Shivers In Wilkes

The January 28th edition of the Wilkes Journal-Patriot (WJP) had some interesting news in it--something that is rarely covered by High Country news outlets. Here's the headline, from page 1:

Requests for heating help up sharply.

The WJP has a very limited website, so here goes:

DSS (Wilkes Department of Social Services) officials and others cited soaring fuel prices and other rising cost of living expenses as primary factors, as well as increased unemployment.
...
"We're seeing more and more people who never applied now applying for assistance," said Lynn Cox, supervisor of the Wilkes DSS...
...
"There are more situations where elderly people are having to choose between heating and eating, on top of medical bills," added Mrs. Cox...
...
Mrs. Cox said more Wilkes people with job skills such as carpentry are unemployed.

Officials said they're seeing more instances of extended family members living together due to energy costs and other expenses, including single adults moving in with their parents.

Wilkes DSS Director Donnie Bumgarner said many people getting low income assistance in Wilkes are working but don't earn enough to make ends meet.
...
So far this winter, 3,170 Wilkes households have received $292,000 through the low income energy assistance program...

First, a big shout out to the WJP for doing some solid reporting.

Second, why haven't any High Country media outlets called around to the Ashe, Avery, or Watauga DSS offices to determine the extent of the problem in those counties? Does their lack of reporting on the issue mean it doesn't exist?

Third, this is just really sad. Wilkes is a pretty conservative county. We can't help but wonder what Rep. Foxx (R-NC) will do to help these people. Maybe she'll do nothing--after all, that's what a free market is all about: zero government intervention, right?

Well, they might intervene to save a failing bank or two--but that's different.

WASU 90.5 FM

Ever listen to WASU 90.5 FM? You probably have at some point--it's Appalachian State University's radio station.

Let's clarify something here: WASU is owned by Appalachian State University (ASU). ASU is a taxpayer supported, state university--correct? And it would probably be fair to say that ASU's mission is to educate folks--yes? ASU often speaks of the importance it places on community service and education as well. We hear those statements quite often.

WASU may well be a "student run" station--but its signal (220 watts) is nothing to sneeze at. Indeed, their signal doesn't suddenly fade at the edge of campus. We recently picked up WASU's signal just fine at the Ashe/Watauga line on U.S. 221. Above is a map of WASU's signal coverage, from radio-locator.com.

As shown on the map, WASU's local coverage (red circle) encompasses ALL of Boone and then some.

Did you catch this item in the January 24th edition of the Mountain Times?

The commissioners also approved the exploration of a lease agreement with the Appalachian State University radio station to place an antenna on Rich Mountain near county communication towers. The commissioners by consensus agreed to a renewable 25-year lease on the condition that the signal would not interfere with county operations and that the contract would have a one-year notice of cancellation. WASU, 90.5 FM on the radio dial, is upgrading its studio and expanding its coverage area.

So, it looks like WASU will be leasing public land in order to relocate its transmitter, and expand its coverage area. Don't get us wrong--we're all for the use of public funding to enhance education.

The problem is that despite WASU's strong signal (soon to be even stronger), ASU's educational mission, and the very significant amount of taxpayer support ASU receives, WASU carries no public affairs programming--or alternative news programming--that would serve to truly educate the students and citizens of ASU/Boone about the deeper issues our community and nation are facing. Reading the headlines from AP or CNN at the top of each hour does not constitute news coverage--headlines provide neither context nor educationally relevant content.

Let's face it. The media landscape in Boone is very homogeneous. Without assistance from ASU, this fact is unlikely to change. Indeed, it is quite normal to expect a state supported university radio station to provide some public affairs or alternative radio news programming. We're not talking money here--news programming from Free Speech Radio News, Earthbeat Radio, and many others is FREE for the taking.

Folks, the airwaves are public. Got any suggestions?

Weekend Video Salon: Rich Media, Poor Democracy

We continued our free film series yesterday, showing Outfoxed and War Made Easy--two excellent documentaries. Both films focused the role of media in our lives--particularly the degree of control our highly consolidated media exercises in determining what can be discussed, and what CAN'T.

This video of Robert McChesney picks up where our films and our discussion afterwards left off. He's one of the most renowned media scholars around--he also a huge fan of the Mountain Area Information Network. Enjoy!

Kentucky Fried Focus

Flat. That was the word Rita Healy of time.com used to describe the financial status of Dr. James Dobson's Focus on the Family empire. The good doctor also hosts several radio programs which can be heard all over the High Country. Here are the broadcast stations and times--just for little old Boone:

Daily Focus on the Family Broadcast

Boone WXIT 1200 AM Mon - Fri 3:00 PM

Focus on the Family Commentary

Boone WATA 1450 AM Mon - Fri 11:59 PM

James Dobson Family Minute

Boone WXIT 1200 AM Mon - Fri 7:45 AM

Boone WXIT 1200 AM Mon - Fri 11:59 PM

Weekend Magazine

Boone WXIT 1200 AM Sunday 8:06 AM

That's some pretty good coverage. But you know, that time.com article had some pretty interesting facts--here are just a few:

At the age of 71 and semi-retired from the day-to-day operations of his organization, Dobson is seeing Focus on the Family's fortunes wane — CEO Jim Daly describes them as "flat" — perhaps an inevitability for a ministry pegged to one towering figure. The ministry's expenses have exceeded its revenues for two years — what Daly calls a "drawdown from reserves" — by $4.1 million in fiscal year 2006 and by $9.9 million in 2005. (Figures for 2007 have not yet been released.)

The ministry apparently has been "flat" for some time. For example, in 1994 Dobson's monthly newsletter had a circulation of 2.4 million copies. Today, that circulation is about 1.1 million. Also, in the 1990s, Dobson was drawing audiences of 15,000 or more to his speeches; but in the lead-up to the 2006 mid-term election, only about 1,000 people heard his anti-abortion speech at the 2,500-seat Mt. Rushmore National Monument amphitheatre.

...

His radio broadcasts have a reported audience of 220 million people around the world, a number that has remained unchanged for many years. It is estimated that up to 8.9 million people in the U.S. hear his programs, although Arbitron says that figure is difficult to verify because statistics are garnered from time slots on local stations, not individual programs.

...

In Malaysia each year, Focus airs hundreds of 90-second James Dobson commentaries in Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants, over the public address system in supermarkets, and on the radio to a predominantly Muslim population of more than 24 million."

Wow. Where do we even start?

Aside from that last paragraph being just flat out scary, the message here seems to be fairly clear--the good doctor gets waaaaaaaay too much airtime here in the High Country, especially for a movement that is clearly in decline--where it matters most: in terms of financial success, and listeners.

Will the High Country radio titans take notice of this obvious market trend, and perhaps air something a little bit different? Perhaps we can ask the great drumstick in the sky.

Boone Radio

Ever spin the old AM dial around looking for a little enlightenment? Or maybe just try to listen to something that doesn't make you want to--well, you know.

Hateful talkers are well represented on the AM radio stations in Boone: Rush, Hannity, Boortz. Indeed, their less than tactful on-air history is well documented.

Which is why this is so very interesting--one of Rush's best buddies, Michael Savage, is losing advertisers, due to a boycott organized by Brave New Films. From The Huffington Post:

At least four major firms have pulled advertising from Michael Savage's nationally syndicated radio show following a campaign highlighting his inflammatory rhetoric. One other company, Geico insurance, is expected to follow suit.

The campaign, launched recently by Brave New Films, generated thousands of calls urging advertisers on the Savage Nation show to sever financial ties to the widely popular (and frequently offensive) talk host.

In less than a week, four agreed to pull their ads from the show, including Union Bank of California (whose representative says they were advertisers on the Savage show by mistake and were glad to be taken off), Intuit, Chattem, ITT Technical Institute.

...

Who are the local sponsors of Rush, Hannity, and Boortz in the High Country? It would be interesting to listen to each show as they air on WATA 1450 AM and WXIT 1200 AM--just to make a list of the local sponsors. Then vote with your wallet.

Things You Can Do: A New Business Model

What kind of business model will it take to ensure that the voices of the people are still heard--and included in the kind of decision making that a healthy democracy requires?

The topic seems daunting, but it's already happening--and right here in western North Carolina.

The Mountain Area Information Network, founded by Wally Bowen, is getting stronger everyday--and it's doing it with business plan that big media would never even consider. And Wally? Well heck, he's been everywhere lately discussing what we all can do to save the internet.

He was on Media Geek, an interesting show about the independent media movement on January 11th:

Wally Bowen is the Executive Director of the Mountain Area Information Network, a non-profit which has provided internet and information services to Western North Carolina for more than a decade. He believes that a non-commerical alternative to the enormous commercial DSL and cable modem duopolies in most communities is absolutely essential for guaranteeing the future freedom of the internet. In this week’s program Wally tells us more about MAIN and why nonprofit information services are so important.

And he'll be on WCQS at 6 p.m. Wednesday, January 23rd, to talk about the growing corporate control of the internet. Should be interesting, and who knows, you may just get inspired to do something right here in the High Country. Why not?

Book Review: The Terror Dream

It took us a little bit of time to get comfortable with the title of this book--just because we didn't want to re-read another account of that day--so we waited to read it.

But it turns out we shouldn't have waited.

This book is no rehash of 9/11.

It is a fascinating work about big media's reaction to 9/11, and the bizarre ways in which the media--and the U.S. government--called for the reinstatement of traditional "masculinity" in order to defend our country from terror.

"When the viciously misogynist al Qaeda attacked America, the mainstream media responded, strangely enough, with a call for a revival of manly men, frail females, and traditional domesticity. In The Terror Dream, our premiere cultural reporter exposes the Backlash and offers a fascinating explanation of why 9/11 led to such a perverse retreat from our own values. This is a book that had to be written, and only Susan Faludi could do it so brilliantly and engrossingly." --Barbara Ehrenreich

"In this bold and courageous book, Susan Faludi peels away the veneer of post-9/11 bravado to expose our collective national psyche, bringing us face to face with our nation's innermost fears and fantasies. The Terror Dream unmasks the Lone Rangers running our nation and their loyal media Tontos who hark back to a mythic frontier where men were men and women were victims. -- Elaine Tyler May

"An important contribution to our understanding of the cultural and political reaction to 9/11, which shows how deeply ingrained beliefs about masculinity, femininity and sanctified violence have shaped our national identity, and our ways of responding to crisis." -- Richard Slotkin

From susanfaludi.com:

Why, she asks, did an assault on American global dominance provoke an almost hysterical summons to restore "traditional" manhood, marriage, and maternity? Why did our media react as if the hijackers had targeted not a commercial and military edifice but the family home and nursery? Why did an attack fueled by hatred of Western emancipation lead to a regressive fixation on Doris Day womanhood and John Wayne masculinity, with trembling-lipped "security moms," swaggering presidential gunslingers, and the "rescue" of a female soldier compulsively recast as a "helpless little girl"?

We heard Ms. Faludi interviewed on Democracy Now! a little while back. She presented some very compelling arguments, and asked some difficult questions. The Terror Dream is a great read.

Things You Can Do: The Future of Food

Thanks to everyone who came out for today's movie screenings (Hijacking Catastrophe and The Future of Food)!

We had a great turnout for both films, and had a really good discussion after our second film, The Future of Food.

Several viewers asked if we could offer some suggestions about taking action--what we can do locally to make positive changes to our food system & our health.

One viewer suggested that folks check out the Organic Consumers Association for concrete ideas.

Another suggested joining a local CSA group--which stands for Community Supported Agriculture. For a fee, members of a CSA receive a basket of locally grown (usually organic) vegetables each week during the growing season. Maverick Farms is a CSA, right here in Watauga County.

Others re-emphasized the importance of shopping at our local farmers markets--we're lucky to have several in the High Country--Ashe County, Watauga County, and Wilkes County.

Some suggested the importance of requesting that local grocery stores carry locally-grown, organic food. Boone's Bare Essentials already does, and there are request forms available at the customer service desk at Earth Fare in Boone.

Another viewer suggested Bill McKibben's book--Deep Economy--as being a good source for ideas.

And we'll add one more: if you're feeling bummed out about the state of all things ecological, try tuning in to this 100% wind powered radio station (from the Washington Post):

WYEP's building is entirely powered by wind, with flooring made from recycled material or a combination of linseed oil and flour. Almost all of the "lumber" in the building is actually made of wheat and many of the sound panels in the studios are made of recycled blue jeans. In addition, the station has aired a locally produced program on the environment, the Allegheny Front, for 15 years.

Thanks for all of your suggestions, and we'll see you next week!

Weekend Video Salon: Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski

People often feel like they can't do anything to change the way things are. Karen thinks differently - and she's leading the way to change. Enjoy!

The Final Frontier

Big media loves a captive market. Problem is, they're running out of captive markets. So, big media is looking hard to find more captive markets--and it seems they've settled on a great one: Our kids.

What could be more captive than a bunch of kids riding to school on a school bus? Now you know everything you need to know about BusRadio's brave new business plan.

From Commercial Alert:

BusRadio boasts that it will "take targeted student marketing to the next level," and that it gives advertisers “a unique and effective way to reach the highly sought after teen and tween market”

The ads will even target elementary school children as young as six.

Some cash-strapped school districts are jumping on the BusRadio bandwagon--for the sake of revenue generation--even if it exposes the kids they are charged with protecting to constant advertising.

Other districts are tuning in to BusRadio because it "helps keep the kids distracted".

Right.

Before someone comes up with the brilliant idea to bring BusRadio to the High Country, let's tune in to hear what some of the folks who already have it seem to think:

“I didn’t have a big concern until I heard everything that’s going on, so I guess it’s more the advertising, and what they’re trying to sell my daughter,” said Johnitha Pugh, another concerned parent. -- Central Florida News

Bus Radio’s push into the Valley comes at a time of increasing concern nationwide that young people are harmed by constant bombardment from advertisers.

Its practice of selling kids-only audiences to advertisers is “nothing that school boards should be enabling or collaborating with,” said Robert Weissman, a spokesman for Commercial Alert, a consumer-advocacy group based in Washington, D.C.

The Mansfield School District board in Massachusetts in June 2006 rescinded a vote to contract with Bus Radio after parents complained about the advertising. -- Fresno Bee

A second school bus driver has come forward with concerns about Bus Radio, the new music programming service being adopted by local school districts.

Driver Les Lilly said the way the service was installed caused intercom failures and other malfunctions on buses in the Douglas County School District in August. The district has installed Bus Radio on 186 of its 277 buses.

“The PA systems weren’t working right, and that’s the most vital tool you have as a driver,” Lilly said. -- Rocky Mountain News

A bus driver for Littleton Public Schools wants parents to have more say over a new radio service featuring songs that he says encourage immoral behavior.

“Nobody can hear it but the driver and the kids,” said Dan Kenny about Bus Radio, which was installed on some Littleton buses about six weeks ago. “They played Stronger by Kanye West, and I was thinking this is not an appropriate song for kindergartners or fifth-graders.”

Although Bus Radio carried a “clean” version of Stronger, Kenny said it was still easy to determine which profane words were being disguised. He also objected to Timbaland’s The Way I Are, which refers to stripping. -- Rocky Mountain News

In my straitlaced world view, a Berlin wall should separate the schoolhouse from the marketplace. Kids deserve a safe harbor from the bombardment of sales pitches on TV, billboards, radio and the Internet...

Even so, I was surprised to learn in the same news story that BusRadio had been installed in San Marcos school buses without full public debate. No other district in the county has signed on with the Massachusetts-based company, which is something of a lightning rod.

In its three-year history, BusRadio has grown rapidly. According to a company spokesman, BusRadio is piped into 10,000 buses. -- San Diego Union Tribune

You get the idea. You can find all of the articles about BusRadio here on Commercial Alert's website.

We're SO proud of Junior--he's becoming quite the little commodity.

Book Review: Loyal To The Sky

Every once and awhile you can't help but get bogged down--especially when you're working for change, whatever your cause is. We heard author Marisa Handler interviewed on New Dimensions (a radio program you can catch on WPVM & WETS), and thought she had some wonderful words of wisdom to share about being an activist--and what it is that keeps her going. At age 30, she's got a lot of insight to share. Here are some reviews of her book called "Loyal to the Sky":

"Marisa Handler takes a brutally honest look at herself, the activist community, and the world. She writes with wit and beauty, preaches with passion and love. Loyal to the Sky is an affirmation that mortal humans, with all our foibles, can be powerful agents for change."
--Medea Benjamin, Cofounder, Global Exchange and CODEPINK

"Handler captures in this book the most hopeful energies of her generation and will excite anyone who hopes for a post-Bush world of peace and justice. Insightful and charming, spiritually rich and emotionally honest, Handler's writing shows that tikkun olam, the healing of the world, is not some outdated fantasy but an ever-present possibility."
--Rabbi Michael Lerner, Editor, Tikkun, and author of The Left Hand of God: Taking Back our Country from the Religious Right

Here is Marisa's website.

New Music Weekend: Mariee Sioux

She is a fantastic songwriter, she has a beautiful voice--and her dad plays in her band! Just wish we could hear her on a radio station here in the High Country--we'll have to work on that! Enjoy.

Weekend Video Salon: Affluenza

Shopping does not equal happiness. Affluenza is a great documentary--here's a short, funny, and interesting clip for your enjoyment!

God Said Unto Pat: "Buy Thee Some Newsprint"

Looks like radical cleric Pat Robertson wants to buy the Virginian-Pilot newspaper. Yes, we need more media consolidation of this sort--what a service to free speech it would be to have the V-P serve as yet another outlet for the radical cleric's Christian Broadcasting Network Empire.

And those articles that the V-P published which dared to question the radical cleric? Well, straight to hell with that stuff. Ditto for those offensive tidbits the V-P published about Blackwater USA.

Neat how these "christians" work together.

Smedley: A Real Maverick

We have a sneaking suspicion that a certain Senator--who, for some reason has been labeled a "maverick" by the mainstream media--will be getting even more attention from the mainstream media over the next few months.

Which is why we find ourselves thinking about the true meaning of the word--maverick.

Have you ever heard of General Smedley Butler? His nickname was "Maverick Marine"--and was he ever an interesting figure in American history:

The military career of Marine Corps General Smedley Butler reads like a history of American foreign military intervention in the late 19th and early 20th century. He served in practically every campaign from the Spanish American War, both in Cuba and the Philippines, to the U.S. expedition in China in the late 1920's. Starting as a 16 year old recruit he became the 2nd highest ranking general in the Corps and was awarded two Congressional Medals of Honor along the way.

However, Butler's career was even more remarkable after his retirement. In the 1930's, General Butler became the most celebrated anti-imperialist in America. From the public platform and on radio and in print Butler denounced America's foreign military interventions as a government racket to enrich large well connected corporations.

MDR Talk: History Counts aired a great radio show about this TRUE maverick 0n January 6th--and no, you can't get the show here in the High Country--but you can stream it here (scroll down to the Jan. 6th show). The show is carried on WPKN and WPKM in Connecticut and New York.

What does it take to be a maverick? Probably not a statement like this--just ask Smedley.

The Roots of Things

Rarely does something as huge as the "subprime mortgage crisis" just materialize overnight, out of nowhere. No, it takes a long time for something this big to reach critical mass. There were lots of warnings along the way--but few listened, especially in the mainstream media--after all, there was money to be made. Even now, with the crisis in full view, there is no local High Country coverage of the issue. Perhaps everyone in the High Country is so wealthy that they're not feeling the pinch--although we doubt that.

How did the crisis start? When did the crisis start? Who had a hand in creating the crisis?

Over the last several years, numerous laws designed to prevent just this sort of crisis have been rolled back--all in the name of privatization, monetization, and deregulation.

Who exactly brought us this crisis? You can find out more by listening to Nomi Prins on Counterspin--yes, yet another radio show that is not aired in the High Country. Turns out Ms. Prins knows a thing or two about the true roots of this crisis--because " [b]efore becoming a journalist, Nomi worked on Wall Street as a managing director at Goldman Sachs, and running the international analytics group at Bear Stearns in London."

Weekend Video Salon: They Didn't Just Pop Up Out of Nowhere

Rarely does the mainstream media dedicate any time to figuring out where our current crop of rulers came from--or who they teamed up with in order to get where they are. Fortunately, we have Amy. Enjoy!

How Ya Doin', Sprout?

We'll be responsible--we promise. Just let us buy all the radio and TV stations in your town--once you let us do that, we promise we'll report on ourselves if we do anything wrong--or if there are any actions we're taking that might impact the free exchange of ideas. Why just look--we report on ourselves all the time.

Well, maybe not. How much local coverage did you see or hear regarding the recent debate over the FCC's plan to allow still more media consolidation. Not much? While these guys actually acknowledged that they have a dog in the fight, there wasn't a whole lot else out there to see or hear.

While the WSJ may have acknowledged that their owner was eager to allow more consolidation, there was no coverage of the debate leading up to the FCC's vote to allow more consolidation--something that we believe would have been a pretty good idea, considering that we live in a democracy. But if you're a reporter, what incentive do you have to write a story that may get the public all riled up? And make your owners mad. Because they're doing so well in the "journalism" business.

So, what's a citizen to do? Go here to find out what happened at the FCC hearing in Washington--that wasn't covered--because it's not important.

Yes, the concept of self-reporting...one of the hallmarks of the free market. For big media, it seems to be working just fine.

Feeling A Little Woozy?

After all of your New Year's celebrating, perhaps you could forgive us for asking, "How is your level of consciousness?"

Ever heard of the term Time of Useful Consciousness? Generally, it is an aeronautical term which refers to the amount of time a pilot (or copilot) has to react before losing consciousness in an environment that is experiencing a sudden loss of oxygen.

It also happens to be a great radio program (it's not carried in the High Country, though).

On the most recent show, Michael Parenti:

...speaks about lies, dissent, and how we arrive at the truth of our situation and still retain our sanity. He raises the question whether the Iraq war was not a failure but a success for some parts of the empire - and why.
...
In this 2007 talk for Antioch College in Seattle Parenti raises the intriguing question of how we arrive at a valid analysis of our social reality - given that so many lies are told to confuse us.

You can stream this edition of TUC Radio here or here.

It'll be our little secret--well, maybe the NSA's too.

Midweek Video Salon: Hyper-individualism

Happy New Year! Let's celebrate together by watching this short video of Bill McKibben speaking in Tennessee about the need for creating true, local communities--and the impact that hyper-individualism has on our lives. Enjoy!