By Tula Connell Flip the radio dials during morning drive time in Cleveland and chances are the airwaves sound something like this:
“It was Congress that almost overnight gave the airlines a $15 billion bailout and completely ignored the workers. Completely.”
In an invigorating counter to the Rush Limbaughs and Sean Hannitys, Ed “Flash” Ferenc’s daily, hour-long “America’s Workforce” program challenges standard radio fare through its explicit role as—according to its own promotional identification—“one hour of worker power.”
Launched in the mid-1990s, “America’s Workforce” is among fewer than two dozen such programs on the air across the country. While securing funding and maintaining staffing commitment are significant hurdles for union activists seeking support for radio shows that focus on worker issues, one of the biggest obstacles is access to the airwaves. Changes to current media ownership rules now under consideration by the Federal Communications Commission not only would make it harder for grassroots radio programs to take seed, but likely would lead to an unprecedented consolidation of television, newspaper and radio ownership.
| |  |
| | High power: Ed “Flash” Ferenc hosts “America’s Workforce” during Cleveland’s morning drive time. |
|
With a potential listenership extending to five counties around the greater Cleveland area, including 175,000 union members, “America’s Workforce” on WERE AM is the highest-rated program of the station’s owner, Radio One.
“We’ve broken a lot of stories papers have picked up on. Editors listen to our program,” says Bud McTaggart, the show’s co-producer. McTaggart, a longtime typographical union member, worked closely with the Cleveland AFL-CIO Federation of Labor in launching the show, which features interviews with union leaders and local and state lawmakers, as well as information on local strike actions and interactive call-ins. Professional radio personality Ferenc, a member of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, is among an all-union staff, including AFTRA members who cut the commercials.
The type of programming listeners are exposed to can make a big difference in public attitudes and, ultimately, voting behavior. David Barker, a political science professor at the University of Pittsburgh, has studied the impact of radio talk shows, particularly those of the ultraconservative Limbaugh. “I found that listening to Limbaugh mobilizes conservative listeners to action—the more they listen, the more they vote, contribute, work for a campaign, try to persuade others, put bumper stickers on their cars, etc.,” says Barker. “So the Limbaugh influence becomes both direct, to his listeners, and indirect, through his listeners.”
In Kentucky, the state federation spearheaded what has become a three-hour, worker-focused morning drive-time talk show in Louisville. Featuring former Rep. Mike Ward (D-Ky.), the show has included discussions with workers seeking to join a union and Mexican maquiladora workers. Kentucky State AFL-CIO President Bill Londrigan says the Kentucky union movement recognized that to be effective, “we had to have some access to the mass media.
“Lacking the outlet on the radio, our message goes to waste,” says Londrigan. “We were able to open up the airwaves to our perspective.”
If the Cleveland and Louisville programs are radio rarities, so are their locations on the AM dial: Both shows are produced on commercial stations.
“Community radio is looked to as the place to get labor news,” says Frank Emspak, who last year launched the Workers Independent News Service (WINS). In creating WINS, a subscriber-based package of worker-oriented news, Emspak says he is “trying hard for people to see WINS as news formatted to fit into commercial systems. The more pressure on local radio stations to include daily programming like WINS, the more robust it will be.”
| |  | Getting On Air | | | | Accessing airtime and producing a worker-focused radio show, say union leaders involved in such efforts, takes commitment, certain skills and strong union and community support.  | Explore options for airtime in your community—don't discount commercial radio, says Londrigan. | | Get union participation and buy-in so the union movement has a stake. | | Involve community groups and make sure the show base extends beyond unions. | | Ask for help from skilled union members. |
AFTRA members can give workshops on reading, Ancel says, and IBEW members can wire a studio. | Pull together a well-informed staff who are “news junkies,” says Ancel. “With a little bit of practice, a person can develop skills to make a good host,” says Londrigan. | | Remember your audience. “We know we’re talking to union and nonunion people,” says Gonyea, “and we translate the jargon.” | | Involve your listeners. Says Gonyea: “We always try to give people an action they can take.” |
| |  | | |
|
| | |
Accessing airwaves
Electrical Workers member Ron Gonyea never planned on becoming a Houston radio talk show host. Like millions of Americans, Gonyea wanted to hear a point of view not reflected in the choice of local radio stations—one that illustrates concerns of working people.
A few years ago, Gonyea, who describes himself as basically an activist—“I search for rallies and picket lines to go on,” he says—joined rallies in support of Pacifica radio network employees. The workers were engaged in a bitter fight with management for direction of the progressive, nationwide radio network, and Gonyea’s support of the KPFT employees caught their attention.
“KPFT didn’t see union members as activists until I started going to their rallies,” says Gonyea. While joining with Pacifica supporters, Gonyea encouraged them to launch a local radio program. After the workers won their struggle, the local station talked with Harris County Central Labor Council Secretary-Treasurer Richard Shaw and offered Gonyea his own labor show. “They told me, ‘if you don’t do it, it isn’t going to happen.’ ” Together with Teamsters member Tim Pagel, Gonyea produces and hosts the weekly Friday evening “Voices at Work” program that now extends into Galveston.
But if unions hadn’t reached out to the community, the show never would have materialized. Union members “have to get involved with other groups, social justice groups. First help them with something, then it’s a whole lot easier” to seek their support, says Gonyea.
Getting on the air is only the first step. A longer struggle involves staying on. Longtime labor journalist and photographer David Bacon, who has hosted “Labor and the Global Economy” for seven years on Pacifica’s KPFA station in San Francisco, makes a point of ensuring union leaders reinforce community support for a worker-focused program.
“In any kind of labor show, you’re never really secure,” says Bacon. “Having labor people talk to radio people for support once you’re on the air” is essential, he says. In the Bay Area, union leaders “are prepared to fight for the show and will go to bat for it.”
| |  |
| | Channel surfing: IBEW member Ron Gonyea and IBT member Tim Pagel host “Voices at Work,” a weekly hour-long radio program in Houston. |
|
The fight for funding
Whether their shows are on commercial or community radio, producers face a constant fight for funding.
“The mistake I think people make when people do something like this is thinking that unions have enough money to carry it,” says McTaggart. “Unions have many demands, and you actually get a better audience if it’s not carried alone by unions.”
Cleveland’s “America’s Workforce” relied on the union-friendly BMA Media Group to underwrite the show for the first year, until it brought in enough on its own to pay for the airtime and host’s salary. Now the show receives approximately 50 percent of its funding from unions, while getting key advertising dollars from corporate sponsors. McTaggart says the program has a waiting list for national advertisers.
For community radio shows, station fundraisers reflect local support. Although staffing costs typically are not an issue—most staff members are volunteers—it’s clear that the amount a worker-based program raises during funding appeals can determine a show’s longevity.
“Station managers or whoever the ultimate decision maker is have to be convinced there’s an audience out there,” says Paul Krell, UAW public affairs director. The UAW’s i.e. America Radio Network produces pro-working family radio programming marketed to radio stations nationwide and is streamed live on www.ieamericaradio.com. Show hosts Juline Jordan, Mike Malloy and others also appear as guests on national television, including CNN and MSNBC.
“I have the support of most of the unions in Houston,” says Gonyea. “The show is a bridge between groups, unions and others.”
In its first fundraising drive, “Voices at Work” broke the record for the amount raised by a new local show.
All about workers
During the 10-day West Coast lockout of International Longshore and Warehouse Union members last fall, Bacon took his cell phone to the docks to interview workers for day-to-day updates. “We want to show what’s happening to people where they live,” Bacon says. “That’s what’s so exciting about radio—you have the ability to do something that’s immediate.”
“We really do try to put the voice of working people on the air,” says Judy Ancel, who has coordinated the weekly “Heartland Labor Forum” radio show in Kansas City, Kan., since 1989. The forum is co-sponsored by the University of Missouri’s Institute for Labor Studies and Longview Community College.
In the end, union-backed radio programming reflects the union movement’s singular mission: “We’re about helping people find their voice,” says Bacon. “That’s what unions are about—helping people find a voice at work.”
