"Religious stations push out NPR" -- is this good or bad?

[Weird Harold]

From: http://www.registerguard.com/news/2002/09/15/9a.nat.radiowar.0915.html

Religious stations push out NPR
By BLAINE HARDEN
The New York Times

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LAKE CHARLES, La. - The Rev. Don Wildmon, founding chairman of a mushrooming network of Christian radio stations, does not like National Public Radio.

``He detests the news that the public gets through NPR and believes it is slanted from a distinctly liberal and secular perspective,'' said Patrick Vaughn, general counsel for Wildmon's network, American Family Radio.

Here in Lake Charles, American Family Radio has silenced what its boss detests. It knocked two NPR affiliate stations off the local airwaves last year, transforming this southwest Louisiana community of about 95,000 people into the most populous place in the United States where ``All Things Considered'' cannot be heard.

In place of that program - and ``Morning Edition,'' ``Car Talk'' and a local Cajun program called ``Bonjour Louisiana'' - listeners now find ``Home School Heartbeat,'' ``The Phyllis Schlafly Report'' and the conservative evangelical musings of Wildmon, whose network broadcasts from Tupelo, Miss.

The Christian stations routed NPR in Lake Charles under a federal law that allows noncommercial broadcasters with licenses for full-power stations to push out those with weaker signals - the equivalent of the varsity team kicking the freshmen out of the gym.

This is happening all over the country. The losers are so-called translator stations, low-budget operations that retransmit the signals of bigger, distant stations. The Federal Communications Commission considers them squatters on the far left side of the FM dial, and anyone who is granted a full-power license can legally run them out of town.

...

Stations are scrambling for these frequencies at a time of rapid growth in the national NPR audience and even faster growth in religious networks such as American Family Radio. It owns 194 stations, has 18 affiliates and has applications for hundreds more pending with the FCC.

...

As a fan of NPR and PBS, it disturbs me that de-regulation is allowing bigotted and intolerant people to "out-shout" balanced and interesting radio programming with fundamentalist proaganda.

The proliferation of cookie cutter rock stations owned by the corparation that is monopolizing that market is also disturbing to me, but not as disturbing as this development.

Prior to deregulation, no single person or corporation could own more than three radio stations -- this gave the listeners a choice of stations without giving any one person or corporation complete control over what is available.

Similar disturbing trends in the Print and Television media are apparent with the number of papers and stations owned by Rupert Murdock.

Randolph Hearst once controlled the media in the USA, and the Spanish American War was one result of having one or two people in control of the media are we returning to those days where someone can say, "you get the pictures, I'll provide the war."

 

[70/30]

I call for a boycott of the Minnesota Vikings. This is a principled stance since I have a friend that starts and I'm a big Randy Moss fan.

http://www.redmccombs.com/interests.html

2. Broadcasting - Interest in radio and television stations and advertising. Included in the group is 2.5% ownership of Clear Channel Communications, Inc., a publicly-owned broadcasting company (in which Mr. McCombs was a co-founder) with over 1,100 radio stations, 20 television stations, outdoor advertising operations, and communications tower operations. Clear Channel Communications, Inc. operates in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, and Latin America and is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

3. Professional sports - Owner of the Minnesota Vikings (and related entities) of the National Football League.

 

[Azwed]

Clear Channel communications owns every music type radio channel in this area except for one I think. Tech still has its own FM and AM radio stations, both are entirely student run which I think no other college in VA can say, that do music along with other types of programming.

After the 9/11 attacks clear channel drew up a list of songs that they thought might be offensive, trumatic, bad taste etc. and distributed the list too all of its radio stations. They suggested that these songs should not be played for the next few days. Now they didn't ban the songs in anyway or do anything to DJ's who did play them but I found it disturbing that they had the list made up. I might be able to find a copy of the list around some where I will see if I can.

Before deregulation something like that would not have been possible.


NPR is still out here on 88.9 or 88.7 I think. I will normaly listen to it on long trips outside of the mountain region here. Inside the mountains it is very hard to pick up.

 

[Weird Harold]

I call for a boycott of the Minnesota Vikings. This is a principled stance since I have a friend that starts and I'm a big Randy Moss fan.

http://www.redmccombs.com/interests.html

You missed an important connection:

5. Energy - Exploration for oil and gas and management of producing properties, undeveloped acreage, pipelines, processing plants, and related facilities located in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Louisiana. Energy operations are conducted by McCombs Energy, LLC.

Is it really a good idea for an oil exploration magnate to own (even part of) that many sources of information for the general public?

(PS: Thanks for digging up the name of Clear Channel. I couldn't remember it.)

 

[Never]

1. I don’t like Clear Channel
2. I don’t like deregulation.

 

[Azwed]

Scroll almost to the bottom of this page for the clear channel songs.

http://freedom2008.com/freedomactions.htm

list of songs 150 total including all songs by Rage Against the Machine

http://www.hitsdailydouble.com/news/songs.html

 

[Laurel]

Yes. This is something that's been on my mind a lot lately, and it scares the hell out of me. People are sooo easily manipulate, and will believe outright whatever they hear on the radio or on the news. When all news sources are owned by corporations who use them to promote their own agendas rather than simply report the news (which is the direction things are going), we'll all be screwed.

 

[Azwed]

Does anyone else feel that the FOX news channel is just like a 24 hour version of inside edition?

I mean do people actually believe their "we are totaly unbiased line?"

I guess they are trying to make up for CNN and the other media companies slight liberal bias by being far to the right but they could be a little less obvious about it.

 

[Weird Harold]

Yes. This is something that's been on my mind a lot lately, and it scares the hell out of me. People are sooo easily manipulate, and will believe outright whatever they hear on the radio or on the news. When all news sources are owned by corporations who use them to promote their own agendas rather than simply report the news (which is the direction things are going), we'll all be screwed.

What disturbs me the most about the article I cited, is that they aren't buying up the NPR stations, they're simply buying higher power stations on the same frequency to drown them out -- or at least drown out the low power translator sites.

I don't really have a problem with "christian" radio stations -- there's one here in Las Vegas that occassionally has some good discussions on current events and local affairs. What I have problem with is the apparently deliberate targeting of stations with opposing viewpoints -- ie NPR.

Clear Channel has an unreasonable market share, and Rupert Murdock owns far too many news outlets, but at least neither of them are trying to directly suppress other voices. They're trying to drive them into bankruptcy through competition, true, but they're at least "competing" with them until they succeed.

 

[Weird Harold]

Does anyone else feel that the FOX news channel is just like a 24 hour version of inside edition?

I mean do people actually believe their "we are totaly unbiased line?"

I get dizzy every time I enter O'Reilly's "spin free zone." If he put any more spin on things, he's twist them in two.

I don't think FNC is like a 24 hour copy of inside edition -- inside edition is down right liberal compared to FNC.

 

[Azwed]

I don't think FNC is like a 24 hour copy of inside edition -- inside edition is down right liberal compared to FNC.

I meant more in the way that FNC seems to make all of their news shows so tabloid like but i agree with your point too.

 

[April]

I mean do people actually believe their "we are totaly unbiased line?"

I laugh every time I hear it. Then either change the channel or turn on the other satellite.

 

[phrodeau]

Most NPR and PRI programs can be heard online. There's not much AFR can do to stop them.

 

[tenyari]

Thus why the primary concern when I vote is centered around ensuring the Republican candidate does not win.


I can't think of a single Republican ideal that I agree with... Every one of them seems to lead to problems like this. As a Californian, I know all too well the problems of deregulation. Witness our recent wholly artificial energy crisis. With the Democrats, it's only about 60-70% of their ideas that I find absurd and not a full 100%.

 

[Weird Harold]

Most NPR and PRI programs can be heard online. There's not much AFR can do to stop them.

Unfortunately, I don't have internet access in my car. As hard as it might be to believe, many people don't have highspeed internet access that makes listening to internet radio channels online practical. If you can believe it, some people don't have any internet access at all!

Out of curiosity, I checked XM Radios listings, and NPR/PRI aren't available through that route either.

For many people, the only access to NPR or PRI is via the low-power translators that AFR is pre-empting -- low-power frequencies that APR is pre-empting precisely because they carry NPR programming.

 

[Hamletmaschine]

Here's a site where you can look at some of the concentration of ownership in the media industries. The information is a bit dated, but it's a scary enough picture.

Mediaspace

 

[takingchances42]

Thus why the primary concern when I vote is centered around ensuring the Republican candidate does not win.

I can't think of a single Republican ideal that I agree with... Every one of them seems to lead to problems like this. As a Californian, I know all too well the problems of deregulation. Witness our recent wholly artificial energy crisis. With the Democrats, it's only about 60-70% of their ideas that I find absurd and not a full 100%.

This is not a Republican versus Democrat question. The issue is not regulation versus capitalism, though it is often presented that way for the convenience of political parties. The issue is regulation versus capitalism versus monopolies & oligopolies. Monopolies (local media markets these days) and oligopolies (national media markets) serve no one's interest other than the corporate owners -- there are no genuine economic benefits for the consumers, and the political effects are frightening.

Actual enforcement of anti-trust regulations would do the trick in many businesses. But NEITHER party cares to vigorously enforce them. Because both parties, Democratic & Republican, are deeply corrupt, and sell out our interests to deep pocket campaign contributors. Monopolies & oligopolies make big campaign contributions, and thus are allowed by both political parties to stifle competion and engage in anti-competitive practices, hurting us all...

 

[SINthysist]

Excuse me. The people feel NPR was biased against their way of life. In a free country, with entirely peaceful means, they made their beliefs (atheist here, sit down...) known, took a legal action or series of actions, and changed the bias to one which more reflected their community's values as versus the values of the Washington-New York corridor.

And you would do anything, including using government and laws and rules and regulations to stop them.

Who's censoring whom?

And to tie with another thread, is your message, liberalism, so unpopular that it cannot "win" it's own niche and compete in the marketplace of ideas and competition?

Now, there is one glaring fallacy to your argument. When you speak of people being "led" by the press, why is it you assume "you" are the one smart enough to see through the smokescreen? How do you know your side did not get to you first? (From one who switched sides...)

 

[SINthysist]

Bueno TK(O)42! Muey Bueno!

(Sorry spelling buddy and grammer buddy don't work with Spanish )

 

[Hamletmaschine]

Originally posted by SINthysist
Excuse me. The people feel NPR was biased against their way of life. In a free country, with entirely peaceful means, they made their beliefs (atheist here, sit down...) known, took a legal action or series of actions, and changed the bias to one which more reflected their community's values as versus the values of the Washington-New York corridor.

And you would do anything, including using government and laws and rules and regulations to stop them.

Who's censoring whom?

In this case, Wildmon's organization is practicing censorship. The way you represent the issue, you make it sound like this was a democratic process. It was not. No one voted for Wildmon; he 'represents' no one. No one voted on whether to have Wildmon's organization replace NPR, and the regulatory system that was put in place to prevent this kind of thing has been all but dismantled.

And to tie with another thread, is your message, liberalism, so unpopular that it cannot "win" it's own niche and compete in the marketplace of ideas and competition?

I'm sorry, but that whole 'voting with your pocketbook' nonsense won't cut it: that's a corruption of the meaning of democracy. You're equivocating on the word 'marketplace' in order to force an equation between ideas/speech and commodities. It's precisely this kind of thinking that poses the greatest threat to free speech: the belief that the only speech/idea worth hearing is the one that is popular with consumers, or that if an idea has merit, it will necessarily be marketable as a commodity.

 

[SINthysist]

We only vote on government by pulling levers. We vote on EVERYTHING else in America with dollars. Ask any politician. Ask any businessman. If NPR where THAT important, it would have more dollars and prestige. The cencorship comes in the cries of foul I saw in the first dozen posts. We need REGULATION! We have to stop this. Government has to step in. That's the former Soviet Republic. Make sure the people buy PRAVDA!

You can SAY I'm wrong about voting with dollars. Weight of precedent in this land of laws says I'm right. I know it's a bite, and I hate it when the First Amendment protects child porn. Ask WeirdHarold, he's seen me on those threads argue AGAINST Freedom of Speech. What are you going to do, but I know how right it can feel to be so wrong sometimes in this illogical world of ours.





BTW Weird, just 'cause you don't have it now, doesn't mean you won't have wireless access this time next year! I think there's more of a market for that than NPR! Then, YOUR argument will be a bit specious (even thinner than it is now )...

 

[TWB]

I think this really stinks. Sorry I can't be more articulate. BTW, I listen to NPR, and it is critisized by listeners as being too conservative at times, as well as too liberal. Frankly their news coverage is pretty fair I think.

Our radiowaves should not permit this type of encroachment. Tee vee stations used to have to have one channel in between in order to prevent this from happening. Radio should be the same. I similarly would not want NPR to drown out one of the "american 'family' radio" stations. It is not a principaled, christian way of behaving.

twb

 

[SINthysist]

No. Your approach, from the Left is more threatening. You define types of Speech and then outlaw them when you don't like them.




Time for my old sigline again:


HATE SPEECH IS FREE SPEECH!

 

[SINthysist]

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING!

WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS ARE IN THE PROCESS OF KILLING RADIO!

IT'S A DINOSUAR AND A RED HERRING BEING USED TO BEAT UP CHRISTIANS YET AGAIN FOR WANTING A MORAL SOCIETY VS PURE HEDONISIM AND MORAL RELATIVISM!

 

[SINthysist]

Who is going to listen to NPR when you can drive to Lit's Audio Selections?

(Ticketed for driving while erect )