The Power of Radio

This is a very funny story! Florida Republican congresswoman hangs up on President Elect Barak Obama--twice. Why?? It wasn't partisan politics, nope, it was RADIO.

"I thought it was one of the radio stations in South Florida playing an incredible, elaborate, terrific prank on me"

Now, one could debate whether these pranks are appropriate or not. That's another post entirely. But make no mistake about it--what's between the records IS what makes radio special and unique.

MIAMI -- When a man sounding remarkably like President-elect Barack Obama called a Florida congresswoman Wednesday, she assumed it was a crank call.

So Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen hung up. But, the Miami Herald reports, this was no prank.

"I thought it was one of the radio stations in South Florida playing an incredible, elaborate, terrific prank on me," Ros-Lehtinen told the newspaper. "They got Fidel Castro to go along. They've gotten Hugo Chavez and others to fall for their tricks. I said, 'Oh, no, I won't be punked."'

The call came about 1 p.m. Obama congratulated her on her re-election, saying he was looking forward to working with her as the ranking Republican member of the House Foreign Affairs committee, Ros-Lehtinen told the newspaper.

The conversation lasted about a minute when she cut Obama off, telling him she wasn't falling for the hoax and that he was a better impersonator than the guy on Saturday Night Live, she said.

Then Rahm Emanuel, Obama's chief of staff, called the congresswoman to tell her it wasn't a joke. But she hung up on him, too. It took a call from Rep. Howard Berman, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, to persuade Ros-Lehtinen that Obama really did want to talk to her.

When the two finally talked, Ros-Lehtinen said she and Obama had a good conversation and she congratulated him for his victory despite how hard she campaigned for his opponent, Sen. John McCain.

He didn't even blame her for mistaking him for a radio-station prank, she said.

"He laughed a lot, saying in Chicago they do it all the time," Ros-Lehtinen said. "He said, 'I don't blame you for being skeptical."'

Repeated calls by The Associated Press to two office numbers for the congresswoman rang unanswered after hours Wednesday. An e-mail message to an Obama spokeswoman after hours wasn't immediately returned.

SNL Finds Success, Again

Saturday Night Live has gotten rave reviews this political season doing what they have always done, with varying degrees of success, since the mid 1970's. Let's be honest, some seasons have been nothing short of painful. Thus far, this season has been a home run. The writing, the topicality, the guests, and the performances have been excellent. The Palin factor. And the buzz on the show? Off the map. Not to mention the huge live TV audiences and the even larger on-line audiences.

What the show tries to do every week closely resembles what entertainment based radio shows try to do every day--also with varying degrees of success. So much of a shows success starts with the prep and the writing. Typically, winging it is not the best path.

Last night on Charlie Rose (on PBS) SNL's Lorne Michaels, Seth Meyers, Darrell Hammond, Fred Armisen and writer James Downey appeared to talk about the process, the prep, the performance, and, yes, this season's success. Pull the curtain back and get a peek into their process.

Nader's Nuts!

Listen for yourself.



So to follow Nader's twisted logic Don Henley, Rhianna, Faith Hill and every other music artist that benefits from the exposure of being played on the radio should pay rent to "the people." Well then. That might even things out when it comes to the performance royalty battle that is on-going.

Here's the full text of the letter sent to Mr. Limbaugh from Mr. Nader:

Rush Limbaugh
The Rush Limbaugh Show
2 Penn Plaza
New York, NY 10121

Dear Mr. Limbaugh,

The Associated Press reports your new contract with Premiere Radio Networks will enrich you with at least $38 million a year over the next eight years. You are making this money on the public property of the American people for which you pay no rent.

You, Rush Limbaugh, are on welfare.

As you know, the public airwaves belong to the American people. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is supposed to be our trustee in managing this property. The people are the landlords and the radio and TV stations and affiliated companies are the tenants.

The problem is that since the Radio Act of 1927 these corporate tenants have been massively more powerful in Washington, DC than the tens of millions of listeners and viewers. The result has been no payment of rent by the stations for the value of their license to broadcast. You and your company are using the public's valuable property for free. This freeloading on the backs of the American people is called corporate welfare.

It is way past due for the super-rich capitalist--Rush Limbaugh from Cape Girardeau, Missouri--to get himself off big time welfare. It is way past due for Rush Limbaugh as the Kingboy of corporatist radio to set a capitalist example for his peers and pay rent to the American people for the very lucrative use of their property.

You need not wait for the broadcast industry-indentured FCC and Congress to do the right thing. You can lead by paying a voluntary rent--determined by a reputable appraisal organization--for the time you use on the hundreds of stations that carry your words each weekday.

Payment of rent for the use of public airwaves owned by the American people is the conservative position. Real conservatives oppose corporate welfare. Real corporatists feed voraciously from hundreds of billions of dollars in corporate welfare gushing out of Washington, DC yearly.

Whose side are you on? Freeloading? Or paying rent for the public property you have been using free for many years?

I look forward to your response.

Sincerely yours,

Ralph Nader

When Fair is Anything But...Fair

The Fairness Doctrine in my view should not be reinstated. Period. This is an issue I feel very strongly about. If the goal is to destroy highly opinionated (and yes, one-sided) content on radio stations, this should do the trick. Why is this necessary?

I believe:

• Let the free market decide what programming gets on the air
• Reinstatement would be detrimental to both the left and the right
• With few exceptions, programming decisions are apolitical
• Bottom line managers would air bird calls if it would be profitable-and they would be right to do so
• It could effectively hasten the death of opinionated talk radio
• The financial burden of managing "fairness" could prove to be a hardship for an industry that can't afford it
• Does fairness apply to politics only? Will atheists demand equal time on religious stations? Will anarchists demand equal time on stations that talk about law and order? Will ethnic stations be forced to air other ethnic views? How fair is fair?
• What would be the penalty for lack of fairness? License revocation? Fines?
  

Last I checked, life isn't always fair. And that's OK. I suggest to those who feel slighted by "lack of access" create better and more compelling programming. Prove you can attract an audience and the airtime will be yours. I speak from first hand experience having hired and managed talk talent from both sides of the political spectrum. Make no mistake about it--this push is 100% political. It's not about talent, audience satisfaction, revenue, industry stability and growth, and most all it's not about fair. Simply put, this is about silencing political opponents.

This blog is not about politics and never will be until the government starts hinting that programming needs to start conforming to some bureaucratic ideal.

I have posted a new poll on this issue and as always invite your opinions.