WVKR officially cancels political talkshow

Elysia Glover Assistant News Editor

Vassar College’s campus radio station WVKR 91.3-FM officially cancelled its only student-run talk show last week. A complaint made against the program in September 2007 prompted the WVKR executive board to audit Left of Center, a political analysis program hosted by Christopher Binetti ’08 and Brian Hamm ’09. The decision was then made to take the program was taken off the air.

The decision has sparked a debate between the WVKR executive board and the program’s hosts as to the reasons for the program cancellation. While members of the WVKR executive board said that the decision to cancel the talk show was based purely on issues over policy violation, hosts Hamm and Binetti are convinced that issues of political bias are at play.

“At this point I cannot really come to any other conclusion than the fact that ideology had to be a factor,” said Hamm.

The conflict began when WVKR faculty advisor Visiting Assistant Professor of Psychology Nicholas de Leeuw received a complaint from a caller during his morning program on Sept. 14.

“The complaint was about the quality of programming, not about the political content,” said de Leeuw. What my listener described was a very unprofessional sounding show.” According to de Leeuw, the caller complained of lengthy pauses, an excess of laughing, inappropriate humor and a lack of preparation, behaviors the caller felt reflected poorly on the College station.

De Leeuw passed the comments on to WVKR’s Programming Director Barrett Littlefield ’08 and General Manager Noah Kardos-Fein ’08.

News of the complaint prompted the WVKR executive board to audit the next show, which was recorded on Sept. 21.

After listening to the audited recording, Kardos-Fein said that he and the board were alarmed at the unprepared nature of the program.

“In general, the show was run in a very unprofessional manner,” said Kardos-Fein. They did not make the right preparations, they did not have the facts completely straight, it was not clear where the information was coming from—what was opinion, what was fact.”

Binetti and Hamm were also found in violation of a number of WVKR and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) policies, among them the failure to correctly announce the station identification or the disclaimer required of any talk show on the airwaves.

After receiving notification of the cancellation on Sept. 24, Hamm and Binetti immediately appealed the board’s decision and notified Vassar Student Association (VSA) Vice President for Activities Jimmy Kelly ’09. The WVKR executive board met with Hamm and Binetti and it was decided that the hosts would be given an opportunity to address their concerns. Binetti and Hamm recorded a two-hour trial program in an attempt to accomodate the WVKR executive board’s demands.

Though Binetti and Hamm recorded the show a week before October break, the hosts did not receive notification the executive board’s decision to indefinitely cancel the program until Nov. 5.

“For talk shows, where there is any kind of questionable or controversial or possibly controversial material that is going to be expressed on the air, you are mandated by the FCC and the radio station to cover the radio station and the College to say that the opinions expressed on this show are not the opinions of WVKR or Vassar College and they didn’t do that,” said Kardos-Fein.

While Hamm and Binetti did make an effort to announce adhere to FCC guidelines by announcing station’s frequency on the hour and reading the disclaimer, the executive board decided to uphold the original decision to cancel the program.

The hosts of the show plan to continue their quest to get back on the air, despite the fact that WVKR has declared the issue closed. “I am all for reconciliation,” Hamm said, “we tried that for several weeks. They have shut the door; we have not shut the door. We would love to get our show back.”

In the final e-mail correspondence confirming the cancellation, the executive board reminded the hosts that they could reapply to do a program next semester. Binetti, however, doubted that their show would be reinstated. “They will ideologically close us out. They are going to fill us out with music. Having an independent outlet was really important to me,” said Binetti, “but now it doesn’t exist.”

Binetti and Hamm remain confident that they had addressed the executive board’s complaints in the trial recording, and feel the contention is deeper than the board will admit. The complaint coincided with a show during which the JENA 6 trial was the main issue of discussion, something both Hamm and Binetti have a hard time accepting as coincidence.

Both hosts admit to taking an alternate stance than the one typically hears on campus, and feel as if their freedom of speech has been violated.

“[Hamm] did not assume that it was ideological until this week,” said Binetti. “I assumed it was ideological from day one not because I am hasty but because I’ve had certain experiences in the past.”

He insists their coverage tackled the sensitive Jena 6 issue well, stating that, “I think we did a really good job of that story and gave multiple perspectives. We did good political analysis work.”

In defense of the board’s decision to cancel the program, Kardos-Fein insisted that the station’s decision was not due to Hamm and Binetti’s political views, emphasizing the liability factor of airing a program that is in regular violation of station and FCC policy. “It’s dangerous to have a political talk show not following FCC guidelines, we cannot afford to have them on the air,” he said.

“I think they may have misinterpreted our comments on their show, we have nothing against [Hamm] and [Binetti] or their ideas,” Kardos-Fein continued. “It is a matter of quality, not the content, but how they were presenting it.”