Facing the Music: The Fight to Save Radio Airwaves

SAN FRANCISCO -- Over the past few years there have been a number of campaigns designed to make radio stations more responsive to their communities – battles fought in San Francisco, Detroit, Chicago and New York and other cities. Some have failed and others have succeeded.

If we are to make radio accountable to community, we must identify viable strategies. To understand which strategies work, we need to understand the recent history of reform efforts and the current context.

Faced with government plans to allow additional consolidation in radio ownership, tens of thousands of people successfully mobilized in 2003 through 2005 against such ownership rule changes. Meanwhile, over the same period, activists began to create more alternatives to corporate media – launching their own news-oriented Internet websites, creating blogs and making documentaries. As for radio, activists began to launch pirate operations and pushed the Federal Communications Commission to license low-power radio stations.

This independent media movement, which continues to grow, is a proactive way to give communities options to mainstream radio and other commercial media. Unlike the media reformers who waged a campaign in the early-to-mid 1980s to get the recording industry to put labels on music with “explicit” lyrics and – unlike the movement 10 to 15 years ago spearheaded by seasoned civil rights activists such as the late C. Delores Tucker and Reverend Calvin Butts – the leading media reform advocates today are the 20-to-30-something-year-olds who identify themselves as members of the Hip Hop generation.

Like their predecessors. they too have grown tired of the onslaught of negative, racist, stereotypical songs and imagery being packaged and sold by corporate-owned media outlets as the latest trend – or even worse – contending that this content is an essential part of black culture. Many have grown tired of the non-stop misogyny, sexual degradation and objectification of black women under the guise of doing good business because “sex sells.”

Many people are also upset that their favorite urban radio station will not play any local or independent artists. Go any place in the United States, turn on the radio, and close your eyes. You will have a hard time telling what city you’re in because the playlist is the same.

The contents of that playlist include artists who produce lyrics characterized by some as the glorification of drugs, misogeny and crime. In the mid-to-late 1980s, the usual tactic was to go after an artist who has over-the-top lyrics. Advocates for the labeling of explicit music such as Tipper Gore’s Parents Music Resource Center were formed, in part, to respond to artists such as Ice T and the Geto Boys. The union between C. Delores Tucker and former education secretary William Bennett had artists such as 2Pac in their sights. Florida attorney Jack Thompson had it in for Uncle Luke and his raunchy 2Live Crew.

Early media reform advocates soon discovered that targeting specific artists rarely killed their careers or reined them in. The extra attention made them more popular. In fact, some artists have pushed the envelope further to draw the attention of reform groups and generate the publicity that comes with controversy.

However, these highly visible artists are actually low on the music industry totem pole – something many of their critics have not realized. While it’s true that Snoop Dogg and others may have made songs that offended sensibilities, there’s a much larger and more powerful machinery and infrastructure that is ultimately responsible for disseminating such content to the masses. In other words, no rap artist has been in a position coerce hundreds of radio stations around the country to play their record five to eight times a day. Payola has been a factor determining playlists at many stations and the Federal Communications Commission is finally beginning to investigate these practices. http://www.freepress.net/payola/

C. Delores Tucker understood that record label executives were ultimately responsible. She also crafted a strategy to go after the record labels. Beginning in the mid-1990s, Warner Brothers and later Death Row Records were her main targets. The theory behind her approach was if you can either shame a label through bad publicity or economically punish them, then the executives would straighten up and sign more “wholesome’” and ‘”responsible” acts.

Holding labels accountable seemed to work initially – especially after the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC) in 1985 convinced the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) to label recordings containing “explicit” to help oversee the music purchases of their children. The term "explicit content" refers to music that contains specific depictions of violence, sex, profanity, and/or drug use. Also, activists in 1992 pressured Time Warner to end its association with Ice T because he produced the controversial heavy metal song “Cop Killer.” However, at the end of the day, it’s the media outlets that have the final say so as to what reaches the masses.

Understanding the inner workings of the music industry, recent media reformers have adapted a three-fold strategy: (1) trying to keep executives and media gatekeepers accountable, while (2) pushing for substantial changes in the infrastructure of the industry and (3) using new technology to set up their own media.

Evaluating Recent Battles
Chicago and Detroit

Now let’s take a look at some recent media campaigns – “Blackout Friday” in Detroit, the Chicago Hip Hop campaign, the Bay Area “Peoples Station” battle and two separate New York campaigns – to determine what strategies worked and what strategies failed.

The media campaigns in Detroit and Chicago touched upon a key issue which, if framed correctly, leaves a radio station vulnerable – lack of local artist airplay.

In the spring of 2000 a guy named X-man and a coalition of local artists formed ChicagoHipHop.com to protest the lack of local artists performing at the House of Blues (HOB). A number of high-profile demonstrations occurred in front of HOB, including one which forced owner-actor Dan Akryod to respond. As the campaign mounted, organizers began to call supporters to do two things: buy local music and encourage local radio stations to start playing Chicago artists.

One local deejay dubbed Spank Boogie from WGCI, a Clear Channel-owned outlet, was inspired by the HOB protests and offered his support. On May 6, 2000 he played all Chicago artists. He was suspended and then fired a short time later. He never came out and publicly announced what was happening, but organizers in Chi-Town contended that he was punished for breaking the station’s format.

Lessons: The organizers did not plan support for Spank’s “local artists” initiative. For example, the activists might have met with the program director prior to Spank’s actions. They could have emphasized their support for the play of local music at such a meeting. Also, the protesters should have enlisted the support of other deejays because no media accountability campaign can succeed if a potential change-agent is isolated and vulnerable.

In 2001, just a year later, the Detroit Hip Hop Coalition (DHHC) decided to take on Clear Channel giant WJLB for their unwillingness to play local artists. DHHC organizers took to the streets, giving out flyers and bumper stickers asking listeners to turn off the radio on Fridays (“Blackout Fridays”) until the station started playing more local artists other then Eminem and Slum Village.

At its height organizers had as many as 4,000 people participating. The campaign even caught the attention of Public Enemy front man Chuck D, who took it upon himself to sit down with the program director and request a two-hour local rap show. That show never materialized.

Lessons: There are a number of possible reasons for the failure of the “Blackout Friday’s” campaign. WJLB allowed some of their popular deejays to go public and dismiss the campaign. They claimed that some of the organizers of the DHHC were artists who were angry that they weren’t getting airplay. Detroit organizers deny that charge. Also, the organizers probably did not reach enough leading community stakeholders to support their campaign and counter the station’s arguments.

While Blackout Fridays had a catchy name, organizers would’ve been better off targeting their call to action on a Wednesday or Thursday. Back then Thursday was the day that Arbitron, radio’s rating system, asked people to fill in diaries. Radio stations tend to make their big announcements or stage contests on Thursday so they could make a strong impression in the minds of diary holders.

Recent Battles
Bay Area

In contrast, the year-long “People’s Station” campaign against San Francisco’s Clear Channel’s KMEL radio in the fall 2001 was effective. Organized by the Youth Media Council and Mindz Eye Collective, this campaign also called on the local station (KMEL) to start playing more local artists.

After all, in the Bay Area – widely considered the Mecca of independent record labels and artists on the urban side – the lack of such airtime was disturbing. In its pre-Clear Channel days, KMEL was known as the “Peoples’ Station,” establishing itself in the “hood” because it gave airwave access to local artists who – in turn – supported and promoted the station. After Clear Channel took ownership, the station ceased to open its doors to local artists, who were increasingly frustrated.

Once the word got out that there was a media campaign that had, as part of its focus, KMEL’s refusal to embrace local artists, it wasn’t long before this Clear Channel entity began to buckle under the pressure. Initially, the station started playing R&B artists like Goapele. Then, on Friday nights, it began to host local rap artists and have them kick freestyles over the beats of popular artists. That wasn’t good enough for organizers. The campaign continued to point out that local acts were not getting played; but instead, were – in their view – being used and exploited to promote recording label artists.

The protests of a broad coalition generated newspaper coverage about KMEL programming. One leading member of the coalition, the Youth Media Council, conducted workshops and awareness parties on the issues and developed poems and songs about media policy and media justice.

In the middle of this campaign, KMEL had a meeting with organizers which included a number of Hip Hop artists who had blasted the station in their rap songs. The organizers brought a proposal for a local rap show to that meeting.

It wasn’t too long afterwards that you began to hear KMEL playing promotions on the station’s radio play of specific local artists. The station also added a local artist rap show called ‘”On the Block,” hosted by the station’s music director Big Von. Nowadays local artists are heard almost every hour on the station.

The station management gets very touchy when the “People’s Station” campaign is brought up. They swear up and down that the campaign did not prompt them to play local artists and that they were headed in that direction regardless of the campaign. Organizers think otherwise; but an important part of the strategy was to recognize victories – even when small.

Lessons: In the Bay Area, getting local artists on the air was a small but important step in the long road to creating radio that is better connected to local communities. The activists succeeded because they used a variety of tactics and built a strong coalition that included local artists. The most important part of the coalition was young people. The crucial age group of 18-34 – aka the Hip Hop/MTV generation – got involved in the Bay Area media reform. The involvement of people in this key radio demographic sent a strong message to media outlets: start serving the public better, or risk being turned off.

Recent Battles
A Tale of Two New York Campaigns

Around the time of the San Francisco campaign, longtime radio veteran and community activist Bob Law – along with a number of grassroots organizations, including the December 12th that enough was enough. They launched the “Turn-off-the-Radio” campaign in New York City.

In January 2002 at a church in Harlem, Law organized a forum that included some members of New York’s city council and well-known artists ranging from Chuck D of Public Enemy to Hip Hop pioneer Africa Bambaataa and legendary soul singers Ray, Goodman and Brown. More than 1,000 people showed up and testified for more than five hours about their grievances with local media – New York station Hot 97, among them.

The complaints ranged from having to hear the same 10 songs to stereotypical images of African Americans being promoted on the airwaves. Many of the elders complained about not being able to hear new material from the older artists like a James Brown, Earth Wind and Fire and Ray, Goodman and Brown.

Law’s solution was to get people to “Turn off Negative Radio” and ideally turn on something positive. He wanted to target advertisers and let them know that the community would be turning off and would not be supporting their products.

Law’s forum and subsequent press conferences generated a lot of interest as the idea quickly spread among black activists in several cities. He had struck a chord because a lot of black folks were simply not happy with what radio was offering the community. Ultimately, however, the campaign lost steam.

Lessons: It wasn’t enough to tell people to turn off the radio. There weren’t enough alternatives that addressed the African American community for folks to turn to. Even people who were unhappy with the programming of Hot 97 wound up listening to it by default. The climate for such campaigns today is much better because technology has created audio alternatives such as podcasting, satellite and Internet radio.

While the “Turn Off the Radio” slogan and concept served as a good rallying cry, it soon became apparent that there were quite a few “leaders” and artists who were hesitant about telling folks to turn off the radio. High profile activists were slow to respond. For example, Al Sharpton did not begin to publicly talk about pressuring the FCC into addressing “gansta” rap until 2005, several years after the “Turn Off the Radio” campaign began.

Law’s strategy of targeting advertisers and getting them to put pressure on stations proved nearly impossible. Companies that own multiple outlets can simply shift ads to other stations and ride out any boycott.

Lastly, Law’s campaign was too broad. Although he was correct in pointing out that almost all of New York City’s urban stations were offensive, it may have been better to zero in on one station or one radio chain and make it the example of what would happen if one didn’t shape up.

Media reformers also needed to focus attention on key executives and develop a strategy on how to hold them accountable. KISS FM’s general Manager Barry Mayo was criticized but there was no plan of action to hold his feet to the fire. This all changed when the REACHip Hop Coalition (Representing Education, Activism, & Community through Hip-Hop) came along in January 2005.

The REACHip Hop Coalition formed when Hot 97’s morning show, produced in January of 2005 a racist parody of the song “We Are the World.” The hosts poked fun of the Asian tsunami victims and called them “chinks,” “Chinamen,” and “bitches.”

Hot 97 allowed it to play for almost a full week, ignoring the protests of Asian activists who had began to organize and protest the song. Hot 97 upped the ante by putting an MP3 of the song on its website along with a picture of a rail-thin Whitney Houston and the caption, “Is it Whitney or a Tsunami Victim?”

A well- nown Filipino named DJ Kuttin’ Kandi sprang into action and gave Hot 97 the surprise of their lives. They had no idea that Kandi had strong ties with Hip Hop’s pioneering groups like The Universal Zulu Nation, Rocksteady Crew and the newly formed Universal Federation for the Preservation of Hip Hop Culture. She also had strong inroads to a large number of seasoned multi-cultural Hip Hop activists and community organizers who have long been involved in a wide range of peace and social justice campaigns.

Kandi and other organizers like long-time activist Rosa Clemente were not only able to galvanize that community but also reignite many of the participants of the defunct “Turn off the Radio Campaign.” What emerged was a well-organized, multi-generational, multi-cultural media reform organization that was savvy enough to build off of past media reform efforts.

REACHip Hop members immediately picked as their target the executives of Emmis Broadcasting and Hot 97. They wanted to make sure that Emmis executives Jeff Smulyan, Rick Cummings, Barry Mayo and John Dimmick became household names. The activists put their photos on websites and listed grievances.

For example, a number of the deejays on Hot 97 use the “N” word in their on air chatter. The reformers asked: “Why does Emmis CEO Jeff Smulyan allow the use of racial epithets on the public airwaves?”

Emmis executive ranks also lacked diversity, being all men and all white with the exception of Barry Mayo. That did not bode well considering the racist nature of the tsunami song.

When the counter spin came back pointing the finger at the deejays in question or the station’s African American general manger Barry Mayo, REACH members kept the focus on Smulyan. The point was made over and over again that the buck stopped with him.

REACH used the campaign as a way to educate other activists and the public in general as to how radio stations work. REACH hammered home the point that nothing gets on Hot 97’s airwaves without the approval of management. This assertion made it difficult for Emmis executives to place blame on any of their deejays and say they were out of control or had momentary lapses in judgment. Eventually, even the executives themselves had to admit to making crucial mistakes – at least around the Tsunami song.

Emmis executives found themselves being the recipients of an unwanted media campaign. This campaign intensified when the entourages of rap stars 50 Cent and Game had a shootout in front of the station. REACH members capitalized and fixed some blame on Emmis executives for allowing the two artists to come on their airwaves and instigate their beefs.

Lessons: REACH made a firm commitment to stay focused on Emmis and Hot 97. It was important for the organization not to bite off more than it could chew.

The organizers also realized that what works for holding some stations accountable may not necessarily work with others. The strategies applied to Emmis and Hot 97 probably would not have worked with rival station Power 105, owned by Clear Channel. Frequently criticized, Clear Channel stations have become adept at dealing with controversy.

The third and most important aspect of the REACH campaign was not to limit itself to one approach. In past campaigns organizers called for one plan of action – a boycott or demonstrations, or letter-writing or talking to advertisers. REACH hit Emmis from all sides. One team focused on setting up rallies, demonstrations and townhall meetings while others focused on letter- writing campaigns to inform advertisers and stockholders of their grievances

Meanwhile, a media team set up press kits, websites and sought to develop relationships with media personalities who would help champion their cause. REACH also took advantage of its multi-cultural intergenerational makeup by tapping into all sorts of communities that may or may not have been connected with Hip Hop. For example, at the height of their campaign REACH obtained support from Asian activists in California who wrote letters and targeted Emmis Board members.

Still others networked and formed strategic alliances with other media reform organizations and with politicians who had misgivings about broadcast practices.

Building Strategic Alliances

One key organization that joined the campaign was Washington, D.C.-based Industryears.com. Headed by longtime industry vet Lisa Fager and former radio programmer Paul Porter, Industryears has within its organization a number of individuals who work or have worked in the music industry and are familiar with the key decision-makers and the power dynamics of the business.

“We spend a lot of time going after the artists and blaming them for corrupting our kids,” Fager said, “and we rarely hold feet to the fire those who are in key power positions who remain hidden behind the scenes but control what is heard or not heard on the airwaves day in and day out.”

Fager and Porter regularly update community members and other media reform activists with radio executive names, numbers, email addresses and – importantly – the correct procedures of how to take on those media gatekeepers who make decisions to play adult material on the public airwaves during key times when kids are a target or likely audience.

For example, Industryears encourages members of the public to make complaints to the FCC and have set up a form on their website (www.industryears.com) to streamline the process. Fager then makes it a point to regularly visit radio stations and check their public files. She particularly wants to make sure that any complaints lodged at the station are in the public files as the law requires.

Because Fager frequently interacts with members of Congress and the FCC, she has been key in helping alert people to the laws governing broadcasters and new legislation coming down the pipe. This is the hard work that many activists in the past had not done.

She and Industryears members make it a point to show up at radio conventions and engage, both publicly and privately, some of the executives control the programming they are challenging. Always professional yet firm, Fager’s most recent run-in was with Lowry Mays the CEO of Clear Channel. She makes sure these executives know that her organization is on the case and that she will give no passes for egregious practices.

Meanwhile, her partner Paul Porter brings the issues to the public. The former radio programmer frequently goes on TV talk shows ranging from Hannity and Combs to America’s Black Forum and makes it a point to educate listeners on how things work behind the scenes as well as name names. Many of those executives have had to defend themselves on those TV shows. Porter also has no qualms breaking bread with either conservatives or liberals as long as they are on the same page with regards to cleaning up the airwaves.

Paul’s expertise is on the issue of payola which he believes is major reason behind the airwaves not being cleaned up. His work takes him to meetings with the FCC and recently with the New York Attorney General Elliot Spitzer, who has successfully litigated payola cases.

Both Fager and Porter clearly understand that by serving as a de facto clearing house for information on the industry’s inner workings they can aid the efforts of other media reform groups around the country.

In turn, Industryears was able to count on the help of New York-based activists when they took on Washington DC’s number one urban station WPGC. After receiving complaints about the station airing a raunchy version of an already controversial song “Wait” by the Ying Yang Twins, Fager wrote an open letter calling into question the judgment of WPGC program director Jay Stevens.

She described the song as pornographic and wanted to know why Stevens would expose such a song to a community where HIV and AIDs is at an all-time high. Fager is quick to point out numerous studies showing the correlation between the rate of infection among young women and the type of pop culture material they are being exposed to.

The open letter went to over 30,000 people with personal email addresses and phone numbers for them to call. Fager also filed an FCC complaint and encouraged others to follow suit. These actions resulted in the station pulling the song for a few days as record label executives scrambled for a cleaner version.

Editor's Note: National examples of how communities have fought to prevent mass consolidation of radio airwaves provide a lens into the uncertain future of radio. Davey D is a journalist, deejay and community activist. He is currently the co-host of Hard Knock Radio, a Hip Hop-oriented political talk show which airs daily on KPFA 94.1 FM. He also pens a Hip Hop political column for the San Jose Mercury News.

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