Remarks of
William O’Shaughnessy, President
Whitney Radio – WVOX & WRTN
re: FCC Media Ownership Rules
at
The Kernochan Center for Law, Media and the Arts
Columbia Law School

New York City
January, 16, 2003

I’ve worked both sides of the street on the Consolidation issue.

Those opposed to this development that has swept over our profession include liberals, the guilds representing screenwriters and actors and consumers groups.  Also my friend Andy Schwartzman, who with his relentless brilliance and dynamism, has caused so much “agita” in the well-fed guts of today’s network media moguls.

They’ve just realized that the Chairman, for whom I have only the greatest regard, has the votes and all these important groups are expecting the Commission to soon pull the trigger to allow even more Consolidation. 

I am the permittee of a radio station which is endowed with less power than any other in the New York area … a throbbing, pulsating spectacular 500 watts!  (When the wind is right … and the ionosphere cooperates!)  Thus even I was astonished when WVOX was accused by the Wall Street Journal of being “the quintessential community station in America.”  (And even Andy Schwartzman has said nice things about us!

As the Commission weighs all the pleadings cascading into its deliberative process on the issue of Consolidation … it might be useful to consider just what a radio station … is.

I think it can resemble more than a jukebox.  I believe a station achieves its highest calling when it resembles a platform, a forum, a soapbox, a podium, for the expression of many different viewpoints.

Every station has the potential to be more than merely a conduit for the delivery of information and hype about products, many of which we don’t need and some can ill afford.  Radio stations can be about more than commerce or ratings points.

And if we do it right … a local radio station can, as Mario Cuomo says, make a community “stronger … better … even … sweeter” than it is.

There is no question that locally-owned and locally-operated hometown-community radio stations, operated in the public interest by broadcasters who speak the language of the neighborhoods, are fast disappearing.

No matter how much NAB spends on surveys designed to celebrate so-called ”diversity” on the airwaves … local, regional and community stations are succumbing to the siren song of the big group operators.  They are selling out and independent voices are being replaced by a cookie-cutter cacophony of the same-old, same old music and often accompanied by vulgar, outrageous and tasteless stunts.

The old-time working local broadcaster is being replaced by “asset managers” beholden to corporate masters a whole continent away.

“Clusters” presided over by “market managers,” absentee owners and speculators (trying to cover their assets!) now control most major markets where once many different voices were heard in the land.

Most stations today are run out of airport lounges by paid-gun, itinerant, journeymen “market specialists” trying to squeeze every last dime out of their “properties.”

“Economies of scale” … “win-win situations” … “getting it done” … “doin’ what it takes” and … “make it happen!” have replaced quaint old phrases like “public trustee” … who operated for “the public interest, convenience and necessity.”

Another Westchester station has had 11 owners and 43 general managers in the past decade.  (Is it possible the problem is not in the executive suite!)

They’ve cut everything.  (Except the grass out front, literally!)  The roof leaks and the weeds around the parking lot haven’t been cut.

It reminds me of the story my friend John Eggerton, the brilliant editorial director of Broadcasting and Cable, tells about the station that supposedly got into a jam with the Commission about unauthorized remote control at their transmitter.  As the story goes (and only you know if it’s true!) … the station argued that it was manned – by a homeless person!  (Eggerton swears this is true!)

Now comes The However.  (I told you I’ve worked both sides of the street on this issue.)

I’m not only a disciple of Andy’s (Schwartzman.)  I also listen to Patrick Maines of the Media Institute and Harry Jessell, whose wise counsel has influenced my pronouncements on free speech and First Amendment issues.  They don’t like Government in anything!

But I also recall a very clear instruction I received one day from the great, towering New York Senator – Jacob K. Javits.

Senator Javits, who was also the Father of the War Powers Act, (where are you when we really need you!) used to say, “You either believe … in the genius of the Free Enterprise System … or you … do not.”

I like the sound of that.

But does Free Enterprise mean there mustn’t be some intelligent Regulation if your Free Enterprise can choke off all the free expression?

Did not the greatest Republicans like Teddy Roosevelt fight against combinations that would stifle diversity … and true free enterprise … and expression?  And what was the Microsoft suit all about?

Perhaps whoever says they’re absolutely … for … or absolutely against … Consolidation is disingenuous.  Maybe we have to take each case, each market on an individual basis and look at it ad hoc … for or against specific alignments and circumstances for specific reasons.

Maybe Consolidation is only a temporary circumstance, a temporary fact of life driven by free market forces.

And maybe when they realize they can’t run a thousand or more stations out of San Antonio … they’ll start to dismantle these behemoths themselves… and sell off some of those “properties” to independent entrepreneurs who will once more consider that they have a fiduciary relationship to an instrument of communication and who will then steer them back to the service of the people in their communities.

And some of them might even consider that they are in a profession … and not an industry (the southerners on the NAB Board call it an in-dust-ry!)  And thus at the People’s business.

We might even see broadcasters who would be appalled at the notion of putting a price on the public service we provide during national emergencies or catastrophes and by those who would tarnish our “finest hours” by seeking “compensation” for the “interruption” of their “business.”

If the Commission does pull all the ownership prohibitions you might be setting up bigger targets … but politically weaker ones … as they take out even more independent broadcasters who had a grip on their local congressmen.

The current NAB Board is meeting in high council at this precise moment out in the California desert … and this is a real problem for our national association, which is struggling just to remain relevant in the face of new technology and market forces.

Frankly, as far as my own purse is concerned … I’m not so damn sure Consolidation is such a bad thing.  Consolidation has – if the truth be known, in the intimacy of this room – made us all rich.

Even for those who haven’t yet sold out to the speculators … (at least literally!) the value of our stations has increased.

So I guess at the end of the day I’m with Senator Javits … a believer  … in the genius of the Free Enterprise System.

I also suggest that if you want non-local Radio … you have the satellite option (and we hope it remains … non-local!)  I would respectfully suggest that if the Government is looking for a place to go … it might well get into this “Star Wars” threat.  And, I’ll tell you:  we would not at all mind some kind of “Missile Shield” defense on that!  (But I digress …!)

We’d like your help with the satellite issue … and some clarity as to their ultimate objectives.

But, as for putting the brakes on Consolidation … I’m not sure I want you to help us with this.

I’m just … not sure I want you to … help us clean up our mess.

So I guess I am … at the end of the day … a Believer … in that free market stuff.

Someone once said Radio is the last turf on which an entrepreneur can run.

The turf is getting a little slippery.

But I still think Radio is like Lazarus in the Bible.  It’s still the medium closest to the People.  You can’t kill it.  Television couldn’t do it in.  Nor could Cable.  Or the Internet.

But … greed just might finish us off. 

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WVOX
1 Broadcast Forum
New Rochelle, NY 10801
Phone: 914-636-1460
Fax: 914-636-2900
e-mail: don@wvox.com