's NIZ.

Vic and Scott replaced two of the Lehigh Valley's best county legislators, Dean Browning and Ron Angle. But both Parsons and Vic are their own men. I wish all four could serve.

Reassessment. Regional Health Department. Act 111 Arbitration reform. Decreases in human services. An inevitable tax hike. Gracedale and Cedarbrook. These are just some of the issues facing our County government. I'll be tuned in.

Alan Jennings v. Ron Angle on WDIY

You're not going to believe this, but Alan Jenning's guest tonight on WDIY-FM Lehigh Valley Discourse is none other than the Northampton County Bulldog himself, Ron Angle. What will hgappen when these two, diametrically opposed, type "A", personalities get together? If they touch each other, the universe may end.

The show starts at 6 PM at 88.1, 93.9 and 93.7. You can listen to it live.

WDIY Loses Underwriter, Thanks to Me

I finally got to meet Lehigh Valley Independent's Jonathan Geeting yesterday. Believe it or not, we got along great in person. He's so young!

Geeting and I were Alan Jennings' guests on WDIY (FM 88.1)'s "Lehigh Valley Discourse" to discuss bottom-feeding bloggers. We were joined by State Rep. Joe Brennan, who has actually grown another three feet since the last time I saw him, and that was just a few weeks ago.

Both Jennings and the station manager (a very nice retired English physicist with a beard and everything) looked a little upset. Unbeknown to me, they had been peppered by emails and phone calls complaining about me. I apparently caused more controversy than anyone who had ever darkened their doorway, without even knowing it. The station actually lost an underwriter, simply for having me as a guest.

"Could have been worse, Bern, it could have been two," quipped Joe Brennan.

Jennings and I have different views on many issues. Once, I even portrayed him in a pimp outfit, a point he mentioned a few times. But he refused to be pressured. The same goes for WDIY, even though I had just called this struggling public radio station a foo foo haven.

Now I'm going to have to buy a beret. Or a monocle.

All this happened before the show even started. Who knows how many underwriters have jumped ship now that the show has aired.