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In
the state of Iowa, all broadcast television licenses were up for
renewal at the end of 2005. As a result of the deregulation binge
of the 1980's, stations that were once required to apply for renewal
every 3 years, now only have to apply every 8 years (and using
a rather trivial renewal application). Given that rareness of
any opportunity for citizens to petition the FCC, IBLTV members
saw action this year as an imperative.
As
have many Iowa citizens, we have seen the quality of KGAN
TV Channel 2 go from good to very poor. A station that once
helped advance the careers of Walter Cronkite and Richard Threlkeld
now has what many see as the worst local news programming and
is the most deaf to the civic needs of its viewers of any local
broadcaster. And like other stations owned by Sinclair
Broadcast Group (headquartered in Maryland), KGAN is forced
to air one-sided opinion pieces on a daily basis during the local
news that only serve to further degrade, divide, and discourage
public discourse.
As
IBLTV Co-chairman Trish Nelson told the press, "Filing a
license challenge against a broadcaster is an enormous effort."
IBLTV members volunteered evenings, weekends, and weeks of vacation
time from their full-time jobs to watch many hours of videotapes,
sift through KGAN's Public File, help sponsor a town-hall
meeting on media reform, give interviews and write op-eds,
develop a website, and collect testimony from dozens of concerned
citizens. We then worked for months to put together our Petition
to Deny Renewal. It was a labor of conviction. Together with all
appendices, supporting affidavits, and exhibits, the entire Petition
consisted of nearly 400 pages.
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IBLTV
members at the broadcast studio of KGAN-TV, the Sinclair station
in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Thirteen
members presented a copy of their FCC Petition on December 22,
2005.
Note also
the that, as the sign indicates, the studio is home to KFXA,
another station that is operated by, but never identified as,
a Sinclair station.
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IBLTV
was joined in our efforts by many signatories to a separate, "citizen's
petition" that also asked the FCC for help in improving
our local television. Over 500 citizens from over 80 towns and
cities in Iowa, and some others from Wisconsin and Illinois, added
their names to our effort. We were gratified by that support.
It confirms that there are many individuals who are concerned
about our broken media system.
IBLTV
recognizes that there are many problems with the electronic media
these days. By listening to the viewing public, we've heard many
complaints about too many commercials and "info"mercials,
lousy programming, indecency, superficial news coverage, and a
lack of good corporate citizenship.
In
its effort to influence the direction of KGAN TV, we recognize
that KGAN is not the only station that could be doing a better
job. For example, we have found that both KGAN and KCRG (the other
Cedar Rapids station) often spend more time on commercials
than they do on actual community news during their half-hour
local news shows. However, as we have documented elsewhere on
this website, IBLTV believes that KGAN is a particularly troubling
case. It has unique and serious problems which stem from the practices
of Sinclair Broadcast Group. Those practices have had detrimental
local and national
effects. Thus, in filing its Petition, IBLTV hopes to address
concerns specific to KGAN and also alert the FCC that many citizens
are not all that happy with broadcasters who often seem too interested
in profit than a real sense of public service.
IBLTV
hopes that our Petition will result in positive change. Through
remedies provided by the FCC, KGAN can return to its Iowan sensibilities
and again become a more positive member of the community, providing
better community news, information, and civic concern for its
viewers. IBLTV wishes for a better KGAN and does not want to live
in a community served by only the one, remaining, broadcast station.
In
response to our efforts, IBLTV has received word from communities
from Nevada to Illinois to New York that there is growing interest
in fighting for a return of the public's airwaves to... ...the
public. In contrast to what broadcaster lobbyists (and sadly,
politicians in their pocket) say, free speech does not just belong
to the very wealthy who can afford to buy up stations and use
them as giant bullhorns to foist their agenda over our airwaves.
Indeed, if one consults the Constitution, free speech was reserved
for individuals, not corporations with the means to broadcast
the views of an elite rich coast to coast.
We
hope that the FCC will listen to what is becoming growing grassroots
action across the nation that will, hopefully, disturb a government
that, we firmly believe, listens too much to lobbyists and not
enough to the average citizen's needs.
As
IBLTV member Arron Wings was quoted by the press as saying "If
the FCC won't deny a license renewal for one of the worst television
stations, and worst broadcasting companies in the United States,
perhaps there ought to be a congressional hearing on the FCC's
performance as well.'
IBLTV
is making the Petition available to any individuals or groups
who may wish to use it as a template for their efforts. Just click
on the blue box, above, or click here.
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