Final comment on WBAI's Infomercial Marathon '10

Well, they finally ended their fund drive. The amateur doctors have taken their herbs and roots back to the village and one has to wonder if they didn't also make a deposit stop at their bank. This has in large part been a Guinness-worthy infomercial, dominated by a huckster named Natalie and—on the phone—her cigarette-voiced cohort, a Doctor Scott. They recorded this long, boring, "this is as good as it gets" pitch and replayed it morning, noon, and night. I wonder how much money the book and DVDs brought in, and how much of that went to WBAI? Perhaps all of it, perhaps these people are well-intentioned but misguided, but I have to wonder. Unlike early marathons, where the listeners knew at all times how things were going, there was no real accounting and the station never announced the final amount raised.


I commend David Rothenberg, Earl Caldwell, and some of the station's more serious hosts for not going the late night commercial route, and I hope management (if there is such a thing) re-evaluates the snake oil approach that for one month turned this important radio station into an unintended parody of everything its founders sought to counter.