Religious nut-jobs have taken over my Air America Station

[JohnnyRingo]

The Sad Saga of
WANR-AM Warren OH (formerly talk, gospel, sports)

I was thrilled last month when my local radio station bought into the Air America family, even though Al Franken's show wasn't aired, perhaps as a cost saving tactic made possible by Air Am's new owner's flexible "ala carte" menu options.

After a few weeks of Rhodes, Garofalo, and recently Springer, the station was hi-jacked by some religious right wingers and their preacher from nearby Niles.

They entered the station while the engineer was on an errand, changed the locks(?), and hung a "new management" sign, then began running taped spiritual programming.

After being forced out with pending criminal charges, they came back the next day to disable the station's server, effectively shutting down the programming for several hours. The FCC vowed at the time to investigate.

It turns out that among this group of Christian pirates was a former station manager who was openly trying to gain control of that station and a sister station in nearby Greenville PA with intent to return to a Christian format. He has succeeded.

Randi Rhodes' message board discussed the coup yesterday (5/18):
http://www.therandirhodesshow.com/randirhodes/messageboards/index.php?showtopic=51116&pid=427706&st=0&#entry427706

Here is the unmoderated message board of Trumbull County Democratic Party official and station program mgr. Don Hanni III: (not for the squeamish or those shocked by Freeper insults)
http://www.thenewtalkofthetown.com/board.php

Now this is what we have in the way of "liberal media" in Warren;
http://hometown.aol.com/image1966/page3.html

I used feel more compassion and respect for people's religious convictions, but I feel after it's been shoved in my otherwise tolerant face for the last several years that they're spoiling for war.

[Psephos]

1. Sounds like they were smacked out on "Christ-al" meth. n/t

[Voltaire99]

17. LOL, nice one (nt)

[knowbody0]

2. call the network

complain. get the word to AAR. get everyone to call

[prodigal_green]

3. I heard something similar about a month ago

is this the same story? If not, then the FBI should be looking into this as an organized crime syndicate. They are stealing in the most heinous way from advertisers and from Air America as well as its listeners.

This has nothing to do with compassion for people's religious convictions. They committed a crime, pure and simple.

[blondeatlast]

31. Sounds like it could fall under RICO if the stories are from 2 different

locations.

This bears monitoring, in any case if the incidents are separate.

[aquart]

4. They STOLE the airwaves?

And the government allowed it???

So why don't we steal Clear Channel?

Do we have a government anymore? What a sad, sorry end to the American dream.

[gmoney]

5. womder if that would work for my local hate radio station?

Something between Airheads and Pump Up the Volume?

[KaliTracy]

6. warren county -- home of the "terror alert" lock down on election night

http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/11/10/loc_warrenvote10.html

looks like they do things their own way there... I Hope this gets looked into!

[oscar111]

9. 1.Breaking and Entering 2. Malicious Vandalism {server}.

seems like open and shut cases. Little doubt what happened in the first case.

Unless the local sherrif is corrupt, the reverend is looking at several years in prison.

"the wheels of justice grind slowly, but they grind extremely fine".

This may take months to reach a trial, but by all logic, it should happen.

[JohnnyRingo]

11. That was Warren County....This is Warren city in NE Ohio

Just North of Youngstown in Trumbull County.

Very Democratic union town supported by GM Lordstown and Delphi (Packard Electric Systems).

In '04 we voted 2-1 for Kerry.

[oscar111]

13. then i would predict justice in this case, eventually

i wonder if the feds would also be interested in this case.

[KaliTracy]

14. oops, my bad.... sorry!

guess I really should be getting to bed...

[tmorelli415]

7. Right Wing Loons Love to Take Over Radio Stations - Think Poland 1939

Too wierd... It all sounds a little too 'staged' for my tatste--sort of 'cute' like a bunch of nuns taking over a radio station. The absurdity of it all gets only giggles at first; that belies the seriousness of the story. What's more insidious: if a bunch of liberals pulled a stunt like that, they'd still be in jail awaiting trial for half a dozen criminal charges. And then the right wing hatchet machine would ensure that this was the lead news story for days, and they'd waste no time chuckling to one aother on the air with this little 'joke' that the meme would use to snark anything a liberal said on or about the 'liberal airawaves.' I can just hear Ann Coulter and Pat Buchanan laughing at guests as they tag team snark liberal radio hosts.

Reminds me that Nazis dressed as Polish soldiers staged a take over of a German radio station just across the border, took over for less than a day and the station was 'liberated' be German soldirs rushing across the border. It was one of the justifications they used for the invasion that started WWII. Do you hear a collective cheer rise up in the pews of evangelical churches across the country as preachers relate this story: "Heil!""

<sigh>

[Stinky The Clown]

8. Make no mistake, this is an early skirmish in a civil war that will soon

blossom to full flower.

Not north south .... neighbor against neighbor.

This was clearly an act of aggression on an ideological icon (your town's little AM radio station).

[benburch]

10. I wonder how long it would take to sever the guy wires on the mast?

If you doused the bolts with some 16 molar H2SO4?

No, I'm not really suggesting that we do that. But I WISH that I could.

[oscar111]

12. "recommend for Greatest Page" button at bott of origianl post

...

[VTMechEngr]

19. It would take more than sulfuric acid. Even at that stength.

[PA Mamma]

15. sister station...

in Greenville, PA ???

Ah, they're coming for us!

Is this the same story from a few weeks back?

[JohnnyRingo]

18. Same story

I searched for the original story in the Warren Tribune, but couldn't find it.

[PA Mamma]

21. you might want to post this in the Ohio forum here

I first read about this on the Mike Malloy board and then in the Ohio forum here on DU:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=172&topic_id=6293&mesg_id=6293

I really hope Ohioans can get this out there.

Now, about this sister station... where did you hear about that?

[JohnnyRingo]

25. Friday's Warren Tribune Chronicle mentioned the "sister" station (WEXC)

I was wrong about the call letters it's WEXC

WEXC (107.1 FM; GREENVILLE, PA; Owner: BEACON BROADCASTING, INC.)
WANR (1570 AM; 1 kW; WARREN, OH; Owner: BEACON BROADCASTING, INC.)

(I remembered the call letters by memory only, as the article isn't available online)
They claimed the stations were owned by the same corp and would adopt the new format according to the new majority holder.

[understandinglife]

16. Here's a simple little message I created for them:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=3699246&mesg_id=3699246

Peace.


www.missionnotaccomplished.us

[haele]

20. Similar happens to KLSD in San Diego sometimes...

There's a Christian talk and music station around the same frequency (AM1360) out of Yuma or Phoenix (somewhere in Arizona) that will sometimes forget during off air "maintenance" time and amp up their signal on clear, Santana (wind off the desert, very dry atmosphere) type mornings, giving us a morning drivetime hour or so of "Dr." Dobsen and other screed of that ilk until they get the warning from the FCC to quit it.

Sure, blame it on some flunky technician. "Gawd didit, He wanted his message to get out, it's not us..."

Right.

Haele

[freeplessinseattle]

22. Our phone transmitted a christian station when we lived near

that station, maybe a mile or two away. It was the strangest, and most annoying thing, didn't matter if we got new phones, they all would have this very low but clearly audible background of the christian broadcast when using the phone and we could even hear it from a few feet away on one phone when it was hung up. It was creepy and aggravating, happened to other people in the area too. I had to wonder...

(This was in Ferndale, WA, near Lynden,, which the movie "Footloose" was based one)

[TheGunslinger]

23. Wonder if there are any links to Blacksmell?

[NMMNG]

24. Love them 'moral values'

Breaking and entering, property damage, equipment tampering...nice to see them upholding the values they spent so much time barking about during the '04 election. :eyes:

[dxstone]

26. Holy Cow, Johnny! UNbelievable!!

I live in Cleveland; hadn't heard a peep about this one... fuckin' deaf, dumb and blind media; buncha freakin' pinball wizards with perfect hair...

So let's see if I have this straight... I can, like, go rob a bank in the name of JEEESSUSS!, and no one will prosecute me? I mean, this is REALLY GOOD news... I haven't worked in about four years...
UN-FREAKIN'-BELIEVABLE...
Apparently SOME people can simply do WHATEVER they want...
And what REALLY kills me is, they can follow a Nazi pope, and STILL get all their freakin' perks and discounts and shit...

FUCK! A NAZI POPE??

Ya can't even make stuff like that up...

I feel sick... and * isn't even any part of this story, 'cept maybe peripherally...
D
ps: Kicked and nominated!

[YankeyMCC]

27. This should be major news

This is supposed to be what we're fighting against. This is the Ohio Taleban.

[mopinko]

28. one more for the

"can you just imagine if we did that" file.

[blondeatlast]

32. If a LW group had tried this, their asses would be in Gitmo and it

would be 24/7 coverage on the schmooze channels.

What a world...

[Just Me]

29. Damn!!! Are they in jail, yet?

That's seriously messed up. I'd bet their behavior falls under our new "terrorist-related" laws. What charges have been brought against them.

This really wigs me out!!!!

[KharmaTrain]

30. Check Out This Post...How You Can Have Some Fun...

Sounds like this station is 9 toes over the cliff...might be able to give 'em a little push...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=3689035&mesg_id=3697535