"Always Listen to Your... Equal Time for Mayor Candidates on... WMOM"

[XLFD]

When people heard the news that Ludington City Councilor Gary Castonia had officially entered the mayor's race they may have thought:  "Oh great; another tired, old, corrupted councilor about to be term limited out of office is blessing us with an extra choice we won't take." 

But the entrance of Castonia actually signifies more than that, and the reason is the part-time job he has been in  few years since his retirement.  Back in 2012, Gary "Cazie" Castonia teamed up with Todd "Scoop" Hansen to broadcast Ludington Oriole sporting events on local radio station WMOM (WMOM Sports Team).  Cazie provides color commentary for both boys and girls high school basketball, as well as football, Scoop providing the play-by-play.

What does this have to do with the Ludington mayor's race?  Cazie is part of a broadcast team, and so whenever he gets on-air to broadcast a game, he has a distinct advantage over the other three mayor candidates who don't, and who would have to pay for air-time on WMOM out of their campaign coffers. 

Federal law, specifically Federal Communications Commission (FCC) political broadcasting rules (section 315) has it that once a candidate becomes "legally qualified" (i.e. he or she has established their right to a place on the ballot by filing the necessary papers), equal opportunities rights are available to the opposing candidates.

What this means is that, if an on-air broadcaster who is running for political office stays on the air, any opposing candidate can come to the station and demand equal opportunities within seven days of the date on which the on-air announcer/candidate was on the air, and the opponent(s) would be entitled to the same amount of time in which they can broadcast a political message, to be run in the same general time period as the station employee/candidate was on the air.

Therefore, if a morning radio personality, radio commentator, newscaster, or even a color commentator for sports programming decides to run for mayor (or any other elected position) and he/she broadcasts twice a week for two hours, an opposing mayor candidate(s) can get up to four hours, and that opposing candidate(s) does not need to air the news, sports, or weather, but can do a full politically-based message  (see p. 7+ in this manual). 

Certainly, Mr. Castonia does not broadcast high school sports during the middle of summer, so he has no on-air time for now; additionally it should be noticed that the basketball seasons for both boys and girls do not start until well after the November election.  However, in just three weeks the Ludington Orioles football season begins with a home opener hosting Hart, with Scoop and Cazie scheduled to broadcast that event.

Eight other regular season games are spread out on Friday nights throughout the football season, all occurring before the election.  There could even be one or two playoff games before that time if the Orioles can turn things around this year.

The ramifications are that if Gary Castonia broadcasts as he has the last four years, his opponents could claim that amount of time (or less) for their own political messages.  If both the Orioles and their opponents feature a lot of running plays, this period may be as low as two hours.  If they are passing teams, it may be around three hours.  Conceivably, you could hear his three opponents coming on WMOM the following Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday respectively talking local politics for three hours, rather than the station's prime-time music line-up.

Is there a way around this potentially disastrous situation for Gary Castonia and WMOM?  They have four clear options:

• Obtain waivers from the opponents of the station employee allowing the employee to continue to do his job, perhaps with conditions such as forbidding any discussions of the political race.
• Allow the candidate to continue to broadcast in exchange for a negotiated amount of air time for the opponents.
• Provide equal time to the opposing candidates equal to the amount of time that the host’s voice was heard on the air if the opponents request it (within 7 days of the host being on the air)
• Take the host off the air during the election.

The third option is risky, and should likely be taken off the table once any other candidate claims the right.  Especially since now that their on-air personality is a 'legally qualified candidate' running in a contested election they must keep accurate records of his broadcast appearances (even in the use of Cazie's catchphrase "Always listen to your mom." advertisements of sportscasts) and put it in their publicly-available "public file". 

[XLFD]

I'll check it out further next week, GOB.  Note that it is possible that the two on-air broadcasters may have been unaware that the radio station was paying out this money, if they were.  Councilor Cazie seems blithely unaware of most things that the City Manager and Attorney get into, or at least acts blithely unaware when it's revealed-- does a great job too.

[XLFD]

If your claims get verified, I will not make any excuses for WMOM, nor will I for any other local agency or business that does something contrary to reasonable rules.

[stump]

I guess my question would be , are these turnaments that WMOM

[stump]

So if WMOM is broadcasting a regular game their OK? Sounds like a Mob shake down on MHSAA to me.

[XLFD]

GOBCN2G,

I just got off the phone with a couple of ladies from the MHSAA (TX#:  1-517-332-5046) and verified a couple of things.  First, that WMOM has paid the MHSAA all of their fees since they began broadcasting athletic events including post-season games.  This was after having that confirmed by WMOM.  Second, that your assertions are totally without merit.

A little additional research has shown that Bill Downing has recently quit his job at Synergy Broadcasting (the other Ludington radio broadcasters) and said in his parting post found on Facebook County Line sports on August 11, 2016 emphasis added:

"Good evening County Line Sports fans, the past years have seen me as a person grow and do what I love... Sports. I am not a quitter, I don't run from anyone or anything. As you know I married my beautiful wife Kelly Thomas Downing over a year ago, I have two beautiful daughters, and now I'm a grandpa. I have met the most amazing people, parents, athletes, coaches, athletic directors, superintendents. The decision to leave was mine, as people say.. As one door closes, another ...one opens. Synergy broadcast group is the best... Period. I can't thank my friends at Synergy for giving me the chance to be me, and for those around me to support what I did. I will be attending the Illinois School of Broadcasting and going for my sports emphasis degree, I will be working with the Windy City Bulls (Chicago Bulls "D" League team) WKLA's coverage of the Ludington Orioles will be going on 66 straight years, tune in for the best sports team around, a sports team that is true to the fans and school. WKLA is the only MHSAA authorized radio station for the Orioles... We are proud of that. In closing I want to thank all of you for your support of the show and myself. The best has yet to come.... I will miss ALL of you, but I know everything happens for a reason. Please continue to support county line sports, and synergy broadcast group... When you say community, it's Synergy!!! Thank you, I will miss you all, hope to see you around town when I come to town to pick-up my daughter. Goodnight, and thank you."

The bold-faced lettering highlights what is otherwise a bold-faced lie.  Exaggeration and hyperbole might be good traits for a radio sports broadcaster, as would be loyalty to the 'team', but when you try to pass such off as 'news' when it's completely and verifiably false is perhaps why you may find yourself scrambling for 'D' league action.  Please tell the rest of the Synergy Squad, including any incoming sportscaster(s), that good sportsmanship is important even when you're dealing with rival media, and the loyalty they need to pursue is steadfast loyalty to the truth.

[shinblind]

This is a perfect example of why you would make a great city councilor.

You verify the facts for yourself seeking the truth unlike the herd of Shay's bobble heads that make up the current board.  

[Brad]

Sorry but I'm not redoing this pic to fit "bobble heads".....  But still gets to the point.

[Brad]

I second Shinblind's comment!

"Gone-Ole-...Boy sure wasted everyone's time.  ...Maybe someone should tell on him to MOM.

[XLFD]

One should never blindly accept the words of others, especially those who do so anonymously.

Yeah, I know what you may be thinking-- that almost everybody here on the Ludington Torch speaks under a pseudonym. 

But I assert that this is a great equalizer of ideas.  Consider, if you heard the words of a trusted authority (to you) and the words of an ordinary Joe contradict each other, you would probably be inclined to believe the former based on reputation alone with all other things being equally presented. 

Yet with anonymity, you do not lazily accept the findings based on the presenter's identity.  Furthermore, the trusted authority must go even further in supplying facts and reasons to sway you.

Brad and shinblind have come on here and made some profound observations over the last couple years, regardless of their true identity.  Without their identities being secret to most people would they have done so?  At a costume ball, a person's identity is often masked, but his truer personality often comes unmasked, uninhibited by the restrictions society imposes.

The same often happens in our grand masquerade here and yet... some people abuse the privilege, our newest member being a case in point.

[XLFD]

This is but a list of radio stations and web audio outlets carrying This Week In High School Sports, a weekly audio program with features about happenings in high school sports around the state. 

Just because WMOM does not run this program does not mean they lack MHSAA authorization to broadcast their games, it just means they feel they have more interesting programming during half-time and pre-game broadcasting. 

If it runs on the Synergy Group's broadcasts on WKLA or WLDN, it indicates to me that station management apparently has little confidence in the sportscaster's ability to maintain listener interest during those times.  The Illinois School of Broadcasting courses will hopefully help that problem in future endeavors.

[XLFD]

Well, I wish the best of luck to Bill Downing in his new market, it's too bad he didn't get the opportunities around here to sparkle.  Unfortunately, when Synergy brought up all those local radio stations and refocused, scavenged, and homogenized them, they made each lose a bit of their unique quality.  

For instance, Downing got his job when Synergy assimilated WKLA and fired longtime sportscaster Rod Beckman, shortly after an even longer longtime sportscaster (and regular announcer) "Big" George Wilson retired.  These guys have each been inducted into halls of fame for their broadcasting ability for Mason County sports. 

That's a hard act to follow even if your radio station makes a strong commitment to local sports, which WKLA hasn't since it became part of Synergy.  What Bill Downing has done for Ludington sports is negligible, being that he has diluted himself over many other markets.  WKLA has become a McRadio station without a firm commitment to any local area, be it Ludington, Thompsonville, Grand Haven, and all points in between.

As far as my call, the first lady I talked with from MHSAA transferred me to another one who would know the answer to the dilemma that you let me ride, and she was certain in her words that WMOM was totally compliant with the MHSAA rules after checking her records.  If you feel otherwise, give them a call and tell them that you saw the WMOM crew at a sports tournament without a lanyard and picture ID; I believe you will get the same response.

[stump]

What I found interesting is why would the MHSAA organization have any say or power to charge a fee to a radio station to broadcast a high school game ? Basically saying, you belong to our organization or else!!!!!! This isn't major league base ball were talking about.