My former radio station (AA affiliate) ATTACKED by Reich Fundies!!

[Rick Myers]

Until last winter I did talk radio at a small station in the YOungstown-Warren, OH market, butleft to move to Minneapolis. Eventually, my old cohost got an LMA deal with the station and it became an Air America affiliate about a month ago.

One of the minority owners, a Mike Arch, is a Fundie Christian, and this week provided keys to a group that occupied the station, changed the locka and began running Reich-wing Christ Talk!!! It took police and other city officials severasl hours to get them to surrender peacefully!!!

In the meantime they were operating the station in violation of federal law, and putting Reich wing posters and signs in the windows!!!

Here's the first story from the Warren, OH newspaper:

http://www.tribune-chronicle.com/news/story/0429202005_new07wanr29.asp

More to come,

Rick

[LiberalEsto]

1. Have they called the cops?

And the FCC?

This is outrageous.

[Rick Myers]

2. Both notified

There will be more info in a bit, I'm waiting for an update!

Their operation of the station, even for a few hours, is a FEDERAL CRIME!!! Police left the fundies go without charges, but they ADMITTED getting the keys from Mike Arch, a minority owner.

Don and Tim have an airtight LMA, the WAR is on!!!!!

[LiberalEsto]

6. Contact rawstory too!

http://rawstory.com/

[Arugula Latte]

3. Randi and Al and the gang

need to be all over this. Don't let this rest.

These fucking nuts have got to be stopped.

[Rick Myers]

4. WANR does not run Al, but I'm emailing Randi now

Malloy has also been informed.

[crispini]

5. Wow!

That's amazing. They must really think we're dangerous. Good. :evilgrin:

[Roland99]

7. Damn militant fundamentalists

Jesus would have been SO proud.


:eyes:

[gratuitous]

8. So, it's apparently consonant with their Christian beliefs

To lie, steal and misappropriate the public's airwaves for their personal use?

In a thread earlier this week, someone wondered why progressive and liberal Christians were distancing themselves from their fundamentalist co-religionists. May I offer Exhibit A?

[FreedomAngel82]

10. Yep

These people are just disgusting. They know they're losing people's support so they're getting desperate and see AAR as a threat. Disgusting. And these people dare call themselves Christians.

[Speck Tater]

9. And so the "cold" civil war starts to heat up.

Pretty soon neocons will be shooting at liberals. Rush must be so proud of himself for all the hate he's inspired.

[oneold1-4u]

13. The first shot fired

Will soon be heard around the world! It is now only a matter of WHEN!
There won't be a "mason dixon" and the lines will be indistinguishable (wow! 17 letter word) because it will all be Americans. The government today still makes no distinction of who dies in Iraq. It will be no different right here. Just another nationwide WACO!

[PleadTheFirst]

36. WACO Nation ...

what a terrifying and entirely possible thought. :(

[AllegroRondo]

11. How will Fox spin this?

Christians persecuted for airing their beliefs.

[ronnykmarshall]

32. Fuck Fox

and the dinosaur the rode in on.

[DearAbby]

39. Fox is just a business selling lies...Since they are a business they also

have the right to lie. That is their product, and there is a demand for their product. Most disgusting, the news is a product, to manlipulate, re-invent, spin, sell it, high dollar sponsers control it.

[DesEtoiles]

12. I just e-mailed the author of the newspaper story and urged more coverage

let's name names and find out exactly who did this and what they have to say for themselves

[Rick Myers]

15. Thanks...

I'm expecting an update from the station shortly... Unfortunately, Don doesn't take his cell phone on the golf course with him!!!

There WILL be serious repercussions over this. If I WOULD HAVE BEEN THERE it would have been over in 10 minutes! Glad I WASN'T there!!!

Randi, Malloy, AA, and RawStory all have the story now...

[Nite Owl]

14. Can you imagine the coverage of

this is some liberals did this to one of them? It would be breaking news on all the networks by now. I hope this gets some coverage, more than local. These fundies are so nuts.

[Blue Belle]

44. Look at all the "Moral Outrage" from the right last week...

over the "bit" on Randi's Show. It was a stupid bit, but Neo-cons were calling for her had on a platter even after she apologized! It's my guess that this Christian Coup won't even be a blip on the news.

Media Liberal bias my ass...

[sarcasmo]

16. Here it begins in Youngstown Ohio not far from good ole Kent State.

The taking over of America by the Right Wing elite. This is pure Nazism at it's finest. I will start becoming more involved in the resistance now.

[Rick Myers]

17. The studio is in Warren, right on courthouse square

The FREAKS put up Fundie signs and UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT signs in the window until they agreed to leave. All were IDed and photographs.

At least ONE of these asshats is a KNOWN "Protest Warrior" for Dubya!

[Roland99]

23. Not that guy who was appearing at Kerry rallies w/his daughter, was it?

[AntiCoup2K4]

27. Not Phil ParlocKKK. Doesn't fit his M.O.

Phil will only act in a way that makes Democrats appear to be the guilty party. I.e. "union thugs" (who look exactly like his son) ripping a sign away from his hysterically crying (on cue) child. Or "angry liberals" shooting up Repuke headquarters right when he happens to be present.

[prodigal_green]

18. Has homeland security been notified?

This sounds like an act of terrorism to me. Seriously. Comandeering airwaves is usually the first thing that an army does when taking over a government.

[Rick Myers]

19. Not a bad idea!!!

:evilgrin: Should I do 'dat? :evilgrin:

[OneTwentyoNine]

24. The airwaves are a Federally controlled entinty.....

Those fucks should be brought up on Federal charges,this is serious shit not some Animal House type of prank.

[leftofthedial]

20. fundamentalism is mental illness

and should be considered an aggravating factor when crime is committed, like being armed.

[bvar22]

21. Prosecute to the FULLEST extent of the LAW....

...and then file CIVIL suits against the Organizations and Individuals. The listeners may be able to file Class Action. These people are criminals, and need to be treated as such.

[prodigal_green]

40. Also the advertisers should be notified and they can sue

they pay for air time and one would assume that the wing-nuts that took over the station failed to honor those commitments.

I would love to see Geico, or one of the penis-enhancing herbal remedy companies come down on those folks like a ton of bricks.

[Ysolde]

22. Why do I feel like the police ...

wouldn't have been so nice to Liberals doing this to a Fundie radio station? Call my cynical, but this stuff is scary and starting to worry me. Have you sent it to Keith Olberman?

[OneTwentyoNine]

25. They allowed those ass clowns to merely LEAVE after the take over???

What the FUCK?!?! The Police should have hauled their asses down to the closest lock-up for this kind of shit. Jesus....

[Rick Myers]

26. A city official intervened

Seems one of the Protest Warriors is the son of a local pol!!!

[Wizard777]

29. Not his jurisdiction!

They failed to notify the FBI who would be the proper authority. Then they aided and abeited the escape of the criminal's that overthrew a federally protected radio station. Today's they overthrow a radio station and tommorrow it's America.

[PleadTheFirst]

37. Prosecute the son to the fullest extent of the law,

and drive the father out of office.

[htuttle]

28. This story doesn't make sense to me

Like this here:
"We had a board operator (on duty) who, with permission, locked the building and left to run an errand,'' Continenza said. "When he returned, they were in control of the radio station ... They posted signs that Beacon Broadcasting was under new management. They changed the locks and changed the programming.''

They changed the locks? How long do you suppose that takes?

And they had control of the programming for TWO DAYS and nobody did nothing? It didn't even break the surface of the media universe?

I think that Mike Arch was responsible for the whole thing. No way they are going to get off with no charges unless one of the owners put them up to it. Even with that, can you imagine police and city officials negotiating for several hours, and then letting everyone off with no charges? Arch must have run interference with the police for this to be.

The whole of the story just doesn't hold together for me. And I generally have a pretty good BS detector. I'm sure something happened, and that the station ran Christian Talk for two days, but I don't think it happened the way I'm hearing it did.

[Rick Myers]

30. The article is a bit confusing

The first incident was the 'occupation,' and it ended in a few hours. The NEXT day the stations 'studio to transimitter link' was damaged at the transmitter site, several miles away. Two related incidents, and Mike Arch IS responsible. He provided the keys to the perps. Arch is a minority owner who does NOT approve of the negotiated LMA with the new mgt... He wants to SELL the entire station to a Christian group out of Akron.

More to come...

[Nikki Stone 1]

31. HOMELAND SECURITY's definition of "terrorism"

"The term ‘‘terrorism ’’means any activity that

(A)involves an act that

(i)is dangerous to human life or potentially destructive of critical infrastructure or key resources;and

(ii)is a violation of the criminal laws
of the United States or of any State or other
subdivision of the United States;and

(B)appears to be intended —

(i)to intimidate or coerce a civilian
population;

(ii)to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion;or

(iii)to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction,assassination,or kidnapping."

[wryter2000]

33. One good sign of all this

They're feeling threatened. Can you imagine...a bit on Randi made big news this week? A mention even got into a White House press briefing.

AAR is making a difference. I sincerely believe it's only been because of their screaming about the way the House ethics committee was being eviscerated that put pressure on Hastert to go back to the old rules.

[dmr]

38. Will you elaborate, wryter2000?

a bit on Randi made big news this week? A mention even got into a White House press briefing.

What did Randi say that made big news and made its way into a WH briefing?

This sounds like something good.

Thanks :)

[Blue Belle]

45. Regarding the bit on Randi's show...

(and please note that I only caught the last part of it) It was basically a radio skit that somehow elicited a threat on the life of the President. I only heard the end, which had sounds of gunfire... it was supposed to be a joke that really wasn't funny. Randi (who said she never hears the skits before the show) took full responsibility for the skit and apologized... but the genie was let out of the bottle, and Fox, MSNBC, and even the Today Show made mention of it - Fox and MSNBC (Scarborough) even planned shows around it. Hell, Scarborough even had G. Gordon Liddy on to comment.

Here's one of the DU threads on it:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3561241

[OnionPatch]

46. I heard the whole thing

And it WAS SO funny. I was in a cranky mood but it got a few chuckles out of me anyway. Also, it was OBVIOUSLY just a joke. Just a simple joke about some old people getting pissed about their social security and mobbing the Whitehouse. I'm stunned that anyone thought anything about it other than it was a joke. What a pathetic bunch of whining crybabies. :nopity:

[wryter2000]

48. Sorry I didn't find this before

Randi's show had one of those comic spots about social security. In it, an old man got angry with a "young whelp" for messing with his social security and threatened him with a gun. The next day, Drudge ran an item that Randi was being investigated for threatening the President. Some reporter asked McClellan about it. It even got picked up by Fox and their poll of the day was about whether AAR's apology had been sufficient.

Randi handled it like a pro. First, she said she didn't like the spot and she doesn't appreciate threats of violence against anyone. Then, she made a sincere apology to * and his family if anything on her show made them feel in danger. Then, she said she'd be willing to go to jail as long as Liddy went to jail for telling people to shoot at federal agents' heads and Coulter went to jail for saying about Clinton "the decision now is whether to impeach him or assassinate him."

She refused to play the bit again because she thought it was bad. She insisted on apologizing, even though all her callers told her she didn't need to. Finally, one called who heard the spot told her that a man was threatening his son, not *.

And all through it, she insisted it was stoopid to make that a story with so much important stuff going on.

[librechik]

34. Jeebus! Hope someone cracks down on them hard!

can't allow crap like this, fer shur!

[paineinthearse]

35. Another way fundies influence the media

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=158x4259#4263

[MontageOfFreedom]

41. Its time to make this stop now.

Fundamentalist zealots and the horrible media who is helping them persecute liberals needs to be taught a lesson.

[demo dutch]

42. This is going TOO far!

[Cats Against Frist]

43. Well, they're scared

that's obvious. Afraid people might get the chance to be confronted with equally entertaining outragefests from the left, and get a brain.

[OnionPatch]

47. That's near my hometown!

I'll have to call Mom right away and tell her Air America has a station nearby! She'll be so happy! And I'm sure she'll pass the word to all her friends who also love AA.