The Long Cornea of the Law

David Weigel | April 3, 2006

Over at the Cleveland Scene, Denise Grollmus writes about WCRS, a radio station whose hosts read "breaking news, magazines, obituaries, and grocery store ads" for their blind listeners. The station's troubles began last year, when Ohio's attorney general warned them that their bingo night fundraisers were happening outside the law. The story that followed is one of bureaucratic scrabble (the station is knocked for calling itself "educational"), conveniently-raised fees, and good old-fashioned tragedy. (It's also a strange plank for the attorney general, Jim Petro, to run on in his campaign for governor.)

Comments

|4.3.06 @ 4:49PM|#

That sucks about the blind people not getting their radio. But I have to take exception to this:

But it still wasn't enough to cover $25,000 a month in operating costs.


What radio station has an operating budget of $25,000 per month!?! SRSLY. That's an awful big budget for a small-time radio station, I would think.

|4.3.06 @ 4:55PM|#

That sucks about the blind people not getting their radio. But I have to take exception to this:

But it still wasn't enough to cover $25,000 a month in operating costs.


What radio station has an operating budget of $25,000 per month!?! SRSLY. That's an awful big budget for a small-time radio station, I would think.

John M. Joy|4.3.06 @ 5:20PM|#

Perhaps, but transmitters are shockingly expensive critters to operate and maintain. Even WPKN, which runs on a shoestring and has a whopping 1.5 paid employees, has something like a quarter million dollar budget, the bulk of which goes to operations expenses.

(Caveat: haven't looked at PKN's budget in awhile - though I probably have the annual membership mailing with it around here someplace...)

JMJ

|4.3.06 @ 6:00PM|#

We need to protect blind people, and the Bingo going public. Blind people think this radio station is there to help them, and the Bingo players thing they are helping the blind... when really it is a scheme by the capitalist elite to bilk the unfortunate out of millions.

Sure, the blind people will no longer get the service of the radio station... but we live in a democracy. They can lobby for a government service that would read them newspapers to them... or better yet, require all newspaper, books, and magazines to provide audio versions for free under penalty of law. There is no reason why a group of private people should be trusted to run a non-profit radio station when the government is here to help.

It is time we put the capitalists and their cronies, who wantonly ignore benevolent government regulation for their own personal agendas that we aren't going to take their counter-revolutionary bullshit! There is no enjoying a radio station that reads newspapers unless that station is based on the principles of social justice, and the only institution like that is the government!

|4.3.06 @ 8:36PM|#

The Long Cornea of the Law

Cornea R not long, just as pie R not square. They both be round.

Will someone back me up?