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The Local Voice of Radio Has Been Muffled by Greed
Local radio stations, left independent, are the best examples of freedom and democracy. Most are located in small markets where they mirror the community's image.
Take Pullman. Station KOFE in 1964 decided to turn over the entire station's proceeds for one day to the local chamber of commerce. Chamber members bought spots and wrote their competitors' commercials and read them over the air.
Seafirst Bank wrote: "Pullman National Bank has a clock out front because inside they won't give you the time of day!" And, Pullman National bank wrote: "You think that thermometer out front gives the temperature? No, it's Seafirst's rate of interest." (The broadcast was made in July when the thermometer read 85.)
In all that fun, including newscasts read by chamber members complete with botched pronunciations and laughter, $4,000 was raised. It bought most if not all of the Christmas decorations for the town.
Earlier, in Pomeroy, Garfield County, which does not have a radio station, KOZE in Lewiston, Idaho, broadcast a play-by-play description of the Pomeroy Day Parade. The big news was that an area farmer had paid cash that day for a new Edsel. Interviews of local folks made them "famous" in that small farming community!
Genesee, Idaho, never had a station, either. But once a year, Pullman's KOFE did a broadcast from the farming community from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. for Genesee Days. No other commercials were broadcast except those from Genesee. Crowds were huge. Interviews with city leaders, farmers and business owners told of the small town's pride and joy: wheat farming and soil conservation.
Owners of large radio conglomerates today would call this "hokey." They would also call this exercise "looking back, when we should be looking forward." Today, many broadcasters exhibit just the opposite of community resourcefulness. There are exceptions, but they are few and far between.
There are radio stations located in the Seattle area that have left their original city of license. Stations that used to broadcast the hometown news and community events of suburban King, Pierce and Kitsap counties now involve themselves almost solely with Seattle or some other nonlocal focus.
None of this is illegal, thanks to the Federal Communications Commission. The FCC has watered down what is required to receive a radio broadcast license. Each station can renew its license by just a postcard. No promise of news, community involvement or public service is necessary to renew its license.
Proponents of further relaxation of FCC broadcast rules argue that we have so many news venues that democracy is in good health.
Not when a few own so much of the media.
Imagine if Rupert Murdoch, coming off his acquisition of The Wall Street Journal, added our local press or radio and television stations to his worldwide stable of traditional and new media. Where would we turn for diversity of coverage in news, sports and opinion? It would be a catastrophe for the Puget Sound region.
We have allowed greed to replace enterprise. We have allowed the local voice of radio, for all intents and purposes, to be stifled.
Guglielmo Marconi must be rolling in his grave. The voice of democracy and independent thought on radio are all but dead.
Bill Wippel of Normandy Park has been in radio for 58 years and is a former owner of KOFE in Pullman. He now directs Tape Ministries NW, a nonprofit lending library of Christian books on tape for blind and sight impaired people, www.tapeministries.org
Copyright © 2007 The Seattle Times Company
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5 Comments so far
Show AllThose were the days!
Park free on the street.
Walk without a care downtown at night.
Christmas decorations at Fredricks and Nelsons.
Before Starbucks.
Nordstrums, a small shoe store with that funny elevator.
KVI and the world's not the same without Hardwick.
Now I never go to Seattle.
I listen to BBC and shop online.
These are the good old days - aren't they.
i thought the "public airwaves" had local content rules and regs.........but they probably went the wayside with the "fairness doctrine".........the corporatists need to be stopped......this is not a partisan matter.
all owners of our public airwaves (us - the people) need to get involved to save us from the propagandizing forced upon us on our own airwaves. locally, demand from your state reps that local content and the "fairness doctrine" be cornerstones for any leasee (they don't own - remember) of public airwaves.......screw the feds on this.....go local - go state.
How has Keith Olbermann managed to stay?
don't know if you've caught springsteen's
RADIO NOWHERE
I was trying to find my way home
But all I heard was a drone
Bouncing off a satellite
Crushing the last lone American night
(Chorus:)
This is Radio Nowhere
Is there anybody alive out there
This is Radio Nowhere
Is there anybody alive out there
I was sitting around a dead dial
Just another lost number in a file
Dancing down a dark hole (some say it's "Been in some kind of dark cove")
Just a-searching for a world with some soul
You know People about 10 years ago I discovered what is called Old Time Radio.
Those were recordings made of radio network shows that were saved to be rebroadcast and then forgotten about.
I wish you could hear even just one of them say during WWII It seems our government use Radio to bring everyone together to make sacrifices to fight that terrible war. Most Everyone gladly join in to save grease drippings, gladly accepted rationings, carpooled without any hesitation, and so on and so on.
It kind of makes you wonder why Franklin Roosevelt is such a dirty word for Conservitives . It seems he did what they cannot even allow themselves to dream about,just using the free press and radio.
Well I guess most of those who knew and live in those times are either dead or close to it.
If Anyone of today that proclaims themselves as a Roosevelt Liberal.They do it in a closet and with a whisper.
It makes me kind of wonder about how much differance would there be in this country today if Germany would have won the war?
I mean Americans seem to hate everyone not just a religious sect. We inform on our neighbors, we sit back and do nothing as the government takes our rights away from us.
No we do not goosestep ,but maybe next year.
I was listening to an otr program last night.
It was a 1942 Fibber Mcgee And Molly show. At the end of the progrram the stars came out and said "please buy war bonds so we can buy supplies for our army to win this war and get our people back home."
What is it Bush is asking in monies for his war this time 180 billion? Did you know Americans during WWII gladly paid for the war by buying who knows how many seris of bonds. Who will pay for Bush;s war?What sacrifices has he asked us to make ? for that matter only a few are fighting Bush;s war.While the rest of us get fat laying around . And yet we have so many ways for mass communication today
Ah but that communication is used to its hilt to sell us soap. I'll bet you are going back to Walmart today Did you Car pool with your neighbor? Did you set your Recycling out?
Did you even check who died today in Bush's War?
You know we might as well burn most of our books like the Nazi's did. Why? because if they are about that land Of The Free America?
They are just dreams based on lies anyway
Remember when Ronald Reagan became President?
Do you remember his weekly radio addresses? You should,because this very devided America came from them.
Now raise up your hands if you listen to Air America at all? Is it even still broadcasting?
You don't know do ya? Well the new Tokyo Rose Rush Limbaugh is.I'll bet you knew that.