[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 32 (Wednesday, February 25, 2015)]
[House]
[Pages H1150-H1154]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
THE IMPORTANCE OF LOCAL BROADCASTERS
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Abraham). Under the Speaker's announced
policy of January 6, 2015, the gentleman from North Dakota (Mr. Cramer)
is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
General Leave
Mr. CRAMER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members
have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extends their remarks
and include extraneous materials on the topic of today's Special Order.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from North Dakota?
There was no objection.
Mr. CRAMER. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate so much this opportunity that
we have this evening to inform and to educate my colleagues in the
House, fellow Members of Congress, and even the American people through
C-SPAN, about the importance of local radio and television
broadcasters. They are important not only to our country, but I want to
talk about how important they are to our communities--the communities
we live in, the communities they live in, the communities they work in.
For decades, these broadcasters have been the first ones to respond
to disasters and emergencies. They have saved numerous lives by their
ability to be on the scene and to broadcast widely. They have helped
communities pick up the pieces after a natural disaster or a manmade
disaster. The broadcasters of our country, of our communities, have
played a vital role in the quality of life in our communities.
I have been blessed throughout my career not just in public service
but in other positions to work with local broadcasters hosting
telethons to help find cures for diseases like muscular dystrophy,
cancer, and many other diseases that our communities have tackled
together.
Now, we need to remember that these radio and television stations are
not monolithic corporations. They are owned and run and managed by our
friends and neighbors, the people that we see every day.
Today is a big day. It is an appropriate day to celebrate--not just
inform and educate but celebrate--the role of America's broadcasters in
our communities. Because today, hundreds of Members of Congress were
able to meet with their local television and radio station
personalities and managers and representatives. Today, nearly 600
broadcasters came to Capitol Hill to tell their story of public service
and to remind their Representatives of their role.
You may not know that these broadcasters are required by statute to
serve the public interest. When I hear about the stories they cover,
when I see the types of stories they cover, the lives they have
touched, the service that they are providing, I am heartened to know
that we have a vibrant, thriving system of local broadcasting in this
country.
Unlike many other countries around the world, where national and
regional news is what is available to their citizens, here in the
United States, here in places like North Dakota and Texas and Arkansas
and others, we have a system of local radio and TV stations so folks
living in the same community are bound together by weather events,
sporting events, news of the day, and human interest, all provided by
an accurate local source.
I know in North Dakota we have seen weather emergencies where
information from our local broadcasters was all that was available for
those suffering the impacts of a storm. Several years ago, I myself,
with my family, in 1984, spent all night--this was before cell phones,
I know--spent all night in a car in a blizzard that came upon North
Dakota suddenly. We were just off the interstate. The only
communication we had was through KFGO Radio, which won a Peabody that
year for broadcasting to us and to several others that were stranded in
that storm.
So, today, we are going to hear a number of stories from Members of
Congress across the country also touched by their local TV and radio
stations. I thank them for sharing stories about their local stations.
I will share some of mine as we go throughout this Special Order, but I
want to call on somebody who knows a fair bit about broadcasting, the
gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Crawford).
Mr. CRAWFORD. Mr. Cramer, I appreciate the opportunity. It is an
honor to be able to stand up and advocate on behalf of our
broadcasters, who are not only my constituents and your constituents,
but my colleagues, because I am, as you mentioned, a former
broadcaster, and I know firsthand the importance of broadcasting, as
you indicated, to local and national communities.
[[Page H1151]]
You talked about a weather occurrence. Last week, my district and
most of Arkansas was blanketed with ice.
{time} 1715
I can tell you with certainty that a good number of my constituents
were tuned in to their local radio station, their local television
station, to hear about school closures and to hear about road
conditions and to hear about other community closures and shelters that
might be available and any number of things that are necessary in times
of weather that could put them in a position of distress, so it is
very, very important.
I have got some statistics here that really speak to the value
proposition that they bring to our economy. In my district alone, there
are 20 local television stations and 233 local radio stations in the
State of Arkansas. That is statewide, not districtwide.
These broadcasters contribute $9.83 billion to our State's GDP, and
they have provided roughly 22,000 jobs in the State of Arkansas.
Beyond Arkansas, in the entire country, local broadcasters account
for 2.65 million jobs, and they provide--get this--$1.24 trillion to
our GDP.
As we talked about, they provide a variety of services to communities
that they support. One of the things that I didn't mention, as a
broadcaster, I was a farm broadcaster, so you can appreciate this,
being from North Dakota.
Most farmers rely on those market reports, weather reports, bug
reports, disease reports, any number of things, information that is
relevant to production agriculture that they rely on, so that was one
of the things that helped launch my career. I was able to start a farm
news network, operated it, started with four stations, and it is now up
to 53 in a five-state area.
All of that is very specific to the local community and what is grown
and raised in those communities, and so farmers have come to rely on
that, and I am sure it is the same in your home State of North Dakota.
But I think the point that we are trying to make here is that every
community is unique. Every community has their own needs, and no one
knows those needs better than the broadcasters who serve those
communities.
I just want to say, as a Congress, I think it is our duty to support
broadcasters who do so much for the region and their communities, and I
appreciate you taking the time to make this hour happen.
Mr. CRAMER. If the gentleman wouldn't mind, I would like to ask a
question. I know we didn't rehearse this, but in this era of all kinds
of new information technologies available and ways of getting
information, streaming and cell phones and smartphones and the like,
maybe you could just share a minute or two about why it is still
important, what role the broadcaster, the free, over-the-air broadcast
through the public spectrum, why that matters in this era of new IT.
Mr. CRAWFORD. Well, you touched on it right there. It is free, over
the air, they can access it. They don't have to have any special tool
other than a radio.
Everybody's got a radio in their car or in their tractor, in their
truck, in the office, whatever; and when everything else fails, you
can't get a cell signal, you can't get your Internet, whatever, the
radio is reliable.
From the farmers' perspectives, which obviously I have an interest
in, they rely heavily on that, and there is an element of trust. Their
local broadcaster is usually a trusted source of information, so that
is why it is so important and why they rely so heavily on their local
broadcaster, whether that be their 6 p.m. news.
I have been a news anchor on our local television station, and folks
do become accustomed to hearing from you, and they trust that.
Here is the other thing that is interesting about broadcasters: they
are integrating new media in conjunction with their broadcasting, so it
sort of supplements what their core mission is, to provide that service
to the community over the airwaves.
The great thing about broadcasters is they are very innovative. They
are not a static business model. They are developing new technology,
they are integrating new technology, and it all works together, with
the core mission being to serve their communities.
You see fundraising efforts for the Make-A-Wish Foundation on the
local radio station. That is important. Radio stations and television
stations are innovative in community support activities.
AMBER Alerts, not only are they broadcasting those AMBER Alerts, but
they are using texts and social media to supplement that and really
help enhance their broadcasting efforts, too.
There is a lot of these things that you can't get along without, I
think, without our public broadcasters, our local community
broadcasters--television and radio--who operate on the airwaves.
Mr. CRAMER. Great points. Thank you so much for participating.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe).
Mr. POE of Texas. I thank the gentleman for having this Special
Order.
Mr. Speaker, let me bring an additional perspective to the importance
of local broadcasters, TV, radio. I live down on the gulf coast. We
call where I live in my district ``hurricane alley.''
Just since I have been in Congress, Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane
Rita, Hurricane Humberto, Hurricane Ike, and Hurricane Gustav have all
hit my congressional district. Now, some blame me. It is not my fault,
but here they come, all of these hurricanes.
We are down on the gulf coast, and as soon as the hurricanes come
through, guess what, there goes the power--electricity. Besides all of
the flooding, the damage, the wind, all of this happens when hurricane
season comes upon us in the summer.
The local folks, to get information, if they are still at home, they
are watching local TV. Many are not because they have to leave because
of rising water and wind damage.
When Hurricane Ike came into Galveston, Texas, it went across the
island, and then when the wind shifted, it came back across the island,
but that saltwater went across and came back. Tremendous damage in
Galveston, Texas.
The only thing the people could listen to or find information,
really, was their car radio as they are trying to leave the area. The
radio stations and TV stations that are still on the air are very vital
for public safety and information and about the weather. People listen
to the local broadcasters about what is happening right there.
When Hurricane Rita came into Houston in 2005, approximately 2.5
million to 3 million people evacuated. Now, some say that this is the
largest evacuation in American history. I don't know. That is a lot of
people on the road, and they are all headed north to get away from the
wind and the rain and the flooding that is taking place.
What people were listening to in the car was local radio stations
that were on the air broadcasting, not just the weather, but the
traffic that was taking place. Eventually, the freeways, the
interstates all allowed traffic to move on all lanes north.
The way the folks found out about that was on the radio, the
announcements being made by the Texas Department of Public Safety,
Texas highway department, that the lanes had been shifted so that
everybody could travel in all of the lanes that took place, so that
information was so vital.
It is not just important during hurricane season. As already stated
by the gentleman from Arkansas, it is important during even normal
weather, if we can call what is taking place here in Washington normal
weather, but the snow and the ice. People want to listen to local radio
to find out--and local television.
Also, even go back to Katrina. We all remember Hurricane Katrina.
Folks in Louisiana left Louisiana, and they came to Texas, and as they
were getting to Texas, guess what, Hurricane Rita hit Texas.
Houstonians, primarily, when those folks from Louisiana were coming
our way, were told by local media on where they could go to take things
for those neighbors from Louisiana, everything from food and blankets,
and go volunteer to help out to find shelter for these individuals.
Local radio, local television is broadcasting how that can be done,
how that can be help to those individuals. That couldn't have been done
if we didn't have our local broadcasters who know the area, know the
people.
[[Page H1152]]
We have AMBER Alerts. That is throughout the country. 206 Texas
children that were abducted had been rescued because of the AMBER Alert
system that was created in 1998 by the Dallas-Ft. Worth broadcasters.
The other issue that I want to mention is our--well, there are two
more, and they are just as important. Local radio and television has
local political issues and debates on our community, from the local
politicians, the local officeholders, and even others. That is all done
locally by our broadcasters on television; it is done on radio all the
time. There is political argument and debate by our local media.
Something that is important to us--I don't know about the Dakotas,
but it is important to us. We like football in Texas. We like high
school football. Let's be a little specific. On Friday night, everybody
is playing football at the high schools, at the stadiums.
Our local broadcasters, yes, they are out there at the stadiums, and
at 10 p.m. news, they have a little bit of news, and then they have a
little bit of weather, and then they spend most of the rest of the news
broadcasting tapes from the high school football games in the Houston
area.
They are very important, Mr. Speaker, to know exactly who won the
game, who the visiting team was, high school football. We are not going
to see that unless we have local broadcasting. Of course, high school
football is on the radio as well. I do want to mention that important
service that local broadcasters give us.
We have a lot of great broadcasters in the Houston area, both on
radio and on television. I would like to mention some of them. Channel
13 has Dave Ward. I think he has been on television, nightly news--I
don't know, I would hate to say 30 years, but maybe it has been that
long or more--along with Gina Gaston.
On channel 26, we have got Jose Grinan; channel 2, Bill Balleza and
Dominique Sachse; then channel 11, Greg Hurst and Lisa Hernandez.
Years ago, there was this local television celebrity that worked for
channel 13. He turned out to be a celebrity named Marvin Zindler. He is
an icon in the Houston area.
He is a local broadcaster, and he spent time going around in the
Houston restaurants examining restaurants and, as he said, looking for
slime in the ice machine. He did a nightly broadcast on restaurants
that just weren't up to the health standards of the city of Houston.
Other investigative reporters are doing something very similar on the
local basis as well, but it is all local. It is the local broadcasters
that are doing it.
I commend the gentleman, Mr. Cramer. I am sorry I talked so long. The
local folks, we certainly couldn't exist without them. Radio,
television, we appreciate what they do, not just for football, but for
the other things as well.
Mr. CRAMER. I thank the gentleman from Texas, and I especially thank
him for raising the football illustration, just because it is an
opportunity--while he wondered if it was important in North Dakota,
North Dakotans have become very accustomed to coming to Texas for
football games because, for the last 4 years, the North Dakota State
University football team has won the national FCS championship game in
Frisco, Texas.
Thank you for reminding us of that, and we look forward to a trip
next year, perhaps.
That said, I appreciate what you raised about how many broadcast
stations really--they are tools of the First Amendment, and they are
also, obviously, an important part of the First Amendment because that
is where they derive their rights to express and to broadcast.
Where would politicians be without broadcasting debates? So I
appreciate that as well.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Rhode Island (Mr.
Cicilline), just to let everybody know this is obviously a very
important bipartisan Special Order because it a very important
bipartisan issue.
Mr. CICILLINE. I thank the gentleman for the time and for organizing
this Special Order.
To be sure that folks do not think that local broadcasters are only
important in the Midwest, I am here representing New England. We have
many, many examples where our local broadcasters have really made a
difference in Rhode Island.
{time} 1730
I think sometimes the best way to illustrate that is to give real
examples of where that happened.
So, for example, there was a documentary made about a homeless man
finding help at Crossroads, which is the largest homeless services
organization in the State of Rhode Island. WPRI-TV, a local broadcaster
in the city of Providence, secured the rights to this documentary and
took the opportunity to create a telethon around its airing. Viewers
were asked to open their hearts and their pocketbooks and pledge by
phone or online, and that effort raised $85,000 for the shelter,
providing greatly needed funding as the housing crisis and economy
created an ever-growing demand for the shelter services. So that is one
example.
Another example is, while residents of our capital city, the city of
Providence, waited for their electricity to be restored in their homes
after Hurricane Irene cut off power to many in our State, WJAR-TV
Providence simulcast the audio portion of its newscast on Clear
Channel's WHJJ-AM Providence. This arrangement allowed locals to
receive the TV station's around-the-clock coverage on battery-operated
radios, which was obviously a very important service.
In our State, we have a wonderful facility, a school called Meeting
Street, which is an organization that provides individual learning
programs for thousands of children with developmental disabilities. And
Meeting Street is really allowed to tell the story of its wonderful
school to the community each year during its annual telethon on WPRI-
TV. This 4-hour, commercial-free telethon preempts prime-time
programming, and all production for the event is done in-house by the
station. Last year, the telethon generated $500,000 from phone
donations and long-term corporate commitments tied to the event, and it
has raised billions of dollars over the years.
The local newspaper and WNRI-AM in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, carry on
the Milk Fund, which is a local tradition that started in 1936 as a way
to help struggling families. Each year through the month of December,
multiple fundraising efforts in Woonsocket raise money toward the
purchase of milk vouchers.
Another example: this past fall, listeners tuned in to WKKB-FM in
Providence for its 2-day Promesa y Esperanza--Promise and Hope--
Radiothon, which raises funds for St. Jude Children's Hospital. The
broadcast is carried out in partnership with 15 sister stations
throughout the country to raise awareness of childhood cancer within
the Hispanic community and to help St. Jude continue to offer treatment
to all children, regardless of their family's ability to pay. This
year's effort raised more than $100,000 in WKKB's listening area alone,
and more than $630,000 between the 16 stations combined.
And just one final example: LIN Media, which owns WPRI-TV in East
Providence, established the Minority Scholarship and Training Program.
Each recipient will receive a 2-year scholarship for up to $10,000 per
year, which can be used for school expenses. In addition, LIN Media
will provide each student with hands-on training through a paid
internship program at one of its television stations around the
country. Minority Scholarship recipients are assigned full-time
positions at LIN Media upon graduation and successful completion of the
training program.
So these are just some examples, and I know there are examples like
this all across the country where local broadcasters are really making
a difference, not only helping raise needed resources for nonprofit
organizations, getting information to listeners and viewers during
emergencies, but really helping to strengthen our communities. And I,
for one, want to acknowledge the local broadcasters and to say thank
you. I hope these examples help illustrate the value of our local
broadcasters.
I really thank the gentleman for organizing this Special Order hour
and for yielding.
Mr. CRAMER. I appreciate the gentleman's recognition of that and the
very thorough list of examples of the incredible public service that
our
[[Page H1153]]
broadcasters do in the Northeast. Thank you very much for that.
It occurs to me, Mr. Speaker, as I listen to my colleagues talk about
the importance of local broadcasters that they really have multiple
public service roles.
Certainly it is a public service to be able to give the news, to
deliver the sporting games, to deliver the weather, to deliver
emergency information for public safety, to let people know what is
going on in the community. That is an important service. But the
gentleman from Rhode Island (Mr. Cicilline) brings up, of course, many
other charitable things.
I have participated in many charitable events that were good, that
raised decent money for important causes. But when a broadcaster gets
involved, it adds value; it raises awareness; it sometimes brings
celebrity to it. And you can see a charity lifted up by virtue of the
fact that a local TV station or a local radio station or, in some
cases, multiple stations took on the cause--not because there is
anything in it for the broadcast station, not because there is anything
in it for the managers. Sure, sometimes there are programs that have a
sales component to it that you can go out and sell, but by and large,
these are pure acts of public service, pure acts of charity that with
just a little bit of airtime, just a little bit of local personality
that is attached to a cause can validate the cause, elevate the cause,
bring awareness to the cause, and create momentum for a cause that
generates all kinds of other private sector involvement, whether it is
volunteers or money--in most cases, both. We can solve a lot of
problems when we get a broadcaster involved.
I have had the opportunity to be part of a very special program that
I know a lot of my colleagues have been a part of, whether out here or
back at home, and that is Honor Flights. It was a local broadcaster in
Fargo, North Dakota, that saw a national story about the Honor Flight
program that flies World War II veterans to see the memorial built in
their honor.
So WDAY radio and television took it on in Fargo and created the Red
River Valley Honor Flight and flew four flights of veterans. During
that time, they broadcast leading up to it to bring awareness so that
the veterans, themselves, could sign up. Then they broadcast the trips
themselves to bring awareness and to honor these men and women, these
heroes of the Greatest Generation and then, of course, brought the
celebration home in a way that you couldn't do without that
involvement.
That resulted in another Honor Flight chapter being raised up in
Bismarck, where I live, and I became the chairman of the Roughrider
Honor Flight. We had five flights out of Bismarck.
The KX television network in North Dakota became our broadcast
partner. Not only did they help by raising awareness, which helped me
raise money, which helped us get more veterans signing up, but it got
the whole community involved. At the end of it all, they provided a
video documentary of the experience so that every veteran and their
families who participated had that wonderful memory in a DVD that they
could watch for the rest of their lives.
Just this last weekend, I was on a radio show in Fargo called
``Heroes of the Heartland.'' It is on for an hour every Saturday, where
a local veteran hosts the show, and it is all about veterans. I hope
the show wins an award for what it does for veterans.
While I was on the show answering questions about legislation dealing
with veterans' issues, people would call in and say: Did you know that
the VA in Fargo is holding a public information meeting in a
neighboring city on Saturday at whatever time, where veterans can come
and air their grievances or give their appreciation or learn about the
VA? And I thought: Wow, how cool is this, that because somebody knew of
something, not only was the radio station there able to spread the
information, but the listener became the newsmaker. They became the
broadcaster.
That is the other neat thing about local radio, especially: it
provides an opportunity where everybody is a broadcaster. If you see an
accident or you find bad weather or you see something happen that you
want to alert the public about, you have that opportunity now with new
media, meaning broadcast media. So it was an honor to be on ``Heroes of
the Heartland.''
I have the great privilege of representing the entire State of North
Dakota. That is a big congressional district. Now, it is not as big as
Montana or Wyoming or Alaska, but it is pretty big. I try to have a lot
of town halls, like many of us do. We have a lot of town halls. But I
have the opportunity, working with broadcast partners now, where every
week I have a 1-hour talk radio town hall on multiple stations. KFYR-AM
550 in Bismarck was sort of the flagship station. KPLC out in Dickinson
carries it. AM 1100 The Flag is really where it was birthed, in Fargo.
KTGO up in the Bakken, the heart of the Bakken, in Tioga, carries the
talk radio town hall.
People have the opportunity to either call me live on the air and ask
a question or call on an 800 number and leave a message for me if they
can't call during the show itself. It is broadcast statewide, and then
it is broadcast again in the evening on delay. It provides a great
opportunity for me to be in touch with my constituents and for them to
talk to me and for me to be able to talk to them.
As you can tell, Mr. Speaker, I am a big advocate for free over-the-
air broadcast media, whether it is radio or television--or certainly
both. And I think that even in the new media era, and I appreciated the
gentleman from Arkansas, Mr. Crawford's thoughts on this, that we have
this opportunity still, but that there is still an important role for
free broadcast radio and television, that even with all the new media,
that it only, in fact, enhances the importance of free over-the-air
broadcasts.
With that, I yield to another Member from Texas.
Mr. FARENTHOLD. Thank you very much. It is an honor and a privilege
to be here to speak about the value our local broadcasters bring to our
communities.
I am a long-time radio guy. At 15 years old, I started hanging around
the radio station and ended up getting a job there through high school
and college and have worked on and off in radio ever since.
I can tell you, our local broadcasters are such a value to our
community. We have got a market now with all sorts of new technology
for people to get music and entertainment--there is satellite radio;
there is the Internet; there is Pandora--but nothing compares to what
the local broadcasters can bring. Actually, all this competition, I
think, is bringing a resurgence to local broadcasters. You are going
away from lots of syndicated programs to more locally created programs
that are more in tune to the needs of the community than something
coming out from a central location piped over a satellite.
You have got great opportunities. Local businesses now have more
opportunities to advertise, targeting local audiences. You have got
news departments that are beginning a resurgence in local radio and
television stations as people realize they need local news in addition
to the national news. And in times of an emergency, nobody comes to the
aid of a community like the broadcast facilities. Typically, they will
suspend programming in the event of a hurricane or some other disaster.
It is your first source for information, where you can go to get fresh
water, other disaster and emergency aid. It really brings out the best.
Local broadcasters are committed to their community. Much like people
who run for elected office, in order to get people to know you, to like
you, to listen to you, and to watch you on a TV station, they have got
to be out in the community, too. They have got to be at the local
events, the chamber of commerce events. They have got to sponsor the
charitable events. Broadcasters I know spend and donate millions of
dollars in airtime just to support local charities and community
activities. It is the backbone of America.
We have got to be careful up here in Washington. We have got lots of
stuff on our agenda here that could potentially adversely affect
broadcasters. We have got to strike the right balance.
We have got copyright reform on the agenda. We have got to find the
right balance, where content creators are
[[Page H1154]]
properly compensated for their creative works but broadcasters aren't
penalized such that they have got to shut down news departments or lay
off employees in order to meet those demands. We have got to make sure
that we have got licensing and the Communications Act reformed.
Our Communications Act is very old. We have got to take a look at it
and bring it into the 21st century. But we have got to be careful that
we don't cripple our local broadcasters, many of whom live in the
communities and are valuable parts of the community and are basically,
in some cases, the heartbeat of the community.
I do want to reiterate that I think we are at a time where we really
can see a resurgence in local broadcasting, local content, the return
of more full service. It is not just wall-to-wall hits on the radio
now.
In order to garner a market competing with XM, our local folks have
to be out in the community. They have to be out with live remotes. They
have got to be at community events. They have got to be bringing local
news and local content and stuff that is relevant to people's lives.
They have done it for decades, and it is really great to see that
resurgence and to be a part of it. It is a great time for broadcasters
in America right now.
Mr. CRAMER. If the gentleman from Texas would yield, you raised an
important point that I hadn't thought about that is sort of natural and
obvious, and that is, if you are going to be a good local broadcaster,
obviously you have to be a good local citizen.
Mr. FARENTHOLD. Absolutely. You have got to be out at the events. You
have got to say ``yes'' to the folks that come in and say: Could you
give us a public service announcement for our cancer walk? Could you
give us a public service announcement for our whatever event?
The community bulletin boards that you used to hear on the radio all
the time are coming back, and that is something XM or satellite
providers just can't do.
{time} 1745
Sure, they are getting the technology to localize some of the ads by
downloading them into your devices. But it is not like the local
broadcaster who is a part of the community.
Mr. CRAMER. You raise very important points.
Again, I appreciate the reminder that, while we are, today,
educating, informing, and celebrating local broadcasting, it is at
risk; that we can take our eye off the ball, that we can assume or
presume some things and wake up one day and find out that when that
accident happens on the railroad tracks or the storm is coming that
suddenly there is nobody there to tell us about it.
Mr. FARENTHOLD. You need somebody that has a local news presence. You
don't need somebody that has to bring a satellite truck in from a few
hundred miles away and can't get there immediately. Sure, The Weather
Channel will send Jim Cantore down. I think they want to kill him
because they send him to all the dangerous locations. But he doesn't
know the community like the local weathercaster.
We have got Dale Nelson in Corpus Christi. He has been doing the
weather on our NBC affiliate. We jokingly call him ``Dead Wrong Dale.''
What other profession can you be in besides being a TV meteorologist
and get it wrong half the time and still keep a job? But Dale knows the
community, and he gets it right a whole lot more than he gets it wrong.
We just like to rib him. But he knows the places that are going to
flood. He knows the areas in the neighborhoods that are most
susceptible to damage. Those out-of-town reporters don't.
The members of the media in local broadcasting are citizens of the
community, and what they do improves the lives of everybody in the
community. They know the people. They shop at the grocery store with
the folks. Their children are in school in the community. They know
what is going on, and they can reflect what is going on and can react
to what is going on in the community and really be a valuable asset for
good.
Mr. CRAMER. Well, you are a very articulate spokesman and advocate on
behalf of local broadcasting, and I appreciate your taking the time and
your expertise. By the way, you did pose it in the form of a question.
I suppose some people can look at Congress and say: There is a group
that can be wrong more than half the time and keep their jobs too. But
at any rate, I have noticed that if you stay in good contact through
your broadcast community with your constituents that helps as well.
Mr. FARENTHOLD. I appreciate your yielding the time and organizing
this wonderful Special Order.
Mr. CRAMER. Well, it is very important because as I said, Mr.
Speaker, at the beginning, over 600 broadcasters are in town today
calling on the Members of Congress, calling on us, reminding us of the
important role that they play in public safety, in public information,
in public service, in many ways, in many ways, not just in delivering
the news, weather, and sports and being active in our communities and
elevating those important causes that make for a quality community,
contributing their talent, contributing their, of course, their
broadcast spectrum, which is really the people's. I think that is
really an important point that we sometimes forget--that there is a
reason that broadcasters have this legal obligation to public service
because the people own the airwaves, and we rent them, if you will.
It is important that broadcasters and Congress stay in close touch
because, as the gentleman from Texas pointed out, this is a fragile
relationship, and we can sometimes take them for granted while
presuming that there will always be other ways to communicate when we
know, in fact, that when the lights go out, when the electricity goes
off, when a storm hits, whatever the case may be, as long as you have a
car radio and a good battery, or you have a battery-operated radio and
the broadcasters are on the air, you can always get that information
from your local, reliable, familiar, friendly broadcasters.
So with that, Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the time and I appreciate my
colleagues from both sides of the aisle from across our country who
have taken the time today to help inform, educate, and celebrate the
American broadcaster.
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