Christian Radio, NPR Battle for Signals

[LiviaOlivia]

March 18, 2004
Christian Radio, NPR Battle for Signals
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 12:12 p.m. ET

FREDERICK, Md. (AP) -- One morning last month, WJTM-FM began the day with its usual fare of Christian preaching and prayer. But that afternoon, the programming changed to something that some longtime listeners find offensive -- National Public Radio.

WJTM, a station reaching 1.2 million listeners on the northwestern outskirts of Baltimore and Washington, had been taken over by WYPR-FM, a Baltimore-based NPR-affiliate. The change, which has been challenged by two congressmen and dozens of listeners, reflects a battle being waged nationwide for ears at the lower end of the radio dial.

<snip>
Religious broadcasters have won some battles. In Lake Charles, La., the Christian broadcasting company American Family Radio knocked two NPR affiliates off the local airwaves in 2001 by obtaining a full-power license that overpowered the low-budget NPR translator stations -- a tactic permitted by federal law.

Religious broadcasters have led in station numbers since a 1990s growth spurt, with more than 1,800 AM and FM outlets compared with 772 mostly FM National Public Radio stations, according to Arbitron and NPR.
<snip>

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/arts/AP-Religion-Today.html

[Atlant]

1. Poor, poor NPR. Too bad they blew-off their friends on the left.

It's a shame it's not working out for them with their new friends
on the Reich.

Atlant

[sendero]

4. Exactly...

... I don't want to see NPR off the air, especially to be replaced by that drivel - but they have definitely abandoned their "base". And that comes with a price.

[Voltaire99]

7. Hoisted by their own right wing petard!

The decline of NPR becomes more and more apparent with time as its gutting by the right makes it just another consensus-mongering establishment drone.

But being knocked off the air by Christian radio - o, what irony! Another chapter in the deevolutionary abuse of a once-proud network: from critical media to lapdog media to holy roller roadkill, all within one generation! Trust in Jaysus, friends.

C-SPAN, unhappily, has suffered a similar mishap at the hands of the rising tide of American primitivists, losing channels in markets where Christian broadcasters have exploited a loophole guaranteeing them local cable access.

But C-SPAN--even though it sets up cameras in places like the American Enterprise Institute to cover speeches--embodies the spirit of critical journalism far better than the docile NPR. With C-SPAN, one sees and hears monsters in their own words, without the filter; with NPR, the anointing of monsters as paragons is in the job description.

[Sentath]

2. OK, Maybe

with "four stations in Frederick, a city of 53,000 about 45 miles from both Baltimore and the nation's capital." they do not need another NPR station.

BUT I DO!

I'm sorry if this offends some, but the best things I can say about my local station is that they have good local coverage and they do air All Things Considered.

But thats it.

No talk of the nation, no BBC world rebroadcasts, Blah!

P.S. www.kosu.org

[KamaAina]

3. Those frequencies are for noncommercial *educational* use

Michael Powell and his lackeys at the FCC have redefined "educational" in an Orwellian fashion, to include fundies who wish to educate* me about how I'm going straight to hay-ell 'cuz I hang around with homos 'n' feminists 'n' lib'ruls. </sarcasm>

It would be one thing if a Christian institution of learning, for instance Wake Forest or Baylor, wanted to operate an educational station -- but here we're talking about nationwide networks offering little or no local programming (think Cheap Channel, only with Jay-zuss), just indoctrination 24/7.

Note that, in the Lake Charles case mentioned above, the fundies explicitly desired to knock NPR off the air, rather than just establish a competing station -- in effect, the audio version of a book-burning.

And it's not just radio, either: In Dallas, the main PBS affiliate sold its secondary station to Daystar, basically the Cheap Channel of televangelism, while in Orange County, CA, activists barely beat back a simlar attempt by Daystar to take over the only PBS outlet in the county of three million residents.

Be afraid. Be very afraid. :scared:

</rant>

[madrchsod]

6. daystar is stuck on channel 9408

on dishnet-in between rfd channel and colrs channel, which is urban/ethic related. they didn`t put daystar on the channel numbers 261-264.. thanks charlie and crew for burying it there..now if we could get charlie to move world link and fstv to the "main stream" numbers..

[myomy]

11. Right on rchsod, World link and Free Speech TV are the best thing

about having the DishNetwork.

[Voltaire99]

8. You make a critical point

Note that, in the Lake Charles case mentioned above, the fundies explicitly desired to knock NPR off the air, rather than just establish a competing station -- in effect, the audio version of a book-burning.

Exactly. And nicely put.

This isn't about the fabled "marketplace of ideas," but rather about establishing God's kingdom on earth for our American Taliban.

[madrchsod]

5. it started to happen here

in northern il but the local station has a series of repeaters across northern il. there is one fundie station right next to the schools signal and where i`m at it`s annoying.

[Comadreja]

9. Here they have even allowed Wal Mart as a sponsor

i wonder what all this has to do with huge inheritance received from kroc's widow, the McDonald's fortuness. Perhaps all that loot came with a GOP poison pill condition we will never hear about.

[RedEarth]

10. lol........``they were talking about rock 'n' roll and people climbing ...

lol....poor thing got offended.....good grief, some of these people are unbelieveable...


"Boni Buchanan of Boonsboro, who enjoyed WJTM's Christian programming and finds some public radio material offensive. Recently on an NPR station, she said, ``they were talking about rock 'n' roll and people climbing into the back seat of the car and ... I had to turn it off. I don't want to hear that.''

[Hobarticus]

13. No doubt!

Whatever happened to "just it off if you don't like it"?

[myomy]

12. Can we blame NPR (and PBS) for the Repugs cutting their funding

in the 90's and forcing them into the Big Corporate's belly?

[Kolesar]

14. Their budget was cut from ~$750 million to ~$350 million

Newt Gingerich and his thugs wanted to omit CPB entirely.

I will admit that NPR was a bit left of center in the 1980s, but when they were presenting new ideas and challenging people to think, they had to present left-of-center ideas. Now, NPR is a hobbled centrist identity who cannot even define what its mission is. I feel bad for NPR.

[Atlant]

25. No, but we can certainly blame NPR for their reaction.

They immediately switched to being kissers of the Right-Wing
and Corporate Ass, thus driving off the lefties who were
individually contributing.

They would have been far more honest to just swear off government
funding and the strings that obviously came with it. Yes, they'd
hace been a lot poorer (ala Pacifica), but they'd have maintained
their integrity and intellectual honesty. Instead, they've got no
integrity, no honesty, and no friends.

Poor, poor NPR. What a hole they dug for themselves!

Atlant

[Jacobin]

15. Jesus freaks ran NPR off my dial and we had to raise

$300,000 locally to get a repeater installed to go around the Swaggert/holyroller crap.

The news on NPR has been Hannitized, but I love Fresh Air and three or four other programs which are great.

[0007]

23. I like a lot of stuf on NPR

It sure beat the whore networks.

[supernova]

16. UNC owns all here

UNC broadcasting practically owns the lower end of our dial here:

91.5 - WUNC (Primary Chapel Hill station) They have repeater towers througout the state. No matter where you go, you can find WUNC.

90.7 - UNC-Central (small channel here in durham. Public Radio coming from UNC - Cenral) Sorry, forgot the call letters.

89.7 - Local independent station for classical music buffs. Very good and nice change.

88.7 - WXDU - Duke student radio. Plays an eclectic mix of rock, reggae and world music.

[bleedingheart]

17. Christian Hate Radio has to be the worst thing on the radio

where christians tune in to:

complain about their non-christian peers
talk about how catholics aren't christians
how they are upset with their spouse's addiction to porn
and how jesus gets upset if you drive over the speed limit...

ugh!

[JusticeForAll]

18. What's the beef with NPR

I keep reading how NPR sold out to the right wing.

Can someone provide me a link? Maybe I'm inundateed with rightwing messages all day that I've become numb to political slants....they seem pretty 'fair and balanced' whenever I tune in...

Someone please inform me?

Thanks!

[WoodrowFan]

20. yeah really

I also found NPR to have the best US-based news operatiopn. It's not Radio Pacifica (thank god) but it's not Faux either!

[Kolesar]

21. I was so disgusted with their prowar coverage that I quit my local station

I had been a member since the 1980s, and when I got a membership renewal last year I sent it back with no check and a letter excoriating NPR for not telling the whole story about the war. You will note that that truth of the war story is playing out in the media this month. Check www.salon.com . I told them that I was moving and they could forget their quarterly annual renewal letters that they send to me because I was not sending them my new address.

In the last few weeks, I have been busting on Juan Williams of Morning Edition for his prowar slant. I sent NPR and my affiliates an email. See my thread in the DU Media forum. I actually got a return email from the other local NPR affiliate. Their programming staffer sounded honest.

[lostnfound]

22. Yes you have become numb! No, actually it's usually subtle..

I listen to NPR anytime Pacifica has something on that I'm not interested in. NPR has nice smooth voices and less annoying commercial interruptions. They will present a more liberal tone or more open-minded tone on most social issues. But two areas where they are firmly constrained: 1) corporatism and 2) the "benign" nature of US foreign policy.

1. NPR has occasional stories about corruption or about conflicts between corporations and "activists". But they aren't likely to have a series devoted to the international movement against globalization, or on neoliberalism vs fair trade.
What they don't do: They are unlikely to give airtime to people like Arundhati Roy or Howard Zinn or Noam Chomsky or Joseph Stiglitz -- and if they ever do have them on, they will refer to them as "activists" and frame discussions with progressives as controversial outsiders, outside of mainstream thinking. They could be examining issues of privatization or land giveaways to corporations or the rise of populist movements in Latin America. How about a serious interview with Lula, for example? Wouldn't that be airworthy?

2. The US might make "mistakes" in foreign policy..but the motivations of the US government are assumed to be pure even with much evidence to the contrary.

There are subtle ways to greatly shape the perceptions of the listening public, and NPR's writers make frequent use of them -- unconsciously, perhaps, just by applying "filters" of a mainstream paradigm. Passive vs active voice, and diction or choice of words with various connotations. Like other stations, NPR is generally ready to repeat government propaganda to the public, with little or no challenge.

NPR is more enjoyable, for sure, than commercial stations. But .."the enemy of the best is the good"..and when it comes to helping viewers understand their world economically and politically, NPR continues to leave the public mostly in the dark.

[Atlant]

26. Keep a tally sheet.

For a month, keep a tally sheet.

Each time you hear a commentary by someone from the Heritage Foundation,
the American Enterprise Institute, the Hoover Foundation, or any of the
other Reich Wing think tanks that NPR so frequently turn to for "color",
make a red tally mark. Each time you hear David Frum, make a red tally
mark.

Each time you hear a liberal point of view, make a blue tally mark.

Each time you hear Juan Williams or Cokie Roberts, you decide whether
they were balanced and make a red, blue, or black tally mark.

I guarantee you that, at the end of the month, you won't have needed to
sharpen (or maybe not even USE) your blue pencil once.

BTW, this used not be the case.

Atlant

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

30. Juan Williams and Cokie Roberts.

'Nuff said.

The frightening thing is that it's still "left" of 95% of everthing else.

:scared:

[sendero]

27. Link?

Listen to them. They run commentaries from the American Enterprise Instute, the Heritage Foundation, the National Review on a routine basis. But they cannot seem to find any left-leaning counterpoints to the ridiculous and easily-refuted messages of these so-called "think tanks".

They were as big a cheerleader in the buildup to the Iraq "war" as anyone. Any time given to the other side was just like Fox, let Ritter talk for 30 seconds then spend 20 minutes responding.

To be fair, they have toned it down a little lately, but I rarely listen any more because it is simply too frustrating to hear what are basically the same right wing talking points you hear everywhere else, only in a longer format designed to try to give gravitas to the opinions of the venal, the belligerant and the lame.

I've given them money since 1985 (up until last year). I doubt I'll ever give them another cent. Why pay for propoganda I can get on Fox for free?

[BiggJawn]

28. Juan Williams, Cokie Roberts, Mara Liason...

All cheerleaders for this mis-administration, more concerned with maintaining their "access" than actual accuracy in reporting.

I think there's an unspoken agreement, sort of "OK, we'll let Juan ask Rummy about pulling OBL out of hat in time for the election in exchange for a good piece from Mara on how we're building schools in Basra..."

They're better than the majority of the RW media, but they're no BBC. Not by a damn sight.

And I REALLY dislike the "Oh, god, it's SO hard to make it in the Northeast on only $175,000 a year and ONE Volvo" features, but then, that's just my personal mid-western working-poor bias.

[damnraddem]

19. The Religious Right think they should be the only ones with a say.

I'll support NPR in any and every face-off with the RR. Now, if NPR would only recognize that they really ARE in a cultural battle.

[Dogmudgeon]

24. So when do we start jamming their signals?

That ought to be fun for the pirate brigade!

Imagine breaking into a religious feed and playing a SubG Devival tape. Maybe a lecture or two by Noam Chomsky. Sublime!

--bkl

[TrogL]

29. Glad NPR's fighting back

The RRR's were trying to drive NPR off the air because it aired programs about evolution.