Fighting FCC Deregulation

How many more stations do they  [the big broadcast conglomerates] need to remain profitable and competitive?

A strange thing is happening in Washington, D.C. Republicans and Democrats are actually working together on something that's in the public's best interest.

Bipartisan coalitions are being formed to rollback an FCC ruling that dramatically relaxes media ownership regulations. Under the FCC ruling, there would be nothing to stop one company from owning a TV station, a radio station and a newspaper in a large market. Broadcast companies could also own stations that reach up to 45-percent of the viewers across the country as opposed to the current restriction of 35-percent.

        The big broadcast conglomerates were cheering when the US Supreme Court declared George Bush the winner of the 2000 election. Because they assumed it was a slam-dunk that with Republicans in control, they could increase their grip on audiences and ad revenue. But not so fast. Unions, consumer groups, broad-casters, performers and even the NRA have done a great job in telling Congress the pitfalls of further deregulation of the industry.

Consider this: In Pittsburgh alone - Clear Channel already owns radio stations WDVE-FM, WWSW-FM, FOX SPORTS RADIO 970, WJJJ-FM, WKST-FM AND WXDX-FM. CBS/INFINITY/VIACOM owns Pittsburgh radio stations KDKA-AM, WBZZ-FM, WZPT-FM and WDSY-FM. And they own TV stations KDKA and WNPA.

How many more stations do they need to remain profitable and competitive? Apparently they want a lot more. But the public doesn't see it that way. Radio listeners are already hip to the fact that Clear Channel radio stations have an extremely tight play list. There's little room for new or more innovative music.

And what happens when just one news department serves an unlimited number of stations? Will it mean less local news? Will it mean fewer jobs for broadcasters and more work for those who do have a job? Will diverse or unpopular issues be covered? Will a "giant" grocery store chain that buys an advertising package for all the stations owned by one company have an influence on news stories they don't like? You can answer yes to every one of those questions.

As AFTRA told the FCC,  more deregulation will mean the loss of "diversity and localism in the news and information available to the general public and further erosion of innovation in media programming".

The Senate Commerce Committee heard us and others. It recently sent a bill to the full Senate that would roll back many of the rules. It's a great first step. But now we have to keep the pressure on to get a vote in both the House and the Senate. And will candidate George Bush sign it into law or veto it?

AFTRA-PITTSBURGH has urged Pennsylvania Senators Arlen Specter and Rick Santorum to vote in favor of the bill to rollback FCC deregulation. We plan to keep to the pressure on.

Is it Live or is it…Voice Tracking?

At WAMO-FM on Penn Ave, it’s called “Scotty”. In Greentree, at the Clear Channel nest of six stations, it’s called “Prophet”. Some disk jockeys have another name for this wonderful machine: “the Pink Slip”. 

Digital technology in most radio stations today makes it possible to seamlessly integrate spoken word files, music files, and cut-in commercials, each originating from widely diverse points on the globe. Stations, of course, could always pipe in national or syndicated programs or, alternatively, replay a prerecorded program. What’s new now is that Scotty and Profit, um, I mean Prophet, make it possible to customize a remote broadcast to sound as if it were coming to you live from your local station. The stations want you to think it’s live.

Here’s how it works. An announcer in Austin reads his script of prepared music intros, promos, and events and notices into the machine. A typical 6-hour shift or program minus music and commercials and other fill-in stuff takes about 1.5 hours to do right. The machine does the rest. Click the mouse and now Mr. Austin is our afternoon personality in Pittsburgh.

Think of the savings to radio execs. You’re only paying for one-and-a-half hours of announcing rather than six or eight. You don’t have to pay Prophet anything. You can operate a station without any live announcers - just techies to keep Prophet RAM well oiled.

The only problem is that listeners are duped to believe they’re hearing live radio. They don’t know that the listener requests may be coming from Omaha. They don’t know they’ll never see Mr. Austin at the County Fair or talk to him on the phone. They don’t realize until they make an emergency call to the station that there’s nobody there to give a flash announcement and information about a tornado or flood.

Maybe that’s OK with listeners. Maybe they just want to hear the hottest music. Maybe they don’t care about live radio.

But I think listeners should have a choice in the matter. They should know that the voice of D J X is in fact Mr. X in Austin. Then they can decide where they want to tune the dial.

Did you know that several of our top 15 Pittsburgh stations have major daily shifts voice tracked? The Clear Channel stations notoriously lead the way. We have WKST-FM, 91.6, with a top-40 or contemporary hits format, ranked number 11 by Arbitron. Chicago personality Randi West voice-tracks the 10 PM – 2 PM program.  We have Clear Channel’s rhythmic hits WJJJ-FM, 104.7 (“the Beat”). Lori Bradley voice tracks 2 pm to 7 pm weekdays from Austin and Bill Simpson voice tracks in from Philadelphia 9 pm to midnight. Arbitron ranks “the Beat” at  #13.

What hurts is that WJJJ-FM in 1999 had eight live AFTRA announcers. Today it has three. WKST used to have ten staff announcers. Today the number is four.

In contract negotiations with Clear Channel for WWSW-FM (3WS), AFTRA has demanded that current live announcers be protected from replacement by imported voice tracking. While 3WS has no imported voice tracking, it refuses to guarantee it won’t in the future.  We expect a similar response in the upcoming WDVE negotiations with Clear Channel.

Is a “Keep Pittsburgh Radio Live” Campaign in the offing? Do you think all stations should be held to a “truth in labeling “ standard? If a program is voice tracked, why not identify it as such? Will Clear Channel and other station owners offer our members some measure of protection from imported voice tracking?

Stay tuned.

Quick Pact in Erie

WICU-TV and AFTRA made short work of bargaining this summer. A new contract was agreed to after only one meeting! The key was that the owners of the NBC-affiliate, SJL of Penna., Inc, were pleased with the work of their staff and were prepared to offer fair improvements. For their part, AFTRA members recognized and unanimously approved a better-than-average offer. The new 3-year deal features wage increases of at least 4% (retroactive to 5/1/03), 3.5%, and 3%; improved vacation allowance; a raise in the severance cap; and increases in employer contributions to supplemental benefit plans. Kudos to AFTRA Station Rep. Mark Soliday for helping build an ethos of effective staff-management communication at the station.

More Stations Join the Clear Channel Fray

Negotiations at WWSW-FM and WBGG-AM, on-going more than a year, have entered phase two now that sister Clear Channel stations WDVE, WJJJ, and WKST also have open contracts. To date, the Company is still insisting on cutting holiday benefits, refusing overtime payments to staff above minimum wage rates, and slashing AFTRA H & R contributions. Moreover, they are not offering economic improvements and voice-tracking protections here that they have offered at other AFTRA stations around the country. If CC takes the same stance with all its Pittsburgh stations, expect a Big Fight this Fall. The 3WS Bargaining Committee, including Sheri Seiter, Mike Frazer, Peter Morley, and Shawn Israel, are keeping the bargaining chairs warm for their AFTRA  comrades.

Channel 2 Progress

Progress is slow but steady in the on-going talks for a new contract at KDKA-TV. Meetings in May and June clarified the application of the Freelance Contract and also resulted in the station backing off from severance cutback demands. Still at issue are AFTRA proposals for representation at WNPA and economic improvements. Special thanks to members Paul Martino, John Steigerwald, Ken Rice, and Jeff Verszyla for helping bolster the AFTRA presentations at the table. Also thanks to AFTRA National Associate Executive Director Mathis Dunn who flew in to straighten out the freelance contract talks.

WAMO Settles, SBN Talks Begin

After working under an extended contract since 1997, AFTRA members at WAMO-FM, WAMO-AM, WPGR-AM, and WSSZ-FM, all owned by Sheridan Broadcasting Corporation, finally have a new contract thanks to a compromise reached on contract language governing full-time and part-time staff ratios. The new pact features 3% increases in each of the next three years and an increase in the AFTRA Health and Retirement Fund Contribution by the station. Thanks to all the WAMO employees for sticking with AFTRA. And thanks as well to Federal Mediator Bob Ditillo who helped broker the settlement.

Meanwhile, talks have begun for a renewal contract at Sheridan Broadcasting Network (SBN), where twenty AFTRA newspeople, producers, and audio journalists provide news and programming to radio stations targeting African-American and urban audiences. AFTRA is seeking a special scale increase for audio journalists; an increase in the network’s H &R contributions; and a labor/management committee to iron out issues as they arise. AFTRA Station Rep. Gerry Scott attended the first negotiations, and reports that a settlement is within reach.

Traffic Reporter at Channel 11 Stalled From Contract

That was the unfortunate decision of Arbitrator Elliot Newman in a case brought by AFTRA on behalf of Morning Traffic Reporter Trisha Pittman. AFTRA unsuccessfully argued that even though Pittman was paid by Metro Networks, her services to WPXI –TV were covered under the AFTRA – WPXI Freelance Agreement. The decision throws the issue back to bargaining between the parties in two years.

Proposals Sent for Infinity Stations

The first meeting to discuss a new agreement for stations WBZZ, WDSY, and WZPT has been delayed while Infinity’s Legal Counsel deals with other contracts. But AFTRA has moved the process by sending its bargaining proposals in advance to the stations. Talks are expected to begin in September, with retroactivity of any increases now a priority issue. AFTRA members, including Station Rep Stoney Richards, are eager to begin.

IF YOU’RE WORKING OFF THE CARD, READ THIS

The following letter was sent to members in August.  It is reprinted here for those of you who don’t read your mail. - SMS

July 25, 2003

Dear Member:

                For the past year and half, I have been working with many of you, the talent agents, the casting directors, production houses, advertising agencies and our sister unions to try to turn this market around.  There just isn’t enough work out there anymore and we have to figure out ways to make the work and keep the work. 

A lot is going on: Conservatory is up and running with two purposes in mind—to increase the professional and marketing skills of members and to build bridges between AFTRA and the production community.  It’s working, albeit slowly.   We’re making presentations to agency creative teams to let them know who we are and why it’s important to keep the work local and hire union.  We are leading the charge on statewide legislation to attract production to our region.  We are winning victories in the struggle to keep signatory agencies honest and operating in the best interest of you, our members.  We’re making sure that you are represented when problems with payments or working conditions arise—locally and nationally.  We’ve spearheaded an effort to bring the entire film community and the Pittsburgh Film Office together to produce an inclusive production guide.  There’s more but now let me get to the point.

If you are a member who is working non-union you are hurting our efforts on behalf of the entire membership, you are hurting yourself and you are instrumental in killing our market. You are creating a market where it will be impossible to maintain rates of pay that make employers worthy of your unique talents.  You are weakening the Health and Retirement Funds and through that weakening making it impossible for increasing numbers of members to qualify for benefits.  You are creating a market where signatory employers can’t justify to clients the need to pay fair wages, residuals, H & R contributions and who have even gone so far as to import non-union talent from out of town to rob you of work.  Yes, the buck is quick but the short-term advantage creates a future market where $100.00 is the going rate and you’ll take $75.00 to get the job.

Beginning today, working non-union will bring discipline and possible expulsion from our Union and our sister unions.   I am aware of what’s going on in our market and will gather the facts to bring charges that stick against offenders.   If you have a question about work that you are offered, I am available to discuss it with you and even figure out ways to convert non-union to union work.  If you have done non-union work in the past and want to come clean, I am here to talk about it before it bites you later.

Please accept this as an invitation to join the team that is working to improve your working life and the lives of our 80,000 members nationally.  Every day we lose power in the face of an ever-changing media environment.  If we don’t do the right thing right now we don’t stand a chance.

In solidarity and with best wishes,

Suzanne Steidl                       

Assistant Executive Director Freelance

A weekend of study with Hollywood acting coach John Homa

John Homa, described by Premiere magazine as one of the go-to acting coaches in Hollywood, will conduct his exclusive acting workshops as part of Pittsburgh AFTRA’s Conservatory series the weekend of October 18^th.

John has been instrumental in the development of the successful careers of Kirsten Dunst, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Erika Christensen and many others. Since 1994 he has served as the exclusive coach for two of ABC’s award-winning daytime dramas: General Hospital and Port Charles. His positive approach to the material and outstanding ability to break down a script allows him to bring out the best in his students who have included Freddy Prinze, Jr., LeAnn Rimes, Ricky Martin, Mena Suvari, and Kristanna Loken whom he coached to a lead role in Terminator 3.

ATTENDANCE IS LIMITED AND AFTRA MEMBERS IN GOOD STANDING WILL RECEIVE PREFERENTIAL RATES AND REGISTRATION.  STAY TUNED FOR MORE DETAILS AS THEY DEVELOP.