And if you want to participate in that and become a financial supporter to this radio station, you can call 212-209-2950 or go online to give to WBAI.org.
That's give to WBAI.org online.
All right.
It's 7 p.m.
Get ready for off the hook.
I screwed that up.
Get ready for off the hook coming up.
At the third stroke, it will be 2, 23, and 50 seconds.
At the third stroke, it will be 2, 24, precisely.
At the third stroke, it will be 2, 24, and 10 seconds.
We're sorry.
The number you have reached, 99.5 WBAI, is now off the hook.
The telephone keeps ringing, so I ripped it off the wall.
I cut myself while shaving, now I can't make a call.
We couldn't get much worse, but if they could, they would.
From Dilly Bomber, the flesh just paid the worst.
I hope that's understood.
From Dilly Bomber.
We'll see you next time.
We'll see you next time.
One more time.
And a very good evening to ride the program is off the hook.
I'm told to advise people the speaking clock you heard before was inaccurate.
In fact, I don't think it even exists anymore.
So that's not the time.
The time is 7.03 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time in the United States of America on this nice spring evening in May.
Again, Emmanuel here.
Kyle over there.
Hi.
And somewhere we have Alex.
You do.
I'm here.
Good evening.
And where is here this week, Alex?
I'm in New York, believe it or not.
How about that?
I'm actually at home.
Wow.
Isn't that amazing?
That is something.
It happens occasionally, I guess.
You know, we have a number of meetings before the show to get things just right.
People ask, how do we do it?
That's how we do it.
You know, it's practice.
Practice makes perfect.
And sometimes we're up all night getting it right.
But, you know, this story that just moved before the show from the New York Times, it's got nothing to do with technology.
But, boy, how do you react to a headline like this?
RFK Jr. says doctors found a dead worm in his brain.
Then the sub-headline is not much better.
The presidential candidate has faced previously undisclosed health issues, including a parasite that he said ate part of his brain.
This is the New York Times.
They're talking about a presidential candidate.
How do I process that?
What am I supposed to do with this?
You know?
You?
First of all.
No, I did that.
Believe me, I did.
But, wow.
My reaction.
But it, I think, brings up a lot of, like, it's a little bit of a projection, sort of, of his own obsession over medical science and, like, well-being and stuff.
Well, he's the one saying that.
He's the one saying, a parasite ate part of my brain.
Please vote for me for president.
You know?
Campaigns are not what they used to be.
Yeah, and also, like, take this other unsolicited medical advice I've given you.
All right.
Well, I want to thank everybody who called in last week when we started the fundraiser.
Apparently, we got a very good reaction, and we'd like people to continue to call in, 212-209-2950, or give to WBAI.org.
We'll have some more details in just a couple of moments.
But, you know, I wanted to call attention to this story because I think it's very important because it has to do with radio.
And radio is something that we all love.
That's why we're involved in it in the first place.
And this particular story here in Business Insider is entitled, Radio Isn't Dead Yet.
Thank or blame your car.
And just a couple of words from this.
It's mostly an opinion piece.
Radio is an old-timey medium that made sense when there was no other way to listen to things.
But it makes no sense in the age of Spotify and podcasts and listening to what you want when you want to listen to it.
Well, not exactly.
At least not according to a new survey from Nielsen, which argues that lots of people still listen to radio.
And obviously, you're one of them.
Whether you're listening to us online, over the air, you're listening to radio.
Now, specifically, Nielsen says that radio accounts for nearly 70 percent, so that's 70 percent, of all listening time to ad-supported audio, which obviously is not us, but we're definitely radio.
And that's for adults in the U.S. with the remainder cut up between podcast, streaming audio, satellite radio.
But not surprisingly, those numbers are weighted towards people 35 and up, who are likely to remember a time when radio was the only way to listen to audio, other than people speaking directly to you.
But radio is still strong for a younger demo.
I can't believe I just used a term like demo over the air.
Yeah, demographic.
Nielsen says it accounts for 45 percent of ad-supported listening for 18 to 34-year-olds.
Again, we're not ad-supported.
We're listener-supported.
And I would argue that we have an even higher number of people that listen to this brand of radio because it's not ad-supported.
It's not filled with garbage that doesn't come from the heart.
See, when you listen to a station like WBAI, you're hearing people, individual people, who are speaking from the heart, who are saying what is on their mind at the moment.
It's 7.07 p.m. in New York right now.
It's live.
We're individual people.
We're not artificial intelligence.
We're not prerecorded.
We're not piped in from some faraway place that's never heard of the place that we are.
And radio is always under threat from one source or another.
But in particular, lately, AM radio, yeah, that other band, that kind of radio is really under threat.
And a bipartisan group of U.S. senators, and I don't say that phrase very often, but there is a bipartisan group of U.S. senators, they're fighting back against automakers who want to remove AM radio from their vehicles.
The Senate is looking to pass the AM radio for every vehicle act.
We'll say it again.
AM radio for every vehicle act.
Does that spell something?
MEVA.
Okay.
They probably could have come up with something better.
But that would require the Department of Transportation to issue a rule that requires all new motor vehicles to have devices that can access AM broadcast stations as standard equipment.
Now, last year, my old friend, Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts, surveyed 20 automakers, found out eight had removed the radio from their electric vehicles.
Why?
Because of strong interference between the motors and the AM frequencies.
Yeah.
So because these electric vehicle manufacturers haven't figured out yet how to stop all the interference from being generated from their cars and blocking out AM frequencies, their solution was simply to remove the AM radio.
And, you know, all of that interference, if you will, is still there.
It's still being broadcast or piped or whatever the technical phrase is.
Who knows what kind of health effect that has on people in those cars if it can block out an entire AM radio frequency.
But the solution, rather than have a crappy radio in the car that you can't hear, is to get rid of the radio.
I think the solution should be fix the technology so that that doesn't happen or come up with something better.
A total of 60 senators have co-sponsor of the bill, including John Hoeven, a Republican from North Dakota.
And if you get a Republican from North Dakota to agree, you've got something.
He said AM radio is critical for rural communities that rely on stations for information.
Now, Kyle, we were just out in Texas after the eclipse.
We were driving into Dallas and the sky was getting dark and we saw lightning and we knew something was coming.
We knew there was a storm literally on the horizon.
And luckily, we had an AM radio in the car we were driving.
And in fact, I even remembered from my childhood days when I would turn on AM radio in my bedroom and listen to distant radio stations.
Because you can do that after the sun goes down, AM radio propagates and you can hear stations from all over the country, or at least up to the Mississippi pretty much here in New York.
And I remember listening to a station called WBAP, 820 AM.
I remember listening to that station and saying, wow, I'm here in Dallas.
You know, I'm here on Long Island, but I'm listening to Dallas on the radio.
I remember that frequency.
I remember that station.
I tuned to that station and sure enough, they were activating the emergency alert system every 10 minutes or so, warning people about severe thunderstorms, possible tornadoes, dangerous hail, all kinds of things.
And then a few days later, we were driving into New Orleans and there was this massive flooding going on, flash flooding, dangerous, you know, life-threatening flooding.
I remember WWL, 870 AM.
Also, when I was a kid listening to distant AM stations.
This is important.
This matters.
When you're on the road, even when you're in a community, local radio is super important and it must be preserved.
Can't be replaced by Spotify.
Can't be replaced by your MP3 player.
It's hugely important.
Well, yeah, it isn't even that, like, our memory of what it was is as important, but it's that distance, the propagation distance.
I think that's part of the argument for situations where you need to get the word out over a tremendous amount of terrain that may be varied and so needs that kind of power.
And I think regardless of what the history is, we have to kind of agree on a way to get critical information out.
And, I mean, this is kind of a difficult thing to say, but I think I'm in agreement.
I think most people would agree.
The AM spectrum itself may not be filled with that much of a variation.
Oh, no.
Across the country, I think this is a reflection of recent experience traveling around and just generally what people understand of the kinds of content on AM radio.
It's religion, right-wing radio, and sports.
That's pretty much it.
Indeed.
Exactly.
And stations from Cuba occasionally.
However, in a situation, yeah, in stations from Cuba, with a clock.
There's a station.
A metronome.
I forget the frequency, but you will find a station.
You can hear it all throughout Florida that has a ticking clock, and they're giving the time, but they're also giving headlines.
And it's in Spanish, of course.
They speak over it.
Yeah.
But those things in a storm, you don't have to – and say there's talk that you don't necessarily, of course, much as the kinds of – and very much like what we do here and say at WBAI, we may not agree necessarily with the talk that's going on in between those alerts.
But those alerts are critical if you're unfamiliar with an area, if something is emerging that is incredibly impactful to your visit and your transit of an area.
So weather, of course, but all kinds of emergency situations, we need to agree upon something.
And this – I'm not an expert in radio frequency or anything.
I'm not going to purport to be, but the manufacturers have to come on side with like, okay, can we insulate or otherwise protect the ability to receive on whatever channels we agree upon?
History, nostalgia aside, like is it important to be able to broadcast in a variety of situations to these new vehicles as a backup or as an option?
Regardless of content and how it's used now.
And I think that is AM.
It's also important to have that service be available, not to be substituted by this new high-tech way of doing it that requires a phone signal or a phone or all kinds of internet access.
No, there's nothing simpler than turning on a radio and there's a signal that's coming through the air.
You are not identified.
You're able to simply pick up the signal and get information.
And that is something that, you know, as I said, what they broadcast usually is probably not my cup of tea.
That doesn't mean I cannot support the medium.
And I certainly hope it goes both ways.
I certainly hope there are people out there who listen to different kinds of radio stations who see the importance of WBAI and why a station like this is vital in many ways.
But, Alex, yeah, you have a point on AM radio or have you listened to AM radio recently?
Yeah, I have.
And I'm wondering if the nature of the bipartisan support is because AM radio, as you noted, is mostly a bunch of Bible banging, Jesus preaching, xenophobia that's out there.
Quite possibly, maybe.
But on the other hand, I see this as an opportunity.
If this AM radio for every vehicle hack does, in fact, pass, you're going to have all these cars that are going to be manufactured in the future that are going to have AM radios.
And why is it then that we can't change the content that's out there?
It doesn't have to be religious content.
Why can't we broadcast?
Maybe this is an opportunity for, dare I say, a bunch of pirate radio stations taking over the AM spectrum if it's going to be an unregulated space out there that nobody seems to care about.
Or perhaps we do it the right way and we get some kind of SDC license to broadcast on AM radio.
It's probably a lot cheaper to do so now.
But I think that there's a market there.
And this is a really niche market.
And I think it could be really interesting to change the entire perspective of the content that's out there on AM radio.
I think it can be done.
We could call it Air America.
What could go wrong?
Well, I'm sorry.
That's a cheap shot.
But, yeah, I agree with you.
I do.
It's just these things always seem to be a lot harder to pull off than we think.
Yeah, I think that's so interesting.
Interesting, like that tradeoff, that like if this does go through, what will then become of that landscape, of those frequencies, how it's used?
And if it's abandoned and it does not have the reach and value it does to current holders and the sort of consolidated forces of the market of today,
then, of course, that devaluing will make it much more approachable for entities that may not have the same sort of tax-free religious status or other variables that allow them the largesse in the market.
You could have like low power AM like Alex suggested.
So it's either way, like, okay, so are we on board with this or not?
Because if it's not that valuable and that market seeds and, of course, you lose people with older vehicles, all of those AM radios then become less useful.
It is a loss to the value it has had.
Right.
The technology is extremely important to preserve.
People always want to fill that.
I don't want to see us making the same mistake that we're making with all kinds of other old bits of technology, assuming it's not relevant anymore, getting rid of pay phones, getting rid of copper, you know,
and basically suffering when something goes wrong and our new technology fails, not having something to fall back on.
And certainly being able to broadcast and listen to something with, you know, with just a radio, that is the basic that should never go away.
Yeah, and there's a lot of equipment and, like, modernization does have fall-on effects for the ways that you might transmit over AM in a vacuum in the market.
So it's not something that is necessarily going to go away.
It may be costlier than things like FM or satellite.
It's not an advancement if you can no longer hear the radio signal you could hear 50 years ago.
That's not an advancement.
We're doing something wrong.
Yeah.
And I'm sure there's a solution.
Let's get on that.
Let's make it a priority.
Okay.
Another priority is keeping this place on the air so that we continue to broadcast.
Again, thanks to the people who called in last week.
The number is 212-209-2950.
The website is give2wbai.org.
And we are offering – I guess we're offering a radio station here.
We're offering an amazing broadcast facility that brings you all kinds of differing opinions, you know, all kinds of perspectives.
And I guarantee you, many of them you will not agree with, many of them you will have problems with, many of them you will find yourself shouting at the radio.
But that is what we bring to you.
That is what this place has been about since 1960 when it first went on the air.
If that means something to you, then please join the family, call, pledge, go online and pledge.
And for every pledge of $150 or more, we will send you a thank you gift of a off-the-hook anthology flash drive.
What that is, is a collection of every single radio program we have done since 1988, if you can believe that, up until the end of 2023.
And in each of these shows, we have conversations very much like this one.
You know, we talk about radio.
We talk about technology.
We talk about computers, phones.
We argue.
We have different people.
We have all kinds of guests.
And it plays back now as interestingly as when it aired live.
You know, you can go back to the 1990s.
And not only do you hear what the news was then, but you hear technology, how technology sounded different.
You hear how a phone used to ring differently.
You hear how people, when they call in, sometimes a phone call sounded better than they do today because people use landlines more.
And that was a good thing.
We talk about encryption.
We talk about technology development.
We think about the future.
And we're in the future now.
We talk to ourselves now from then and say, future cells, what kind of world are you in?
Now we can answer them.
And maybe some enterprising listener can piece those two shows together and have us talk to ourselves, you know, in a healthy way this time.
And we'll maybe answer some questions or maybe our predictions will come true or maybe they'll be so fantastically wrong that it'll be amusing.
Either way, you're supporting the radio station.
And that's what matters more than anything is keeping 99.5 FM non-commercial in New York City as it has been for over 60 years, 64 years now.
That is incredible.
That is an achievement.
That is an achievement that belongs to the citizens of New York City and the tri-state area.
And in later years, globally, around the world, people who have joined the WBAI family and supported this place.
Because a radio station like WBAI is rare, doesn't exist most places.
Sure, you have national public radio stations everywhere.
You have different non-commercial type stations.
But a station like WBAI, which has so many different voices and perspectives in the middle of a huge city like New York, that has managed to survive longer than any commercial radio station in that same period of time.
I challenge any commercial station out there, AM or FM in the New York City area.
Has anyone been on the air consistently with a particular format or, in our case, kind of a multi-format format?
Nobody has been able to do that.
Go ahead, Alex.
And correct me if I'm wrong, Emmanuel, but I think that WBAI is unique among even Pacific stations in that we are a station that is devoted to dialogue, to talk.
As opposed to some of the other Pacifica stations that have been playing music for a very long period of time.
As I understand the history of the Pacifica Foundation as well, is that these stations were put into the hands, or the licenses were put into the hands of the Pacifica Foundation, with the idea of pacifism in mind.
Which is where the origin of the term Pacifica comes from.
In that the notion behind the stations was that dialogue and talk was what the world needed, and was what could avoid future world wars.
And I think that WBAI has really held true to that notion.
And I think that's why it's one of the longest running stations, I think, probably in the country with this particular type of format.
I would go so far to say not even New York, but I'd love to know if there are other older radio stations in the country.
And so does my Beagle, apparently.
Many dogs listen.
Many cats listen to this radio station.
But as your Beagle is saying right now, call 212-209-2950.
Go to give2wbai.org.
Join the people who have pledged to support this place over the years and into the future.
Without you, we're nothing.
But am I wrong about that, though, Manuel?
Are the other Pacifica stations, I think KPFK in Berkeley, it's still a mostly dialogue, talk-focused station, if I understand correctly.
I can't listen to all the stations.
I just know that different stations do things differently.
But we all share the same goals in the end.
WBAI has always been rather unique, mainly because our call letters are different.
The other stations, KPFK, KPFA, KPFT, WPFW, you see kind of a trend here.
And what are we?
WBAI.
We're totally different.
We kept the call letters that the station before us in 1960 had.
So I think it was, was it World Broadcasters of America?
I don't know what it stood for exactly.
But, yeah, there's tremendous history.
But each station is unique in its own way.
And they've all been around for quite a while, and we want them all to stay around for quite a while.
So, yeah, that's hugely important.
And we're honored to be a part of that free formatting.
And it is varied.
It's changing.
It meets the needs of listeners in the New York area.
And you can count on WBAI, especially with your support, to be here, to be covering news events, cutting to national events, and bringing you the kind of eclectic talk and other formatting and programming that people have come to enjoy.
And new stuff, potentially, this is a place that allows people to get on the air, have shows like ours, and introduce them to the public and have broader reach in their message and in their discussions.
Absolutely.
Again, 212-209-2950.
Give to WBAI.org.
Please keep those calls and visits to the website coming in.
And, of course, if you have any questions or concerns, OTH at 2600.com.
As we pointed out last week, yeah, there were people trying to shut us down, trying to shut us on the show down, trying to shut the radio station down, trying to shut down the concept of non-commercial radio.
Always has been the case, always will be the case.
But I think all of us together are stronger than that, and we seem to have proven it many, many times.
All right, moving on.
Hacker happenings.
A lot of hacker happenings this summer.
Just wanted to outline a few of them.
Starting with this month, we have a couple of different conventions going on, including a couple you might never have heard of before.
How about Cackalacky Con?
Have you heard about that one, Alex?
No?
You can't even guess where it is, can you?
Wait.
Cackalacky.
We don't have time for you to ponder it.
Yes or no?
Do you know what it is?
No, I don't.
Let me guess, though.
Is someone in Pennsylvania?
No, it's not.
It's no one near Pennsylvania.
It's in Durham, North Carolina.
I would not have guessed.
If you go to CackalackyCon.org, I'll spell it.
C-A-C-K-A-L-A-C-K-Y-C-O-N.O-R-G.
And that is a hacker convention taking place down there in North Carolina on May 17th through 19th.
Also on that date is NOLACON.
You want to give a guess for that one?
It's a little easier.
NOLACON.
Same weekend.
That would be New Orleans.
That's correct, Alex.
That's correct.
You win the prize.
That's NOLACON, N-O-L-A-C-O-N.com.
And that's taking place also May 17th through 19th in New Orleans.
There's RVA SEC, more of a security conference in Richmond, Virginia, June 4th through 5th.
That's R-V-A-S-E-C dot C-O-M.
June 14th through 16th, we have the Vintage Computer Festival Southwest.
Never been to that one.
That's taking place in Richardson, Texas, www.vcfsw.org.
And then, of course, one we're familiar with, July 12th through 14th, HOPEXV.
That's the one that a bunch of us are involved in as well, HOPE.net.
That's taking place over in Queens.
And one reminder to people that want to submit talks and participate in that conference, deadline's coming up on May 20th.
And I know a lot of BAI listeners have given talks in the past, and it's a great way for you to reach out and meet people and basically share your expertise.
We'd love to see you there.
HOPE.net, more information on that.
Now, speaking of expertise, coming up at 8 o'clock, we have our own Mishu Kaku giving a special edition, a live edition of Exploration, and a renowned theoretical physicist who graces our airwaves.
All I know about this show is that it's the Wormhole Certificate Edition.
All right?
So take that however you will.
But Mishu Kaku coming up at 8 o'clock here on WBAI.
Now, getting back to news and getting back to Congress, because apparently Congress is in the news quite a bit, Lindsey Graham might be getting hacked as we speak.
He has relinquished his cell phone to authorities after communicating with someone who impersonated Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
Yeah, the sergeant at arms is investigating a possible hack of Senator Graham's phone, his spokesperson, Taylor Reedy, said in a statement.
Yeah, and I'm sorry, folks.
I'm reading this from the New York Post.
I don't like to read from the New York Post, but sometimes that's where Google directs me, and I have no choice.
And they're the only ones really talking about the story in this way.
So, yeah, the Senate's sergeant at arms oversees cybersecurity in the upper chamber.
Not sure if people knew that.
On Monday, the sergeant at arms reportedly warned members of a phishing scheme.
Now, Senator Graham recounted the ordeal.
Ordeal?
It was a phone call, or it was a text or something.
Ordeal?
Okay.
During a discussion about artificial intelligence at the Hill and Valley Forum on Capitol Hill last Wednesday, he said, you know, my phone is in the hands of the FBI now.
So, I get a message.
I love when Congress people try to talk tech.
It's just so amusing.
I get a message, I think, from Schumer.
It ain't from Schumer.
And next thing you know, my phone's I don't know what.
He doesn't know what his phone is.
Anything you can create apparently can be hacked.
Well, yeah, I mean, there's some truth to that.
Anyway, the FBI has declined to comment when the New York Post contacted them.
But probably what that means is they hung up the phone when the New York Post called them.
Anyway, Schumer, by the way, is known for using a vintage flip phone.
Good for him.
Good for him.
You know, I'd love to get one of those myself.
So sick of the smartphones.
They're good for some things, certainly.
But the way people are glued to them, I mean, look around you.
If there are people around you, guarantee somebody's staring at their cell phones, their smartphones.
When we were on the floor or in the gallery looking at the floor of Congress, both Senate and the House,
so many people were staring at their phones, not paying attention to anything that was being said.
This is the government.
This is C-SPAN.
You know, you think people are riveted to it.
Nobody is.
They're all staring at their screens.
I believe that type of phone, it's a feature phone is what it's called.
Which, the flip phone?
Yeah.
Okay.
All right.
Hook me up.
And they make them for the modern network.
Anyway, Lindsey Graham used to use a vintage flip phone.
Then, in 2015, remember this?
Former President Donald Trump?
Is he still around?
Is that guy still around?
I haven't heard his name in a while.
He revealed his cell phone number to the world as to too bitterly sparred on the campaign trail.
And then, okay, you might not remember this.
Lindsey Graham later cut a video of himself, flexing some samurai skills while dramatically obliterating his old flip phone, slashing it with a kitchen knife, burning it, and tossing it into the blender, among other acts of destruction.
You know, we might need to have some kind of intervention here.
Because there's some issues, I think, unresolved with it.
That is definitely excessive, raging on hardware.
Yeah.
I think that that is a more suspect, like, suspicious sort of a situation.
Yeah.
I think it's kind of like he's lashing out at himself, you know.
There's something about himself that's troubling him.
Anyway, this is probably the best line I could read in a New York Post story.
Notably, it is possible to change phone numbers without destroying the original cell phone.
You've been told by the New York Post that, yeah, you don't have a clue here.
So, okay, if I understand this correctly, what happened was Lindsey Graham got a message that said it was from Chuck Schumer, but wasn't from Chuck Schumer.
And so he gave his phone to the FBI, because how else could somebody have done that unless they hacked his phone?
First of all, if you get a message from somebody that claims to be that person, anyone can do that.
Anyone can do that from any phone.
But even if they did it from the phone number of the person that they're pretending to be, that means that person's phone maybe got hacked, you know, not yours.
You're receiving them.
I don't know.
You can't talk to Congress.
Yeah, Alex, go ahead.
I mean, I wonder if it was a text message or if it was through some kind of messaging app.
If it was through a messaging app, let's say perhaps WhatsApp, it could have been done in a more believable fashion.
Namely, you could have a name associated with a telephone number that does not belong to Chuck Schumer, and you could have the name associated with that number as being Chuck Schumer.
And then you could even post up a profile picture on WhatsApp of Chuck Schumer.
And that would make the whole farce seem a little bit more believable to Lindsey Graham.
But apparently it doesn't take very much to trick or deceive Lindsey Graham.
No, it doesn't.
It doesn't seem like the brightest bulb.
I will say, too, just one anecdote about Chuck Schumer and his flip phone is that several years ago, on the way back from D.C. to New York, I had the extreme displeasure of sitting across from Chuck Schumer on the Acela train back to New York.
And almost the entire time, Chuck Schumer was on the phone, and he was just calling people back, telling them that he couldn't speak to them on the phone at that moment because he was on the train and he couldn't speak freely.
Also, you know, he was being considerate to the people around him by calling them to say that he couldn't speak because it would annoy the people around him if he did.
No, it wasn't that he was.
He was annoying everybody around him.
I don't think he really cared about that at all.
But he was just calling people back simply for the to be able to say that he called them back.
But then he was telling the people whom he called that he couldn't speak because there were other people around and he was on the train.
So the whole point of calling them back was just, yeah, it was more form over substance.
And had he had some kind of smartphone, maybe he could have sent them a text and saved all of us.
I don't know, you know, to me, I hear a congressman, I hear a senator who is aware of the security vulnerabilities and is not giving out private details and specific information that somebody like you, Alex, might have intercepted, written down, used against him in the future.
He was very much aware of your presence and everybody else around him and seeing them as potentially hostile.
And that's why he called everybody back and said he was not free to talk.
That's a very, that's a very strict politician way of looking.
I'm trying to be supportive here.
I really.
But yeah, I hear you.
Aren't they quiet cars on the S.L.A.?
There are quiet cars on the S.L.A.
I wasn't in that one.
All right.
Yeah.
I've got stories about the quiet cars, too, as I'm sure you know.
There are also cell phone jammers, but I think it's illegal to use us on congressmen.
I don't know.
I just I heard that.
OK, so speaking of government and hacks and things like that, the FBI is investigating a hack of its own computer network.
Now, I got this story, too, right before the show from Reuters.
The FBI is investigating a hack of its computer network in an isolated incident that has now been contained.
The agency said on Friday, the FBI is aware of the incident and is working to gain additional information.
The agency said in an emailed statement to Reuters without providing further details.
Now, you might not have heard of this story.
The reason for that is because, well, Google sends these stories to us.
We look for keywords such as hacker, hackers, hacked, hacking, things like that.
Don't tell them all.
OK, I left out a few.
But in a little tiny print at the top of the story, this story was written on February 17th, 2023.
And for some reason, Google decided this was a new news story.
There's absolutely nothing to indicate that it is a new news story.
There's no new developments or anything like that.
And it's very tiny print that you could easily miss.
So I'm just wondering, Google can't even figure out how to sort by date and just simply push stories that are new, sending stories that are over a year old.
I wonder how many newsrooms fell for this.
We almost fell for it.
But no, we looked at the date.
And sometimes there isn't a date on the story, though.
So sometimes these stories don't have dates included, and you could easily read something old as new.
I just don't get why something as basic as when the story came out is not included so many times.
I don't think they want Google News to be that useful.
You know, maybe it's just...
Google doesn't want Google News to be that useful.
Yeah, it's just like it's run its course, and they just want other people, other products to take its place or something.
Okay, well, you know, I'm happy to oblige.
Well, or something weird is going on with it being boosted in other ways.
It's not isolated to Google, though.
It's, you know, if you look at...
Go to the Daily News or something, and you'll see related stories to the one you're reading.
And many of them will be from years ago, and sometimes they don't even say that they're from years ago.
And you wind up thinking something's happening that actually happened a long time ago.
Okay, so...
Shall we remind the folks again that we want them to call?
Yes.
All right.
The number is 212-209-2950.
The website is give2wbai.org.
And basically, this radio station exists on listener support, and that's pretty much it.
That's pretty much all we get.
We don't get corporate funding.
We don't want corporate funding.
You know, we don't want Exxon paying for our shows.
We don't want Verizon paying for our shows.
Because if we had those companies doing that, we wouldn't be able to criticize them.
We wouldn't be able to expose them for the things they're doing.
We wouldn't be able to speak freely.
The only way we're able to speak freely, and again, that involves sometimes, many times,
saying things that you don't agree with, or saying things that other people don't agree with, causing controversy.
We live for the controversy.
You know, we live for the discussion, for the argument.
And that is what a democratic society is really all about.
So your contribution, your phone call, your visit to the website, that's what keeps us going.
That's what has kept us going over the years.
And we really, really, really appreciate that from our listeners at Off the Hook.
From our listeners, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week here at WBAI.
What you will get if you pledge $150 or more as a thank you gift from us is the Off the Hook Anthology flash drive.
And what that is, is an almost incomprehensible amount of audio.
I think it's over 100,000 minutes.
I can't even conceive of that.
It's over 1,500 shows.
Imagine that.
1,500 shows of us talking.
Well, it's not always the same people.
But we're talking about technology.
We're talking about all kinds of different things that have happened over the years.
We're talking about society around us.
One time, the WTO protest in Seattle was going on live over the air while we were broadcasting Off the Hook.
But everything, 9-11, wars, you name it, and things have been happening that we have covered.
It's super important to have these archives.
So it's not just an archive of Off the Hook.
It's an archive of society, an archive of everything that's been going on around us.
And that's why the flash drive really is so interesting and appealing, I think.
I find myself just clicking on shows.
I mean, they're all recorded, you know, sometimes off of cassettes from many years ago.
But they're all there.
It might be a couple that are missing, but pretty much we've archived everything.
And, you know, the advice I give to people who record anything, whether it's video, whether it's audio, save it.
Save it because it becomes fascinating in the decades ahead.
Everybody wants to hear that.
So, yeah, that's our thank you for people who pledge that amount.
And you can call in 212-209-2950, give to WBAI.org.
And, again, there are all kinds of other thank you gifts for different levels that are on the website that the person who answers the phone will be able to tell you about.
The most important thing, though, is you're giving WBAI a lease on life so that we're around to cover the new technology of the years ahead, the new wars that happen, the new strikes that occur throughout our society and various businesses.
All kinds of things that you hear in a typical day here on WBAI.
Yeah, please keep those phones ringing.
We're here volunteering.
We do our best to bring you interesting programming of all types, including this show, Off the Hook.
And we really, really thank you for your pledge of support for this radio station, for the free format, the community that we provide here in New York City, meeting the needs in times of crises and outside of that with provocative and thought-provoking content.
So please give what you can and pledge your support for this radio station.
Go ahead, Alex.
I think, as a testament to what WBAI has meant to our listeners over the last 30-something years that Off the Hook has been on the airs, I have to say part of this anthology is going to be some really amazing radio that Off the Hook produced.
And I'm thinking in particular about 24 and a half years ago when WBAI had its own protesters in the lobby and the NYPD was literally in the station at 110 Wall Street when you were live on the air.
You had a cell phone at that time when not everybody had a cell phone.
And I went into the hallway and held that cell phone up while the police were claiming that anybody – sorry, I don't know if I lost you there, but the police were claiming that anybody who remained in the hallway at 110 Wall Street was going to be arrested.
And they had no idea that their voice was being broadcast over the airwaves to New York, New Jersey, Connecticut.
And when we came out of the station that night, when WBAI was under siege and in battle, there were – it was incredible, right?
I mean, we were like heroes to the people.
And I don't know, there was a massive number of protesters out there with drums and supporting WBAI.
And this is what the station has meant so much to people over the years.
And make no mistake about it right now, WBAI is in crisis, and we need that support.
We need you to call 212-279-2950 to make sure that we're here.
And I think it's – and we need that support as a testament to the legacy of those people that were there at that pro tennis who aren't with us anymore.
They need our support to keep the station going.
Yeah, I think, you know, the way we go into this is we don't ignore things that are going on around us.
If there happens to be a protest at the radio station and NYPD is in the hallways, we're not going to discontinue business as usual.
You know, some people do radio differently.
What we do is we focus on what's happening around us, and we'll point that out.
We'll say, by the way, this is going on right now.
This is what we are seeing.
And, yeah, as you said, doing that, doing that over the radio, we wound up getting a lot of people showing up outside.
That wasn't our intent.
We weren't trying to rally people.
We were just reporting what was going on.
And you can hear the whole thing.
You can just hear how it all unfolds.
It's like a massive soap opera.
I think we've been on the air longer than General Hospital at this point.
But quickly now, to finish off, again, phone number 212-209-2950 and give to WBAI.org.
United Health, as the CEO, has been testifying before a Senate Finance Committee about a recent cyber attack at the company's technology unit, its impact on patients and providers.
And according to what they are saying, hackers potentially stole a third of Americans' data.
Yeah, a third of Americans.
That is some lax security there.
If that many people were on one system and the system was compromised.
Now, according to the CEO, Andrew Witte, he said they now use multi-factor authentication.
Didn't do it before, but they learned their lesson.
So, yeah, it's good to see corporate executives learning.
Of course, having Congress be the ones to grill them.
Not sure how much you're going to learn from that.
But this was one hell of a hack.
It really was damaging.
Go ahead, Alex.
I mean, it remains to be seen for me that, you know, how that amount of data could be compromised in one fell swoop like that.
You would think that data of that magnitude should be segregated in some way or hopefully encrypted at rest.
So, you know, there's a lot of explaining and, I think, unraveling to do from that particular incident.
And specifically, health care is a target in ways that it just has not been.
The systems are disparate.
They're often, you know, not as well protected or funded in some of these provider networks.
So it's a huge problem.
And it can really shut down an entire region from critical services.
And it's a trove of a lot of, by definition, personal, intimate data across the board, whether you're talking billing or personally identifiable stuff.
So it's a huge issue right now.
Another huge issue, fraudulent Taylor Swift tickets being sold over Facebook.
If you see a Facebook ad for Taylor Swift tickets, don't do anything because it's probably fraudulent.
And Facebook is doing nothing to fix the problem, according to multiple news reports.
So that is typical.
They don't answer the phone.
They don't contact you.
They don't email you back.
And a lot of people have lost money so far just on that alone.
And, wow, that is something.
Okay, we're almost out of time.
Alex, I just wanted to ask you, who do you like in Eurovision this year?
I like Moldova.
Well, they got eliminated.
Oh, did they?
I don't know.
I'm just guessing.
Yeah, but I still like them.
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
You're not taking this seriously?
Just guessing?
I'm just guessing.
Yeah, I don't know.
Did you even know Moldova was in it?
I mean, yeah, they had a pretty decent song.
I wish they weren't eliminated, but they were yesterday in the semifinal.
Well, so you ruined it for me now.
It already happened.
How did I ruin it for you?
Well, spoiler.
Okay, but seriously, who do you like?
I have no idea.
I'm not watching this nonsense.
What's the most important thing going on this weekend?
This is Eurovision final.
Really?
Oh, my goodness.
You know?
Tell me who's the favorite.
Well, I don't know who the favorite is because they haven't voted yet.
I know the second semifinal is tomorrow.
And the way to see it in this country, for people who are interested in this, and I know
there are very few people interested in this country, you can pay for Peacock and have
commercials as a result of paying for it.
Or you can get a VPN and come in from a country like Denmark, like we're doing, and get no
commercials and have the whole thing broadcast live and experience the excitement.
Yeah, I know it's silly.
I know it's something that is beneath our standards in most cases.
But you know what?
There are exceptions.
In my case, I got to say, I like Ireland.
I think Bambi Thug is a name that we will be very familiar with.
They're the first performer that is a they.
Not a he, not a she.
And that's history in Eurovision.
But the song, the song is what really is amazing.
Yeah, the energy definitely matched the moment.
There was theatrics and a huge range, and it provided all of the aspects of entertainment
you would come to expect from a show like Eurovision.
I'm equally interested, purely just even at the very least, to be able to relate to people
who are from the area that understand it and know it very, very well.
I think it's a cultural reference point that we can take an interest in, at least.
Well, in addition to being non-binary, Bambi Thug is diagnosed with ADHD, a member of the
LGBTQ plus community, and the target of a lot of right-wing hate, and is also practices
neo-pagan witchcraft.
You know, they're just so cool.
But the song, like I said, is what I think is really amazing.
I also like Croatia, Estonia, Armenia.
I think those are really good pieces as well.
I hope any of them win.
But I'm really thinking Ireland has the best chance right now, and we're going to go out
with that song.
Alex, first, go ahead.
What do you have?
Yeah, my five-year-old son, Ido, wants to just weigh in.
Ido, who's it that you favor in Eurovision?
Pennsylvania.
All right.
Pennsylvania.
Well, you know what?
Australia was entered into it, so maybe Pennsylvania can as well.
I don't know what they were thinking with the video this year, but that's a whole other
topic.
Anyway, this song might have scared a few people.
The video is worth watching.
You can find that over on YouTube.
Write to us, OTH at 2600.com.
We'll see you next week, hopefully with Overtime, which will not be on this week.
And remember, stay tuned to WBAI New York for the program that follows.
Exploration with Michio Kaku.
Good night.
Thank you.