Group opposes public station's license renewal

A group of 30 WCQS-FM Asheville-area listeners, calling themselves the Ad-Hoc Committee for Responsive Public Radio, has filed a petition with the FCC to deny the public radio station's license renewal. The station's license expired on Dec. 1, but the FCC automatically extended it while they consider the petition to deny, the station's response to the petition, and the Ad-Hoc Committee's rebuttal, which was submitted by mail on Saturday (Dec. 17).

The committee faults the station for being unresponsive to, and uninterested in, the views of its listeners. The group cites the fact that the station violated the Public Broadcasting Act for 13 years by not having a community advisory board (CAB), while testifying each year that they were in compliance with all federal laws in order to receive funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Forced to re-establish a CAB four years ago, WCQS management did not ask their Community Advisory Board for its advice before making sweeping program changes this year. These included the elimination of all local and national half-hour public affairs programming, a popular gardening show and a one-hour Celtic music program.

The committee also complains that the station, until this year, had not conducted any listener surveys, and the recent survey took place only after the program changes were made. Other gripes include not broadcasting programs requested by many listeners, not responding to mail from listeners, not airing programs created by any local independent producers, and violating the station's own mission statement as presented on their own website. That statement says that part of their mission is to broadcast local talk programs.

"Rather than offer to meet with critics, the station is spending who knows how much listener-donated money hiring Washington communications attorneys to represent them," according to Fred Flaxman, the committee's coordinator. "This is further evidence of their non-responsiveness to the community they are licensed to serve," he added.

Flaxman has a public broadcasting background, having retired to Weaverville after serving as a top executive for five public broadcasting stations throughout the U.S.

"It truly pains me to be fighting with a public radio station," Flaxman said, "because I have devoted my career to public radio and television and believe very strongly in the benefit they are to society. I moved to this area six years ago and volunteered to serve on WCQS's Community Advisory Board. That's when I learned that they didn't have one -- and didn't want one. I helped them reinstitute one, but gave up when I saw that their manager wanted to control the CAB and didn't want it to be the independent advisory body it is supposed to be. I only wished to see WCQS become the excellent public radio station this great community deserves. I would have preferred to work with them toward that end rather than against them."

Access to online pdf files of the Committee's "Petition to Deny," the station's "Opposition to Petition to Deny," and the Committee's "Response to Opposition to Petition to Deny" are available on request. Contact Flaxman at fflaxman@frontier.com.