NO MORE FRAIZER GLENN MILLER RADIO ADS

The Missouri Broadcasters Association issued a statement this evening on the on-going battle with hate-monger and supposed "write-in" U.S. Senate candidate Fraizer Glenn Miller. Miller was buying radio ads on Missouri radio stations. He was claiming that since he was a U.S. Senate candidate that the radio stations had to sell him ad time.

MBA and Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster filed a request for a declaratory ruling from the FCC on the matter.

"On Friday, June 18, 2010, the Missouri Broadcasters Association was advised by telephone that the FCC’s response to its petition would be in the form of informal, oral advice. The advice was received from the Media Bureau’s Policy Division staff. The advice was that, on the facts and pleading submitted by all parties, including Mr. Miller, it would not be unreasonable for Missouri broadcasting stations to determine that Miller is not a bona fide write-in candidate and therefore, Missouri broadcasters may deny him access to broadcast their stations.

This advice is an affirmation of the position taken by the MBA, Attorney General Koster and Zimmer Broadcasting and the FCC, prior to the filing of our petition. It confirms that a broadcaster who decides that Miller has not established himself to be a bona fide write-in candidate would not be acting unreasonably. Therefore, in our view, a Missouri broadcaster would not be held liable for having denied access retroactively.

The MBA continues to believe that Mr. Miller’s demands for mandatory access were an abuse of the privilege contained in the Communications Act for bona fide candidates. The Communications Act creates a special mandatory-access rule only for federal candidates, carefully limited to party nominees and those who are “bona fide,” or active and credible in the circumstances of the particular race. This result validates the MBA’s position in its petition and reply comments that Miller has not established himself to be a bona fide candidate. Miller is merely attempting to use broadcasters as a megaphone for his message, and broadcasters are not required to allow themselves to be used as a purveyor of personal views merely upon the claim of candidacy for federal office."

CAN I GET AN AMEN AND A HALLELUJAH, BROTHERS AND SISTER!!!

WASN'T MY GENERATION SUPPOSED TO CHANGE RADIO FOR THE BETTER?

Once again, I've decided to travel back into time to my SMSU days. I've been reflective lately on all the hope and promise of those days that has been largely stomped on the repressive Ozarks culture.

Let's look at one facet of my media career, which is radio. As a media major, I studied newspaper, radio and television. I had a particular interest in radio. Part of this came from the simple fact that i was always interested in improving the local radio scene. I used to do some DXing late at night as a kid and I felt that many of the local radio station needed to be more like the major market stations. It was my destiny to try to change things around here, especially KWLT FM 92 and KJEL in Lebanon.

Another thing that energized my interest in radio, was an article in Rolling Stone about college radio was becoming a big influence in the music world. Rolling Stone and Billboard both had college rock charts. According to Rolling Stone, the young people in college radio were going to revitalize radio with their creativity and free-form programming.

The only radio stations in Springfield offering internships were KTTS, KTXR and KSMU. Rumor has it one of the rock stations in town stopped offering internships because they didn't want any college kids telling people about rampant cocaine use by the staff. I took an internship at KSMU, because they allowed students to program their own music on the Midnight Snack show. I used to listen to the Midnight Snack in Lebanon. It was there that I first fell in love with the Sex Pistols, Ramones and the various paisley underground bands.

College radio eventually beat mainstream radio to probably the greatest band of the 90's, Nirvana. Springfield even had a radio station playing college rock, Z105 the Planet. Yes, it looked liked my generation (now dubbed Generation X by the press). SO WHAT HAPPENED???

Several factors played into our lack of power in 2010. The major explanation goes back to the Telecom Act of 1996, which opened the door for the large radio corporations like Clear Channel, Cumulus, Journal and Citadel. Here is hoping the FCC reverses all this consolidation soon. With consolidation, most creative program directors lost their power in favor on PD for the whole country. Sadly, most of these companies adapted the attitude that "only country and talk are profitable in the post 9-11 society" and many alternative station were changed to something else. So then, why has radio lost so much money and listeners in the past few years? Could it be you are driving away listeners with that talk and country garbage?

A major problem that isn't talked about is the animosity and resistance faced us Generation X-college-radio-trained-talent from an element of white-conservative-Baby Boomers, who were in management, not just in radio but other media. These balding, fat middle aged guys wanted to keep us out of the industry. They also did like the changes we wanted to make. A Rolling Stone article once gave a name to a name to a notorious alternative rock radio destroyer, Randy Michaels of Jacor. I should also point out that Jacor (later engulfed by Clear Channel) owned the Premier Radio, which produces such garbage as Rush Limbaugh, Dr. Laura and Delilah. Do you see a pattern here?

However, there is a nostalgia for the college radio era and it's music. A friend of mine works at a book and music store. He has noticed people in their 40s buying the "college rock" of the 80s and 90s. Two blogs, Spinning Indie and Slicing Eyeballs, discuss both old and new college rock.

There is hope that there could be a turn around in the radio industry and us Generation X college radio slackers will save the industry from the suit wearing, Rush lovers in the big corporations. We are radio's only hope.

Of course, opinions like these are why I'm considered Super Villain of the Ozarks!!! Mwu-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

ED SULLIVAN OFFENDED OZARKERS IN 1960

My twin brother/roommate has been working on a novel for several years now. The novel takes place in a small southwest Missouri town in the 50's and early 60's. He spends his off hours at the Springfield Library Center looking at old Springfield Daily News and Springfield News Leader & Press from the 50's and early 60's. I sometimes go with him.

I had remarked that I had seen very few of the "typical" anti-media/entertainment letters that have become so prevalent in the News Leader over the years. Then we came across a several letters in the March 1960 Sunday News Leaders (they only ran letters on Sunday back then - Thank God) having to do with "vulgarity" on the February 21st Ed Sullivan program.

I should note that the first letter writer mentioned "not hearing" Jack Parr's "offensive" joke (That is because it was edited out before the broadcast, dummy), but was shocked by the "vulgarity" that was "set to music" on the Ed Sullivan Show. She felt the FCC should step in and the Ed Sullivan Show should be taken off the air. Follow up letter writers said they had not seen the act not the Ed Sullivan Show, but they felt that the FCC and the TV stations should take the Ed Sullivan Show off the air. DOESN'T THIS SOUND LIKE EVERY STUPID LETTER IN THE NEWS LEADER? Just substitute The Simpsons, Roseanne, Twin Peaks, Beavis & Butthead, Ellen, Friends, Seinfeld, David Letterman and MTV for The Ed Sullivan Show and you have about any letter that has ran in the News Leader in the past 20 years.

I found a website that list the guest for each Ed Sullivan Show. I guessing that the Ozarkers were offended by (Are you ready for this?) ballet dancing choreographed by Jerome Robbins. Maybe the tights were exposing too much or Ozarkers resented Sullivan for "puttin on them thar fancy toe daincers in thar underwar instayed of good daincin like dey have on the Ozark's Jubilee."

The people who wrote those letters probably were the parents of the people who wrote the anti-Simpson letters and anti-Normal Heart letters and they are the grandparents of people who complain about Family Guy, Sponge-Bob, Letterman's jokes about Sarah "Moosaloony" Palin and those Illusions Gentleman's Club ads on Jock 98.7.

Yes, Ozarkers have always been a bunch of crazy prudes.

PARENTS TELEVISION COUNCIL CAN "IF YOU SEEK AMY" THEMSELVES

I knew this would happen. I told you that some radio folks were already worried about the new Britney Spears song "If You Seek Amy." I said that radio stations needed to add the song to their playlist to celebrate the end of Bush-era FCC President (and Parents Television Council lapdog) Kevin Martin's term.

Billboard is reporting that the Parents Television Council, a group of right-wing activist led by Brent Bozell who urge people to send spam through their website to the FCC, is urging radio stations not play the song. I believe a wise man once said it best, "LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE!" HOW DARE THEY DISRESPECT BRITNEY SPEARS? HOW DARE THEY GO AGAINST THE WISHES OF DESDINOVA - THE SUPER VILLAIN OF THE OZARKS?

I'm begging radio station to add this song to their playlist. Even if you are not CHR or Hot AC, I feel this is something that Alternative, Classic Rock and even some country stations could get behind. Also, if you are a follower of mine and work at a talk station YOU CAN PARTICIPATE. The psycho freaks who listen to talk radio get all bent out of shape when the automation plays a commercial during Rush Limbaugh or one of the other talk radio atrocities, so I propose finding a way to play "If You Seek Amy" over Rush, Savage, Boortz, Dr. Laura so their little fans can't hear what garbage they are spewing out.

This would also be good if you are one of the people Clear Channel "let go," but for some reason you are still in the building. Mwu-HAHAHAHAHAHA!

Fellow radio folk, what I'm telling you is important. We need to start a revolution and now is the perfect time. We need to break from the mistakes of the fast eight year that plunged radio into this mess. I want you to play Britney's "If You Seek Amy" so we can show the PTC (BTW-Why are they causing trouble for radio when they are called the Parents Television Council?) that we have had enough of their stupidity. Do it for me, Jefferson Airplane and the Beatles.

This post will not make me popular, but it is post like this that make me the SUPER VILLAIN OF THE OZARKS! Mwu-HAHAHAHAHA!

Did You Ever Watch an Old Movie on TV and Wonder How Many People in the Crowd Scenes Are Dead? George Carlin 1937-2008

Reuters is reporting that George Carlin has died at age 71. This pic is of the young George Carlin. Carlin's humor was an influence on me. I'm probably in radio because of his "Wonderful WINO" routine. He is the guy who created the "Seven Dirty Words You Can't Say On Television." I've been lectured all my life about finding Carlin funny, so there will be no comments allowed. That will keep you Ozarkers from giving me another finger-shaking lecture about what is funny and what is not. I SAY GEORGE CARLIN WAS ONE FUNNY MOTHER&$%&ER!

Here is CNN's coverage. I think the media should go wall to wall with coverage of Carlin's death like they did with Tim Russert's death last week. Also I'm calling for flag to fly at half staff in memory of Mr. Carlin. That would really hack off the talk radio guys, but they deserve. I bet 'Wonderful WINO' is now a talk radio that is "standing up for what is right - even if it is wrong and just plain stupid!"

FCC's Adelstein May Believe In the Existence of Talkola

I have mentioned here before that I believe that talk radio host accept payments by right-wing PACs to push certain issues to prominence. I have dubbed this practice "Talkola" after "payola," which I believe was not a real problem but the reaction of a bunch of cranky old men in the 50's to rock and roll. I've convinced one of my co-workers of this. He told me he has given up listening to talk radio because all of the host talked about the same topic for more than a month.

Now All Access reports that FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein, in a speech to the National Conference for Media Reform in Minneapolis over the weekend, suggested the same thing. Only he isn't talking about PACs, he is suggesting that the Bush administration was behind the positive spin given to the Iraq War by talk radio as well as the news media.

"According to news reports, analysts who disagreed with the information given to them lost access," ADELSTEIN asserted. "This comes in the wake of new revelations that network executives pressured news reporters to develop Administration-friendly angles when we were heading to war. Today, I commit to you that I plan to demand a real and thorough investigation. We need to determine, without delay, whether the DoD violated the laws we enforce against payola.

"These rules prohibit anyone involved with preparing broadcast or cable programs from accepting anything of value without disclosing it to the public," ADELSTEIN continued. "This is not just a question of journalist ethics and integrity. It is the law. The war in IRAQ is clearly a controversial issue of public importance. The American people have a legal right to know when the government is sponsoring the source that is purporting to provide objective analysis."

Adelstein also mentioned that it is illegal to use federal funds for propaganda purposes. "The federal anti-propaganda and payola laws are grounded on the principle that the public is entitled to know who seeks to persuade them so they can make up their own minds about the credibility of the information presented," he said. "The public has a legal right to know that people who present themselves to be independent, unbiased experts and reporters are not shills hired to promote a corporate -- or governmental -- agenda."

Adelstein continued, "It is time for us to curb the excesses of commercialism, as CONGRESS intended," he declared. " We need to ... develop new rules to clarify that sponsorship identification has to be clear and understandable. It should not be buried in a compressed crawl at the end of a show that would take a magnifying glass to read. "We need to fight thinly disguised payola fueling homogenized corporate music that leaves no room for local and independent artists. We need to fight video news releases masquerading as news, with public relations agents pushing agendas that squeeze out real news coverage and local community concerns. We need to fight product placements turning news and entertainment shows alike into undisclosed commercials. And we need to fight rapacious advertisers preying on the unsuspecting minds of our young children."

Here is a transcript of the speech. It is great reading.