Don't take OUR word for why we need community radio ...

Its not just a bunch of greasy-haired pimply adolescents that wish that radio were more diverse and interesting. Stevie Wonder says we need more diversity of ownership in the Nando Times.

The  Columbia Journalism Review feels irked enough to point out that the media companies are getting bigger and fewer. Fewer people deciding what is valuable to go out on the air ... and they made a score card to help you keep up. There is also a local scorecard specific to black ownership of radio.

Rob Carlson interviewed FCC Chairman Kennard. Kennard. Mr. Kennard recalls the value of diverse college radio. We hope that he realizes that all colleges may not be as progressive and make sure that civic organizations have a decent crack at supplementing what local larger institutions may feel , shall we say, constrained, from carrying. The speech is also featured at the Freedom Forum. The Fredom Forum also had a debate October 6th 1998 between the NAB and some of the radio pirates that were committing Civil Disobedience that day ... demonstrating in front of the FCC and the NAB to demand more reasonable access to the public airwaves.

For those with a stronger stomach and a thought that things might actually be not only as bad as you think the are, but even worse, check out .

And if you want an overview of the history of how we got here specific to the loss of the cheaper FM stations, check out A Brief History of 10-Watt Noncommercial Educational FM Radio Stations by Ralph E. Carmode, Department of Communication Jacksonville State University.

The National Association of Broadcasters would like you to believe that there is more diversity than there used to be. Their argument is that since they can consolidate ownership of stations under one big umbrella organization, the multiple stations can share production, promotion and sales resources and therefore it is possible to serve ever smaller niches of the marketplace. Nice argument except that it leaves out two central problems.
1) They don't keep expanding into ever smaller markets. The majority of pirate radio stations siezed in Miami late in 1998 purveyed a form of music called "Techno". Techno has a large following, a large section in most record stores. Techno is well enough known by the population that ad agencies feel free to use Techno to back up sneaker and automobile advertising. Yet there are very very few Techno radio stations. The pirates merely sought to serve a large and eager consumer base that the "Big Boy Broadcasters" did not see any need to serve.
2) Ownership Matters. "Freedom of the Press is for those who own a press" was the snappy cynical European rejoinder to the idea of a democracy based on a "Free Press". Indeed, just as small businesses had bulletin boards for local civic organizations to post their meeting announcements and "lost dog" announcements ... and now the Mondo-Mart that has replaced them DOES NOT ... so does the mega-broadcasters leave out the community voice. African Americans have long used radio to "tell it like it is" and to bolster the churches work at defending their interests. There was an NTIA report that focused on the fact that a black owned radio station put out a call to the black community on election day, and as a result, that town got a black mayor ... now that station is "majority owned" and "no longer makes such calls."
James Winston, Executive Director of the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters,"This trend [consolidation following 1996 Telecomunications Act] is rapidly filtering out black and ethnic voices ... the issue here is who is going to determine what is news, what news gets covered, what viewpoints get aired, white Americans and minority Americans have different experiences ... it is important that that diversity is reflected in who controls the news ... A lot of people think that if Michael Jackson is on the airwaves, that community is being served." (NPR quote).July 15th 1998 NPR: All Things Considered.

Ownership matters: Larry Irving Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information National Telecommunications and Information Administration Department of Commerce said "We've all read a lot about Princess Diana over the last two weeks. An article by Katherine Graham in the Washington Post on Sunday told about an interesting exchange between the Princess and Jim Lehrer. Princess Diana raised the question of how she was going to focus her energies and choose her causes. Jim Lehrer responded, "Make sure it matters to you. Because if it doesn't, you cannot make it matter to others."
Remarks by Larry Irving Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information National Telecommunications and Information Administration Department of Commerce at the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters' Annual Meeting "The Big Chill: Has Minority Ownership Been Put on Ice?" September 11, 1997 Washington, D.C.

Ownership Matters: "A study released by the California Institute of Technology found that there is a direct relationship between minority broadcast ownership and minority-oriented programming  ... Although non-minority owners provide programming formats that attract minority listeners, independent studies and anecdotal evidence demonstrate that minority owners are more likely to provide entertainment, news and information programs that serve the overall interests of minority audiences." 19
Ref: Jeffrey Dubin and Matthew Spitzer, Testing Minority Preferences in Broadcasting R19 (Division of Humanities and Social Science, California Institute of Technology, Social Science Working Paper 856, July 1993).

Ownership Matters: Richmond's local public radio station has played classical music to the near exclusion of everything else during prime time hours. This is especially curious since the PURPOSE of the establishment of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is to "provide a forum ... so that ... those who would otherwise be unheard" can get some coverage. Study shows that classical music has a very viable position in the commercial radio realm, unlike many of the news,views, cultures and music that NPR was designed to carry.
As if that was not curious enough, two events lead to the amazing discovery that the local "Corporation for Petroleum Broadcasting" radio station may as well be called "Ethyl Radio".
In December Living On Earth (LOE) carried a news item that was critical of Ethyl Corporation's fuel additive, MTBE. By April of 1999, WCVE "public" radio had moved LOE to the middle of Saturday afternoon when most environemntalists are OUT ... IN the environment! LOE was now also right after their Opera sessions and so upset both populations. The goal was to create horrible ratings for LOE so they could say "we killed it because there was no listenership." Several months this is exactly what happened.
Also, there was an incident where Ethyl Corporation destroyed three entire blocks of a working class neighborhood called "Oregon Hill" that were in fine functioning order. Unlike most NPR affiliates, there was no daytime talk/interview show that covered the news and newsmakers from the NPR point of view and style for Richmond. There had been one in the past but when the host that spearheaded that left, so did the program. She was not replaced.
Indeed, it turns out there is a connection!!

The Chairman of the Board of Directors for "public" radio/TV WCVE is A. Prescott Rowe.
A. Prescott Rowe also served in the paying position for many simultaneous years as the "Vice President of External Affairs" for Ethyl Corporation!!!

Since Ethyl makes the gasoline additives that prevent distilled gasoline from blowing the cylinder head right off your car's engine block, it is no exageration to say that THE center of the world's Oil Octopus controls the monopoly taxpayer supported "public" radio and TV outlet for the entire central portion, large parts of the South and Western and Northern portions of  Virginia ... on of the most influential states in the United States of America ... which is one of the most influential governments on this green earth! Nice deal, eh?

Ownership Matters. None the less, NPR does bring up a good point in their opposition to the Low Power Radio Service that would open up as many as 58 radio slots for Richmond Virginia:
"While the goal of increasing the diversity of media voices is clearly an important one, it is neither self evident nor established in either of the Petitions that the goal and the associated societal benefits are likely to be realized by a low power radio broadcasting service. " From NPR statement in opposition to establishing more local low power radio stations.

If NPR really is so afraid of the Low Power Radio Service causing them interference, they can acknowledge that the forces that put Classical on taxpayer funded radio have ceased to be a problem ... and put classical on to the commercial bands to compete like the rest of us must!

Indeed, this is why it is  so vital that the Low Power Radio Service proposed by the FCC to deal with the corrosive effects of the media concentration of the last twenty years contain strong provisions to prevent their takeover by large institutions.

Let's face it, the status quo is unacceptable. If the Low Power Radio Service succeeds in an effective form ... then WCVE "public radio" gets to remain largely classical music. If however, their opposition succeeds ... then we will be after them to fulfill the CPBs originating language and offload classical music to the same market that axed "The Buzz."