SoCo Magazine - May 2008 - (Page 36) expect they wouldn’t mourn the hobbling of the talk radio industry. So whether a Democratic president elect will use the bully pulpit to reinstate the doctrine remains to be seen. Perhaps interest has declined because of the House decision or because the medium, not the industry, is a dying—or perhaps simply transforming— enterprise. Radio is in trouble. Ken Pittman broadcasts out of New Bedford at WBSM (1420). Throughout his tenure over the past three plus years, he has brought the station’s ratings from .5 to 5.9 during some hours, making it willing to re-impose the doctrine, including Republican candidate John McCain. “I don’t trust McCain enough to think he wouldn’t, and I think it’s a high priority for Obama and Hillary,” he says. “This is a demonstration of how insecure liberals are if they put Affirmative Action into place in the media. It’ll be fun to see them enact a ‘balanced’ media.” Rodrigues likes the idea of the doctrine. “With multiple viewpoints on the air, you’d have more local voices. If you have one perspective, a ‘syndicated’ talker on the right, you’d also have one on the left.” passing in the House last year, Graham feels it could happen. “McCain supports government controls on speech. Hillary, Obama, and their allies clearly support speech controls,” he says. “Once the government has the power to prosecute hate, who do they decide to hate? It would mean the FCC saying the thing you do that makes you special, you can’t do. Talk radio is one of the few remaining cash cows in terrestrial radio. They could damage the industry.” Then we steered onto the topic of radio itself, which is clearly at a crossroads, to “If they reinstitute it, it’s not going to work. The Fairness Doctrine would just be another blow to a reeling industry. Radio companies are publicly traded; you’re not doing them any favors if you have someone on that they don’t want to listen to.” number one in the Bristol County media market. I asked Pittman what he thought of the talk about the Fairness Doctrine in recent years. “It’s typical,” he says. “Why aren’t the same standards held to television? The Boston Globe and the New York Times say what they’re going to say. No one gets to stop and correct them.” Then he mentions the liberal answer to the right-leaning free market of talk radio: Air America. “They had the most free advertising, but still flopped. Liberal talk radio is as useful as a mesh condom.” Keri Rodrigues of WSAR (1480), a selfdescribed liberal host and the station’s programmer, had her own thoughts on the matter. “I’m trying to run a business. What matters is great talk radio that stimulates conversation,” she says. “Never would it occur to me to tell someone how to spin a story. Radio isn’t ideologically driven; it’s personality and character driven. Listing facts and figures is bad talk radio. You have to make it interesting.” Rodrigues notes that radio hosts aren’t experts on foreign policy, but rather they are very engaging to listeners. Buddy Cianci at WPRO and Tom Finneran at WRKO, she adds, don’t offer compelling radio. Political experience doesn’t equal broadcast talent. Pittman, meanwhile, thinks any of our present presidential candidates would be 36 | s o comagazi ne . i nfo | M ay 2 0 0 8 She says liberal hosts also attract a younger demographic, a perspective people aren’t hearing. “Our obligation as broadcasters is to hear both sides of the issues.” Pittman has mixed feelings about the doctrine’s implementation. “It’d be fun for me to co-host with a liberal, but it’s tough to find a liberal willing to come on. I can’t find state reps and congressmen. John Kerry came on and I didn’t bite his head off.” Rodrigues considers another issue in terrestrial radio: consolidation. “What has really killed radio are corporations owning radio. Radio is successful because of listener attachment to stations. If you want local information, radio is still your number-one thing. When local radio is 100 percent syndicated, you are no longer a necessity.” On the other dial, FM radio, Michael Graham hosts a show on 96.9 WTKK every weekday morning from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. The verbally facile host was formerly in Washington, D.C., until he was fired in 2005 because of a lawsuit from CAIR, the Council on American Islamic Relations, the same organization plaguing Michael Savage recently. Graham refers to them as the “Council of Angry Islamic Radicals.” They claim he said something bigoted; he maintains he did not. Despite the Fairness Doctrine not put it nicely, owing to a wide range of new communication mediums. “Radio is in a very dangerous place. The future of radio will be very different. But no cares where the signal comes from— radio, Wi-Fi, or a signal—they care about the content.” Howie Carr is a long-time broadcaster for WRKO and contributing editorial writer for the Boston Herald. You can find him on both 680 AM and 95.1 FM. The bestselling author of The Brothers Bulger sees terrestrial talk radio as a dying industry. I asked him if a Hillary, Obama, or McCain presidency would mean the reinstitution of the Fairness Doctrine for talk radio. “No, I don’t think it will,” says Carr. “The radio industry is on the ropes if you look at the stock prices. They have a lot of power in Congress. Stock prices are way down. The radio industry is challenged by a number of real factors. Everything is totally fragmented now. iPod is eating FM radio’s lunch. Satellite has done some damage too (to the older demographic). “If they reinstitute it, it’s not going to work. The Fairness Doctrine would just be another blow to a reeling industry. Radio companies are publicly traded; you’re not doing them any favors if you have someone on who they don’t want to listen to.” Carr found the issue rather moot in the wake of financial news surrounding the terrestrial radio industry, some of which he http://socomagazine.info
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