FORT MYERS NEWS-PRESS

April 29, 2006

Radio takes a stance ... on both sides
By Chris Wadsworth

Clearly, lots of people in Southwest Florida were put off by the huge pro-immigrant rights march in Fort Myers earlier this month.

Letters to the editor wonder why police didn't scoop up all 75,000 protesters in a big net and drag them to the Mexican border. Never mind that thousands of American citizens participated in the march.

Local talk radio stations have been swamped by outraged citizens angry about the traffic tie-ups, the litter, the foreign flags being waved during the rally.

Add complaints about the porous U.S.-Mexico border, the Spanish language they hear in the aisles at Wal-Mart and President Bush's guest worker proposal, and there are enough issues to tie up this community for years.

Or tear it down.

Now, WINK-AM, a conservative news talk radio station, is planning a noon rally Monday. It's a protest protest, meaning it is protesting the people who protested at the last event.

Morning host Mandy Connell planned the rally for the noon hour so people could attend without having to take a day off from work.

The pro-immigrant rally was criticized because organizers encouraged people to skip work. If people can't attend WINK's rally, they can pay $5 and Mandy will set up an empty chair for them. In the chair, she will place a sign that says "I'm working, I'm legal and I vote."

Any additional donations will be sent to a group that advocates building a fence along the Mexican border. As of Friday afternoon, about 500 people had contributed.

Organizers even changed their plans — from a march on city streets to a rally at Centennial Park so they wouldn't inconvenience local law enforcement.

My reaction, as someone who follows the local broadcasting industry, was not pro or con on the rally or pro or con on the march.

My first thought was "Wow — is WINK trying to play both sides or what!"

You see, WINK-AM is owned by Fort Myers Broadcasting, which also owns Latino 97.7-FM and Rumba 1200-AM, two of the area's biggest Spanish- language, Spanish-music stations.

Local listeners were especially irritated with Fort Myers Broadcasting's decision to dump its Power Talk 1200 station last year and replace it with salsa and merengue music and people talking in Spanish.

So let's recap.

One Fort Myers Broadcasting station is stoking the anti-illegal immigrant fire, planning a big rally, while two other Fort Myers Broadcasting stations are targeting many of the same people and their supporters, asking those people to listen to their music and patronize their advertisers.

To the company's credit, it views it as just serving their audiences. It's that simple.

Wayne Simons, the general manager of Fort Myers Broadcasting's radio division, says both of his Spanish-language stations voiced support for the pro-immigrant march. Now, his conservative talk radio station is supporting (or in this case, planning) an anti-march.

"I'm not going to say what they should be doing or not doing," Simons said. "They have to listen to their audience. A big part of news talk is about giving a voice to their listeners in the community."

That makes sense. Plus, WINK-AM is actually run by another company, so Simons and his managers don't have a hand in day-to-day operations.

Still, it's one thing for a radio company to let on-air personalities support an outside organization's rallies, marches, powwows, whatever.

It's a different thing when a rally is the brainstorm of and organized by a company. Aren't they worried that listeners and advertisers on either side of the debate wouldn't like their company double-dipping like this? There's something calculated and mercenary about the whole thing.

Then again, that's probably why I wouldn't make a good radio station executive.