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"Riding the Airwaves"
Introduction
As the 1960s came to a close, increasing pressure was brought to
bear on broadcasters to augment women's participation on the air. The pressure
came from the women's liberation movement and from changes in the law produced
by the civil rights movement. Women's participation in broadcasting took several
different forms. Three models emerged after 1964 to create access for women to
the airwaves. The models met with varying degrees of success.
In the first model, women were hired to fill on-air positions
traditionally held by men. Women simply stepped into the shoes of men. While the
sex of the broadcaster was different, the gender content of the messages
remained the same.
In the second model, women formed collectives and were granted
small amounts of regularly-scheduled air time each week. During those slots, the
stations broadcast programs created, produced, and often engineered by women.
The women were usually volunteers, and their programs were broadcast on fringe,
non-traditional radio stations that did not have high ratings. In this model,
the gender content of a small part of the radio station programming was changed.
In the third model, the entire radio station programming was
changed. The station was traditional in management structure, though
economically marginal. In this third model, the complete gender content of the
station programming was altered.
The first model has the longest history and has afforded women
"Riding the Airwaves"
the greatest access to on air broadcasting. It is the only one which
survives to any substantial extent. The second and third models, in which gender
content was changed, are either completely gone or significantly diminished. The
lesson to be learned is that female voices will be allowed on the air only if
the message is gender neutral; messages that are women-gendered are either
marginalized or silenced altogether.
Three Models of Access
The first model of access to the airwaves was the oldest, most
traditional, and most widely accepted. In this model, women replaced men in
already established broadcast positions. There was no alteration in the
hierarchical organization of the workplace or the gender content of what was
broadcast. The sex of the voice was changed, but the gender of the message was
not. It was a mainstream model. The women broadcasters were often traditional
liberal feminists.
The second access model was non-traditional in organization and
radical in content. This form of women's access to airwaves has survived, but
barely. In this model, alternative radio stations maintained their basic
organization and format, but dedicated a small portion of their broadcast time
to women who produced their own programs for, and about, women. These programs,
produced using station equipment, but independent of direct station supervision
of "Riding the Airwaves"
content, were then broadcast during regularly-allotted times. The
women creating these programs typically organized into a collective and operated
by consensus. Historically, the radio stations participating in this second
access model were at the fringe of the broadcasting mainstream, either because
they played non-traditional music or were publicly owned and operated. In the
early 1970s they tended to be FM stations, because FM had a lower market
saturation, smaller audiences, and generally programmed to the periphery.
In the third model of access, an entire radio station was dedicated
to women's programming. It combined the traditional bureaucratic organization of
a mainstream radio station with the more radical aspect of woman-centered
programming. While the station's management, program, and sales structure was
similar to the six thousand other traditional radio stations in the country, the
content was markedly different. There were two examples of the second model of
access to the airwaves. Neither one retained the woman-centered program content
for more than a year-and-a-half.
First Model - Jobs
Within ten years after commercial radio began in the United States
in 1920, women were given some voice, albeit limited, in broadcasting. They did
not appear in great numbers, however; certainly nowhere in proportion to their
majority status in the population. When women were heard on the radio in the
1930s, is was "Riding the Airwaves"
as homemaker, advertiser, comedienne, women's editor, or occasionally
newsmaker, as with Eleanor Roosevelt.[1]
It took much longer for women to be accepted as newscasters, first on
radio and then on television, first locally and then nationally. With rare
exceptions, women still were virtually locked out of broadcasting as the fifties
drew to an end.
There were, though, those women who managed to distinguish
themselves. For example, in Detroit, Fran Harris continued the radio and
television career she began in 1931, principally as women's editor at
WWJ-AM-FM-TV.[2] She had been allowed to broadcast the news on radio during
World War II only after the male news anchors were drafted and no longer
available for on-air duty.
As the 1960s progressed, women were less of an oddity in
broadcasting. Buoyed in part by the same events that helped to create the
women's liberation movement - a generally expanding economy, a postwar
generation reaching employment age, more reliable birth control and fewer
children, changes in homelife - more and more women entered the profession. The
overall inclusion of women in the marketplace was paralleled by a steady growth
in the number of women employed at local radio and television stations and the
networks during the twenty years that followed the passage of the Civil Rights
Act of 1964. In 1979, women comprised 21.2% of the workforce in radio news. By
1984 that number had grown to 29.5% of the total radio newsroom staff. At the
same time, the number of
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women radio news directors approached nearly 25%.[3]
Women looking for employment gains in broadcasting had further
regulatory help. Several orders issued by the Federal Communications Commission,
the administrative agency with broadcast industry oversight, greatly spurred the
increase in the number of women employed in broadcasting. In 1968, the FCC
proposed rules requiring broadcasters to establish and promote affirmative
action programs for minority group members.[4] The rules were adopted in 1969.
Two years later, the Commission proscribed sex discrimination.[5] In so doing,
the FCC became the first administrative agency to adopt rules banning
discrimination against women.
The adoption of employment rules addressing gender made it
necessary for broadcasters to take positive steps to bring women into the
profession in visible, audible ways. Some broadcast managers came willingly,
while others needed the stimulus of potential sanctions to act. It took the
threat of a license challenge for some local and network stations to increase
the number of women hired to broadcast.
In an effort to get ABC to create greater employment opportunities
for women, NOW pursued a license challenge against WABC-TV, charging that the
station treated women employees unequally; that it failed to include women as a
significant group in its ascertainment interviews with community leaders
regarding
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programming needs, mandated by the FCC; and that it violated the
Fairness Doctrine in its handling of the role of women in society. The
network-owned television station responded by posting available jobs, hiring
women in the sales department, holding consciousness-raising seminars for all
employees, and requiring middle managers in all areas to both hire and promote
more women.[6] In some measure as a response, between 1974 and 1982, female
employment in radio and television broadcasting rose from roughly one-fifth of
the total workforce to one-third.[7]
At the same time that broadcast stations were hiring women, the
media was increasing its coverage of women and women's liberation movement. The
notice was a mixed blessing as broadcaster reports regularly trivialized both
women and feminism. Audiences heard and saw a skewed vision of what was
happening within the movement, making it difficult for the public to make
accurate judgments.[8] The coverage reflected an unflattering mainstream view of
a liberal movement. Further, newly hired women reporters were sent to cover
feature stories and traditional women's events. The hard news stories were
generally reserved for men, as were the better work shifts; women often worked
weekends.[9] In addition, female reporters were asked to join women's
organizations so to be included in the group's mailing list and receive
information about the group's activities.[10]
The topic of women in the media began to interest scholars in
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the early 1970s. Research on media portrayals of women and the impact
on the audience appeared in academic communication journals with the research
frequently guided by feminist theory. Scholars noticed the trivialization of
women by the media and issued calls for change in the roles assigned to
women.[11]
The increase in numbers of women employed did not, however,
translate to meaningful positions of power within broadcast facilities. For
example, the FCC, in a 1972 complaint regarding the employment practices of a
Massachusetts television station applying for license renewal, found few women
or minorities in the four upper job categories at the station identified as:
officials and managers; professionals; technicians; and sales workers.[12] The
experience at the television station was not uncommon in broadcasting; women
were generally relegated to positions of lesser influence during the two decades
after the passage of Civil Rights Act of 1964, even though both the number of
women employed in broadcasting, and their percentage of the total workforce,
were increasing. Without roles of influence, lacked the power to affect the
content of what was broadcast in any real sense.
Second Model - Women's Radio Collectives
In addressing gender bias in broadcasting, feminists often made FM
stations were their targets. The stations' hard rock, alternative, and heavy
metal music tended to contain lyrics that
"Riding the Airwaves"
were both sexist and anti-woman. Often, the FM stations had no women
on their broadcast staffs. Beginning in the fall of 1969, there were
confrontations between radical feminists and several FM stations across the
country. Among the demands made by the women were increases in the numbers of
female disc jockeys and more regularly-scheduled programming produced by members
of the women's liberation movement.[13]
The publicly-owned Pacifica stations, including those in Los
Angeles, Berkeley, Houston, and New York, were the first in the country to carry
a feminist radio program in the country. Nanette Rainone, of WBAI-FM in New
York, hosted "Womankind: Discussion and Commentary from the Feminist Community."
It was a half-hour weekly program with news of the women's movement in 1969. The
following year, in October, WBAI-FM added "Electra Rewired", a weekly talk show
completely produced and broadcast by women.
Late in 1970, WBAI-FM offered yet a third program. This one was
called "Consciousness Raising." It consisted of a 45 minute tape of a rap
session, followed by 45 minutes of audience call-in.[14] In one particular
"Consciousness Raising" show, the seven women who made up the weekly C-R group
talked about men and violence. They shared feelings and experiences about their
dislike of whistling and name-calling directed at them by men. They also
expressed their rage at male sexual fantasies of women, and their fears of
battering and rape at the hands of men. The episode was one of twenty produced
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for WBAI-FM. The C-R group met at least once a week to work on topics
for the broadcast. Every Sunday they gathered in the WBAI-FM studios to produce
the show. Other topics covered in "Consciousness Raising" included adolescent
puberty rituals ("How I First Learned About Menstruation"), housework,
masturbation, and monogamy.[15]
In the spring of 1970 a coalition of feminist groups disrupted a
staff meeting at KSAN-FM, an anti-establishment rock station in San Francisco.
They demanded air time and access to production facilities to create and
broadcast their own program. The station management concurred and agreed to
train the women. The groups received time for three half-hour programs
weekly.[16] Concurrently, a Boston politico group, Bread and Roses, picketed
Boston hard-rock station WBCN-AM, protesting the anti-woman content of music
lyrics broadcast by the station. Several months later, WBCN-AM aired a half-hour
program produced by members of the group that addressed the issue of sexism in
rock 'n' roll. The station went further, and was one of the first to hire women
as disc jockeys.[17]
While their programs were neither slick nor well-produced, and the
stations on which they aired were not highly rated by Arbitron, the industry
audience survey, women's programming gained a foothold. The vehicle for access
was often a women's collective, a model for program production and broadcast
begun in 1969. The names of the collectives often reflected themes of the
women's liberation movement. One list, developed by the Detroit Women's Radio
"Riding the Airwaves"
Workshop, included 17 women's radio collectives in the United States
and Canada The cohort included: the Kansas City Women's Liberation Union Radio
Collective; Radio Free Women in Toronto; Sisters of Sappho at SUNY in Buffalo;
Radio Free Feminists in Atlanta; the Lesbian Feminist Radio Collective; and the
Durham Women's Radio Collective.[18] There were others: the Mother Jones
Collective, Unlearning Not to Speak; WOMEN NOW; the Feminist Radio Serial
Project; WOMANSOUND; Being ourselves; The Sistersharing Collective; and Women
Hold Up 1/2 the Sky.[19] In Evanston, Illinois, Radio Free Chicago broadcast a
program from midnight to 5:00 A.M. called "Suzie Creamcheese Collective." The
shows, which began in July of 1970, contained mostly music, with some discussion
of feminist issues.[20]
A substantial network of women's radio collectives developed
in the early seventies. As with the feminist newspapers, presses and
journals seven and eight years earlier, the radio collectives communicated
frequently with one another usually by newsletter. The Feminist Radio Network,
which initially went under the name of Radio Free Women, began in 1972. It was
based in Washington, and served as a clearinghouse for feminist audio tapes
produced throughout the country. The FRN published a catalogue for Fall, 1974
offering 54 different programs with topics ranging from women and health, and
women's studies, to women making movies.[21] There was a New Women's Survival
Catalogue which contained information
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about women's radio collectives around the country, and the Women's
Institute for Freedom of the Press published a documentary sourcebook titled
Women in Media.[22]
The Detroit Women's Radio Workshop was formed in 1971, and went on
the air with its first program on October 4, 1971. The broadcast featured the
Livonia Women's Center, and the politics of housework. The show bore the name
"All Together Now", drawn from the title of a song by the Beatles.
The Detroit Women's Radio Workshop began with five women as
members, including writer and poet Marge Piercy. Like collectives in other
cities, the women developed, assembled, engineered and broadcast their own show.
"All Together Now" aired on WDET-FM, a public station owned and operated by
Wayne State University. The members of the Detroit Women's Radio Workshop were
dedicated to broadening the scope of feminism, and spelled out the goals in
their mission statement: "The purpose of the show is to inform, educate and
entertain Detroit area women and other feminists. It addresses events, ideas,
music and the arts from a feminist perspective."[23] The workshop's philosophy
appeared in a separate section of the same document, written in 1979.
"Membership in the collective has changed and grown since the beginning (...)
but the emphasis is still the same: women working together to bring light to
their position in society; digging deep for alternatives to unfulfilling,
unsatisfying or oppressive situations." [24] [Emphasis
"Riding the Airwaves"
in original.] The philosophy concluded by stating that the variety of
topics covered were all "treated from the perspective of women's political
struggle."[25]
Anne Weitzel joined the Detroit Women's Radio Workshop shortly
after it formed. Her experience with the collective was not atypical. "I had
heard one of their programs appealing for volunteers. I had read a lot of
feminist literature so even though I had no previous broadcasting experience, I
wanted to put my money where my mouth was,"[26] Weitzel explained that the
workshop hoped to serve the women's community. "We taped women's lecturers and
conferences," she said. "We did interviews of particular interest to feminists,"
covering such topics "as rape, abortion, alcoholism, child care, witchcraft,
legislation and religion."[27]
Program topics broadcast during the fall of 1971, the first three
months "All Together Now" was on the air, resembled those discussed on the air
by other women's radio collectives. They included divorce, socialization of
little girls, rape, women as sex objects, natural childbirth, the Daughters of
Bilitis, and childcare.[28]
The broadcasts in following years remained focused on events,
ideas, music and the arts as viewed from a feminist perspective. Topics aired in
1979 included woman goddess, female genital mutilation, women in the martial
arts, nuclear power and Karen Silkwood, local feminist writers, women and
science fiction, Anais
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Nin, black women in the arts, and death and dying.
Detroit Women's Radio Workshop member Toni Swanger joined the
workshop in 1973, her interest sparked by a women's studies class.[29] On
January 8, 1980, Swanger hosted a program of highlights from "All Together Now"
broadcasts of 1979. The first segment on the program was titled "When God Was a
Woman", inspired by Merlin Stone's book of the same name. "When God Was a Woman"
initially aired on WDET-FM on May 22, 1979 and, according to Swanger, the show
"generated, believe it or not, our first bomb threat."[30]. The program
contained readings from When God Was a Woman, which explored the strength,
competence, sexuality and vitality of women during a period the author claimed
ended more than six thousand years ago.
The same "All Together Now" broadcast included excerpts of a speech
given by theologian and feminist Mary Daly, author of Beyond God the Father, on
female genital mutilation and the rise of gynecology as part of American medical
practice. The program contained clear, graphic descriptions by Daly of the three
principal forms of clitoral circumcision performed throughout Africa and the
Arab world.[31]
"All Together Now" also featured "Women in the Martial Arts" in a
program broadcast in 1979, on October 9. It profiled Jay Spiro, owner of a local
karate school. Spiro had been interviewed by Anna of "Gaily Speaking", a program
for the lesbian and gay community in
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Detroit, also broadcast on WDET-FM. "All Together Now" re-broadcast
the Spiro interview, first in October, then in January, 1980. The "All Together
Now Highlights" broadcast of this interview opened with a song advocating that
women "fight back to make a safe home."[32]2 Spiro, holder of a Third Degree
Black Belt in karate, explained women's interest in the area. "As women realize
that we are oppressed and that we want to be more powerful, people turn to the
martial arts as a way of developing confidence and power in themselves."[33]
Membership in the Detroit Women's Radio Workshop totaled five in
1971, and never exceeded 20. The women in the workshop met monthly through the
better part of the seventies, usually on the first Sunday, for a potluck brunch
at the home of one of the members. The meetings centered on the planning of
future programs, a critique of shows already broadcast and the general business,
including financial, of the collective. Leadership roles rotated.[34]
Despite the staunchly feminist, often controversial material
presented by the Detroit Women's Radio Workshop, "All Together Now" continued on
the air at WDET-FM into 1980, though the program had been reduced in air time
and moved to different time slots several times. By 1981 "All Together Now" and
other community-based programs were almost completely eliminated from WDET's
broadcast schedule.[35]
Feminist programs, produced by local women's collectives,
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managed to maintain a foothold on the air through most of the 1970s.
Their numbers dwindled toward the end of the decade for several reasons. First,
as FM stations gained strength in the marketplace so that they were no longer
fringe, the station management could not economically justify turning air time
over to alternative programs. Such programs broke the program flow of the
station, and did not generate any revenue. Second, in line with the philosophy
of the Reagan Administration, the Federal Communications Commission, chaired by
Mark Fowler, entered into a substantial campaign to de-regulate broadcasting in
the early 1980s. As a result, there was less pressure on broadcasters to air
news and public affairs programs such as those produced by women's radio
collectives. Third, the decline in collective-produced shows paralleled the
backlash to the women's liberation movement. As interest in the movement, and
attention to the movement's core issues fell off, so, too, did women's radio
collectives and the programs they produced. Adverse reaction to the content of
the programs led to marginalization and elimination of the collectives.
Third Model - A Station Just for Women
The first radio station to identify itself as a woman's station was
WOMN-AM in New Haven, Connecticut. The station was licensed by the FCC as an AM
daytime facility, broadcasting at 1220 kilohertz at 1000 watts, and required to
sign-off at sundown. It was a
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technically weak broadcast facility.
In 1977, Robert Herpe, the owner of WPLR-FM in New Haven, sought to
increase his broadcast holdings by purchasing WCDQ-AM, as the station was then
called. The WCDQ-AM station broadcast a Top 40 music format, performed poorly in
the face of competition from FM rock stations, and was for sale. Herpe, WPLR
vice president Richard Kalt, and WPLR news director Terry
Branham discussed potential formats for the AM station and agreed
there was a market for a women's format. "We batted around ideas," said Kalt,
"and Herpe asked,`What about a women's format?' I said it could be viable if
properly positioned, and would depend on how it was programmed." Kalt believed
that there was room for the format, and "if it failed," he assured Herpe, "it
would not be for lack of effort."[36]
Branham was also enthusiastic about a format for women. "I said
`yes', all the while wondering how it would happen. There was the thought of
making it a station for women without a thought as to what that meant. `Women'
made up a diverse community in New Haven."[37]
Herpe acquired WCDQ-AM and applied for a change of call letters on
June 30, 1978. The new call letters were WOMN-AM, and the station was identified
by the broadcasters, on the air, as WOMAN radio. WOMN-AM began broadcasting with
the new woman-centered format August, 28, 1978, a day picked to coincide with
Women's
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Equality Day, according to Les Thimmig, the director of women's
programming at WOMN-AM.[38]. The station, as Herpe envisioned it, would provide
in-depth coverage of events from a woman's point of view, and would work to
improve communication between women and men. Herpe also wanted to "give a chance
to that other 50 percent of the world to give input to the media."[39] Kalt was
very cautious, however, to avoid putting the label "feminist" on the new format.
In an interview with a reporter he said, "Studies show about 50 percent of
people are turned off by overtly feminist things, while the rest like it. So why
lose half your audience before you even get going?"[40]
The initial response by New Haven advertisers to the new radio
station format was good. Kalt and his sales staff presented WOMN-AM to
advertisers as "the only station programmed totally to the needs of today's
woman. When you use WOMAN to reach New Haven Women your message is delivered to
decision makers, heads of households, and spenders of discretionary income."[41]
The station was commercially sold out the first three weeks it was on the air.
Its advertisers included local supermarket chains, record stores, auto dealers,
the New Haven Nighthawks minor hockey club and a new racquetball club which
featured a daycare facility for new members.[42]
The media response to the station was significant. There were
articles in Business Week, Ms., Vogue, in addition to The New York Times, area
newspapers and industry publications. Newsweek
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magazine's cable program "Newsweek Woman" taped a feature on the
station; Swedish national television sent a crew and a correspondent for a
story. The New Haven station with its novel format generated a stir.
A feature article on WOMN-AM appeared in Ms. in March, 1979.
Headlined "Tuning in on the Voice of WOMN-AM", the story described the new
station, its innovative programming and the people who had put the station on
the air, and those who were operating it. In the article, reporter Fran
Hawthorne captured the essence, of the radio station when she wrote, "The
station began broadcasting last August to speak to and about women; it tries to
play music that women like, highlight issues of importance to women and bring
attention to female artists."[43]
The public affairs programming spoke decidedly to women from a
cultural feminist perspective. Among the features aired during WOMN-AM's first
several months of operation were programs on parents' role reversal, the women's
movement, nurse-midwives, birth control, battered women, women's music, Susan B.
Anthony, and sexist language.[44]
The Mother Goddess was the subject of a WOMAN Feature broadcast
November 14 and repeated November 18, 1978. In an interview with Elizabeth
Maffeo, an astrologer, teacher, and herbalogist, WOMN-AM director of women's
programming Les Thimmig and Maffeo discussed Merlin Stone's book When God Was a
Woman. In her introduction,
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Thimmig said, "when the shift in religious focus took place from the
mother to the father principle, there was a great deal of violence." She
continued, "The people firmly believed in their goddess structure, and they
intended to keep it, but the fist of the very strict father principle took
over."[45]
Another feature program on WOMN addressed the issue of sexual
harassment in an interview with feminist legal scholar Catharine MacKinnon, then
a New Haven attorney. MacKinnon offered examples of sexual harassment, including
that of the male professor awarding a female student an `A` only if she had
sexual relations with him. "In my opinion," said MacKinnon, "you have been
sexually harassed because he has announced a sexually discriminatory standard
for evaluating your work - namely whether you're going to sleep with him."[46]
The station also examined abortion in a two-part series which
presented both sides of the issue. In a feature aired on January 22, 1979, Nancy
Wickett, a board member of the Connecticut National Abortion Rights Action
League, raised concern about the chipping away of rights, six years after the
Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade. Wickett defended her group's position
relative to those opposed to it. She vigorously attacked those who sought
restrictions on women's access to abortion. "I really resent the term pro-life
because it implies that anyone who does not go along with their thinking is
anti-life. We believe very strongly in the
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quality of life and in the right of the woman to choose."[47] In the
broadcast, Thimmig described the issue as "a red-hot one, sparking passion and
anger on both sides."[48]
On the following day, the station explored the other side of the
abortion debate was. Carol Murphy, president of the Pro-Life Council of
Connecticut, said that women do have choice in the matter of reproduction. But
Murphy drew the line in a place different from Wickett had the previous day when
she said, "That right ends when a new life has begun. That new life has rights
also."[49] Murphy added that she would not judge a woman who had an abortion as
she "could be misguided by her parents or peers."[50] Thimmig took care to point
out that WOMN had aired both sides of the abortion debate, using language that
was drawn from the FCC's Fairness Doctrine, which required broadcasting of
opposing viewpoints on controversial issues.
Women's program director Thimmig also explored alternate forms of
sexual expression in a five-part series on gay lifestyles which was broadcast on
WOMN-AM. In the first installment, Thimmig interviewed two lesbians who had come
out of the closet. The first woman, a 21-year old who had been out for three
years, dismissed her mother's reaction to her being a lesbian by insisting she
was only going through a phase. "Well," the daughter explained, "I've been going
through this `phase` since I was 15 when I realized that I did tend more toward
women."[51] The second woman interviewed was
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a 29-year old lesbian mother who had been out for three years. She
explained how the experience had liberated her. "There was an intensely euphoric
feeling which I have never experienced before or since. And I knew that all of
those years of pretending, to aim for `Harriet Housewife`, and reading Playgirl
and all of that - to hide my homosexuality -was just that. It was hiding, it was
playing at being instead of actually being who I was."[52]
The station's program mainstay was music, and the music format was
Album Oriented Rock (AOR). Cindy Bailen, the station's music director, mixed
both male and female artists, but broke the traditional AOR mode by requiring a
minimum of one female artist to every two male artists played. [53] The female
disc jockeys also played feminist music by artists like Holly Near and Chris
Williamson tucked in between traditional and better known artists like Fleetwood
Mac, Linda Rondstadt, Bonnie Raitt and Laura Nyro. Bailen paid close
attention to the lyrics of the songs broadcast on WOMN-AM. Music lyrics
considered sexist or demeaning were not played.[54] The issue of rock lyrics was
an important one to the programmers at WOMN-AM, and to the women's liberation
movement generally. In 1970, Marion Meade had written about the degrading image
of women portrayed in the lyrics of rock music. Meade pointed out that "since
rock is written almost entirely by men, it's hardly surprising to find it
riddled with notions of male superiority. And, for that matter, the entire rock
`culture` screams of
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sexism."[55]
Programmers at WOMN-AM also gave thought to the commercials aired
by the station. Commercials that promoted stereotypes of women as helpless or
flighty were sent back for re-writing. Thimmig told Ms., "I don't think we'd be
big on advertising a Clint Eastwood movie."[56] Station president Herpe
articulated a clear policy when he stated "We have strict acceptance standards.
The copy should not put down women in any way."[57]
Within a year, serious problems that threatened its future
developed at WOMN-AM. The station failed to distinguish itself in the Arbitron
ratings and advertising revenues fell off. Some of the station staff attributed
the difficulties to the music selection played. Kalt believed the format became
too feminist. "All we wound up playing," he said, "was message music, followed
by a p.s.a. (public service announcement) for a rape crisis center and later in
the hour a segment on Planned Parenthood." The narrow focus was detrimental to
the station's success. "We lost sight of the general women's community."[58]
Added to that liability was the fact that the station remained a low-power AM
daytime facility.
At least one disc jockey at WOMN-AM believed that there was a
homophobic reaction to the radio station in the New Haven community. Sam Tilery,
who began at WOMN-AM in 1980 as the station was moving away from a
woman-centered format, saw evidence of such fears. Tilery said, "When it first
went on the air, women and gay
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activists jumped on it. They were excited, and they weren't prepared
for what followed." In Tilery's view,"They lost men who wouldn't listen, or who
wouldn't admit to listening." Beyond that, there was a split between lesbian and
heterosexual women, according to Tilery. He remained a supporter of the
woman-centered program concept but admitted, "It was too good to be true."[59]
WOMN-AM ceased to operate as a radio station programmed
specifically for women in September of 1979. Five months later, the on-air staff
was instructed to stop calling the station WOMAN radio on the air, and
exclusively identify it as W-O-M-N. The programming reverted to Top 40, and
feminist programming all but disappeared.[60] Later in 1980, the station
unofficially renamed itself PLR2 in an effort to capitalize on the success of
its powerful FM counterpart. By then, almost all of the on-air staff from
WOMN-AM had left the station.[61]
WOMN-AM was not the only radio station to change its format to
woman-centered programming. On January 1, 1982, WWMN-AM, licensed to Flint,
Michigan began broadcasting a woman-centered format using new call letters, and
promoting itself as "Flint's New Woman". There were similarities between WWMN-AM
in Flint and WOMN-AM in New Haven. In Flint, as in New Haven, the radio station
had been failing financially in the market. Both stations were, and remain, AM
stations. Both were licensed by the FCC to operate only during daytime hours. In
Flint, as in New Haven, there were high hopes for "Riding the Airwaves"
success, backed by a strong, initial promotional campaign. Peter
Cavanaugh, station manager of WWCK-FM, the companion to WWMN-AM, said that
before the station became "Flint's New Woman", it broadcast under the call
letters of WLQB-AM and presented religious programs. Gencom, the owner of the
two stations, was not satisfied with revenues from the AM station. Company
president Frazier Reams and Cavanaugh decided to explore new programming
concepts in 1981. "We looked at various ideas," said Cavanaugh, "and one or the
other of us came up with the idea of an all-women's station. At that time, we
weren't aware that it had been tried elsewhere." Cavanaugh agreed to get the
station set in a new format and then turn it over to a female staff member to
manage. "It needed to be run by women."[62]
With promotion that included birth announcements declaring "It's a
girl!", baby blue and pink billboards, and 10 second television commercials, the
station began broadcasting its new format New Year's Day, 1982. WWMN-AM built
its programming around women. It also featured women air personalities,
including Jacque, a Detroit-based psychic. A daily afternoon call-in show was
hosted by a Flint woman psychologist. The music mix was woman-oriented, but care
was taken to keep the playlist from being too narrow. Nancy Dymond, a former
sales executive at WWMN-AM, described the playlist as soft rock. "We played
Barry Manilow, but not all the time."[63]
As in the case of WOMN-AM, there was national publicity that
"Riding the Airwaves"
included articles in Billboard, Advertising Age and local newspapers.
A segment about WWMN-AM appeared on "Newsweek Woman", the same cable program
that earlier had done a feature on
WOMN-AM. The five-minute "Newsweek Woman" program presented
interviews with Cavanaugh, and with Linda Lanci, the music and program
director. The program also featured interviews with three men and one woman
randomly stopped on the street in Flint. The host opened the show segment by
asking what one might do with a "station floundering in a city with one of the
highest unemployment rates in the country?" She then answered her own question,
"You have nothing to lose, so why not start all over again with a brand new
approach?"[64] That new approach when "there is nothing left to lose" was a
station for women.
Cavanaugh explained that station management decided to take a
narrow programming approach. He said, "We started looking at the possibility of
appealing to females. There was, as far as we could perceive, a vacuum for that
sort of thing [radio programming for women] in Flint."[65] He erroneously added,
"We were astounded to find out as we went along that we were the first in the
country to try such a thing."[66]
Lanci said that she had received calls from men who did not like
the woman-centered programming being broadcast on the station. "Automatically,
they think this is a `feminist' station."[67] She believed that if the station
"can work in Flint, it can work just
"Riding the Airwaves"
about anywhere."
The men interviewed on the street expressed cautious acceptance of
WWMN-AM. One man said the station would be all right "if they play a little
country" while another man, dressed in a coat and tie, said the bottom line is
profit, and "if they can make a profit with men or women, it's all right."[68]
The only woman shown said she liked to listen to the station because, "I like
the music and I like not having any commercials."[69] It was precisely the lack
of commercials and advertising support that made the station not economically
viable and prompted a format change.
The Flint experiment was even shorter-lived than its counter-part in
New Haven. The station went on the air backed by a $50,000 advertising budget,
but barely registered in the Spring, 1982, Arbitron ratings book.[70] WWMN-AM
was a full-blown women's station for only seven months. Cavanaugh attributed
defeat to the 1982 recession. "It was an incredible, wonderful mix. If it had
been full-time and FM," said Cavanaugh, "it would have been a home run."
Conclusion
Differences in the three models of access to the radio airwaves
used by women encourage further speculation about why only the first model,
jobs, continues to enjoy any measure of success. The first model pre-dated the
women's liberation movement. Beginning in 1971, it operated under a government
mandate. Its content was
"Riding the Airwaves"
gender neutral, and it proposed assimilation of women into the
mainstream culture. The first model is liberal feminist in that it stresses the
sameness of women and men. Women make gains through application of equal rights
under the law.
Women have been most successful gaining entrance to American
institutions, in general, by being unobtrusive.[71] They have been allowed to
join the social services, higher education, foundations, the professions, armed
forces, and churches, as well as the media, on the condition that they are
generally obedient and their behavior conforms to rules established by men.[72]
Women's failure to advance in radio jobs in proportion to their
numbers rests in part with the lackluster enforcement of Federal Communications
Commission rules in the eighties. As part of a general plan of broadcast
deregulation, the FCC put substantially less pressure on stations to increase
the numbers of women and minorities in broadcasting. Still, jobs were, and are,
available to women. More female voices are heard on the radio today than were
heard a quarter of a century ago. The condition appears to be that while the
voice can be female, the message cannot be gendered feminist.
The second model of access, women's radio collectives, survived
much longer than the third, a station just for women, in large part, because it
has not been in the limelight. The second model was originally the creation of
radical feminists. As radical
"Riding the Airwaves"
feminism was replaced by cultural feminism, the second model, too,
became cultural feminist. While the content of the women's radio collective
programming was at least as radical as that aired on stations just for women,
the collectives were tolerated because they were on the periphery of the
broadcast structure. Not only were the stations that aired their programming
non-traditional in ownership and operating at the fringe, barely registering in
the ratings, women's radio collectives were generally broadcast only one or two
hours out of 168 a week on these marginal stations. When the collectives were
allowed more time, it was usually after midnight. Thus, the gendered messages of
the women's radio collectives, while threatening to the male establishment, were
tolerated because few people other than those purposely seeking them out heard
them.
The women's radio collectives have diminished in number, and the
air time allotted to them has decreased, for several reasons. First, they
reflect the ebb and flow of the women's liberation movement generally. In the
1990s, there is less activity on the feminist political scene, including the
media. Second, as the fringe FM stations gained market share in the late
seventies, space for alternative programming decreased. Feminist programming
brought in no advertising revenues. Third, as part of the general deregulation
of broadcasting in the eighties, the FCC eliminated many news and public affairs
program requirements. Women's radio
"Riding the Airwaves"
collectives were no longer needed to satisfy the FCC.
The third model of access to the airwaves, a station just for
women, was highly traditional in management structure and gendered feminist in
program content. It was also a substantial failure, for several reasons. First,
it was established, in both New Haven and Flint, on the AM band, at a low
wattage, daytime station when FM radio stations were beginning to dominate the
market. AM daytime station broadcast operations were marginal, no matter what
the format. Second, woman-centered programming was put in place at the end of
the major wave of the modern women's liberation movement. The Equal Rights
Amendment was foundering. Membership in the National Organization for Women had
peaked and, in 1978, a backlash against the women's movement was gaining energy.
The management at both stations had missed the crest of interest in things woman
and were being pulled out by the undertow. Their notion of what was trendy was
already outdated.
Most important in the demise of these two stations was the
fact that while the station structure was mainstream, the programming
was gendered feminist. Even though the stations technical facilities were weak,
feminist messages were being communicated via a mainstream medium, not a fringe,
non-traditional station. The publicity both stations received at their inception
also hurt them by drawing attention to the fact that the programming was for
women and, by implication, not for men. That
"Riding the Airwaves"
women were on the air, talking to one another, about issues of concern
to women, was a threat to men in the community. The messages broadcast by the
women-centered stations ultimately, and rather quickly, scared advertisers who
did not want their products to be associated with the cause of women's
liberation. Both Herpe and Kalt at WOMN-AM in New Haven, and Cavanaugh at
WWMN-AM in Flint, understood this, and tried unsuccessfully to avoid being
viewed as feminist.
The lesson of the three models of access available to women during
the two decades following passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a time when
women were searching for ways to have their voices heard, is a sober one - keep
the content gender neutral and women can speak. Messages that are gendered
feminist are either marginalized or silenced altogether.
[1] Fran Harris, early radio and television broadcaster, interview
by author, 20 September 1989, Westland, Michigan.
[2] Who's Who of American Women: 14th edition 1885-1986 (Chicago:
Marquis Who's Who, Inc., 1984), 337.
[3] Vernon A. Stone, "Trends in the Status of Minorities and Women
in Broadcast News," Journalism Quarterly 18 (Spring, 1988): 291.
[4] Memorandum Opinion and Order and Notice of Proposed Rulemaking
Requiring Broadcasters to Show Nondiscrimination in Their Employment Practices,
13 F.C.C.2d (1968).
[5] F.C.C. Report and Order Docket #19269, Dec. 28, 1971, effective
Feb. 4, 1972, and Docket #18244; F.C.C. Rules and Regulations, Section 73.125
(a) and Section 73.125 (b).
[6] Marlene Sanders, "The long-term solution: Time," The Quill,
February 1990, 23.
[7] 1974 figure drawn from a study of U.S.-Canadian women in
journalism by Gertrude Joch Robinson, "Women, Media Access and Social Control,"
Women and the News, Laurily Kerr Epstein, ed., (New York: Hastings House, 1978),
88. The 1982 figure was compiled by the F.C.C. and reported in "Women on the
Job: Careers in the Electronic Media," Nancy McCormick-Pickett, ed., (American
Women in Radio and Television, Inc. and the Women's Bureau, U.S. Department of
Labor, 1984), 1.
[8] Winifred D. Wandersee, On the Move: American Women in the 1970s
(Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1988), 155.
[9] Sanders, "The long-term solution: Time," 23.
[10] As a reporter at WVIC-AM-FM in East Lansing, the author was
told in 1974 by the assignment editor, Paul Weisenfeld, to join the Lansing
chapter of the National Organization for Women because, according to Weisenfeld,
"We need to know what they're
doing."
[11] Lana F. Rakow, "Rethinking Gender Research in Communication,"
Journal of Communication, 34 (Autumn 1986), 18.
[12] Epstein, Women and the News, 76.
[13] Judith Hole and Ellen Levine, The Rebirth of Feminism, (New
York: Quadrangle Books, 1971), 275.
[14] Ibid., 275.
[15] Anne Koedt, Ellen Levine and *anita Rapone, ed., Radical
Feminism, (New York: Quadrangle Books, 1973), 63.
[16] Ibid., 276.
[17] Ibid.
[18] "Listing of Feminists in Radio," photocopy, from the personal
collection of Toni Swanger, a member of the Detroit Women's Radio Workshop,
Detroit, Michigan.
[19] Correspondence, photocopy, personal collection of Toni
Swanger, Detroit.
[20] Hole and Levine, Rebirth of Feminism, 275.
[21] "Feminist Radio Network: Fall 1974 Catalogue," papers of the
Detroit Women's Radio Workshop, photocopy, personal collection of Toni Swanger,
Detroit, Michigan.
[22]
Papers of the Detroit Women's Radio Workshop, photocopy, personal
collection of Toni Swanger, Detroit, Michigan.
[23] "All Together Now," papers of the Detroit Women's Radio
Workshop, photocopy, private collection of Toni Swanger, Detroit, Michigan.
[24] Ibid., 2.
[25] Ibid., 2.
[26] Alice Hagerty, "Broadcasting for Women," The Detroit News.
[27] Ibid.
[28] "Tape Inventory," photocopy, papers of the Detroit Women's
Radio Workshop, personal collection of Toni Swanger, Detroit.
[29] Toni Swanger, interview by author, 27 March 1991, Detroit,
Michigan.
[30] "All Together Now Highlights," "All Together Now," 8 January
1980.
[31] Ibid.
[32] Ibid.
[33] Ibid.
[34] "Minutes of ATN Meeting," photocopy, papers of the Detroit
Women's Radio Workshop, personal collection of Toni Swanger, Detroit.
[35] Series of memos between John Buckstaff, WDET-FM station
manager and Community Producers in September and October, 1979, photocopy,
papers of Detroit Women's Radio Workshop, personal collection of Toni Swanger,
Detroit.
[36] Richard Kalt, interview by author, telephone, 14 March 1991,
New Haven, Connecticut.
[37] Terry Branham, interview by author, telephone, 12 March, 1991,
Chattanooga, Tennessee.
[38] Les Thimmig, interview by author, telephone, 25 March 1991,
New Haven, Connecticut.
[39] Melinda Robbins, "Radio Station, Women on the Same Wave
Length," New Haven (Connecticut) Journal Courier, 4 September 1978.
[40] The New York Times, 21 December 1978.
[41] WOMN-AM advertising brochure "WOMAN is ..." July, 1978,
photocopy, original in personal collection of Les Thimmig, New Haven,
Connecticut.
[42] "A Station with a Feminist Air," Business Week, 2 October
1978, 32.
[43] Fran Hawthorne, "Tuning in the Voice of WOMN-AM," Ms., March
1979, 17.
[44] WOMAN (sic) Features Log, 2 September 1978 to 12 May 1979,
photocopy, personal collection of Les Thimmig, New Haven, Connecticut.
[45] "The Mother Goddess - II" WOMAN Feature 14, 18 November 1979,
audio tape, private collection of Les Thimmig, New Haven, Connecticut.
[46] Catharine MacKinnon, interview on WOMN-AM, audio tape, private
collection of Les Thimmig, New Haven, Connecticut.
[47] "Pro-Choice", WOMAN Feature, 22 January 1979, audio tape,
private collection of Les Thimmig, New Haven, Connecticut.
[48] Ibid.
[49] "Anti-Abortion," WOMAN Feature, 23 January 1979, audio tape,
private collection of Les Thimmig, New Haven, Connecticut.
[50] Ibid.
[51] "Gay Lifestyles - I," WOMAN Feature, audio tape, private
collection of Les Thimmig, New Haven, Connecticut.
[52] Ibid.
[53] "WOMN on the Rise," Radio & Records, 22 December 1978.
[54] Hawthorne, "Tuning in on the Voice of WOMN-AM," 17.
[55] Marion Meade, "Women and Rock: Sexism Set to Music," Women: A
Journal of Liberation 2 (Fall 1970): 25.
[56] Hawthorne, "Tuning in on the Voice of WOMN-AM," 17.
[57] "A Radio Station with a Feminist Air," Business Week, 2
October 1978, 32.
[58] Kalt.
[59] Sam Tilery, interview by author, telephone, 11 March 1991, New
Haven, Connecticut.
[60] Tilery.
[61] The station went "dark" (stopped broadcasting) for four months
in 1981. It returned to the air under the call letters WCSR-AM with a Country
format. Subsequent formats have included
Solid Gold as WNNR-AM, and all-business using the call letters
WXCT-AM.
[62] Peter Cavanaugh, interview by author, 1 April 1991, WIOT-FM
offices, Toledo, Ohio.
[63] Nancy Dymond, interview by author, 1 April 1991, WIOT offices,
Toledo, Ohio.
[64] "A Women's Station," "Newsweek Woman," August, 1980.
[65] Ibid.
[66] Ibid.
[67] Ibid.
[68] Ibid.
[69] Ibid.
[70] Cavanaugh.
[71] Mary Fainson Katzenstein, "Feminism within American
Institutions," Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 16 (Autumn 1990):
27.
[72] Ibid., 37.