Tuesday, November 15, 2016

Hoagland still off the air, and now it's a full-blown scandal

        So Richard Hoagland's radio chatshow The Other Side of Midnight is still in a state of chaotic hiatus, with no new shows since 13th October. (For the background on this, ref. my 20 oct blogpost.)

        The first broken promise was for election night, 8th/9th November. Guests Carl Johan Calleman & Georgia Lambert were supposed to be on hand to comment as the last results flowed in. That never happened. Twice more, on 10th and 14th, the same show was billed and replaced at the last minute by re-runs. It is now billed yet again for tonight. The comments on the web site have been almost universally scornful, although there are a few fans who'll apparently remain loyal no matter what. Like "Rob," who posted this morning:
"Just know, that many of us will wait for you to get things fixed. We know how important your work is. Thank you for all the years of service."
        The strangest thing of all was a message from Robin Falkov, Hoagland's partner, on 11th November. Falkov pleaded for patience, writing that "We have fought a long hard battle since the first airing of the show." She added that "...the solutions will be in place by next week at the soonest." So why, therefore, was the Calleman/Lambert show even billed for the 14th? If she really meant "latest" rather than "soonest," well, that's a rather serious error--one of which "Doctor" Falkov should be ashamed.

Scandal

        Falkov's message was headed "To All Our Family at OSOM..." Presumably she and her paramour like to think of us as a family because within families people aren't necessarily expected to pay off their debts. Club members, who pay $5/month for acess to the archives, have seen no new shows for over a month now. Requests for refunds are apparently being stone-walled, that's why I say this is becoming quite a scandal now. "Marcus" posted this comment on 9th November:
"I assume Mr Hoagland and the radio station have adequate legal representation. Tomorrow I will contact the Postal Inspectors on behalf of my elderly aunt who has been scammed and can’t even get a response on a request for refund."
         Unfortunately, Marcus won't win, and neither will any of the other angry members of "Club 19.5." The membership guarantees access to the archives, that's all. You don't have to pay to listen live. So, just like the Foolbook fans who contributed $1,200 to Hoagland's fantasy expedition to Egypt in May 2012, or the 20-ish punters who paid $189 (inc. box lunch) to witness Hoagland "measuring" the torsion field at the Pyramid of Kukulkan on 19th December 2012 (the expedition that was aborted when Hoagland was kicked out by security men,) they won't see a cent of a refund.

Hoagland's state of mind
        Many commenters, both on the OSOM website and in Bellgab, have wondered why Hoagland, never normally at a loss for words, has made no statement about this royal fuck-up, and instead allowed Falkov to speak--erroneously--on his behalf. My take on this is that Hoagland is just beside himself with rage. His arrogance is such that he doesn't think the normal rules apply to him, and he's very likely cursing Fred Lundgren and Keith Rowland for failing to appreciate his genius. Hoagland has shown that he feels no obligation to responed to critical reviews of his writings and doings, and those who write the critical reviews--including me--are by defintion idiots. On 2nd June 2015 Hoagland said this about us:
"These people have no character. They are certainly not any people that I would possibly want to answer to because they're not in the conversation. They are deliberate disinformation artists designed to submerge the truth."
        We'll have to see whether he turns up tonight/tomorrow morning. I wouldn't bet on it.

Update 16 November:
        Replay again last night. From KIYQ Las Vegas, not KCAA.Right now the Calleman/Lambert live show and the Imaging panel replay are both billed. Bunch of amateurs!!


Update 24 November:
 This just in on the Book of Faces:
"soon very soon - I can't give a date but think next week... "

...and from Robin Falkov...
"Please understand what a monumental job this has been to repair the damage to the site. The problems gave you double, triple and more billing, inability to log in, inability to access archives and more. There is a team that has been hard at work to make sure these issues do not rear their ugly head again."
...plus another eight paragraphs of rubbish, ending with a plug for her business. They must think we were born yesterday. "Monumental job" my ass. So the back end of the web site was broken, now it's (maybe) fixed. It happens, but IT DOESN'T TAKE 40 DAYS and there's no justification for suspending radio shows while it's being fixed.

        Meanwhile on the Comments page there was an allegation that a negative comment was deleted and the commenter accused of being "a paid misinformant." That's one of RCH's fave accusations, but of course he's never produced the slightest evidence that anyone is paid to cut him down to size.