Licenses for WGBH FM and WCRB FM in Boston being challenged before the FCC

Since November 6, 2009 "Supporters of Folk and Blues on WGBH" has been in the forefront of the fight by WGBH management to replace "the peoples' music"* with "single format"** (talk and news) format. We welcome this recent effort by the "Committee for Community Access", which formed some time during or after 2009, when WGBH fired Steve Schwartz, reduced Eric Jackson's on-air hours and eliminated Bob Parlochato's jazz sprogrms. For additional background, read

Graphic in "WGBH drops folk and blues programs", 11/7/09 - http://notlobmusic.blogspot.com/2009/11/wgbh-drops-folk-and-blues-programs.html, Jeff Boudeau

Marita Rivero Vice President and General Manager for Radio and Television, WGBHJune 1, 2012 at 1:10am · Latest version by Jeff Boudreau
Brendan Hogan returns to Boston NPR radioSeptember 30, 2011 at 12:16pm · Latest version by Jeff Boudreau
Consider community radioSeptember 29, 2011 at 4:07pm · Latest version by Jeff Boudreau
Re-statement of purposeJune 23, 2011 at 3:06pm · Latest version by Jeff Boudreau
WGBH has been escorting long time employees out the doorJune 10, 2011 at 9:17pm · Latest version by Jeff Boudreau
Scott Dickinson's brilliant idea, an open group resource for folk, blues, roots & americana in New EnglandMay 26, 2011 at 12:51pm · Latest version by Jeff Boudreau

...all in "Supporters of Folk and Blues on WGBH's" files area, as well as "WGBH drops folk and blues programs", 11/7/09 - http://notlobmusic.blogspot.com/2009/11/wgbh-drops-folk-and-blues-programs.html - and subsequent WGBH-related articles in Jeff Boudreau's blog - http://notlobmusic.blogspot.com/
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* Attributed to Jim Kweskin, November 7, 2009, quoted by Jeff Boudreau  ""I can only assume this has something to do with the almighty dollar. Isn't this supposed to be public radio and aren't we the public. Folk music has been a mainstay on WGBH for as long as I can remember. Acoustic artists are as popular as ever and in some ways even more popular then in days gone by. I don't get it. WGBH should be ashamed of itself. Well, as Ma Joad said, "We're the people and you can't stop us and you can't lick us. We just keep coming, 'cause we're the people."
Source: http://notlobmusic.blogspot.com/2009/11/wgbh-drops-folk-and-blues-programs.html
** A term used by WGBH management at meetings of the the "Community Advisory Committee", November, 2009.

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Licenses for WGBH FM and WCRB FM in Boston being challenged before the FCC

Committee for Community Access
4 Carol Avenue | Suite 6 | Boston | MA 02135617.277.4715
Media Contact: Sue Auclair, 617-522-1394 _jazzwoman@earthlink.net

March 25, 2014

For Immediate Release:

Broadcast Licenses for WGBH FM Educational Foundation and WCRB FM in Bostonbeing challenged before the FCC by Committee for Community Accesshttp://www.CCAccess.info

Boston, MA--The Committee for Community Access, a local public interestmedia advocacy umbrella organization, filed Petitions to Deny Renewal ofthe licenses held by WGBH Educational Foundation and WCRB FM with theFederal Communications Commission, Washington D.C. on the first business dayin March, which was March 4, 2014. (The FCC was closed on Monday March 3 dueto asnowstorm.)

Massachusetts radio stations have a 10-year FCC renewal cycle and 2014 isthe year for all radio stations in the state to renew their licenses withthe FCC.

The WGBH Educational Foundation's Oppositions to Committee for CommunityAccess's Petitions to Deny are due 30 days later, or on April 3, 2014. CCA's Replies to the Oppositions will be due 20 days from when theFoundation's Oppositions are filed or April 23rd, whichever is later.

On behalf of Classical, Jazz, Folk and Blues music lovers, The Committeefor Community Access is requesting that the trustees of the EducationalFoundation restore full time music programming on the high power, clearsignal facility of WGBH-FM 89.7 mHz.

CCA calls on members of the public who wish to protest the WGBH EducationalFoundation's dropping of almost all of WGBH-FM's music broadcasts,canceling all Blues and Folk shows, ending its decades long tradition ofjazz all night by limiting jazz to weekend evenings, and its relocation ofall classical programming to a weak out-of-town station, to mail theirsupport of CCA's FCC petitions within the next two weeks to the FCC and tothe WGBH Educational Foundation's Board of Trustees, so the station and theCommission may understand the depth of public feeling on this issue.

A sample letter for the public is on CCA's new webpage: _http://www.ccaccess.info_ (http://www.ccaccess.info/)

Addresses:Media Bureau - Audio SectionFederal Communications Commission445 12th Street S.W., Room TW-A325Washington D.C. 20554

RE: License Renewal Applications ofWGBH-FM #BRED 20131202BIAWCRB-FM #BRH 20131202BIR

Board of TrusteesWGBH Educational FoundationOne Guest StreetBrighton, MA 02135

A steering committee, led by CCA's Chairman, Jacob A. Bernstein andincluding lobbyists for Classical, Jazz, Folk and Blues music programminghas been formed to publicize and raise funds to support these efforts.

"We cannot believe the trustees approved the way Jazz radio was decimatedin June 2012," states Jack Bernstein, Chairman of the Committee forCommunity Access. "Management is chasing a pot of gold in their combinedradio/TV/Web News/Talk format infiltrating and taking over the proud musicbastion they spent 40+ years in the making. We're opposing what they'redoing because they created the demand among New England music lovers forthe best presentation and reception of music. WGBH-FM was an establishedhighly polished exposition of music that was TOO ESSENTIAL TO LOSE!"

Brief History of Eliminating Music at WGBH:

September 1995: Ron Della Chiesa's Music America scrapped by management
September 2009: WGBH bids to purchase WCRBNovember 2009: WGBH purchases WCRB for $14 Million
November 2009: FCC approves WGBH purchase of WCRB; WGBH moves all classical programming to WCRB FM. A protest is held at Old South Churchwith a panel featuring Chris Lydon, Richard Dyer and others. John Voci wasrepresenting WGBH at this event.
December 2009: WGBH Discontinues BSO Friday Afternoon Broadcasts
January 2010: Folk and Blues shows dropped
June 20, 2012: WGBH FM cuts jazz programming; fires Steve Schwartz, cutsEric in The Evening to weekends only; cuts all-night

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Related articles from this blog:

1000 supporters of folk and blues on WGBH can't be wrong!, 11/15/09
Which side are you on?, 12/26/09
NPR Ate My Local Public Radio Station, 7/7/10
On the demise of folk, blues and classical on WGBH-fm. one year on., 11/9/10
WGBH's March Towards "Single Format" Continues, 6/20/12
Jazz Funeral for Jazz on WGBH Radio, 7/5, Brighton, 7/3/12
Folk, Blues, Classical and Jazz Funeral for ALL Passed WGBH Music Programs, Copley Square, 7/27, 7/27/12
This will be your last email from WGBH, 8/27/12
4th Anniversary Folk-to-AAA Format Change at "Boston's NPR Music Station", 1/24/13
Think before you donate to so-called "public" radio, 6/7/13
4th anniversary of WGBH killing the peoples' music, 12/2/13

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Appended 3/27/13. 
notloB Music asked Scott Fybush for his opinion, who obliged: "As I said when Jeff passed along the news of this initially - good luck with that. Ever since the WNCN fight in the 1970s, the FCC has been steadfast in its determination not to be a judge of content, especially at renewal time. And unlike Canada, where stations are required as a condition of license to program a certain amount of spoken-word content, there's nothing in the FCC rules that mandates whether stations run spoken-word or music programming. If WGBH's license could somehow be pulled for not carrying any music programming, then so could WBUR's, and WEEI's, and WBZ-FM's, and most of the AM dial. If the aim here is to get publicity, so be it, but it's not going to go anywhere at the FCC."
Scott was involved for many years in Boston-area commercial radio and is now the owner of Northeast Radio Watch.

Scott's analysis appears to be dead on. In "Group challenges WGBH programming" by Joseph P. Kahn  | GLOBE STAFF   MARCH 25, 2014,  Jack Bernstein is quoted as saying “We expect to be turned down...”
Read the full article here.

FCC Warning to Worcester Unlicensed Station Is Indicator of Big New England Pirate Scene

Originally published to Radio Survivor ~ http://www.radiosurvivor.com/2010/04/27/fcc-warning-to-worcester-unlicensed-station-is-indicator-of-big-new-england-pirate-scene/ ~ on 4/27/10

FCC Warning to Worcester Unlicensed Station Is Indicator of Big New England Pirate Scene

April 27th, 2010 by Paul Riismandel in Uncategorized

Worcester, Massachusset’s unlicensed Flava 105.5 has received some mostly positive press coverage recently for its focus on underserved Caribbean populations in the area. Probably not coincidentally, about two weeks after it appeared in the local newspaper the FCC issued the station a Notice of Unlicensed Operation (NOUO) ordering it to cease broadcasting immediately.

In a follow-up story reporting on the Commission’s action that appeared in the News Telegram on Saturday the station’s general manager said that “We’re no longer on the air. … We’re not in business.” However, the paper’s reporter noted that the station was still on the air as of Friday night.

Every FCC field office prioritizes unlicensed stations differently. Sometimes a station operating as openly as Flava 105.5 might go unbothered for months. Other times the Commission will act quickly once a station gets noticed. A significant variable in this is how loudly local licensed broadcasters complain and bug the FCC.

In this case it looks like the Boston field office has been hitting unlicensed stations all over its geographic area of responsibility since February. Scanning over the Enforcement Bureau’s recent field actions it looks like quite a few Massachusetts stations were on the radar. The Boston field office issued NUOUs to another Worcester station, along with stations in Hartford, Webster, Boston, Norwood, Boxford, two stations in Mattapan(1, 2) Springfield and three stations in Brockton (1, 2, 3). Additionally, the Boston field office sent NUOUs to four stations in Rhode Island and three in Connecticut over the same period.

In the first article on Flava 105.5 a local online radio director was quoted saying she’s “heard of a lot of Haitian radio stations popping up in the Boston area.” This pattern looks a lot like the unlicensed activity in the New York City and South Florida areas which also have significant Caribbean and Latino communities who are otherwise not well served by licensed stations, commercial or noncommercial.

I was actually surprised at the number of notices the Boston field office sent out this year (20!). That number alone represents a lot of unlicensed broadcasting. But if you take into account the likelihood that there are many other stations that haven’t been identified by the FCC or just haven’t been contacted yet, I’d say there’s a pretty big pirate scene going on in southern New England. The Commission doesn’t note the kind of programming aired on the stations it contacts. But just looking over the names of the persons identified in the notices there seem to be what look like a lot of Latino and Hatian names.

The takeaway from this is that there are still a lot of communities and groups who are not well served by licensed broadcasters, leading a significant number of people to take to the air without a license to fill the void. This is especially true in big metropolitan areas, like greater Boston, where low-power FM licenses have not been available in the densest population areas. I think it’s fair to say that even if LPFM licenses to become available there will not be enough to go around, and not much of a dent will be made in the number of unlicensed broadcasters.

Finally, I must note that all the Boston office has done is sent out warning letters that say the equivalent of “we’re pretty sure you’re broadcasting without a license and you better cut it out!” That letter alone is enough to scare a lot of unlicensed broadcasters off the air. But it’s a long way from the NUOU letter to a real fine, and then collecting the fine or taking a station off the air by police force.

While LPFM provided a very needed avenue for many different populations and communities to obtain broadcast licenses, the service is not and will not be enough to make up for the lack of diversity on the majority of the radio dial. While the FCC may have hoped LPFM would hold back the tide of pirate radio, a decade later there’s no evidence that happened. There may be fewer outwardly political pirates like Free Radio Berkeley, but that doesn’t mean today’s stations aren’t there for important reasons.