Community Radio at the Crossroads

By Jerold Starr, Executive Director

Community radio has become the last outpost of resistance against the assault on localism by nationally syndicated programming. The latest incursion is called "Triple-A" (Adult Album Alternative) music. Described by writer, Dave Bunker this eclectic format is "neo-traditional, mostly acoustic, literate and sophisticated country-tinged folk rock." "Triple-A" is being promoted at the expense of publics for classical, jazz, opera and other traditional forms of music whose only refuge typically has been public radio.

"Triple A" is decidedly not a genre recognized by those who create the music, but a formula invented by programmers to appeal to the affluent middle-aged listener who comprise the most desirable demographic for public radio. Its increasing adoption reflects the increasing dominance of nationally syndicated over locally produced programming. Another casualty of this trend has been ethnic language and informational public affairs shows. However, the publics for all these programs are fighting back.

One force behind the "Triple-A" format is frequently used public radio consultant David Giovannoni, promising stations higher cumulative ratings and income per broadcast hour if they just "lose what's on the periphery" and "focus on a single audience." Giovannoni celebrates homogeneity and predictability: "A radio station should be something for the same person all the time." Those target persons, he explains, are middle-aged and college-educated. However, by catering to the affluent, who already are blessed with many choices, this course effectively expropriates a public resource for the benefit of a privileged few.

The context for this latest move should be familiar by now. Placed in a survival mode by the Reagan Administration and, later, Gingrich-led Congress, NPR stations began to pursue corporate underwriting more aggressively. This led to a preoccupation with ratings, polls and focus groups, and more and longer commercials. A 1998 study found almost half of public radio listeners threatening to stop contributing if the trend toward "more prevalent" and "more annoying" underwriting messages continued.

There also has been a shift to more national programming featuring a more establishment point of view and NPR branded sound. Charlotte Ryan's study of NPR public affairs programming found a heavy reliance on government press releases, presented without comment. NPR rejected Prairie Home Companion as "offensive to the middle class." Ira Glass had to launch This American Life outside the NPR system, which he characterized as "a risk-adverse culture." Even NPR ombudsman Jeffrey Dvorkin has acknowledged: "I think we've become addicted to money. And that becomes a kind of self-censorship; we know…what's acceptable and what's not."

If anything, the importance of truly public radio has become greater in recent years with the deregulation and increasing consolidation of commercial radio. Four major radio groups control 70 to 90 percent of local market share. Clear Channel alone has exploded from 14 stations in 1996 to more than 1,200 today. Contrary to official predictions, many group stations in the same market duplicate each other's formats.

Clear Channel has since parlayed its radio station dominance into becoming the nation's top concert promoter. Now, a great many artists, participating in the Future of Music Coalition, are charging systematic discrimination against unaffiliated musicians. Even FCC Chair Michael Powell, who has proclaimed the "free market" to be his "religion," has acknowledged being "troubled" by "media concentration, particularly in radio."

In dramatic contrast to its posture toward big media, the government has been zealous in its regulation of small media. To receive a CPB Community Service Grant stations must have at least five full-time paid staff, operate at 100 or more watts, and program at least 18 hours a day, seven days a week. This policy has effectively disenfranchised hundreds of small stations across the country.

More recently, stations also have been required to demonstrate a minimum level of Arbitron rated listenership or per capita financial support. Volunteer labor is not counted in the calculation of financial support. Jim Foley, KXCI Tucson music director, does not consider that an oversight. He calls it "a government bribe to reduce local community involvement in community radio."

When the ratings/dollars requirement was imposed, some 80 stations were put in immediate jeopardy. While most of these survived, they did so only by dropping ethnic music and language programs and informational talk shows with smaller audiences; in short, according to Current writer Jacqueline Conciatore, the kind of shows "heard only on public radio." Thus, many "peripheral" communities-citizens and taxpayers all-- have been excluded from the public's airwaves.

The passion for community radio is reflected in the many movements that have sprung up when local stations have been seduced by the "professional" model. When some staffers tried to promote the HSP formula at WERU in Blue Falls, Maine, others fought back. According to present WERU station manager, Cathy Melio: "We said diversity is the strength of community radio" and "we stood up for the volunteers." Melio's group prevailed and the station has prospered since. Melio subsequently joined forces with Marty Durlin, general manager of KGNU Boulder, to form the "Grassroots Radio Coalition."

Programming changes at KUWR Laramie Wyoming triggered protests from every sector of the state's population, including elected officials. Just this year, movements have arisen to oppose the dropping of an arts education program (WJTC Jacksonville), classical music (KUER Salt Lake City and WNYC New York), live broadcasts of the Metropolitan Opera (WVTF Roanoke), bluegrass (WAMU Washington), blues (WRFG Atlanta) or jazz (WYSO Yellow Springs Ohio). Protests have featured web campaigns, rallies, letters, petitions, board protests, pledge boycotts, and alternative pledge escrow accounts, among other tactics.

Giovannoni's advice to station managers is to expect it, ignore it and ride it out. Protestors typically are marginalized as kooks or radicals who do not appreciate the economics of public radio. In turn, critics charge that such station managers ignore their educational mission, failing to distinguish between superficial audiences and committed publics. In the process, they do a disservice to the distinct traditions that comprise the rich diversity of our musical heritage.

What is called the "professional" model is really the commercial model, built on the unexamined assumption that professionalism precludes the participation of volunteers. Unfortunately, some stations have been plunged into the red by ditching their volunteers and pursuing the chimera of big time radio.

Over 1973-75, KOPN in Columbia Missouri grew from 10 to 40,000 watts with 15 paid staff and hundreds of volunteers. Impacted by the new CPB guidelines, by the mid-1990s volunteers had declined to fewer than ten and programming was dominated by "Triple A" music and NPR public affairs. Expenses increased faster than revenues. By 1997, the station was $110,000 in debt and board members contemplated liquidation.

Fortunately, the community rallied. By 1997, emergency meetings drew up to 150 members. In 1999, the grassroots faction of the board took control. They replaced the GM's position with a management team of three board members, scaled back nationally syndicated programming to seven hours a day in favor of more locally-produced volunteer programming, cut expenses, wrote grants and whittled the debt down substantially. The station now offers some nationally syndicated public affairs and a variety of music programming (e.g. classical, jazz, blues, bluegrass, reggae, etc.) to 2000-3000 listeners and about 800 listener-sponsors.

These days, Loyola University President Michael Garanzini has cited the school's $29 million budget deficit as cause to turn control of its $40 thousand a year radio station, WLUW, over to NPR station WBEZ Chicago. The station manager and program director have been notified of their planned termination.

Forget the fact that $40 thousand is a drop in the bucket of $29 million. WLUW is doing well and good. With 17,000 listeners, it is the most popular student run station in the Chicago area. Readers of the city's alternative weekly, New City, voted WLUW Chicago's best radio station. The station offers job training and service learning opportunities to more than 100 students who produce programming for WLUW each year. The station also bridges the gap between town and gown with programming in six languages serving the Native American, Vietnamese, Haitian, Latino, and African communities as well as labor and gay and lesbian constituencies.

By cutting student stipends ($27,000), changing the studio's location to cut transmission costs ($12,000) and holding a fundraiser ($40,000), station supporters challenged the economic rationale for giving away this valuable community resource. It is now clear this is a political struggle and supporters are engaged in a massive letter writing campaign.

In the final analysis, the most interesting and important things in civic life typically are too complex to be neatly rated, cumed and counted. They require a respect for values and core missions and public service. As the writer Jesse Walker puts it, "Community radio may be the only noncommercial radio in this country that is truly 'public,' relying on local volunteers" and "going out of its way to broadcast material that is unavailable elsewhere on the dial." Our democracy deserves no less.