Pro-life groups are up in arms today over the refusal of WBZ Radio to air one of their ads, a spot that has already run without incident on many other stations in the region.
The censorship incident reinforces WBZ’s longstanding reputation as a partisan left-wing news outlet.
Boston CBS Affiliate Won’t Run Pro-Life Group’s Ads on Abortion, Health Care
by Steven Ertelt
Boston, MA (LifeNews.com) — The Boston, Massachusetts CBS affiliate, radio station WBZ, has refused to sell time to a state pro-life group seeking to run ads asking that abortion funding be kept out of the health care bills in Congress. When asked to put in writing their reasons for declining the ads, the station declined.
Anne Fox, the president of Massachusetts Citizens for Life, the pro-life organization seeking air time to run the ads, told LifeNews.com they have aired without problem on other radio stations.
“These ads and similar ads have already aired on WRKO in Boston, WTAG in Worcester, and WHYN in Springfield,” she said. “They address abortion, rationing, and denial of care based on age or disability.”
Fox said the WBZ told her the ads were inaccurate but would still not say how so or why they would be denied even after she offer proof about the group’s claims.
“At first WBZ told me that we had to substantiate our ‘claims’. Then, even as I offered to do so, they decided they would not take the ads,” she said.
“This is a news station which should be dedicated to presenting all sides of an issue – especially one of such importance to their listening audience,” Fox continued. “The media, in general, is unquestioningly in favor of these bills. As a premier news station WBZ should be happy to air views that may not be exactly the same as theirs.”
Fox said the ad is something most listeners won’t hear when they watch or listen to the news reporting about the health care bill.
“When they hear the ad, I am sure people will agree that is a valuable addition to the health care debate,” she said.
ACTION: To complain, contact Chris Hill at chris.hill@CBSradio.com, write WBZ NewsRadio 1030, 1170 Soldiers Field Rd., Boston MA, 02134, or call (617) 787-7171
Just days after expressing elation over Martha Coakley’s baffling about-face on PelosiCare, rival Dem US Senate candidate Michael Capuano (D-Somerville) has inexplicably copied her move. It’s a breathtakingly stupid tactic that greatly undermines his credibility.
However, establishment Democrats are foolish to believe this “scores a big political point for the Coakley campaign”, since she began this dubious trend.
Instead, it merely makes the party look oddly indecisive on a signature issue for Democrats.
As she makes one blunder after another, Martha Coakley’s astounding overconfidence really threatens her US Senate campaign. Worse than handing challengers free ammo, Coakley increasingly comes across as someone who isn’t terribly bright.
Just today alone, she’s:
— Made a HUGE error in attempting to pander to a far-left Democratic fringe that doesn’t trust her and probably has someone else in mind anyway. From The Globies:
Attorney General Martha Coakley said this morning that she would have voted against the landmark health care bill approved by the House over the weekend because it includes a provision restricting federal funding for providers of abortion services.
Coakley this morning, in an interview on WTKK-FM, said her opposition to that aspect of the legislation is so strong that she would have voted against the overall bill, which would provide coverage for 36 million Americans, establish a limited public insurance plan, and prohibit insurers from discriminating against people with preexisting conditions.
Her position opens up a potentially major fissure in the US Senate race, with Coakley now on the opposite side of the issue from rival US Representative Michael Capuano, who voted in favor of the plan. Though Capuano voted against the so-called Stupak-Pitts amendment restricting abortion coverage, he voted in favor of the bill.
Capuano, giddy over a discernible difference with the presumptive front-runner, called Coakley’s comment “manna from heaven.”
“I find it interesting and amazing and she would have stood alone among all the pro-choice members of Congress, all the members of the Massachusetts delegation,” Capuano said in an interview. “She claims she wants to honor Ted Kennedy’s legacy on health care. It’s pretty clear that a major portion of this was his bill.”
“If she’s not going to vote for any bill that’s not perfect, she wouldn’t vote for any bill in history,” Capuano added. “She would have voted against Medicare, the civil rights bill. Every advancement this country has made has been based on bills that had flaws in them … Realism is something you have to deal with in Washington.”
Capuano is right- Coakley has now muddled her position, needlessly confusing partisan primary voters.
Keep in mind, she’s been running this lackluster ad for days:
— Come across as a moron while passing the buck on foreign policy to John Kerry, Hillary Clinton and Obama. From the Herald:
BOSTON — Democratic Senate candidate Martha Coakley says she has backup to overcome her lack of foreign policy experience.
She told WTKK-FM on Monday “we have a commander in chief. We have a secretary of state. We have a senior senator in Massachusetts, John Kerry, who has a ton of experience with foreign relations.”
The attorney general says she’ll develop her own expertise in office.
Since she’s had her eye on this office for years, don’t you think she’s had plenty of time to bone up on the issues?
The AP’s investigation included interviewing people who had been found with child porn on their computers. The AP reviewed court records and spoke to prosecutors, police and computer examiners. One case involved Michael Fiola, a former investigator with the Massachusetts agency that oversees workers’ compensation.
In 2007, Fiola’s bosses became suspicious after the Internet bill for his state-issued laptop showed that he used 4 1/2 times more data than his colleagues. A technician found child porn in the PC folder that stores images viewed online.
Fiola was fired and charged with possession of child pornography, which carries up to five years in prison. He endured death threats, his car tires were slashed and he was shunned by friends.
Fiola and his wife fought the case, spending $250,000 on legal fees. They liquidated their savings, took a second mortgage and sold their car.
An inspection for his defense revealed the laptop was severely infected. It was programmed to visit as many as 40 child porn sites per minute — an inhuman feat. While Fiola and his wife were out to dinner one night, someone logged on to the computer and porn flowed in for an hour and a half.
Prosecutors performed another test and confirmed the defense findings. The charge was dropped — 11 months after it was filed.
The Fiolas say they have health problems from the stress of the case. They say they’ve talked to dozens of lawyers but can’t get one to sue the state, because of a cap on the amount they can recover. “It ruined my life, my wife’s life and my family’s life,” he says.
The Massachusetts attorney general’s office, which charged Fiola, declined interview requests.
At this point, it’s no longer safe to assume Coakley will run away with the Democratic Party’s nomination. The main impediment: Martha herself.
Capuano, Coakley, Khazei, and Pagliuca to Debate Live on 96.9 FM Thursday, November 12, 2009 – 9 to 10 a.m.
Jim Braude and Margery Eagan to Host Democratic Candidates from the 96.9 FM Studios at 55 Morrissey Blvd.
Boston, MA (November 9, 2009): 96.9 FM-WTKK’s Jim Braude and Margery Eagan will host the only radio debate scheduled between the four democratic candidates in the race for Senator on Thursday, November 12, 2009 from 9:00am – 10:00am. Rep. Michael Capuano, Attorney General Martha Coakley, City Year co-founder Alan Khazei and Boston Celtics co-owner Stephen Pagliuca are vying for the late Edward Kennedy’s Senate seat in the primaries on December 8th.
In addition to questions from Jim and Margery, the debate will feature listener questions. Questions must be submitted prior to 5:00 p.m. Wednesday to senatedebate@969wtkk.com.
“96.9 Boston Talks is honored to host this prestigious radio debate between our Democratic candidates,” said Program Director Grace Blazer. “Jim Braude’s and Margery Eagan’s new morning show is the smart and tactical place to be heard loud and clear in Massachusetts. We are also inviting Republican candidates Scott Brown and Jack E. Robinson to debate on 96.9 FM and give us their take on the issues.”
Jim Braude and Margery Eagan, the only male/female talk team in Boston radio, can be heard daily on 96.9 FM, WTKK from 7a to 10a. Jim Braude is also the host of NECN’s Broadside and Margery Eagan is a columnist with the Boston Herald.
This one hour, commercial free, LIVE debate will be streamed live and made available online as a download/podcast at www.969wtkk.com shortly after the show. Radio stations outside 96.9 FM’s listening area are welcome to simulcast the hour.
In recent months, I’ve heard from so many frustrated would-be or one-time WTKK listeners who don’t understand Greater Media’s Refusal To Succeed Syndrome (also known as WOR Disease).
Clearly, there is pent-up demand for an issues-centered local FM talk station with compelling programming, but dysfunctional WTKK has never been able to meet the need. The result: a dismal fifteenth-place showing.
Many of WTKK’s weaknesses have been discussed here before, but one item in yesterday’s Herald hammered home a biggie: a general lack of buzz generated by its key weekday hosts.
Why are we again reading about one of its weekend talkers, a credibility-challenged cartoon character with one foot out the door as he seeks public office? Hey, it’s not his fault, he’s managed to get into some kind of a tiff with fading talk fossil Don Imus.
Part of the problem is the controversy-adverse nature of Greater Media’s top management. They aren’t willing to make waves. Hosts who try to generate attention tend to get their necks chopped off.
Another key issue: a longstanding inability to connect with the average talk radio fan.
Working people in distant suburbs? As far as the company is concerned, they’re chumps. Unfortunately for Greater Media, they also represent the backbone of talk radio listenership.
To these frustrated taxpayers, the re-election of Mayor For Life Menino in Boston is a distant and curious oddity, not a cause for celebration. Rather than ready to reward Martha Coakley for doing absolutely nothing by handing her a US Senate term, they’d prefer to check out the candidates, Republicans included.
Unless the listener happens to work in Boston itself, the city is little more than a place to catch a ballgame, flight or perhaps a quick visit for an occasional cannoli run. Weekends are tied up with soccer games and running errands.
City politics? They couldn’t care less.
Beacon Hill? It’s home to crooks, not a place for elite social events.
Until Greater Media makes a commitment to grasp these basic concepts, this is about the best WTKK can do.
Monthly Boston ratings were released tonight, here are the news-talk-sports highlights:
— WBZ took a big hit, falling to third place overall from second (listeners 6 and older). Audience share dropped to 5.8 from 6.5 in September. About 45,000 listeners shifted listening elsewhere, leaving it with 791,300.
— WEEI was essentially flat, taking fifth place with a 5.3 audience share. Listeners: 696,700, an increase of over 50,000.
— WRKO fell to eighth, 4.8 to 4.5 share, 60,000 listeners lost, leaving it with 385,000.
— Sports WBZ-FM continued its dramatic surge, moving into fourteenth place, a stunning 0.6 to 3.6 share advance in just two months and an amazing gain of nearly 300,000 new listeners to 780,100. Its head count is now just below WBZ AM’s. The new kid on the block is a smash success, there’s no other way to argue this.
— Sad-sack FM talker WTKK continued its long and painful decline into total oblivion, sinking to fifteenth and a share drop to 3.2 from 3.5. Interestingly, it actually gained listeners, about 4500 (to 386,900), but they aren’t sticking around for long, quick to hit the scan button for better choices.
The key difference between WRKO and WTKK is that the former’s listeners leave the radio on for long periods of time (Rush, Howie, Savage), while the latter’s jumbled programming mess causes tune-out.
Beasley Broadcast Group and Entercom Communications rounded out a spate of weak third-quarter results from radio broadcasters.
[...]
Looking to the future, Beasley was hopeful but guarded: “While it is difficult to gauge the pace of an economic recovery, we were pleased to see initial improvements in advertiser activity in the third quarter.” He added that the company’s “streamlined cost and operating structure” should allow it to benefit from “even modest increases in radio advertising spending.”
Separately, Entercom said net revenues decreased 14% to just under $100 million, driving a 25% drop in earnings before taxes, to $29.7 million. The company’s president and CEO, David Field, was somewhat more hopeful about the near future: “We are increasingly optimistic about 2010, based upon a number of indications of improving demand for advertising in the year ahead, particularly in light of easy comparative results after two years of cyclical decline across virtually all ad sectors.”
As for this year’s dismal results, Beasley and Entercom reflect the radio industry’s woes. In the third quarter, total revenues at Emmis Radio fell 26.5%, from $72.7 million in the third quarter of 2008 to $53.4 million in the third quarter of 2009. This contributed to an overall revenue decline of 27.4%, from $92.7 million to $68 million. Radio One’s revenues fell 12% to $75.5 million.
