In The Name Of Diversity
By Ken Willmott, Editor
The NewsMoose
SCRANTON, SC - There is nothing that will prompt more of a filibuster from me as the subject of news media, not only as to general conduct and service in this day and age, but also and especially conglomerate ownerships and cookie-cutter treatment of the general public.
Long gone are the days when you turned on your local radio or television station and -- beyond the newscasts -- actually saw locally originated programs. Granted, the costs for such have gone through the roof, and bundling of services under multiple ownerships can be appreciated.
Sadly, it is noted, the public has never truly understood that prior to cable and satellite -- the access to these signals was absolutely free, thanks to advertising dollars spent by local merchants who depended on public ears and spending interests to support their businesses, and in turn, support the local radio stations.
My dear wife watches hour after hour of television and has become proficient enough with the remote control to mute the sound during commercials -- much to my chagrin, since some of the content in the ads is frankly more educational or artistic than some of what passes for programming these days.
As a teen riding with others -- they were handy with those push buttons to find the latest hot tunes on the radio. God help the radio station that was running a commercial -- total anathema to many an adolescent mind, zap went the button in constant punches until that hit song finally reverberated from the speakers.
Now we enter a new era of internet. Some folks have quit newsprint media altogether, opting instead to glean their news from online.
The NewsMoose itself is an outgrowth of disgust for horrid omissions of territorial coverage by existing newspapers in this area -- based on vocal complaints offered by many in communities whose only prayer has been to hope for a fair shake from their weekly paper.
As a sidenote on that -- we ourselves have been running certain ads for selected merchants on this service for about three years. I have no clue how people think we make any living at this or even whether they even care. I am assured they would scream across these swamps were somebody to start charging access fees that truly reflected the costs involved, whether it is this site or even the web sites of the major papers in Florence, Myrtle Beach, Columbia or Charleston.
We do our best here to avoid as many of those annoying popups as possible, but y'all just detest ads of any kind, judging by the few measly pennies we've gotten from our esteemed accounts. Additionally, you have had local radio stations come and go because of your own lack of support.
I spent two days -- five years ago -- learning face to face that most folk, except some deeply pentecostal church members, totally unaware that Lake City has a radio station. Amazing! Even now, it is paired with another station in Florence, and they in turn, are running national satellite music a majority of their broadcast day.
Incidentally, Lake City now has a new fledging radio station, operated by a group out of Columbia -- its concentration is soul gospel and I wonder how many have even paid any mind to that. In case you were wondering, Power 106 FM in St. Stephen is still operating, but I hear they too are on the ropes because folks continue to expect something for nothing.
Y'all have joked and sued and screamed and hollered about Charlie Walker in this neck of the woods for now over 50 years, and yet amidst the greater good that Charlie did, he symbolized a time of local, personal, old-fashioned media service
that is becoming more and more extinct every day. Now that station has been sold to a group from Sumter that operates several stations, but the local hands-on service to Kingstree, the original location of license, has long since faded like a vine -- because you spent your money somewhere else.
It's amazing to me how the rules have changed in these years since KDKA in Pittsburgh signed on as the first commercial station in this country, circa 1922. During my career, I have watched the St. George, SC station move to North Charleston, the Sumter FM station has technically moved to Columbia, the Summerville station has moved to Charleston, and the Moncks Corner radio station has virtually vanished. Even Wheelz 92.5 is no more in Manning, it's on a new channel under new ownership, and I've lost interest in where they moved the transmitter.
In Florence alone, one single conglomerate owns and operates seven radio stations out of one building -- all stations that once were independently owned and operated.
Further, another conglomerate owns the TV station, the daily, and several of the nearby weekly papers. What that arrangement has done to undercut the value of the weeklies in particular is grist for another rambling dissertation from me.
At the national level, until CNN and Fox came along, our news was and is dictated by major networks, owned by non-publishing entities. None of them offers the full scope of news as was offered when I was a child. All of them attempt to dictate public opinion rather than discharge information in the old-school fair and impartial manner.
When too many media outlets fall into fewer and fewer hands -- diversity is doomed. Local service is doomed. Access to airwaves and editors can be quite limited. Political campaigning becomes a tortuous, expensive event -- strung out at extraordinary cost over years instead of months. What passes for truth today often takes years of effort to be proven wrong in many cases.
I applaud Sen. Fritz Hollings' opposition to the latest FCC decision to relax ownership rules regarding multi-media holdings in localized areas. Like him, they can make all the rules they like, but I'll be damned if Congress should appropriate the funds to implement them. God knows we have too much intrusion from Washington and Columbia already.
Editors: Note: Our inspiration for this commentary comes from Wes Pruden, editor of
The Washington Times in his piece titled
You want the news? Write it yourself
Excerpt from Pruden -
"Big is not always beautiful. Newspaper readership, along with newspaper quality, has declined with the consolidation of ownership. Despite the color photographs and jazzy graphics, you might not know from reading the morning paper whether you're in Albany or Nashville, Orlando or Denver, or either of the Portlands. Some newspaper companies specialize in buying newspapers merely to shut them down.
