Fcc Proposals Could Silence Christian Radio Stations !

While you bring up some good points I myself am unsure if this helps or hurts Christian programming in general and local churches. If this means it will open up local radio to more local ministries then it would probably be a good thing.

OTOH if the costs of radio are prohibitive locally and this change means the near entire end of Christian programming then this seems horrible.

For example, I used to listen to Moody radio a lot years ago, especially Music Through the Night. So it sounds like this could fall either way, as I'm sure overnight radio would probably not be affected but might open up day programming to more local ministries. But losing Moody entirely because it couldn't compete with commercial ad driven radio? That would be horrible.

I resist the urge to mention what type of Christian programming might remain, but let's just say that instead of ad driven appeals there would be numerous heart jabbing appeals to save the show by planting seeds of money regardless of the fruit bearing likelihood. ;)
 
After skimming over the FCC report I still haven't formed an opinion on their proposals. The world of broadcasting has changed since the days of the fairness doctrine. This website is one example of the changing face of communications. Some of their ideas seem to have merit, but I'm not sure the proposal is effective for today's mass media. Between satellite, cable and internet the local stations have more to worry about than the broadcast station a few miles away. If enough of the public likes what they hear the station will be able to attract advertisers and survive; if the station is not meeting the needs of its community it will probably not be on the air too long. With internet distribution of broadcast signals I'm not sure the community can be limited to a specific geographic area anymore.
 
I understand both sides of the story here. The thing is that broadcast radio and TV for that matter are uniquely suited for local interest programming.

The argument is that Radio is too expensive. The properties need to make lots of money to pay for themselves. IMHO this is a load of hogwash! Had the FCC not relaxed the ownership rules to the point that one company can own half the radio stations in one market, this would not have been an issue. The price of the properties have been inflated because major media companies are snapping up real estate to have mega-networks and distribution for their national programs with local fascias in order to extract the most amount of money they can out of the market.

Had the 7-7-7 rule remained intact, no one company could ever do this and at the same time the demand for frequency would have been curbed and the bidding of these properties to sky-high unreachable proportions and ludicrous prices essentially making it impossible for the local entrepreneur would never have happened!

A little story...
In the late 60's (very late in radio terms) a local man by the name of Frank Wood founded a little radio station at 102.7FM because he wanted a classical radio station in this town. Not because he wanted to make a lot of money, but because he wanted to program that kind of music and hear it. At the time it was still possible for one man to just start a commercial radio station like that.

Legend goes that his kids, Frank Jr and Robin talked their father into allowing them to play some real album rock, the kind of rock that they and their friends listened to, after school.

By the time I started listening to this radio station in the mid 70s, it was legendary! Fabulous album rock programmed locally. Not just what was popular, but what was good. New stuff you could not hear anywhere else emanated from this great station! Robin still DJed and she was a great voice. Frank Jr. was still there but more in the shadows. Frank Sr. had his Sunday classical music radio show.

This station spawned the gag-sponsor "Brute Force Cybernetics" (the company that creates a need and then fills it). They had gag ads that are still talked about today. The Negative Calorie Cookie, Plummet Mall (the best deals in town are under ground), annual coverage of the Fools Day Parade (that didn't exist) and coverage of the Ohio River Submarine Races. They also spawned what became "Riverfest". The station threw a big bash and had fireworks timed to music played of the radio station on its 10th anniversary labor day in 1977. At the time that was unheard of. After a 30 minute fireworks show viewed by 250,000 people, the city joined in and by the following year it was Riverfest, a city-sponsored annual event that survives 31 years lated and attended by over 500,000 people each year.

The station was never a huge money-maker, but it paid the bills and it afforded the Woods a decent profit. That really was all they wanted. It had a sizeable audience, but that was also secondary to the idea of programming a radio station that local citizens wanted to give their community.

By the early 80s, the FCC had relaxed its ownership caps on radio stations. WEBN was bought by Jacor which eventually (through buy-outs, mergers and acquisitions became Clear Channel). When the station was sold, Frank Sr, apologized on air for selling out, but he was made an offer he absolutely couldn't refuse.

The first thing to go was Frank's show. They tried a bit of classical music in the morning, but it was some one who had no idea what he was playing and you could tell. Audience vanished. Within a year the station was TRASHED! Everything that made that station a great local Establishment was gone. Within 5 years, there was nothing left of it. The ratings went down slightly, but Jacor/Clear Channel now owned half the city's radio stations so they DIDN'T CARE! They were making money and that is all they cared about. Localism was just a name-plate. This station became the same as all its sister stations with slightly different music. The same DJs were heard on all the sister stations.

This is just one example of 5 I can think of off the top of my head just in this city.

The FCC is trying to undo some of that, but until it reinstates its ownership caps, the entry price is just too high for local entrepreneurs and since the property is so expensive, leasing out air time is equally expensive keeping out local voices that cannot afford the inflated prices!

There was and still is a very good reason for VERY strict ownership caps on broadcast media!

See ya
Tony
 
I agree with you 100% I am here in the Canton/Cleveland/Akron Ohio area and clear channel owns most of the area...they even went so far as to close the Canton studios and move them to I think Akron Im sure to save more money. When I lived in Atlanta (which clear channel & Cox have ruined) I used to say Ohio was a great radio state but now that I'm back I am yearning for my Sirus...the advertsing (which I don't listen to) is sickening. The really sad part is radio was my chosen career but since everything is so automated there are no jobs so I just had to give up on it.
 
The argument is that Radio is too expensive. The properties need to make lots of money to pay for themselves. IMHO this is a load of hogwash! Had the FCC not relaxed the ownership rules to the point that one company can own half the radio stations in one market, this would not have been an issue. The price of the properties have been inflated because major media companies are snapping up real estate to have mega-networks and distribution for their national programs with local fascias in order to extract the most amount of money they can out of the market.

I would like to nitpick on that point. I know of a medium power radio station in Northwest Indiana across the border from Chicago that's about as old as AM radio itself. Long story short after many years of financial struggles it was beginning to rebound with all local programming geared mostly towards local Indiana political issues but the competition with nearby Chicago syndicated stations proved too much to attract sufficient ad revenues.

One of the station owners said repeatedly on air that if ad revenues didn't increase it too would need to go syndication. It in fact did, but made the error of going with Greenstone Media, which is a now failed womens' issues network that never got popular. So after about a year of re-runs of that programming they started to try to integrate more local programming back into the schedule.


Local on air talent is not an insignificant cost. That's not even counting optional expenses such as promotional contests, a news department, or upgrading antique equipment. These costs are indeed minimized when a station is little more than a re-transmitter for a national feed, assuming there's an actual national market for such programming.

So without expounding further I don't feel that merely saying some, most, or all of a station must be local origination is itself a cure to anything, though I do feel that the ownership rules change was a huge anti-competitive disaster.

The value of broadcast radio itself is diminishing by the day and it's only real advantage is there's a receiver in nearly every vehicle sold, though now satellite radio and MP3 player interfaces are becoming closer to being standard equipment as well. And I argue that within 15 years a live internet feed to moving vehicles will not be uncommon as well.

So what's a radio station worth anymore? Not much if it has no market niche and struggles to turn a profit or just break even.


 
I can see issues of a small station competing with a large market station. But lets not count radio out just yet.

I don't have the exact numbers, but about 90% of people on the road are listening to terrestrial radio. No CDs. Not MP3s, not Sirius, not XM. The number has been pretty steady for the last two decades. There was a slight down-turn with satellite radio, but nowhere near as dramatic as some would have you belive.

I need to find the audience numbers of people who listen at home. It's quite surprising how high the number is. (this is a relative term. -- it's low, but much higher that one would imagine.)

See ya
Tony
 
I think examining any proposed FCC rules carefully is important because it's clear the agency has made some pretty bad decisions in the past 10-to-20 years. But I also bristle at the hysteria that can be whipped up by broadcasters - religious or otherwise - who are more concerned with their bottom line that with serving the public. Regulation of broadcasting was setup in the 1920's and 30's with a recognition that the broadcast airwaves are a limited resource that belong the the public, and no private group or company should be allowed to have a monopoly on them. That led to rules allocating the broadcast spectrum so that all parts of the country could have at least a few local stations, and regulations designed to make sure the local stations provided some local content and were not just a repeater for programming sent from distant cities. It also led to ideas like the "fairness doctrine," which was intended to make sure that if your local broadcaster decided to take-up a political cause using the public airways he was assigned, he would have to give you the opportunity to voice an opposing opinion on those airwaves if you disagreed. In recent years, the FCC has relaxed or eliminated many of those rules. As a result, many small towns that once had local radio stations with their own news departments now have stations that just mix local commercials with a national satellite feed and little or no other local content. And TV stations can feel free to do political commentary (although few do) without giving air time to opposing points of view. Backers of the relaxed rules point to satellite radio/TV and the internet as new competitors for broadcasting, making localism and fairness rules less important. But for the most part, satellite is controlled by the same corporations that control broadcasting, and the internet does not (yet) have the reach that local broadcasting has. I don't want to see anyone forced out of business, but I think a move back to more local programming and making the airwaves more accessible for all citizens would be a move in the right direction. And I'm still foolish enough to believe that it might even improve the competitive position of many broadcast stations.
 
I want to add that I'm not necessarily in favor of all the proposed rules, as I understand that particularly in small towns, the cost of having local programming or staffing on a 24/7 basis could be prohibitive (for a ministry OR a business). On the other hand, it seems as if many people agree that there has been too much consolidation, both commercial and non-profit. So why not gradually return to more local ownership and licensing? If a local ministry was able to acquire a station, they would have the option of using national network(s) but with local control, they would be able to customize the station to suit their own community. And if or when ratings/financial support improved, the station would then be able to add local programming if desired.

On the other hand, particularly for the big commercial radio operators, in big cities, what would be the harm of requiring at least one person be in the office and at the least, capable of going on air in case of emergency, at all times? Not one person per station, but one per "cluster" of stations. Then in smaller markets, allow this requirement to be met by having an employee on call, perhaps, rather than in the building full time.
 

I can see issues of a small station competing with a large market station. But lets not count radio out just yet.

I just received a new set of speakers by mail today so I dug out an old receiver to see how they sound. I scrolled up & down the dial and the few stations that had anything I cared to listen to exhibited some of the same behavior that drove me away from broadcast radio in the first place.

Most owned by Clear Channel, drive time format meaning between songs there was constant interruption like traffic, plugs for the local TV news, live remotes, and one or two ad spots of course. The Christian stations are on the lower end of the dial here and my antenna consisted of speaker wire. So in other words the stations with the strongest signals were the ones I detest. :rolleyes:

I might mention though that the $25 a pair 3 way indoor/ outdoor speakers made by Dual (tell me THAT ain't confusing) sounded great for general use. I mention this as a reminder of how technology has vastly improved over the years but if the content isn't there what good is it?

 
Reality, Christian Radio has eaten up educational FM spectrum, unnecessarily. Its uncontrolled proliferation has been abused. There are no frequencies available for new radio stations in the education spectrum because of Christian Radio stations.

Right now, I can find the exact same program from 5 different sources broadcasting from within the present spectrum at my geographical location. It's absolutely absurd and financially irresponsible! Furthermore, there are people on payrolls who don't need to be; greed.

Secondly, over lapping Christian Radio stations pollute the environment; excessive over lapping of stations consume unnecessary energy which is generated, in part, by coal adds to global warming. I don't think for one minute God's plan includes irresponsible pollution and global warming in His name.

Christian Radio stations must be reduced to allow other sources of educational programming (universities, colleges, bilingual, etc.) and for the environment's sake.
 
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Secondly, over lapping Christian Radio stations pollute the environment; excessive over lapping of stations consume unnecessary energy which is generated, in part, by coal adds to global warming. I don't think for one minute God's plan includes irresponsible pollution and global warming in His name.

ROTF

So you're saying the value of Christian radio isn't worth the electricity needed to transmit & receive the signal? :D
 

Secondly, over lapping Christian Radio stations pollute the environment; excessive over lapping of stations consume unnecessary energy which is generated, in part, by coal adds to global warming. I don't think for one minute God's plan includes irresponsible pollution and global warming in His name.

ROTF

So you're saying the value of Christian radio isn't worth the electricity needed to transmit & receive the signal? :D

That point is as big a stretch as those saying that these proposed FCC orders are some conspiratorial attack on Christian radio.

However, Bradley does have a point that Christian radio stations are overrepresented on the non-commercial educational band (87.9-91.9 MHz). I don't think abusing the FCC to force college radio and NPR stations off the air is how Jesus would want the gospel spread. - http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/15/national/15RADI.html?todaysheadlin
 
In my neck of the woods the only educational institution that broadcasts is a 100,000 watt NPR affiliate owned by my employer--a state university. Without Christian radio nothing would be around it on the FM radio dial.

Since the Christian radio stations in my area are listener-supported the market has a way of controlling the number of stations. In fact, one switched to a bluegrass format about 2 years ago.

Surprisingly most of the stations have different formats--gospel, Christian contemporary, Christian hit radio, praise & worship or a mix. Even the station that switched to bluegrass has some Christian bluegrass in its music rotation. As wi-fi and satellite radio become more common I think there will be plenty of listening choices for everyone.
 
Listening choice is not the issue. Localism is. Terrestrial radio spectrul is licensed to the station owners to SERVE THE PUBLIC INTEREST in that area. This is the point. the whole reason for the FCC action is to make sure that some one doesn't "buy out" spectrum in a market, then just puts up a national repeater that could be done with satellite radio.

See ya
Tony
 
"However, Bradley does have a point that Christian radio stations are overrepresented on the non-commercial educational band (87.9-91.9 MHz). I don't think abusing the FCC to force college radio and NPR stations off the air is how Jesus would want the gospel spread."

I respectfully disagree and here's why.

I live right where the Portland, Oregon and the Seattle, Washington radio marketing areas come together. I live on a hill about 80 miles from Portland and 90 miles from Seattle. I have been studying the feasibility of building a Christian radio station that broadcasts to a 40 mile radius centered in Olympia, WA for several years. The reason I have been following through on that study is that there just isn't that much of a representation for Christian music in the area.

Forgive me for taking up so much space here but the following is a list of radio stations in the Seattle marketing area, each station's owner, and each station's format (sorted by format). This is as of 5/20/2008.

1330 AM - KGRG - Green River Community College - (College) Rock: Alternative
90.1 FM - KUPS - Green River Community College - (College) Rock: Alternative
90.9 FM - KVTI - Clover Park Technical College - (College) Rock: T40 Mainstream
91.3 FM - KBCS - Bellevue Community College - (College) Variety
89.3 FM - KASB - Bellevue School District - (High School) Rock: Alternative
88.9 FM - KMIH - Mercer Island School District - (High School) Rock: Dance
89.5 FM - KNHC - Seattle Public Schools - (High School) Rock: Dance
89.9 FM - KGHP - Peninsula School District - (High School) Variety
880 AM - KIXI - Sandusky Radio - Adult Standards
1300 AM - KKOL - Disney / ABC Radio - Children's
1050 AM - KBLE - Sacred Heart Radio - Christian: Catholic Ministries, Talk
1590 AM - KLFE - Salem Communications - Christian: Ministries, Talk
1490 AM - KBRO - Seattle Streaming Media LLC - Christian: Spanish
1560 AM - KZIZ - Seattle Medium - Christian: Urban Gospel
820 AM - KGNW - Salem Communications - Christian: Ministries, Talk
1460 AM - KARR - Family Radio - Christian: Ministries, Talk
105.3 FM - KCMS - Crista Ministries - Christian: Contemporary Christian Music
630 AM - KCIS - Crista Ministries - Christian: Music, Ministries
91.8 FM - KING - Classic Radio, Inc. - Classical
94.1 FM - KMPS - CBS Radio - Country
102.9 FM - KNBQ - Clear Channel - Country
100.7 FM - KKWF - Entercom - Country
98.9 FM - KWJZ - Sandusky Radio - Jazz
1450 AM - KWYZ - Radio Hancook, Inc. - Korean
1540 AM - KXPA - Multicultural Radio Broadcasting - Multicultural Radio
770 AM - KTTH - Bonneville - News and/or Talk
710 AM - KIRO - Bonneville / Entercom - News and/or Talk
1090 AM - KPTK - CBS Radio - News and/or Talk
1180 AM - KLAY - Clay Frank Huntington - News and/or Talk
1150 AM - KKNW - CNN Radio - News and/or Talk
570 AM - KVI - Fisher Communications - News and/or Talk
1000 AM - KOMO - Fisher Communications - News and/or Talk
1400 AM - KITZ - KITZ Radio, Inc. - News and/or Talk
90.7 FM - KSER - KSER Foundation - News and/or Talk
91.7 FM - KXOT - Public Radio Capital - NPR
94.9 FM - KUOW - University of Washington - NPR
88.5 FM - KPLU - Pacific Lutheran University - NPR, Jazz
99.3 FM - KDDS - Bustos Media - Regional Mexican
1210 AM - KTBK - Bustos Media - Regional Mexican
1360 AM - KKMO - Tron Do-run Intelli - Regional Mexican
107.7 FM - KNDD - Entercom - Rock: "Modern Rock"
103.7 FM - KMTT - Entercom - Rock: "Adult Alternative"
96.1 FM - KXXO - 3 Cities - Rock: "Adult Contemporary"
106.9 FM - KWRM - Sandusky Radio - Rock: "Adult Contemporary"
96.5 FM - KJAQ - CBS Radio - Rock: "Adult Hits"
90.3 FM - KEXP - University of Washington - Rock: "Alternative Rock", NPR
95.7 FM - KJR - Clear Channel - Rock: "Classic Hits"
92.9 FM - KISM - Saga Communications - Rock: "Classic Hits"
97.3 FM - KBSG - Bonneville - Rock: "Classic Hits"
97.7 FM - KFMY - South Sound Broadcasting - Rock: "Classic Hits"
102.5 FM - KZOK - CBS Radio - Rock: "Classic Rock"
104.9 FM - KFNK - Clear Channel - Rock: "Heavy Metal"
99.9 FM - KISW - Entercom - Rock: "Heavy Metal"
93.3 FM - KUBE - Clear Channel - Rock: "Rhythmic Adult Contemporary"
101.5 FM - KPLZ - Fisher Communications -
Rock: "Rhythmic Adult Contemporary"
92.5 FM - KQMV - Sandusky Radio -
Rock: "Rhythmic Adult Contemporary"
106.1 FM - KBKS - CBS Radio - Rock: "Top 40 Mainstream"
1420 AM - KRIZ - Seattle Medium - Rock: "Urban Contemporary"
1620 AM - KYIZ - Seattle Medium - Rock: "Urban Contemporary"
850 AM - KHHO - Clear Channel - Sports
950 AM - KJR - Clear Channel - Sports
1380 AM - KRKO - S-R Broadcasting - Sports

Now when you put all of that in a spreadsheet and sort it by owner and then sort it by format and study the results of each sort, I can draw a few different conclusions. Granted I am partial to Christian radio, but there is no way that I can draw the conclusion that Christian Radio is trying to crowd out NPR or the school stations. When I scan the dial, I get four Christian stations (one local, three satelator), one local college station, four NPR stations, four news stations, two Spanish stations, three country stations and too many rock stations to count!

Anyway, my responsive point is that NPR is far more alive and well than they let on. For the New York Times to take NPR's side that Christian Radio should be held at bay when competing for the opportunity to broadcast their point of view smells of hypocrisy to me. Each entity should be given equal opportunity to bid for and purchase the bandwidth that they would like to pursue. Personally, I don't care if NPR buys up all of Entercom's stations - but don't try to dissuade the opportunity for Christian radio to do the same. After all, are we talking about "equal rights" or "special rights?"

I didn't exactly want to spend my Tuesday night putting all of that together but I thought it necessary. Sorry I took so much space.


 
I understand what all of you are saying, but that's in your market, not necessarily else where.

In mine, it's simply over saturated and there's no more spectrum available.

We have universities, colleges in the area that can't apply for regular broadcast power licensing because there isn't any spectrum available. We have a new UC, they can't have a station. NPR coverage is very spotty, because there's no spectrum left.

God intends for all of us to respect and listen to one another. How can we, when Christian Radio has hoarded almost all of the spectrum?

Gene, the Seattle/Tacoma Metro has 19 Christian Stations, Portland 8 Christian Stations, Total: 27 Christian Stations in the shared markets, in both the 'Commercial' and 'Ed Band' (source: ChristianRadio.com). There may be more, and I'm sure there are, but I'm not familiar with the adjacent communities in relationship to the metro(s). With such saturation and status as Non-Profit/Charity/Church, evading taxes, these stations are, without question, for someone's profit. Otherwise, there just wouldn't be so many.

Regarding local market representation (vs Satellite/Repeater/Translator) services in the 'Education,' and 'Commercial' bands, an uneducated people are a hindrance and a danger to society; Ignorance is bliss.

Those of you who reside in the 'Bible Belt' are exposed to a broad variety of Christian music. Here, we're only given K-Love and Family Radio. After a while, it becomes completely redundant, boring, and uninspiring. Why? Because it is only 2 perspectives, served up on white bread (a reference to a lack of cultural diversity).

Furthermore, understand — not everyone is a Christian, and they do not share the same philosophy.

How many differing faiths and churches are there in the world? (rhetorical; more than one). K-Love and Family Radio both have specific theological agendas; consider they may not always be yours or mine.

The 'Ed Band' was created for diverse education, not just Christian. It's been abused, without question. It is clearly time to reexamine where we are and see if we can do better, for everyone's sake. After all, we live in a democracy... let's act like one.

No one is picking on Christian Radio... Simple fact, there are just too many redundancies for single service, servicing one demographical purpose, with no room for anyone else. And that runs completely counter to what we all believe in... Freedom of speech, expression, and religion.
 
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This Is Disturbing Behavior - Is This Truly Christian?

GeorgeLV sited this article and it is a must read...

Religious and Public Stations Battle for Share of Radio Dial

The New York Times
By BLAINE HARDEN
Published: September 15, 2002

The Rev. Don Wildmon, founding chairman of a mushrooming network of Christian radio stations, does not like National Public Radio.

''He detests the news that the public gets through NPR and believes it is slanted from a distinctly liberal and secular perspective,'' said Patrick Vaughn, general counsel for Mr. Wildmon's American Family Radio.

Here in Lake Charles, American Family Radio has silenced what its boss detests.

It knocked two NPR affiliate stations off the local airwaves last year, transforming this southwest Louisiana community of 95,000 people into the most populous place in the country where ''All Things Considered'' cannot be heard.

In place of that program -- and ''Morning Edition,'' ''Car Talk'' and a local Cajun program called ''Bonjour Louisiana'' -- listeners now find ''Home School Heartbeat,'' ''The Phyllis Schlafly Report'' and the conservative evangelical musings of Mr. Wildmon, whose network broadcasts from Tupelo, Miss.

The Christian stations routed NPR in Lake Charles under a federal law that allows noncommercial broadcasters with licenses for full-power stations to push out those with weaker signals -- the equivalent of the varsity team kicking the freshmen out of the gym.

This is happening all over the country. The losers are so-called translator stations, low-budget operations that retransmit the signals of bigger, distant stations. The Federal Communications Commission considers them squatters on the far left side of the FM dial, and anyone who is granted a full-power license can legally run them out of town.

Religious broadcasters have done this to public radio stations in Oregon and Indiana, too, and many large-market public radio stations, like WBEZ in Chicago, complain that new noncommercial stations, most of them religious, are stepping on the signal at the edge of their transmission areas.

Stations are scrambling for these frequencies at a time of rapid growth in the national NPR audience and even faster growth in religious networks like American Family Radio. It owns 194 stations, has 18 affiliates and has applications for hundreds more pending with the F.C.C.

''The noncommercial band is getting very, very crowded, and there just is not a lot of room for new stations in desirable areas,'' said Robert Unmacht, a Nashville-based radio consultant. ''The competition is fierce, and the Reverend Wildmon is especially hard-nosed. His people are very good at what they do.''

Public radio is belatedly fighting back. Last year, a national nonprofit organization was set up to fend off the new hardball competition. Called Public Radio Capital, it raises money through tax-exempt bonds to help local public stations end their reliance on translators and buy full-power stations.

Public Radio Capital, created with seed money from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a federally financed agency, has since helped public radio stations in Chicago, Denver, Nashville and Tacoma, Wash., to outbid their competition.

In Tacoma, the organization bought a noncommercial FM station from a local technical college for $5 million. Money to operate the station will come from major public stations in the area.

''Until recently, public radio had been completely dependent on local initiative to protect its signal and acquire new stations,'' said Marc Hand, the managing director of Public Radio Capital, which is based in Denver. ''A lot of times, local radio is not aware of how to compete. We are stepping in when we can to help.''

For many of NPR's 273 member organizations, the legal and administrative costs of competing against religious broadcasters are sponging up millions of dollars that they might otherwise spend on news and other local programming.

''It is, like, nuts,'' said Torey Malatia, general manager of WBEZ, which has the country's third-largest public-radio audience. ''Starting about four years ago we realized that if we didn't learn how to fight back, our coverage area would effectively shrink by a million people.''

As NPR itself acknowledges, religious broadcasters are often far better prepared for the radio wars. ''They have employed a long-term strategy, where we have failed to do that,'' said Dana Davis Rehm, vice president for member and program services at NPR in Washington.

The two public radio stations heard in Lake Charles, for example, were caught napping as American Family Radio maneuvered over several years to bump them off the air.

Those college-based public stations, one in nearby Lafayette, La., and the other just across the Louisiana border in Beaumont, Tex., could have applied for F.C.C. licenses granting them the right to build and operate full-power stations in Lake Charles. Instead, like many public radio stations, they chose to operate on the cheap, using translators.

Translator-based stations have given American Family Radio the opening it needs to grab space on the noncommercial FM dial between 88.1 and 91.9 megahertz.

As early as 1997, the network filed applications with the F.C.C., declaring its intention to build two full-powered stations that would step on the two translator-based public radio signals in Lake Charles. But KRVS in Lafayette and KVLU in Beaumont did not react and apply for full-power stations of their own.

''NPR people should really be embarrassed,'' said Mr. Vaughn, the lawyer for American Family Radio. ''They knew for years that we had applied, and they didn't do anything about it. NPR people were drawing money out of the community in the form of pledge support, but they didn't bother to apply for a full-power station. It is not our fault.''

Religious broadcasters are snapping up most noncommercial stations when they come on the market. In the first two quarters of 2002, there were 14 sales of noncommercial stations. Of those, public radio groups bought only two.

Competition between religious and public radio stations is not always acrimonious. Competitors have amicably divided a contested frequency in some cases by agreeing to use directional antennas that limit interference. Here in Lake Charles, local rage at the loss of all access to NPR has fueled a yearlong effort to bring back public radio.

''What Wildmon has done to the public broadcasting band is try to eat it all,'' said Robert W. McGill, 74, an NPR devotee and a retired chemist.

Mr. Wildmon, who became well known in the 1970's when he led national campaigns against sex and violence on television, declined to be interviewed.

Mr. Vaughn, the general counsel for American Family Radio, acknowledged that the network was aware that its two new stations would be ''blocking out'' public radio in Lake Charles. But, he added, ''We were in no way targeting it.''

Like many religious networks, American Family Radio has little local content; its stations rely instead on satellite feeds from the home office in Tupelo. Radio industry analysts agree that public stations usually carry more local news and offer programs more closely tied to the communities they serve.

More than a year after American Family Radio went on the air here, its two stations (one carries what it calls Christian contemporary programming, the other what it calls traditional gospel) have just one local employee. Elizabeth Arrington, 21, the station manager, works in a remodeled house on the edge of town. Its broadcast studio is an empty room, although Mrs. Arrington said radio equipment would arrive soon.

In all likelihood, before American Family Radio gets around to local broadcasts in Lake Charles, public radio will be back on the air here.

A $309,000 antenna, nearing completion about 30 miles west of town, will let people here pick up KRVS, the NPR affiliate in Lafayette.

Sixty percent of the money for the antenna came from a Commerce Department grant. The rest came from the city and parish governments, as well as from private local contributions. The primary local mover in raising money was Carolyn Woosley, a financial planner and playwright.

''We lost access to a treasure that we all pay for with our tax dollars, and we got mad,'' Ms. Woosley said. ''We decided you don't have to like NPR in this town, but you are going to have to make room for it.''


Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
 
Christian Radio stations must be reduced to allow other sources of educational programming (universities, colleges, bilingual, etc.) and for the environment's sake.

I wouldn't say reduce, but for crying out loud, limit it please! Reach FM (ministry of Calvary Chapel in Fort Lauderdale, FL) has dozens of translators in my area that could've been BETTER used for low power FM. But instead, wasted energy.
 

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