The day the music died?

By Michael Edwards
Contributing Writer
Columbus Post

On May 5, 2006, the plug was pulled abruptly on 1580 WVKO-AM radio, a 55-year voice and pulse of the local black community. With recent zoning approval by city’s Building Services Division, Bernard Radio Ohio LLC, the station’s new owner, has begun construction on four 150-foot transmission towers at 2708 Morse Road, just east of Cleveland Avenue.
“ So that’s what is going on over there,” said Northland-area resident Gregg Smead of the nondescript lot with no telltale signage and construction equipment parked amongst various metal rods.
“ Bernard Radio is leasing the nine-acre property from us having been granted the zoning variances from Columbus City Council last September,” Columbus Urban Growth Corp. spokesman Mike Duffey confirmed. “We consider this a productive, unobtrusive use of the land.”
Duffey added that Bernard Radio will be responsible for appropriate fencing and/or landscaping to prevent the site from becoming an eyesore to nearby residents. It was a point of initial concern of the Brandywine Civic Association who, Duffey says, is now satisfied with the terms of the lease.
The former antenna, which broadcasted from Johnstown, Ohio, about 25 miles from downtown Columbus, could only effectively reach about 66 percent of the city. The new larger antennaes will transmit at a combined 3,000 watts (290 watts at sunset) in contrast to the 1,000 watts (250 watts at sunset) as the previous antenna did.
Chris McMurray, a spokesperson with Bernard Radio, said the new WVKO 1580 AM is scheduled to return to the airwaves this May but is unsure what the format will be. “We’ve been primarily concentrating on the technical aspects and battling the over-saturated wet ground.” McMurray also said no decision has been made yet how or if any of the former staff will be rehired. Sister station 103.1 FM is currently being leased to a Spanish-speaking media outlet and will remain so for the time being.
Reminiscing about Kirk Bishop, Les Brown, Mike Reeves, Mel Griffin and Eddie Saunders, all former on-air personalities, Smead said he misses WVKO and says he hopes the new owners remain true the station’s roots.
WVKO went off the air in 2006 due to the expiration of its former transmitter land lease and major financial difficulties.
“ It (was) a pretty sad day for the station,” said Brad Scher, who told 10 employees, including talk show host Charles Traylor, that they were losing their jobs.
Scher, who was appointed by the federal bankruptcy court to oversee the restructuring of the station, said he shut it down temporarily because the transmission-tower lease expired at the end of May (2006) and the station was continuing to bleed money.
Percy Squire, a local attorney who also served chief executive officer for the radio station’s former owner, Stop 26-Riverbend, said Scher’s and subsequently Bernard Radio’s actions are being driven by greed.
“ It was swindle, while not illegal, certainly not ethical or moral,” Squire told the Columbus Post, citing the difficulties that small independent radio owners have when large media conglomerates dominate the market. “They quickly change and dominate the market while scooping the advertising dollars away.”
Squire said the station began to face severe financial difficulties but remained committed to serving what he describes as an under-served population with news and information. Prior to the Telecommunications Act of 1996, Squire maintains that WVKO had always been a moneymaker. The Act was championed as a way to foster competition, but instead it has led to historic industry consolidation, reducing the number of major media companies from around 80 in 1986, to 6 in 2005.
“ Bernard Radio LLC is nothing more than front for Z.B. Zwirn,” asserted Squire. “Whereas WVKO has been an important community asset and voice, for Zwirn, it’s nothing more than a investment.... a hedge fund of sorts.”
Other independent or minority-owned radio license holders, like Dave Schum, share Squire’s views. Schum was the former manager of KFCD 990 AM and KHSE 700 AM in Dallas, Texas. “The reality is that larger conglomerates that came as a result of the Act don’t reflect the taste of the community nor care about the communities they overtake,” said Schum. “I made the same mistake with Zwirn and was also forced into bankruptcy.”
At a ‘Future of Media’ forum hosted by the FCC at the Broad Street Presbyterian Church earlier this month, the three commissioners present heard a similar message over and over: Ohio’s minority population is not being well-served by policies that allow the consolidation of media. Two of the commissioners, Jonathan S. Adelstein and Michael J. Copps, agreed. Fellow commissioner Robert M. McDowell listened intently.
Follow-up calls by the Columbus Post to Scher were referred to Bernard Radio who, subsequently, deferred direct comment.

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