UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

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FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION

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FIELD HEARING

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BROADCAST LOCALISM HEARING

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SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS

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CHAIRMAN POWELL PRESIDING

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WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2004

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I N D E X

Opening statements:

Michael K. Powell, Chairman \...\...\...\...\...\.... 5

Mayor Ed Garza \...\...\...\...\...\...\...\...\...\..... 10

Jay Kimbrough, Director of Homeland

Security \...\...\...\...\...\...\...\...\...\...\...\..... 16

Kathleen Q. Abernathy \...\...\...\...\...\...\...\.... 17

Michael J. Copps, Commissioner \...\...\...\...\.... 20

Kevin J. Martin \...\...\...\...\...\...\...\...\...\.... 27

Jonathan S. Adelstein, Commissioner \...\...\..... 28

Secretary\'s Announcement \...\...\...\...\...\...\...\..... 32

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Panel One Discussion: Localism Issues

Lydia Camarillo, Vice President, Southwest

Voter Registration Education Project,

San Antonio \...\...\...\...\...\...\...\...\...\...\.... 35

Steve Giust, General Manager, KWEX---TV

(UNIVISION), San Antonio \...\...\...\...\...\...\... 44

Joe Linson, Vice President, NAACP,

San Antonio Branch \...\...\...\...\...\...\...\...\... 48

Ray Rossman, Director, Parents Television

Council, San Antonio Chapter \...\...\...\...\..... 53

Robert G. McGann, President and General

Manager, KENS---TV (CBS) (Belo Corp.),

San Antonio \...\...\...\...\...\...\...\...\...\...\... 57

Oscar Moran, Senior Advisor to the Executive

Board and Former President, League of United

Latin American Citizens, San Antonio \...\..... 61

Questions from the audience \...\...\...\...\...\...\... 66

Recess \...\...\...\...\...\...\...\...\...\...\...\...\...\... 107

Panel Two Discussion: Localism Issues

Ray Benson, Co---Founder/Guitarist/Vocalist

Of the band \"Asleep at the Wheel,\" Austin,

Texas; Board Member, The Recording Academy,

Texas Chapter \...\...\...\...\...\...\...\...\...\.... 107

John Freeman, Chief Operations Officer,

Southern Development Foundation, licensee

Of Low---Power FM Station KOCZ---LP, Opelousas,

Louisiana \...\...\...\...\...\...\...\...\...\...\..... 115

Tom Glade, Vice President/Market Manager,

Clear Channel Radio, San Antonio \...\...\...\... 118

Ray Hair, President, Dallas---Fort Worth

Professional Musicians Association \...\...\.... 122

Dr. Rick Wayne, Chief Executive Officer,

Christus Santa Rosa Children\'s Mr. Wayne,

San Antonio \...\...\...\...\...\...\...\...\...\...\... 129

Jerry Hanszen, Owner and General Manager,

KMHT AM---FM, Marshall, Texas, and KGAS AM---FM,

Carthage, Texas \...\...\...\...\...\...\...\...\..... 133

Commissioner and Audience Questions \...\...\...\... 138

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P R O C E E D I N G S

5:30 p.m.

CHAIRMAN POWELL:  Welcome, Ladies and Gentlemen, to this Second Annual
FCC Broadcast Localism Hearing.  It\'s a pleasure to be here in
San Antonio. 

My name is Michael Powell.  I serve as the Chairman of the Federal
Communications Commission.  I\'m joined by my four distinguished
colleagues, Commissioner Mike Copps ------

(Applause.)

Clearly a hero to many. 

Commissioner Kathleen Abernathy, Commissioner Kevin Martin, Commissioner
Jonathan Adelstein. 

(Applause.)

I see their family\'s here today. 

(Laughter.)

I also want to especially thank San Antonio Mayor, Ed Garza, the members
of the City Council and City Manager Terry Brechtel and the County
Commissioners for welcoming us to this great and historic city and for
making this grand facility here available to us.  We\'re going to hear
from the mayor in just a few moments. 

As most of you know, back in August we announced an initiative on
localism and broadcasting.  A critical part of that effort is for the
Federal Communications Commission to leave Washington and talk to
Americans about the system of broadcasting and how it serves their local
communities. 

We held our first hearing in Charlotte last October, and we will hold
similar hearings in several cities throughout the country over the
months ahead. 

Before discussing localism, there are a few people in the audience I
wish to recognize who bring to life the importance of public safety and
Localism. 

The first is Jay Kimbrough, Director of Homeland Security in the
Governor\'s office here in Texas.  We will also hear some welcoming
remarks ------

(Audience interruption.) 

 ------ I would like to say to the audience that in the spirit of civil
discourse, which is what we\'re here to talk about, it would really be
quite respectful to allow everyone ------ everyone who wishes to get an
opportunity to speak. 

In addition, as many of you know, this is the home of the Amber Alert
System, and we are pleased to have with us tonight Terrant County,
Texas, Sheriff, Dee Anderson, one of the cofounders of Amber Alert, and
Patricia Bradberry and her daughter Ray Lee, the first child ever saved
by the Amber Alert System.

(Applause.) 

Would you stand so we could recognize you. 

(Applause.) 

Thank you very much. 

So what is this localism and why does the FCC care about it?  In the
broadcast sense, localism is the repre ------ the responsiveness of a
broadcast station to the needs and interests of its community of
license.  Promoting localism is one of the highest principal reasons the
FCC regulates broadcast television and radio in the first place. 

Before a radio or television station can go on the air, it must receive
a broadcast license from the Federal Communications Commission; and if
the Commission determines the applicant is qualified to hold the
license, one is issued.

In return, however, the licensee promises to serve the public interest
through its use of the license.  A key part of the public interest is
that the broadcaster air programming that is responsive to the community
of license. 

The public interest obligation applies uniquely to broadcasters and is
what singularly distinguishes them from cable or satellite channels,
although other obligations apply to these services as well.

The FCC has promoted localism in many ways.  And today we\'re focusing
on the behavioral component as to whether broadcasts serve the public
interest. 

The Commission has tried in the past to promote localism by requiring
broadcasters to air certain kinds of programming and by imposing various
procedural obligations such as ascertainment. 

Over the years, many of these requirements have been modified or
eliminated, and we seek here to determine anew, the level and character
of local broadcast service being provided today and to consider what
behavioral rules and policies the Commission might adopt or what
legislative changes it might recommend to promote and improve the local
service of broadcasters. 

The one constant in all of this is a station\'s duty and service to the
local community.  Our hearings are an on---the---ground inspection of
how the broadcast system is working for local communities.  So
specifically, we have three main objectives from these hearings. 

First, we want to hear directly from members of the public on how they
think their local broadcasters are doing, what you like, what you
dislike, and what you think should be done differently. 

Second, we want to hear from broadcasters about their efforts. I know
many broadcasters are justifiably proud of their work to serve their
communities, and we wish to hear from them as well. 

And third, and perhaps most importantly, we want to educate members of
the public on how they can participate at the Federal Communications
Commission when a local station\'s license is up for renewal. 

I see these hearings as an opportunity to bring these license renewals
to life.  It is one thing for us as Commissioners to sit at our desks in
Washington and read dry rule applications, quite another to talk
directly to the public who listen to those stations every day.  We wish
to spread the word that renewals are not just a Beltway phenomenon. 
They are open to everyone who has something to say about their local
stations. 

So along these lines, I have asked the FCC staff to prepare a short
primer on how to participate in the license renewal process.  Those will
be available to you on the tables in the back of the room. This primer
is also located at our web site at www.fcc.gov/localism. 

And, finally, I want to thank the panelists with us today, for taking
the time to prepare testimony and join us this evening. 

The participation of the community and the local broadcasters is
critical if these hearings are to be meaningful, and I extend sincere
thanks for your presence here tonight. 

And, finally, I want to extend a welcome to the citizens of San Antonio
who are here in attendance and have been our gracious host.  And those
of you watching and listening on TV and radio, we join you happily.  We
very much look forward to tonight\'s discussion.

Before moving forward, I\'d like to acknowledge the Mayor of
San Antonio, Mayor Ed Garza, for brief welcoming remarks.  Mr. Mayor. 

(Applause.) 

MAYOR GARZA:  Chairman Powell and Commissioners here today, I want to,
first of all, welcome you to San Antonio.  (In Spanish.)  And welcome
and thank the FCC Broadcast Localism Task Force to come to San Antonio
and certainly hear from, I think, a very well---informed community. 

The City takes an active role in legislative and regulatory process in
Washington, D.C., and is honored to be chosen for tonight\'s public
hearing.  And I think San Antonio, not only is a city that celebrates
its diversity, we believe we reflect many of the, certainly, aspirations
and the issues that are of concern to people across America today, but I
think we also represent a lot about the future of American cities.  And
some of the concerns that you\'ll hear tonight and some of the
compliments, I think, really do represent a lot of the future exciting
things that are going to be happening ------ that will be happening in
the world of communications. 

I\'d first like to say that the importance of citizen participation is
critical, and, certainly, finding out what\'s taking place in local
communities and the responsibility that the local media has.  And it
certainly is often a difficult balancing act for the media, balancing
the consumer demands of a good story, which usually means plenty of
conflict and probably plenty of violence. 

But the media has a responsibility not to sensationalize the news. 
Citizens who see only crime stories on the news might not realize that
we have just had one of our lowest murder rates in years. 

San Antonio broadcasters also play an important civic role with news and
public affairs programming, such as candidate debates and press
conferences, many of which I participated in and this local community
has been very engaged in certainly educating the public on many of the
local issues. 

And I would like to point out specifically one of the legends here in
San Antonio, WOAI\'s Bud Little, who pays particular attention and is
always accurate and fair in his presentation of information.

Morning call---in shows are also important, especially those that bring
civic issues to the attention of new audiences.  During the past few
weeks, I\'ve reached out to some of the radio stations that have an
audience that usually aren\'t as politically engaged, and just recently
was on KZEP radio station, which plays classic rock and went to the
station to be a co-host.  I actually even sang a song to see if one of
the listeners could guess which one that was.  But that\'s the kind of
communication I think that we as leaders have to challenge some of our,
certainly, broadcasters in the San Antonio area. 

On KZEP now, I actually come out every Monday morning giving our update
on the soccer team that I play on promoting Fit City, and certainly
wanting to bring a soccer team to San Antonio at the major league level,
and I do appreciate, Mr. Chairman, your encouraging the local stations
to cover the mayor\'s team, especially on a weekly basis.

The media has an additional responsibility to represent the community
where their ------ their broadcasting certainly reaches out to a diverse
community; and as I mentioned earlier, San Antonio is diverse.  More
than half our residents are of Hispanic descent.  We, perhaps, are the
most Hispanic city in the United States, nearing almost 60 percent. 

But we\'re also a very mature community, a community that has a low
immigration population, and I think it represents a lot about the future
trends and expectations on the communications side, especially in terms
of bilingual communication.  And here in San Antonio we have leadership,
12 Spanish---language television stations, and certainly, in Texas, a
60---percent increase in the number of Spanish---language formatted
radio stations.

In San Antonio our radio stations also serve the community interest by
promoting public safety.  Certainly something that we take very
seriously here in the area of Homeland Security with the recent
challenges to communities.  I have nothing but compliments to say about
the local broadcasters in being partners with the City of San Antonio,
Bexar County, our local emergency operation center, in terms of getting
information out, certainly since September the 11th, but also when we
have floods here in San Antonio, we have a very proactive broadcasting
community that oftentimes breaks away and has live coverage, not just
for 10 minutes or 15 minutes, but one to two hours or longer for the
sake of getting information out to the public, very important, and
certainly a partner in the community. 

Many other examples, certainly with our fire department in getting
information out, on public safety tips.  As was mentioned earlier, the
Amber System ------ Amber Alert system has been a wonderful example and
San Antonio residents and surrounding residents have not only seen the
benefit, but have been active participants in making that a success. 

Local radio and television stations also support the community by
hosting telethons, radiothons.  You\'re going to hear from many of the
groups. Whether their focus is on homeless and hunger, whether their
focus is on housing, other important charities and issues, the local
community has continued to come through.  And I think that San Antonio,
in that regard, does serve as a model where the broadcasters have
partnered with the local non---for---profits and other state holders
making sure that public awareness and key public issues is
disseminated. 

So, again, in conclusion, I hope that your hearing tonight is
informative, that you can certainly get the feedback that you
anticipate.  On behalf of the citizens of San Antonio, we, again,
welcome you to our city.  We look forward to continuing this dialogue
and certainly being advocates for a better broadcasting system and a
communication system that benefits the citizens today and the citizens
of tomorrow.  Thank you very much.

(Applause.)

CHAIRMAN POWELL:  Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor, and on behalf of all
my colleagues, thank you for being such a gracious host for this
activity, and we\'ll push broadcasters to carry your pro ------ your
games if you\'re sure that\'s quality programming.  I haven\'t seen you
play, but we\'ll assume so. 

(Laughter.)

But we all have come to recognize the importance and ------ and new
dilemmas facing us as a nation, in terms of homeland security and
broadcasting has an important part to play in the informing of our
citizens and the protection of our homelands.  So we have with us here
for Texas the Director Of Homeland Security, Jay Kimbrough, who wishes
to speak briefly.

(Applause.)

MR. KIMBROUGH: Mr. Chairman, Members, thank you very much.  And on
behalf of Governor Rick Perry, I too, would like to welcome you to Texas
and specifically to the beautiful City of San Antonio.  The Governor is
pleased, of course, that you\'ve come to San Antonio to hear what Texas
broadcasters do for their communities and how they serve the public. 

One of the best examples of how Texas broadcasters have made a huge
difference in our lives occurred in 1997, when Dallas---area
broadcasters and Sheriff Dee Anderson turned a local tragedy into a
triumph of technology and cooperation by creating the nation\'s first
Amber Alert using the emergency alert system. 

Here in Texas, Governor Perry initiated a successful statewide Amber
Alert plan.  And, of course, just last year President Bush signed into
law the national Amber Alert.  As director of Governor Perry\'s Office
of Homeland Security, I can tell you that we very much appreciate the
broadcaster\'s cooperation and leadership on public safety matters. 

Their assistance on Amber Alerts, weather warnings and working with
state and local entities in disseminating emergency messages in the
event of a terrorist incident or any other public safety crisis is
imperative.  Once again, Mr. Chairman and Members, welcome to Texas. 
Enjoy your time in San Antonio.  Thank you. Good evening.

(Applause.)

CHAIRMAN POWELL:  Thank you.  Now I\'d like to acknowledge each of my
distinguished colleagues for brief opening remarks.  Commissioner
Abernathy? 

COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: (Inaudible, mic off.)

Thanks for the additional instructions.  Thanks for inviting us here and
for hosting us in such a great location and for all of you turning out
tonight, broadcast licensees, citizens, all of you who care so much
about these issues. 

When it comes to broadcast licensees, whether you\'re small or large or
regional or national, you have a duty to serve the local community, and
I know that stations respond to this mandate in different ways.  They
may air public announcements, sponsor job and health fairs, cover local
sports events, host fundraisers for local charities, and produce
educational programming, and I know that some do a better job than
others. 

So why are we here tonight?  Because we need to further explore whether
we, as government regulators, are doing all that we can to ensure that
stations serve their community.  And I know that everyone who is
attending this evening\'s hearing cares about your local community or
you wouldn\'t be here tonight. 

And I also suspect that you want to better understand what it means for
a local broadcaster to serve the public interest. I\'ve heard concerns
that some broadcasters have abandoned their public interest obligations
and are only interested in their earnings reports.  Other people are
uncomfortable with some of the broadcast content, while still others
object to a perceived government attempt to restrict free speech.

At the same time, I\'ve heard from a number of charitable organizations
that survive and thrive thanks to sponsorship from local broadcasters.

So I\'m here tonight to listen and to learn.  I\'ll listen to the
broadcasters describe how they\'re do ------ how they believe they\'re
serving our local communities, and then I want to know how you evaluate
whether they\'re meeting your needs.  Should we look only at the
programming that\'s aired, or should we consider nonprogramming efforts
as well, such as sponsoring local community activities? 

I\'ll listen to local community organizations and citizens, all the
different panelists.  We want to know:  do you believe that the
broadcasters are serving your local community?  If they\'re doing it
well, why are they doing it well?  If they're not, what more should we
be doing at the FCC?

I appreciate how important this is to all of you because you\'ve given
up a night with your family to help us work through these issues, and I
very much appreciate that.  I\'m hoping that tonight\'s hearing will be
worth your sacrifice, that you\'ll go home and say, "This was well worth
it.  I learned a lot and I made a difference."  Not only will you
provide the Commission with valuable information, but it will create a
foundation for an ongoing dialogue between local broadcasters and the
local community.

Communication can effectuate change, clarify misunderstandings and ease
concerns; but I think both sides have to be willing to listen, and I
know I\'m here to listen.  So, again, thanks to all of you for taking
time out of your busy lives to be here today and to care about these
issues.  I\'m looking forward to listening and learning.

(Applause.)

CHAIRMAN POWELL:  Commissioner Copps. 

COMMISSIONER COPPS:  Tonight we continue a truly remarkable grassroots
dialogue about the future of the media.  Over the past year, we have
seen cascading national concern over what many Americans, myself
included, see as disturbing trends in the media. 

We have seen citizens from all over the country, conservative and
liberal, Republican and Democrat, young and old, rural and urban, North
and South, come together to express their concern, even their alarm. 

For many months the discussion focused on new and looser ownership rules
implemented by the Federal Communications Commission, the people asking
how many, or perhaps more accurately how few broadcast stations, media
conglomerates should be allowed to own, for what purposes are stations
granted licenses, and how does the public interest fare in a more
heavily concentrated environment? 

This ownership dialogue continues in Congress, in the courts around the
nation.  Tonight we address core media values, particularly localism
from a little different perspective; but we should realize that this is
part of a larger discussion about protecting the people\'s interest in
the people\'s airwaves.  No one part of this grassroots dialogue can be
divorced from any other part.  Media ownership is totally germane to any
discussion of localism. 

Let\'s begin at the beginning tonight reminding ourselves that all of us
do indeed own the airwaves and that corporations are given the privilege
of using this public asset and to profit from that use in exchange for
their commitment to serve the public interest. 

Broadcasters have been given very special privileges, and they have very
special responsibilities to serve their local communities.  Serving the
public interest is supposed to be their lodestar. 

Now, broadcasting is not an easy business.  Many broadcasters still want
to serve the public interest, but these days station owners are less and
less captains of their own fate and more and more captives of
unforgiving Wall Street and Madison Avenue financial expectations. 

Some tell us the answer is to rely more and more on marketplace forces
as a guarantor of the public interest.  These people trust that the
public interest will somehow magically trump the urge to build power and
profit and that localism will somehow survive and thrive.  I don\'t
think we can afford to rely on magic here. 

Since the 1980\'s fundamental protections of the public interest have
weakened and withered.  Requirements like meeting with members of the
community to determine the needs of the local audience, teeing up
controversial issues for listeners and viewers, encouraging antagonistic
points of view, and providing viewpoint and program diversity, to name
just a few of the obligations ------ that once we had, and have no more.

In addition, the Commission pared back its license renewal process from
one wherein we looked closely every three years at how stations were
serving the public, to one we\'re in now.  Companies need only send us a
short form every eight years and their renewal wishes are granted. 
License renewal has become pretty much of a slam dunk, and it\'s not
called postcard renewal for nothing.

This erosion of public interest protections comes at high and dangerous
costs to the American people.  Some call my concern excessive, but I
feel in my bones that few priorities our country confronts have such
long---term importance to our democracy as how America communicates and
converses with itself and how this process has deteriorated in recent
years.

We\'ve come to San Antonio to talk directly with members of this
community and this state and to tap local expertise that can give us a
look both broad and deep at what is happening here.  How can we possibly
know if licensees are serving their communities without hearing from the
community? 

Are stations adding to the civic dialogue?  Are they encouraging local
talent?  Are they reaching out to minority groups within the community? 
And an issue on which I've focused attention since I came to the
Commission:  Are they adhering to community standards or are they airing
excessive amounts of indecent and violent programming? 

Few can deny that we are seeing a race to the bottom on our airwaves. 
Sometimes I wonder if there even is a bottom.  Just this week we cited
Clear Channel for apparent violations of the indecency statute on 26
different occasions, but the proposed fine doesn\'t rise above the cost
of doing business for such a large conglomerate.  We should have long
since been fining violators for each utterance on a program, rather than
treating the whole program as just one instance of indecency.  That
could represent a credible fine.

(Applause.) 

But we haven\'t been able to get ourselves there yet, and I mention
Clear Channel because Clear Channel\'s headquarters are here, but I
don\'t want to cite only Clear Channel.  It is a pervasive problem and
it is getting worse.

The industry collectively is doing next to nothing to clean up its act,
but if we at the Commission could just bring ourselves to send one of
these more outrageous cases to a hearing for license revocation, big
media would get the message real quick, and they would begin to take us
seriously, which they don\'t right now.  There is something you can do
to start taking back your airwaves.

The Commission began this past fall a process for all stations across
this county to renew their licenses.  We need your help with this. 
Stations are required to keep a public inspection file, but the
Commission does not generally look at that file nor examine how a
station has served its local community unless we hear from members of
the community.

We rely on you to tell us if there is a problem in your community. 
There are various ways to tell us what you think, from filing a formal
petition, which is not the easy or user---friendly process it should be,
and one which I recommend only to the stout of heart, to filing an
informal objection, to sharing with us your even more informal comments,
letters, or e---mails.  Any one of our FCC folks here can tell you how
it\'s done.  As the Chairman indicated, we have a sheet that they will
be distributing.

We began these localism hearings in Charlotte, North Carolina, in
October.  We heard from the good people of North Carolina and South
Carolina about the importance they attach to their local media.  We did
get a little sidetracked on one score, however.  Some of our panelists
and commenters seem to confuse such things as conducting blood drives
and fundraising for charities with the sum total of their public
interest responsibilities.

Now, these fundraising activities are commendable activities to be sure,
but they are only part of a broadcaster\'s responsibilities to the
community.  It\'s as American as apple pie for corporations in every
line of business to participate in that kind of community self---help. 
As I said, we all applaud them, but the question on the plate tonight
goes to how well this very different and very special industry is
serving its very special obligation to use their airwaves for the larger
benefit of us all.

So I hope our panelists and commenters tonight will resist the
temptation to catalog all of their nonbroadcast efforts and will focus
instead on the greater picture of what they are doing as trustees of the
public\'s airwaves.

(Applause.)

Finally ------ finally, I would like to thank all of you in this
audience who have given up your evening to be here to discuss the
importance of local broadcasting to your communities.  I understand that
some of you waited outside a long, long time to get in.

I\'m delighted you\'re here.  I hope I\'ll hear from all of you
tonight. 

It just shows how important this issue is when you get so many people
turning out, some from far corners of this great state.  So Texas is
making its voice heard.  I\'m enormously pleased to be here and listen. 
Thanks to each of you, and thank you, Mr. Chairman, for bringing us
together tonight.

CHAIRMAN POWELL: Thank you, Mike.

(Applause, standing ovation.)

CHAIRMAN POWELL:  Wow, thank you. 

Commissioner Martin, you have to follow that act.

COMMISSIONER MARTIN:  I\'m a little worried about trying to
follow ------ follow that. 

First, I do want to thank all of you for coming tonight to share your
thoughts about and your experiences with your local broadcasters.  As my
colleagues have noted, these issues are all extremely important to all
of us on the Commission.  Indeed, the goal of promoting localism
underlies our whole regulatory structure as it applies to media.

I also know that localism is important to the broadcasters who recognize
that their own success depends on responding to the needs and interests
of their local community.  Most broadcasters view serving the local
community as the right thing to do, as part of their commitment to serve
the public interest that is so integral to this business.  I also know
that many of you have extremely important concerns that you\'d like to
express tonight, and I know many of you waited a long time to get a
chance to speak tonight. 

So I\'m going to stop, because I think the most important thing for us
to be doing here tonight is to be listening to what you all have to say.

(Applause.)

CHAIRMAN POWELL:  Thank you. Commissioner Adelstein.

COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN:  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It\'s great to be here
in San Antonio to further this dialogue on how well local broadcasters
are serving their local communities. I really appreciate your efforts,
Mr. Chairman, in getting us outside the Beltway and getting us directly
to communities like Charlotte and San Antonio and taking us across the
country, because it\'s so important that we get outside and really hear
from people. 

I\'d like to thank all of you who are here today, too ------ the
outstanding panelists ------ we have an incredible array of experts
we\'re going to hear from and people in the industry and public interest
representatives.  We have a lot of local citizens who made a lot of
effort to be here.  We thank you for showing your concern. And to the
mayor, for your hospitality, I thank you. 

And we\'re also here to tell the public, as my colleagues have noted,
how to participate in the upcoming round of radio and television station
license renewals.  These renewals come up only every eight years, and
they\'re one of the best ways you have to hold your local stations
accountable to your community.  So, ------ but I think a lot of people
aren\'t even aware that this is happening, so we\'re here to tell you
about it and to tell you that you need to get involved if you have a
concern about anything that\'s happening in your community in the
media. 

These hearings follow a round of hearings that were held across the
country last year to get public input on the FCC\'s media ownership
rules.  I found those incredibly valuable.  We heard from thousands of
people about their sense of real frustration with the media, and I
expect that tonight\'s hearing will be equally valuable in understanding
people\'s views about how their media is serving their local communities
like San Antonio. 

So we\'re here tonight to talk about localism.  I want to define for a
minute what it really means.  Every community has local needs, local
talent, local elections, local news, local culture, and while localism
reflects a commitment to local news and public affairs programming, it
also means a lot more. It doesn\'t just mean giving promotional airtime
and money to charitable organizations, as commendable as that is.  It
means providing opportunities for local people to be heard over the
airwaves.  It means reaching out, developing and promoting local
performing artists, local musicians, other local talent. It means making
programming decisions that really serve the local needs.

And if you have the kind of talent, the kind of quality talent that you
have here in Texas, Lord knows you want to hear it over the radio. 
People like Ray Benson here; there\'s so much great music here.  I\'m a
big music fan. I mean, I know that some stations in this state do a
great job and others may not do as much to promote local artists, but
that\'s ------ that\'s what it\'s all about. 

So you want to make sure that the coverage that you hear on the radio
reflects the makeup of the community. That means airing concerns of the
rapidly growing Hispanic community which makes up the majority of this
------ of this town\'s population, as well as the African---American
community, and other minority groups. And I understand that tonight\'s
hearing actually happens at the same time as the Hispanic Chamber of
Commerce event, so I\'m really grateful that Mr. Moran and Ms. Camarillo
could be here with us.

Localism also means being responsive to communities in other ways, such
as dedicating resources to discover and address the needs of the
community. It means being accessible, sending reporters and cameras out
to all parts of the community, and documenting those efforts in public
files that are accessible to the residents. 

A lot of local broadcasters in this country have shown a real commitment
to the community and to localism, and we\'ll hear from some of them
tonight.  Some stations do this very well.  I am especially pleased to
hear tonight from some of the small market broadcasters like Mr. Hanszen
and Mr. Freeman, a low---power FM broadcaster, about the needs of
smaller rural communities like the one that I come from.  I come from a
small town in South Dakota. 

So, we\'re here tonight to learn how we can encourage other stations to
put the needs of the community first.  It\'s the cornerstone of the
public\'s social compact with broadcasters.  They receive valuable
licenses from the FCC to use the public airwaves, and in return they
agree to act as a trustee of the public interest, and we\'re here
tonight to see how well they\'re doing with that responsibility.

So we\'re beginning this in---depth examination of how broadcasters can
better serve the local communities, and we need your input on this.  And
we\'re really glad to hear from you.  And I also really strongly support
the efforts that Commissioner Copps referred to, stepping up our
enforcement against indecency in the airwaves.  I want to make sure that
the Commission can ensure that local musicians and artists get heard on
the airwaves, and are treated fairly, and I mean airtime, not just in
Austin where there\'s a vibrant local music and radio scene, but
throughout the state and in every community in this country. 

So, I look forward to hearing from other excellent panelists and all the
people who came here tonight.  So thank you for coming out, and without
further ado, I\'ll say, let\'s get started. Thank you.

(Applause.)

CHAIRMAN POWELL:  I\'ll now have the FCC\'s Secretary announce the
agenda for the hearing.  Madam Secretary.

MADAM SECRETARY: Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Commissioners and Panelists
and special guests.

Tonight\'s hearing will consist of two panel presentations and an open
microphone session after each panel.  Each panel will feature six
speakers.  Each speaker will have five minutes to make opening remarks. 
A brief question and answer period will follow in which the
Commissioners may ask questions of the panelists.  The Commissioners
will be given questions suggested by the audience on three---by---five
cards. 

Following the question and answer period, there will be an
open---microphone session at which members of the audience may speak on
a first---come, first---served basis.  Procedures for the
three---by---five cards and open microphone session will be explained
shortly. 

At approximately 7:35, the hearing will break for ten minutes.  After
the break, the hearing will reconvene with the second panel, followed by
a brief question and answer period and a second open microphone session.

Following the second open---microphone session, the Commissioners will
make closing remarks, after which the hearing will adjourn.  Should
anyone need special seating arrangements please see an FCC staff
person. 

The following are the procedures for tonight\'s Localism Task Force
public hearing:  We will utilize a time machine to maintain time limits
on each presentation.  Each panelist will have a total of five minutes
to make his or her individual presentation.  The green light will signal
for the first four minutes of your remarks.  When the yellow light
signals, you will have one minute remaining.  At that time, you should
sum up your presentation.  The red light signals the end of your
allotted time.  Please conclude your remarks at that time. 

At the conclusion of all panelists\' presentations, the Chairman and
other Commissioners will have an opportunity to ask questions of the
panelists, including questions suggested by the audience on the
three---by---five cards that are in the public information packets
available at the table in the lobby. 

The audience is invited to use these cards to write any question they
would like the Commissioners to ask after the panelists conclude their
presentations.  The time for this segment of the hearing is limited and
it is likely that Commissioners will not be able to ask all suggested
questions.  Audience members may offer comments during the
open---microphone session that will follow the period devoted to
questions. 

Task Force staff will be collecting the three---by---five cards
throughout the panelists\' presentations.  Please pass your card to the
end of your row when staff members signal that they are collecting
cards.  The cards will be randomly divided and given to the
Commissioners at the conclusion of the presentations.  The Commissioners
will have an opportunity to ask questions of the panelists.  Panelists
are asked to limit their responses to two minutes, to maximize the
number of questions that can be addressed.  Finally, we also remind you
to turn off your cell phones. 

And now I am pleased to introduce the speakers for our first panel in
order of presentation:  Lydia Camarillo, Vice President, Southwest Voter
Registration Education Project, San Antonio; Steve Giust, General
Manager KWEX---TV (Univision) San Antonio; Joe Linson, Vice President,
NAACP, San Antonio branch; Ray Rossman, Director, Parents Television
Counsel, San Antonio Chapter; Robert G. McGann, President and General
Manager, KENS---TV (CBS)(Belo Corp.), San Antonio; and Oscar Moran,
Senior Advisor to the Executive Board and former President, of the
League of United Latin American Citizens, San Antonio. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman. 

CHAIRMAN POWELL:  Thank you Madam Secretary.  I\'d like to now turn over
to our first panelist, Lydia Camarillo, Vice President, Southwest Voter
Registration Education Project.

Ms. Camarillo.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: (In Spanish.)

(Applause.)

MS. CAMARILLO:  Buenas Noches.  Mr. Chairman, Commissioners,
distinguished guests, members of the audience, and members of the
press.  Thank you for inviting me to be part of the Federal
Communications Hearing on Broadcast Localism. 

My name is Lydia Camarillo.  I am Vice President of Southwest Voter
Registration Education Project. Southwest Voter is a National Civil
Rights organization founded here in San Antonio in 1974 by our founder,
the late William C. Valasquez, to increase the participation of Latinos
and other ethnic communities in the democratic process.

Since its inception, Southwest Voter has registered over 2.2 million
Latino voters throughout the Southwest and recently the Southeast, or as
we like to refer to our service area, America\'s Sunbelt states. This
election cycle Southwest Voter will ensure that 2 million Latinos
register to vote and are mobilized for the November elections. 

Let me begin by stating that I am pleased to be part of this important
hearing to discuss issues of localism that have an impact on the voice
of democracy, the representation of ethnic and minority voices, the
allocation of the airwaves times and more specifically, the impact of
consolidation of ownership on democracy in the representation of
communities of color.  Hopefully, my testimony will also provide
recommendations on how the FCC can respond to the lack of Latino
representation on the broadcast airwaves of America. 

The Latino population is the fastest growing electorate in the country.
Only a generation ago, Latinos were a politically powerless people.  Our
interests were disregarded, our views dismissed, our cultures
disrespected, our participation discounted.  Today the Latino community
is participating in the American democracy process like never before. 

Allow me to emphasize that our numbers continue to grow, and as a matter
of fact, we are the youngest electorate in the nation.  Interestingly,
Latino voter registration has grown from 2.7 million Latino voters to
8.3 million nationwide, a phenomenal growth of 163 percent. 

Moreover, 38 million Latinos living in the United States, which
represent more than 12 percent of the United States population and six
percent of the nation\'s total electorate, have become an undeniable and
unavoidable presence in American politics. 

In states like Arizona, California, Texas, the Latino electorate
represents a significant share of the total share of the vote.  In Texas
alone, 2.5 million Latinos are registered to vote, representing 14
percent of the total share of the vote.  For the Democratic primary
presidential elections, Latinos represent 25 to 30 percent of the total
share of the vote here in Texas, for the March primaries. 

In fact, contrary to the conventional wisdom, primary elections in New
Hampshire, Iowa, and South Carolina will not determine a front runner in
the Democratic field. Latinos in Arizona, Nuevo Mexico, Nevada,
California, Florida, and Texas will likely determine the Democratic
presidential nominee through their primaries in February and March.

It is why we are convinced that the Latinos stand at a crossroads in
American politics.  A crossroads that holds many historical
implications.  The overall decline of the participation levels amongst
the American electorate, combined with a record growth of Latino
participation promises to change the values of America\'s democracy.

Also, the rising numbers of Latinos and Latinas being elected to
political office promises to change the face of our government.  But in
spite of the record growth of Latino electorate, mainstream America and
Latino communities have not yet understood the impressive gains made by
Latinos politically for many reasons. 

One being that the newsrooms of America are not telling the complete
story, or if our stories are being told, they are not being told by
Latinos, and even more rarely are they reported by Latinos.  Rarely is
the complete and accurate Latino story reported.

Historically, we can argue that newspapers were never controlled by the
government.  This was a result of the protection of the First Amendment;
in other words, anybody could start a newspaper.  This is not the case
for radio and television.  Because broadcasters had to broadcast over
the public airwaves, and to prevent public from ------ people from
interfering with each other\'s other signals, a controlling monitoring
process was developed with the passage of the Radio Act of 1927 and the
Federal Communications Act of 1934. 

These government regulations governed by the FCC provide for individuals
to free license to broadcast over the public airwaves. But in return,
these broadcasters have an obligation and a duty to give public access,
representation and coverage.  Public airwaves belong to the people and
as such, broadcasters have a moral obligation and duty to represent the
public interest, needs, and convenience of its broadcasters broadest
sense ------ convenience in its broadest sense.

The use of the public airwaves should also mean that the widest possible
dissemination of news and information from diverse voices, perspectives
and communities must be part of the American culture, and the FCC
therefore has the responsibility to protect the public interest.  It is
why we feel it is necessary that this interest must be extended to
Latinos and communities of color. 

The number of television stations owned by minorities has declined in
the last three years from 33 to 20.  In San Antonio, the top ten radio
stations are owned by the three conglomerate companies, Clear Channel,
Fox and Univision. 

This issue ------ the issue is not whether broadcasters are being local
to a greater or lesser degree, but rather whether the lax ownership
rules hinder the democratic process and excludes community interest and
representation.  Television and radio owned and controlled by Latinos
and communities of color ensure that the Latino story is told completely
and with accuracy.  Furthermore, it ensures the Latinos report the
Latino perspective in America. 

Diversity of ownership breeds competition and competition breeds better
journalism and diversity of perspective in the news.  It is why
ownership guarantees diversity of news reporting, reporting by reporters
that reflect the growing ethnic communities of color.  In other words,
news reported by local communities ensure the public interest of those
communities. 

Since 1996 America has witnessed the decline in quality of broadcasting
as major radio conglomerates buy up almost most of the country\'s
stations.  During this time, the largest companies went from owning 40
stations to 1200 and the United States citizen ------ and United States
citizens listened as their quality of news reporting and programming
declined.  Programming decisions are made at the national level, not at
the local level.  Local news teams and international news bureaus were
scrapped and downsized guaranteeing less coverage on the local and
important issues. 

In communities like San Antonio we, where the population of Latinos is
significant, little coverage on important issues that matter to this
community are covered in a way that truly reflect their interest. 

For example, I doubt that the majority of the Latino community in
San Antonio is fully aware that 2.5 million Latinos are registered to
vote in Texas, and the Latino electorate make up an estimated 15 percent
of the total share of the vote in any given election.  In our opinion
facts such as these are important information that can help stimulate an
even greater participation from within our ranks, thereby fortifying the
democratic process.  For we have ------ or, we have wondered, could it
be that such dilatation from more localized and responsible media would
not be welcomed by some of the powers that be? 

There is little doubt that journalism and news reporting shapes the
political landscape of America\'s democracy.  Without a fair share of
minority ownership and control America\'s communities of color and
Latinos will continue to be absent in the airwaves of America.

It is one of the reasons that I am here to testify on behalf of the
millions of Latinos who make up a significant and growing part of this
country.  But I am realistic enough to know that I can only represent
those who believe as I do, or as Southwest Voter and the William C.
Velasquez Institute believe, that deregulation of the public airwaves
hurts America\'s democracy, voices, and public interest, and it will
undoubtedly promote the continued exclusion of the voices of Latinos who
work hard, pay their taxes and live in America. 

Without local owners and local newsrooms who better reflect America\'s
changing population, the media industry will continue to be disconnected
from its communities.  The bigger companies become, the less likely they
will feature local talent, cover local news reported by reporters who
look like our communities. 

Obviously, ownership matters.  It ensures corporate responsibility,
diversity of creativity, art, culture and vision, promotes diversity,
reporting, ensures that local news take front stage governed by local
issues and its communities which lease ------ which then resonate at the
national level. 

I, therefore, respectfully ask and suggest that the FCC can support the
local communities by ensuring that it prevents broadcast television
companies from buying newspapers in the same communities in which they
have television stations, limits the numbers of local radio stations
that any one broad ------ any one broadcaster can own in a single market
depending on how many stations exist in a single market.  Limit the
number of local ------

CHAIRMAN POWELL:  Ms. Camarillo, can you try to sum up, please?

MS. CAMARILLLO: Pardon?

CHAIRMAN POWELL: Can you try to sum up, please?

MS. CAMARILLO: Sure. There\'s five ------ there\'s three other things. 
Finally, I would like to thank you for giving us this opportunity to
share with us our views and to request that you honor ------ honor our
tradition of excellent journalism; better put, a tradition of ensuring
that communities are included.  What I have emphasized is that the
airwaves belong to the people.  Thank you very much.

CHAIRMAN POWELL:  Gracias.

(Applause.)

CHAIRMAN POWELL:  Mr. Giust.

MR. GIUST:  Good evening. Good Evening. I\'m pleased to participate in
tonight\'s discussion. My name is Steve Giust, and I\'ve been the
General Manager of KWEX---TV, Channel 41 here in San Antonio for nearly
12 years. I began my 32---year career in television broadcasting in 1971
at the ABC affiliate in my home town of El Paso.

KWEX holds the distinction of being the first formatted UHF television
station in the United States, having begun operations with a Spanish
format in 1961.  KWEX provides local programming that has always been in
active participation in the community. As most of you know, KWEX is also
the local affiliate of the Univision Television Network in San Antonio,
and, in fact, a Univision---owned station. KWEX has gone to great
lengths over the years to serve the needs of the local Hispanic
community, and in that time we\'re proud to have become a part of
San Antonio.

One of the reasons KWEX has achieved this position is because it
provides local programming that is responsive to the residents of
San Antonio. In particular, KWEX airs seven hours of news programming
each ------ each week, including two daily news ------ live newscasts.
Last year one of our news anchors, Monica Navarro, who has been with
Univision in San Antonio for 25 years ------ 21 years, was selected
Journalist of the Year by the 2003 Hispanic Media Awards.

KWEX broadcasts weekly community affairs shows such as: \"Desde
San Antonio,\" which contains in---depth segments of topics such as home
ownership, education, arts, nutrition, and finances, and \"Es Tu
Capitolio,\" a show composed of interviews with state and local
political leaders addressing topics and laws that concern the community.

Beyond the regular newscasts and public affairs programming, KWEX airs
literally thousands of public service announcements each year, as well
as community calendars to keep the San Antonio community informed about
programs, services, and events hosted by local municipal and
non---profit organizations.

In these ways, KWEX keeps San Antonio residents informed and engaged in
politics, public affairs and local events. But one of the most important
ways that KWEX is able to serve its community and connect with
San Antonio residents is through community outreach efforts. For
example, in 2003, the station sponsored the San Antonio Public Library
------ Library Summer Reading Program, the Annual Conference on Latina
Health Issues, and the Day of Scholarships.

In addition, KWEX was involved in numerous local events, including
clothing drives, voter registration efforts, academic scholar ------
scholarships, and health fairs. 

On the programming side, to ensure that the station stays current and
understands the community\'s concerns, we continuously talk to community
leaders and members of the public throughout the year. Even though the
FCC eliminated its formal ascertainment requirements in 1984, KWEX
continues to conduct formal interviews with both leaders and members of
the community to get the input of the needs and interests of
San Antonio. On average, KWEX conducts over 80 of these face---to---face
interviews each year in an effort to determine the issues and topics
most important to the people of San Antonio.

KWEX values the relationship it has in the community, which is made
------ made possible only by providing the local information and
assistance that viewers expect from their local broadcast station. In
this regard, our continued ability to serve the publ ------ the public
as we enter the digital age depends significantly on the FCC adopting
cable must---carry requirements for both analog and digital signals
during the DTV transition. Without such dual carriage, that important
public interest connection between local broadcast stations and their
viewers will be severed by cable operators.

Broadcast stations in general, and KWEX in particular, work hard to
cultivate a local presence and to serve the needs of the communities.
Airing local programming that is unique and tailored to the community
helps attract viewers and keeps the local broadcast station from
blending in the mosaic of competing channels and media available to the
public.

KWEX is particularly fortunate to have the support of our owner,
Univision, which places great importance on local programming and
community outreach, to produce local news and public affairs
programming, sponsor community outreach efforts, and maintain our
connection to the community. We look forward to continuing to do so in
the future.

Thank you.

(Applause.)

CHAIRMAN POWELL:  And now I\'d like Joe Linson, Vice President, NAACP,
San Antonio Branch.

MR. LINSON:  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good evening, Mr. Chairman, and
welcome to town the

distinguished panel of Commissioners.  I\'m Joe Linson, Vice President
of the local branch of the NAACP led by Mrs. Ethel Meyer, a longtime
civic leader, et cetera. 

This branch has been around more than 85 years and has been doing a
tremendous job of trying to level the playing fields of civil rights and
human rights in this community. 

I want to open my comments by giving you a flavor for the importance of
media.  The late Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Junior, in a sermon
was quoted as saying, and I quote, \"take our attitude towards
advertisement.  We\'re so easily led to purchase a product because a
television or radio advertisement pronounced it better than any other. 
Advertisers have long since learned that most people are soft---minded,
they capitalize on this susceptibility with skillful and effective
slogans. This undue gullibility is also seen in the tendency of many
readers to accept the printed word of the media as final truth.  Few
people realize that even our authentic channels of information, the
press, the platform, and in many instances the pulpit, do not give us
objective and unbiased truth.\"  Close quotes.

Every bit of information comes to us with a point of view.  Therefore, I
feel that it is imperative for media outlets to engage the total
community as much as humanly possible.  In San Antonio for the most part
the media and electronic media have been quite responsible; but that is
not to say, however, that improvements can\'t be made.  None of us has
reached perfection yet.  Continuous improvement in reporting the news is
the challenge of our times.

I am delighted that the FCC has chosen San Antonio as one of the cities
for this broadcast localism hearing.  I\'m in support, like my
colleagues here of deregulation, and in as many instances as possible. 
After all, this is the essence of the free enterprise system which has
served this country well.

I do not necessarily believe that big is bad.  I\'m of the opinion that
the less government involvement in the private sector, the better off
the overall economy.  I feel that the market will dictate if left alone.

I do, however, encourage the FCC ------ I\'m encouraged, rather, by the
FCC in moving in this direction.  However, I do understand the concerns
of some of the folks who are expressing some concerns about
consolidation.  I think that one way to assuage those concerns is to
require media companies to set up more community advisory boards in
these local markets.  This would allow individuals from all sectors of
the community to provide input and to help shape the message for their
areas. (Applause.)

I have ------ I have personally been involved, as a community rep of the
old, now defunct *San Antonio Light* newspaper ------ I don\'t think I
was part of it going defunct, though ------ and I provided valuable
insight into the local African---American community here.  The
*San Antonio Express News*, our local paper now, has a community
advisory board, and they rely heavily on the input of community leaders
to get the message out and make sure they\'re not offending various and
sundry groups in this town. This is a multicultural town, and we\'re
proud of that, and that type of thing.

I would be in favor of a more robust approach, Mr. Chairman, by you all
to continue to encourage these media conglomerates to work in that area,
to continue to bring in, you know, individual groups and citizens to
serve on those community-based boards.

Also, I would like to point out that the local cable company here, Time
Warner, has a program of community access.  This program allows
individuals and groups to produce their own programs and thus shape
their own message.  This is really a good thing for this community.  I
think the concept of ------ I also think rather the concept of this low
frequency FM station can be a huge asset in this regard as well.  So
I\'m really interested in that.

(Applause.)

There are ------ there are groups ------ there are groups in this town,
such as the NAACP, Neighborhood First Alliance, and I see their
president, T.C. Calvert out there, a yeoman in this community, I might
add, the Hundred Black Men, the Alamo City Chamber of Commerce and other
groups such as this who would benefit by having access to their own
quote, \"community FM station\". 

For the most part, community groups have access to religious
programming, particularly in the African---American community here, and
I\'m all ------ I\'m all for that.  I\'m all for religion, but ------
but we need more than that.  Low frequency FM can be a tremendous
resource in a community like this. 

I am confident that our local media will accept a good---faith outreach
program designed to provide wider access to the powers of the printed
and electronic message.  Along these lines, I would strongly encourage
internships, and also some national searches by these local
media---types to find qualified staff people who would in fact reflect
the demographics of this community in particular.

Now, I would be remiss to sit up here and accuse the local media of
being biased in hiring, when, in fact, I don\'t have the facts on who's
applying for the jobs.  That\'s not my style, and I wouldn\'t do that. 
I do know that, and I\'m a talk show junkie, I do know that talk show
radio is very popular here and around the country ------ I\'m going to
wrap up ------ and I rarely hear the African---American perspective.
I\'ve called in and got on the air a couple of times, et cetera, and I
think there\'s a real opportunity for input there.  I\'m talking to the
local media on that one. 

I could go on and on with this message. However, I would rather spend
the rest of my time dealing with any questions related to this market. 

Again, I would close by thanking Chairman Michael Powell for the
distinguished job you do, and your group, professionals, for your
leadership in this area.  Thank you very much.

(Applause.)

CHAIRMAN POWELL:  Thank you.  Mr. Rossman.

MR. ROSSMAN:  Chairman Powell, Commissioners and fellow panelists, I
appreciate and thank you for this opportunity to testify on this
important issue. 

My name is Ray Rossman. I\'m the Chapter Director of the San Antonio
Chapter of the Parents Television Counsel.  Today I represent
individuals like myself, parents, and grandparents, who are convinced
that our voices are not being heard by those who have the privilege, not
the right, the privilege, of broadcasting into our homes on a nightly
basis. 

We\'re convinced that our community standards have been pushed by the
wayside, and instead the broadcasters uphold the standards of network
programmers in Hollywood or New York, who have no regard for the impact
or influence that their programming has on San Antonio children. 

They admonish us to change the channel if we don\'t like what we\'re
hearing or seeing, but turning off offensive or indecent programming
should not be our only option.  These are our airwaves.  When is the
last time that programmers considered what their community wants?  When
have they surveyed our views on what should come into our homes or over
our airwaves on a nightly basis? 

A recent Parent\'s Television Council survey asked Texans their thoughts
about television programming.  An overwhelming margin opposes profane,
violent, and graphic sexual content on the public airwave. 

(Applause.)

They do not believe ------ they do not believe that local broadcasters
consider community values when making their programming decisions. 
Local broadcasters have entirely subordinated their duty to serve the
public interest by yielding entirely to the national broadcast
networks.  It\'s unclear at this point whether the subservient behavior
of local broadcasters is deliberate or whether it\'s being forced upon
them by the networks through intense commercial pressure. 

In a PTC survey of network owned and operated affiliates, not a one has
told us that it preempted network programming on the basis of community
standards.

Independently owned affiliates told us that because of network
contractual obligations they could not preempt network programming.  In
fact, some Fox and CBS affiliates said they weren\'t allowed to see
advance copies of reality programming.  When NBC aired Maxim\'s Top 100,
26 independent NBC affiliates chose not to telecast ------ telecast the
program that many believe bordered on the pornographic, and was
certainly not in keeping with their community standards.  And, yet, not
one NBC---owned and operated affiliate preempted it based upon community
standards. 

The responsibility to protect our children from offensive and violent
messages is a burden to be shared by parents, networks, local
broadcasters and the FCC.  For too long this burden has been shouldered
solely by the parents, and we simply cannot do it alone.  We need the
FCC to do its job and we need local broadcasters to listen to our
concerns.  The FCC can start by severely penalizing broadcasters who air
indecent programming. 

Licensees should know that their ability to broadcast is a privilege,
not a right. They should know that their privilege can and will be
revoked if they do not abide by the law.  We\'ve heard that many
independent affiliates are afraid to preempt programming because the
networks threaten to take away their affiliation during the next round
of contract talks.

In an effort to ease the burden on independently---owned affiliates the
FCC can move to vote on the NASA petition. A limited number of TV
stations around the country have preempted programming, but in several
of those instances the same show was aired in the same market by a
different station that was owned by the same corporate owner.

For example, when a CBS affiliate refused to air the Victoria's Secret
fashion show, Viacom simply aired the program on the local UPN
affiliate, again, without regard for community standards.  So where is
the deference to community standards? 

Broadcasters can start by listening to the needs and the wants of their
local communities.  We are voting with our remotes, but the networks
aren\'t listening. The networks repeatedly use the excuse that they have
to compete with cable programming, programming that is full of sex,
violence, and foul language.  Hogwash. Hollywood isn\'t interested in
what America wants, so our local broadcasters need to be.

(Applause.) 

We are going ------ we are going to do our part.  We are going to
contact advertisers to let them know what they\'re advertising dollars
are sponsoring.  We are going to continue to be vigilant about what our
children watch.  We are going to file indecency complaints and file
petitions to deny licenses; but we need your help.  We need you to work
with licensees, and we need you to hold them accountable, and we need
broadcasters to listen to our community standards. 

Together we can make a difference.  There is no better time to start
than now because our children are watching.  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

(Applause.)

CHAIRMAN POWELL:  Thank you, Mr. McGann ------ Mr. Rossman.  I would
like to introduce Robert McGann.

MR. MCGANN: Good evening, Chairman Powell, Commissioners Abernathy,
Copps, and Adelstein, Mayor Garza, and other local officials.

My name is Bob McGann, and I thank you for the opportunity to be a
panelist this evening. I am President and General Manager of local
station KENS---TV and am here representing the station and its owner
Belo Corp.

KENS---TV has been operating in San Antonio as a CBS---affiliated
station since l950. Belo purchased the station in l997, and I became the
general manager of the station in l998. I have been a local broadcaster
for 30 years. 

The day of television stations being both locally owned and operated has
long since passed in most television markets.  My station\'s owner,
Belo, is

headquartered in Dallas and the majority of the other stations in this
market are also not locally owned.  However, KENS, like the other
stations in this market is locally operated.  I live here in the
San Antonio area as do all of my senior managers.  All the
day---to---day decisions on programming and management of KENS are made
by me and my staff. 

In the important area of news programming, for example, our parent
company does not dictate the content.  Those decisions are made by the
news director at KENS under my supervision.  Belo\'s role from its
Dallas headquarters is limited to assuring itself that KENS is being
operated in accordance with Belo\'s values and operating principles. 
Those principles require that quality news and information based on
Belo\'s values of balance and fairness are delivered to KENS viewers,
and that KENS and all of its employees are active corporate and
individual citizens in San Antonio.  That to me is the essence of
localism today:  Local operators, managing their stations and serving
their communities with responsive programming and active community
participation. 

We believe at KENS that a local television station must allocate a
significant portion of its broadcast week to news and other
non-entertainment programming.  This is a critical aspect of localism
which is functioning well in San Antonio.

During a recent week KENS broadcast 39 hours of non-entertainment
programming, amounting to 23.2 percent of its total weekly broadcast
program hours.  At KENS we ensure that our local programming is
responsive to our viewers by means of both formal and informal
ascertainment in our community.  Through the year, I and other on KENS
management call on community leaders such as Albert Ortiz, San Antonio
Chief of Police, Dr. Ricardo Romo, President of UTSA, and Susan Reed,
Criminal District Attorney, in an effort to find out from their vantage
point as leaders in the community what the problems are and needs that
KENS should address in its programming. 

In addition, we conduct annual market surveys, asking citizens for the
local issues of importance to them.  That information, together with
informal input, is compiled and serves as the focal point in planning
our non---entertainment programming.  In my view, some combination of
formal and informal ascertainment at the station\'s option is the most
effective way to perform this indispensable task.

KENS has partnered with the area\'s major cable system, Time Warner
Cable, to create NEWS 9, a

24---hour local cable news channel serving San Antonio.  KENS has also
partnered with the area\'s major daily newspaper, the San Antonio
Express News, to create

MySanAntonio.com, a local news and information web site.  These new
offerings are driven by localism and the marketplace ------ not by
federal mandate.

KENS supplies local access to the airwaves in a variety of ways.  KENS
produces a weekday morning show, called \"Great Day SA,\" which provides
access to local artists, musicians, community leaders, and community
organizations.  In addition, KENS airs the City of San Antonio\'s New
Year\'s Eve event, and is the official station of Fiesta, airing three
major local parades.  KENS has also created the Excel Awards, which
honors our area\'s best teachers during the school year.  Through public
service announcements and other activities, KENS supports numerous
community organizations such the San Antonio Food Bank and the Salvation
Army, helping raise over \$175,000 annually for those two gropes ------
groups alone. 

To sum up, Mr. Chairman and Commissioners, localism is driven in every
American television market by two powerful and historically entrenched
principles. First, is the principle of community service, which is a
long---established hallmark of local television stations.  Local
stations and their employees serve their communities because it is both
personally rewarding and it is the right thing to do.  It is also
reinforced by the FCC license renewal process which focuses on a
station\'s performance in its community and for its viewers. 

Second, is the principle of economics.  There are strong economic
incentives in the form of advertising dollars which reward the
top---rated station in the market, those which provide the
most---watched local news.  We do not need any additional incentives to
continue to serve localism.  Localism is what we are about. It is the
business of local television.  Thank you. 

(Applause.)

CHAIRMAN POWELL: I would like to now introduce Mr. Oscar Moran. 

MR. MORAN:  Thank you.  On behalf of LULAC, the nation\'s oldest and
largest civil rights organization, I want to thank you Chairman Powell,
members of the Commission, and all the distinguished panelists for the
opportunity to partic ------ participate in tonight\'s FCC Localism task
force hearing here in San Antonio. 

Speaking to and defining \"localism\" in the broad and complex spectrum
of broadcast programming is difficult at best, and so today, this
evening, I will share some comments and suggestions which hopefully will
lead to some positive changes in the industry. 

Since the FCC commission has previously found that non-entertainment
programming guidelines and formalized ascertainment procedures were
unduly burdensome and unnecessary for both television stations and radio
stations, today I would like to suggest some regulation changes and
incentives in the areas of licensing requirements and incentives to
promote greater attention to localism.

Under incentives to improve localism, we believe that the FCC\'s
decision last summer to deregulate media ownership rules of radio,
newspaper and television stations in the same market, as well as raising
of the national broadcasting rule from 35 to 45 percent, a percentage
that has recently last Thursday been reduced to 39 percent. 

Nonetheless, we believe that this will not serve the minority
communities as they continue to be underserved by the growing trend of
corporate centralization of broadcasting formats and homogenized media
coverage of local news.

(Applause.)

We continue ------ we continue to see a lack of coverage on voter
registration drives, health issues and cultural initiatives due to a
trend towards corporate centralization of news and information which is
sometimes considered more mainstream.  We believe that revisiting that
35 percent ratio will provide a badly needed incentive here. 

Under regulations that would improve localism, we believe that licensing
requirements should go back to where they were, and that is every three
years to the current eight years.  The American people would not
tolerate a health system that only allows for eight---year cycles of
physical check---ups for obvious reasons. 

The American people would not tolerate an educational system that
measured ------ measures educational achievement and learning progress
of their children every eight years, or a system that only allows an
evaluation of the emission systems on our vehicles under this
so---called auspices of burdensome and unnecessary guidelines because
the obvious path toward the accelerated demise of our communities would
come closely thereafter.  Thus, our present system in these areas of
checks and balances serves us well. 

There are numerous other parallels to the eight---year cycle that we
could illustrate but in an effort to avoid redundancy we hope that a
viable point has been made here today.  This evening plain ordinary
citizens find themselves on the precipice of relinquishing their right
to one of our most precious and valuable resources, and that is the
right to unencumbered, unfiltered and relevant local news, information
and cultural awareness initiatives which are taking place in our
community via the nation\'s airwaves. 

There are presently numerous red flags on the broadcast media horizon,
but among the most visible is a glaring lack of minorities in the
executive branch as well as the governing board members of these
corporations.

(Applause.)

We must not accept the rationalized criteria used to justify these
numbers which only serve to divert attention away from one of the main
responsibilities embedded in the broadcast license renewals of this
station, and that is to provide a community service. 

As ordinary citizens, we must stand ready to evaluate and assist
broadcast media entities from succumbing to the pitfalls of corporate
in---breeding which results when viable diversity is not present, as
well as the practice of recycling minority board of directors\' members,
an abuse which was recently high ------ highlighted in major newspapers
and business journals where they cited an example of one person who
serves ------ serves on 12 to 14 boards of Fortune 50 companies, and who
publicly stated that he spends most of his time traveling from meeting
to meeting, which begs the question how can such a board member, such a
person, honestly look after the interest of the consumers and
shareholders of these entities. 

We must pay strict attention to the direct correlation between the lack
of diverse input and viable government and the demise ------ in the
demise of the recent giants in energy, security, healthcare, to name a
few, in the adverse domino effect on ordinary citizens.  To this end we
will be working with members of Congress on legislation to curtail the
abuse of board of directors recycling in publicly traded and regulated
industries. 

By far, the most direct impact on the every day lives of ordinary
citizens is the news information and right of our voices and viewpoints
to be heard via our airwaves.  And as such, we must ensure that the
broadcast media is held to the highest standards via improved renewal
and licensing evaluations. 

The public trust that has been given to them for safeguarding is not an
entitlement program.  It must be earned every day by viable engagement
of ideas, management and governance within their corporate structures,
or that trust will be lost in the very near future. 

If we step back today, and look through the eyes of the minority
communities, localism in the broadcast industry is not doing well.  It
is not terminal, but we believe that the present environment will not
cure the direction in which it is going.  Thank you very much,
Mr. Chairman, Members of the Commission, We hope that our input tonight
has provided\... (Inaudible.)

(Applause.)

CHAIRMAN POWELL:  Thank you very much, Mr. Moran.  We\'ll now have a
period in which we will ask questions and read questions of ------ from
the audience.  I\'d like to begin with a question for Joe. 

"You say" ------ this is a question from the audience ------ "that each
piece of coverage has a message and a distinct point of view, don\'t you
think deregulation gives less diversity, less of a distinct message
since more stations would be owned by fewer people thus one voice?" 

MR. LINSON: I think that\'s a possibility, but the way ------ the way I
would approach it, Mr. Chairman, if, if we can, if investors are out
there to, you know, buy ------ buy stations, then, you know, you can
solve that problem.  And I\'ll cite an example, of the local station
here was for the most part was black---owned, BET ------ I\'ll use
BET ------ rather, it was sold after\... (inaudible.) 

This is a free enterprise system.  I keep saying that.  There\'s a
chance that question that obv ------ that can occur, but if you own your
own station, you get around that, as I would approach it.  I\'m simply
talking about the market.  If we\'re in this business, buy a station,
get some investors together and buy ------ buy a station.  You know,
that\'s another ------ another way to approach it.  There\'s always the
possibility of that situation, but ------

THE AUDIENCE:  (Inaudible.) 

MR. LINSON: ------ but the fact of the matter is, I believe in, get some
investors together and buy it. BET was black---owned, but it was sold by
black folk to another company.  You can\'t blame the guy for taking
three billion dollars. Now he owns a basketball team in Charlotte, North
Carolina.  That\'s my approach to that one.

CHAIRMAN POWELL:  I\'m going to go to the next question, but I, I have
to say I feel obligated to say that in ------ to have healthy discourse,
we have to have enough civil respect to allow individuals to make their
statement. 

(Applause.)

I think it\'s a fine tradition in America that people can disagree
respectfully, and I hope that by the end of the night we\'ll be able to
say that about our hearing here in San Antonio.

MR. LINSON: May I just say this, Mr. Chairman, I agree with you on that,
but I don\'t mind, and I put that group down as undecided, as far as
I\'m concerned.

(Laughter.)

COMMISSIONER ABERNATHY: I have a question here that\'s directed to Lydia
Camarillo, and it follows on a question that I wanted to ask you, too,
as well as some of the other panelists are welcome to jump in. 

And it says: "Does local radio and TV provide adequate news coverage of
Central and South American news for Latinos in the San Antonio area and
for their families from their countries of origin?" 

As a follow---up to that, one of your biggest concerns was ownership and
control of, of local stations, and I agree, and we\'ve got a diversity
committee and we\'re working on ways to expand opportunities for
ownership; but for the ones where you don\'t have Latino ownership, and
that have a localism obligation, how does that translate into serving

underserved parts of the community; and as we\'re measuring localism, do
we look simply at local news programming?  Should we look beyond that to
sponsorship of various activities, coverage of sports that may be unique
to certain communities? 

I mean, if we\'re trying to get a handle on this, what does it mean for
a local station to be responsive to these communities?

MS. CAMARILLO: Well, thank you for asking that question. I think that
the question, while I focused on, on ownership of local ------ of
minority and Latinos having an opportunity because I think that gives an
opportunity for communities to have real voices, I don\'t think it was
exclusive to that. 

When you have one or two companies owning everything, you have less
voices.  And so we have to make sure that communities are included at
all levels as Moran ------ Mr. Moran mentioned very accurately.  At the
board level we don\'t have representation, and certainly at the rank and
file of the reporters we don\'t have representation. 

But if you ask me a question about ------ do we have even slight
reporting on Central and, and ------ and South America, I have to tell
you we don\'t even have local reporting.  I think that Latinos are not
covered.  I don\'t think the African---American community is covered, I
don\'t think that communities that are disproportionately poor are
covered. 

And so I think that having ------ I want to thank the, the industry for
giving money when it gives, but it doesn\'t give enough money.  I want
to thank the industry for having its community service, but it doesn\'t
do enough.  So I think that, that the question is really goes back to
you all who are the FCC and the regulators ------

(Applause.)

------ who are willing to have to ------ and the ones who have to decide
whether or not someone should have the right to have a license again. 
As I stated, the airwaves belong to us.  And if the airwaves belong to
the people, then the people must have a voice, and we do not have a
voice.  Thank you very much. 

(Applause.)

MR. GIUST: Commissioner, I ------ I just want to add that we make it a
point to cover as much as we can.  We know ------ we know who our
viewers are, and we have a lot of people that are first, second, third
generation here, but we have a lot of people that have just come into
America, and we know how important it is to report what is going on in
their home, home ------ home of Mexico or, or in Central America. 

To give you an example, in 19 ------ in the year ------ in the 1990
census, 92 percent of the Latino population here was from Mexico.  Now
it\'s only 71 percent in the 2000 census, which means there are more
people here from South America, and we owe it to them to let them know
what is going on in their country, and we make it a point to do that. 
Thank you.

(Audience talking.)

COMMISSIONER COPPS:  I have a number of questions from the audience
having to do with must carry, which has to do with requiring the cable
systems to carry ------ carry the broadcast programming and some concern
about the possibility of losing shows like

C---Span or whatever, and more generally, just to wonder as we ------
and Mr. Giust talked about this and made an interesting connection
between must-carry and the public interest.  It won\'t be long.  We\'re
in the digital world and the station now that has one stream of
broadcasting going out of San Antonio, will have maybe six, with the
ability to multi-cast. 

And I think there\'s a great interest on how ------ how\'s the public
interest going to be protected in that environment, and what are you
willing, I think, to ------ to undertake as the result of that? 

In other words, would you be willing to make a commitment to increase
your public interest service obligations proportional, to an increase in
channel capacity that you have?  What kind of things do you think we
ought to be looking at as we deliberate today?

MR. GIUST: In terms of multi---casting, Commissioner? Our, our company
has not gone to that point in the terms of what we would carry on the
other channels if we were given that opportunity.  I\'m sure, that in
all my years of broadcasting, the way we survive is by giving back to
our community.  And I\'m positive, the way our company supports us, that
we would definitely give back more public service.  But I\'m not here at
this time to guarantee you what I could do, because I don\'t know at
this time.

CHAIRMAN POWELL:  Mr. McGann.

MR. MCGANN:  Commissioner, I would like to point out that this hearing
is an excellent example of how we will work in the digital area. We\'re
------ I\'m happy to say we are multi---casting on our digital channel
this entire hearing this evening on five two, and on five one we\'re
carrying KENS and CBS programming.  So I would view it in terms of the
future, this would be an excellent way that we would handle the
multi-casting issue.

(Applause.)

COMMISSIONER COPPS:  It\'s really ------ I\'m very glad to hear that if
it really ------ obviously is a very important issue if we\'re going to
give broadcasters the ability to multi---cast and certainly the public
has the right to expect that they would be ------ good and effective
means to guarantee service in the public interest, and I\'m glad to see
that you\'re working on that, and I hope the industry as a whole will be
giving some thought to that as the Commission moves toward a decision in
this area.

COMMISSIONER MARTIN:  Following up, if I could ask Mr. McGann just real
quickly, is any of ------ is that multi---casting of this hearing being
carried on the any of the cable systems?

MR. MCGANN:  At this present time we\'re not being carried on cable.

COMMISSIONER MARTIN:  I also have a question from the audience for
Mr. Giust, If Univision is working to meet the community interest as you
assert, why does it portray such a narrow range of women on its
programs? 

MR. GIUST: I want to understand the question a little better in terms of
narrowing ------ the ladies. We have lovely women on our shows, some of
our shows.

(Audience booing.)

How they are chosen ------ I\'ve never really had any complaints about
the women that we have on the air.  Locally ------ locally, I think our
local talent is just as beautiful as, as ------ as our network talent. 
Now, I ------

(Words from audience.)

Yeah. Anyway, that\'s all I have.

(Words from audience.)

COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN:  Well, I have an appropriate follow---up to that
from the audience. This is for Univision:  What about indecency on
Spanish novelas on prime time?  And ------ and to follow up on that, a
question maybe, if we could hear from Senor Moran and Senora
Camarillo ------

(audience interruption.)

------ I\'m sorry. There\'s a question we\'ve had that following up on
that for other people to respond about the level of concentration in
Spanish language broadcasting.  I just would like to hear from you if
you feel there\'s enough opportunities for voices to be heard in Spanish
language broadcasting.

MR. GIUST: To ------ to answer your question, on novelas, I have very
few complaints on novelas, very few.  I mean, the only complaints I get
usually is if we preempt a novela for other type of programming.  I
usually get phone calls that are threatening when we preempt a novela. 

(Laughter.)

It\'s the truth.  But the programming, I\'ve seen tremendous quality and
a tremendous amount of investment and money to make beautiful type of
novelas that are on the air now.  You know, I don\'t understand what the
------ what the question is on the novela side that you\'re asking me. 

COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN:  It was just that ------ what about indecency,
was the question from the public.

MR. GIUST: I\'m sorry.  I can\'t hear you.

COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: I\'m sorry. The question from the public is: 
What about indecency? 

MR. GIUST: On these ------

COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: That you responded to.

MR. GIUST: I ------ if I get a complaint, Commissioner, I definitely
direct that immediately to, to our network.  I have very few
complaints.  You know, you can check our FCC file ------ very few
complaints on the novelas.  I mean, I wish you could give me a
specific ------ yeah ------ I\'m ------ some of the topics are hot and
heavy.  But again, I get more calls if we move up, if we preempt the
novela than if I ------ I do in terms ------ I can tell you, maybe
we\'ve had a handful of complaints about the content of the novelas. 
The language, I think is nowhere near that ------ what I\'ve heard in
other situations.  Anyway, that\'s all I\'ve got. 

COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: Just a follow---up for the other panelists about
whether or not ------

(In Spanish.) 

MS. CAMARILLO: (In Spanish.)

COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN:  Is there enough opportunity for diverse voices
to be heard over Spanish language broadcasting in this country?

MS. CAMARILLO: (In Spanish.)

COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN:  For you and for Senor Moran. 

MS. CAMARILLO: (In Spanish.)

(Applause.)

Latinos are covered better in Spanish stations than they are covered in
the mainstream stations and one of the reasons is because the workers
are Latinos like the rest of us.  Thank you.

(Applause.)

CHAIRMAN POWELL:  We have fallen quite a bit back on time, and so I\'d
like to move to the open-mic period since it seems to be open anyway.

(Audience laughter and conversation.)

MADAM SECRETARY: Members of the audi ------ members of the audience who
wish to speak should form a line down the center aisle.  We will
alternate microphones during the session.  The FCC staff will let you
know when it is your turn to speak.  If you are in need of assistance of
a Spanish translator, please notify the FCC staff, identified by their
white badges.

(Translated in Spanish.)

MADAM SECRETARY: In the interest of letting as many people present their
views as possible, speakers should limit ------ limit their remarks to
no more than two minutes.  The green light will signal for the first one
and a half minutes.  When the yellow light signals, you will have 30
seconds to sum up your remarks.  Please observe these time limits.  To
accommodate as many speakers as possible, we encourage individuals from
organizations to limit the number of speakers who use the
open-microphone to express a common viewpoint and to consider using our
electronic filing procedures to register multiple speakers' comments in
our official record.  We will now begin the open-microphone session.

CHAIRMAN POWELL:  Just one thing to emphasize ------ one thing to
emphasize.  Remember that there are two open-mic sessions.  So this
isn\'t the only run we\'re going to get at this tonight.  We\'re going
to do this for about 45 minutes before the break, and I really would
encourage people to make their comments brief because you\'re only
stealing time from other people who really need an opportunity to be
heard.  So with that, please, let\'s, let\'s proceed.

(Translated in Spanish.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Hello. Testing. Can you hear me? I\'m here tonight,
Gentlemen, to ask you to expedite the widening of the radio bands for
the firemen and the policemen so they do not overlap the next 9/11
occurs.  We need to expedite this right away, no messing around.  They
don\'t need to fight a building falling on them again and radio signals
overlapping.  That would be wrong.  If you drag your feet on this that
also would be wrong, and, and I believe you should do something
immediately.

(Applause.)

Another quick comment I have is accurate reporting.  It took two days
after I listened to an inaccurate report which told only half the truth
about a man on PCP last week.  It took two days for the truth to come
out and the truth only came out by a recording played on Clear Channel
Radio radio station. 

I did not hear it on ABC, I did not hear it on NBC, and I did not hear
it on CBS.  And it\'s ludicrous for you to fine the only one that came
through for the American public to be informed when it\'s dangerous and
a matter of national security when people get up and go out of their
living rooms and burn down something because they want ratings.  You
need to put the fine on NBC, CBS and ABC where it belongs and leave
Clear Channel alone. 

(Applause.)

That\'s all I have to say.  They cannot regulate themselves, they cannot
be trusted. Thank you.

CHAIRMAN POWELL:  Thank you.  Let\'s start here.

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  We own the airwaves, but quite a few, just a handful
of corporations, decide what will go on those airwaves.  Have you
noticed a lack of coverage by these heads of the airwaves?  Of course
not, unless you\'ve been listening to some kind of alternative radio or
alternative source of information.  These are too limited.  The
population of this country is in danger of being dumbed down by the
networks.  To put it bluntly, serving corporate interests and serving
the public interests cannot be consistently achieved as long as
corporations enjoy the elevated status they now hold.  Stop
deregulation, undo what you\'ve already done. 

Mr. Linson, a free market system to which you allude to so highly is a
system of greed, selfishness and has no interest in what is best for the
public at large.  You may ask ------ you may ask who decides what\'s
best for the public.  I would propose that the public can handle that
question for themselves, thank you.  Stop limiting our sources of
information.  Thank you. 

(Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Chairman Powell, and FCC Commissioners, welcome to
Texas.  Thank you very much for coming and listening to us.  My name is
Robin Stallings.  I\'m the Executive Director of the Texas Bicycle
Coalition.  There are four million Texans who ride a bike at least once
a year, and at least 30,000 of them contribute in some way to our
organization.  And we have a particular interest in the airwaves. 

There have been some problems in the last few years where on---air
talent or hosts have gotten a few laughs at the expense of cyclists,
joking about, you know, hitting them with car doors, throwing things at
them.  This has happened in a lot of stations.  That must pass for humor
in a lot of places, but I want to say that while this happened in many
different kinds of stations, including some Clear Channel stations,
Clear Channel stepped forward, and actually, I should say that the
individual stations, each one stepped forward, they met in, in Houston
with our representatives and they met with other cyclists, our
counterparts in Raleigh, they met with other cyclists and counterparts
in Cleveland, and they did something about it, and they worked it out. 

And after it was all worked out even Clear Channel at the corporate
level went out of their way and called me ------ I didn\'t call
them ------ to see if there was anything else they could do.  And we
were a bit surprised.  We thought it was over.  There was ------ we
thought it was some behemoth that we could never deal with.  But that is
not what we found in this case.  And we ------ in fact, they found other
ways that they could work with us, teach us how we could work with the
local stations, and they also pointed our that we ------ and have since
learned, that over 200 charity rides in the country just last year,
Clear Channel supported and helped with having people on---air as well
as supporting the rides.  And I just want to say thank you very much for
coming here, but sometimes local doesn\'t always mean locally owned, but
do you care about local issues and many of the stations do that, even if
they are corporate.  Thank you. 

(Applause.) 

AUDIENCE MEMBER: My name is Kate Cole, and I\'m the Executive Director
for the Heidi Search Center for Missing Children. We\'re a nonprofit
organization that was established in 1990 after the abduction and murder
of an 11---year old little girl named Heidi Lynn Seeman. 

Our job is to assist law enforcement, families and the community in
finding missing children and adults.  We could not do that without the
local media we have here.  And I cannot not specifically pick out one
single channel that\'s better than the other. 

I have been with the center for four years and the relationship we have
with them now is, when I have somebody missing, I send them an
e---mail.  I don\'t even have to talk to anybody on the phone and they
assist us. 

I cannot commend them highly enough in the way they help the community
and the families around here when they have a missing loved one.  Not
just the children that we hear nationally, but the local adults that
also go missing under suspicious circumstances. 

They help us with getting information out to the public.  There\'s
different times of the year where we want awareness for safety, at
Halloween during parties, when the kids are out trick or treating, Saint
Patrick\'s Day, where a lot of adults are going out drinking.  They help
us with information out to the general public, without any hesitation. 
They get information out to the public about searches we\'re having,
help that we need, money when we\'re short on money.  We are a
nonprofit, like I said. We rely purely on public donations. 

There\'s no greater joy than seeing a family reunited with a missing
loved one.  We had a couple a few years ago who were separated, been
married for many years, and through the media\'s coverage of the wife\'s
disappearance, then she was managed to be located alive. 

We had a young girl that ran away and went down to Mexico.  One of the
local Hispanic stations ran the story a couple of years after she\'d
gone missing. It went down into Mexico, a man ------ a man recognized
her as a stripper in one of the bars he frequented down there. Within a
matter of days she was reunited again with her family.

Thank you for allowing me to speak, and I would like to say we hope the
media will continue to support us.  And if the city does not deal with
the

runaway problem, I\'d like to challenge the media to help us educate the
city on our Hispanic young female

runaways, which is a huge problem.  Thank you.

(Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Good evening. My name is Ruben Esparanza. I am the
publisher of the *San Antonio Post*.  Mr. Copps, I congratulate you in
trying to defend the rules and regulations of the FCC, although they\'ve
been eroded for many years.  I\'m proud to say I\'m a licensee for
third---class license for the FCC and yes, they have been eroded. 

Now, the word, public interest, has been said by most of y\'all.  The
Commissioners have said that.  But also you have said the convenience of
broadcasting.  But what none of y\'all have said is the necessity is to
cov ------ to cover public events that local media do not. 

I\'ll give you a case in point.  And this ------ actually this will be
going to the Supreme Court in the next two years.  We\'re using the
rules and regs of the Federal Communication, the FCC, in our court
case.  Just recently we had a campaign, a local campaign ------ they
called it a campaign ------ for fluoride.  We got ten seconds of
coverage. 

The pro---people got 30 minutes, even more.  They never ------ they
never broadcast the dangers of the ------ of fluoride.  Right there, I
saw the erosion of the rules and regs.  What needs to happen is that we
need to keep the local ownership, public ownership or local ownership
within the community.  That way we have more voices and not just one
telling us the news. 

(Applause.)

And you are correct, sir.  So I ask you, the Commissioners, bring back
the rules of local ownership for the public interest.  Thank you. 

(Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Good evening, Chairman, Commissioners and
distinguished panel.  My name is Michael Hu (phonetic). I am Director of
San Antonio Asian Community Affairs.  I\'m here this evening to watch,
come here and share with you the experience I had with the local
television stations Fox and WB 35.  Recently I was headed fundraising
events to fundraising a gas mask for San Antonio police departments.  I
went over to talk to the Fox, WB station manager John Seabers and told
him about the project.  Now he\'s very enthusiastic about helping out
the community and help out raising money to help our own police
departments. 

And sure of all, that they not only bent over backward to help out
------ to help with this project.  They are putting the commercial,
public service commercial on a national world series to advertise this
event. Now, I\'m sure they can put this advertising in the midnight
somewhere where nobody sees it.  They could put it somewhere else. But
they didn\'t do so.  They, they act in the community interest and they
help out this tremendously.  As a result, we are raising over \$100,000
and we now have 500 gas masks for our local police departments to spare
to use any time for emergency. 

Again, I wanted to stress that this station has been helping out as far
as community interest over and beyond the call of duty.  And again, I
want to thank you for this opportunity to speak, and thank you.

(Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Mr. Chairman, Commissioners, Committee Members and
others, good evening.  My name is David Gates from Dallas, Texas.  I\'m
45.  I\'ve been in broadcasting since the age of 11.  Broadcasting\'s
been good to me, and I\'ve seen it change dramatically over the last
three---plus decades. I\'ve worked from Paca City, Oklahoma with an
independent operator, all the way up to Disney ABC in Chicago, the
nation\'s third largest market.  I\'ve held almost every position
including responsibilities for the entire radio division in a
multi---media company. 

Localism and consolidation are indeed related.  The more consolidation,
the less localism.  The more ------ the more control over a market by a
single operator, the less incentive to do much more than crank cash out
of that market. 

(Applause.)

In my lifetime, radio has never been less local than it is today. Many
announcer shifts at many radio stations can\'t even say it\'s cloudy,
raining and 57 degrees right now, because the shows were

voice---tracked on a computer hours ago in a city far, far away.

(Applause.)

The formats are essentially homogeneous across the nation.  Many of the
subtleties of market and station independence are gone. As we\'ve given
the industry and our nation\'s primary information dissemination
platform over to a few selected investors, the market manager knows that
his or her career rides almost exclusively on budget attainment.  Things
like the public file and some genuine interest in local public affairs
are relics, where stations do just enough, maybe, to get through the FCC
inspections and accountabilities that are oh so rare anymore. 

It\'s been surprising to me to see how, just how great the disconnects
been between the Commission\'s recent majority positions and reality. 
As the share of voice is controlled by an ever smaller and smaller
select few with their own corporate and political agendas, the ordinary
American citizen has less of a chance. 

I would invite the Commission to have the courage, character, strength
and wisdom to go back and review their recent supportive positions on
consolidation, find out what\'s really going on, and find some ways to
be more consistent with the Communications Act of 1934, which delineates
that the airwaves do belong to the public.

(Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Mr. Chairman, my name is Maria Antonia Berriozabal and
I\'m a

long---time resident of San Antonio, and have been active in my
community at the grass roots level most of my life.  Between 1981 and
1991, I served on the San Antonio City Council.  I join my voice today
to those of my fellow citizens who have come to express deep concern as
media mergers create bigger and bigger media conglomerates.  We, the
people, are not seeing ourselves in local media outlets. Others will
share their story.  I will share one. 

In 2002 a coalition of citizens representing the diversity of
San Antonio as never before embarked on a petition drive expressing deep
concern over a proposal to build a luxurious PGA resort over our only
source of water, our Edwards Aquifer.  Public incentives were also being
given to the developer, a very, very big international company.  It was
a story of power versus the people. 

We, the people, organized and conducted the most successful petition
campaign in the history of our city.  We gathered over 100,000
signatures over a period of about three months.  As important as this
number is, those who gathered the signatures, and how hard they worked
was a story that should have been told.  At a time when citizen
participation in democracy is eroding, in 2002 in San Antonio over 1,000
volunteers participated in this campaign. 

This story should have captivated the airwaves.  It didn\'t. They did
not tell the story of Guadalupe Iguelis (phonetic) and her elderly
friends who stood in front on a hot summer day gathering signatures in
their church, or young people who for the first time saw the workings of
government. 

We gathered across race, gender, culture, political affiliation. Our
concern for our city and our environment brought us together.  This is
an instance where the airwaves should have been used to share the story
of democracy in action.  It did not.  We did not get what we were asking
for and it was simply the opportunity to hold an election.  Our elected
leaders did not listen to us.  We did not have the media\'s help.

(Applause.)

(Spanish through interpreter.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  We are millions of immigrants who have enriched this
country and who have given it its diversity.  And many of these millions
of immigrants who have such a rich history and culture are ignored
because of their humble beginnings. And how is it possible that our
voices in a country that speaks of liberty and justice for all cannot be
represented, represented equitably, and how is it possible that there is
one conglomerate owner that is deciding what we should hear or see?

We have so many needs that are not being expressed.  We have so many
things that are not being properly shown, that reflect who we are.  And
there\'s so many things that we have done, so many accomplishments that
are never shown.  Why?  Because they are not money producing.  There is
no gain in it, no profit in it and yet, we have so much to offer. And
how many stories of injustice have been hushed?  And the conscience and
we have just been sublimated and abused and ignored and trampled on with
programming that has nothing to do with our values or our interests. 

Please do not deprive us of our liberty and our, our right to have
something that is for every single ------ every single citizen. The
right for freedom of speech is a right for each and every one of us and
we should be granted this. We have been marginalized and used and the
reality is that as immigrants we have so much richness and so much
culture and so many wonderful traditions that have been a profit to the
others and yet we have been marginalized. 

I ask that the media be pluralistic and be responsible to the voices of
all of us who want to be heard.  And not to separate us from the needs
of the community.  Thank you.

(Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Commissioners, my name is Brian Hughes. I\'m a graduate
of MIT and the Harvard Business School, and currently I chair a\...
(inaudible) \...company. I want to thank Commissioner Copps for putting
ownership clearly on the agenda.  In 1984 I started a company called
P---Tap Systems which built

P---Tap One, the first privately---owned transatlantic fiber optic
cable. In 1989 P---Tap One went into service and broke AT&T\'s monopoly
on international telecommunications.  At that time, the FCC was a strong
proponent of competition to increase the number of diverse suppliers of
international telecommunications.

As a result, I find it somewhat ironic that 20 years later the MIT is
loose, sorry ------ the FCC is loosening the rules to allow the
consolidation of media ownership.  This consolidation is clearly driven
by the demands of Wall Street, a demand for continuous growth to meet
the needs of the marketplace.  Now, as a biologist now I see the only
system that we talk about where continuous growth is part of the system
is cancer.  So, this is a fool\'s game because there is no end in
sight.  Wall Street demands will lead to more expansion.  How else do
you get continual growth, you\'re not making any more spectrum. 

First of all, we see national expansion led by that brave American,
Rupert Murdoch.  Next, we will see international expansion like U.S.
multinationals. Where else can the U.S. ------ these companies expand to
meet the demands of Wall Street.  Finally, we can see the Spirit rover
on Mars as a pathfinder for the future media markets.  Simply put, media
consolidation is not a viable long---term strategy.  At some point it
becomes a cancer.  Local ownership, local control allows things to be
right---sized.  Thank you.

(Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Thank you. My name is T.C. Calvert, I am president of
the Neighborhood First Alliance, which represents some 30,000 families
here in the city.  I want to talk about localism, but I also want to
challenge the FCC Commissioners tonight.  Will you let your light shine,
and will you stimulate the type of media coverage we need across America
and our neighborhoods?  That\'s my challenge to you. 

San Antonio, Texas experiences a lot of floods.  I live in a
neighborhood where there\'s flood zones, just like other people across
this United States who live in neighborhoods where there\'s a lot of
toxins, where there\'s a lot of chemical plants.

But I live along an area called the Salado Creek, and we had a
100---year flood that came to my neighborhood, Brother Powell.  You
should have seen the water coming.  It was scary.  People were
scrambling for their lives.  The fire department had put their lives on
the line.  The police department had put their lives on the line. 

Our television stations in our area, the fiber optics, and the cable was
shut out.  Our TVs went black.  The people in the community listened to
a Clear Channel Communication called KSJL radio.  You know what they
were doing while the flood waters were coming?  They were bopping the
music, hits and oldies, instead of warning our people that the flood
waters were coming. Will you let your light shine?

(Applause.)

Now that problem not only holds true in San Antonio, Texas, but it holds
true in Oklahoma, Louisiana, New Mexico and all the communities where
Clear Channel Communications has urban contemporary stations.  So, I\'m
here to challenge this Commission to change your rules.  We want to see
low---powered radio stations in our community controlled by the people
in this community. 

(Applause.)

We could talk about all the boards we want to.  We\'re sick and tired of
blue ribbon committees.  We\'re sick and tired of these boards. We want
ownership and we want the FCC to let its light shine.  Thank you. 

(Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER: That might be a tough act to follow. My name is Sarah
Kirby.  I\'m here with the Salvation Army here in San Antonio, Texas. 
As an agency that serves thousands of people in need in this community,
we\'re truly grateful for the media coverage that we carry here. 
Without their support, the Salvation Army could not continue to provide
the hope to thousands and the public awareness of the issues and
challenges we face in serving such a large and diverse population here. 
In particular, without WOAI---TV we could not have provided a happy
Christmas holiday for over 10,000 children and their families this past
year, because the public was made aware of the need.

Without KENS---TV during the 2002 flood, we could not have kept 15
mobile canteen units running, 18 hours a day for over five weeks
providing food and water to people that were in the middle of this
disaster and devastated by it, and providing for the rescue workers that
were in additionally helping them, because the public was made aware of
that need. 

We are truly grateful for the media in this community.  We wish we could
always get more airtime, but we, we appreciate everything they do to
help raise public awareness and make sure that the community knows what
the needs are and how we can take care of our community.  Thank you.

(Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Hello.  My name is Nadine Saliba. I\'m here on behalf
of the Arab---American community.  The media plays a pivotal role in
shaping public opinion and creating lasting images.  Arabs and
Arab---Americans have been the victims of more media vilification and
stereotyping than perhaps any other national or ethnic group in recent
U. S. history. 

After the administration decided to wage its war on terrorism by
attacking civil liberties at home through the Patriot Act, once again
Arab---Americans were the principal victims becoming the most
vulnerable, marginalized, maligned and demonized group in the United
States.  That all of the media in allowing this process to go unchecked
and largely unexamined cannot be underestimated. 

In a democracy a free press is supposed expose instances of abuse and
misuse of power.  Instead, the media has toed the government line when
it comes to issues affecting Arab---Americans.  It has echoed the
administration\'s propaganda and has engaged in a degree of ultra
censorship that is both shameful and inexcusable in a free society. And
things stand ------

(Applause.)

And things stand to get worse with your project for media
consolidation.  The Bush administration would not have been able to so
easily get away with waging a preemptive war, sending off young American
soldiers to their death and causing the death of an untold number of
Iraqis based on lies and false evidence, if it weren\'t for the
collusion ------

(Applause.)

------ if it if it were ------ if it were not for the collusion of the
pathetically weak media that failed the American people and failed our
democracy when it chose not to interrogate the official discourse behind
the war, and yes, things will get only worse with your project of media
deregulation. Thank you.

(Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER: My name is Loretta Van Copenhal (phonetic), and I\'m a
citizen of the United States, a country that will, I hope, be restored
to democracy within the next year. 

(Applause.)

Mr. Powell and those Commissioners who infamously voted last June 6th,
for the wider opening of our airwaves to the highest bidder, you have
behaved reprehensibly. 

(Applause.)

Your vote ------ your vote was not in the best interests of a free press
and media.  Your vote took place after more than a million letters from
citizens like me implored you not to do it.  You did not listen then,
and you will probably not listen now.

(Applause.)

But I must speak out, just as my fellow citizens here are also speaking
out.  We do this because we must try.  We cannot give up a sacred facet
of our democracy willingly.  The less you listen, the more you violate
the trust of the American people, the more you spur reaction.  You
double speak, talking about localism when you mean just the opposite. 

(Applause.)

You kneel before the gods of profit while you spout platitudes about
civil discourse.  The American people, no matter how little you listen
and how little you care, will win in the end. We still have the vote. 
Never forget that.

(Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Good evening.  Welcome ------

(Audience interruption.) 

My name is ------ good evening. Welcome to Texas.  We hope that when you
leave tonight you still think this is a friendly place.  We are happy to
have you here.  My name is Gary Riding (phonetic) and I\'ve come down
from Dallas as a private citizen. I don\'t represent any particular
group tonight other than perhaps ------ I speak on behalf of the basic
unit of society, which is the family. 

I am doing my best as a father to rear children of high moral standards,
and I need your help to hold off the flood of pornography, profanity and
violence that\'s surrounding them.  I\'m also a 39---year---old
red---blooded American male, and this may come as a surprise to the
media in our country, but I don\'t want to see the pornography,
profanity and violence that is surrounding us. 

(Applause.)

Please do all you can to help me by imposing maximum fines,
strengthening regulations to turn back the erosion of the moral standard
this country was built on.  Thank you. 

(Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  My name is David Martin.  I\'m a freelance journalist
here in San Antonio, and I would like to thank Commissioner Adelstein
and Commissioner Copps for doing their best to open up a dialogue about
a very important issue, media ownership. 

(Applause.)

And I would also like to point out that I kind of feel like a guest that
was invited to a party after the big media already feasted at the public
trough, and we are only left to eat ------ pick up the scraps from the
table.  And it\'s a little late once you already try to take the media
ownership rules off the table to invite public input.  But given that
you have provided us this opportunity, I would like to point out another
elephant in the room, which is that the principal beneficiaries of these
pro concentration decisions by the FCC happened to be Bush
administration political supporters. 

This is the ------ in return for favorable coverage from big media, the
FCC has now granted the big media what they want, which is more monopoly
control of their media markets.  For example, Univision, which the CEO
of Univision is a Bush pioneer, contributed over \$700,000 to the Bush
campaign, was rewarded with the right to purchase Hispanic Broadcasting
Company, thus expanding Univision\'s control of the Spanish language
media market.  Need I mention Murdoch, who has received numerous rewards
from the FCC for his political support of the Bush administration. 

The President of Fox News is Roger Ailes, former media strategist.  I\'m
sure he would receive that job due to his journalistic ethics. 

(Applause.)

I would just like to say media concentration is not in the public
interest because democracy is the public interest.

(Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Good evening, Chairman Powell, Commissioners,
distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Gerry Trombolt
(phonetic) and I am deaf.  I represent the Self Help for Hard of Hearing
People Chapter, San Antonio, as well as the thousands of deaf and
hard---of---hearing persons living in our locality. 

In July of 2002, this area of Texas experienced a terrible
life---threatening flood.  The deaf and hard---of---hearing population
soon discovered that San Antonio broadcasters did not have emergency
weather captioning in place.  We began an immediate war with phone
calls, e---mails, text messaging and complaints to the FCC. 

We sent in close to 200 formal complaint forms to your agency.  We met
with local television personalities and executives to explain what we
needed.  We find that, still, as of this date, full captioning, real
time captioning, is not available for weather and other emergency news. 
We find that stations are reluctant to secure appropriate equipment and
negotiate with providers to give us what the law has already mandated. 

Let me emphasize, Mr. Chairman, Commissioners, that which you already
know, to the rest of this audience, that Texas broadcasters refuse to
recognize our right to equal access, the necessity of compliance and
that they are flirting with danger every day.  The result of this
neglect on their part can and may result in senseless tragedy when a
deaf or hard---of---hearing person loses his life because there was no
captions.  Please take our plea to heart ------ there are thousands of
deaf and hard---of---hearing people in this particular community who
need, and without question deserve what is already in place in law. 
Hear us though we can\'t hear for ourselves and be the voice of humanity
in the communications and broadcast world.  Thank you.

(Applause.)

CHAIRMAN POWELL:  We\'ll hear two more before the break. 

(Spanish through interpreter.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER: My name is Viola Casares and I represent Fuerza Unida
here in San Antonio.

(Applause.)

It\'s an organization that was formed in 1990 when we lost our jobs at
the Levi plant here in San Antonio in 1990.  And I\'m here to speak for
all the Mexican women who are workers and our voices are often not
heard, are overlooked.

Fourteen years ago, we were in the news briefly, and now we\'re just a
group of forgotten women. All day in the news we hear nothing but crime
and homicides and murder and mayhem, but we feel that our dignity has
been robbed.

We believe that the hard work that Fuerza Unida does needs to be heard
on the airwaves.  Our struggles need to be heard.

We\'re constantly losing jobs all the time.  People are losing jobs and
those of us who were with ------ who are with Fuerza Unida who lost our
jobs before and who got new jobs and lost them again, little is being
done.  Nobody\'s ------ nobody\'s taking us into account.

This is a war in our communities, lack of jobs, and believe you me there
is blood being shed because of it.  And every day we\'re losing more and
more jobs with this monster called globalization.  And I just came here
to say please don\'t forget about us humble women who give so much to
our community.  Do not forget us.

Please let\'s spread the good news about the good work that we do
instead of always focusing on the bad and the negative.  Thank you.

(Applause.)

CHAIRMAN POWELL:  This will be the last one before our break ------

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Good evening.

CHAIRMAN POWELL: ------ and then we\'ll have a second open-mic period at
the end.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Good evening. I\'m Charles Estes (phonetic) from
Denton, Texas.  Thank you, Commissioners for coming here to Texas to
listen to us. 

(Through interpreter.)

I\'m also representing the deaf and hard---of---hearing people, 1.8
million strong in the State of Texas, almost one---tenth of the Texas
population, and when we consider the fact that the older we become the
more hearing loss we have, when you get to retirement age, about
one---third of the population has a hearing loss of some kind.  I submit
that our needs are not being attended to very carefully or inadequately.

For example, at the set---up today, the deaf and hard---of---hearing
people are grouped here in the front, the close captioning is way over
there.

(Applause.)

It is not accessible.  At 7:28 this evening when I was standing there in
line, the captioning disappeared, for a good two minutes or more before
it reappeared.  That happens all the time on the local as well as the
national broadcasting, captioning when it\'s absent from a critical part
of local programming. 

For example, if you turn on the television at 7:00 in the morning,
usually you get national programming.  Every 15 or 30 minutes, the
program reverts to local weather and news.  It\'s ironic that that part
is not captioned, and I know more about your weather in Washington,
D.C., than I know in your snow and ice, and I know about the floods in
Washington state, but I don\'t know anything about my own weather in
Denton where I reside, which affects me. 

Is my time up? \[Unidentified voice: You\'re okay.\] 

And with that, captioning has regressed significantly over the years. 
We get a lot of garble.  We get a lot of omission.  We get a lot of, you
know what that term is, money grains.   There are times when, when I get
the opposite message from the captioning that the broad ------ broadcast
actually delivers. Attention needs to be made to the quality of
captioning.  Thank you.

(Applause.)

CHAIRMAN POWELL:  Thank you very much.  In a minute we\'re going to take
a break, but there\'s a little girl who\'s been waiting in line.  It\'s
past her bedtime, and we\'re going to let her come up and make the last
comment before the break.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Hello. My name is Patricia Bradbury, and this is my
five---year---old daughter Ray Lee.  Ray Lee was abducted by her
babysitter in 1998, when she was only eight weeks old.  Fortunately for
us the Amber plan was soon alerted in the Dallas---Ft, Worth area ------
I\'m sorry, I\'m a little nervous ------ and in less than half an hour
after the alert was made a motorist spotted the vehicle and reported it
using his cell phone.  Within minutes, the police ------ the police
pulled her vehicle over and in doing so rescued my daughter. 

This was the very first time the Amber Alert plan had ever been put into
effect by the local radio and news media.  Last year President Bush
signed a bill into law which made Amber plan available nationwide. Ray
Lee and I are here today to reinforce the fact that Amber plan works. 
We are among the lucky ones and are grateful to the radio and news
networks, as well as law enforcement, for making sure that this is used
both timely and successfully to ensure the safety of abducted children. 
Thank you for your time today. 

(Applause.)

CHAIRMAN POWELL:  We\'ll now take a ten---minute break and start with
our second panel.

(Recess.)

CHAIRMAN POWELL:  Thank you.  I think we\'re going to get started. 
We\'re really pressing for time so we are going to try to hasten things
up so everyone gets an opportunity to speak and all the panelists get
through their presentations. 

We\'re just going to go right to the sec ------ to the second panel, and
I\'d like to introduce Ray Benson, Co---founder, guitarist---vocalist of
the band Asleep at the Wheel.  Take it away, Ray. 

(Applause.)

MR. BENSON: This is a tough room. Thank you folks for coming in tonight.
My name is Ray Benson.  I\'m a musician.  I live in Austin, Texas. 

(Applause.)

I hope we do better after the end of this speech.  All right. I ------
I\'ve been playing music here in Texas for over 35 years.  I\'ve
recorded 29 albums.  I produce records, I run a recording studio and
that\'s just so you might believe what I have to say. 

Mr. Chairman, the question of radio consolidation is very important to
musicians.  In the case of contemporary commercial music, and I want to
make a delineation between contemporary commercial music and the fact
that there are oldies stations that play older music, there are genre
stations that play older genre music.  But certainly in the case of
contemporary music, just as strip malls with national brand name
retailers have homogenized the look and feel of large and small towns
across America, so, in certain instances has radio done much the same
thing to music in numerous formats in the mainstream radio.  I
recognize ------ hang on guys, we\'ll get there ------ I recognize that
the desires of the American consumer are partially to blame for some of
this.  But ultimately, it seems very unfortunate that a lot of great
music is not being heard. 

When I started ------ when I started making records in the early 70\'s,
things were a lot different.  Stations had larger play lists, were
sprinkled with records from independent small labels, from national
independent labels and from regional labels.  People got to hear a
variety of music and regional stars were made all over the country.

These regional stars would take success in their region and would go
from one city to the other built upon the other successes and then would
break into the big time.  Numerous hit records were started in markets
and nurtured there and grew to national hits.  Today, because a single
company owns so many stations, the access has been limited to four major
record labels, a small handful of consultants and independent
promoters. 

The price of entry into this marketplace has become staggering.  A
ballpark figure for production and promotion of a single today is six to
seven figures, over a million dollars in some cases depending on the
genre.  This money buys the production costs of the CD of course and
videos.  But it also is used as access to radio and video play in a
number of ways, from favors unrelated to air play, such as free concerts
for the stations, junkets for the people, and labels charge these
marketing costs to the artist, and that\'s another story which I don\'t
have time to get into now. 

It is certain that with few exceptions, and I will say there are
exceptions, music on the radio in San Antonio, Texas, and Cleveland,
Ohio, is much the same today in the mainstream genres.  The exception
that was, was Tejano and Norteno and Conjunto music in south Texas. 

\"Was,\" I say, because at the time that this music was generating and
germinating, there were independently owned stations, where artists
could build a following, could build experience, become regional stars
in the Southwest.  Ruben Ramos, Emilio Navaira and Selena, who then
later became one of the biggest stars of Tejano music ever.  Without the
access to stations at the grass roots level, this music would not have
developed. 

There is now talk in the Tejano community that the consolidation of
their stations has been a problem for the music.  Now, if this was
another commodity, if this was groceries, we might shrug it off as
business as usual.  Certainly, grocery stores charge their people for
product placement.  But grocery stores are not the public airwaves. 
They belong to the people and are licensed in the public interest.
We\'ve heard that a lot today.

The ------ the practice of DJ\'s and people broadcasting from other
cities to other cities, we\'ve heard about that.  You know, we can all
get on the Internet and numerous other places and find out the national
feed.  Weather changes, you want to have somebody who can stick their
hand out the window and say:  It\'s raining.  The same thing with music,
when you take centrally located players, local music cannot make it
through the gate.  Now, this is a problem because we want to have a
variety of music.  America has produced the most varied and commercially
successful forms of music because of our regionality, because of our
differences and because of our esthetic ability to express ourselves in
different ways.

The ------ the problem now has been access.  Now, is there a way to fix
this?  I think there\'s a number of ways, and I think it has already
happened some.  I don\'t want to jump on any one conglomerate.  I don\'t
want to say so---and---so does this and so---and---so does that, because
it doesn\'t hold true. In Austin, Texas where I live, one of the largest
conglomerates owns two radio ------ the radio stations rated number one
and two in the market that plays regional local music, KVET. They do
this to serve their audience.  Austin, Texas is a very special place
musically, and I have not seen this duplicated in other cities.  It\'s
part of the rich music scene in Texas that does that, but it results in
a competitive advantage and a healthy bottom line in the long run. 

To encourage this in other markets, we must create an environment
beneficial to the radio station owners as well as the music providers,
whether the providers are billion dollar entities or independent
companies.  The playing field is hardly level today.  The American
public will find the music that they want.  Jam bands have a huge
following, a huge economic impact and do not have a voice in radio. 
Their people rely on other things.  If that trend continues, what will
happen to radio?  We want radio.  We need radio.  We want radio to exist
and be healthy and prosper so that the American public can enjoy the
wide variety of music. 

Canada is an interesting model.  I don\'t know if some of you are
familiar with the Canadian content law.  They have a Canadian content
law, which says ------ I can\'t remember ------ I think 30 percent of
the music must be of Canadian content.  This has been a breeding ground
for incredible amounts of artists who\'ve later on become huge artists
in America and worldwide because they had a breeding ground. 

You cannot ------ you cannot make this thing happen from a manufactured
point of view.  Corporate entities tend to believe that they can
generate things on a level of ------ we made our numbers this quarter,
we\'re going to make our numbers this quarter, we need another Elvis
right now.  And you cannot do this out of thin air.  If you want your
Elvis, you gotta let him develop.  You\'ve got to let him come up
through a system that allows accessibility to his music and experience
in the marketplace.  You have to try different things before you will
find what works in the broader sense. 

So, you know, what can I say?  What can the FCC do?  You know, you can
help the stations to provide access.  I am not a politician, you might
have noticed.  I don\'t have the solutions for you, but I know that if
you come up with a solution that gives local talent access to the
airwaves you will find a richer and a much better complement of music
coming out of our country.  The ------ the homogenized sound that
comes ------ when people are playing something over and over again, they
will accept it.  How many of you have a song stuck in your head that you
hated?  It happens.  Thank you.  It happens.  If you repeat something
enough ------ I believe it was Adolph Hitler who said it ------ if you
repeat something enough people will believe it.  If you take ------

(Applause.)

------ if you take ------ if you take 18 or 20 records and play them
over and over again people will learn to eat that kind of crap. 

(Applause.)

I believe it\'s in the best interest of radio to have a varied and
original music source to play.  I believe in radio.  I believe that
these hearings are a great idea.  I commend the Commission for holding
these discussions year round.  And I predict that you will hear similar
comments from musicians all over the country. 

Everybody else has raised incredibly valid points about their different
aspects of how conglomeration has affected their special interest. 

You know, all parties need to be involved.  This is not an adversarial
relationship between radio and music.  We like, need radio.  Radio can
be our best friend.  Music and radio have enjoyed a great marriage for
years and years.  Media radio is and was responsible for the great
spread of popular music in the 20th century.  Without radio, coming out
of the ether into the small farms and all the places that radio reaches,
without having to charge the consumer of this directly, has meant more
and more to enriching people\'s lives.  Not only that, in its diversity,
it has created one of the greatest popular cultures in the history of
mankind. 

A lot of times I\'ve said that the Berlin Wall was not taken down by
bombs.  It was taken down by music and blue jeans.  And this is one of
the greatest exports this country has ------ is our original music.  How
many times have you heard about great musicians who, underappreciated in
America, went over to Europe to be appreciated? 

(Applause.) 

Radio is and was responsible for the great spread of popular music in
the 20th century.  Let\'s work together to make it just as powerful and
enlightening and informing in the 21st century.  Thank you very much.

(Applause.)

CHAIRMAN POWELL:  Mr. Freeman. 

MR. FREEMAN:  Bon Jour, Bon Soir, Bon Soir, Monsieur Chairman. 
(French.) Good evening, Mr. Chairman and Members of the Commission. 

My name is John Freeman.  I\'m the Chief Operation Officer for Southern
Development Foundation founded by Father A. J. McKnight, who was active
in the civil rights and cooperative movements.  He solicited me to
design and build the first LPFM radio station in Opelousas, Louisiana. 
Opelousas is a community of approximately 20,000 citizens of which 65
percent are African---American.

I\'m a retired network manager.  From a pragmatic perspective, I have
sufficient expertise to comment on information technologies and
influences.  Information technology is so enormously powerful and
profound that we are changed by every encounter with its influences. 
Such encounter with IT is staggering.  The dialogue I wish to discuss is
not who or what entities will control that source of power, but rather
how that powerful influence can be incorporated into our communities,
allowing them to become a participator in this transforming evolution. 

My reductionism concludes that broadcast localism is not apart from IT
spectrum.  I was disappointed to learn that limitations were placed on
execution and expansion of LPFM licensing in our country.  I implore the
Commission to petition Congress to lift the restrictions on LPFM.  The
conclusive finding of the MITRE testing revealed that LPFM caused no
interference to full power stations. 

An additional downside to an expansion of broadcast localism are the
increasing amount of translators that have been used, that could be used
for a low---power utilization, their channels in particular. Translators
are repeaters run at two and a half times the power of the LPFM, and are
technically identical to stations like KOCZ.  However, they do not
create any original programming.  Additionally, the concentration of
translators into the hands of a sophisticated few can harm any future
attempts to provide purposeful broadcast localism. 

Opelousas is the birthplace of Zydeco music.  Zydeco music is a French,
Cajun, Creole, and African influenced composition sung in Creole and
English.  The governor of Louisiana declared Opelousas the Zydeco
capital of the world.  Given all these recognition and culture
significance, the full power stations could ------ would occasionally
allow the music to be played only for a couple of hours on the
weekends.  I have personally experienced how difficult it was and
possibly still is for the young unsophisticated recording artists to get
their music or other programs played on full power stations in their
community. 

At KOCZ we develop programs we believe are in line with the values of
our community. Our office manager, Ms. Mona Kennerson\'s famous phrase,
KOCZ is an originator not a duplicator.  This statement implies that the
existence of our LPFM station has measurably influenced the full power
station localism initiatives.  That observation has caused me to believe
that LPFMs are the balance for broadcast localism influence into the IT
world. 

Finally, I support free market competitiveness and creativity.  I
believe also that it is the backbone of capitalism.  Many in the free
market believe we all should be competing on a level playing ground. 
But there are some in the free market who cry foul at any signs of
competition, imploring the Commissioners like the FCC to spend our tax
money on research that actually stifles competition and public access.

I suggest that their complaints be accompanied by scientific
evaluations, at their own expense, and reserve our tax dollars for
validated investigations.  I also believe that the public has a right to
be a participator and observer in this new wave of broadcast localism.

So I appeal to you, Mr. Chairman and members of the Commission, to allow
our communities to participate fully and locally in the creation of
broadcast localism.  Thank you for having this hearing.

(Applause.)

CHAIRMAN POWELL:  Mr. Glade

MR. GLADE: Good evening.  I\'d like to welcome the members of the
Commission and its staff to our fine city.  My name is Tom Glade.  I am
the local market manager for the Clear Channel Radio stations in
San Antonio.  I want to thank you for the opportunity to address the
issue of localism.  There is no question that from 20,000 feet the
concept of localism is something that we all agree is essential.  But
here on the ground in my world, localism is more than a concept, it\'s
the way I operate my radio stations.  And the reason couldn\'t be
simpler.  It\'s called the radio scan button.  That one button is more
powerful than most people know.  It makes absolutely certain that we
meet the needs of our local listeners every day in every way or they
simply turn us off.  Believe me that job is easier said than done. 
Because here on the ground the concept of localism isn\'t anywhere near
as clear as it appears at 20,000 feet.  It changes all the time in a
city as dynamic as ours. 

I believe the government\'s increased reliance on market forces to drive
content requires us to better identify what people want, meet those
needs and adapt to those changes more quickly.  Because if we don\'t,
rest assured we\'ll know it.  A company called Arbitron is extremely
adept to bring that to our attention.  In fact, the new ratings book
shows how dynamic and competitive the San Antonio market is.  Some of
our stations went up in ratings, some of them went down.  It is my job
to figure out what we\'re doing right and what we\'re not, and if
there\'s anything you can count on, I\'ll move heaven and earth to
figure out what our listeners want and make them happy. 

My five minutes won\'t allow me to describe everything we do to connect
to our community.  But I hope the following sampling will show how
deeply committed we are to the needs of San Antonians.

All our stations provide local newscasts, traffic and weather.  Last
year we donated over \$3,000,000 in commercial time and raised almost
\$6,000,000 for San Antonio charities and civic causes.  We produced
public affair shows such as \"Community Focus,\" \"Talk San Antonio\"
and \"San Antonio Living,\" and provided community service like the
Stranger---Danger program where over 100,000 elementary students
learned ------ were taught how to be safe.  And Learn a Living, where
local workers are trained to perform new and higher---paying jobs. 

As FCC Commissioners, you know firsthand that it\'s not every day when
someone tells you you\'re doing something right. That\'s why I\'m so
proud of these letters that I brought to submit to the record tonight. 
There\'s 100 ------ 898 letters that were sent to our stations right
here from the local folks just saying thank you for our efforts to help
their charities or publicize their causes.  As far as I\'m concerned it
doesn\'t get any more rewarding than this. 

We\'re ------ we\'ve also prepared a short video testimony that
interviews local citizens.  This video answers the question better than
I ever could of just how local local broadcasting is here this
San Antonio.  The Commission has generously agreed to provide a link on
its web site. 

You know, Clear Channel may be a big company and operates a lot of radio
stations, but what you don\'t know is that it is my job as local market
manager to run my stations and meet the needs of the local audience as
best I see fit.  I know too well that listeners can change stations at a
push of a button.  They can do it while chatting on the phone, they can
do it while driving 65 miles an hour, and if they\'re anything like me,
they\'ll do it while chatting on the phone and driving 65 miles an
hour. 

Our listeners have many, many choices for news, information and
entertainment.  While I admire and respect my company, I know they
can\'t program our stations from corporate headquarters, and they know
it too, and that\'s why they don\'t.  Clear Channel recognizes the
importance of local autonomy and realizes ------ and relies on local
control to make sure that we\'re always in touch with our local
listeners.  And just as Clear Channel can\'t be successful programming
all the stations out of its headquarters, I think it\'s just as unlikely
that it can be done from Washington, D.C. I say that with enormous
respect for the work of the Commission and Localism Task Force. 

Each community across the country is different.  In my view a cookie
cutter approach to localism from Washington will be less effective than
one developed right here at home.  Mr. Chairman and Commissioners, we
trust the American people to elect their President.  We trust them to
elect members of Congress and state and local officials.  I believe we
should trust them to determine for themselves which stations do the best
jobs to meet the needs of our local communities.  Thank you for inviting
me tonight. I\'ll be happy to answer any questions you may have

(Applause.  And boos.)

MR. HAIR: My name is Ray Hair.  I want to thank the members of the
Commission and the Localism Task Force for the opportunity to discuss
how big radio, as it exists today, hurts the interests of local
communities in enjoying and fostering the growth of local musical talent
and entertainment talent.  I care deeply about local music, and I care
deeply about live music.  I believe the Commission and the Task Force
should care too, because only when a full range of young and old artists
and musicians playing many genres of styles and music have a shot at
reaching audiences both live and on the air, will our local cultures and
local entertainment industries thrive.  The health of local
entertainment matters for the whole country and because our local music
scenes are not what provide the rich mix from which new music, new stars
and new additions to American musical culture are grown.

I\'ve been a professional musician for 40 years, a Union leader for 20
years, I taught drums at the University of North Texas for ten years,
and I\'ve been in Texas as a resident for 28 years.  One way or another
music has been a core focus of my entire adult life.  I played my first
gig in Meridian, Mississippi in 1964 and since then I\'ve performed all
over the country. 

I\'m currently an International Executive Officer of the American
Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada, the largest
entertainment union in the world.  In that role, I helped to advance the
interests of the AFM\'s 100,000 members through the union\'s collective
bargaining with the recording, motion picture, television, radio,
advertising, and traveling theatrical musical industries and through our
assistance to our locals that represent musicians in major regional
symphony, opera and ballet orchestras and through education and lobbying
in Washington and throughout the nation. 

All the Texas locals of the union including San Antonio are comprised of
professional musicians in Texas of which I\'m the Secretary.  I\'m also
President of the Dallas---Ft. Worth Professional Musicians Association,
and we have 1800 members who record and play live music of every type
and style in venues large and small. 

I work hard to improve opportunities for live performing musicians in my
area, which includes 100 counties in Texas and eight counties in
Oklahoma.  The union is directly involved in arranging free concerts
that reach over 500,000 local attendees a year.  These concerts are
funded by the musician ------ the Music Performance Trust Funds which
was created by the recording industry and by the union in collective
bargaining.

(Applause.)

MPTF performances provide paying gigs for talented local musicians and
they expose audiences to all types of music in arts and music festivals
in their local communities. We also have an impressive track record of
booking local and regional musicians as headliner acts in all sorts of
concert venues and music and arts events in our area.  We work hard to
enhance the opportunities of talented musicians with small local
followings to reach larger audiences as well as to ensure that great
musicians like Ray Benson and Asleep at the Wheel can keep connecting to
audiences in bringing their musical visions to the lives of more and
more people.  In short, we work for more and better employment for
musicians, both unknown and well-known in our community. 

It\'s obvious that the musicians' union would care about jobs, but
perhaps it\'s not so obvious that we don\'t just care about it out of
narrow self interest.  Sure, we want to work and be able to support our
families but we also want our children and music students to grow into a
thriving local music scene that will inspire them and offer them a
chance to hear and to make music.  We want a music scene where new
ideas, new styles and new creativity have a chance to reach audiences,
where diverse music is fostered not squashed.

That\'s not just good for the local community, it enhances the whole
American cultural experience.  Unfortunately, though, the way big radio
operates in the contemporary musical environment doesn\'t help the
growth of lively, diverse, local music scenes. Instead it gets in the
way. One way this happens is when radio owners also own live
entertainment businesses like concert venues and promoters and then
leverage their position to control local events and artist choices. 

I\'ll give you an example from my own personal experience in Dallas. For
a number of years Local 72147 in Dallas served an important role in
booking musical performances for a three---day festival called the Taste
of Dallas.  Through MTPF co---sponsorships we were able to increase the
number of musical performances that were given free to the public during
daylight hours, and in booking the evening headliner acts, we were able
to place talented artists with local and regional fans into a position
of reaching greater audiences.

But that changed in 2001, when the local Clear Channel stations made
their radio promotion of the festival contingent upon the festival
booking the evening headliner acts exclusively through another Clear
Channel business.  The festival told me it had no alternative but to
accede to Clear Channel\'s demand. The result was that local musicians
lost their role in helping to create that local three---day event. And
what\'s more, local and regional musicians lost a lot of gigs as Clear
Channel brought in the nonlocal acts they wanted to promote.  And
perhaps what is worst of all, the community had a chance ------ lost its
chance to hear a more diverse range of music from their own talent
base. 

When a radio owner also owns live entertainment businesses, it can exert
a lot of control over the artist\'s options and choices.  For example, I
once booked a well---known artist for the Ft. Worth Main Street Arts
Festival.  Less than a week later her agent called to cancel. Clear
Channel had insisted that she not come to Ft. Worth in April, but wanted
her to appear in an event promoted by Clear Channel in Addison in May. 
The agent made it clear to me that the artist had no alternative but to
do as Clear Channel asked even though she would earn more money in Ft.
Worth.  But because she was dependent upon Clear Channel to broadcast
her recordings she declined to perform in Ft. Worth. 

That kind of control isn\'t good for music, artists, or communities. In
fact, it highlights a huge problem, the fact that new and local artists
are becoming dependent on big radio owners, not just for air play, but
for live engagement opportunities.  Where a national corporation
controls the local headliner venues and concert promoters, as well as
the radio play list, local artists can find themselves shut out from
both ways of reaching an audience.  I urge the Commission and the Task
Force to read the Cornell University study entitled \"The Clear Picture
on Clear Channel,\" which was released by the AFL---CIO today, and I
have it right here, and I want to place it in the record.

(Applause.)

The leveraging ------ the leveraging of business ownership is not the
only problem affecting local communities.  My experience is that radio
today is more likely to play a homogenous list of nationally aired tunes
and much less likely to give air play to local music. 

I\'ll give you another terribly sad example. Back in 1985 we used to
help Denton Jazz Fest, a local music event, and by 1987 attendance at
that event was around 2,000 people.  And a local radio program director
at KKDA---FM was sufficiently intrigued to come in and do a live
eight---hour broadcast of the festival. KKDA continued to do that until
1992 or so.  By that time the festival grew to 10,000 attendees and
hundreds of wonderful talented artists were able to perform and reach
thousands of people.  But it went off the air ------ and it was ------ I
don\'t know of anything like it in Texas anymore.  There just isn\'t
that kind of local programming commitment.  Our Tejano musicians in
Texas, and especially here in San Antonio ------

CHAIRMAN POWELL: Can you sum it up? 

MR. HAIR: ------ have experienced the way in which an important local
genre can be marginalized.  Tejano music exploded in the early 1990s,
but radio stations do not foster or encourage Tejano music with much air
play. At most they'll only give it Mexican regional format that focuses
on Latino\... (inaudible), Latino urban hip---hop selections.  Radio
stations can foster or strangle a strong diverse musical culture.  On
behalf of all professional musicians everywhere, I urge the Task Force
to recognize the importance of local radio programming and strong local
music communities that new artists and styles of music have a chance to
grow and enrich us all.

(Applause.)

CHAIRMAN POWELL:  Dr. Wayne.

DR. WAYNE: Chairman Powell, Commissioners and distinguished guests.  My
name is Dr. Richard Wayne. I\'m a pediatric physician by training and as
a resident of San Antonio continuously for the past 32 years, I\'m very
appreciative of the opportunity to participate in these hearings
tonight.  For the past ten years I\'ve served Christus Santa Rosa
Children\'s Hospital in two ways, as administrator for the hospital and
as a part---time physician in the emergency department. 

The Christus Santa Rosa Children\'s Hospital, which is located only a
few blocks from where we are right now, is part of a system which has
continuously provided healthcare for the citizens of San Antonio, our
county and South Texas since 1869.  In fact, our current location in the
inner city on Houston Street has existed since 1874.  The Children\'s
Hospital, per se, is 45 years old, although the children have been cared
by the system since its beginning in 1869.

Our Children\'s Hospital was the first in San Antonio.  It is the
largest and most active and it serves our region in many areas.  The
lives of more than 150,000 children each year are touched by the various
in---patient and out---patient activities. Although the hospital serves
all populations, we are unique in Texas in that we serve the highest
percentage of Medicaid patients of any hospital in the State of Texas,
73 percent last year.  We\'re also the classic safety net inner-city
hospital with about 65,000 children who will go through our emergency
department this year.  That equates to one child coming through the door
or the back door by ambulance every eight minutes, around---the---clock,
365 days a year. 

Like many children\'s hospitals with similarities to ours, we\'re
extremely dependent on community and philanthropic support in order to
optimally serve the children who come to our institution.  I can cite
for you several examples how the local media, both television and radio,
have assisted us in being able to tell our story, which is really the
story of our community\'s children, to a broad audience and help us to
raise funds to provide critically needed programs, equipment and
facilities for these children. 

The most striking and long standing example is our Children\'s Miracle
Network broadcast.  This event takes place in early June of every year
and this summer will mark the 21st consecutive year that WOAI---TV has
partnered with us in this endeavor.  The commitment of the station and
its broadcasters has been exemplary.  They have truly put their heart
and souls into ensuring the success of an event which typically requires
weeks and months of planning and preparation.  During the past 20 years
the CMN broadcasts have raised approximately 30 million dollars, every
penny of which has stayed in our community for its children. 

Five years ago Soft Rock 101.9---FM radio began conducting an annual
companion radiothon to augment the dollars of the telethon.  Once again,
the commitment of their broadcasters and management has been
wholehearted, and each year has produced greater success both in
educating the public and in raising dollars for the hospital and its
children. 

This past year the Hispanic Broadcasting Corporation came to us and
wanted to conduct a radiothon to better acquaint our Hispanic community
with these issues.  This event attracted national attention and it was
the first ever radiothon for a CMN hospital conducted by Hispanic radio.

I can tell you it was an amazing success due to the extraordinary energy
and commitment of the broadcasters and the support of their management. 
The amount of dollars raised for a first---ever radiothon, \$183,000,
was frankly beyond our wildest dreams.

A second way that the television and radio media have been helpful to us
has been informing the public on issues related to children\'s health
and on issues around public policy as it may pertain to children and
their health and well---being. 

A couple of quick examples.  After the September 11th tragedy, I was
contacted by a number of local television and radio stations, both

English---speaking and Spanish---speaking, about how to communicate with
children of various ages surrounding this terrible event.  We were able,
with the help of the media, to share with parents and others advice, who
in many cases were trying to deal with their confused and emotionally
upset children. 

The second example has to do with the newly enacted and still evolving
children\'s health insurance program, or CHIP, a program which last year
served over a half---million previously uninsured Texas children, many,
of those from our community.  The evolution of this program has had an
enormous impact on many of our local families, and our local media has
been very helpful in working with us and others to keep the public
informed. 

Once again, Mr. Chairman, I\'m appreciative for this opportunity to
share this with you and the Commissioners. Thank you.

CHAIRMAN POWELL:  Thank you, Dr. Wayne.  Jerry Hanszen.

MR. HANSZEN: Good evening, Mr. Chairman and Commissioners, and welcome
to Texas.  Before I begin my remarks, I would like to submit into the
record behind me, over 4,000 letters telling the success story of
localism with Texas broadcasters. 

I\'m the Owner and General Manager of KGAS radio in Carthage and KMHT
radio in Marshall.  We\'re located in east Texas about 25 miles from the
Louisiana border.  Carthage has a population of 6700 people.  Marshall
has a population of about 24,000 people.  In a telephone conversation
with one of the FCC members before our meeting tonight, they said I may
very well be the smallest radio broadcaster to ever speak to a group
this size.  Now, I hope they\'re talking about the size of my community
and not my statue or bank account.  If that be the case, I take it as
one of the greatest honors I\'ve been given.  Thank you very kindly. 

Our slogan for our station is the \"Heartbeat of East Texas.\"  We work
very hard to live up to that billing. That\'s why we broadcast our
neighbors' favorite country music on our FM channels, and the gospel
music that they like on our AM channels.  And we\'ll put just about any
up and coming musician on the air.  We do that every day and do our best
to show their success.  It\'s also the way that our community is
involved is with our local broadcasting of news. 

We have five local newscasts daily, with KGAS featuring and focusing on
Panola County and KMHT on Harrison County. And these local newscasts
cover everything from funeral notices to school lunch menus, which I
think is just about as local as you can get.  We also air a live show
each day called \"Panola Pride\".  It airs at 8:30 in the morning and is
hosted by me, where we provide local politicians, ministers, school
officials and others to come and discuss local issues and events.

At 9:00 a.m. we run a very popular show called \"Swap Shop,\" where
listeners call in and describe the items they'd like to buy, sell or
trade. We average about 100 calls per hour, and that\'s pretty amazing,
considering the size of our listening audience. 

We have a weekly program with the High Sheriff of Panola County, and on
Sunday, we air devotionals and services of the area churches. All this
local programming is on top of our extensive coverage of the other
religion in Texas, high school football.

(Laughter.)

We not only cover ten teams each week on our two stations, but we make
sure that the broadcast of the half time marching bands are promoted so
that those parents can enjoy their kids\' performances as well. 

(Applause.)

Apart from programming, our stations are also closely involved in our
communities.  In fact, KGAS functions as the primary emergency warning
system for Carthage, so when our fire department, which is made up of
volunteers is called to an emergency, KGAS interrupts its programming to
let the people know where the emergency is so, that folks can get out of
the way of emergency vehicles. 

(Applause.)

It is common knowledge that when you hear the Carthage town siren go
off, you need to tune your radio to KGAS to find out exactly what\'s
happening.

We also partner with various organizations in the area, but like most
broadcasters we do much more than just cut checks to worthwhile causes. 
In fact, in my view the most important contributions that broadcasters
make to their community has very little to do with money. 

(Applause.)

We raise the awareness ------ we raise the level of awareness,
discussion and education in our communities.  We give a voice to local
groups and citizens.  That\'s why our stations devote so much air time
to local news and public affairs.  That\'s why we work hard to enhance
our community by promoting blood drives, Shrine Club, Lion Club,
youth---related activities and many others too numerous to mention. 

Now, we do all these things because we think it\'s part of our
responsibility as a good corporate citizen. 

(Applause.)

But that\'s not the only reason.  We have worked in radio ------ I\'ve
worked in radio for many years and the most important thing I\'ve
learned along the way is that local programming and local coverage are
the keys to success. 

(Applause.)

Radio ------ radio is a very competitive business even in the small
market of Carthage, Texas and we find that the best way to distinguish
ourselves is to air programming that focuses on issues and events of
interest to our neighbors.  Localism as you call it is really nothing
more than common sense good business. 

(Applause.)

And I can assure you ------ and I can assure you, whether the FCC
decides to create new localism rules or not, KGAS and KMHT will keep
doing what it takes to be the \"Heartbeat of East Texas.\"

(Applause.)

CHAIRMAN POWELL:  Out of respect for those who were in the line before,
we\'re going to pause for five minutes so that the organizers can
reassemble the open-mic line in the order that they were left.  So,
we\'re going to go ahead and let them do that, and we\'ll just wait
until that gets set up.

(Recess.) 

CHAIRMAN POWELL:  The one caution before we get started, in an effort to
get through as many people as possible, because we\'re going to go for
about one hour, I would ask people to try to keep their comments to
about a minute ------

(Audience member shouting: That\'s not acceptable.)

CHAIRMAN POWELL: Well, it will have to be acceptable. Please.

(Audience member shouting.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER: With protocol already being established, I would like
to introduce myself.   I\'m Roger Sanchez, representing the Alzafar
Shrines.  I just want to acknowledge one fact that we do have one local
station and several that have responded to us through the years, in
letting our community know that we are having the two hospitals
available for our low income people, and it\'s vital that this community
is well aware that we have these facilities available at no cost.  And
there is one particular station that always comes to our rescue to let
the community know that we are there to help them and that\'s KADA radio
station. 

(Applause.)

And that\'s a very low ------ a family---owned business, but I\'ll tell
you they\'re the ones that always come through with us, and they give us
the full support that we need, that our community is well aware that we
support our needy children and crippled children and our burned
children.  I have a good response from all the other stations, but they
are the only ones that pass a PSA every day to let the people know that
they have availability for free orthopedic help and burned children at
our two hospitals which are located in Houston and Galveston. 

And I would like to also terminate here with the conjunction of the fact
that there\'s four words I would like to finish up with.  And that\'s
trust, talents, time and treasures.  Trust, so that we can be united
here as a group tonight, and trust in God that we work in peace and
harmony.  Talents, we have wonderful talents.

Without our community, our radio stations, our Shriners, and time, that
we give the time to all the kids.  Treasures, because we\'ll have the
kids that will gain from it, and they\'ll be better citizens of our
future.  And finally, one word, thank you.  Ironically, another two,
thank for your understanding and cooperation. Thank you.

(Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  My name is Santiago\... (inaudible) \...from\...
(inaudible), Texas. I want to talk about two radio stations, Hispanic
radio stations.  The first one come out in \'91 and gone in \'98.  Why? 
Because this radio station give us to Hispanic people a very big
information, not like some out here.  And the second radio station is La
Un ------ La Unica in Miami.  They come in all United States in Spanish.
But what happened?  La Unica come in \'97, but tomorrow is the last day
of the radio station.  Why?  Because these people tell us the truth,
nothing but the truth.  Why they getting from us?  Why?  What happened
to this people?

THE INTERPRETER: So Santiago is saying the two very important stations
that he\'s been listening to for years, one from California, and one
from Miami, one is defunct and the other one is going to go off the air
tomorrow after being on the air since 1997.  They provided a lot of
information. It wasn\'t even music, it\'s all information. And there\'s
a lot of people that listen to the radio Unica.  There\'s ------ that
should be ------ there\'s no reason for that considering how large the
Spanish---speaking population of San Antonio is.

(Applause.)

Thank you.  Okay.  These two radio stations they have calls from whole
United States.  That was great station.  But, but just because it\'s
Hispanic station they cut it.  Thank you.  Gracias.

(Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Mr. Chairman, Commissioners, my name is Dee Anderson,
and I\'m the Sheriff in Tarrant County, Texas, here. Thank you for the
kind introduction earlier.  I wanted to come tonight and put a face on
the Amber plan that you\'ve heard so much about. You\'ve already seen
one face of a beautiful five---year old child that was with us today
because the plan was in place when she was kidnapped when she was only
eight weeks old.  You\'re getting ready to meet another small child who
was saved because of the plan.

Unfortunately, I can\'t bring you the face of the tragedy that started
this plan in 1996 when Amber Hagerman was kidnapped and murdered.  We
had no such plan. And it was a radio listener who called in and said I
can be warned of a thunderstorm, I can be warned of a tornado, why
can\'t we be warned when a child\'s has been abducted.  From that very
simple thought a plan grew that has spread through 48 states and now
internationally. 

It has become a phenomenon that none of us ever dreamed of back in
1996.  But I want to say, you\'ve heard a lot of negative things
tonight, but in Texas something works very, very well.  Something is
very, very right about the local radio stations and television stations
in Texas, and that is the Amber Plan. 

This grew out after a simple idea but law enforcement and media had to
sit down and work together to make it happen. They said it could never
be done.  It has been done.  It\'s a great success, and I want you to
know how much law enforcement depends on it, needs it and appreciates
what has been done by our media here in Texas.  Thank you. 

(Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER: My name is Michelle Petty. I\'m a local attorney, and
I\'m chair of the Alamo Sierra Club.  And I\'m here tonight as
representing of all of them, and I\'m also a parent. As a citizen I\'m
frustrated that I can\'t hear my favorite local bands on the local T
------ on the local radio stations.  I\'m very frustrated about it. 

(Applause.)

And I can see and hear it from Mr. Hanszen than hear Stephanie\...
(inaudible) \...Jones or Two Tons of Steel, which has been three times
the favorite of San Antonio in the local papers. 

As a parent, I\'ve been shocked by the DJ\'s talk on KZEP in the
mornings. My kids listen to it when they wake up on the alarm clock. 
Its ama ------ it\'s outrageous. 

As a lawyer, I represent people who have been blackballed by corporate
media.  They can\'t just work in this town, they can\'t work anywhere
because their influence is so vast.  I\'ve represented station managers,
I\'ve represented local talent, print journalists, and let me tell you,
they can\'t be here tonight to tell you that some of these journalists
who put these news stories together in the public interest get their
stories axed, because it\'s not in the conglomerate\'s best interests.
They can\'t report those abuses to you.

And as a leader in the environmental community our stories get short
changed.  If we get coverage at all, and we have to go through a lot of
hoops to get coverage, our perception is the media doesn\'t give full
coverage to our issues. 

And I can tell you this:  We haven\'t seen enough of T.C. Calvert\'s
East side African community stories about the contamination from the CPS
power plant.

(Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Hi. My name is Margarita Chavez.  I\'m from Abilene,
Texas.  I\'m glad to be here today.  I\'m very pleased to be here
today.  I want to share my story about the kidnapping of my baby.  I
want to tell you about the ordeal that I went through on August 13,
2002.  My baby daughter Nancy here with me was kidnapped in a Wal---Mart
parking lot.  The kidnapping happened in front of my eyes in broad
daylight.  A woman took my baby out of my car just, just when I just
returned the shopping cart to its place and she took the chance
to ------ that chance to take my baby out of my car. 

I\'m here to support the Amber Alert.  Thanks to the Amber Alert my baby
was found the very next day safe and sound. 

(Applause.)

And she\'s here with me thanks to the great and excellent job of the
media, my local media.  They did a very good job.  I\'m so thankful,
grateful to them, and I want to encourage them to keep up the good
work.  I\'m so grateful with them, and I thank God that they used them
with a lot of wisdom and will.  Thank you.

(Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Thank you all. My name is Deborah Lavoy (phonetic), and
I hope that you all have taken in all of the comments that have been
made here tonight about the need for diversity.  I wish that you could
stay and listen to the people who have been here since 4:00 a.m. 

(Applause.)

My concern ------ my concern is that while news may be local, it still
is often superficial and does little to serve community needs.  To give
an example, following ------ to add to the number of examples you\'ve
heard, following the State of the Union address on Tuesday, I watched
what I think was KENS---5, our local CBS affiliate, and the first eight
minutes they ran ten stories, that\'s less than a minute a story. 
Certainly not enough time to give quality or in-depth information.  And
there was no story I heard about the State of the Union address or how
it affects us here in San Antonio. 

Many of the stories were not important to me.  I\'m sorry there was a
fire.  I\'m sorry about the little boy that starved to death, but those
are only superficially reported.  I\'d like to hear about what\'s being
done to prevent such tragedies, and what can members of the community do
to help affected families.  But instead of answering those questions,
the news went to commercial.  How is that local?  Thank you.

(Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Chairman Powell and Commissioners, my name is Augie
Grant.  I\'m a former Associate Professor at the University of Texas.
I\'m currently visiting Professor at the University of South Carolina. 
For the past six years I\'ve conducted systematic studies of Texas
broadcasters' public service activities.  These activities have been
summarized in a report that is going to be made available in the
electronic filing that I encourage everyone to take advantage of. 

But to summarize, over the past six years broadcasters that have
responded, we are not projecting results, broadcasters responding have
donated more than 2.4 billion dollars in air time, airing more than 30
million public service announcements.  That\'s an average of one every
six seconds just in the State of Texas.  You\'ll have similar results if
you do studies nationwide as well. 

These same broadcasters have aired in the past six years more than nine
thousand political debates and aired more than ------ I\'m sorry ------
almost half a million promotional announcements telling people these
debates are coming.  I encourage you to look at the statistics of the
facts underlying the broadcasters' performance. They do much more,
including the Amber program, scholarships, et cetera. Their
contributions can definitely be measured and are definitely making an
impact.  Thank you.

(Applause and boos.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER: I understand we\'re down to one minute from two before,
so I\'ll try to make it short.  Good evening, my name is T. C. Smythe.
I\'m a full---time singer, songwriter from Houston, Texas.  Seven years
ago I joined my local songwriters association, and they taught me how to
write, record, sing and pitch my songs to publishers, record labels and
radio stations. I worked hard, and I won several regional and national
awards for my songwriting. Since then I\'ve sold thousands of CDs from
the edge of the stage, but I\'ve learned that if I don\'t write a song
that can make people want to drink beer, or buy insurance, commercial
radio won\'t play it. 

(Applause.)

This has nothing to do with my ability as a performer or a writer. My
performance and protection values can compete with any project here or
in Nashville.  I\'m not unique or alone. 

Please review the audio samples you received in your handouts.  This is
a compilation of Houston---based writers who despite their efforts and
outrageous talent are denied air time for one reason:  local
broadcasters will not play independent music. I\'ve sent press releases
and CDs to every major FM station in Texas on behalf of myself and these
artists, and when I called to confirm receipt I was asked who my major
label was and if I would be willing to buy advertising.  The custodians
of the airwaves need to be reminded that all radio is public radio, and
they are required to reflect the communities from which they derive
their vast wealth.  Thank you.

(Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  My name is\... (inaudible) \...Frost, and I\'m a local
high school student.  Firstly, I would like to beg that in your future
conferences you open up a speaker\'s list so there\'s a fair way for
people who were here earlier to speak. 

(Applause.)

Secondly, I would like to speak on something that\'s truly a ba ------
bipartisan issue.  My concern is that domination of local media by one
company homogenizes the news we get and the slant it\'s given at.  Thus,
it affects opinions of the viewers of television, the listeners of radio
and the readers ------ readers of local papers.  In effect, it affects
democracy.  I know that Clear Channel and Time Warner aren\'t here to
protect our interests. They\'re corporations, they need to make money. 
But I know that the FCC was created to protect our interests. 

(Applause.)

I didn\'t come to tell you how to do your jobs because I\'m sure you
know what they are.  I came to implore this committee to look past any
sponsored lunches you might get or corporate gifts you may receive.  I
came to implore you to fulfill the expectations our community has and
the communities around the nation. 

In San Antonio for example, Clear Channel owns a large percentage of the
billboards, television stations, radio stations and public venues.  With
the amazing influence they have on the city seemingly unchecked by the
FCC, they can easily crush any organization or local political official
that might have an opposing view.  What I\'m asking is that you protect
our interest, you protect our views and you protect us.

(Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  First off ------ first off, good evening,
Commissioners and fellow Americans.  My name is Nicole Thomas. I love
San Antonio. I think it\'s a great place to live.  But did you know many
stations only devote two hours a week to local artists? I know Clear
Channel needs to promote its own artists and venues.  I would like Clear
Channel to look at me more than just a way to make money.  My interests
and my city needs to be represented.  We need more local radio and news
stations. 

I\'m asking the FCC to keep their promises to reinstate a full
low---power FM plan.  With this our community will get the power and
control it needs to be successful.  Do we really want the government
controlling our public airwaves for their best interest?  No.  Because
they use the media to influence our actions and views are of what they
desire.  Our government stopped Microsoft from developing a monopoly in
the computer industry. Why then, will they allow someone to have
monopoly in the media industry?  Thank you very much.

(Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER: I would like to thank you and your panel for taking
time away from your families to hear our voices tonight.  Good evening.
My name is Deputy\... (inaudible) \...and I\'m with the Bexar County
Sheriff\'s Office Crisis Intervention Unit. 

Our unit is responsible for the recovery of missing children and the
follow---up investigation of sexually, physically and abused and
exploited children.  Sheriff Ralph Lopez and the Bexar County Sheriff\'s
Office immediately recognized the importance and the need for the Amber
Alert, primarily for the safety of our children, but secondly based on
the number of cases files our unit investigates. 

We have fought diligently and successfully for the Amber Alert.  This is
an essential tool for law enforcement.  We, as law enforcement, work
very hard and respond immediately, but even we have our limitations. 
The Amber Alert increases our eyes one hundred---fold.  We in Bexar
County take special interest in our children. The Amber Alert partners
our community watching television and listening to the radio with the
Bexar County Sheriff\'s office and in doing so creates law
enforcement ------ a larger law enforcement community and a safer
Bexar County for our children.  We pray that you give every child every
chance possible.  Thank you.

(Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  My name is Laura Smith.  After working for nearly 13
years in television news, I now teach broadcast journalists at the
University of Texas, and I also study the issue of duopolies and their
impact on local news. 

I want to talk about localism by relaying a story.  Last year I worked
for two months in a local newsroom in Austin to try and understand their
decision---making process.  And what I noticed in those two months was
that they had a very white, very male newscast, despite having an
extremely diverse staff, and I wondered why that was.  So I talked to
the news director about it and he said that he has been a news director
for 20 years, he knows what is news, and he knows that Austin is no
different than what is news in Atlanta.  This is an institutional town,
and I give them institutional news. 

Earlier tonight a number of community groups came up and talked about
what good things stations were doing from them (sic).  I don\'t dispute
that.  But look at these groups:  The Salvation Army, children\'s
hospitals ------ hardly controversial groups seeking to have their
voices heard. 

(Applause.)

These corporations are growing in size and strength with your help, and
with very little examination of whether their content truly serves the
public\'s best interest.  Whether it\'s through ascertainment
requirements or a stricter re-licensure system, I strongly urge you to
reconsider what you\'re doing and serve the public interest in our
stead. Thank you.

(Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Good evening. My name is Stan Thomas.  Thanks to FCC
Commissioners Copps and Adelstein, we ordinary citizens, the owners of
the airwaves, have this very limited opportunity to have our voices
heard on an issue which is the life blood of our threatened democracy: 
who controls the media, ordinary citizens or multi---national media
conglomerates? 

We ordinary citizens depend on newspapers, radio, television and the
Internet to provide us with access to a wide and diverse range of
opinions.  Paraphrasing Barbara Renata Gonzalez of the Esparanza Peace
and Justice Center, diverse opinions are not being heard on the local
airwaves and diversity is a bedrock of a truly representative
democracy.  No thanks to FCC Chairman Michael Powell and the other two
members, Commissioners Martin, Commissioners Abernathy, because they are
handing over on the proverbial silver platter control of the media to a
few very powerful and very rich media conglomerates: Time Warner,
Disney, Viacom and Clear Channel to name a few. 

According to data assembled from the FCC\'s own travel records over the
past eight years, industry groups and media corporations regulated by
the FCC, have paid for more than 2,500 junkets for FCC Commissioners and
top staff, providing travel, lodging and entertainment here and abroad
costing 2.8 million dollars. 

Some say that a regulated industry has a stranglehold over the
regulator, the FCC, and its congressional overseers.  By the way, the
Bush administration is preserving ------ is pressuring the FCC to
proceed on the path of giving more control to the media conglomerates. 
We ordinary citizens don\'t stand a chance against these this
power ------ these powerful and influence of these corporate titans in
the Bush administration unless we speak up.  We must speak up.  Let
there be no doubt that we, the ordinary citizens, own the airwaves and
fully intend to keep it that way.  Our fragile democracy is at stake.
Thank you.

(Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Good afternoon, Chairman ------ good afternoon,
Chairman Powell and Commissioners.  My name is Maria Salazar. I\'m a
freshman at Communications Arts High School. Communications Arts High
School was created in 1994 by five founding partners, Trinity
University, KSAT---12, Telemundo, San Antonio Express News and WOAI New
Radio 1200, a Clear Channel owned and operated company.

My teacher is very enthusiastic and made my class aware about the FCC
meeting and that our principal had agreed for us to go to it. 
Permission slips were passed out to students and asked to be brought
back to school.  I was very excited to attend an event that my community
was concerned about. On Monday our trip was cancelled, supposedly due to
a lack of seating.  How many students were coming?  Looking around I
don\'t see how about 25 students wouldn\'t have been able to find seats
if the school really wanted us to come, or did our media sponsors
influence the decision to cancel our trip?  I\'ll never know. 

Our communications arts curriculum is based on the premise that the 21st
century will demand strong communication skills in reading, speaking,
listening and thinking, according to the school\'s web page.  This
sounds so noble, but shouldn\'t our school make an even bigger effort in
trying to get us to look more into the career fields that they\'re
preparing us for?  Thank you. 

(Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Hi. My name is Melissa Rodriguez, and I\'m a freshman
at Communications Arts High School also.  Right now the media in
San Antonio does not inform the people about things that actually
matter. 

For instance, we have almost no news about the environment which is a
very important issue here.  San Antonio is being severely affected by
toxic environmental pollution at what used to be Kelly Air Force Base. 
Toxins have seeped into the ground water. This contamination poses a
great risk to a large number of people who live near this former
government base.  The local media has not paid enough attention to this
issue.  This story went through the news cycle in about a week.  TV and
radio stations hardly talked about ------ hardly talked about the people
that live near the contaminated area, even though many of them have been
complaining about the effects of the pollution.  They failed to inform
us about all the damage and the many consequences that have come from
this environmental disaster and are still affecting us today.  I want my
local media to have better coverage of important issues like the Kelly
USA clean up. 

Corporate media fails again and again to make local news and issues its
focus.  Corporate ownership of our San Antonio local media censors our
voices and concerns, and we lose information about critical emergencies
such as dangerous accidents, natural disasters, toxic spills and health
issues.  We lose coverage of community events important to the life of
the city and its neighborhoods. 

Citizens should help decide what is played on TV or radio. Ordinary
citizens should have ownership of these stations so they can have a
voice beyond mega corporations such as Clear Channel. I believe that
with powerful corporations such as Clear Channel in San Antonio that
control over 70 percent of popular radio and TV, we do not receive
information that they do not want us to have.  I urge this FCC
Task ------ FCC Task Force on localism to listen to the people\'s desire
to have more radio stations, more media outlets, free airwaves that are
not owned by just one, two or three companies with power, but by a wide
and deep diversity of voices.

(Applause.)

(Singing in Spanish.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER: This song calls on us to protect and honor the sacred
voices that speak for the poor and disenfranchised, so that we can
maintain hope, joy and light.  My name is Graciela Sanchez, and I am
with the Buena Gente of the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center. 

(Applause.)

In San Antonio we are subjected to aggressive control of news
reporting.  The radio waves are dominated by a culture of greed and a
culture of violence.  In blatant and subtle ways information is
filtered, evalu ------ evaluation is biased and voices of the dissent
are ignored, demonized or ridiculed.  The many Clear Channel stations
promote the opinions of its owners even to the extent of financing
pro---war and pro---development rallies ------

(Applause.)

------ and then ------ and then reporting on them as if they were
independent actions as they did last year. 

I know people have come here and supported and thanked Clear Channel,
and I know Clear Channel has done some good things for some members in
the community, but in 1997, \'98 there was an organized campaign of
conservative radio talk shows that targeted the Esperanza for a
progressive, pro---Latino, pro---people of color, pro---women and
pro---gay viewpoints.  Within time the Esperanza was completely defunded
by city leaders.  We went to court.  We won the lawsuit in Federal
District Judge (sic). 

(Applause.)

We won in 2001 with the Federal District Judge, and still this October
and November, WOAI radio spent a whole week, and it was followed up with
WOAI---TV, demonizing the Esperanza.  It didn\'t matter that we won in
court. So we challenge you to maintain the FCC ruling as it is. Thank
you.

(Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Thank you, Chairman Powell and the rest of the FCC
people, Commissioners up there for giving me the opportunity to speak. 
I\'m sorry that someone that stayed here as long as they did at 4:00 a.m
was not able to speak because of lack of organization.  I\'ll take that
out of my two minutes.

My name is Jack Corbin. I started Stone City Attractions, a Stone ------
a San Antonio concert firm over 30 ago, and recently formed Stone City
Productions, Jack\... (inaudible) \...presents, promoting concerts,
other entertainment events throughout the southwest.  We have competed
very strongly in many markets with conglomerates that own concert firms
as well as radio stations, TV stations and the like ------

I know you may feel you have heard it all before, both the positives and
the negatives of consolidation, but just let me relay my own
experience.  I started my concert firm with \$500 over 30 years ago, and
all I had was a dream.  And now I\'m proud to say I\'ve promoted and/or
produced almost every major name act from the Rolling Stones to Santana,
from Kenny G to Julio Iglesias, all types of music.  But above all else,
we\'re proud of our community involvement, from the numerous benefits we
have done to just plain donating without fanfare or press conferences,
tens of thousands of dollars to local flood victims and the needy. 

I remember back in 1972 I took a tape, not a CD, or an LP of a local
band, to a major radio station, KTSA, and they helped me promote that
band and their concert with that tape.  That is an absolute
impossibility now.  We need more local ownership and local input into
stations' content.

The stability of stations using the public airwaves should not be judged
by their bottom line, but the quality of their content.  For---profit
corporations answer to the majority of their stockholders who fail
------ who without fail care mainly, if not solely, about the bottom
line.  They have a different goal than community service and diversity. 
Your Commission needs to protect the public interest and the airwaves. 
No doubt we need change. We need corporations with compassion.  We need
conglomerates with a conscience, and we need a Commission with courage. 
Thank you.

(Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Hello. Hello. My name is Michael Marinez (phonetic). 
I\'m with the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center. I\'m here first to
say ------ use a word that I\'ve heard a lot over Clear Channel
affiliates, democracy, democracy.  We have been fed how we\'re
going everywhere in the world to teach about democracy, and yet this
board, this panel did not participate in democracy when they were
supposed to have our best interest as a community at hand and made the
decision to sell us down the road.  And I will look in each one of your
eyes and tell me ------ tell you ------ you are not doing things in my
best interest.  You are not things in my best interest.  You are not
doing things in my interest. 

(Applause.)

For those of you who did do things in my best interest, thank you. 

(Laughter.)

I also want to point out that democracy is something that is learned. 
It\'s about fairness.  What has happened in this meeting and possibly in
the meeting before is not about fairness.  How these meetings have been
set up have been a guessing game for the people who have stayed here all
night long to talk, to voice their opinions, to be heard.  I suggest
that this panel start practicing the idea of fairness and democracy when
thinking about these meetings, so that people know exactly when they\'re
doing and what they\'re doing.  So they don\'t have to stand here in
line and hustle and have to pick up their elders and bring them
forward.  This is not democracy.  This is the Clear Channels and the
giant companies that have reserved seats right and left, but we have to
battle for a place here. Thank you.

(Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Good evening.  My name is Tish Stringer. I\'m from the
Houston Independent Media Center, a local chapter of an international
alternative media network.

(Applause.)

You may like to attempt to divorce the issue of media concentration from
that of localism, but that simply isn\'t possible.  It is my contention
that a remote board of directors or a CEO doesn\'t know what is best for
my local community.  My airwaves are for encouraging real democracy and
highlighting the diversity of news and perspectives on the ground.  I
urge you to support local broadcasting.  Most importantly, by reversing
the relaxed media ownership rules that you approved this past June, but
also in supporting community media initiatives such as low---power FM
licensing, including in metropolitan areas by opening the second
adjacent channels.  I want you to require mega---media corporations to
offer open air time to community groups by playing public service
announcements in prime time rotation, by supporting public access
programming, not just on cable, and by offering prime time
point---counter---point access.

We must encourage a rich media environment where the true diversity of
views, opinions can be presented.  Only in this way can we ever hope to
have a strong, engaged, informed citizenry equipped to be active
participants in civil society and in our democracy.  The airwaves belong
to the public.  They are not for corporate profit.  Thank you.

(Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Thank you, Commissioners. My name is Stephanie Gross,
and I\'m an organizer with TEXPIRG, the Texas Public Interest Research
Group.  TEXPIRG\'s mission is to be an advocate on behalf of the public
interests.  We identify threats to the national environment and the
rights of consumers, and backed by thorough research we seek to end
them.  Whether it\'s cleaning up power plant pollution or speaking out
against insurance companies using unfair practices to set rates, the
success of our campaigns depends on a media responsive to the
responsibility to cover local problems. 

Therefore, the Commission\'s decision to weaken media ownership rules
does not serve the public interest.  The purpose of this hearing is to
improve how broadcasters serve local communities.  However, the hearing
is too little, too late, to take into account how ownership affects
local news and views presented.  Indeed, after holding just one hearing
outside of Washington, D.C., this Commission ignored millions of letters
from a broad spectrum of groups all across the county who supported the
stronger rules.  By allowing television and radio stations to be owned
by fewer companies and by allowing television broadcasters and newspaper
publishers to own each other and not have to compete for news, the FCC
has jeopardized our democracy.  It\'s essential that Texans see and read
and hear a variety of viewpoints before they make up their mind on
important issues facing this state. 

(Applause.)

TEXPIRG believes that placing power to speak in the hands of a few
companies will destroy the people\'s first amendment free speech rights
to hear from, as the Supreme Court put it, diverse and antagonistic
sources.  A marketplace of ideas with only one or two ideas for sale
isn\'t competitive, and as we have heard time and time again tonight,
it\'s boring and repetitive and uninspiring.  America deserves better.

(Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Hi. I hope that the committee and the panelists will
excuse me for being a little bit nervous and a little bit tired.  I have
been here since 4 o\'clock in the morning, and I am ------ just ------ I
just really want to get my voice across, so I hope you can take a minute
to listen to me. 

My name is Kristin Gorsline (phonetic), and I live in San Antonio.  I
don\'t have a TV, so I rely on the radio for my news. 

(Applause.)

Instead, I find issues that are important to me and my community aren\'t
covered on the radio.  For instance, public transit is ignored. Changes
to the bus schedule to include frequency, additions and deletions were
considered ------ weren\'t considered big news to the radio station and
ignored during prime hours, even though many San Antonians, myself
included, use the buses every day to go back and forth from work. 

As well, I heard very little coverage of my local elections and
abstained from voting in my district because I felt I was too uneducated
on the candidates and the issues to vote.  I feel if the current media
doesn\'t think my local issues are important, issues that affect how I
live my life, how I work, what sort of direction San Antonio is heading
towards, that the companies don\'t care about San Antonians and are
therefore not responsible to tell our stories.  To further deregulate
the media only condones the present ineffective and disrespectful local
coverage and devalues the citizens of San Antonio, Texas and the United
States.  Thank you for listening to me.

(Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Hello.  Hello. My name is George Camantez (phonetic). 
Some of you have asked where\'s the local on---air talent, people that
are trying to get into these Clear Channels and other multimedia
conglomerates, forget it.  For talk radio shows, right now in America,
the people that stand before me, there are more people standing before
me than there are blacks and Hispanics on mainstream talk radio shows in
America.  The sign should be posted blacks and whites ------ blacks and
Hispanics are not allowed to be on talk radio.  Now these big multimedia
conglomerates don't have any problem at all, especially on VH---1 and
MTV, strutting out Black and Hispanic females calling them the \"B\"
word and the \"H\" word and making a big buck off of them.

(Applause.)

Mr. Glade, you are kidding yourself if you think there are actual
diversity within Clear Channel stations. I\'ve lived all over the
country and listened to your stations all over the place and there are
virtually no Hispanics at all on any of your local talk shows anywhere
in America.  And I find that really unacceptable because there are
people that are talented and gifted that wanted the opportunity to
apply, but they\'re not given a chance because, well, talk show
listeners, the voice of conservative whites won\'t listen to a Hispanic
male, and the Hispanics are mostly liberals, and they won\'t listen to a
conservative Hispanic.  So, basically you got no ratings, no
opportunities, so no blacks or Hispanics are ever given the chance to
get into the mainstream of a.m. talk radio. 

To wrap it up.  Look, just look for yourselves.  How many Hispanics and
blacks are there?  It\'s all about making money. It\'s not about giving
opportunities.  Most Hispanics here at 1200 do news, weather and
janitorial.  They don\'t have the mic. There\'s not one Hispanic in this
station that works ------ in this area that works in the mainstream a.m.
talk radio show, not one.  Now, we have a 50.6 percent Hispanic
population.  Not one talented Hispanic can be found out there.  Imagine
that.  That\'s amazing. Thank you very much for your time.

(Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  My name\'s John Courage, and I\'m with a group of
San Antonio (sic) called Citizens for Ethical Government.  And I want to
start you off with a word of caution.  I think we all have heard the
adage that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, and it
appears that what the Commission is trying to do is put absolute power
over media into the hands of very few, and I think we should all be very
well aware of what the results will be. 

I think we can kind of take a look at the situation that we have with
Wal---Mart, for example. What you have if you give the media newspapers,
television, radio, it\'s like Wal---Mart coming into a town and taking
on the pharmacy, the garage, the clothing store, and all of a sudden
everybody in town is indebted to one institution. 

(Applause.)

We don\'t need that.  What we do need is diversity.  What we do need is
to have an exchange of ideas.  What we do need is to ensure that the
public interest is represented, and it\'s not represented by three or
five or eight.  It\'s represented by hundreds.  And so, I would urge
strongly that the FCC not allow further conglomeration.  Let\'s go ahead
and make sure that every voice is heard in our airwaves. It does belong
to the public.  You\'re in control of those decisions.  You need to make
the right decisions for the people, not for the corporations. 

(Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Good evening.  I\'m Timothy Roan (phonetic). I\'m from
San Antonio, and I teach little children.  Localism and media cannot be
discussed without addressing the issue of media ownership
consolidation.  The two issues are intertwined, as it is because of
increased consolidation that local interests represented in the media
have suffered.  Indeed, fewer owning more is a bad mix.  Putting the
immense responsibility and power of media control into the hands of a
few is a recipe for mono---cultural, sanitized, biased viewpoints, from
newscasts to sitcoms. When headquarters in San Antonio is planning the
direction a station in Seattle will be going, how can true localism
succeed?  The answer is not rhetorical.  The answer is:  It cannot. 

Diversity diminishes as fewer and fewer voices are heard. As fewer and
fewer companies are controlling more and more of the airwaves, the
voices of those left out become weaker and weaker.  The whims of the few
media controllers become the cultural norms of the nation. 

No recent example is more obvious than the situation that occurred with
the musical act, the Dixie Chicks.  You may know that the band made
remarks about the U.S. admin ------ U.S. administration, and
subsequently they were systematically boycotted nationwide, regardless
of what the public thought.  These actions were pursued from the very
top of the mainstream media corporate hierarchy, and mandated down to
every station under their control, with no consideration of local
sentiment, interest or viewpoints. 

I urge this Commission to put aside the all powerful coercion of
corporate lobbyists and pay attention to the tens of thousands of
American citizens you will encounter in your six community meetings
around the nation who demand diversity in the public airwaves.  Thank
you. 

(Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Good evening. My name is Sherry Chandrey (phonetic),
and I\'m here representing CAIR, which is the Counsel on American and
Islamic Relations here in the United States, and we\'re based out of
Washington and I\'m representing a San Antonio Chapter. 

I would just like to talk to the FCC about localism in the community.
We\'re a new chapter and we\'re hoping to get that influence in the
media as far as representation on our group and organization.  And with
the status of the country right now and what\'s going on overseas, I\'m
hoping that the influence of the media will also protect the American
citizens in this country that are Muslims, that have lived here for
years and generations, and the ones that are here as citizens today.

And I\'m hoping that the FCC will also make sure that the media coverage
is not biased based on who\'s President and who\'s not President.  I
would like to know that the influence of the media is not based on
politics, but\'s based on news.  I know that you\'re the gatekeepers of
democracy in this country, and that you have heard this over and over
again, and we hope the freedom of speech and the freedom of what we hear
in the news and everything else is, is clearly free ------ freedom of
the press, and that it\'s not controlled by politics. 

And I have another hat.  I just want 30 seconds ------ I\'m a mother.  I
have four kids and it\'s so terrible sitting in front of the television
and watching Victoria's Secret commercials with three boys, and if you
can do anything about the programming on television today, it would be
greatly appreciated for the people in the country that do still have
moral values.  Thank you.

(Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Hi. How are y\'all doing? My name is Bracken (phonetic)
Firecracker, and I\'m a radio journalist and producer for WINGS,
Women\'s International News Gathering Service ------

(Applause.)

------ which has aired women\'s news worldwide for over 17 years, and
I\'ve also worked with independent media, also known as Indymedia. I\'ve
worked with community radio stations and pirate radio stations, what we
call free radio.  And that\'s not something that I am ashamed to admit. 
You may ask why it\'s used to work with alternative media.  The answer
is simple. There is a complete and utter lack of diversity of people and
opinions in corporately---owned media.  Just look at this panel in terms
of gender. Having only two women represented is not acceptable. 

(Applause.)

Therefore ------ therefore, we the people are forced to create our own
media.  And we do this in various creative, creative ------ creative
ways, such as radical cheerleading, something you probably won\'t hear
on mainstream radio because we\'re not usually described as lovely
ladies.  We have something to ------

(Applause.)

------ say today ------ newspaper, TV, and radio, who owns them?  Would
you like to know?  They show you the world through the corporate eyes
but their hidden agenda ain\'t no disguise.  (Cheerleading.)

AUDIENCE SHOUTING: We see you.  We know you.  We don\'t believe you. 
We\'ll show you.  But we\'ve got more than booty for you.  We\'ve got
something to say in a different way.  And independent media is how we
do\.... (Inaudible and indistinguishable words.)

(Applause and shouting.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER. Good night. I\'m bilingual, so I don\'t need a
translator. 

(Spanish.)

San Antonio has ------ it\'s composed majorly of Mexicans,
Mexican---Americans or Chicanos, and we are bilingual.  So, don\'t think
of us of either speaking only English or Spanish. 

(Spanish.)

Don\'t stereotype us.  I want you to show what happens in my community. 
I want you to show the artists in my community that ------ I\'m just
going to say it in English because you\'re not going to give me two
minutes. 

I want you to, to reflect the art, the music, the volunteers, the
activists, the teachers, and the students and the curanderos, the
healers.  I want quality and accessibility.  My students know that the
programming is not ------

(Spanish.)

------ it\'s not appropriate for them.  They told me themselves.  I\'m a
teacher ------ I\'m a second grade teacher.  They told me Ms., tell them
not to show violence.  Ms., tell them to not to show programs that
cuss.  I ------ I\'m a bilingual teacher.  They watch Univision, and I
want to ask you to create local programming.  Don\'t import only from
Mexico, from other countries, because they\'re already made.

(Spanish.)

(Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER: I hope you guys that don\'t speak Spanish get a
translator to understand what she just told you, very important. 
Welcome to San Antonio, Chicano cultural capital of Texas and of the
Southwest.  This is our home.  This is our home. There\'s two things I
want to say.  I\'m going to try to get it as fast as I can. 

The first thing, the most compelling argument that I have heard about
------ about the consolidation ------ in favor of consolidation, are the
nice things that Clear Channel is doing, Amber Alerts, giving money
back.  That\'s not going to go away under local control.  If anything
that\'s going to increase. 

(Applause.)

So let\'s keep that in mind when we talk about Amber Alert.  It\'s not
going to go away.  It\'s here, it\'s technology, it\'s not going to go
away. 

The main thing that I want to talk about is about us as Chicanos, as
Latinos.  We know we\'re ------ we\'re the second largest group ------
the second largest ethnic group in the country; largest minority group,
second largest ethnic group, Chicanos, Mexicanos, 66 percent of the
population.  We\'re strong ------ 200, two ------ let me step
back ------ 25 million strong in a growing population. 

So why is it that there are a really low percentage of Latino
broadcasters, Latino radio journalists, MCs, directors of programming? 
Why has that number dropped in recent years?  Consolidated ownership
will not increase that diversity.  Despite our population making up half
of this city, the face of media ownership does not reflect our
population.  Neither does the public face of media ------ the ones who
we see every day reporting us the news.  Is this the future of
broadcasting as we heard earlier today?  Where are our voices?  Red,
white and blue America, we are your future, and whether you like it or
not, we will be heard.

(Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Good evening.  My name is Renee Felts. I am
co---director of the local news department at KPFT radio in Houston. 

(Applause.)

We\'re a station that\'s part of the five---station Pacifica Network. 
Some view us as a biased source of news and views, but that means little
to most people when you consider that Clear Channel is organizing and
covering pro---war rallies on their airwaves. 

(Applause.)

Clear Channel is a poster child of the effects of media deregulation you
approved in 1996 and again in June of this year.  Clear Channel is also
notorious for its cuts to local news departments at the radio stations
it purchases.  Often these are

award---winning news departments that are downsized or cut out
completely and replaced with AP wire news.  Profit-driven programming
cannot support a thriving local news department, and profit, not the
public interest, cannot support a thriving democracy.  You might even
say it\'s un-American. 

A major news story that receives little coverage in Texas, except on
KPFT local news, is the death penalty.  This internationally condemned
killing machine executes more people, juveniles mentally ill and
mentally disabled than any other state.  Public debate on this issue
------ public debate on reforming or eliminating the death penalty is
alive and well in Texas, but you wouldn\'t know it from reading the
standard AP coverage that is about what this ------ is about all that
this ------ the only coverage that this undoubtedly local issue
receives. 

As a journalist I cannot stand by silently and watch the media
consolidation approved by the FCC keep the public in the dark about what
is taking place in its community, especially on this important local
issue.  I urge you, fellow protectors of the public interest, to do your
job and keep media regulation in place.  Thank you. 

(Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Mr. Chairman, Commissioners, fellow broadcasters, my
name is Steven Yates.  I\'m the owner and general manager of four radio
stations in East Texas.  I\'m a second generation broadcaster.  My
father pioneered radio in East Texas in 1938, signing on the first radio
station between Houston and Dallas and was the only radio station in
East Texas for ten solid years.  With that one radio station we started,
just like we are tonight, with an open microphone.  We invited people to
come down and get on the air, play their guitar, sing their songs and
talk about their organizations. 

We still do that today.  With that one radio station we broadcast five
different formats.  We targeted the African---American, the Hispanics,
the Anglo---Americans, the gospel listeners.  Deregulation has helped my
business better serve the public interest.  With deregulation, I can now
serve the Hispanic population with a full---time radio station.  I can
serve the African---American community with a full---time radio station.
I can play more Zydeco music for those who want to hear that.  My
request lines burn up for those requests, and I answer the public
interest. Deregulation has enabled me to better serve the public
interest. 

With one station now having ------ with deregulation having more
stations ------ for example, during 9/11, I was able to flip one switch
and target four different formats, four different audiences about the
disaster in New York.  The day almost one year ago to right now when the
orbiter Columbia disintegrated over the skies of East Texas, within
minutes I was able to contact four different audiences with one flip of
the switch, and let them know and choreograph and tell people where
debris had fallen and help the authorities.  So deregulation has helped
me as a broadcaster, and I want you to know in defense of my ------ the
competitors or the so---called conglomerates, they were right there as
well.  So localism is my life, and thank you for allowing me to better
serve the public interest with deregulation. 

(Applause and boos.)

AUDIENCE MEMBERS: Good evening.  My name is Will Brown.  I\'m the
Executive Director of the Palmer Drug Abuse Program, and I just wanted
to share you some good news about localism and how we\'ve benefited from
it. 

An example, in November of 2002, a group of teenagers in our program,
and we\'re a program that serves teenagers and young adults and members
of their family, they asked me if there was something they could do to
educate their peers in the community about the abuse of
over---the---counter cough and cold medications.  KSAT---12 and their
anchor, Steve Spriester, was the first local outlet to respond.  Thanks
to KSAT\'S coverage several local retail establishments responded by
limiting access to these products, and local state representative Carlos
Euresti submitted legislation on our behalf to protect teens in all
retail locations throughout Texas.  Unfortunately, this legislation
failed. 

KSAT continued to follow this story, and recently, the Partnership for a
Drug Free America created a national awareness campaign, and they
unveiled that campaign right here in San Antonio in front of me and
about a hundred of our kids.  Soon USA Today ran a cover story on this
national trend.  CNN, the Today Show, Good Morning America, 20/20 and
Dateline NBC have run stories in the past 30 days.  *People* magazine,
*Time* magazine, and my personal favorite, *Good Housekeeping*, actually
ran stories on this issue to their readers.  So what began as a local
story submitted by a really small organization in San Antonio has
blossomed into a national alert and a national call to action. 

So I applaud KSAT---12, I applaud our ABC affiliate, I applaud Steve
Spriester for listening to a community concern from a small nonprofit.
So now millions upon millions of parents, teenagers, educators and
community leaders have become aware of a potentially lethal abuse of
available medication thanks to all these folks here.

(Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Good evening, Chairman, Commissioners and distinguished
panelists. My name is Michelle\... (inaudible) \...Brown, and I\'m a
board member of the San Antonio affiliate of the Susan G. Komen Breast
Cancer Foundation. I was standing outside for four hours today, so thank
you for extending this hearing and allowing me to be heard. 

One in eight women will be affected with breast cancer and the mission
of the Komen Foundation is education, screening, research and
treatment.  We are able to fund those events and those activities every
year through the Komen San Antonio Race for the Cure.  From the
inception of the race in San Antonio, which is now in its seventh year,
Clear Channel stations, KMMX, KAJA, KQXT, WOAI AND KTKR and Clear
Channel television station WOAI have played a critical role in the media
sponsorship of this event. The first year of the race we had about 1800
people and raised about \$75,000.  The race is going to be at the end of
March, and thanks to their support, we\'re expecting to raise a million
dollars in one day, and we\'re hoping to see 30,000 people. 

I\'ll cut my remarks short, but I just want to tell you that we are so
appreciative of what they\'re able to do in this community.  Thanks for
your time.

(Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Hi. Hi, my name is Teresa Allen.  I\'m on the national
board of Pacifica Radio and I\'m on the local board of KPFT radio in
Houston, and you can go their web page, at
[www.pacifica.org]{.underline}.

Educator Jonathan Kozol says you cannot fatten sheep by weighing them,
and you cannot teach children by testing them.  I believe that the
cornerstone of democracy is an informed citizenry capable of critical
analysis and engaged, and I don\'t feel that you can have democracy with
a media that focuses almost exclusively on escapism, marketing, avoiding
controversy, sensationalism and pursuit of the dollar.  Thank you very
much, Mr. Copps and Mr. Adelstein. 

(Applause)

I\'m not finished yet.  I am very much concerned that the children that
we were talking about earlier today, protecting, that they will be those
children that are so easily indoctrinated and led around by sheep ------
like sheep, because of the problem of media consolidation, because we
are not teaching critical analysis, we are not giving people the facts,
and Mr. Powell, I would bid you to please do something about this.  Turn
it around.  Thank you. 

(Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Good evening. Thank you for your long day. We
appreciate your attention. My name is Tyler Cox. I\'m the Director of
News and Operations for Infinity Broadcasting\'s KRLD in Dallas.  We\'re
the all---news radio station serving

Dallas---Ft Worth.  Every hour of every day, seven days a week, 365 days
a year, we are providing local news weather, traffic and sports
information to the metropolitan area. 

I\'m here in my role though, tonight, as the Chairman of the
Dallas---Ft. Worth Amber Plan Task Force.  You\'ve heard much of it
tonight.  I just wanted to reinforce the fact that the Amber Plan that
is in place today and is growing around the nation, is the direct result
of broadcasters in Dallas listening to a listener. 

A woman who became concerned, called her favorite radio station,
suggested that radio could do something, and now we have the national
focus of the Amber Plan today.  It\'s in place in communities all across
the country because broadcasters in

Dallas---Ft. Worth banded together to create a plan that make a
difference. It saves lives and clearly demonstrates that broadcasters
are listening and are in tune with local needs and issues in their
communities. Thank you.

(Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Mr. Chairman, FCC Commissioners, panelists,
dignitaries, thanks for the opportunity to speak tonight.  I just had
back surgery four weeks ago and drove up two and a half hours to be here
and stood in line since 4:00 p.m., but that doesn\'t matter to me.  My
name is Manny Garcia, and I represent the Academy of Tejano Artists and
Musicians right here in San Antonio, Texas. 

(Applause.)

First of all, let me explain the mission of our organization is to
create and mobilize a unified effort of Tejano artists and musicians and
formulate a membership organization that will fill the present void in
the Tejano music.  We intend to recognize and honor talent without the
premise of record sales or any other type of monetary gain in an effort
to diversify and elevate the standards of the current condition.  Our
board of directors are all musicians and artists of many years of
experience.  Our advisory board members are part of this community. 
They are prominent businessmen and women, a national organization and
elected officials. 

I believe that we should all return to the basic principles as it was
stated and it was mentioned earlier, and that is reminding ourselves
that all of us own the airwaves.  Radio listeners want to hear a wider
range of music that includes local musicians and talent.  We hear too
little of the music we like and grew up with.  Local artists and
musicians are underexposed on the radio.  We would like less repetition,
more new music, and I believe that more local acts would make radio more
appealing to a larger audience.  Radio as I see it today does not serve
the diverse cultural needs of the American citizen, because substantial
ethnic and regional economic populations are not provided the service to
which they are entitled to.  I can go on and go on, but because time is
limited, and I want to afford the opportunity to my other colleagues and
friends, I thank you for your time here tonight. Have a good night.

(Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Thank you.  Mic check. Thank you very much. My name is
George Cisneros. I\'m a native San Antonian, a fifth generation content
creator.  My great---great---grandfather was a printer.  His son was a
printer, my grandfather, the grandson was a printer.  My uncles in my
mother\'s family were printers, and I am in digital content development
which is really about the same stuff. 

And my concern about localism is the simple fact tonight that if this
was a local thing, where are the local elected officials?  If you look
around the room tonight, not a single local elected official who would
be making judgments about local issues is here tonight, because the deal
probably has already been cut, and I\'m really sad.  It\'s frightening
that those kinds of things are happening.  But you\'re here, you\'re
doing the show.  I welcome you to San Antonio and while you\'re in
San Antonio, I know you\'re getting tired of everything while you\'re at
the table here, why don\'t you try some of our local food, and not go to
a group ------ place like Denny\'s, which is a consolidated food
industry and listen to our local radio. 

I really wish ------ wish you the best of luck, Mr. Powell, and one of
the things about San Antonio that makes it work is that people work

one---on---one.  We can go to a station manager, we can still go ------
still go to a few station owners.  You know, I can pick up the phone and
call Steve or call Bob, or you know, somebody, and complain if I wanted
to.  Because they\'re here in San Antonio.  But not all the communities
in my state have the luxury of having the owners in their towns. 

And we grew up in a printing family.  We grew up with small newspapers. 
We grew up where people could come in and talk to the owner, and I
really think that that\'s a very American democra ------ democratic
concept, is talking to the owner of a business when you\'ve got a
problem.  And you can\'t do that right now if we go towards
consolidation.  So, thank you very much.  I am a little angry about the
whole issue, but I know it\'s been a long night, so bear with us.  In
San Antonio public policy is a contact sport.  We take it very
seriously.  We take our water, our food and our band width very
seriously, so keep that in mind.

(Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Chairman Powell, members of the Commission.  For the
record, my name is Jack M. Finger.  Yes, and so I ask:  Is your
Enforcement Chief David Solomon here today? 

CHAIRMAN POWELL:  (Moving head side to side.)

Not here today? Hm, okay. Well, you know, the reason I ask is because,
you see, last October the U2 singer, Bono, he glowingly spoke the \"F\"
word.  Yes, the \"F\" word on national TV, and instead of blowing the
whistle on him, your Mr. Solomon merely said, quote, the use of specific
words including expletives or other four letter words does not, and I
repeat not, does not render material obscene, unquote.

Um.  Okay. So my question is:  How on earth did this man get hired by
you in the first place?  Worse yet, what is this guy still doing being
employed by you?  You know, if you, yes, you, the Commissioners had
decency among yourselves, had even a lick of integrity or character, all
of you would sit down with this man and explain to him, Dave, what you
did was just totally unacceptable.  We don\'t accept obscenities on
national TV, and please don\'t do these kinds of things again, just
before you fired him. 

Now, yeah, I mean, that\'s right, you have become a paper tiger, a
toothless lion.  But ------ I mean, it\'s no wonder our children are not
safe in front of TV anymore.  Now, what does it take ------ does it take
thousands or hundreds of thousands of irate citizens calling their U.S.
Senators telling you to get serious about this stuff?

Now, you\'ll say, Mr. Finger, don\'t worry.  We already fined Clear
Channel nearly a million dollars for the obscenities on their TV with
the ------ with the Sponge Bob situation there, for 26 indecency
violations.  I say whoopee do.  That\'s about eight, eight grand for
each violation, which they\'ll pass onto the consumer. Yeah. And it\'s
obvious you did that only because ------ among others, but you put
others, because others are finally putting your administration under the
microscope.  I think you know what needs to be done here.  Thank you.

(Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Chairman ------ Chairman Powell, member
Commissioners.  My name is Van Lobrito (phonetic), a local citizen. 
Thank you for this opportunity to let me speak to you.  I\'m here at
this hearing to express my deep concern with the increasing and
continuing flood of sexual explicit material, biased network news that
is more akin to propaganda and religious bigotry that television daily
spews out warring against the American family and our nation\'s very
foundation. 

In the 1950\'s as most of us know, television was a safe haven for
families.  No longer.  In subsequent decades networks have continued to
push the envelope to newer and low ------ newer and newer lows of moral
darkness and depravity.  What was unthinkable is now daily
fare.  Anthropologist\... (inaudible) \...made an exhaustive study of
more than 80 primitive and advanced civilizations.  Each culture ------
each culture reflected a similar pattern.  Those civilizations with
strict sexual codes made the greatest cultural progress.  Every society
that extended sexual permissive to its people soon perished.
Professor\... (inaudible) \...said there was no exception to this rule. 

This is not about censorship.  This is about protecting American
families which are the foundation of our nation.  The networks do not
represent the American family or our community values. 

Another issue of deep concern is the constant religious bigotry attacks
on people of faith, particularly of Christian faith.  Again, the
networks are at odds with most Americans and the values that made our
nation great. 

There\'s a little six---year old girl, who should be home ------ she
should be safe in her home, but every evening a strange man breaks in
and sexually assaults her.  A nearby policeman is aware of the situation
and should protect her, but does little.  The little girl is the
American family, particularly the children of our great nation.

The strange man that assaults her represents network television and its
daily fare of moral toxic waste dumps, propaganda as news and religious
bigotry.  Sadly, little is being done.  Time and the decline of our
culture passes swiftly and unabated.  The time to act is now.  Mr.
Powell, member Commissioners, I respectfully and hopefully ask:  will
you protect our nation and its families?  Thank you and God bless you.

(Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Hello. I am Amina\... (inaudible) \...and I\'m here
with KPFT.  And many of you might think that we\'re suffering from
localism, but I just wanted to let you know that we\'re one of the very
few media outlets who are broadcasting this live, on the air, right
now.  We didn\'t have any technical difficulties at all. 

(Applause.)

And my question is:  How can it be allowed for CBS to ban an ad meant to
run during the Super Bowl sponsored by Moveon.org?  This ban has sparked
an outcry from the public of over one million combined voices through
e---mail, phone calls, and petitions.  The Bush administration is able
to have multiple ads run, along with other political ads, and shouldn\'t
what you call a free market truly be free?  Meaning that anyone willing
to pay your ridiculous prices for their voice to be heard, should really
be heard. 

Why is it so offensive to hear the truth about the deception of the
appointed President? Why is CBS so fearful of the truth? Is the truth
really that scary?  CBS banning this ad is a blatant violation of free
speech and is an attempt by corporate media to silence dissent. And CBS
you have been officially, officially notified.  Run the ad.

(Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Hi.  This is a fake fur coat, and the reason I say
that is because of what I\'m going to talk about.  I\'m an animal
rescuer, and I love them, and I feed them.  I do not wear them. 

We have a radio station, KTSA, here in San Antonio, that\'s our
community station.  We all tune in to find out everything we need to
know, including about animals.  It\'s a public service program with
Dr. Dan Kirby, a veterinarian here in town, that does this for the sake
of animals.  This past week, and this is why I\'m here, sir, he was
removed from KTSA.  He was taken off the air because of an infomercial
that paid \$2,000 for that particular hour.  We no longer have him on
our air to listen to, and we want him back and I\'m asking you, call
599---5500, and say we want Dr. Dan Kirby back on KTSA.  That\'s what
the listeners want.  Thank you, sir.

(Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Good evening. My name is Lisa Cortez Walden, and with
all due respect, I am not a lovely lady. 

(Applause.)

I ------ I am a doctoral student studying media literacy at the
University of Texas at San Antonio.  As part of my fellowship I work
with local teachers to develop curriculum that incorporates media into
their classroom.  I am dedicated to teaching people not only how to look
at media critically, but to produce and participate in a world where
media is increasingly important.

As such, I urge you to turn back this disturbing trend of media
deregulation and conglomeration.  In order to create a viable local
media, our community needs equitable access to equipment, outreach that
really reaches out to the community ------ loc ------ to the community
of local schools, students and independent producers. 

Our local media community needs your help.  The large media
organizations such as Clear Channel have no clear policy for local
equitable access.  Educators, students and independent film makers are
consistently met with insurmoun ------ insurmountable obstacles in
creating ------ hearing their voice.  Clear Channel simply has no need
in fostering a locally responsive media.  Thank you very much.

(Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Commissioners, I cherish the diversity that\'s
represented tonight.  One mentioned she didn\'t care about a starving
child, something that I take pretty seriously.  I\'m Eric Cooper, I\'m
Executive Director of our local Food Bank, the San Antonio Food Bank,
and we work to provide food to about 320 different nonprofit charities
throughout a 16---county region here in southwest Texas.  And as some of
the poorest counties in the nation, in working to try to meet the needs
of those agencies ------ they feed about 40,000 households per
month ------ it takes a tremendous amount of resources to meet that
need.  And last year we delivered about 22 million pounds of food valued
at about \$36,000,000 worth of grocery products. 

We had our shelves stocked by the community and the community responded
through many of the appeals that went out through local television
stations and radio stations; in particular, this past holiday season
with a promotion called Food for San Antonio, which was led by Clear
Channel and all of their properties to bring awareness to childhood
hunger and those in poverty. 

We also enjoy partnerships with Belo and, and the folks at KENS who
raise money significant for our organization equal to United Way.  It\'s
these partnerships that are critical for many of the nonprofits we serve
to be able to provide what our community needs, and basic needs like
food.  So, from those who call me to pass on thank yous, I thank them
publicly for providing the service they do to our organization in
helping us meet the needs for many low---income clients.  Thank you.

(Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Mr. Powell, ladies and gentlemen, peace officers, thank
you so much for staying late.  We really appreciate this.  I am a
stay---at---home mom.  I teach my children in a home school.  I\'m a
volunteer and I\'m also a veteran, and I am fed up.  I\'m fed up with
the foul language, I\'m fed up with the nudity, I\'m fed up with the sex
that assaults my family on a daily basis.  I propose that the FCC bring
decency back to our airwaves by restricting that foul language,
restricting the nudity, restricting the sex that assaults our families
every day and impose harsh fines and enforce them quickly. 

I don\'t think that I\'m in the minority when I say that I\'m fed up
with this, but the FCC stands at a pivotal point right now. You can
choose to continue to permit licentiousness over the airwaves or you can
make a positive change and bring decency, decorum and reticence back to
television and have a positive influence over our culture today.  Thank
you.

(Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Good evening, ladies and gentlemen and members of the
Federal Communications Commission.  Thank you for letting me speak at
this meeting tonight. 

I would like to express my thoughts about the foul language and nudity
that is broadcast on television, and the reasons why I want my TV to be
unpolluted.  My name is Evan Homan (phonetic) and I am 12 years old. 
I\'m a Boy Scout in Troop 410, and I\'m home schooled by my mom, and I
play the the bagpipes and\... (inaudible) \...PacMan.

We have one television in our ------ in our house, and usually when we
turn it on I\'m offended by the language, sex, and nudity that I see. 
In my grandparents' house they have cable; and even though we have over
a hundred channels, it is difficult to find something to watch that does
not offend me. 

When I watch a movie or show on the TV, I am usually insulted because of
the foul language, nudity and the sinful nature of the characters.  The
reasons I do not want foul speech and nudity on the television are
because it affects the way young people think, dress, speak and act, and
it is displeasing to my father and mother because they do not want me to
act like the characters that we see. 

The only nonoffensive channel on TV is PBS because of the neat science,
nature and history programs.  The things that I would like to be done
about the problem of cursing and nakedness are a fine for all the shows
that permit sex and foul language and more prog ------ more programs
that are family friendly. 

As a side note, I would love to see the old shows like Abbott and
Costello, Laurel and Hardy, and the old Batman series on regular and
network stations, since we do not subscribe to cable or satellite. 

Thank you all for your time, and I look forward to seeing less nudity
and hearing less cursing ------ cursing on the television.  Thank you.

(Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Hi, my name is Dora Pena.  I\'m the spearhead of the
Texas Chapter of the National Association of Latino Independent
Producers. I\'m based out here out of San Antonio, and I work with a lot
of creative people that include independent producers and music
producers as well.  And I\'m also a concerned viewer and listener. 

Ever since I quit my job at a TV station, and I became ------ I became a
stay---at---home mom, I turned off the TV more so I\'ve had more chance
to dedicate more time to my writing and producing the things that I want
to see on television.  So I want the broadcasters to know that there is
an independent community producing here in San Antonio, and if you\'ll
just reach out to us and accept some of our programming, you might be
surprised at what the audience reaction might be. 

I also want to talk about my children and the programming that is not
available for them, educational programming.  And ever since Madonna
said publicly that she didn\'t let her children watch TV because of the
bad influences, I thought that might be a good option. So, please don\'t
make me take away the TV that I grew up with for my kids. 

And I think that praising broadcasters for giving to charities or
covering local news is like praising my son for taking a bath, because
that\'s something that they should be doing anyway. 

(Applause.)

And I love ------ I love the Amber Alert and I\'m really thankful that
the Amber Alert, especially because I\'m a mother, that the Amber Alert
is here, but I think it took a little too long to be implemented to
begin with.  Thank you

(Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER: My name is Manuel Pena.  That was my wife, and y\'all
see why I love her.  But she kind of stole my words about the patting on
the back for something you\'re supposed to be doing.  The airwaves are
ours.  You\'re supposed to reach out to community, the TV stations and
the radio stations, reach out, help us, show support to the Children\'s
Miracle Network, the Salvation Army.  So they\'re patting you on the
back for something you\'re supposed to be doing.  You get paid lots of
money for our airwaves. I don\'t get paid to be faithful to my wife, I
do it because that\'s my job.  I put food on my kids\' back (sic) and I
shelter them because that\'s my job as a father.  I don\'t expect for a
pat on the back, and I don\'t expect for any money. 

Also, what I wanted to say, I\'m a teacher here at a high school on the
South side of town, which is predominantly Hispanic kids, and it hurts
me every day to hear these kids saying they don\'t care about school,
they don\'t care about getting their degree and they don\'t ------ they
don\'t know what\'s out there for them.  I hear young girls saying that
their boyfriends are going to support them.  They don\'t care about
school.  In my opinion, these kids don\'t have anything to relate to on
TV. They love TV, they love radio, but they\'re not seeing programs that
they can relate to.  They\'re not seeing people of their ethnicity that
are successful lawyers, doctors, dentists, CEO\'s, and that\'s what we
need, and that\'s why local programming ------ you guys really need to
reflect our community.  That\'s all I have to say.  Thank you.

(Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Good evening Mr. Powell, members of the panel. I\'ll
try to be quick. My name is Matthew Gonzalez.  I\'m a musician and owner
of Bonetree Records, an independent record label in San Antonio. 

A few years ago I decided to produce a CD of my band\'s music, in the
process, started the label, and unlike a lot of musicians, I did not

overtake this endeavor with visions of overnight success and platinum
albums and all the other rock---star excesses. 

My goal was simple:  To make a living ------ a modest living, doing
something that I love.  The CD was recorded and mastered and packaged as
professionally as anything on the market. 

I contacted your radio stations large and small across the country in
the hopes, that like in the past, there\'d be a few DJs or program
directors who would like it enough to give it a spin or two. 

Well, while I did find a few college and public radio stations
accommodating, I was almost unilaterally rejected by the corporate
stations.  And I was told, excuse me ------ I was told basically, it
wasn\'t that they didn\'t like it, but that their play lists were too
tight for a lone DJ to play a song simply because he or she liked it. 

They said that their ------ many of them said their play lists were
predetermined in board meetings, weekly staff meetings and conference
calls from corporate headquarters. 

I just want to say, how do

corporately---controlled play lists give any democracy to the people? 
How does this level the playing field for independent record labels who
do not have a

multi---million dollar promotional machine to buy air time with comp
tickets and hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of free goods? 

I also want to say that just like the Wal---Marts and Targets are
grinding American\'s small businesses into the ground, your policies
will allow media giants like Clear Channel right in step with music
industry heavyweights, like Sony music to stamp out the smaller
independent music companies with stunning and silencing swiftness. Thank
you very much.

(Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Hi.

(Spanish.)

For a while when I was back in high school I had aspirations about
becoming a journalist until I found out about how the media really
works.  And once when someone asked me, I told them that I wanted to
become a journalist because I felt that it was my responsibility
to ------ to help others understand how events in the world affect us. 

Why I felt this unyielding urge to help others was because I wanted to
better the conditions of my community and pop the Westside bubble. That
is, the attitude that many of my fellow students have, as a result of
negative stereotypes, cultural obligations and a lack of understanding
for what\'s occurring in the real world.

While I was prepping myself towards a life as a college student, many of
my friends were preoccupied with trying to figure out how they were
going to score their next set of wheels.  Only a little more than half
of my senior class graduated.

One of the main reasons I feel this occurs too often is a result of low
self esteem and a lack of understanding of how much an important role a
college education can play in your personal, economic and psychological
health.  And when you think about it, it\'s not a farfetched idea to
think that, because of your social standing in the mainstream media is
often represented with crime, illiteracy, and more kids than you can
afford, then maybe there is no alternative lifestyle than the one that
is presented to you on a regular basis. 

I remember once being laughed at in high school by a sophomore because I
still rode the bus as a senior.  I told him I was saving money for
college.  When I said that, he looked at me in shock. College? And I
told him, Yeah, aren\'t you going to college? And he said no.  I have to
worry about how I\'m going to buy a car, how I\'m going ------ how I\'m
going to pay my bills, and how I\'m going to support my family. 

The idea that life is nothing more than work, partying and striving
toward the glamorous life that is often portrayed on TV is, I\'m sure,
not the type of lifestyle that any ------ anyone would want their
children\'s foundations to be placed on.  My question to you guys then
is why do we keep promoting these kinds of images and these kinds of
messages? 

(Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Hi.  I\'m Chuck Conrad.  I am General Manager of
KZQX-LP. That LP stands for low power.  We\'re a small station in East
Texas and in the year and a half that we\'ve been on the air I have been
amazed at what a difference it has made in our community. If the
Commission wants to do something quickly and now, they can do this by
simply authorizing more low---powered stations.

(Applause.)

You\'ve blown the LP---10 window that you promised, I have ------ and
apparently that\'s out the window, but you ------ when low---power FM
was first proposed, you knew that you did not have to protect second
adjacent channels ------ third adjacent channels, yet Congress made you
go through the MITRE study, who said you don\'t have to do this.  I
think we all know that this is true.  Translators don\'t do it. 

So you can do something about this.  And to make more channels available
for low---powered community broadcasters, the simple thing to do is
first look at the 3000 pound elephant that you just got this fall, the
great translator invasion.  Thirteen thousand, four hundred people or
entities applied for translators.  If a translator can go on that
frequency, a community broadcaster can go on it. A satellite delivered
translator offers nothing in the way of localism at all.  There\'s great
local stations out here, but they need some help.  Thank you very much
for your time.

(Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Hello, and thank you for hearing me tonight.  My name
is Schuyler Chris (phonetic).  On a daily basis we lament the decay of
our society.  We cry for the young lives and the old lives lost due to
senseless violence.  Hearts ache for the young teenaged mothers.  We
peer into the hell of lives of those who are struck by sexually
transmitted disease.  We know these realities and know they are
preventable if proper actions are taken. 

It is true that we are what we eat.  When you feed us garbage in every
program, we become poisoned personally, and our society ultimately is
trashed.  To that end, I want to know what will the FCC do to clean up
the programming that glamorizes the behaviors that lead to the sickening
realities I just discussed. 

In closing, I would like to simply state, take heed to what ye hear. 
That\'s what Mark said, the apostle during the time of Christ and a
follower of Christ, chapter four, verse 24.  Take heed what ye hear.  I
hope you will take that advice tonight.

(Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Good evening. My name is David Katz and thank you all
for staying this late.  I sincerely appreciate it.  I\'m an independent
record ------ record label producer as well as an independent solo
musician. 

As a part---time musician, I don\'t have time for the glamorous life of
your average rock star, which is just fine with me.  The drugs, the
promiscuity and the partying until the sun comes up seems to be a common
motif in most of today\'s cultural pop icons, which are saturated on the
airwaves today. 

I believe this is a self---perpetuating phenomenon caused by the
codependent relationship between the record companies and the radio
stations.  This dependency is damaging to our society and leaves no room
for growth in the industry other than monetary.  It\'s completely
unnecessary. 

Larger conglomerate companies like Clear Channel Communications who own
in excess of 1300 radio stations, 150 concert venues and 700 and ------
700,000 billboards can easily promote effectively and profitably anyone
or anything that they please, even local artists. 

Why don\'t they?  Maybe it\'s fear of change or of the unknown, or maybe
it\'s because they wouldn\'t receive funding from third---party
promotional agencies that are hired by the record companies in order to
avoid payola or pay for play laws.  The problem with these loopholes is
that even though the law technically is not broken is that the intention
of the law is ignored and forgotten, and the intention is what\'s more
important.

I\'ll wrap this up.  In the interest of promoting localism in program
broadcasting, I challenge the FCC to use the relationship ------ use
your relationship with the radio stations to encourage them to include
local and independent artists in their regular rotational air play, and
I challenge the broadcasters, both local radio stations and corporate
giants, to innovate new ideas and programming, spreading creativity and
bringing the artistry back into music broadcasting. Thank you.

(Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Good afternoon.  Good afternoon, Chairman Powell and
to the Commission and to the other fine people on the panel.  I
appreciate you\'re staying here tonight.  As I listened to you on

C---Span and saw how you went through some of the grilling on Congress,
I know there\'s a lot of people on Capitol Hill that are concerned about
these issues and I\'m glad to see that my Congressional Number 28
representative\'s here tonight to hear the comments and concerns that we
have tonight.

I\'d like to thank Mr. Freeman for his Zydeco music because one of my
roommates at the University of Houston was one of the Tibideaux
families; and, you know, the Tibideaux have a big presence in
Louisiana.  And I also would like to thank the NAACP for being here
tonight, and also the comments of my friends Heather and Ms. Petty,
about the east side of San Antonio.

I, as an African---American male, and my name is Charles English for the
record, I am the President and founder of the Jefferson Heights
Neighborhood Association.  I also sit on board of representing Districts
One and Two for the representative of the poor, and I\'m a little
concerned about what\'s happening and this is about communication.

And tonight I didn\'t find a packet for myself, but I had to pick up one
off the floor.  So, Commissioner, if we want to start communicating, let
us start here in these types of hearings.  And I think that if we pick
things up off the floor, that\'s pretty much how I feel that my
community on the East side is being treated when it comes to
communication in this city. 

So, I would say to you, Mr. Glade from Clear Channel, you can start by
participating in National Night Out, when we come against crime and
those types of drugs in our community.  We want to see your presence in
our community.  And some of you others who are hear tonight hearing
these fine people, do not let ------ don\'t go back to Washington unless
you really are going to make a change, sir. 

We really need an opportunity here.  This is an opportunity to be heard,
and there are no avenues for us to be heard.  So, I had to come here
tonight on a bit of urgency after the board meeting just to tell you
tonight that the African---American male is being demonized across this
country.  And we need to change that, and the only way we can change
that, if you give those of us who are doing good things in our community
and our city to bring about a change, give us the opportunity to be
heard, and thank you very much.

(Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER; Mr. Chairman, Commissioners.  I know y\'all are tired
just as much as everyone else.  But I want to ask:  What will your
legacy be, the legacy of this Commission?  Will it be the Commission
that had the courage to stand up to the well---heeled, well---financed,
well---entrenched lobbyists in the communications industry that had
their way and continued to have their way, despite of the ------ the
voices of millions, not just these few, but millions of Americans who
are depending on you and who are trusting you to do what is wise, what
is good, and asking you to have the courage. 

We realize the pressures on you are tremendous.  The financial
pressures ------ even as we speak, I know that the lobbyists for the
industry are being arrogant, and confident that ------ let the people
say what they will, we\'ve got the inside track, we\'ve got the
connections, we\'ve got the ears.  Have courage.  Let this be your
legacy. 

We ------ is it not a fact that at this time that there\'s pressure
being brought to bear on the Commission to open up bandwidth in the
sacred military and educational areas of the ------ higher gigahertz
ranges to provide more and more efficient wireless Internet access
service?  I hear these on National Public Radio, Public Radio
International, Texas Public Radio, BBC.  Why should I have to hear those
things there? 

Many things, local radio, we\'ve got good arguments pro and con.  But
what is the access and the wisdom of having conglomerate ownership of so
many licensed broadcasting stations unless it\'s for profit?  And if it
is so, then the more public people, the more public that can get
involved and invest, maybe there\'s a positiveness to it.  But when you
have the largest corporation compared to the other two locally that are
here, and there\'s between 25 to 30 percent higher per share value, the
public citizen has to give to the smaller, too. 

The multi---licensing and the other branches of their business present a
closed circuit.  There\'s no more time on the airwaves than what we
have.  There\'s no more band width on the frequencies than what are
physically there.  Regulating them, controlling them and the power is
yours.  It is yours. 

All the laws made presently and the future, if they do not conform to
the six orders of ordination of the U.S. Constitution in the preamble,
then rules and regulations as well.  It\'s your microphone, you control
the time, I realize it, sir.  But have this to be a legacy of courage. 
Don\'t be short sighted in thinking once you serve your time, and
you\'ve done your duty, public service, that you\'ll go on to become
another well---heeled, well---financed,

well---entrenched lobbyist for the industry.  Think further.  Y\'all
will be our great leaders if you can stand up, sir.  Thank you.

(Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  My name is Chris Peterson, and I\'ve been a citizen of
San Antonio all my life.  First and foremost, I want to thank you for
this opportunity to speak on behalf of San Antonio and the surrounding
communities. 

I think most of us can agree that in our society in America today two
crucial elements that affect everyone of all ages is television and
radio broadcasting.  A lot of our culture is molded and shaped by what
we perceive and process through these two key media outlets.  For those
of us who have been exposed to these media elements for over 20 years,
we have seen quite a change in what is viewed and heard on a daily
basis.  There are many things that have been added that yesterday were
considered obscene, and unfortunately, today, they have simply been
deemed acceptable. 

For most in this great country we live in, our most precious and
valuable assets that we influence and educate is our children, our
future.  I think it is essential that we stand up for our future and our
children to say what is immoral yesterday is still immoral today.  What
was indecent then is indecent now, and what is unethical will always be
unethical.  Gentlemen and ladies, your task in our society is one of
great power and responsibility, and I pray you truly understand that the
depth of your actions is the direct result of where our future is
fashioned for years to come. 

Thank you again for your time, and God bless you.

(Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Hello. My name is Steve James.  I would like to enter
into the public record of these proceedings a 2001 report done by ------
a 2001 report done by the National Telecommunication Information
Administration, under the Department of Commerce, a report titled
\"Minority Commercial Broadcasting Ownership in the United States.\"  At
the core of this report it states that because of media consolidation
minority broadcast owners have had limited access to advertising dollars
in a given market. 

Also at ------ also at the rep ------ also the report states minorities
have been adversely affected in broadcast employment and in training
opportunities.  This is why I believe ------ I believe in further
expansion of such a service as low---power FM.  Thank you. 

(Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Chairman Powell, and Members of the Commission, as well
as the other distinguished panel guests.  Thank you for being here
today, and thank you for extending the opportunity for us to speak with
you past 9:30. 

My name is Shawn Zacharia (phonetic). I\'m the Division Director for the
March of Dimes, and I would like to take this opportunity to express how
supportive KENS---5 has been to our organization throughout the years. 

KENS---5 has been vital to helping us accomplish our mission, and that
is improving the health of babies by preventing birth defects and infant
mortality.  They have demonstrated their support by sponsoring Walk
America. 

Walk America is our cornerstone fundraising event. And here in San
Antonio, our budget is \$301,000, so 78 percent of our budget is made on
Walk America.  So because of KENS---5\'s help in supporting Walk
America, March of Dimes is able to support our lifesaving programs and
research that benefit the San Antonio community.  And this is
accomplished locally by programs of community service advocacy,
education and public and health professionals, as well as grants. 

Part of KENS---5\'s support includes providing on---air personalities to
help us lead our campaigns.  Last year we were very fortunate to have
Bill Taylor serve as an honorary Walk America Chairman. KENS---5 was
very receptive in helping and starting the KENS---5 Walk America team. 
Bill assisted us tremendously in this effort.

In addition to support of Walk America, Wendy Rigby has always been by
amenable when we\'ve had news story ideas.  When she covers a story for
us, she does an exceptional job by making every story interesting and
worthwhile to the viewers. 

Her stories have helped educate viewers about what they can do to
decrease the incidences of birth defects by focusing on topics, such as
folic acid, and the growing problem of premature births.  And then
finally, the creative department makes us feel like they\'re part of
their community.

And I know I just have a couple of seconds, but I\'d like to also
briefly point out how supportive Clear Channel has been to us as well. 
They, too, provide honor personalities to support our events such as
Walk America and Star Chefs.  They also provide AV equipment.  And that
AV equipment when it\'s donated to us, we don\'t have to purchase it,
which helps us save money and that money goes towards research. 

And I would like to pay particular attention to two people, Tim
Kieslings (phonetic). He\'s the Promotions Director for Clear Channel
radio as well as Tom Glade, the Market Manager for Clear Channel radio.
They have provided us with expert media advice, not just with their
stations, but as our community as a whole helping us within March of
Dimes do better community service and strategically do our marketing for
this community.  And I thank you for your time this evening.

(Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Chairman Powell, Commissioners, I am Mark Rodriguez, a
small business owner from Austin, Texas and also Chairman of the Greater
Austin Hispanic Chamber of Congress. I\'m here to report on a successful
program in Austin, Texas. 

We partner with KXAN-TV in Austin, Texas.  We co---produce a community
survey which is actually a business tool.  We will co---analyze the
survey results, which is actually market intelligence.  The success of
the Hispanic and minority entrepreneur is our number one goal as an
organization.  This program is like going to business school for free. 
We, we encourage more partners ------ partnerships like this in
communities across the country.  Stay tuned. We\'re going back to work. 
Thank you.

(Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Good evening.  Thank you all.  I\'m John Champaign
(phonetic), citizen and proponent of Walter Cronkite draft for
president.  What if the people really owned the airwaves?  Then those
who use the airwaves for profit would pay compensation to the owners,
the people, for the use of the people\'s property? 

(Applause.)

When the people judge that what\'s broadcast is in the public interest,
the people will give a rebate or maybe even pay for the broadcast, the
production.  When the people judge that what\'s broadcast is already
over broadcast, is titillating, is serving the private interest of those
who seek profit, then maybe the, the fee will go up, and we\'ll see less
of what we don\'t want to see on the air. 

Let\'s really have the people own the airwaves.  And let the people
sculpt the use of the airwaves by saying what is serving the public
interest and not let those who want to use it for profit decide that
their bottom line is equating to the public interest.  Thank you.

(Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  I want to thank you for the opportunity.  I finally
got to be an anchorman. 

(Laughter.)

I\'m Ernest Bronny (phonetic), a senior citizen who listens to local
radio.  I used to watch TV but a number of years ago I turned it off.  I
didn\'t like the direction it was going and what was coming off of
programming.  The news media always seemed to be the same. There were
issues that I was interested in that never got on the news media. 

I listen to KTSA.  This is not a commercial.  I\'m a senior citizen.  I
picked that station because of what it does for me.  I belong to several
nonprofit organizations here. I\'m with the San Antonio Audubon Society
and the Mitchell Lake Wetland Society. I'm the annual compilant for the
Christmas Bird Count.  KTSA has been very supportive of us. They\'ve
interviewed me on the radio to promote the Christmas Bird Count and
other events and activities we\'ve been involved with. 

I get many, many issues, current issues the community issues, that they
bring up for people to discuss.  And it\'s give and take.  And they give
both sides. One of the most recent ones that I\'m really proud of them
in doing is they brought to the floor the issue of the EPA and the ozone
and the governmental agencies that were pushing for tailpipe emissions
control.  And they were able to show repeatedly, and brought people
forward with evidence that this doesn\'t work and it\'s a rip off on the
public, and for them I thank you, particularly a senior citizen on a
limited income ------ fixed income, that would have been more money out
of my pocket, which they showed was not justified. 

I want to compliment KTSA on their weather coverage particularly during
extreme adverse weather.  In the floods of 1998 and two years after that
and more recently, they actually terminated all their current
programming and went strictly to weather reports and gave the community
an up---to---date running account through the whole storm of what was
going on to help the people and protect the people in the interest of
the people.  They should be commended for that. 

Another area is that this part of Texas, South Texas, has a lot of gun
owners, a lot of hunters.  I\'m a volunteer instructor for Texas Parks
and Wildlife.  I teach\... (inaudible) \...education. I get a lot of
questions about gun control issues.  KTSA brings people in who present
the pro---gun side.  How much of the news media will you find giving the
pro---gun side?  You get plenty of the anti---gun side, very little.
National media, you won\'t hear anything pro---gun on that. KTSA gives
both sides, lets people chime in and call in and talk about and discuss
it. 

And the last thing that may sound kind of trivial to most people, but I
appreciate the traffic reports that they put on every 15 minutes.  If
you\'re driving around San Antonio and do a lot of driving like I do,
you\'re going to appreciate that.  It saves me a lot of gas.  It saves
me a lot of waiting and waiting in traffic jams, and probably has saved
me some accidents by being able to take alternate routes because they
alerted me as to what\'s going on. 

So, I thank you very much for taking the time to listen to it all, and I
certainly appreciate you making me an anchor man.  Good night.

(Applause.)

CHAIRMAN POWELL:  And that\'s the rest of the story. 

(Laughter.)

That was our last speaker in the open-mic.  I would like to ask my
colleagues if any of them have any final comments for this evening.

COMMISSIONER COPPS: I just want to thank everybody.  I think the hour is
late.  This is obviously an involved and caring ------ 

(Audience: Can\'t hear you.)

This is obviously an involved and a caring and a concerned community,
who went through a great deal of trouble to share a lot of information
with us this evening.  Our job now is to take it back and make sure
it\'s part of our deliberations on license renewal and localism and on
all the other items on our agenda. 

I want to thank the panelists.  I want to thank you people who took the
time, and waited a long time to get in here to help us out.  I think
it\'s been a good evening.  I never go to one of these where I don\'t
learn a lot and I learned a lot this evening and I\'m grateful for it.

(Applause.)

COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN:  I\'d just echo that by saying that I think the
people of San Antonio have a lot of wisdom, and that we need to take it
back to Washington.  I want to thank my colleagues for being out here
and sticking ------ sticking with this.  It\'s really a historic thing
to get all five of us together like this. 

We miss our families, but we think this has been, I think, very
worthwhile.  I\'ve learned a lot. It\'s like a giant ascertainment
effort, and I appreciate the fact the broadcasters stayed here and
everybody on the panel stayed here, because you heard a lot of deep
concerns, and you\'ve heard a lot of good compliments, and I think you
need to take that back to and share it with your colleagues, do more of
what you\'re hearing good things about and address the concerns that you
heard. 

So I just want to thank everybody for sticking with it to the end here.

(Applause.)

CHAIRMAN POWELL:  This has been a tremendously vigorous hearing, and it
shouldn\'t be any other way, I think, in a democracy, and we really
appreciate the people of San Antonio for providing us the opportunity to
be in their fair city.  And we appreciate all of you for staying through
a long evening and night to give us the kind of information, data and
record that we will need to make thoughtful and substantive judgments. 

We\'re thankful to you. We\'re grateful for you.  We\'re humbled by the
trust you put in us to serve the public interest, and we will continue
to do that to the best of our abilities. 

Thank you very much, and thank you for joining us here at the Federal
Communications Commission.  This meeting is adjourned.

Thank you.

(Applause.)

(Hearing adjourns at 11:00 p.m.)