Media Clips

Fighting was the name of the game in Austin media this year. Levy vs. Oppel, liberals vs. Sammy & Bob, and the staffs of KOOP, The Texas Observer, The Daily Texan, and Fox-7 within themselves. About the only people who really got along in 1997 were major media powers, as they swallowed one another like fish in the sea, including here in Austin. If media sources keep consolidating at this rate, we should reach 1984 just in time for 2000. On the upside, you no longer have to drive to Huntsville or Odessa to hear Austin's best radio commentator, as Jim Hightower finally landed a spot on the local airwaves. Fear not, Austinites -- you may now tread talk radio airwaves with a safe haven from right-wing landmines.




Oppel vs. Levy

illustration by Doug Potter


1) Media mergers: KLBJ engulfs KGSR/101-X, Capstar buys KASE/KVET.
The biggest national media story had a few chapters written right here in Austin. Throughout America, ownership of most of our media sources has become concentrated in fewer and fewer hands. In Austin, the veteran KLBJ company sunk its hooks into Sinclair Telecable to form the LBJ-S company in July, thereby grabbing two of Austin's hottest Nineties upstarts, rock music station 101-X and adult alternative station KGSR. Meanwhile, in December, Capstar Broadcasting Partners, the nation's largest owner of radio stations, finally bought one in its own hometown -- and landed the biggest fish in the sea, the top-rated KASE/KVET. Former Austin mayor Roy Butler had guided his three stations to phenomenal ratings, especially country music giant KASE, which sometimes grabbed as much as 20% of the Arbitron ratings. Don't expect much to change on the two music stations -- they're already doing everything a corporate giant could desire -- but it will be interesting to see if KVET-AM continues to provide its relatively strong coverage of local news.

2) Levy vs. Oppel. Michael Levy, publisher of Texas Monthly, and Richard Oppel, editor of the Austin American-Statesman, continued their very public sparring matches with highly circulated letter exchanges. The Chronicle first reported their spats in January by reprinting their letters of December 1996 regarding the Statesman's coverage of local political corruption. More recently, an Oct. 26 letter from a reader printed in the daily struck many -- including Levy -- as anti-Semitic. The two strong-willed and strong-ego print media figures had sharp words for one another, and Levy, as is his custom, made sure that numerous parties around town received copies of the correspondence. Choicest soundbites from the battle: Oppel, in a half-hearted apology for printing the anti-Semitic letter, wrote that "On reflection, I give Levy the benefit of doubt. It is my doubt, not his, since he is never in doubt." Levy replied by telling Oppel that many in Austin, including Statesman staffers, view the editor as "an arrogant and rigid ex-Marine who never, ever considers the possibility of letting the facts get in the way of your own pre-conceived notions."



Pacifica Radio

3) KOOP infighting. KOOP radio was put on the air in 1994 by a group of visionaries who dared to ask: Could a bunch of left-of-center music lovers and political activists get together and operate a radio station free of an oppressive hierarchy, sticking to idealistic, cooperative principles? Three years later, the answer is "apparently not." Some of the station's activists, in their zeal to be more left than thou, cost the station a broadcasting agreement with the excellent Pacifica Network News by constantly attacking (using a daily, on-air disclaimer) Pacifica for its disagreements with its labor force. To hear the anti-Pacifica faction tell it, one would think that the venerable pacifist radio network was running a Third World sweatshop. Pacifica finally parted ways with KOOP in October and will soon move over to KAZI. And now, charges of racism among the staff are being flung about, and some KOOP programmers report that morale among the station's volunteer staff has sunk like a rock. We have seen the enemy, and it is us. Will the left ever stop attacking itself long enough to accomplish anything?

4) Daily Texan fights to keep elected editor. Texas Student Publications (TSP), the governing board of The Daily Texan, the University of Texas' student newspaper, voted in March to take control of the paper away from the student-elected editor and hand it over to the board-appointed managing editor, and even contemplated eliminating the election process altogether. Thankfully, both bad ideas were later withdrawn, and the unique structure that has produced so many excellent editors for so many decades at the Texan was retained.

5) No confidence vote at the Texan. Well, okay, sometimes the Texan system is less than perfect. In November, the student staff of the paper issued a 17-1 vote of no confidence in editor Colby Angus Black and his editorial board. The vote was in response to inflammatory editorials which made personal attacks against student activists, most notably some prominent minority students. The staff said that the board's attacks were "scraping the absolute bottom of what counts as suitable political debate" and "a reckless attempt to divide a campus that has already been burning with racial animosity." Black refused to apologize for the attacks, and was eventually reprimanded by the TSP board.

6) Infighting at The Texas Observer. Again resurrecting the theme of the uncooperative left, in February managing publisher Rebecca Melançon called for editorial changes at The Texas Observer, ideas which sat so poorly with the staff that editor Louis Dubose angrily tendered his resignation. In the ensuing week, however, Dubose found himself back at work and Melançon got the pink slip. Dubose and publisher Geoff Rips said the problem isn't editorial content, but poor marketing (which was Melançon's job). Dubose is right about the Observer's journalistic excellence -- but considering the magazine's pathetic circulation figures (only about 4,000), there may have been some wisdom in Melançon's position, as well.



Gabe Caggiano is proud of his aggressive reporting style; Hillary Clinton's Secret Service agents (grabbing him above) and KTBC were unimpressed.

7) Gabe Caggiano and Fox 7's mismanagement. The once-mighty KTBC is now a ship adrift. Ever since the station switched its affiliation from CBS and became "Fox-7," news ratings have plummeted, and on-air talent has turned over. In August, hot-tempered reporter Gabe Caggiano was fired in a swirl of controversy, with allegations being raised that he had tried to intimidate Garry Mauro's campaign into giving an apology for an earlier perceived snub, and Caggiano responding that he had been fired for daring to dig up dirt on the gubernatorial candidate. Popular weatherman Troy Kimmel also was canned (he later ended up on KVET radio), Tony Lopez -- the station's only Hispanic anchor -- was demoted to reporter, and eventually general manager Craig Millar was fired as well. One staffer complained, "It's the worst station a lot of people have worked at."

8) Hightower gets on the air. After a year of suffering the embarrassment of being a nationally syndicated radio host unable to land a spot on a hometown station, Austin political commentator Jim Hightower finally found a home on KNEZ (1530AM). Radio's left-wing response to Rush Limbaugh can now be heard by more Austinites than just the patrons of Threadgill's World Headquarters, from whence he broadcasts every weekday. The former Texas Agriculture Commissioner and Texas Observer editor was brought to the attention of KNEZ by a group of local business owners, led by Tamara Sbelgio of Amaru Ká and Jim Holland of Eco-Wise. Additionally, Hightower's newly released book There's Nothing in the Middle of the Road Except Yellow Lines and Dead Armadillos, received many favorable reviews nationwide and landed him an appearance on ABC's Politically Incorrect.

9) Sale of The Texas Triangle. The Texas Triangle, long the state's best source of news affecting the gay and lesbian community, was sold to Dallas businessman Todd Cunningham in March after nearly going belly-up and even briefly folding in 1996. After some initial missteps, including some hideous design problems, the paper has survived and even recovered, although it still doesn't quite measure up to its old standards. Even bigger transitions may be in store for the year ahead, as original owners Barbara Wohlgemuth and Kay Longcope -- who had stayed on as general manager and editor, respectively -- recently left. Hopefully, the paper will be able to wean itself from overdependence on wire copy and get back to some good feature writing.

10) The left tries to "get" KVET. Local activist Dorothy Richter filed a petition in July with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to deny KVET/KASE the renewal of its licenses. Richter decided she had had enough of KVET's talk-show hosts, mainly directing her ire at the notoriously cranky morning team of Sammy Allred and Bob Cole on KVET-FM. Richter's petition charged that KVET had failed to notify and offer response time to subjects of their on-air attacks, as the law demands. She specifically singled out diatribes against former City Councilmember Brigid Shea, current Councilmember Willie Lewis, State Representative Glen Maxey, jeweler Russell Korman, former "Media Clips" columnist Chris Walters, and Samsung, among others. Among the most heinous of their comments were a Flag Day crack that, "It's Fag Day -- do we have to salute Glen Maxey today?" and insinuations that Lewis was a child molester (for which the station issued an on-air apology). However, the petition likely won't amount to much -- even Richter herself admitted that "The FCC will probably just give them a slap on the wrist."

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