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Ralph Nader is 90, but unlike Joe Biden, age has not slowed him down. Recently, one of his organizations, the Center for the Study of Responsive Law (CSRL), published a long look into public radio. The trades picked it up, for example, here’s Inside Radio. I downloaded the report and read all 80+ pages.
While much of it was misguided in my view, it did get me thinking. Now that the “AM For Every Vehicle” Act is nearing final passage, the industry should be thinking about the next step. CSRL’s proposals didn’t go far enough so read on, but first, let’s understand where they came from.
Ralph wrote an introduction for the report which went on for eight single-spaced pages. It may not be news to you, but Ralph does not like corporations and both he and the report rail against public stations with boards made up of “corporate interests” that are also major donors. And like commercial radio listeners, Ralph was not pleased with the volume of underwriting announcements on public radio. He claimed to have counted nearly 30 ads (underwriting blurbs) in one hour on a public station, more than the 18 spots that WTIC in Hartford ran during the same hour.
The report itself, written by Michael Swerdlow, a J.D. student at Columbia Law School, made some relevant points, such as “news deserts”. It’s true that many small communities have lost local newspapers and commercial radio stations have small local news staffs, if there is one at all.
When I was in the trade association world many years ago, one mantra was “We never lie but sometimes we don’t tell the truth”. In other words, use facts to your benefit, but if the facts don’t fit the narrative, ignore them or turn them to your advantage.
Some of the report’s “facts” were stretched: it was noted that according to the Washington Post, in 1960, there were only two all-talk radio stations in America. By 1995, there were 1,130. The author’s point was the elimination of the Fairness Doctrine caused the change, but everyone in the business knows that in 1960, AM stations were successfully running music formats because FM barely existed. By 1995, music on AM didn’t work against FM, but talk sounded just fine on an AM frequency. Goodbye Top 40 and hello Rush Limbaugh!
CSRL staff sampled 94 public radio stations and found that 25 of these stations produced no locally produced non-music programs. Only seven produced two hours or more. But Swerdlow admits their sample did not include local inserts for the national shows. He mentioned another study that covered 215 public stations and included inserts. That study found the median amount of “self-reported local news” was closer to two hours per day, but never mind, the table from CSRL’s sample, with call letters listed, was included in the appendix while the more favorable study was cited in footnote 150 of 229.
Distilling the report down, the key points were:
- For the stations that have boards, the boards are typically dominated by big donors, often representing corporate interests.
- The United States has a history of supporting a free press financially dating back to George Washington’s time because mailing rates for newspapers were subsidized.
- Public radio’s financial model reinforces racial discrimination.
- There is little local reporting on public radio stations
- Most NPR programming comes from just a handful of markets and stations
- NPR’s news operation is biased (we’re not talking about Uri Berliner here) and has promoted “disinformation” from companies, law enforcement, and the military
- NPR is running more “entertainment news” even in their choice of obituaries
Swerdlow and Nader propose that the federal government fund local reporting. Numbers running from $3 billion to $30 billion per year were bandied about with numerous potential funding mechanisms. Next, public media boards should be representative of the service area’s “economic, racial, gender, and geographic diversity” but diversity of viewpoints was not mentioned.
CSRL also said boards should be “selected in a transparent, merit-based, or democratic process” and offered other suggestions regarding “transparency”. Transparency sounds nice so I tried to find who funds Nader’s various organizations and I came up with next to nothing. The information is not on his website. What’s good for the goose…
Let’s assume for a moment that the government decided to fund local journalists for public radio and each station would run a one-hour standalone local news program at some time during prime (M-F 6A-7P) at least five days a week. Let’s further assume that the programs would follow the CSRL’s guidelines. Outside of the public radio strongholds (Boston, Washington, SF, Austin, Portland), do you think these shows could pull a 2 share? Do you think the programs would pull better shares among minorities? I’ll take that bet.
But why only public radio? If Congress were to even consider such legislation, why couldn’t commercial stations participate? Some states are giving out money to local newspapers to support hiring journalists; most of the papers are commercial enterprises.
Now let’s go to the next step: If you look at the sample characteristics for the Nielsen PPM markets, you’ll find that a large plurality of sample homes doesn’t have a radio in their home (they typically have radios in their vehicles). Before anyone suggests spending billions on journalists, why not give everyone a radio? Let’s do the AM For Every Vehicle Act one better and propose A Radio For Every Home Act.
This is not an unprecedented idea. In 2006, Congress required broadcast television stations to move from analog to digital by February 17, 2009. The legislation was part of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 under Title III: Digital Television Transition and Public Safety Act. Congress allocated $1.5 billion for a coupon program. Every household in the US could request up to two coupons worth $40 each to buy a “basic” converter box for their analog sets. The cost of a box was expected to be around $50, so the largest part of the cost would be covered by the government.
Notice how “Public Safety Act” is part of the legislation’s title. Wasn’t a key point of the argument for requiring AM radio in vehicles related to “public safety?” During a hurricane, tornado, or blizzard, do we want people going to their cars to receive emergency information because they don’t have a battery-operated radio in their home? Hurricane Helene was a perfect example; having a battery-operated radio in every home would have been helpful when the power went out and cell phone service was interrupted. A few radio stations were knocked off the air by the storm, but most stayed on.
While I think CSRL was barking up the wrong tree and failed to consider the media marketplace in 2024 or even what the audience wants to hear rather than what the author believes they should hear, the report was valuable in bringing up a new way of thinking about subsidizing media. Let’s give everyone a radio they can use in their home! I believe every radio broadcaster would support it, not to mention Amazon, Best Buy, and any company that still manufactures radios.
Let’s meet again next week.
