Silver City New Mexico lost its liberal radio show...by intimidation

[duhneece]

My first posting of a thread! Here in very conservative, right-wing, home-of-the-Stealths Alamogordo, New Mexico, there is one hour a week of a liberal radio show by Stephanie DuBois and Rudy Clarke. I just received this from Stephanie:
Hi folks, I felt I should pass this on. I got an e-mail today that was very upsetting. It seems that on a radio station in Silver City (New Mexico) owned by Matt Runnels, there is a liberal hour on each morning from 9am to 10 am. The sponsors pulled their ads. The liberal community members came through and funded the show. BUT someone in the community went to all the businesses in Silver City on both am and fm and coerced them to threaten to pull their ads if Matt did not get the liberal show off. Today in the middle of the show he came on and said the show was off. This smacks of McCarthyism. We are supposedly fighting for democracy in Iraq and we are fast losing our freedom a little bit more each day. The station has all the conservatives talk show gurus,Rush et al. I have this info on good reliable source please pass it on. Matt would have lost $10,000. He couldn't afford to keep it on. Thanks for listening, Stephanie L. DuBois
Our one theater has still not decided whether or not to show F 9/11.
I am afraid our one liberal hour per week will also vanish and I don't know how to prevent it. Any ideas?

[yorgatron]

1. sounds to me like you need some

PIRATE RADIO! seriously,you should look into it.they're OUR airwaves dammit!!!

[duhneece]

2. I've never heard of Pirate Radio

Is there really such a thing?

[Spiffarino]

3. If local Libs are willing to fund it...

...consider opening a low-power station. The FCC is apparently giving licenses to locals who want their own LP stations. You won't cover a lot of area (it's low-power and FM), but it'll probably get heard throughout most of the Alamogordo area.

Let me tell you up front, I don't know much about this stuff. This is just what I've heard. There are two stations in Asheville, NC: WRES and WPVM. Both are low-power independent stations that are run by non-profits. Maybe you can find them on the web and ask them how they got started.

WPVM-LP is left-wing, all the time. It's funded entirely by donations and manages to run on - I believe - somewhere around $15,000 per year. They get a lot of their content from Pacifica Radio.

On Edit: Found WPVM's website. It's http://wpvm.org/

[mongo]

4. radio station owners are wimpy girly-men

Really.
When I first opened the sex shop I was on all 3 stations in town. Now only one will take my business. One station owner told me he was afraid of being "fined" by the FCC. And I've never run a commercial that was even pg-13! we run very tasteful ads - we want a woman/couple friendly image for the store.

A local church had all its members call and complain about our ads. It is funny, 'cause they both still take the strip clubs ads, but not mine.

The only thing you can do is call yourself and make a stink about this. Write a LTTE and tell other people to call also.

[Zorra]

5. Proof that the media needs to be publicly owned.

If there are enough Democrats in your area, maybe you could start a boycott of all the advertisers on that radio station.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

6. Use the right-wing's tactic

Get the liberals and radicals in town to boycott the businesses that caved in to pressure and call them and tell them why. This is especially useful if some of the liberals know the advertisers personally.

[Tempest]

7. Link to article

"Radio Free Silver" pulled off the air by station owner

Jim Owen

http://www.thedailypress.com/artman/publish/article_1263.shtml


"Radio Free Silver" a one-hour, daily, liberal talk show in Silver City is off the air.

KNFT Radio owner Matt Runnels announced Monday he was canceling "RFS" because 20 to 25 of the station's advertisers threatened to pull their spots from all KNFT programming if the show continued to be aired.
Runnels said he was faced with a loss of nearly $10,000 in monthly advertising revenue.

Car dealers, bankers, pizza business owners, all-terrain vehicle sellers and furniture-store owners were among those who threatened to pull their ads, according to Runnels.

"It's a shame that, in America, we can't have someone with an opposing view," he said. "It wasn't like ('RFS' was) preaching anarchy. ... If you don't like what you hear, push the button. There's a lot of programming out there.

[Gloria]

8. In Alamagordo, the military people screamed and hollered and drove

Peter Werbe and Jim Hightower off the air...of course, that was BEFORE Iraq....wonder how they feel about things now....

Here in Las Cruces, we had a local guy name Bill Varuola do a "liberal" local show on Saturdays for a couple of hours....disappeared a couple of years ago.....

The local station has all the RW crap. plus the crap comes in from El Paso, which is a Democratic town.

Our little 100 seat Fountain Theater played F911 for two weeks...and finally, last week, the Allen Theaters, which own all the screens in town, decided to show F911. Too late, but I hope some people are going.....

[mahina]

9. How about....

posting the local newspaper letters to the editor contact info here, and I for one will write a letter for you. Rational, calm, clearheaded, and razor sharp.
This is not American.

[duhneece]

11. Thank you

The newspaper is the Silver City Daily Press PO Box 740 Silver City, NM 88061.
You have made my day!

[Downtown Hound]

10. I agree with the reverse boycott idea

That's assuming you have enough Democrats in the area. Just get together and tell all the spineless yellow gut business owners that you're going to boycott them right back for the silencing of free speech. Also, I don't know if there's a single group in the area responsible for doing this to your station, but you could organize a protest at perhaps say, the local GOP office. It wouldn't change policy but it would let them know you're not going to go down without a fight. It's important that you don't just let this slide, that's what they're counting on.

[duhneece]

12. To all of you, THANK YOU

I believe I might have lost my mind had I not found DU-y'all offer excellent, practical solutions...you share my outrage...you are family.

[cybildisobedience]

14. maybe an ad in the paper

asking all supporters of free speech and open debate the boycott the following advertisers, and list them.
(although now that I think of it, you probably won't get them to run it in the paper, things are getting so ridiculous).
Flyers?
Write to Howard Stern and beg him to read these advertisers on the air?
Keith Olberman?
Write to Michael Moore?
Organize a letter to the editor campaign to your local papers and ask people to express their outrage?

[rumguy]

13. New Mexico is currently leaning Dem...

But maybe Silver City is different

[Mixxster]

15. This info needs to be widely distributed on the internet

Send it to all the left leaning blogs you know of.

This guy got so upset about what happened to him for taking photos that he set up a website and the story circulated widely.

http://www.thestranger.com/2004-07-15/city.html