FM Underground Radio: Love for Sale
San Francisco— — FM rock radio— — with new step-parents like Spiro Agnew and Dean Burch on the scene — —is going through some agonizing growth pains.
The aches cropped up suddenly last week, as the San Francisco FM scene spun through a quick succession of major changes— — which were, more correctly, indications of a new fight taking place, with FM rock in the middle, a mythical battle between station owners (we can call them the Chickens) and the FCC (the Paper Tigers).
It appears that “underground radio,” under the regressive nursing of network and/or corporate owners, is becoming just another spinoff of commercial, format radio. Top 40, middle-of-the-road, classical, country, R&B, and, now, “underground.”
In short, underground radio is safe stuff nowadays, no more “progressive” in terms of hard politics, experimentation with music, or communication with the so-called “alternate culture” than the everyday AM station. FM stations are sounding scared, but most of the fright, most of the fear, has been internal. The FCC, the governmental licensing body, has been making noises with its new chairman, ex-Goldwater campaign manager Dean Burch. But in 36 years, the FCC has lifted one (1) radio station license for something said on the air. A paper tiger.
The animal came to life last week in San Francisco, where the new radio form began almost exactly three years ago at KMPX-FM. This is where the first confrontation between true overground (KMPX management) and underground (its first full staff of longhairs) took place, partly over censorship the owner attributed to “FCC regulations.” The staff struck in March, 1968, and won a victory, of sorts, by finding a receptive new station at KSAN-FM. KSAN then became one of the first full-time rockers owned by a large corporation. It was inevitable that the immediate, warm paternalism would soon turn to lukewarm plasticity.
Here’s KSAN, Metromedia’s flowerstand in San Francisco. The communications corporation also runs an AM station and a UHF television station here, along with radio and TV outlets in half a dozen other major cities. Metromedia is big— — and it has just fallen, hard.
Tuesday afternoon, March 3rd, and KSAN’s spacious downtown offices are quiet. Well-lit and hushed, like a library reading room. Down the short hallway, past the Sears psychedelic wallpaper (the same pattern on the walls at sister station WNEW-FM in New York), Bob McClay is behind heavy doors, doing his show. In a nearby cubicle a UPI wire machine drones, periodically spewing out the news on its roll of yellow toilet paper.
In the lobby, a boyish, neatly-suited time salesman, a weekend announcer, a regular announcer, and a couple of visitors quietly go over KSAN’s woes. The big news today is KMPX, which had been limping along since the strike with a rather lifeless crew built around three scabs. Purchased by the National Science Network last winter, KMPX has suddenly picked up. The entire announcing staff has been fired; Bob Prescott, part of the original KMPX-KSAN family, has been appointed program director, and he’s hired a number of fine people— — two weekend announcers hired right off of KSAN; two other ex-KSAN men, and Ed Hepp, one of the best of the original, pre-strike staff at KMPX.
KSAN had also opened up the credulity gaps in recent days. For starters, KSAN had to knock off a crass ad for a new pornflick Female Animal, because of listeners’ complaints. The ads were outrageous — —putting women down as animals, as trained nymphs. Finally, KSAN toned down the ad, adding a disclaimer from Women’s Liberation Front. But the damage had been done. Female Animal only topped the list of increasingly gross commercials (for a supposedly hip station) polluting the KSAN air.
But more to the gloomy point was the departure, a few days before, of Wes “Scoop” Nisker, the station’s ingenious/genius news director, a revolutionary/artisan whose collage/newscasts of absurdist/satire were the life of the station.
He quit after general manager Willis Duff decided to axe the admittedly onesided newscasts for a more straight-forward approach. Nisker, who joined KSAN after walking into the studios one day with no prior broadcast experience, lasted a year and a half. And he represented, to many, the last of KSAN’s few political balls.
Three months ago, black militant Roland Young had been canned for reading a letter supporting Black Panther David Hilliard’s alleged threat to “kill” President Nixon. Last fall, Milan Melvin quit after a warning for rapping on the air about his draft resistance activities. Then-program director Stefan Ponek tried to explain management’s side by citing the FCC’s fairness doctrine, a statute that requires only that both sides of a controversial issue be aired. It was, in retrospect, the first time Metromedia would make use of the FCC to explain away its own fears.
Nisker blamed his own departure on “the climate in Washington.”
“Agnew’s media attacks — —note that he attacks both those who dissent and those who report it— — the current makeup of the FCC, and the general repression and regression being fostered by the Nixon gang has the media managers running scared,” he said.
“Well, not really,” Duff replied. “First, I think Scoop will admit that he was ready to leave for some time. It’s an emotional drag to have to be so creative so often.” Nisker produced two newscasts daily, each lasting from five to ten minutes, and he spent several hours splicing and producing each program.
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