{"id":1381,"date":"2018-09-23T00:20:16","date_gmt":"2018-09-23T00:20:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=1381"},"modified":"2018-09-23T00:22:19","modified_gmt":"2018-09-23T00:22:19","slug":"ftv-rabble-rousers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=1381","title":{"rendered":"FTV: Rabble Rousers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0In September of 2018, <\/span>RadioWorld<\/span><\/i> magazine featured an article by John Schneider as part of a series they call <\/span>Roots of Radio<\/span><\/i>. \u00a0The full title of Schneider\u2019s article was <\/span>The Rabble-Rousers of Early Radio Broadcasting<\/span><\/i>, \u00a0subtitled <\/span>Take a look at some of radio\u2019s less-remembered provocateurs.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Schneider\u2019s article focused on the formative years of radio (1920s and 1930s) to explain why radio (and TV) content was regulated in the first place, \u00a0He also discusses how the modern era of deregulation has opened the door for more extreme political polarization on the nation\u2019s airwaves. He doesn\u2019t get into other media platforms here, but the similarities between the content of traditional broadcast sources and newer technology is pretty clear. \u00a0Let us take a look at the state of radio regulation in the beginning of the golden age of broadcasting..<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In the early days of radio, the forerunner of today\u2019s Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was the Federal Radio Commission (FRC). \u00a0By 1941, the FRC had morphed into the FCC and this newly expanded regulatory body took steps to tone down some of the rhetoric that was being aired by declaring (in the Mayflower Decision) that \u201cradio stations needed to remain neutral in matters of news and politics.\u201d \u00a0The Decision further prohibited stations, \u201cfrom supporting any particular position or candidate.\u201d In 1949, they expanded this concept by implementing the Fairness Doctrine which required broadcasters, \u201cto give equal time to contrasting views on controversial issues.\u201d According to Schneider, \u201cThis effectively drove most political debate off the air, except for a few carefully crafted \u2018management editorials\u2019.\u201d \u00a0Schneider offers several examples to illustrate what was taking place in radio which prompted the FCC to implement these rules..<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0First, there was Robert Gordon Duncan, the \u201cOregon Wildcat \u201d. \u00a0In the wake of the 1929 stock market crash, Duncan purchased KVEP – The Voice of East Portland (Oregon) for a song (cheap). Duncan began using KVEP to air his own populist views as he tried to gain a Republican nomination to Congress. \u00a0He railed against anything he wanted to in his profanity-laced tirades. He sought \u201cdonations\u201d from small mom-and-pop stores to aid his crusade against big chain stores like Sears and Roebuck (who he claimed were ruining small business concerns). \u00a0If the small stores didn\u2019t cough up the dough, he would lambaste them for cheating their customers and selling shoddy merchandise. When he lost his Congressional bid, he attacked the incumbent congressman, Frank Korell, going so far as to question his sexual orientation. \u00a0KVEP shared a frequency with another station, but Duncan refused to to sign off KVEP so the other station could broadcast. By 1930, the FRC ordered KVEP off the air for \u201cprofanity, obscenity, and the vilification of particular individuals.\u201d Duncan was permanently off the air when his creditors repossessed the station\u2019s equipment. \u00a0His radio career over, the \u201cOregon Wildcat\u201d ended up managing a golf course and passed away 14 years after losing the station.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Then there was the case of Jerry Buckley who began broadcasting to the \u2018Common Herd\u2019 (as he called his followers) in 1928. \u00a0Buckley was a crusader for \u201chumanitarian and liberal causes like old-age pensions and jobs for the unemployed.\u201d In 1930, he began a campaign that targeted Detroit Mayor Charles Bowles and the rampant corruption Buckley saw in the city government. \u00a0Even when offered a $25,000 bribe (reportedly from organized crime who benefited from the Mayor\u2019s rule), Buckley urged his listeners to vote \u201cyes\u201d in a recall petition against Bowles. Buckley\u2019s campaigning did help turn the election, resulting in the ouster of Mayor Bowles by a 30,000 vote margin. \u00a0Two hours after the returns were reported, he was lured to the LaSalle Hotel lobby (in the building his WMBC broadcasts originated) by a woman who said she had a story tip for him. Instead of a story, he was riddled with 11 bullets from three assassins. A listener commented at is funeral that, \u201cJerry Buckley was the only man in Detroit who was so strong for the common people. \u00a0Will these people forget him? They will not.\u201d Others apparently agreed as 50,000 showed up for his funeral. No one was ever convicted of his murder.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Detroit was apparently a hotbed for firebrand radio broadcasters as Father Charles Coughlin burned up the airwaves on WJR (and later CBS radio) from 1926 until 1939. \u00a0Coughlin was a Catholic priest from Royal Oak, MI who began as a radio preacher on WJR. The station owner was a conservative, anti-Semitic who encouraged Coughlin to move more into the political arena during his broadcasts. \u00a0His early targets were communism and the KKK, but over time he widened his attacks to mainstream topics like the banking industry, Jews, and even President Roosevelt. When FDR failed to respond to Coughlin\u2019s suggestion that he nationalize the Federal Reserve Bank, Coughlin became one of the president\u2019s harshest critics. \u00a0Even though Coughlin had a weekly audience between 16 and 20 million listeners (and his own post office to handle the 10,000 letters he received daily), CBS began to back their stations away from carrying his programs. Coughlin openly praised Hitler and Mussolini and it later came out that his program was actually receiving operational funding from the Nazi Party. \u00a0The National Association of Broadcasters succeeded in taking him off the air by crafting a self-regulation code that prohibited NAB stations from discussing controversial issues in sponsored programs. The policy was written with Coughlin in mind and did succeed in driving him from the airwaves.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In California, another broadcasting minister lost his license for KGEF in 1932 for \u201cbroadcasting slanderous attacks on public officials and others.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0Evangelical Minister Robert P. Shuler was the pastor of Trinity Methodist Church in Los Angeles. According to the <\/span>Los Angeles Times<\/span><\/i>, \u201c\u2018Fighting Bob\u2019 operates the most controversial religious radio station of all time. \u00a0Politicians fear him, criminals avoid him, newspapers deplore him, and many ministers criticize him.\u201d \u00a0Like Buckley before him, \u2018Fighting Bob\u2019 went after the Mayor of Los Angeles and government corruption. Even though a jury failed to convict him in a libel suit, the FRC voted to not renew his license due to the nature of his broadcasts and his use of the station for personal attacks. \u00a0When turning back his appeal, the court noted that, \u201cShuler\u2019s broadcasts were sensational rather than instructive\u201d and if the airwaves could be used for such purposes, \u201cradio will become a scourge and the nation a theater for the display of individual passions and the collision of personal interests.\u201d \u00a0Shuler tried again in 1943 using KPAS in Pasadena, CA, but the FCC declared that his programs \u201cwere hurting the war effort,\u201d and required that the station submit transcripts of his shows in advance. The regulations drafted to clean up his broadcasts put him off the air for good.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In a true case of \u2018radio and politics don\u2019t mix\u2019, William K. Henderson (aka \u201cOl\u2019 Man\u201d Henderson, \u201cDog-gone\u201d Henderson, and \u201cHello World\u201d Henderson) invested in WGAQ in Shreveport, La in 1922. \u00a0By 1925, he had bought out his partners, rechristened the station as KWKH (using his initials for the call sign) and moved the 10,000 transmitter to his estate. Known for opening his broadcasts with \u201cHello World\u201d, his powerful signal dominated the south central United States. \u00a0As the only DJ, he played recorded music and broadcast his own folksy commentary. He turned increasingly political and took after the FRC for favoring \u2018big chain stations\u2019. He also went after \u2018big chain stores\u2019 and the, \u201cruinous and devastating effect of sending the profits out of our local communities to a common center, Wall Street.\u201d \u00a0Henderson explained why his popularity grew the more he insulted his listeners: \u201cPeople don\u2019t care about gentle, modest talk. They want it strong, They want to hear you ride somebody. If not, why do they spend their good money for telegrams? They want to be entertained. They razz me and wait for me to bawl them out over the radio. I never disappoint them if they sign their names.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Henderson\u2019s broadcasts generated a flood of complaints to the FRC, but beyond monitoring his station, they took no action. \u00a0Politics interceded because Henderson contributed $10,000 to Louisiana Governor Huey Long\u2019s 1928 campaign and he gave the candidate a lot of free air time on his station. \u00a0Long warned the FRC, \u201cYou\u2019re going to have to fight Louisiana and other states too, buddy, and you won\u2019t get away with it. We are going to expose you and not allow you to steal the air.\u201d \u00a0He further assured Henderson that the Louisiana State Militia was at his disposal should he need to protect KWKH from the feds. This worked fine until Long and Henderson had a falling out in 1931 and the FRC\u2019s recordings of Henderson\u2019s transmissions of \u201cvile filth and profanity\u201d lead to a protracted legal battle. \u00a0In 1932, without the benefit of Long\u2019s protection, the nearly bankrupt Henderson\u2019s own lawyers informed him he had little chance of retaining his license. He sold the station for $50,000 to a group of Shreveport business men who relocated the station back into town and got it signed with the CBS radio network. Henderson threatened to open a \u201cborder blaster\u201d station in Mexico (stations that broadcast stronger signals than their US counterparts) but nothing ever came from the threat.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0These are just a few examples that prompted the FCC to enact the Mayflower directive and later the Fairness Doctrine. \u00a0So how does this all affect broadcast media today? The Fairness Doctrine was repealed in 1987 as the radio industry entered a new era of deregulation. \u00a0As Schneider sees it, \u201cThis opened the floodgates and controversy again began to flourish on the country\u2019s airwaves, particularly on today\u2019s popular \u201chot talk\u201d AM stations.\u201d \u00a0While our neck of the woods is not exactly rife with strong AM signals, I can only say that we see evidence of this type of broadcasting across all media platforms; TV, FM radio, internet radio and satellite radio. \u00a0Without mentioning any one particular network or outlet, I will just repeat the FRC\u2019s assessment of the malarkey that got \u2018Fighting Bob\u2019 taken off the air: \u201cShuler\u2019s broadcasts were sensational rather than instructive\u201d and if the airwaves could be used for such purposes, \u201cradio will become a scourge and the nation a theater for the display of individual passions and the collision of personal interests.\u201d \u00a0To that I can only add my own Amen!<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In that this FTV is based on his article, I will give Schneider the last word here: \u00a0\u201cAlthough they may not be aware of it, today\u2019s commentators are following on the heels of the pioneer radio provocateurs of the late \u201820s and early \u201830s, and are thriving in today\u2019s environment of lax regulation and extreme political polarization. \u00a0Will history repeat itself in some future era with the re-regulation of media, or has broadcasting been forever changed – for better or worse?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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