Page 4-Tuesday, February 12, 1980-The Michigan Daily
Carter w
President Carter brought some new faces to
Washington,. but U.S. foreign and military With his Mr
policies are run by the same old crowd. The ter had beenc
folks that gave us Vietnam. And gave the Ayatollah
Spmoza dynasty to the Nicaraguans, the Shah Domestically
to the Iranians, and Pinochet to the Chileans. equally from1
vNow they are preparing to edge us closer to Mr. Carter N
W4rld War III. They want their pawns to get threatenedv
ripdy; they want you people to register for a military forc
nbw draft, just in case. hostages but
THAT IS NOT all. President Carter has an- Khomeini in h
*nced his readiness to use military force and left by gi
against "any attempt by any outside force to American fe
gain control of the Persian Gulf region." God policy has pr
help us all if the Ayatollah expires and countries.
feudalism falters in Iran; there are a lot of As Mr. Wa
y4ung leftjts in that country, many of them Iran, the host
Pro-Soviet: had the Ame
OMeanwhile, those great strategic minds in with a U.N.-s
Washington are now going to try to bolster the crimes of
(neral Zia's hated regime in Pakistan with porters. Tha
huge shipments of arms. Perhaps you will soon question. Ho
be asked to go over there and help Zia keep his morale of a
people in line, regimes, if W.
But the folks in Washington don't want you to to condemnin
think about that. Just rally around the flag, wisely obser"
please. Remember the hostages, and don't ask reaching con
any questions about our foreign policy. Above SO THE ST
4l, don't debate the draft; instead, debate military lead
viether women, too should be drafted! lives of theI
AMERICAN PRESIDENTIAL election years military actio
ire becoming more and more dangerous for all creasingly f
brmankind. Macho-politics are at a premium. precedented
Especially, as L. F. Stone has warned as on take diplom
many occasions, when the Democrats are in opinion, too,
power, and on the defensive against rightwing not, was this
Republicans, blood, as heir
vants youth
. Nice Guy image, President Car-
doing badly in the polls, until the By C
came and rescued him.
, the two appear to have profited his American;
the protracted hostage situation. years? East is E
ecame the tough President who Then came th
with economic sanctions and Afghanistan, at
ce, which did nothing for the Soviet-supported
t boosted his popularity; while up fury over the'
his country was able to unite right given free vent
ving free vent to the intense anti- anti-SALT sentin
elings that our masterful foreign the new Mr. Car
oduced, in Iran as in many other and the hopes fc
could be thrownc
aldheim apparently found out in The stockmar
tages could soon have been freed, away. An early e
ericans been willing to go along ticipated. Prosp
sponsored tribunal to investigate upswing for arm
fthe Shah and his American sup- the many related
at was, of course, out of the IRONICALLY
ow could the U.S. protect the American reacti
ll the other oppressive client- Afghanistan wer
Vashington now were to be a party were said to ha
ng the Shah? As the Shah himself Vietnam-type no
ved, such a trial would have far- then a total ban a
sequences., nam would seen
TALEMATE continued. Even our, President Carte
ers conceded their impotence: the unprecedented
hostages could not be saved by world must no
on. American opinion became in- Americans may
urious: it was indeed an un- other countries,
violation of international law to "Committee on
ats as hostages. But Iranian USSR is evidentl
was enraged: uniprecedented or of cricket, outsid
crime, without the shedding of fluence (as defir
nous as the crimes of the Shah and the end of WorldI
to register for
'hristian Bay
accomplices over so many
ast, and West is West ...
he Soviet military invasion of
the invitation of the shaky
d regime. Washington's pent-
Tehran situation could now be
against, the USSR. American
ment could now be appeased by
rter; and the dream of peace,
br a de-escalating arms race,
out of the window.
ket responded favorably right
end to the recession is now an-
ects for war always mean a big
.s production, steel, autos, and
d industries..
, THE FIRST semi-official
ions to the Soviet invasion of
re almost gleeful: The Soviets
ve gotten themselves into a
-win situation of their own. But
on any further mention of Viet-
m to have followed, to allow
r to wax indignant over this
act of aggression, which all the
w condemn. Whatever the
do with their military might in
or with their omnipresent
International Altruism," the
y expected to play by the rules
de their supposed sphere of in-
ned at Yalta and Potsdam at
War II).
That President Carter's new macho
could easily destroy the Olympic gam
festival of peace is unfortunate; while
not succeed, they are expendable. Fa
serious is his apparent readiness to pla
II on ice indefinitely, and to accelerate
ms race, even beyond all the frig
measures he announced last year-in
over 500 nuclear intermediate-rangej
to be installed in Western Europe, and
giant MX first-strike long-range
systems in North America.
Over the last thirty years the U.S. h
sistently been the leader in over-all a
penditures for strategic as well as tac
ms production and deployment. The US
its weaker economy has had to stru
avoid falling too far behind, and to
dissidents harshly to preserve disciplin
caught up with and surpassed the U.S.
weapons systems, but has repeatedly, a
last year, tried to achieve de-esc
agreements. In the USSR, too, there ar
however, and their influence in theI
grows whenever Soviet peace initiati
rebuffed in Washington.
THE SITUATION PRIOR to the inv
Afghanistan was all in favor of theI
hawks: with the U.S. Senate likely to vo
SALT II, or to ratify it only at the pri
massive new MX-system; with West E
nuclear defense forces alfout to be es
(and a deaf ear in NATO to a Soviet pro
reduce their nuclear missile strength in
instead); and with evidence of increasi
Chinese military collaboration, the R
WWH
may well have become increasingly
-politics pessimistic about the prospects for peace.
nes as a When the Afghan regime seemed in danger of
he may collapsing, the hawks evidently won the day in
ar more Moscow.
ce SALT A costly mistake it was, I am sure, and a
e the ar- crime that must be condemned. But a heinous,
ghtening unprecedented crime, as Mr. Carter
ncluding repeatedly asserts? Not by the standards the
missiles American government has set over the last
the new thirty years.
missile If we avoid a wider war until past the
Presidential elections, will cooler heads come
has con- to prevail. Or will we, and more particularly
rms ex- you, be bogged down in another war in Asia? Or
tical ar- will some irresponsible jivngo even find his way
3SR with to one of the many nuclear triggers, and do all
uggle to of us in?
repress MUCH COULD DEIFEND on what American
e. It has students do, or fail to do, in the months and
in some years ahead.
nd even In the sixties, students were in the forefront
calating of resisting the American crimes in Indochina,
e hawks, President Johnson conceded that the unrest in
Kremlin the universities had much to do with his
ves are decision not to run again and to seek to
negotiate for peace in Vietnam.
asion of Will the new generation 6f students wake up
Moscow and organize a movement to resist the new
ate down draft registration before some of you will find
ice of a yourselves killing and being,killed, for no good
uropean reason, in Iran, or Pakistan, or Saudi Arabia?
scalated Or do you prefer to debate whether or not
aposal to women, too, should be drafted?-
Europe Christian Bay is a p/ofessor of political
ing U.S.-
Russians science at the University of Toronto.
Ninety Years o f Fditorial FreIono
WIQB owner defends change
4
Vol. XC, No. 109
News Phone: 764-0552
Edited and- managed by students at the University of Michigan
Israels plans
ASIDE FROM its unpopularity
among its neighbors, Israel is
noted as being unique in at least one
other respect from the surrounding
nations. With only occasional excep-
tipns, the country's press is free to
comment as it pleases on the nation's
affairs. This is especially gladdening
in light of a recent Israeli Cabinet
dycision that one Israeli daily,
Ha'aretz, had the -good sense to
criticize.
iIn a preliminary communique that,
fortunately, will require further
governmental action to have any
authority, the Cabinet said that it has
";no objection to Jews living in Hebron
as in any other part of Israel."
Hebron is a West Bank city heavily
irhabited by Palestinian Arabs, the
control of which is crucial to the
resolution of the Palestinian question.
'The Israelis had been moving-toward a
halfway measure they term
"4iutonomy" for the Arabs, and control
of Hebron by the Arabs was taken as
bbth a gesture of good will and a prac-
tical move toward some degree of self-
rule. The trouble started when a
Jewish student living in Hebron was
shot in the city's market. A faction of
the Palestine liberation
Organization (PLO) claimed respon-
sibility, which provoked understan-
dable demands by Israelis for some
kind of governmental reprisal. The
violent act by the PLO was inex-
cusable, but the Israeli stride toward
for Hebron,
hawkishness is not going to help the
situation. While many of the results of
Palestinian nationalsim are condem-
nable, the heart of the militants' anger
is the justifiable quest for self-
determination. The Israeli response to
the latest act of terrorism can only
exacerbate the strife.
Israel's right wing has as much
freedom to put forward its ideas as any
moderate voices-more, anti-Zionists
would argue-and each time a killing
occurs, Gush Emunim and the other
groups inspirited with an aggressive
settlement policy adamantly insist
that Jewish Israelis can and should
settle anywhere within the nation's
shifting borders. But how can they
point to the PLO terrorists as the only
party acting without a grain of reason?
Editorial policies.
Unsigned editorials ap-
pearing on the left side of this
page represent a majority
opinion of the Daily's Editorial
Board. Letters and columns
represent the opinions of the
individual author(s) and do not
necessarily reflect the attitudes
or beliefs of the Daily.
The following is the tran-
scribed record of a conver-
sation that took place last
Friday between Daily reporter
Steve Hook and Ernie Wynn,
the general manager and "51
per cent owner" of WIQB-
FM.
After taking over the radio
station last December and
researching the local radio
market, Wynn shifted WIQB's
format from a free form,
album-oriented style to an
automated one featuring soft
rock.
Wynn served for seven years
as general manager of T. M.
Programming in, Dallas,
Texas, before moving to Ann
Arbor last fall. This company
designs formats for American
radio stations and produces
the automated format WIQB
now uses.
Why was the decision made to
change formats?
Wynn: The decision was made
for many reasons. The primary
reason was the fact that WIQB
was not getting enough share of
the Washtenaw County-Ann
Arbor area listening audience.
So you have essentially shifted
the audience you are aiming for.
Wynn: I have broadened the
audience I am now aiming
towards. The basic target
demographic that WIQB has
been aiming towards has
historically been men, 18 to 24
years old. That is with the type of
music under the old format,
which is called in the industry a
free-form progressive album-
oriented format. Certainly there
are some people out of the
primary demographic that listen,
but the 18-24 males have been the
primary audience. We have
broadened that scale to have our
primary target as men and
women, 18-34. Actually, it will
lean, if it does what it has across
the country, a little heavier
towards women than it does merr.
Have there been too few
sponsors under the old format?
Was WIQB losing money when
you bought it in December?
Wynn: No, I wouldn't say
WIQB was in a losing position.
They simply weren't in a highly
profitable position, and there
didn't seem to be a way to expand
that profit center. We want to
expand our potential for
advertising support into a lot of
the areas we have not been able
to tap.
How has response been s'o far?
Wynn: We've had both phone
and mail responses that are at
this point mostly negative. I don't
feel that it has been an
overwhelming response, but it,
has certainly been a well thought-
out respnse. I'm very impressed
with the type of listeners that
were listening to WIQB.
What was the main fault of
free-form? You'd think it could
work if done well.
Wynn: The station was.
basically programmed by the
telephone response of the
listeners. The audience surveys
have shown that there weren't
thatsmany listener's, so that
means a few people in Ann Arbor
were programming a radio
station that was geared towards a
great number of people. And that
is primarily why it didn't have a
very large audience. There aren't
very many top professional radio
stations in this country that have
found this to be a very successful
method of broadcasting. In any
major city that you could name,
you're not going to find a totally
free-form-progressive album
format anymore.
We're a part of the advertising
business. If we have enough
listeners, we can convince
advertisers to support us so we
can meet our payrolls, buy our
equipment and pay the rent. It's a
business. _
So your decision to change,.
formats was made primarily for
financial reasons.
Wynn: It wasn't based strictly
on finances, although this was' a
major factor. The station undr
the previbts- o ership , was
operated successfVly. The old
owner paid $235,000 for the
station; I paid $1,235,000 for-the
station. I have got to expand our
advertising support,. which was
quite limited when I bought
WIQB.
If things don't work out with the
new format is there a chance you
might bring back the old one?
Wynn: Highly doubtful, .but
more probably six months from
now that in several weeks. It
won't have anything to do with
storm or rage either.What it will
have to do with is my success. I
will evaluate the next audience
survey, which will be taken
around August first. I must be
very candid: there is no
circumstance that I could think
of, at this moment, that could put
the old format back on as it was.
That was tested for over three
years, and it simply didn't
generate the audience.
Daily Photo by PAUL ENGSTROM
WIQB-FM PART-OWNER Ernie Wynn talked recently about his
station's format change from album-oriented selections to automated
soft rock.
LETTERS TO THE DAILY:
PIRGIM utility attack inaccurate
0
To the Daily:
On =the editorial page of the
February 2 edition of the Daily,
there appeared an article entitled
"Checking Utility Power"
authored by PIRGIM member
Dan Carol. This article contained
several inaccuracies which I
would like to correct for your
readers. Moreover, it was in-
complete in its exposition of
PIRGIM's proposals before the
Michigan Public Serviced Com-
mission (MPSC).
The first misstatement is that
the five major utility companies
in Michigan spend "at least $6
million annually to get rate in-
creases" from the MPSC. That is
a figment of someone's
imagination. In Consumers
Power's electric rate case, U-,
5979, (mentioned elsewhere in the
PIRGIM article), it was shown
that for all electric rate litigation
before the MPSC in 1978, Con-
sumers Power spent $63,009 on
regulatory commission expense,
plus an additional $112,275 for
be accepted as true or accurate.
The PIRGIM article continues
to state that the utilities employ
"well-trained, full-time staffers
specializing in public service
hearings." 'The persons ap-
pearing for Consumers Power
are well-trained. For the most
part they are full-time em-
ployees. It is not correct,
however, to say that these em-
ployees are employed for the sole
purpose of specializing in MPSC
hearings. Rather, the participan-
ts for Consumers Power are
regular employees who have a
full load of responsibilities in the
regular day-to-day conduct of the
utility business. Their appearan-
ces in an MPSC hearing result
from the fact that they possess
expertise necessary to the
ratemaking process.
Another 'gregious error in the
PIRGIM article is that "Con-
sumers Power Company has 19
attorneys working full-time on
hearings at the MPSC." That is
news to me and I have the
Consumers Power. {
Finally, I think your readers,
expecially those interested in
academic freedom and freedom
of speech, would be interested in
the complete PIRGIM position in
U-5979. PIRGIM proposed setting
up a censorship board
(euphemisitcally called a "for-
mal mechanism") for mandatory
"evaluation of utility-sponsored
energy education materials,
prior to their dissemination."
This board would review all such
materials distributed by the
utilities whether or not the utility
sought to recover the cost of such
-materials from its customers or
would pay for them from
shareholders' funds. This
proposal ignores that under the
present set-up, Consumers Power
forces no one to request or accept
the materials available, but
allows the individual teacher to
request material, review it and
decide whether or not to use it.
This proposal ignores that in 1974
and 1975 the MPSC clearly stated'
the fundamental 1st Amendment'
freedoms which this Commission
clearly recognizes. . ." and that
its standards for allowable ex-
penses to be paid for by utility
customers would "not in any way
attempt to restrain (a 'utility)
from disseminating other infor-
mation, either through the news
media or by pineans of advertising
chargeable to its stockholders."
By the way, according to the
PIRGIM proposal, the expenses
of the censorship board would be
borne by the utility and apparen-
tly, at least for materials deemed
acceptable, would be paid for by
utility customers. Moreover,
PIRGIM's proposal evidences a
philosophy which is not respectful
of the individual person's ability
to read materials, assimilate;
them, and judge their worth. This
erosion of respect for individual
freedom is not in the public in-
terest.
-Lawrence Lindemer
Vice-President
and General Counsel,
I - ~A~mhIllUIu1LIIflmIin,..~
i