Broadcasting Oct 31 - American Radio History

talked to Bernie Mann since he has taken over.
There is not a fracture in this industry. Listen: I have been to 16
state associations this year. I've been to a dozen or more industry-
type meetings -NATPE, Abe Lincoln Awards, Peabody's, the Na-
tional Public Radio convention -all over this country. There is not a
fracture with the membership. There may be a perception that there
are too many voices speaking for the industry; again, it does a
disservice to the industry and it offers those who would be our critics
a chance to divide and conquer whenever they feel or can generate
additional voices to speak for the industry.
But historically, we have had the daytimers, we have had the Class
IV's, we have had the clear channel people -just on the radio side.
And all of those people worked within the NAB structure; they're all
involved in our process.
We in our committee process have done a reaching -out campaign,
not only to minorities and women, but to new broadcasters, to
involve them in the various slots that are open in this year's commit-
tee turnover; as you know, they don't all turn over at one time.
But we're reaching out. This is a united industry.
I accept those things, but I also cannot ignore the fact that there is a
great division between NAB and NRBA -a division that approaches
enmity. The exchange of letters between you and Sis Kaplan this last
year might have been between Reagan and a Soviet state. So while
I'm sure it is useful to speak about unity, on the other hand it's hard to
ignore the division.
Nothing would please me more than for us to be as one, where we
could speak with a singular voice. But I think you have to look at
what we do and what they do. We have more people in our govern-
ment relations department than they have on their whole staff. And
there is really no comparison.
But do you have a satisfactory answer for yourself as to why the
organization exists?
Look, I'm a station guy. I own a group of radio stations, from small
to medium market stations, and I come from that background. I have
always depended on NAB to carry my water in Washington, but I
have never seen the need to go beyond that from a station perspec-
tive, taking off my NAB hat and just talking from a station owner's
standpoint.
If there are those who, for whatever reason, feel like they want to
utilize their funds in that way, that's fine. But nonetheless, the NAB
is proud of its radio membership, and it has a quite substantially large
radio membership. And I think that under Wayne Cornil's direction,
that we will continue to be responsive, and be even more responsive
in the future than we had been in the past to the radio industry.
Can you see yourself returning to the field as a station operator?
Possibly.
Do you have any idea of what sort of run you may want to have in
Washington?
Not really, other than to say that I have thoroughly enjoyed and
honestly enjoyed the first year. It's been rather traumatic moving the
family and being on the road as much as I have been. And getting
settled into a new house. However, it's been terribly exciting and
invigorating to be involved in this NAB structure and this business
that we love and cherish so much, called broadcasting.
Does NAB have an image problem? Swift seems to think the NAB is
perceived as being greedy and arrogant.
I hope not, and we're doing everything we can to dissolve any image
problems that might persist. Certainly from a small station back-
ground, I don't think that I portray the image of being greedy or
arrogant.
Truly, we do have a lot of work in the vineyards to do, and that is
exactly what I have been doing. I've been reaching out to the various
state associations. I have met with 10 major groups, reaching out to
ask and seek their involvement, their advice and counsel. And I have
been to a wide variety of industry functions, inter -industry relations.
AT LARGE
Broadcasting Oct 31 1983
52
For instance, the American Newspaper Publishers Association. We
have worked closely with ANPA in developing their thinking to the
point now that they have signed on to the Packwood initiative, and
fully endorse the Freedom of Expression Foundation, and this initia-
five for First Amendment rights for broadcasters.
And we think we have made significant progress. And if the
industry were more aware of those things, I think that the image
problem that you discussed would certainly not be there.
The charge is made so often and it might be useful to ask a question
about it just to see if you would like to make a response -that you are
a pawn of the networks. Its a criticism that is heard in connection
with the TOC meetings, a very anti -network body. And among the
reasons for the formation of that organization was to offset that net-
work influence on you. What do you tell yourself about that charge?
Well, (1) I discount the charge, and (2) if you look at the structure of
the NAB, the board of directors sets the policy, the staff implements
the policy. The board is composed of members who are the equiv-
alent if not members of the TOC. The Evening News Association,
Pete Kizer; Gaylord Broadcasting, Crawford Rice; the Tribune Co.
Broadcasting, Jim Dowdle; Jefferson Pilot Broadcasting, Wally Jor-
genson.
All four of those members are very new to the board.
Nonetheless, they are on the board and they will have a major impact
on that board. There is no question about that. And I can't be blamed
for the fact that we have a democratic process of electing directors,
and that every director of the NAB-excepting the networks, which
is a structure that I inherited -is elected by the membership.
Inasmuch as that is the nature of the beast, if you will, I think we
have a great deal of diversity on our board, and the board sets policy.
Is your rejection of a board seat for TOC a nonnegotiable Item?
That was misreported. That seat was not rejected. We said to make
the request in writing to the chairman of the board. There is a
television structures committee that is considering just these issues.
Now, the question arises, should they be assigned, one to low -
power television, one to the Association of Independent Television
Stations and one to the TOC -or to any other group that might form a
coalition and decide it wants to petition NAB for a seat?
Might NRBA have a seat? That's really interesting. You're going to
have a whole federation within the board.
What can we look for from the NAB in the next year?
I think our positioning for the future will continue. I think you will
see that we will continue to be aggressive, we will be opportunistic,
we'll be looking for openings for issues. We will not be laid back, we
will try to be statesmanlike, we will be calculated in our approach,
but yet we'll take advantage of the opportunities that are afforded us,
which I think sometimes in the past perhaps we have not been
positioned properly to take advantage of. And we hope to be. We
have an awful lot of talented people in this building who are moving
in the same direction now.
Ayear ago, we had zero Hispanics on the staff. Now we have four,
all in responsible positions. So we feel like we're making a lot of
progress on a lot of fronts. And to put it mildly, I'm very enthusiastic
about where we're going.
Have you put your mark on the association?
That's a hard question. It's probably too early to answer that. You
know, we have accomplished a lot in a year, let's face it. We beat
back Ted 'Rimer on the copyright royalty issue. You know, I'm fresh
out of the box and I walk into NAB and we've got a major war on our
hands, O.K.? And we win that one. He won the Senate, we won the
House and we won the conference. And that meant we won. Hard
fought -a lot of folks even missed our Christmas party because we
were working the Hill.
We won a big victory on Radio Marti. I personally dedicated a
great deal of time on negotiations with the State Department, with