Stay tuned to WBAI Saturday night September 18th at 10 p.m. for another
edition of Morning Dew, the program dedicated to the planet Earth, the people
on it, and the Grateful Dead. For this fun drive special we'll be raising money,
featuring live reports from the Garden, previewing the upcoming Garcia Grissman
collaboration, as well as choral gospel music from San Quentin Prison. At the
breaks we'll have an environmental bulletin board, as well as some
phenomenal recordings of live Grateful Dead and music from Madagascar. All here
on 99.5 FM, September 18th at 10 p.m. WBAI, one more Saturday night.
And it's 10 o'clock, which means once again it's time for Off the Hook.
So I ripped it off the wall. I cut myself while shaving. Now I can't make a cough.
It couldn't get much worse. But if they could, they would.
Bon dilly bon, but I best expect the worst. I hope that's understood. Bon dilly bon!
I hope that's understood.
Yep, it's me, your old pal Bugs Bunny. Come all the way from Hollywood to meet you and to find out more about you.
I must say, this really does look like a fun town.
Bring it on down.
Uh-huh.
Way down.
Come on now.
Do what you like.
Let's have a ball.
Oh yeah, Pledge Week is always so much fun around here at WBAI. In fact, it's so much fun that we do it for two weeks.
Yeah, and we really do need your support. Not like all those other stations that ask for your support when they don't really need it.
No, we really need your support, and you can tell by all the things that break down as we get through a normal day here at the radio station.
Our phone number is 279-3400. 212-279-3400.
And we're asking that anybody who has gotten something out of this program in the last year, the last few months, the last week,
if you've learned something that has helped you, if you've learned something that has enabled you to save money,
or just be a little bit more educated as far as your telephone, getting access to the internet, knowing when you're being ripped off,
or just appreciation of computer hackers in general.
If any of this applies to you, give us a call. 212-279-3400. That's our telephone number.
We've got a number of special incentives. I mean, positive incentives.
We're not going to threaten you or break your fingers if you don't call or anything like that.
Those are the incentives those other stations use.
Now, we have what we call positive incentives, such as a two-tape negative land compilation,
which is yours with a pledge of $75.
That plus the WBAI program guide, which will make its way to wherever you tell us to send it to for a full year.
That's right. And we have all kinds of other things as well.
But please, we need to see those phones light up.
212-279-3400. That's our telephone number here.
We have two calls on the line, and we'd like to start off the show with a full line.
So that way we can maybe take a few phone calls later and proceed as normally as possible.
212-279-3400. Light up those phone lines. Show some support.
You know, speaking of support, last week we went on the air and talked about a couple of computer hackers that were sent to prison.
Actually, I was mistaken saying they were sent to prison last week.
They actually were sent to prison this week, and they are currently there as of yesterday.
But you know what's troublesome is that we didn't get a single letter from any of you. Not one letter.
And that's especially troubling because when you have people, people very much like us,
the people that do this show, the people that listen to this show, the people that show up at 2600 meetings,
when you have people like that being sent away for periods of up to a year, communication becomes very important.
If you don't know who these people are, it's important to know that you have friends, people who are thinking of you,
people who care, who have the same interests, who know that what has happened is wrong.
What has happened has been a travesty of justice where people are sent to jail for crimes that the judge does not even understand.
In fact, he didn't even understand if there was a crime committed.
Basically, these people are guilty of knowing people, of talking to people, of showing up at meetings, of being part of the hacker world.
And when you start sending people away for things like that, it's a very dangerous trend that we're setting.
So please, write to these people, even if you have never heard of them before.
And you can write to them, careofus, here at WBAI.
The program is off the hook. Our address is WBAI, 505 8th Avenue, New York, New York, 10018.
And any kind of reading material, any kind of words of support certainly will go a long way.
And while we're at it, let's show some support for maybe some good laws, maybe some education on the legislative end.
That's something that we can all work towards.
And for now, we need your support at 212-279-3400.
212-279-3400. We've got a surprise for you. We've got a surprise.
And, yeah, it's going to come your way as soon as we get a couple of phone calls.
212-279-3400.
Show your support for this program. Show your support for this radio station.
Show your support for the fact that we're here.
Because if we weren't here, well, okay, if we weren't here, our immediate neighbors to the left,
you know, if you tune your radio one or two notches to the left,
or our immediate neighbors to the right, one or two to the right,
just, you know, wander around the dial a little bit.
That's what you would hear instead of us if we weren't here.
Do you think somebody else would just come in and do this? No.
A radio station like this takes a lot of work, takes a lot of construction.
Construction from the listeners on up.
And we need some construction right now.
212-279-3400.
We have, as I mentioned, the negative land tapes,
which are hard to find and well worth it once you do find them.
That's for a pledge of $75.
But if that's too much for you, then please pledge what you can.
And everybody who does pledge will receive the WBAI program guide for a year.
And with that program guide, you'll know what's on.
You'll find even more radio programs that are of interest to you.
And you'll have all kinds of things to show your friends as well.
We have a lot of other things, too.
We have the Martian Chronicles on two tapes.
We really do.
We have that negative land thing.
We have all kinds of cassettes and books.
And God knows what else.
And our listener volunteers are more than happy to help you out there.
212-279-3400.
That's our telephone number.
Let's get some phone calls coming in.
And we can move on to our particular revelation for this week's show.
And it's a pretty big one.
It's something that I think is going to help people out there.
We did some work on this over the past week.
We're always finding little holes, little ways people can take advantage of things.
And if you want us to continue to do this, we need to hear your vote of support.
It's not just a question of building it all up for the radio station.
It's a question of knowing that there are people out there that care about a particular radio program.
This program, Off the Hook, has been on for a number of years.
And we've brought you everything from how the phone company works,
how the phone company rips you off, to how computer systems work,
how computer networks tie together and how you can get access, why access is important.
We've talked to civil libertarians.
We've talked to computer hackers.
We've talked to phone company people.
We've talked to just about everybody on these subjects.
We've talked to people in this country.
We've talked to people in Europe and around the world.
We're the only radio program like this in the country.
And I think I can say that without fear of contradiction.
Yes, I think I can.
And there's a reason for that.
It's because WBAI has the type of environment that allows for this kind of thing.
So, 212-279-3400, that's our telephone number.
Give us a call.
Show your support.
All right.
And while you're all busy dialing, as I know you must be,
let's take a look at some of the things that have been happening this week.
This is rather interesting in regards to New York Telephone.
State officials have called for a major rate reduction.
That's right. You heard right.
A rate reduction by New York Telephone next year
as the company came under attack separately for a deterioration in service this summer.
Do you notice that, the deterioration in service?
I've been noticing it for some time, actually.
But, yeah, a rate reduction.
Imagine that.
The blasts at the phone company arise as the State Public Service Commission
evaluates New York Telephone's revenue needs for 1994,
part of a review of possible changes in the way the company is regulated.
In a filing with the Public Service Commission,
the State Consumer Protection Board, these are the good guys,
they called for a 10% decrease in New York Telephone's rates starting in January.
That would reduce projected annual revenues by at least $545 million,
according to the board.
David Blau, the Consumer Board's Director of Utility Intervention,
cited a sharp drop in the cost of attracting investment
and a comprehensive program by New York Telephone to reduce costs and increase productivity.
By the way, I see we have three calls on the line.
If we can make that seven, it'll make me feel like it's worthwhile, you know,
because that's a full line.
And if we get seven phone calls, seven pledges,
we can open up the other lines to our call-in people
and take some more subject matter for today.
212-279-3400. Is that a fourth call I see? Great.
That means there's only three more, and that means that you listening right now
are one-third of the solution.
I don't think your odds have ever been that good.
Please, pledge what you can afford.
We take Visa, we take MasterCard,
and we have volunteers just waiting to hear from you.
212-279-3400.
Continuing with this story here,
Edward Collins, spokesman for the PSC,
said that the staff of the agency that regulates the phone company so far
is recommending a $216 million cut in phone company revenues.
A decision by the commission is expected in November or December.
Phone company spokesman Stephen Marcus countered
that a rate reduction of any level was not warranted.
I sort of expected them to say that.
We feel it would have a chilling effect on the state's economy.
Draining money that could be used for investments, said Marcus.
Many businesses in New York are information-intensive.
They need a telecommunications network that will meet their needs,
and if we don't get what we want, we're going to make sure they never do.
Well, he didn't really say that,
but I'm sort of expanding upon his remarks a little bit,
but it definitely was there in the tone, right?
We all know this.
Collins said that the PSC is monitoring service problems
in such areas as missed repair appointments
and customers who are out of service for more than 24 hours,
as measured by PSC standards.
In those categories, said Collins,
there was a marked decrease in the quality of service
beyond a traditional decline in the summer.
Tony Pappas, managing director for media relations for the phone company,
acknowledged the problems
and attributed them to difficult weather conditions,
coupled with a lag in responding with enough workers.
In August, we began moving a lot of people to repairs, said Pappas.
We're well on our way to having these problems behind us.
Okay, also, for those of you that are interested in speaking out
against various things or for certain things,
we just missed a meeting in New York City.
The reason that we never seem to find out about these things
is because they hide them in the newspapers
and they don't tell you exactly where they are
and they don't bother to announce it until after it's over.
This is something that appeared this Monday in Newsday.
It says, attention New York telephone customers,
you can make a difference in the way the telephone company is regulated.
The New York State Public Service Commission
is exploring a new way to set rates for New York telephone.
This could greatly affect your telephone service and its cost.
The Public Service Commission wants to know
what New York telephone customers think about telephone rates,
new technologies, and service quality.
Come to hear and discuss the issues and make your opinions count
before the Public Service Commission makes its decisions.
As I said, this appeared in Monday's paper
and they basically said in this particular advertisement
that there's going to be a meeting somewhere in New York City on Tuesday.
And, of course, today's Wednesday, so the meeting is over.
Would have been nice if inside this advertisement
they said where in New York City the meeting was.
More people probably would have shown up.
I can tell you that there is a meeting in Long Island on September 22nd.
Long Island is only about 100 miles long and a few miles wide.
So it's somewhere in there. I tried calling them today.
And I got a recording.
Yeah, 1-800-342-3377.
I got one of those press one to do this, press two to do that.
Please hold, please hold, please hold, click.
You know, that kind of deal.
And, of course, if you call now you'll get a recording saying you can't call now.
You have to call between 9 and 5 to get that particular little circus that they put you through.
But the number is 1-800-342-3377.
And there was a meeting somewhere in Long Island on September 22nd,
somewhere in Poughkeepsie on September 23rd.
And that's pretty much where it stands.
Now at these meetings you can talk about all kinds of things
regarding phone service, regarding what is right, what is wrong, what is justified, what is not.
And along those lines we've got something right here for you right now that we want to play for you.
This concerns something that we've just uncovered,
something I'm sure the phone company does not want us to uncover,
but something that, well, we figured we'd uncover anyway.
Now we've been talking about caller ID and privacy issues.
$50? $50, is that all we can raise?
All the people out there, come on, get on the phone, please, give us a call, don't embarrass me here.
212-279-3400.
We're the only show that brings you this kind of information and we don't do this very often.
We don't go on the air and humiliate ourselves like this.
We don't get into something a bit higher than $50 among all the people in the tri-state area.
I don't know. I don't know what you're going to be hearing in this particular time slot.
Maybe Muzak.
That has some rather high revenue potential, doesn't it?
212-279-3400.
If you're a human being within the sound of my voice, there's probably a telephone near you
and you can call us up and just make a pledge.
And you pay it when you get the little reminder in the mail or you put it on your credit card.
We're not going to extract the money from your veins on the telephone.
It's nothing painful like that.
212-279-3400.
You'll find it's a very cordial experience.
It's a very pleasant experience.
All right, I'll make a deal with you.
If you listen to what you're about to hear now and you say to yourself,
well, I'll be. I never knew that.
This is definitely going to be something that will concern me in the months and years ahead.
If you say that or if you say words to that effect,
let's make a little deal now where you call up and just pledge whatever you can afford
to help make us get a little bit higher than $50.
I mean, I don't mean to belittle the fact that we have $50.
That's obviously helpful, but, you know, we need to get more than $50,
and we do that by having each and every one of you give us a call.
All right.
Now, to get into what we uncovered.
We've been talking about this cell caller ID issue,
and call return is something that you activate by dialing star 69,
or if you don't have a touchtone, you dial 1169.
What it basically does is call back the last person that called you,
assuming they're within a particular geographical area.
In our particular case here in New York, it would be anywhere in 516, 212, 718, or 914.
201 and 609 and 908, I believe, are all linked together as well in New Jersey,
and other areas have their particular regions hooked together as well.
One day, they'll all be tied together, and we can star 69 somebody in California from New York.
It's going to be amazing.
The problem is a lot of people weren't aware of this.
When all the debate about caller ID was going on,
people were told they could block caller ID, but they weren't told about call return.
Even if you block call ID, if you don't send your number when you make a telephone call,
someone can still call you back immediately by dialing star 69.
In response to the public outrage that occurred when this was revealed,
New York Telephone said, well, we'll offer a privacy feature
that allows for the number not to show up on local itemization.
In other words, if I call you and I have a privacy feature on my line,
then when you get your local itemization, assuming you star 69 me and call me back,
where you see my phone number, you'll see the area code, you'll see the exchange,
but instead of the last four digits, you'll see four X's.
And that is the extent of privacy to which you are afforded in this particular case.
You cannot block star 69 from working on your phone number, or so we've been led to believe.
Now, this is something that we experimented with over the last couple of days.
We had a phone line that has caller ID and is capable of star 69-ing, call returning somebody,
and we placed a phone call from a payphone directly,
directly from a payphone to this particular phone number.
And on the caller ID device, the phone number of the payphone did in fact show up.
So the number was transmitted, and everything appeared to be just as it normally is.
However, listen to what happened when we tried to call that payphone back.
Well, actually, our tape machine isn't working quite as well as the phone company is.
Okay, let's try it this time on this machine over here.
This is what happened when we tried calling back that payphone using star 69.
Now, that doesn't make any sense. That doesn't make any sense at all.
Now, how is it that the phone number shows up on a caller ID box, yet you can't do a call return on it?
Seems pretty bizarre to me, doesn't it?
I mean, it's a strange setup here.
So, I decided to call the phone company and say, well, has anything changed here?
Because, obviously, there seems to be a way to block your number from being called back.
Seems pretty simple.
And also, there was another incident that led me to believe this.
A local university has a whole bunch of telephone numbers that make outgoing calls.
They're not what you call DID numbers.
They're trunk lines, and the numbers don't resemble the numbers that actually are attached to the university.
Basically, what that translates to is that when somebody makes a call from this particular entity to a caller ID box,
a number shows up that doesn't really make any sense.
And if you call it back, you'll just ring and ring somewhere, and maybe a university operator will pick up at some point.
Up until recently, it was possible to star 69 those particular numbers.
And within the last couple of weeks, that particular feature was turned off.
And also, every single call coming out of there has now a private number, so you can't see the number.
You can't see the number, and you can't star 69 the number.
Fascinating, huh?
Listen to what happens when we call a New York telephone business office to find out if something has perhaps changed.
You have reached the New York Telephone Order Center.
All representatives are currently assisting other customers.
If you are experiencing difficulty with your dial tone, you can reach our repair department by dialing 611.
If you are using a touch-tone telephone, you can place an order to seasonally suspend or restore your service
or totally disconnect your line by dialing our account information line on 1-800-698-3545.
You will need to enter your telephone number and the three digits following it that appear on your telephone bill.
All others, please continue to hold. Thanks.
New York Telephone is notorious for cutting off their recordings before they're finished and for starting them before they're ready.
Also, something else of note, do you hear this hum?
According to the phone company, that doesn't exist.
Thank you for holding.
If you are using a touch-tone telephone, you can place an order to seasonally suspend or restore your service
or totally disconnect your line by dialing our account information line on 1-800-698-3545.
Please have your bill handy.
Yeah, if you can hear that hum, then that means that you're hearing something that doesn't exist, according to the phone company.
This last recording, by the way, starts with a long silence.
You always get three recordings.
You never get two, you never get one.
You always get three, and then you get through.
All representatives are still assisting other customers.
Please continue to hold for the next available representative.
This will be the last recorded message you will hear.
New York Telephone appreciates your patience.
Yeah, well, we certainly do appreciate New York Telephone's recorded announcements.
All right, so we stayed on the line for quite some time, as anyone is prone to do when they call the phone company to resolve things.
But we finally did get through to a representative, and we asked a very simple question.
Let's hear what happened.
Thank you for calling New York Telephone.
This is Ms. Dobrik.
Yes, I had a question regarding star 69 abilities.
Okay.
I was wondering if there's any way to turn that off so that when you call somebody, they can't call you back.
No.
There's no way to turn that off?
We can only stop it from being used inside your house.
Okay.
In other words, you could make—
If you call somebody, they call you back.
They can call you back.
There's no way to stop that.
I see.
Okay.
That's true of virtually every phone in Long Island right now.
Right.
Okay.
Okay.
Thank you very much.
Bye-bye.
Okay, so we basically found out what their particular stand on the issue was, that you can't turn it off.
No.
Absolutely not.
Period.
No way.
Okay.
Nice to have things pointed out to us.
However, the fact remains, the fact remains that we have clearly seen two different entities,
namely a large institution and a pay phone, that have the ability to not be called back.
I mean, same basic switching system, signaling system there, both using signaling system 7,
both transmitting the same data down the line.
Obviously just a switch or something, some permission not turned on that allows them not to be called back.
Star 69 does not work.
So we figured we'd go a step higher, talk to a supervisor type,
and find out if anything really made sense in the phone company.
Let's hear what happened.
My name is Ms. Schultz.
Can I help you?
Yes.
I'm having some confusion with regards to call return.
I was told that there's no way to not be called back if you call somebody.
Stop the call.
You can stop them from getting the number, but you can't stop the action.
Okay.
Now, what's puzzling me is that somebody just called me from a pay phone, and I have caller ID,
and I saw the number show up on my caller ID.
However, when I tried to star 69 it, it said that that kind of call could not go through.
Exactly right.
You can't.
Why is that?
It doesn't speak in the same language a coin phone does not.
I see.
To access it.
Does not speak in the same language.
Remember that, folks.
That's a technical term.
A pay phone does not speak in the same language as a residential phone.
Back to our tape.
Even though the number is transmitted, it won't call that number back?
No.
Okay.
And the other thing that I was curious about, the university out here used to transmit the number,
but now it simply just says private number, and it won't let you star 69 back to that number either.
In other words, you were able to before, but now you're not able to.
It's as if some sort of a switch was thrown.
I have no idea, sir.
Okay.
Well, can I find out if it's possible to have that for residences as well?
What?
Have what?
That kind of a service where the number doesn't show up and the person cannot be called back.
It seems like it's possible.
Can't stop someone from star 69ing you.
You're a resident.
Are you saying that residences only can't allow this,
that if I was a business or an institution I would be able to block star 69?
Residences cannot stop the action from someone calling you back that way.
Okay.
Can a large institution, though, can they block it?
They have.
You just told me that.
So I don't really handle business, sir.
I don't know.
Residences don't.
Okay.
Can you connect me to somebody that handles business?
Hold on.
Hold on.
Nothing to panic about.
She simply went away to check on this.
She'll be back in just a moment.
Let me give out our phone number again.
Sir, businesses are closed.
You'll have to call tomorrow, 783-2700.
Okay.
Okay?
All right.
Thank you very much.
You're welcome.
No, she didn't sound too happy with us for asking those questions in the first place.
The fact of the matter is not enough people asked them to begin with.
Obviously, obviously, the system is capable of not allowing star 69.
It's done it twice.
It's done it on a pay phone.
It's done it with institutions.
I was calling a utility company, and the utility company was busy.
And so I decided, okay, I'll use that annoying little feature.
How they're being ripped off by it.
It's a fact.
You're being ripped off.
We're here to show you how not to be ripped off.
212-279-3400.
I can guarantee you by calling that number, it's not a rip-off.
You'll be getting exactly what you pay for.
You'll be investing in non-commercial radio.
You'll be investing in the kinds of ideas that come across this radio station 24 hours a day.
212-279-3400.
24 hours a day.
212-279-3400.
212-279-3400 for a pledge of, I believe, $50.
You'll get the WBAI program guide, and you'll get the 2600 T-shirt as well.
We have all kinds of other things, though.
We have volunteers that have taken time out to answer the phones.
They're in that room right now waiting for those phones to start ringing.
We have one caller on the line.
That means we have six people sitting around doing absolutely nothing
or maybe just indulging in idle chit-chat or whatever.
That's fine and dandy, but this is a serious matter here.
We depend on our listeners. We really do.
Without our listeners, we're nothing.
What the commercial stations don't realize is that without listeners, without viewers,
they're nothing too.
However, it takes a lot longer for them to realize that they have no listeners
and have no viewers because they have advertisers,
and that's all that really matters to them.
As long as people continue to buy things,
they believe that people are actually listening and watching the garbage they put on the air.
Now, we're a lot more direct.
We have you.
If you don't call, that means we're doing something wrong,
and we have to respond to that.
So if you don't like WBAI, if you don't like this radio station,
if you don't like this program, don't call.
Do not pick up the phone. Do not dial 212-279-3400.
We'll take that as a message.
We'll take your non-response as a message.
However, if you don't feel that way, please respond.
212-279-3400.
I think we're only one call away from a bingo.
That's nice.
That would be very nice if we got a bingo,
and then we could probably take some phone calls on top of that.
212-279-3400.
Please make the room erupt into pandemonium.
Any pledge will get a 2600 t-shirt.
I think we only have extra larges, but I don't know.
Extra large tends to fit everybody in one way or another.
But that's something that we're offering here as a special premium,
complete cost to 2600 Magazine, the Hacker Quarterly.
On the front of the shirt, you'll see a schematic of a blue box.
That's right, a schematic of a blue box.
It's rumored to be illegal to wear this shirt in California
because such things aren't allowed to be publicly displayed.
It's only a rumor, though.
On the back of the shirt, you'll see all kinds of interesting news articles
about computer hackers and high tech,
and you'll be the subject of all kinds of attention
from people who are staring at your back,
like on supermarket checkout lines.
We have quite a few instances where people have met
other interesting people in that particular manner.
In fact, more and more people are passing each other in the streets
wearing 2600 t-shirts, and it's rather unusual.
In fact, get this.
Recently in Austin, Texas, a friend of mine was listening to the radio.
He was listening to the radio,
and a commercial radio station,
you know how they have those stupid remote things
where they are talking to people in the street and saying,
oh, so, you know, what's your name?
What are you doing here today?
Blah, blah, blah.
You know, that's what commercial radio is made of.
You know, all good fun and games,
but in this particular case, the person on the radio was saying
to the person in the street,
that's an interesting shirt you're wearing.
What is that 2600?
What does that mean?
What is that, all those lines and things on the front?
What is it all about?
Now, the odds of me hearing about this, I think, are pretty slim,
but it just goes to show you
that more and more people are becoming aware,
more and more people are taking an interest in technology
and not being afraid to show it.
You know, not cowering behind their radios
and saying, yeah, I've played with the phone.
I've dialed star six eight just to see what it would do.
You know, I called a computer,
and I looked at what it said.
I couldn't get into it, but I was curious as to what it was.
I asked questions.
That's what we need, people that will ask questions
and people that will share the information.
Please, share some of your generosity.
212-279-3400.
That's our telephone number.
And some people wanted to know
what one of our premiums sounded like,
so I'm prepared to share that with you here.
And the Negative Land tape is something that's pretty rare.
I can't play something from that because I don't have it myself.
However, I do have the new Negative Land CD.
It's called Free,
and it's led to quite a few misunderstandings
at the checkout counter.
But apart from that, it's a very good CD,
and once you do finally get it home,
you'll be able to get all kinds of hidden messages out of it.
This particular track we're about to hear
is called The Gun in the Bible.
And if you've never heard of Negative Land before,
you'll know what they're all about.
These are the people that are being sued
by their own record label,
as well as by the rock band U2, Casey Kasem,
what's left of the moral majority,
and the PMRC,
and certain governments of the world.
They're the very spirit of rebelliousness.
This is what they sound like,
and with a pledge of $75,
you'll get a double cassette
of Negative Land plus the 2600 t-shirt.
But of course, any pledge will get that.
You'll get a 2600 t-shirt, that is.
212-279-3400.
Let's have some calls come in
during this short musical break.
Wilderness.
Wilderness. Is that wilderness?
Out of the wilderness, out of the wilderness, out of the wilderness, out of the wilderness,
Come out and get them.
Gentlemen, we'll be setting a slag heap, drinking and shooting a pistol at the little pools of fire,
waking at them in the darkness. Bam, bam, bam!
Your bullet can't see red.
You are the eyes, the mind, and the will of every bullet you fire.
Reason enough to take great care.
And reason enough to remember again that liquor always comes later,
after the guns are cleaned and racked.
That's the time to relax with a drink, the only time.
This is the wild side of life, ain't it, Wilkies?
Okay, I'm not playing any more music for anybody, and that includes myself,
until somebody calls and pledges some money so that our station does not have to go off the air.
I mean, why should I bother to play records for you if you're not even willing to call up and pledge a couple of dollars?
A couple of dollars is not that much money.
We've been playing what you want, but we have to have your money.
We can't make it without you.
We played Margo Hemingway's new album.
We debuted it, premiered it on this station.
We're the only station in the whole tri-state area to play the Fish Cheer all the way through.
We play a lot of old stuff.
We play a lot of Cher's stuff before she sold out.
We play a lot of crap, but that's what you want, you know?
We've sponsored a lot of public service stuff, man.
We had the show on Saturday nights.
We had a whole series on how to beat Bank America.
A lot of people want us to repeat it.
We're getting a lot of heat from the government.
We're still going to repeat it.
The management says to go ahead and repeat it, so we're going to be able to play it for you people again.
We had Mrs. Rosemary Kennedy's biography, her intimate biography,
stuff that was uncovered about her life.
We had that stuff on about how really badly she felt about her sons dying and stuff.
Where the hell are you?
Let's get some phone calls.
555-2150.
What about you people in labor?
Come on.
Every Friday night we've been sponsoring a Wobbly Hour.
We've been having old weird wobbly guys who were with the IWW back in the 20s and stuff.
Let's back us up.
We're in the same boat.
555-2150.
It's us against the world.
Let's go.
Let's beat the world tonight.
Come on, sheet metal people.
Where are you?
Okay, St. Mark's for girls.
I'll give a kiss to every girl from St. Mark's that calls, pledges some money.
Come on.
You're some good looking chicks.
You've got some handles over there.
You mothers, you young mothers that are still up.
The baby's crying.
We're the only station that's got a radio daycare center, you know.
We've got a girl that comes in here and keeps the kids in their place.
Shut up.
Sit down.
That kind of stuff.
And it works.
It makes the kids listen to the radio and respect the radio.
Now, why don't you show a little bit of respect.
Give me a phone.
Call it 555-2150.
Call out.
Give a couple of bucks.
Do you want to hear radio again?
You know, what if you woke up some morning and there was no radio?
It sounds like the beginning of a short story, you know.
But 1984 isn't that far away.
Come on.
God damn it.
Excuse me, but this is ridiculous.
We've been putting out enough put up.
Put up or shut up.
We're going off the air if you don't do it.
I mean, you're only hurting yourself.
All right.
I'm sorry.
Nobody's calling now because I blew up.
Now, I'm sorry.
I'll play a record or something.
But please, somebody call 555-2150.
I'm sorry for yelling.
I apologize.
Okay.
Okay.
That wasn't us.
That was Bill Murray, actually, doing a piece from National Lampoon.
And, well, it could be us, you know.
If things get a little worse, I guess we could be resorting to tactics like that.
But, no, we don't threaten you.
We don't hold things hostage.
We don't, you know, belittle our listeners.
But we do ask that you give us a call, 212-279-3400.
What we heard before Bill Murray was Negative Land off their new CD.
And we heard a piece called The Gun and the Bible.
And it's a magnificent CD.
And we're offering a double cassette of Negative Land various tidbits.
That's for a pledge of $75.
And, of course, everybody that calls in will get a 2600 T-shirt that will show the world that you love hackers, I guess.
I don't know.
We have a $150 matching fund.
Now, what that means, for those of you that have not heard any of our begathons in the past,
that if people call up now and pledge a total of $150, whether it be $350 pledges or $275 pledges or $151 pledges,
if people call up and do that, this nice person who has offered to do this will add an additional $150 to that.
So, in other words, we can make 300 bucks really quickly.
Really quickly.
Just by having people out there call up and pledge $150, we can...
You know, I don't think I like her.
You see, we can do that, too.
We can just cut people off whenever we feel like it.
Yeah, $150, 212-279-3400.
Pledge what you can afford.
If you pledge $50, you'll get the WBAI program guide.
You'll get the 2600 T-shirt.
And you'll be helping us to get an extra $150.
That's right.
Three callers.
Three callers, $50 each to get an additional $150.
It's amazing how these things work, but that's exactly how we got what we got today.
WBAI is world famous for its programming.
World famous.
I found a book about Pacifica and about WBAI in a bookstore in Berlin.
I couldn't read it.
It was in German, but I did recognize WBAI.
I did see Pacifica all over the place.
We're famous.
And it's because of you we're famous.
It's because of the innovative programming we put on, but we couldn't do it without your support.
If our listeners went away, we'd be nothing.
All right, now all of our listeners have gone away.
We have no calls on the line.
212-279-3400.
If we don't get that $150, then we don't get the matching fund.
You see?
It works that way.
It's part of the market economy, I guess.
212-279-3400.
Once we meet that match, we can move on to other things.
We still have about 15 minutes in the program.
Actually, about 11 minutes, depending on which clock you believe.
There's two clocks in this room, and they both tell widely divergent times.
Kind of the way we are here at BAI.
Time doesn't really matter that much.
What matters is that people out there care about each other.
They care about the radio station.
They link hands to support us.
It sounds sickening, doesn't it?
It sounds like hands around the world.
The point is we have to get together, and if we don't do that,
we're going to sink like a stone.
Make no mistake about that.
Because the people we pay our rent to,
the people we pay the transmitter costs to,
they don't really care about us.
They don't care about us at all.
They just want their checks.
They want their money.
If we don't give it to them, you know what happens.
You know what the term is.
We don't even have a paddle.
Let's put it that way.
I checked before the show.
We don't have one.
212-279-3400.
I'm going to read you some listener mail,
and hopefully by the time I finish reading the listener mail,
we will have met that pledge or met that match or matched the pledge.
Well, we would have gotten $150 at least.
212-279-3400.
Please remember, everybody that calls in gets a 2600 Hacker T-shirt.
Now, just wearing a T-shirt alone is not grounds to be thrown into prison.
That's something I feel I should point out
because there's a lot of paranoia going on out there.
It is, however, grounds to be accepted
as one of the truly culturally elite of this society.
Well, okay, that's a stretch too, but still,
it's not a bad thing to be caught wearing.
Let's put it that way.
You will meet people this way, interesting people.
And, you know, some not so interesting people,
but you'll meet people, and you also learn something.
Anytime you feel like it, you can take off the shirt and read the back of it.
You know, if you're stuck on a subway or something,
you always have reading material on you at all times when you're wearing the shirt.
So, white lettering on black background,
and it's spreading all over the world.
In fact, at the Hacker Congress in Amsterdam last August,
this August, actually,
almost everybody was wearing these things.
It was kind of scary, kind of scary, like they were duplicating.
Okay, here's a newspaper article sent to us from Ed over in New Jersey.
Flights in a large area of southern United States
were delayed for about 90 minutes
when computer glitches hit a regional air traffic center in Florida.
The problem resulted in the shutdown of radar,
telephone lines, and radio frequencies
at Jacksonville Air Route Traffic Center in Hilliard, Florida.
It comes from the Investors Business Daily of September 1st.
And how many times have we heard something like this happen?
It happens a lot.
It's a little tiny piece, you know, it's only about six lines long.
I think something like that should be on the front page, you know.
Computer glitch, and airports have to shut down.
No backups, no ways around it.
Our lives are controlled by computers.
Better get used to it.
It happened in New York a couple of years ago.
It's going to happen again.
It happens all the time, wherever there's poor planning,
wherever computers are allowed to run rampant,
and there are no backup systems.
And we have this letter from somewhere in New York.
There's no city attached to this.
Dear Manuel, perhaps you aren't aware of some of the implications
of two of the topics you discussed in recent radio shows.
On the clipper chip, perhaps you aren't aware
that an important element of the clipper system
is that the serial number of the modem
is sent over the connection along with the encrypted data stream.
In order to perform an interception,
the authorities would first receive the serial number
of the transmitting terminal.
They would then look up the two required keys for that terminal
and decode the transmission.
And on another topic that we covered a couple of weeks ago,
something else you haven't heard anything about
in the mainstream media, the New York State sales tax.
Yes, on data communications and Internet access and things like that.
There is another sleeper in the new New York tax law.
If they ever want to start following the letter of the law,
the New York tax department can start charging sales tax
on the fair market value of any software or information transferred
instead of the actual amount paid.
This means that the tax department can charge sales tax
on all software downloaded from bulletin boards
based on what they believe the fair market value to be.
Also, for non-profit or hobbyist-run bulletin boards,
they can determine the fair market value of login time
on the bulletin board itself
and charge sales tax for that value.
The BBS operator would be liable for the tax.
Also, individuals would be liable for these new taxes
when they use BBSes located out of state due to the use tax.
Individuals would be supposed to or are supposed to file...
Actually, how do you say that?
They would be supposed to file because they're not supposed to file it now,
but in the future they would be supposed to file.
Anyway, use tax returns and pay the tax themselves
when they import software from out of state by telephone.
You can only imagine how exciting enforcement of this could become.
That letter comes to us from the Jolly Green Giant somewhere in New York,
but he raises some very good points.
Once tax departments start getting a hold
of the kind of free-form world of the Internet
and bulletin boards and data communications in general,
it all becomes a nightmare.
It all becomes very unpleasant,
and people will start to shy away from it.
We can't allow that to happen.
We need people to speak out against this kind of thing,
and that's you, that's me,
that's a lot of other people that aren't listening right now.
Okay, have we met that match?
I don't know if we have or not.
We have a few phone calls on the line.
Hopefully we've met the match.
Somebody, I assume, will tell me if we have.
212-279-3400.
We need to get as many calls as possible.
Everybody who calls in will get a 2600 T-shirt
as a special thank you,
a special thank you from this particular radio program
and no other.
And we only have a couple of minutes left.
Now, we have the New York Telephone subject
that we were talking about before
where the Public Service Commission
is actually discussing lowering the rates.
Can you imagine if that would actually happen?
Lowering the rates,
perhaps getting rid of the touch-tone fee,
perhaps getting rid of all the other ridiculous charges
that we're faced with each and every month.
We have somebody that just stopped by the studio.
Razor? Say hello, Razor.
Hey.
You have something to say about all this.
Yeah.
I was curious.
You were talking before how the spokesperson had said
that they were trying to meet the needs of online services.
Obviously, they spent quite a bit of money
building up the infrastructure to do this,
although now we all take it for granted.
Given if there were certain rate decreases,
it would be good for the consumer.
Are they trying to purport that they would not have enough money
to then go and develop the infrastructure
and as a result, online services and other things
that are very dependent of the infrastructure
would be less compatible
and less people would be able to do this?
Well, I think that's what they're implying.
But I don't think we need the local phone companies
to build up the infrastructure as far as online services.
I think we can do a good job of that ourselves
with what we have here.
In fact, I don't want the phone companies to be running things.
I don't want the cable TV companies to be running things.
I want us to be running things
and having our own little organizations
that do these things on kind of a grassroots level.
I think it'll be a lot better,
a lot more people will have access that way.
Well, they were saying that they were looking
at a $545 million reduction, right?
Uh-huh.
So now what I'm getting from this is
if they agree to do this,
that means that they can suffice
without an extra $545 million,
which kind of translates into
this $550 million is profit.
Uh-huh. Absolutely.
I mean, they go away with a lot
and they have ways of figuring it out so that they...
I mean, NYNEX has all these other companies
that aren't supposed to make money
and they can simply channel money into these kinds of things.
They're geniuses as far as funneling money in various places
and they've gotten into all kinds of trouble
with various legal people as far as that kind of thing goes.
I mean, they're the phone company.
They're good at this kind of thing.
We're the consumer.
We have to sort of, you know,
we have to survive in whatever way we can.
Well, folks, they're making $550 million profits.
We can't even raise $500, so please call in and...
Yeah, well, we're trying to do that.
Actually, you know, I think we made the match,
thanks to all the people that called in with that.
I don't know what the actual total is,
but I think we did okay.
We did okay for this first show during the autumn marathon.
212-279-3400 in case you want to call up
and take advantage of the special offer
that we've been giving this past hour.
Anybody that calls in with any pledge,
whether it be the minimal pledge or what have you,
anything else that we're offering here at the radio station,
you'll get a 2600 Hacker t-shirt thrown in,
which is not something you can buy in department stores.
Oh, wow.
According to this, remember when we started off,
it was $50.
I was complaining about $50.
Well, according to this, with your help,
with everybody out there, you know, pledging, calling in,
we made $860.
That's not bad.
Not bad at all.
Of course, another $140 and we'll be $1,000.
Yeah, I guess maybe I should quit while I'm ahead,
but if anybody wants to call in with $140
to put us at an even $1,000, that would be real nice.
But really, thanks to all those people that did call in.
We'll see you again next week.
Remember, write those letters to our friends in jail.
Send them over here to WBAI.
505 8th Avenue, New York, New York, 10018.
Could easily be one of us.
Could easily be one of you,
and will be if this kind of thing doesn't stop.
We'll have more on this in future programs,
and we'll have more on all kinds of other things as well.
Stay awake.
Go to those meetings.
Go to those PSC hearings.
Let us know what happens.
Talk to you next week.
For Off the Hook, this is Emanuel Goldstein.
Stay tuned for the WBAI evening news,
and again, that phone number to call in your pledge
if you really want to wait until the last minute,
212-279-3400.
Thanks again.
Good night.
Hello, listeners of WBAI.
This is Montego Joe, the host of the show,
Accent on Percussion.
And I'm Evelyn Blakey,
the daughter of the legendary percussionist Art Blakey.
Music Under New York
is presenting its annual jazz festival,
which this year is a tribute to Art Blakey,
and they're calling it Celebrating Percussion.
Percussion to him meant tapping into
and drawing upon the rhythm of life.
It was the driving force of his life and his musicianship.
Celebrating Percussion will start Monday, September 20th,
through Friday, September 24th.
The starting time of the festival is 3 p.m. to 4 p.m.
at the new refurbished station
at 34th Street and 6th Avenue under Macy's.
On Friday, September 24th, from 10 p.m. to 3 p.m.
on the main concourse of Grand Central Terminal,
I'll be participating in this spectrum of percussion
at about 1 p.m., along with Zane Massey and his band.
Of course, along with you and Zane Massey and his band,
I'll be singing some hot blues and jazz.
So listeners, come out and see this exciting event,
Celebrating Percussion.