FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION

\- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -x

In the matter of: :

:

MEDIA BUREAU PUBLIC FORUM ON WWOR-TV :

LICENSE RENEWAL IN NEW JERSEY :

:

\- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -x

Wednesday,

November 28, 2007

Paul Robeson Campus Center

The University Club

350 Dr. Martin Luther King Blvd

Newark, NJ 07102

The above-entitled matter came on for public forum, pursuant to notice,
at 4:00 p.m.

BEFORE: LOUIS SIGALOS

Moderator

[MEMBERS OF THE COMMISSION]{.underline}:

MICHAEL E. COPPS

JONATHAN S. ADELSTEIN

MONICA S. DESAI

BARBARA KREISMAN

[Speaker(s):]{.underline} [Page]{.underline}

Commissioner Michael Copps 5

Senator Frank Lautenberg 6

Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein 19

Moderator Sigalos 26

Introduction & Welcome

Ms. Monica Desai 27

Media Bureau, FCC

Moderator Sigalos 28

Introduction of Speakers

Mr. Lew Leone 30

VP & General Manager, WWOR

Ms. Donna Sandorse 34

Voice for New Jersey

Ms. Dural Desai 41

Media Access Project

Ms. Ingrid Reed 48

Eagleton Institute New Jersey Project

Ms. Wendy White 53

The Three Doctors Foundation

Moderator Sigalos 57

Invitation for Public Comments

Mr. Lovey 58

Voice for New Jersey

Suzy Kass 60

Blue Wave of New Jersey

Bill Hassall 62

Patrick Adams 64

Tim Karr 66

Free Press

Christa Pugh 68

Ad Council

Harold Winard 70

Reverend Jacques DeGraff 72

Newark Community Health Centers

Kate Blofson 74

Debbie Spigner 76

Dale Alexander 78

United Negro College Fund

Bill Lavin 80

New Jersey Fireman\'s Mutual Benevolent Assn.

Louis Zanoni 82

Low Power TV Stations

Curtis Farrow 84

Irving Street Representative

Sharon Brown 87

African American Festival

Senator Lautenberg 89

Diane Doctor 90

Galloping Hill Media

Faris Jebara 92

Rutgers University

Ann Rea 93

Barbara Belasco 95

League of Women Voters of New Jersey

Steve Edwards 97

New Jersey Hall of Fame

Tracey Reed 99

Voice for New Jersey

Mario Tapia 102

LGC

Duda Penteado 103

Artist Certification Board of City of Jersey

Tom Dallessio 105

Daniel Schoenberg 107

Dock Russell, KCAP 108

Marianne Hartman 110

Diocese of Trenton, New Jersey

Juan Nortez 112

Joseph Occhipinti 114

National Police Defense Foundation

Luis Diaz 117

U.S. Hispanic Association

Joseph Crooms 119

Guardian Angels

Wilbur McNeil 121

Save It Like It is

Larry Petrillo 122

New Jersey Division of Fire Safety

William Terry 123

One Organization

Frank Scandale, The Record 126

Closing 128

P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S

(4:00 p.m.)

COMMISSIONER COPPS: Well, I don\'t have a gavel, but let me call this
meeting to order.

Good afternoon, I\'m Commissioner Mike Copps from the Federal
Communications Commission. The chairman of the Commission, Kevin Martin,
is unable to be here today, so as a member of the Commission, I am
pleased to call this public forum regarding Fox Television Station,
Incorporated, application for renewal of license WWOR-TV, to order.

Let me first of all thank Rutgers-Newark for hosting us today and
everybody in this audience, the panelists and audience, and participants
all for coming. I\'m delighted this public forum is being held.

And I am particularly happy that our friend Senator Frank Lautenberg is
here to participate with us. For those of you who may not know, Senator
Lautenberg is a senior member of the Senate Commerce Committee which
overseas the Federal Communications Commission. And I can tell you from
first-hand experience that he has been a tireless advocate for the good
citizens of New Jersey. He\'s also known for his knowledge and
leadership across the whole gamut of communications issues from
telecommunications right on through media. So we very much appreciate
Senator Lautenberg\'s willingness to be here and his ongoing involvement
in this matter of your local television station and whether it is duly
serving New Jersey and meeting its public interest obligations. And at
this time, I would like to ask Senator Lautenberg whether he would care
to make some remarks before we proceed.

SENATOR LAUTENBERG: Thanks very much. I, too, extend my greetings. And I
first want to say that I give my thanks to the commissioners from the
FCC who are here and for Chairman Martin\'s willingness to hold this
hearing.

I consider it a triumph in openness and I thank both Commissioner Copps
and Commissioner Adelstein for, for being here. And I want to say that
we\'re looking at Channel 9, WWOR, to see that the mission that it has
in order to have obtained a license is fully fulfilled.

Before getting into the content of my comments, I want to say thank you
to the people, staff, students from Rutgers University. This facility is
a significant part of the community here in Newark, a community that\'s
working very hard to establish itself as the premier city in the, the
state of New Jersey, the largest city and perhaps it\'s fair to say also
one of the most active in terms of a source for educational facilities
and for communications with the general community here.

This is one of FCC\'s first or early public hearings on a license
renewal in recent history. The renewals are typically rubber stamped,
but the situation with this license warrants unprecedented attention and
that\'s why I asked FCC Chairman Kevin Martin to hold this hearing in
our state to hear from the people of New Jersey before deciding WWOR\'s
future.

I want to thank today\'s speakers in addition to the folks here from
FCC, including Voice for New Jersey, the United Church of Christ, and
the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, and all of the people from the State of New
Jersey, even if you\'re from across the river, from our suburbs, we
welcome you. And I thank, again, Rutgers for making sure that New Jersey
is heard in this room on our airways.

So I want to be clear about why this hearing is so important. When you
pick up your remote and turn to Channel 9, it\'s our view, and it\'s
confirmed, you are not getting sufficient information about New
Jersey\'s neighborhoods, New Jersey\'s problems, New Jersey\'s schools,
New Jersey\'s roads, all of those things that make up this very dynamic
state of ours.

Routinely, the news is about the earth and maybe we\'re included in the
environments at some point in time, but we\'re as interested in what
happens in Morristown, Montclair, and Manalapan as we are in Manhattan,
and that\'s what we are trying to do this, this day.

New Jersey news is largely forgotten or buried deep in other newscasts.
And, you know, if we have something unfortunate happen here as we have
had, as every state has had, that will get some attention. But very
often the routine things that are important for students, for, for young
people to learn more about this wonderful state of ours, it\'s not often
heard. It\'s not sufficiently heard.

Channel 9 is licensed as a New Jersey station. Channel 9 has an
obligation to cover the news that affects our communities, our
businesses and our families. In fact, the WWOR license was specifically
moved from New York City to New Jersey for that very reason. The FCC\'s
1983 decision moving the station to New Jersey is very specific, and I
quote it here, \"This station will not be a New Jersey station in name
only. It will serve the people of New Jersey.\" And we\'re not fully
served unless information about what is taking place in our state is
heard on a routine basis, just as it is in other states across the
country where there is a sufficient media market to attract television
presence. That\'s everywhere.

Regrettably, this station has failed to meet that obligation. Leading up
to the 2005 election, for example, New Jersey had several important
electoral races. Our residents deserve local coverage of those races to
help them make an informed decision at the polls. But, remarkably, New
York TV stations provided more coverage of New Jersey races than did
Channel 9, according to a Rutgers study.

And when you look at Channel 9\'s website, it markets itself as a New
York station. Its website is My9NewYork and its web address is
My9NY.com. Now there may have been a change in the website. What a
coincidence as we were preparing for this hearing.

Several years ago, WWOR closed its Trenton news bureau. Now what kind of
coverage can we have for New Jersey families without a news team in our
state capital. Three years ago, Channel 9 attempted to move its news
team out of our state completely, take it across the river to New York.
Well, as far as I was concerned, it was unacceptable and inexcusable.
How can WWOR do the job covering our state if it doesn\'t even have a
presence in this state?

So I met with then Lachlan Murdoch, the younger member of the Murdoch
family and the owner, principal ownership of the Fox Television station.
This is the son of Rupert Murdoch, who owns the News Corporation. And he
agreed, Lachlan agreed with us to keep the news operation in New Jersey,
where it remains today. But I have to tell you it was a struggle and
there were serious words across the table in terms of what it would take
to keep that license in the hands of the News Corporation.

Well, that was a victory; unfortunately, a single victory. But there is
no substitute, regardless of how we came out then, for having the
availability to have true local coverage on a continuing basis.

New Jersey is the only state in the country without its own media
market; imagine, the eleventh largest state in the country. If we had
our own market, it would be the fourth largest market, media market in
the country. Instead, we\'re wedged between New York City and
Philadelphia. I think Ben Franklin said something about that a lot of
years ago. We didn\'t like it then, either.

This makes it hard enough for our residents to get news about our
safety, our schools, our communities, our general activities. Now we
expected Channel 9 to help us overcome this struggle and that\'s why it
was licensed in New Jersey in the first place. Instead, they force New
Jersey\'s residents to turn to out-of-state stations. And that\'s simply
unacceptable for the eleventh largest state in the country.

If the FCC renews Channel 9\'s license \-- this is not intended, I
assure you \-- I want you to know, we expect Channel 9 to help us
overcome \-- once again, that\'s why it was located in New Jersey in the
first place. Well, it was FCC \-- if FCC renews Channel 9\'s license, it
needs to get tough, make certain that New Jersey gets the news coverage
it needs and deserves.

The FCC must insist that Channel 9 meets specific measurable goals for
New Jersey coverage. WWOR has to identify itself as a New Jersey
station. It has to devote a specific and substantial amount of air time
each week to New Jersey news stories and events. It has to document its
New Jersey coverage in a separate FCC report. The report should show
date, time of day, duration, and content in detail. And it must keep its
news departments and production studios in New Jersey.

When the FCC moved Channel 9 from New York to New Jersey, it said, \"At
renewal time, it will be judged by how it has met the obligation to
serve the needs of northern New Jersey.\" Well, it\'s now renewal time
and the facts are clear, Channel 9 has failed to meet the test, failed
to pass the test.

It\'s based in New Jersey. It\'s time for the FCC to make sure that it,
WWOR, covers the state of New Jersey as it was originally intended to do
when the license was first issued. Thank you very much.

COMMISSIONER COPPS: Thank you very much, Senator, for your remarks and
thank you also for your leadership and bringing us here, today. I\'m
really impressed that we have a standing room only crowd at four
o\'clock in the afternoon of a busy week.

And, really, this is part \-- I know there are some very unique
circumstances with regard to the market that we\'re going to be
discussing today, but this kind of dialogue over how stations are doing
is really occurring right now all over the United States of America
largely in result, I think, to the extent of media consolidation that we
have seen and endured over recent years.

People are interested in ascertaining how well broadcasters are serving
those local communities. And, as we all know, broadcasters have a solemn
obligation to do that because the American people own the airways. No
business, no broadcaster, no special interest owns an airway in the
United States of America. They\'re yours. And broadcasters get the
privilege to use those airways and a license to do that by pledging to
serve the public interest, to bring you, among other things, good local
news, information, and entertainment.

The Commission used to be very active in enforcing this bargain between
the public and the broadcaster. Every three years, broadcasters are
required to come into the Commission to renew their radio and television
licenses. And the Commission has a little guideline, a list of
guidelines, fourteen in number, that it used to judge whether a station
was indeed meeting its public interest obligations.

They weren\'t fourteen commandments or anything like that, but they were
guidelines that we put next to a station\'s application for relicense
and we kind of made a determination whether there was a good faith
effort to serve the public interest. And if there was, the license was
renewed.

But all of that changed over the years and the change really picked up
high speed in the 1980\'s, when we had an FCC chairman who remarked that
a television set, you know, was really nothing other than a toaster with
pictures, that\'s what it was called and that\'s how they proceeded to,
he and his colleagues proceeded to treat it.

So the list of specific public interest guidelines that we had was pared
back until almost nothing remains today over and above a general
obligation to serve the public interest. But it\'s important to
understand that that general obligation to serve the public interest is
still there. It still remains. It may be less well defined and seemingly
more difficult to implement, but it is still there.

And a forum like this, it is unusual, but it\'s a wonderful opportunity
to task the FCC\'s current sensitivity to its obligation, to its
responsibility to see that the public interest is served.

So what I like about a hearing like this is the opportunity of the
Commission going out and listening to the people who can best judge how
a market is being served and that\'s the viewers and listeners who live
here.

There are some unique obligations that the licensee undertook in this
particular market and we are here today to learn whether those
obligations in your judgment are being met. So we\'re interested in
learning whether you\'re satisfied with WWOR\'s news coverage of New
Jersey elections and New Jersey government activities, does WWOR
adequately report on local news stories, is their public affairs
programming focused on New Jersey issues, has WWOR identified itself
with New Jersey or sought to identify itself and cover a surrounding
area outside its community of license.

So thank you everyone here, no matter what your point of view, for
coming out this afternoon. And before we proceed further, I want to ask
my good friend and FCC colleague, Jonathan Adelstein, if he has some
opening remarks that he would like to present.

COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: Well, I just want to echo what we\'ve heard. I
certainly appreciate the leadership of Senator Lautenberg in bringing
this hearing here, today. I can\'t remember, in my five years on the
Commission, ever having one of these. And I think that they\'re probably
due all over the country. So thank you, Senator Lautenberg.

He, as you well know, has been a real leader on these media issues. In
Congress, he\'s on the committee that oversees us, so I guess I\'ve got
to be nice to him, the Commerce Committee. But he is a leader on the
issues, making sure the media is accountable to local needs of citizens
of New Jersey and the needs of citizens all across this country. I
certainly appreciate his bringing us together, all the panelists are
going to share with us, and especially all of you.

It\'s critical that we hear from you. And we do this, Mike Copps and I
have gone across the country to talk to people, we really learn so much
each place we go and each situation is so unique. And to be able to
focus on this, tonight, is a real privilege. And we\'re here tonight, of
course, because as Commissioner Copps said the public airways do belong
to you, the American people, and the people of New Jersey have a right
to be served. You have a right to have your voices heard, I think, in
this process.

The FCC has not kept up its part of the bargain to ensure the public is
protected. We failed to issue rules on public interest obligations to
broadcasters since 1999. And our license renewal process really lacks
the teeth that are necessary to weed out stations that aren\'t serving
the public interest.

Your presence here, today, really represents how important these issues
are. You all came out at this time there\'s so much going on in your
lives but you felt this was important and you know how important this
issue is. And there\'s a special history here.

You\'ve heard some about WWOR. As Senator Lautenberg said, in 1983,
Congress set a special act. It was ‑‑ I used to work in Congress for
fifteen years and it\'s unusual legislative language, colorful language
from your predecessor Senator Bill Bradley that said that it was
operating for the benefit of the unserved State of New Jersey. And the
Commission said that WWOR would operate in New Jersey for the benefit of
the people of the state.

The station would not \-- the law says the station would not be a New
Jersey station in name only; it would serve the people of New Jersey,
very unique language. And our job is to enforce the law.

The Commission has stated in the past that the lack of local VHF
television service in this highly populated area of northern New Jersey
presents a unique set of circumstances wherein special obligations have
been imposed on all New York City and Philadelphia TV stations.

Accordingly, you expect the licensee of WWOR to perform a higher degree
of service, to its greater need coverage area than is normally required
of a broadcast licensee. I\'m not sure the Commission has ever held the
licensee to this higher standard. It\'s very important to the people of
New Jersey this station and your needs can\'t be ignored.

They have special obligations to serve New Jersey; but, unlike other
major broadcast stations in New York City, this primary communicative
license is here in northern New Jersey. And in a letter to Senator
Lautenberg, Chairman Powell reassured the senator several years ago that
the Commission imposed a special service requirement to, quote,
\"establish and maintain a physical presence to New Jersey in order to
facilitate the coverage of issues of interest to the residents of New
Jersey.\"

And the chairman further affirmed that the Commission would prioritize
the review of WWOR-TV. He said that WWOR-TV\'s service to northern New
Jersey, which the Commission viewed as broader than the community of
Secaucus, would be reviewed during the proceedings to review the license
of the station.

So here we are. It\'s actually happening in an unusual circumstance
where the government actually does what it says it\'s going to do. It\'s
a rare and unique opportunity for you to tell us how the station is
serving your needs in its public interest obligations.

So you have a big responsibility here tonight and you are the ones who
will not let your voices be swept under the rug. You\'re speaking for so
many of your fellow citizens in New Jersey. And we take what you say
very seriously. And we need to look at the broader context. As the
senator said and as Mike Copps said, we\'re now in the crucial moment of
our review of the broadcast media ownership rules in this country.

And some in DC and not surprisingly the companies that we oversee want
the FCC to adopt a package of \-- the ownership rules that is portrayed
as moderate but is really a wolf in sheep\'s clothing. But we can\'t let
the wool be pulled over our eyes. The proposal would open all markets to
masses consolidation, allowing one company to combine broadcast
properties with cable, the local monopoly newspaper, and even the
internet service provider. That proposal could propel mergers across the
United States. And though we know that broadcasting is still the
dominant source of not just local news and information but also
entertainment programming, it\'s still the broadcast industry that
disseminates the news and information that really affects what you see
here and read.

So it\'s time for us to establish clear and quantified public interest
obligations for all broadcasters. You deserve not only on this station
but on every station that\'s licensed. Here we have a special
obligation. But in every station, you deserve quality local music,
quality local news and public affairs.

Your great local musicians deserve to be heard on local radio stations
at hours people can actually hear them. And minority communities deserve
to be portrayed on the evening news in a manner that reflects the many
contributions, not underrepresented, not misrepresented, not
stereotyped. Women and people of color should be owners, not just
consumers or leasees of broadcast media services.

And you can certainly join me and your leaders in Congress, like Senator
Lautenberg, in demanding that these policies are implemented before and
not after we change the media ownership rules. So ultimately you, the
people of New Jersey that we\'re here to listen to are going to have the
last word tonight and you should have the last word. And I thank you so
much for coming out, and we look forward to hearing from you. Thanks for
being here tonight.

MODERATOR SIGALOS: Good afternoon and welcome to this public forum on
WWOR-TV\'s license renewal being conducted by the Media Bureau of the
Federal Communications Commission.

I would like to echo the senator and commissioner in thanking Rutgers
University for hosting this event today. My name is Louis Sigalos. I am
with the FCC\'s Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau and I will be
your moderator.

With us also today from the Media Bureau we have Monica Desai, who is
the chief of the Media Bureau, and Barbara Kreisman, chief of the
bureau\'s video division. We will now hear opening remarks from Ms.
Desai.

MS. DESAI: Thank you, everyone. On February 1st, Fox Television Stations
filed an application seeking renewal of its license for station WWOR-TV,
Secaucus, New Jersey. Thereafter, petitions to deny that application
were filed by Voice For New Jersey and by the Office of Communications
of the United Church of Christ and Rainbow PUSH Coalition.

Among other things, petitioners allege that WWOR-TV has failed to
provide and program service adequately meeting the issues and needs of
its northern New Jersey viewers. The licensee disputes that WWOR-TV\'s
programming efforts fall short of its public interest obligations.

The Commission has not reached a determination with respect to these
claims. Given WWOR-TV\'s unique program service obligation stemming from
Section 331 of the Communications Act, the Commission has decided to
hold this local public forum in which the public can participate and
express views and concerns on this matter.

Your input here, today, will be included in the docket in the WWOR-TV
renewal proceeding and assist the Commission in resolving the matters at
issue. Thank you.

MODERATOR SIGALOS: Thank you, Ms. Desai. It is now time to hear from our
invited speakers. But before we begin, I would like to briefly review
the ground rules. Each invited speaker has been allotted a specific
amount of time for their comments. I will be strictly enforcing these
time limits to leave as much time as possible for the public comment
period. Please note we have a timer clock right straight ahead, so it\'s
within your view. When that clock actually goes down to zero, I am like
a machine and I politely thank you for your invited comments at that
point in time.

Because Fox\'s renewal application for station WWOR-TV is the subject of
this proceeding, they will be given ten minutes for their remarks. Each
party present that opposed the application and our other two invited
participants will have five minutes for their statements.

Members of the audience, please listen respectfully to the speakers even
if you dispute the views that they express. I know that the issue we\'re
discussing today may arouse a lot of passion. But for this forum to run
smoothly and be successful, we need to maintain basic decorum and avoid
unnecessary interruptions. And for that I will thank you in advance.

Participating as our invited speakers today are Lew Leone, vice
president and general manager, WWOR; Donna Sandorse, Voice for New
Jersey; Darul Desai, assistant director, Media Access Project; Ingrid
Reed, director, Eagleton Institute New Jersey Project; Wendy White,
executive director, The Three Doctors Foundation. Mr. Leone?

MR. LEONE: Thank you. Senator Lautenberg, Commissioners Copps and
Adelstein, thank you for the opportunity to highlight the great service
My9 provides to the viewers of northern New Jersey.

Joining me today are just a few of the over 200 employees that work at
our station in Secaucus, including our news director, anchors Brenda
Blackman, Harry Martin, Russ Salzberg, and Audrey Puente.

I\'d like to also thank the many local community leaders who have come
to support us. Please stand and be recognized along with the My9 team.
Our goal is to provide northern New Jersey residents with information to
help them get through their day and enrich their lives. But rather than
tell you what we do, let me show you who we are.

(Whereupon, a video recording was played.)

MR. LEONE: My9 news is every night at ten, with hourly updates weekdays
between four and seven. We provide unparalleled coverage of northern New
Jersey news, as well as regional, national, and international news of
interest to New Jersey residents.

My9 also provides extensive political coverage from Governor Corzine\'s
budget plan, to the Keyport ban on smoking in cars with children. We
cover elections statewide from federal to municipal races. We have two
weekly public affairs shows, Real Talk and New Jersey Now, which include
in-depth coverage of political and social issues of interest to New
Jersey voters.

In 2007, we interviewed members of the Assembly, state senators, mayors,
and the chief of police from Montclair State University, as well as
community leaders, educational groups, and citizens of New Jersey.

Here\'s a stat to think about, and you saw it in the tape, My9 airs more
than 10,000 public service announcements a year. We\'ve been recognized
with five local Emmy awards in 2007 alone, and multiple awards from the
New Jersey Press, Associated Press.

My9 employees participate in community events, providing hands-on
volunteerism and fund raising to help charities throughout New Jersey.
My9 runs a number of training programs, including a paid apprentice
program, the Emma Bowen Foundation for Minority Interests in Media, Job
Development Program; an internship program involving twenty‑two New
Jersey colleges, including Rutgers; a mentoring program with the 100
Black Men Organization.

While we always strive to do better, I\'m surprised to hear people
challenge our level of commitment to the viewers of New Jersey. We are
submitting to the FCC additional documentation of the great service My9
provides.

Today, I\'m happy to tell you that we\'ve heard your concerns and have
already begun making changes to our website to best serve New Jersey. In
closing, My9 goes above and beyond both on the air and behind the
scenes.

The government doesn\'t require us to attend community events or support
good causes. It doesn\'t require us to have job training programs. But
we are committed to New Jersey. We have spent \$11.8 million to upgrade
our Secaucus facility.

Why do we do all of this? Because our employees live and work in New
Jersey. They vote and spent money in New Jersey. Many were born and
raised in New Jersey, and went to college here. Now they are raising
their kids in New Jersey. And they take pride in doing a great job of
informing and entertaining their families, friends, and communities.

My9 is, at its heart, run by people, people who are as much a part of
the New Jersey community as anyone sitting in this room. I look forward
to hearing your, your views. And we will all be available after this
hearing to talk with you. Thank you.

MODERATOR SIGALOS: Thank you, Mr. Leone. Before I announce the next
speaker, there are a few empty seats if anybody wants to try to filter
in throughout the room. Now would probably be your best opportunity.
There\'s a few seats I see over here, a few scattered about there. Ms.
Sandorse?

MS. SANDORSE: I\'d like to thank the commissioners for calling this
hearing and coming today to hear how New Jersey residents feel about the
media coverage that they receive from WWOR. My name is Donna Sandorse.
I\'m a lifelong New Jersey resident, a Rutgers graduate with a small
business, who has served on several New Jersey nonprofit boards. I speak
today on behalf of Voice for New Jersey, a grassroots affiliation of New
Jersey residents founded by Leadership New Jersey 2006, dedicated to
improving broadcast media coverage of our state.

I\'d like to thank the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers, Media
Access Project of the Free Press for supporting our efforts, and
particularly Senator Frank Lautenberg and his staff. The senator has
been a long time champion of better media coverage for our state.

I\'d also like to acknowledge the person who inspired us to take up this
cause, Bernard Spigner, former director of Communications for the New
Jersey Sports & Exposition Authority, who passed on earlier this year.

VNJ filed a petition to deny the renewal of WWOR-TV\'s broadcast license
predicated on the station\'s failure to meet its public interest
obligations to the people of New Jersey. The airways are valuable public
property, use of which is granted free of charge to broadcasters with
the sole requirement that they meet public interest obligations.

There are a number of factors that the Commission has historically
considered in evaluating a broadcaster\'s performance. One is localism.
In the FCC\'s own words, a broadcaster has a basic responsibility to
contribute to the overall discussion of issues confronting a community,
a duty for which each licensee will be held individually accountable.

To facilitate the kind of discussion that the FCC envisions, a
broadcaster clearly must provide sufficient news coverage to keep the
public informed of relevant events throughout the service area. By this
standard, WWOR has failed the people of New Jersey.

First, the station provides dramatically less total news coverage than
any of its peers in the New York metro area. Second, the station has
provided inadequate coverage of New Jersey elections and government, and
virtually no local coverage of some of the largest communities in the
service area. Third, in its branding and marketing, the station has
turned its back on the community of license and taken on a strong New
York identity.

WWOR broadcasts only one hour of news per day, not one hour of local
news but one total hour of news coverage, while their peers to
dramatically better. These other stations broadcast three to seven hours
of regularly scheduled news programming per day, on average, more than
five times the coverage of WWOR. WWOR has failed to allocate sufficient
time for such coverage to be presented.

This leads quite naturally to our second point, WWOR\'s appalling lack
of news coverage of some of New Jersey\'s largest communities. Here,
I\'ll point to information in the station\'s own quarterly issues and
programming reports, which while not comprehensive, these reports by FCC
definition present the licensee\'s most significant programming
treatment of community issues.

New Jersey\'s six largest communities all fall within WWOR\'s service
area. Any station meeting the public service obligations would of
necessity provide substantial news coverage in such large population
centers.

While the sixty‑three New York based news stories that they have
identified during the fifteen-month period from January 1st, 2006, to
March 31st, 2007 are hardly adequate, New Jersey\'s next five largest
municipalities do dramatically less well.

For example, they report only thirteen New Jersey city stories, that\'s
less than one per month; eight Patterson news stories, or one story
every two months; and only two Elizabeth news stories, one story every
seven months. Half of these stories were crime and non-issue related.

It is our position that WWOR\'s news coverage in these major cities is
so minimal as to constitute complete abdication of the station\'s
responsibility to, again in the FCC\'s own words, contribute to the
overall discussion of issues confronting the community.

Finally, we take exception to the station\'s ongoing failure to identify
itself with its community of license. Our analysis of their news
coverage clearly shows their New York bias. Of the less than 10 hours of
news coverage identified in their issues and program reports in the
first three quarters of 2006, a scant 2.7 hours was dedicated to New
Jersey, while 4.7 was dedicated to New York stories, over 77 percent
more broadcast time. Identification with New York permeates their
marketing branding. The station\'s website, My9NY.com, shows the
Manhattan skyline and the words \"New York\" at the top of the page. In
the lobby of the station\'s Secaucus headquarters, visitors are greeted
by a large My9NY poster, promoting the station\'s news program with the
words \"Your Neighborhood, Your News\" over the Manhattan skyline.

The Commission has long recognized New Jersey\'s unusual position with
respect to media coverage. This densely populated state would, if
analyzed independently, be the fourth largest media market in the
nation. Yet, because of its location between the dominant New York and
Philadelphia markets, there is only one VHF commercial television
station licensed within its borders.

Over twenty years ago, the Commission designated the license to serve
the public interest of New Jersey. As such, the people of New Jersey are
entitled to expect a high level of service from its holder.

WWOR does not measure up and we have amply demonstrated it has
consistently failed to fulfill even the bare minimum of its public
interest obligations. We urge the Commission to act decisively to
provide the people of New Jersey with the broadcast media coverage they
deserve.

MODERATOR SIGALOS: Thank you, Ms. Sandorse. Ms. Desai?

MS. DESAI: Thank you. I am with Media Access Project, I am also here to
represent United Church of Christ and Rainbow PUSH Coalition. Growing up
in New Jersey, in Clifton, New Jersey, I, like many of my peers,
identified myself with New York.

This was naturally the result of what I saw on TV. I knew plenty about
Mayor Koch and Mayor Dinkins, as well as the clean up taking place on
42nd Street. On the other hand, while I knew Thomas Kean was my
governor, I knew very little about my city\'s mayor or my own state
senators.

Coverage of New Jersey didn\'t get any better during my years at Rutgers
and New York law school, at which time I was actually able to vote. With
my New Jersey driver\'s license, I could not participate in New York
politics; yet, I could not rely on the local TV stations to inform me as
to why I should care about local elections taking place in New Jersey.

How then could I, like many other residents of New Jersey, feel
compelled to actively participate in or care about local issues and
elections? As I continue to spent a considerable amount of time in my
hometown, where my parents have lived for almost forty years now, it\'s
obvious that little has changed.

This type of coverage becomes especially important because, as a 2006
study shows, a majority of Americans watch and rely on their local
newscasts for news and information. That is, that is why it is so
critical that Channel 9 live up to its obligation to serve New Jersey;
otherwise, how can New Jersey residents be expected to participate in
local elections and make informed decisions without adequate coverage of
candidates\' positions on issues, or how can New Jersey residents become
aware of or understand the impact of decisions being made by local
governments without coverage and analysis of these decisions?

Unlike the other stations in this market, Channel 9 has a specific and
special obligation to serve northern New Jersey. As we have heard, this
obligation did not come about by accident. Since the 1980\'s, the intent
of the law has been to ensure that Channel 9 is responsive and attentive
to the needs of New Jersey residents in a consistent and thorough basis.

While ownership of Channel 9 has changed over the years, this obligation
to serve New Jersey has not changed. While Channel 9 is quite properly
afforded some discretion as to how and whether to address certain
issues, that discretion is not absolute. The law is clear, Channel 9 is
not entitled to a renewal if it has abused this discretion. As VNJ has
demonstrated, the lack of coverage of issues and politics of concern to
New Jersey residents is a gross abuse of discretion which is not
compatible with Channel 9\'s most fundamental obligation to serve New
Jersey.

While Channel 9 has an obvious economically driven preference for being
perceived as a New York based station, it is now up to the Commission to
ensure that Channel 9 does not shortchange the residents of New Jersey.
Localism is one of the basic elements the Commission looks at in
determining whether a license renewal is warranted.

The Supreme Court has also emphasized the right of the public to receive
suitable access to social, political, economic, and other ideas. That
means New Jersey residents are entitled to adequate coverage of issues
and news relevant to them, and they are just not getting it.

Unfortunately, in other renewal challenges, the Commission has failed to
serve the public interest. The Commission has often turned its back on
localism and decided that the First Amendment somehow precludes the
Commission from reviewing the broadcasted editorial discretion.

However, the law requires the Commission to also consider the absolute
right of the viewers to receive programming responsive to the needs of
their local community. While the Commission has made it a habit to
blindly renew licenses, Channel 9 presents an easy and simple case where
the Commission simply cannot renew the license of Channel 9 without
further scrutiny.

Based on the evidence provided by VNJ and the obvious branding of
Channel 9 as a station dedicated to New Yorkers, the Commission cannot
seriously conclude that Channel 9 broadcasts in the interest of New
Jersey residents. Channel 9\'s license has also been challenged because
Fox Television\'s ownership of Channel 9 is an outright violation of the
Commissions rule prohibiting one entity from owning a TV station and a
newspaper in the same market.

In this case, that rule prohibits Fox from owning Channel 9 and the New
York Post. In fact, Fox has been in violation of the rule since 2001.
Despite promising to come into compliance with the rule, after six
years, Fox has instead tried to skirt the rule. For this reason, United
Church of Christ and the Rainbow PUSH Coalition have asked the
Commission to deny the license renewal.

The Commission has the obligation to conclude that an automatic renewal
would be a disservice to the residents of New Jersey. Instead, the
Commission must further scrutinize the service provided by Channel 9 and
determine whether the license should be renewed or whether additional
conditions are warranted.

To do otherwise would be a disservice to New Jersey and to send a clear
message to the residents of New Jersey that the Commission is just not
serious about making sure that Channel 9 keeps its promise to serve New
Jersey. Thank you, senator and commissioners, and Media Bureau.

MEDIATOR SIGALOS: Thank you, Ms. Desai. Ms. Reed?

MS. REED: Let me express my appreciation to the commissioners and to the
Commission staff for holding this public forum today on an issue of
great importance to the State of New Jersey. And I want to thank Senator
Lautenberg for his continued long-term and enthusiastic commitment to
this problem. While this hearing has a specific focus on the renewal of
the license of WWOR-TV, it fits into a much larger context for our
state, a context that has a long history. It is one that has had a
profound effect on our governance and the participation of our citizens
in elections and in civil life more broadly.

Specifically, it\'s New Jersey\'s reliance on New York City and
Philadelphia for television coverage of its politics and governance. It
is now legendary. I grew up in Vineland, in southern New Jersey, and
watched only Philadelphia stations. I now live in Princeton and rely on
New York City stations. And so it goes.

WWOR-TV located since the mid 1980\'s in the northern most populous part
of our state was a welcomed and I might add hard fought addition to this
fragmented television service, and there were high hopes of what it
would bring.

But even now, our government and every presentation about the problems
facing the state, its citizens, elected officials, and civil leaders has
the lack of a television station with the primary focus on covering our
state cited as the main reason for our lack of cohesion, identity, and
knowledge about ourselves.

This is especially troubling since there is widespread grievant that
people rely mainly on television for their news. So what do we know
about what they get to see? Eagleton decided to collect data to
accurately present the television coverage available to us when we, in
effect, rely on the kindness of strangers for understanding ourselves
and New Jersey\'s public affairs.

We first studied the coverage of television evening news in the month of
October for the 2005 gubernatorial campaign, and we\'re continuing that
study now and will have information out on 2006 and \'07 in the spring.
I thought it would be helpful in this forum to highlight some relevant
data we collected about WWOR-TV, our New Jersey station, in the context
of eleven other stations in the study, four in New York, four in New
Jersey, and two cable and public television in New Jersey.

WWOR-TV showed thirteen election stories in their evening news during
the thirty days before the election, ten of the stories were about New
Jersey or sixty-seven percent. WWOR-TV had the second least stories when
compared to the four New York stations that presented a total of
seventy-nine stories about New Jersey elections. One station had only
seven. The three others ranged between eighteen and thirty-three.

WWOR-TV had the least percentage of New Jersey stories when compared
with Philadelphia stations, and they did not pay a lot of attention to
New Jersey, much fewer than New York stations. WWOR-TV did have longer
stories and had the longest sound bites of candidates speaking; however,
seventy percent of these stories appeared in the final week of the
election.

This picture means that the citizens of New Jersey had less change to
learn from WWOR-TV, fewer stories than other stations, and concentrated
over a shorter period, probably with little predictability when they
would see something about the state. But, once a story was produced and
aired by WWOR-TV, more time was devoted to it and to hearing the
candidates speak.

Clearly, there is potential to do better and to build on that
performance. Let me say again how much we appreciate the Commission\'s
attention to New Jersey and to our station, WWOR-TV. You will hear from
many informed individuals in groups, today. But from my experience, I
can say there are thousands who would gladly tell you in informal ways
that they wished the television news they see would help them understand
what\'s happening in their state and who the public leaders are who have
the responsibility for solving those problems.

All stations that surround us deserve rigorous examination of their
performance in serving our state, but especially this station located in
our state. We look to you to inform us about what we should expect from
WWOR-TV. I think you would find willing partners in New Jersey to use
the requirements for coverage of public affairs and local news to assure
that we have the highest level of performance from WWOR-TV, our TV
station, who we hope we will look forward to seeing at the State House.
Thank you. MODERATOR SIGALOS: Thank you, Ms. Reed. Ms. White?

MS. WHITE: Thank you. I would also like to thank the Commission and the
senator for this opportunity. I am a proud Rutgers grad \-- go Scarlet
Knights \-- and also born and raised in north New Jersey. So this is a
wonderful opportunity, so thank you for that. I, I do want to share with
you just the main focus of The Three Doctors Foundation and that would
focus on four core areas, health, education, leadership, and mentoring.
And our relationship with My9 has extensively helped us achieve those
goals throughout the years, so I do want to thank you for that. We
actually have great partnerships with individuals on both sides of this
discussion today and I do want to say that I\'m here today to tell the
truth about the great relationship that we do have with our friends at
My9. As I mentioned, The Three Doctors Foundation focuses on health,
education, leadership, and mentoring. And I can confidently say that the
support from My9 has definitely helped us reach success in these areas,
as I mentioned before, certainly through event promotion, because we
completely rely upon word of mouth and the media coverage to make sure
that we reach our target audience. And My9 has done that year after
year, to make sure that we are able to reach the community and they are
able to come to our health events, and they are able to meet the three
doctors, and are able to understand what we have to offer and why. Also,
My9 has more directly provided us with their television personalities
who, as you saw from the film, have volunteered of themselves time and
time again to come up to the community, to meet with our young people,
to meet with our donors, to help them understand why it is important to
support our organization. I can say that Ms. Brenda Blackman this year
hosted our annual fund raising gala, as well as Ms. Linda Lopez on a
separate occasion hosted our fund raising gala, which was critically
important to us because that particular event is the only way that we
have to generate support for our outreach programs. Our organization, if
you\'re not familiar with it, is based upon three young physicians who
are from north New Jersey, they\'re from the community, and they made a
promise that they were going to beat the odds and succeed, and they
have. And My9 has been extensively supportive of making sure that we\'ve
been able to share that message with the New Jersey community. Without
them, I don\'t know that we would have been able to do as much as we
have in New Jersey. I do want to personally thank Ms. Brenda Blackman
for all the help that she did this year. We have supporters from all
over the country. And our biggest sponsor is actually in Seattle,
Washington, and they commented on how wonderful the level of support we
received from the media, My9 especially, as well as our other New Jersey
constituents. So I do want to thank you for that. We have also had My9
television personalities come out as mentors for our mentoring program
that we have every year. The kids especially continue to be impressed
with seeing recognizable role models, people who they see on television,
on a daily basis, who give back to the community. For us, we cannot put
a price on that because the kids naturally respond to them and they see
them with the doctors, and that helps to give us credibility as an
organization and make sure that we\'re able to do what we do year after
year. My9 has also featured the doctors on a number of their television
stations. And that, in itself, has generated a lot of support, a lot of
unsolicited donors, a lot of unsolicited other coverage from other
partners throughout the country, as well as locally, and again we thank
you for that. I do want to also mention that, you know, the doctors
wanted to be here tonight, but they are physicians and they couldn\'t
today. But they did want to also extend their personal thanks for your
support year after year to our organization and making sure that we are
successful. Thank you for your time.

MODERATOR SIGALOS: Thank you, Ms. White. And I would like to thank all
of our invited speakers for their participation this afternoon. We will
now transition to the open public comment period for those people who
have registered to speak. And I want to remind anybody who may not have
registered that the registration which is at that front desk in the
lobby will close in five minutes. So if you want to speak, you have five
more minutes to register. Before I go over the ground rules, will the
following people go to either one of these iron microphones. This is the
closest one. Chuck Lovey, Suzy Kass, Bill Hassall, Patrick Adams, Tim
Karr, Christa Pugh, Harold Winard, Reverend Jacques DeGraff, just either
one of those two microphones. Okay, the ground rules for this portion of
our hearing are really quite simple. Each public commenter will be
allotted two minutes for their statements. Please keep an eye on the
clock as you do that, so we ensure that you get your most important
comments to us within that time period. We will be strictly enforcing
this time limit so that everyone will have an opportunity to be heard.
Please, audience, still do abide by our request for basic decorum during
this public comment period. All right, Mr. Lovey?

MR. LOVEY: Thank you. I\'d like to thank the FCC commissioners for
calling this hearing and coming to New Jersey today to speak with us. My
name is Chuck Lovey. I\'m a lifelong resident of New Jersey, I currently
reside in Plainfield, and I\'m a member of Voice for New Jersey. I\'d
like to share with you some data that we developed from WWOR\'s FCC
filings. For those who are not aware, the FCC requires broadcast
licensees to submit quarterly reports documenting programming that
addresses key issues in the broadcaster\'s local community. For the
first three quarters of 2006, WWOR reported less than ten hours of news
programming that was responsive to community issues, scarcely less than
two minutes per day of programming. Perhaps coming to a sense of shame,
the station stopped reporting the airtime of its public interest
programming altogether in the fourth quarter of 2006. Speaking for Voice
for New Jersey, we view this level of programming as so minimal that it
is tantamount to a complete abdication of the station\'s public interest
obligations with respect to news coverage. Now in its petition \-- or in
its response to our petition, WWOR stated that the reports that VNJ
analyzed were never meant to be all inclusive. The station would like us
to believe that its actual performance is better than what we have
portrayed. If this is so, let WWOR show us the real numbers and let them
do it today. If they cannot, the Commission must accept that WWOR\'s own
reporting abundantly proves the case against it as documented in the
Voice for New Jersey petition. To do otherwise would be to accept that
the station\'s own reporting failures should somehow be construed to its
benefit, and would be a gross violation of the public trust. Let me
again thank the commissioners for coming to New Jersey today. Thank you
very much.

MODERATOR SIGALOS: Ms. Kass?

MS. KASS: Yes. My name is Suzy Kass. I\'m from Montclair, New Jersey. I
co-chair the media reform group for Blue Wave New Jersey. This issue is
near and dear to our hearts because we don\'t see this as a red issue or
a blue issue, this is simply about getting the information we need to
know as citizens. We can\'t fix what we don\'t know is broken. We can\'t
care about people we don\'t know about. We can\'t fix problems that we
don\'t know exist. You at WWOR will hear a lot about what you\'re not
doing. But what I want to tell you is that the New Jersey residents,
what many of us want from you, we want to hear something real, so talk
to us. Talk to us about how we\'re doing environmentally in New Jersey.
Tell us about our veterans coming back from Iraq. Tell us about our
candidates running for office. Better yet, offer to give them some air
time so they can tell us about themselves. Tell us about post 9/11 New
Jersey, how safe are we and what will you do in the event of an
emergency. Tell us about our legislature. Perhaps you could do a visual
crawl underneath the news at night so we know how everybody voted and
what the issues are. You do a little of this, but you don\'t do enough.
In a complicated world where the stakes are so high, we cannot allow you
to squander our airwaves, and they are our airwaves. We own these
airwaves and stations need to prove themselves worthy of their use. I
implore the FCC to be a better voice for the individual. Start the great
wave across this country and hold WWOR accountable to its public
interest obligation and its mandate to serve our area, because the
caliber of our actions and our decisions depend on your responsible
stewardship of our media. Finally, on behalf of Blue Wave New Jersey and
myself, thank you so much for this opportunity.

MODERATOR SIGALOS: Thank you. Mr. Hassall?

MR. HASSALL: Hi, the name is Bill Hassall from Galloway, New Jersey.
First of all, I\'d like to thank the FCC for giving this subject the
specialized attention that it deserves. I would also like to thank
Senator Frank Lautenberg for the work \-- for his work to give New
Jersey its own voice. I have lived in New Jersey my whole life and I can
never remember hearing about any major news coverage that didn\'t have
either Philadelphia or New York as its target audience. Being the most
educated and densely populated state in the nation, one would think that
more, not less local community outlets would be here. For a state
that\'s trying to re-identify itself with New Jersey, come see for
yourself. We sure aren\'t seeing for ourselves what New Jersey has to
offer the media market. I was doing research on publicintegrity.org, a
website that tracks media ownership. And I found that of the
commercially licensed TV stations that serve my hometown of Galloway,
only thirty-six percent are actually located in New Jersey. It\'s no
wonder that when election time is near, I hear mostly about out-of-state
politics. We need to stop being overshadowed by our neighboring states
and embrace our own local communities. And maybe it\'s just me, but I
don\'t understand how a station that calls itself My9 New York could
even begin to claim that its aim is to serve the people of this state.
I\'m surprised to see they are even here covering this event, today.
WWOR really doesn\'t serve the public interest. Therefore, I urge you to
deny the request for license renewal. Also, I am very excited that this
event is happening. However, I would like to know why Senator Lautenberg
attached an amendment to the Local Community Radio Act in 2007 that will
prevent low power FM from helping communities in New Jersey. Senator
Lautenberg should make sure that communities have access to local media.
Thank you.

MODERATOR SIGALOS: Thank you. Mr. Adams?

MR. ADAMS: My name is Patrick Adams. I\'m from Union, New Jersey. I\'d
like to thank the FCC and Senator Lautenberg for having this hearing.
First thing I notice, I watch a lot of news, that on Channel 9, the news
is rarely on, especially in the morning they don\'t really have news
coverage, although it\'s on in the evening. And when it is on, it\'s
news to me that, that it\'s based in New Jersey. I thought it was just
another New York channel. They do kind of the same type of stories that
the Fox 5 and, you know, Channel 11 do. So there\'s really not a big
difference between the type of news that they report and the type of
news that Fox 5 and Channel 11 report. And when I do want to see New
Jersey news, I usually go to News 12 New Jersey, because this is a much
more accurate representation of New Jersey news. So for this reason, I
urge the FCC not to renew the license of WWOR. All we need is another
organization that represents New York based in New Jersey. We already
have the Giants. We already have the Jets. The Mets are moving to
Brooklyn. So that\'s all I have to say. Thank you very much.

MODERATOR SIGALOS: Thank you. Tim Karr?

MR. KARR: Hi, I\'m Timothy Karr, the campaign director for Free Press,
National Media Reform Group, but I\'m a longtime resident of Hoboken,
New Jersey. That we\'re having this hearing today in Newark is a bit of
a miracle. It\'s a miracle because business as usual at the FCC requires
a television station to do little more than mail a postcard to
Washington for a rubber stamp approval of its license to broadcast.
It\'s a miracle because so many people in New Jersey took the time to
say enough business as usual, we demand that you hear our concerns,
concerns about a conglomerate owned station that has the gall to call
itself My9 New York, in open defiance of its mandate to serve the people
of northern New Jersey. But here\'s where the miracle evaporates. If
we\'re denied this opportunity to remove WWOR\'s license today, we\'ll
have to wait another eight years before we have an opportunity to
challenge its license again. It didn\'t always used to be this way. It
used to be that every three years, a broadcaster had to demonstrate that
it was meeting a long list of FCC public interest guidelines. But
lobbyists working for commercial broadcasters didn\'t like that and they
strong-armed the FCC to change their renewal process to eight years, a
postcard, and a rubber stamp. Eight years is a long time. Newark simply
can\'t afford eight more years of too little news and too much My9 New
York. Newark can\'t wait eight more years for a station that doesn\'t
even pretend to serve our local interest while serving up a junk news
diet of murder, car crashes, and reality television. The real reality is
the people before you today. We\'re sick and tired of more business as
usual at the FCC. We\'re sick and tired because local newscasters like
WWOR have snubbed us. We aren\'t going to wait another eight years. The
FCC should stop this neglect immediately and hand over WWOR\'s license
to a local broadcaster who really cares about interests. Thank you.

MODERATOR SIGALOS: Thank you. Christa Pugh?

MS. PUGH: Thank you for this opportunity to speak today. My name is
Christa Pugh and I am the regional management director for the Eastern
Region of the Ad Council. I work with all local media outlets in the New
Jersey area to secure time and space for our fifty-plus public service
campaigns. For over six decades, the Ad Council has been successfully
using public service advertising to address the most pressing social
issues, to raise awareness in spite of change, and make a positive
difference in our society. Because of WWOR-TV, fewer wildfires have
started in places like the Pine Barrens, fewer friends across the state
have let friends drive drunk, fewer of our neighbors have experienced
discrimination. The Ad Council does not pay for any media and relies
solely on donated air time. Because of My9, the people of New Jersey are
receiving critical information on a host of pressing, locally important
issues including the prevention of youth reckless driving, education on
childhood obesity prevention, the promotion of financial literacy, the
recruitment of mentors for local Big Brother and Big Sister Chapters,
autism awareness, the reduction of gun violence, and increasing parental
involvement in schools. And when the need is urgent, WWOR-TV responds
quickly. Recently, New Jersey and the greater New York area experienced
a critical blood shortage. Within days, My9 was airing Ad Council PSA\'s
to help rapidly restore blood link supplies. And for the past two years,
Lew Leone has served on our local leadership committee representing all
the TV stations in the tri-state area, helping us to identify and to
respond to critical local issues. My9 has demonstrated a remarkable
commitment to public service. They help raise awareness, change
behaviors, and ultimately save lives. On behalf of all Ad Council
nonprofit sponsors, I am honored to be here today to thank and to
congratulate WWOR-TV for their terrific support of local social issues
\--

MODERATOR SIGALOS: Thank you.

MS. PUGH: \-- that make a positive difference in the New Jersey area.

MODERATOR SIGALOS: Thank you very much. Before I announce the next
speaker, would the following people please come forward. Kate Blofson,
Debbie Spigner, Dale Alexander, Bill Lavin, Louis Zanoni, Curtis Farrow,
Sharon Brown, Diane Doctor, and Faris Jebara. Harold Winard? Mr. Winard,
please, step forward.

MR. WINARD: Thank you very much. I would first like to thank Senator
Lautenberg for facilitating this meeting and the commissioners for being
here in this unusual meeting to air what you hear are the grievances of
the New Jersey public toward the situation in broadcasting in New
Jersey. I would first like to emphasize that this is not a new problem.
My own personal involvement and interest, and it goes back almost forty
years, I have here a letter from the Commission that was sent to the
late Senator Clifford Case about the situation of television
broadcasting in New Jersey, and it was from Mr. Cahill, legal assistant
to the chairman, and it\'s dated August 1968. That\'s almost forty years
ago. I have here clippings that I maintain. TV plea by Harris, this is
from the New York Star Ledger, charging that New York television
stations have not lived up to their pledge to improve their coverage in
New Jersey, Newark City Council President Earl Harris has called on the
members of FCC to give the Garden State its own commercial station. This
is dated July 1977. Here\'s another Star Ledger article, FCC asks New
York, Philly to increase Jersey news. This is dated 1976. This is a
problem that has been going on for a very, very long time without
resolution. I hope this forum can serve as the impetus for resolution of
the problem, not just with WWOR, which is an icon of the problem, but
for all stations that are involved. Another issue, I hope the Commission
is not taken in by slick production and commercial type presentation of
what, what Channel 9, WWOR-TV does by way of its news coverage. What we
see here is tokenism. We see here news stories that are vetted against
the interest not of people in New Jersey, but how much that story will
appeal to the interest of a listener in Brooklyn, New York. We need New
Jersey stories that are of interest to people in New Jersey. I hope the
Commission sees fit to reject the application of WWOR-TV and hopefully
another \--

MODERATOR SIGALOS: Thank you very much. Reverend Jacques DeGraff?

REVEREND DeGRAFF: Good evening. I\'d like to thank the Commission for
being here and the leadership of Senator Lautenberg. My name is Reverend
Jacques DeGraff. I\'m with the 100 Black Men. I would like to say that
I\'m a Baptist and I\'m a Democrat, and I\'m also a resident of New
Jersey. In the experience of African Americans and many other people,
media in general has disappointed, stigmatized, and stereotyped many of
us. And so we approach all media with, with skepticism at best. But I am
here today to support the license renewal for WWOR 9 because of my
specific and our specific experience with them, the leadership from top
to bottom, not just Lew Leone but Gene Fuentes, Ian Moore, Rupert
Murdoch himself, who signed agreements and kept their word, and exceeded
their expectation in providing resources for mentoring and internship
programs. And then they went beyond that. They provided coverage to the
issues that were important in our community. I serve on the board of the
Newark Community Health Centers in seven locations in Essex County and
they cover the issues that are of concern to our communities. They are
people who have kept their word and kept their commitment. The issues
about the coverage and the other concerns every person in New Jersey
whose safety and feeling shares those concerns. But the license renewal,
they are the best ones to fulfill the obligations of the license and to
get it right. I want to reward them for what they have done. And so
since they have done the right thing by us, we want to stand with them
today and continue to support them. Thank you.

MODERATOR SIGALOS: Thank you. Kate Blofson?

MS. BLOFSON: Hi. Thank you, commissioners, for taking the time to hold
this important hearing. My father is an independent film maker who has
lived and worked in New Jersey for over thirty years. He has produced
documentaries on New Jersey organizations and the important community
issues they work on like domestic violence, child abuse, environmental
degradation, poverty, and housing among, among others, mostly in
Trenton. New Jersey \-- NJN public television is the only outlet in New
Jersey for documentaries like the ones my father worked on. And
according to him, NJN now has its own stock that\'s been decades since
they\'ve hired independent producers. There\'s no other outlets in New
Jersey that independent producers like my dad can turn to. The Philly
and New York markets are very difficult to break into and they\'re not
interested in the pieces that focus on New Jersey communities. While I
commend WWOR for its community service and PSA\'s, community service is
not the same as providing broadcast service and PSA\'s are often used by
stations to use up unsold airtime. My father ends up showing his
documentaries and workshops to community organizations and at the
library, not on New Jersey\'s airways. I want New Jersey\'s media
outlets to cover the issues facing our New Jersey communities and to
give a real opportunity to hear the voices he puts on film. I applaud
the commissioners and Senator Lautenberg for taking the time to hold the
broadcast licensing holder accountable to the community it is licensed
to serve. While I don\'t expect the FCC to deny WWOR\'s license renewal
application, I do hope that this hearing sets a kick in the pants
precedent across the country where broadcasters will turn out to defend
their licenses and are forced to take seriously the mandates of their
public interest obligation. I also hope Senator Lautenberg will choose
to extend \-- concern over New Jersey televisions serving New Jersey
communities to local radio and regions that are in \-- discouraging
local radio in New Jersey.

MODERATOR SIGALOS: Thank you. Debbie Spigner?

MS. SPIGNER: Good evening. My name is Debra Spigner. I\'m from Metuchen.
I\'ve been a resident of New Jersey for eleven years. My husband,
Bernard Spigner, was a leadership New Jersey graduate 2006. He was a
radio talk show host for five years on WCPC 4050 AM. As a host, he
always had the best for New Jersey residents at heart when he
interviewed his, the leaders and when he talked to citizens in a
dialogue that he knew was the ownership of the people of New Jersey. He
was thrilled about the idea of bringing this petition to the FCC for a
number of reasons. A born New Jerseyan, Bernard had a passion for his
state and for presenting a positive image of \-- people of New Jersey.
It was his wish to do and help to shape \-- sorry, the state image in a
way that will give a more balanced and progressive image unlike that
often painted by media of New York and Philadelphia. It seems that the
only new coverage in Jersey by the media are the negative issues, and
Bernard always complained about that. I\'m here today to bring forth
this wish for my husband, who looked at the relicensing of WWOR as an
opportunity for New Jersey residents to take in order to derive more
positive coverage for our state. I remain in New Jersey and will
continue to do this, to endeavor to \-- the opportunity to receive the
media coverage it deserves, the people of New Jersey deserves, the
minority groups \-- people who have no voice and hardly ever heard. I
will do \-- my husband Bernard, a true, true New Jerseyan.

MODERATOR SIGALOS: Thank you. Dale Alexander?

MR. ALEXANDER: Good afternoon. I\'m Dale Alexander. I am representing
the United Negro College Fund, New Jersey office, which is based right
here in Newark. I, myself, have been a resident of Newark for over forty
years. We are charged in New Jersey with raising funds from the New
Jersey community to support our mission of supporting our thirty-nine
historically Black colleges and universities, as well as providing
scholarships and internships for students from New Jersey to attend
those schools and other colleges around the country. Since our
partnership with My9 started two years ago, they have been a strong
supporter of helping us in that mission in that they \-- we are one of
the number one nonprofit organizations who My9 runs our PSA\'s to get
our mission out in front of the public, as well as featuring two of our
staff members from the United Negro College Fund, New Jersey office on
My9\'s Real Talk public access program. Through that, that gives us
another opportunity to get our mission out towards the New Jersey
public. Finally, My9 has supported us in addition by airing our \"An
Evening of Stars\" television special. January of 2007 was the first
time they aired it and they will air our 2008 special this coming
January. And that one television program is our greatest single
opportunity annually to get our message of supporting our historically
Black colleges and universities, and the deserving students from New
Jersey who seek to attain a college education but need funds to do so.
So we stand today in support of My9 and thank them for their support of
UNCF.

MODERATOR SIGALOS: Thank you. Bill Lavin?

MR. LAVIN: Thank you. Thanks for the opportunity to speak to you today.
I want to certainly recognize Senator Lautenberg and thank him for his
support of firefighters. I am an Elizabeth firefighter, right next door
to Newark. I also am the president of the New Jersey State Fireman\'s
Mutual Benevolent Association, 5,500 career firefighters throughout the
state of New Jersey from Cape May to Hoboken and beyond. It\'s ironic
that I am here today and have this opportunity because I\'m here to
celebrate what WWOR has done for the fire service in New Jersey. Our
issues don\'t always match that of government, as Senator Lautenberg
will attest to. Not all the people who represent us in government share
our views as far as safety and staffing, those issues, and I certainly
want to recognize Senator Lautenberg as one of the champions of that.
But Harry Martin, for one, has allowed myself and others within the fire
service, one of the view who have allowed us to go on air, on shows like
Garden State Matters and other PSA\'s that we have put out our message
as far as staffing and so on. In addition to that, our humanitarian
efforts, when we responded to the Gulf Coast, to Hurricane Katrina, and
built handicap accessible playgrounds for the people of the Gulf Coast,
when we worked with Save The Children and other humanitarian issues,
they have always been there for us. We have honored in 2006, Harry
Martin, Joe Silvestre for what they have done for us, giving them awards
that we rarely give to media. In the wake of September 11th, it was
about New Jersey firefighters and how we responded and what that meant.
I\'d also just like to, I would love to see the Jets and Giants call
themselves the New Jersey Jets and New Jersey Giants. So if that\'s the
issue, so be it. But my support is squarely behind the people who have
helped us in the past. So thank you for your time.

MODERATOR SIGALOS: Thank you. Louis Zanoni?

MR. ZANONI: Yes. My name is Louis Zanoni. I am, I am the chairman of
WCPN-TV, a classic television station on Channel 25 in Trenton, the only
TV station in the area that produces daily newscasts that focuses all of
the, all of the attention on the news in New Jersey. New Jersey is a
small sandwiched state between the major markets of New York and
Philadelphia. It\'s only natural that the big stations will gravitate
towards the big cities that have happen, that have \-- happened in New
Jersey since the advent of television since almost sixty years ago.
Stations in northern New Jersey try to be New York stations and stations
in the south try to be Philadelphia. That\'s always going to happen,
even when Congress gives stations like WWOR a new license in return for
moving across the river to New Jersey because big market dollars will
always drive the marketplace. But New Jersey can have its own real TV
broadcast identity through Class A stations like my own. Our, our signal
doesn\'t cover Philadelphia, so we serve the area we cover, our state
capital of Trenton. We\'re a truly New Jersey station, but we are
blocked over the air by, by \-- over the air again by cable companies
that won\'t carry our station. We live close to, we live close to the
\-- we live close to the station because we can\'t get to, get to the
major TV distributor systems. The digital transition will make, will
make it worse and will kill us altogether because a lot of the
converting boxes that government is subsidizing will block our analog
signal and keep us out of, keep us out of more TV receivers than cable
already has kept us from reaching. Thank you. Thank you very much.

MODERATOR SIGALOS: Curtis Farrow?

MR. FARROW: Before you start that clock, good afternoon.

MODERATOR SIGALOS: Start the clock. Start the clock.

MR. FARROW: I just want to say this has nothing to do with this but I
hope that we can get some heat in here. Good afternoon, everybody. My
name is A. Curtis Farrow. I am the owner of Urban Street Rap, which is
located right here in the beautiful, magnificent City of Newark, New
Jersey. We can happily clap to that. It is with great pride and pleasure
that I am here today. And I didn\'t realize that this was not going to
be a slam dunk because, in my opinion, it should be. I represent the
McDonald\'s Gospel Fest. We \-- I am the producer of the largest gospel
fest not only in the country but in the world. Yes, you can clap to
that. And we get over 80,000 kids and members of churches that audition
for the gospel fest. Out of that 80,000, 30,000 come from the state of
New Jersey. And if I would have known it was going to be this kind of
affair, I would have brought them here with me, today. I say that to say
My9 has always been in our corner. We \-- I\'ve been producing it for
nine years. This is the twenty-fifty anniversary. And I am going to say
this because it\'s true, we were at ABC for five years. We moved,
senator, to My9 four years ago and we have never got the response from
New Jersey the way we get it now. And I\'m, I\'m surprised. I\'m
standing here going like are these people watching the same newscasts
that I watch? Are you really Channel 9 viewers? I am. I don\'t get it.
But I will say to the FCC not only should you give them their license,
they deserve their license, our mayor, I called the mayor. I called
Mildred Crump and said, you know what, this year is the twenty-fifth
anniversary of the McDonald\'s Gospel Fest, the largest gospel event. We
want to bring it to Newark. I haven\'t heard from them yet. But guess
who calls me? My9 is like a Cassidy in Newark. And guess what?

MODERATOR SIGALOS: Thank you.

MR. FARROW: It\'s going to be in Newark. My9 deserves \--

MODERATOR SIGALOS: Thank you very much.

MR. FARROW: \-- their license. They deserve their license.

MODERATOR SIGALOS: Thank you very much, Mr. Farrow.

MR. FARROW: They deserve their license \--

(Simultaneous speech)

MODERATOR SIGALOS: I would now like to \--

MR. FARROW: They deserve their license. Thank you.

MODERATOR SIGALOS: We actually heard they deserve their license the
first time and we appreciate the repetition. Sharon Brown.

MS. BROWN: Hello. My name is Sharon Brown and I represent the state
African American Festival. And I\'m honored to be here to support My9.
And I\'m in a most unique position because I must be the only person
here that My9 chased down from the public affairs office. In fact, they
chased me down, Joan chased me down when I was in Aruba with my husband,
and then they chased me down at the Christian Education Conference. They
really reached out to the African American Festival because they wanted
to do a piece on our senator. And we were very pleased to have them do a
piece. We celebrated our twentieth anniversary. And we could never get
up north at all. I live in Monmouth County and that\'s where the
festival is. And, finally, they called me so much, we came down, we did
a half hour piece, and we went from 5,000 attendants to 7,000 people
coming. And we got vendors, non-food vendors, and food vendors that
came. It upped everything. So we went from giving five students \$500
scholarships to \$1,000 scholarships to ten people every year. And that
was three years ago, and we\'re still working and growing. And it\'s all
because of this man that we gave an award to. And, unfortunately, he
died. And we give out community awards. He was the first non-African
American to get this award. It\'s very difficult to give. It\'s the
Outstanding Community Award and we\'ve only given out, in twenty years,
fifteen of them. And it went to their Ray Blanco, and Lou \-- received
this, he passed, for his outstanding dedication to the community.

MODERATOR SIGALOS: Thank you.

MS. BROWN: In his memory, he died before we could give it to him.

MODERATOR SIGALOS: Thank you very much.

MS. BROWN: And that\'s the book. And thank you.

MODERATOR SIGALOS: Thank you. Before I announce the next speaker, would
the following people come forward, Ann Rea, Barbara Belasco, Steve
Edwards, Tracey Reed, Mario Tapia, Duda Pentiado, Tom Dallessio, Kaili
Baucum. I\'m now going to announce our sixteenth registered speaker.
It\'s a big after 5:30 and we have thirty-seven in total, and many busy
schedules. Senator Lautenberg?

SENATOR LAUTENBERG: I will be just one minute\'s worth because the one
thing I want clearly understood is this criticism, if it is that, at
WWOR is not that they don\'t do a lot of good things. They do a lot of
very good things. We think that more can be done for the reasons that
have already been stated and restated. But I just wanted to clear that
air. And I congratulate you, Harry, and all of your colleagues for work
that you do on behalf of the community. It\'s wonderful. But we\'ve got
to have more news. Thank you very, very much. I must go now. Forgive me,
please.

MODERATOR SIGALOS: Diane Doctor?

MS. DOCTOR: Hi.

MODERATOR SIGALOS: Hold on a second. Move that stand real quickly.
That\'s it.

MS. DOCTOR: Much better. Hi, I\'m Diane Doctor. And I was the news
director at Channel 2 and Channel 4, and I was the assistant news
director at Channel 9, but I won\'t tell you how long ago that was, so I
have a fair idea of news coverage in this market. And I echo what was
said earlier. I believe that Channel 9 has done a great job of covering
New Jersey. I won\'t go into specifics, but I\'ll point out that it\'s
very unusual in this business, and I\'m an example of more typical of
movement from station to station. Channel 9 has some people that have
been in this market, and have covered it and stayed at the station, and
have provided great depth and great news judgment. And the station has
also accumulated probably more Emmy awards for its investigative
reporting and its distinguished reporting in New Jersey than most people
realize. Brenda Blackman, Russ Salzberg, Steve Linden, Jim Driscoll, who
was a production assistant when I was at Channel 9 is now the new
director, these are people that live in New Jersey, that know the state,
and that are highly respected as journalists. And I just thought you all
ought to know that. Real quickly, you probably saw me on that videotape.
I produce \"NJ My Way,\" which is an online, daily e‑newsletter. And
it\'s all about the positive things in New Jersey. When I left broadcast
news, I vowed to try to take my home state to a different public
relations profile. And every day we publish something that tells people
of New Jersey something good, something positive, and something to their
benefit. And when I called Lew Leone and I said I\'m doing this, could
you put it on Channel 9\'s website, he welcomed it with open arms. And
if you check it out, on their website you\'ll find great content about
New Jersey and all the positive things about the state. Thank you very
much.

MODERATOR SIGALOS: Thank you. Faris Jebara?

MR. JEBARA: Hi, my name is Faris Jebara. I\'m a student here at Rutgers
University and an intern for the public interest group, New Jersey\'s B
NJPIRG for Student Chapters. Since September of this year, NJPIRG has
dedicated its efforts to registering the student and the people of New
Jersey to vote in the past election. When not working on this campaign,
I was truly flabbergasted and appalled at the political ignorance of my
peers. WWOR, also more commonly known as My9NewYork, ironically enough
this is New Jersey\'s only public broadcasting media outlet\'s name, has
done minimal to cover and inform the citizens of which it is both
financially and socially responsible to. No longer will, no longer will
New Jersey\'s only public media \-- no longer will New Jersey\'s only
public news broadcasting be taken hostage by self-interested business
people with money-making as their sole prerogative. No longer should
this be tolerated on the backs of my politically ignorant peers. Thank
you.

MODERATOR SIGALOS: Thank you. Ann Rea?

MS. REA: Hi, my name, my name is Ann Rea, and I live in Montclair, New
Jersey. After twenty years of viewing the affects of the free market on
television since media deregulation rules were passed in the 1980\'s, I
can clearly see that government regulation has the potential to benefit
society. The people of New Jersey need to have more information to make
political decisions. They need a constant stream of news on a daily
basis to make important judgments about their communities and their
lives. Responsible journalism and fact-based reporting are essential to
our democracy. The Founding Fathers knew that a well established news
media with lots of competition was essential to the running of our
democratic institutions. They made deliberate plans to support it and
the creation of a postal subsidy that made it less expensive to send
newspapers and periodicals around the country. In 231 years, our means
of getting the news has shifted. We have television now and that
requires new rules to support the free flow of news and information, and
we need our government to do this job. A civilized country needs to
nurture the sources of news, which we used to do in these United States.
To have the citizens\' participation as required by our form of
government, we need readily available and accurate information to thrive
as a strong nation at home and abroad. I urge the FCC not to issue this
broadcast license renewal. The FCC should use this process to promote
better news service to the people of New Jersey. Thank you for your
time.

MODERATOR SIGALOS: Thank you. Barbara Belasco?

MS. BELASCO: Hello, I\'m Barbara Belasco.

MODERATOR SIGALOS: Could you adjust that microphone? Yes.

MS. BELASCO: Thank you. I need a short one, thanks. I\'m Barbara Belasco
and I live in Glen Arden, but I\'m here on behalf of the League of Women
Voters of New Jersey. We\'re a nonpartisan organization, which encourage
the active informed participation of citizens in government. We believe
that good government depends on informed and effective electorate, which
is why I am here today. We also believe that WWOR-TV is not covering the
important issues facing state and local citizens. How are we being
served by WWOR-TV? I don\'t have a polling organization to help me, but
I did bring a schedule, last week\'s schedule. And if you look at that
and I\'d be glad to leave it with you, thirty-five hours of programming
is devoted to infomercials. The nightly news show, My9 News, which I did
watch last night, is mostly sensational stories about crime. Most of the
remainder of the schedule, at least last week, was filmed entertainment
leftovers from Channel 5\'s inventory. But, on Sunday afternoon, there
was a half-hour public affairs show called NJ Now, and I understand that
the show after it, called Real Talk, may also be a public affairs
program. What\'s new? Where are the important national issues, the ones
that have an impact on New Jersey residents, local warming, healthcare,
the Iraqi war? What about specifically New Jersey issues? For example,
the new state school funding formula, property tax reform, political
correction, clean elections. Where are they? Where are the children\'s
shows? I didn\'t see any children\'s shows on the schedule. Where are
the New Jersey cultural institutions, New Jersey Symphony, NJ \-- the
New Jersey Symphony Theater, and excuse me \-- in conclusion, the
existing license was granted with the requirement to operate in New
Jersey for the benefit of the people of the state. Before you give a
valuable public asset to the current licensee \--

MODERATOR SIGALOS: Thank you.

MS. BELASCO: \-- please \-- the needs of citizens. Thank you.

MODERATOR SIGALOS: Thank you very much. Steve Edwards?

MR. EDWARDS: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My name is Steve Edwards. I\'m on
the Board of Commissioners for the New Jersey Hall of Fame. The mission
of the New Jersey Hall of Fame is to celebrate the Garden State by
honoring our icons that have lived among us throughout the years and
sending a positive message to children, providing them with positive
roll models, hopefully motivating and inspiring them to become the next
Thomas Edison, the next Albert Einstein, and so forth. I\'m pleased to
say that My9 has been extremely helpful to the Hall of Fame, in
particular Harry Martin, Joe Silvestre, Audrey Pass, who just walked out
of the room, Lew Leone, and the late Ray Blanco. Recently, they aired
PSA\'s, I think a couple of dozen of them, over a three-month period and
during prime time hours, I may add. They also produced a thirty-minute
Hall of Fame show, which did a great job at promoting the Hall of Fame.
Quite frankly, their support has been critical because it has come
during the stages of our development, and we\'re very grateful for that.
Moving forward, they generously offered to televise the Red Carpet.
I\'ll get a plug in. It\'s going to be May 4th at the Performing Arts
Center in Newark. They\'ve offered to televise that Red Carpet ceremony
and future PSA\'s, and to do a future Hall of Fame show. So we look
forward to working with them, very grateful for their support. They\'ve
been tremendous media partners. We hope you\'ll give your fullest
consideration to their renewal. I do want to add, I give Debbie Spigner
a lot of credit. I knew Bernard. He was a great, great, great man. I\'m
sorry I\'m on the other side of the issue from Debbie, but it takes a
lot of courage to get up and do that. And Ray Blanco, your Ray Blanco
was a very special man. So thank you very much.

MODERATOR SIGALOS: Thank you. Tracey Reed?

MS. REED: Yes. My name is Tracey Reed. I am a lifelong resident of New
Jersey, currently reside in Roxbury, in northwestern New Jersey, and I
am a member of Voice for New Jersey. I\'d like to welcome the
commissioners and their staff to New Jersey. We love our state and all
we want is to see our state justly served by our television station.

I\'d like to comment today, in addition to all of what\'s been said, on
a quote that appeared in the Star Ledger, today, in the article about
the hearing, which was attributed to Audrey Pass. Ms. Pass is identified
as a spokesperson for WWOR and is quoted as saying that she would be
surprised if a day went by when there wasn\'t a New Jersey story or a
story of interest to New Jersey residents appearing on the station\'s
nightly newscast.

Is that last qualifier really necessary? This would seem to be an
acknowledgment that the station cannot plainly claim to offer up even
one real New Jersey news story each day.

Is the standard implied in this comment really that the public interest
standard that the FCC is willing to accept on behalf of the people of
New Jersey? Let\'s talk about that implicit standard. Are a station\'s
public interest obligations truly satisfied if it simply broadcasts
content that is of interest to people in the community of license? I
would shudder to think what would happen if the FCC were to passively
accept such a standard.

By this logic, presumably, a station could broadcast infomercials
twenty-four hours a day. The station could then claim that their public
interest obligations were satisfied if people in the community of
license ordered up some Ginsu knives, or some Bowflex machines, or
natural cures books. After all, would not such orders demonstrate that
the programming was of interest?

If the standard of service to the community is that some New Jersey
residents are interested in the contents of the station\'s broadcast, we
may as well acknowledge that there are no standards in effect at all. In
that case, the FCC would do well simply to auction off the licenses or
sell them.

MODERATOR SIGALOS: Thank you.

MS. REED: Thank you.

MODERATOR SIGALOS: Thank you very much. Mario Tapia?

MR. TAPIA: Good afternoon. First of all, I would like to thank U.S.
Senator Frank Lautenberg and the FCC for this important forum and the
opportunity to express ideals. My name is Mario Tapia. I am the
president and CEO of the Latino Gerontological Center. This is a
national nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the life of the
Latino.

I have been a resident of New Jersey since 1973. My questions are has
WWOR-TV invited us to participate in their community care programming?
Has WWOR-TV provided us a space to publicly discuss the lack of access
for the Latino elderly in the State of New Jersey? Does WWOR-TV
understand and support our efforts as a nonprofit organization? The
answer to all these questions is yes.

We feel that WWOR-TV has been fulfilling the public interest on the
people matters in New Jersey better than any other TV station including
WNJN and NJU\'s station. We have been relating to WWOR-TV for a long
time. We=ve been invited several times to their show LatiNation, and
most recently to Real Talk. An important aspect of WWOR-TV programming
for community affairs is that these shows are seen during prime time
slots and not in the usual time of other TV stations for these types of
programs. We strongly support the renewal of the license for WWOR-TV.
Again, thank you.

MODERATOR SIGALOS: Thank you. Duda Penteado?

MR. PENTEADO: Thank you, committee, senator. My name is Duda Penteado.
I\'m the chair of the Artist Certification Board of the City of Jersey
City. I\'m a fine artist. And I\'m coming here to stand in support of
Channel 9 and to thank Channel 9 for the support of the Arts.

I\'m a citizen of the United States for more than ten years and I live
in this Jersey City for more than ten years as well. I have seen
increasing coverage of Channel 9 in the City of Jersey City, a few
events like Liberty Science Center, the Arts Education Board, it was an
important board that was seeking to give back to living artists.

In the waterfront of Jersey City, they have covered, and other events,
as community events as well as hosting the president of New Jersey
university to talk about the monthly development of the university and
others. So I stand here to thank Channel 9 and the work with the Arts
and the committee. And thank you to be covering more exciting news in
Jersey City. Thank you very much.

MODERATOR SIGALOS: Thank you. Before I announce the next speaker, would
the following people head to the nearest microphone, Daniel Schoenberg,
Dock Russell, Marianne Hartman, Juan Nortez, Joseph Occhipinti, and Luis
Diaz. Tom Dallessio?

MR. DALLESSIO: Good afternoon. Thank you very much. I\'m Tom Dallessio.
I\'m a lifelong New Jersey resident. And I am the executive director of
Leadership of New Jersey. I am proud of the work that the Leadership of
New Jersey, Class of 2006 has created in a voice for New Jersey, but I
am speaking as a private citizen for these comments.

I\'d like to thank Senator Lautenberg, who is an honorary fellow of
Leadership of New Jersey, and the FCC for holding this hearing in New
Jersey and according New Jersey the respect we deserve and we\'ve
earned.

My9, I\'m sad to say, isn\'t my 9. I do watch my Yankees, but that\'s
about it. I\'m disappointed in the news coverage. The critical issues of
infrastructure, land use, education, and environment are never really
covered in any substantive way.

New Jersey leads the way in open space preservation, and public
transportation, and higher education. On rare occasion, coverage is at
best sensationalistic; at worse, trite.

The people of New Jersey are smart, proud, and discerning. We have high
incomes and we\'re highly involved. We deserve better. I ask the FCC,
please, to set performance standards, set requirements that will set the
standard for the rest of the nation for news, public affairs, political
coverage, and spotlight on our leaders.

As I said, My9 isn\'t my 9, but it could be. They should want me to
watch. They need to earn my watching the TV. This is the public airways.
You have the opportunity to create a standard and I hope you will do
that. Thank you.

MODERATOR SIGALOS: Thank you. Kaili Baucum? Kaili Baucum? Daniel
Schoenberg?

MR. SCHOENBERG: Hi, my name is Daniel Schoenberg. I\'m a first-year law
student here at Rutgers Law School, Newark, and I\'m born and raised
here in New Jersey. And I would just like to comment that I, too, am not
a Channel 9 viewer because Channel 9 does not show the programs that I
wish it were showing.

We had four ballot initiatives on the ballot this past November and
there was barely any coverage, barely any mention of the issues. We\'ve
had several recent scandals that involved \-- that could have and should
have involved investigative reporting by a local New Jersey channel such
as our U.S. attorney being on the list of the attorneys to be fired. And
then our senator being accused of housing violations and bribes, that
was very minimally covered.

Any of the political news websites, there was no YouTube or Channel 9
videos of investigative reporters talking about this, and that makes me
sad that the channel that is supposed to be representing us isn\'t, you
know, out there covering news that we want covered. Thank you.

MODERATOR SIGALOS: Thank you. Dock Russell?

MR. RUSSELL: Good evening. My name is Dock Russell and I live in
Hackensack, New Jersey. I\'m here to represent KCAP and the community. I
want to take this time to thank the appreciation of Senator Lautenberg,
the FCC Commissioners, and Channel 9, My9.

I\'ve been living in Hackensack over the past four years and I\'ve been
there and basically been involved in organizations that they\'re at the
level of communication PR and communication. And what we\'ve noticed
that whenever the why question comes up, somebody is going to get fired,
in the Black community when you ask why, so a lot of people just ask
why. But every now and then you\'ve got to ask why things don\'t happen.

My first question is, are there any representatives from the Elks here
or from the Masonics? You know, those are the organizations that are in
the minority community that should have representation at something like
this and should be recognized in the community by organizations such as
My9 or any other media organization.

What I\'d like to see is I just have four basic things that I want to
suggest. I\'m not here to criticize Channel 9 or critique them. I\'m
here to help guide them. Basically, what I\'d like to see, I\'d like to
see them have a presence in the community. I would like to have them to
create waves to become user friendly to the communities that are not
tied in.

In the minority community where I come from, people, they say you can
come, but people don\'t think you mean that when you say that. So you
have to have, introduce a presence that suggests that it\'s real.

Another thing that I would like them to identify organizations or
programs in the community that they can associate themselves with, if
the community don\'t come forward. Now over my time, four years I\'ve
been there, I\'ve been working in this state with a lot of organization.
Thank you.

MODERATOR SIGALOS: Thank you very much. Marianne Hartman?

MS. HARTMAN: Hi, my name is Marianne Hartman. I\'m Director of
Communication, the Office of Radio and Television for the Diocese of
Trenton, and I have two brief statements regarding religious programming
on Channel 9.

One is from James Goodness, who is the Director of Communication for the
Archdiocese of Newark, who couldn\'t be here because he\'s out of town
at a conference. And James Goodness said that there are many
particularly older shut-in Catholics in northern New Jersey who feel the
loss very strongly of a program like the Sunday mass on Channel 9, which
was discontinued.

They do not have access to cable and, as a result, cannot get the mass
unless they are up at 5:00 a.m. in the morning to view it on Channel 5,
a New York based station. There is also a distinct void in service of
religious programming that Channel 9 used to fill. Similarly, many
ethnic Catholic groups lament the fact that the ethnic programming in
public affairs that Channel 9 used to offer has left them without an
outlet to express their view to the larger community.

And also my statement, in addition to the discontinuation of the Sunday
mass, Channel 9 also terminated the tri-state religious program, Point
Of View. Each week, this program alternated point of views of the three
main faith groups at the time, Judaism, Protestants, and Catholics.

They discontinued this program despite the fact that religious and
government leaders wrote letters opposing it. Currently, Channel 9 does
not provide free public service air time to religious groups or
denominations here in the state.

I believe that Channel 9 could do a better service to its viewers by
providing some of the fine religious programming produced here in New
Jersey that would benefit the unique spiritual needs of the community.

MODERATOR SIGALOS: Thank you. Juan Nortez?

MR. NORTEZ: First off, thank you to the commissioners for coming here. I
was asked when I came in here who do I represent. I have been a lifelong
resident of Newark, proud of it, and I\'m also equally proud that I
started my business here.

But I\'ve been in the broadcasting business for twenty-six years. And,
fortunately, when I went through Seton Hall, my internship between
Channel 4, Channel 9, and Channel 11. But my thing, my situation has
been that I know what\'s happening on both sides. The problem is how do
we best cover the community that surrounds us.

And that\'s important for Newark especially, because unlike what we have
been hearing in the news, there is a lot more going good in Newark than
the murders and the gangs than anything else. These are the things that
need to come out. So we have to figure out what are the best ways of
doing that.

And one of the \-- in starting my business, which is in broadcasting, to
try to do things on radio is that I went through and heard Commissioner
Adelstein, who made a comment in closing a public hearing two years ago
about what localism is supposed to be all about. That is something that
I put up on my wall in the business. And we have to figure out how we
best do that.

If My9 can\'t do it because they have a wide coverage, then we have to
do something about radio. We have two radio stations in our community.
That\'s illegal right now. They\'re operating from New York City, WNJR,
which has the history, should be looked at, too, not just WWOR.

So that\'s, I needed to say that we need to have a public hearing on
what is the attitude in the New York market and what will we best be
able to do as far as localism in this area.

MODERATOR SIGALOS: Thank you. Joseph Occhipinti?

MR. OCCHIPINTI: I represent the National Police Defense Foundation,
which has over 110,000 members and supporters, most of which are based
here in the State of New Jersey. We\'re a 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in
Marlboro, New Jersey. And from a law enforcement point of view, it will
be a tremendous loss for the New Jersey law enforcement community if the
license for WWOR was not renewed.

I can tell you firsthand that on my Rolodex, when there is any law
enforcement related things that have to be put out on the air, Steve
Linden, who is one of the editors, is always there to assist the law
enforcement community.

We run several programs. We run a state cop program which post a
\$10,000 reward when any law enforcement officer is shot in the line of
duty. We also run Operation Hits. When we have missing children, we post
rewards for the safe recovery. We also, in the interest of promoting
positive police relations in the immigrant community, we fly anywhere in
the world and bring back children for life-saving operations. In each
and every one of these cases I\'ve described, WWOR has been there and
publicized it.

Now there has been a lot of controversy about coverage of New York
related stuff. I can tell you that when there is a seizure that takes
place or an arrest of a terrorist group in New York, it has an impact on
New Jersey because the coverage of New York related law and criminal
stories have an impact on Jersey residents.

Again I could tell you, I think you sent the message here to WWOR that
perhaps they have to focus more of their attention. But as my
counterpart in the Fire part has stated, they have been a tremendous
source for the law enforcement community and I recommend the approval on
their license.

MODERATOR SIGALOS: Thank you. Before I announce the next speaker, I\'d
like to call up the last six who had registered today, Jeannette
Mistretta, Joseph Crooms, Wilbur McNeil, Larry Petrillo, William Terry,
and Frank Scandale. Now Luis Diaz?

MR. DIAZ: Good evening, commissioners. My name is Luis Diaz. I\'m
president of the U.S. Hispanic Advocacy Association, which represents
Hispanic consumers.

There are some facts that I just want to point out. These are good
people and they\'ve done good work, and we appreciate that. I live in
New Jersey. I work in New Jersey. However, New Jersey is not on a level
playing field when it comes to media coverage. That is a fact.

It is also a fact that the minority communities within New Jersey,
within the local representation and media coverage, are not adequately
represented from our perspective. It is also a fact that we\'re not here
to talk about charitable events or charitable outreach, but rather
substantive media coverage. That\'s what this issue is about.

And, therefore, I am very concerned that the facts that were highlighted
by the Eagleton Institute research, that they should weigh in our minds
as highly relevant. Specifically, as Senator Lautenberg mentioned,
leading up to the 2005 elections, there were many localized elections to
serve in coverage.

WWOR ran ten New Jersey election stories in the thirty days prior, nine
of these were on the governor\'s race, thus providing effectively little
coverage on the New Jersey elections.

When WWOR applied for a license renewal, they attached eleven exhibits.
These were entitled service to New Jersey, covered eight years from \'99
to 2006. The documents were to demonstrate commitment and it cited
airing 13,054 New Jersey stories, 170 stories per year, fact; less than
two stories \-- less than one every two days, that is also a fact. New
Jersey is going through an incredible period of transition. We are
facing monumental problems as a result of a global economy, as a result
healthcare issues, as a result of the budget crisis. This is the time.
This is the window of opportunity to send a good message to our friends
that they need to do more. Thank you.

MODERATOR SIGALOS: Thank you. Jeannette Mistretta? Jeannette? Joseph
Crooms?

MR. CROOMS: Good evening, everyone. To our panel, we \-- greetings from
the Guardian Angels. Our illustrious leader, Mr. Curtis Sliwa could not
be here today, asked that I would instead.

I\'m attending in two forms of fashion. One, I\'m a recent person that
moved/migrated to New Jersey about four years ago. And I want to say to
My9 that when I moved to New Jersey, I didn\'t know how to get around,
and I didn\'t know where to turn. And then when I turned to Channel 9,
My9 was there. And they sort of helped me get around. So I speak as a
father. I speak as a husband. I speak as a person that just moved to New
Jersey. And I also would like to speak on behalf of the Guardian Angels,
who we\'re going to be working in Elizabeth to help with the crime
situation with the Board of Education system there.

I know that My9 will be there to make sure that our message gets out and
that we will be able to do a quality job. So I would like to close by
saying that from what I see and in the simplicity of My9, I think
they\'re ready for the challenge.

I think that they\'re a professional team that is accepting the
challenge. They\'re absorbing it. And I think that they should receive
their license. And I think that this forum from all sides gave them the
information that they needed to be the quality journalists that they
are. Thank you.

MODERATOR SIGALOS: Thank you. Wilbur McNeil?

MR. McNEIL: My name is Wilbur McNeil. I represent the Like It Is
coalition. It\'s a consortium of about twenty African American
organizations in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.

We started on this, the Save It Like It Is program, but when we began to
look at the media, we came to the conclusion that it was all based in
terms of minority representation, so we filed petitions with the FCC and
we have been calling for FCC hearings in Newark. And I didn\'t find out
about this one until three o\'clock.

But we\'ve been calling for FCC hearings in Newark about the media all
along. We have submitted petitions to deny all the major networks their
license because of the conditions that they treat minorities in our
community. And I want to thank you.

MODERATOR SIGALOS: Thank you. Larry Petrillo?

MR. PETRILLO: Good evening, members of the FCC Commission. I\'d just
like to say I\'m the Director of the Division of Fire Safety. And I\'m
here not to make a recommendation for or against the license for WWOR,
I\'m here to provide some information that will hopefully help you in
your decision-making.

We \-- the mission of the Division of Fire Safety is to save lives and
protect people from the horrors of fire. One of the ways we do that
primarily is through education. And we have a great partnership with
WWOR in helping us get that message out to the citizens of New Jersey on
fire safety. Whenever we have had incidents, for example, we had a
multiple fatality of citizens in a hotel, we were able to reach out to
WWOR and ask them if they would help us provide messages to the public
that would help them when they go out on vacation or into a not familiar
location.

We have also utilized them to help us get the message of fire safety to
our children. They participate in our, what we call a FIRE bowl, which
is an acronym for fire information, rescue, and education program, which
is a college bowl type competition where we literally have hundreds of
children participate in a competition on fire safety.

And the members of WWOR, specifically Harry Martin, has helped us get
that message out to the citizens of New Jersey. We have also been able,
had the opportunity to participate in Garden State Matters to get our
fire safety message out. Thank you.

MODERATOR SIGALOS: Thank you. William Terry?

MR. TERRY: Hello, everyone. Good evening. It\'s a pleasure to be here
today. First of all, I would like to acknowledge, of course, the Office
of Senator Lautenberg, and all his members and staff members, and of
course the FCC for being here as well and for having this public
hearing.

I\'m originally from New York, but now I live in Ancora, New Jersey, so
getting used to being out here and living in the State of New Jersey.
The points I\'d like to raise are the need for improved media coverage,
definitely, in the State of New Jersey, and some of these points have
been brought out already.

Although one of the most affluent and densely populated states in the
nation, New Jersey is one of the only two states without a VHF network
television affiliate. This deficit is all the more remarkable in light
of the following.

New Jersey has the second highest per capita income in the nation. When
analyzed by race and country of origin, New Jersey is the most
demographically diverse state in the nation. That in itself includes a
huge responsibility on the part of Channel 9 News and the complete
Channel 9, My9 WWOR-TV organization because you have to look at each
community differently and you have to be able to show both sides, not
just the negative things that happen through a series of social problems
that people could be experiencing, but all the positive things that have
been going on in these communities, but as well as the cultural
programs, education, and the needs of those communities. It has to be
looked upon as on a wide scale, from a state and local level, and the
neighborhoods.

Vermont, the nation\'s second smallest state by population, has two
network affiliates, White River Junction, population, 2,600. It is home
to Vermont=s NBC affiliate. Now, of New Jersey\'s 566 municipalities,
466 have more people than White River Junction. That is a gross, gross
disparity. The State of North Dakota ranks forty-eight in population.

MODERATOR SIGALOS: Thank you.

MR. TERRY: Yet, it is home to nine network affiliates. I\'ll just say
that Channel 9 needs to do a lot more before the FCC renews this
subsidiary.

MODERATOR SIGALOS: Thank you very much.

MR. TERRY: They should consider reorganizing everything. Thank you so
much and have a great evening.

MODERATOR SIGALOS: Thank you. Frank Scandale?

MR. SCANDALE: Thank you. It\'s Frank Scandale. And I\'m the editor of
The Record. And since I was going to be on the video, I thought I\'d
come down and see how I was going to look. And I\'ve got some work to
do.

I can\'t speak to Channel 9\'s past. I can only talk about their present
commitment to local news. We\'re based in Hackensack. We serve north
Jersey. We are dedicated to local news. And earlier this year, we went
out seeking partners, electronic partners, and I can say Channel 9, as
well as their sister station, Channel 5, reached out immediately and we
began to form a partnership, sharing news.

Our desks, our news desks and their news desks have regular
conversations during the week. We discuss stories. We tell them the most
important things we think that they should be covering that they can\'t
get to. As a newspaper, we have over 250 journalists working in our
newsroom.

A lot of electronic media envy that kind of resource. I can tell you,
personally, that Lew, earlier, a couple of years ago when he was with
Channel 2, reached out to The Record to do the very same thing for
Channel 2. So I know from the top, the commitment to do local news and
do it well is ingrained in the operation, and down to Steve Linden and
his team.

And so I\'m just here to say I know it\'s working. I don\'t know what\'s
happened in the past. But if I had this opportunity every once in a
while to hear my viewers, my readers come out and tell me how passionate
they are about what\'s going on, what they want to hear, what they want
to see, I know that the team is taking this to heart. The team is here,
they\'re listening. I know they\'re going to walk away with a better
understanding of what their readers \-- what their viewers need. Thank
you.

MODERATOR SIGALOS: Thank you. I\'d like to thank all those who commented
publicly today. This does conclude the Media Bureau\'s public forum on
the WWOR-TV license renewal. Thank you for your attendance and your
participation.

(Off the record.)