BARBWIRE by ANDREW BARBANO

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No baby survives if smothered during delivery by parents and doctors.

Thereby hangs the tale of former talk radio station KJFK-am (now programming hip-hop).

Local radio execs had long known that State Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio and his Republican minions, largely working behind the scenes thru law firms, could severely impact advertising sales.

KJFK's fm sister stations netted a cool $1 million in October of 2006, the month before KJFK launched talk.

They also knew how much money Raggio could generate for a friendly forum.

Only the Barbwire printed the story about Raggio handing $30,000 to an unscrupulous local talk station in October of 2004 in exchange for turning the entire enterprise toward trashing the presidential candidacy of John Kerry.

KJFK thus did zilch local programming for its first two years.

Management eventually hired longtime Reno Gazette-Journal columnist Cory Farley, their only smart move, but they put his single hour on their sports-talk sister station.

Later, they moved Cory head-to-head against KJFK's only prime-time local show hosted by Christiane Brown.

Suicide.

They then told Christiane that if she wanted to continue, she'd have to pay them, which she did for a year.

When she quit, they moved Cory from their 5,000-watt sports station to patchy-patterned 1,000-watt KJFK.

The buzzards started circling.

In just four months, a properly formatted local competitor can remove four of ten listeners from longtime moonhowler dungeon KKKOH.

The late great Travus T. Hipp and I did it twice and I beat Lush Rambo in the process.

KJFK failed by treating its listeners with contempt.

In their last year, they had a convicted drug money launderer brokering their airtime.

WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND. Talk radio didn't flourish until the 1980s because of the Kennedy Brothers' political philosophy of "don't get mad, get even."

During the 1960 presidential campaign, a southern preacher used his radio network to great effect in supporting the candidacy of Richard the Rotten.

So Jack and Bobby got the Federal Communications Commission to impose the vague "Fairness Doctrine," which forced broadcasters to nix all controversial issues.

But the righteous right got the last laugh on the Kennedys in 1980 when Ronald Reagan swept to power and took the U.S. Senate with him.

It took the dingbat Democrats more than a decade to figure out the sources of the smears and rumors that took down a host of legendary senators, including Gaylord Nelson, D-Wisconsin, the father of Earth Day.

The Dems never knew what hit them because their people didn't monitor low-audience stations.

Christian radio was finally identified as the calumniating culprit, the best place to plant political poison.

Lush Rambo was on his way shortly thereafter.

Could KJFK have succeeded?

Sure.

"Any spot is tenable if brave men will make it so," President Kennedy once said.

The radio raunches who ripped off JFK's name presented a profound profile in lack of courage.

WEB EXTRAS...

HONOR YOUR DON. Keep sending comments supporting legendary Nevada photographer Don Dondero (1920-2003) for the Nevada Press Association Hall of Fame.

His life's work appeared worldwide, including this newspaper.

Enlist in the campaign to install Big Don.

Please send me your memories and endorsements via e-mail or to P.O. Box 10034, Reno NV 89510.

The Barbwire got the late Reno Gazette-Journal columnist Guy Richardson elected last year.

Let's go for a repeat.

BARBWIRE.TV. Support the return of community TV to these parts.

If last year's elections didn't convince you of the need, the 2013 legislature certainly will.

Join up. You may donate at ReSurge.TV or contact me.

This is important.

Thank you.

VOTE FOR THE LUCKY 13, the most powerful Nevadans of 2013. Send nominations to <barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us>

Last year's rogues gallery will be linked to the expanded web edition of this column at NevadaLabor.com/

LET'S GET IT ON. E-me to get on the Barbwire News bulletin list for information not filtered through corporate lenses.

I broke a bushel of major stories last year which the above lead item will very probably top.

Turn on, tune in and tell a friend.

Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno. (Pardon my Spanglish.)

____________

Andrew Barbano is a 44-year Nevadan, chair of the Nevada César Chávez Committee, producer of Nevada's annual César Chávez Day celebration, first vice-president and political action chair of the Reno-Sparks NAACP, labor/consumer/civil rights advocate, member of Communications Workers of America Local 9413/AFL-CIO and editor of NevadaLabor.com and JoeNeal.org. As always, his opinions are strictly his own. Check local listings for other Nevada cable systems. E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us. Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Daily Sparks Tribune since 1988.

Smoking Guns... The life and times of Travus T. Hipp The best who ever was   ...and more ammo... We Don't Need No Education The continuing Barbwire series The Post-Dated Recession: Pay me now or pay me later Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 9-6-2012 Daily Sparks Tribune The Post-dated Recession By Joshua H. Silavent / Daily Sparks Tribune / 5-3-2011 Union decline and rising inequality in two charts by Colin Gordon Economic Policy Institute / 6-5-2012 Used in journalist Mark Robison's extensive Hard Labor: Nevada unions tout role in helping workers, firms, economy (Sunday 2 Sept. 2012 Reno Gazette-Journal, page one, Reno Rebirth section of the print edition). Union men Jim Burrell, Paul McKenzie and Guy Louis Rocha did the movement proud. Not included in the RGJ online edition. WOMEN AND UNIONS — ORPHAN MAJORITIES The Barbwire Labor Day column Reno Gazette-Journal / 9-3-2012 Nevada Press Assn. Better Newspaper Contest HAT TRICK: Barbwire takes first place three years in a row. The winning entries Suing for Schools: The 20-year shuck Expanded from the 2-21-2010 Daily Sparks Tribune Click here to view the show on your desktop RED flags flying low over Sparks Expanded from the 1-10-2010 Daily Sparks Tribune The wrath of self-righteous racism Expanded from the 11-8-2009 Daily Sparks Tribune Government contacts Nev. congressional delegation Nevada Legislature State of Nevada Secretary of State Carson City Clark County City of Las Vegas Douglas County Reno City Council Sparks City Council Washoe County Commission Washoe Registrar of Voters The campaign against forcibly-paid newspaper obituaries And they wonder why the newspaper business is dying?   The Dean's List    The Dean of Reno Bloggers could very well be Andrew Barbano, self-described "fighter of public demons," who started putting his "Barbwire" columns online in 1996 and now runs 10 sites. RENO NEWS & REVIEW, 11-9-2006 The 2009 first-place Nevada Press Association award winners Tony the Tiger & the flaky NFL Barbwire / 11-30-2008 Deregulation is never having to say you're sorry Barbwire / 8-3-2008 Nevada: A good place to visit, but do you want to live here? Barbwire / 6-15-2008 The 2008 first-place Nevada Press Association award winners The price of a piece / 6-17-2007 Boxing Pandora /9-23-2007 The Lady in the Red Dress 10-28-2007 1997 Pulitzer Prize entries ...and more ammo yet Barbwire Corporate Welfare Archive Barbwire Corporate Propaganda Archive Cabellyup.com

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Copyright © 1982-2013 Andrew Barbano

Andrew Barbano is a 44-year Nevadan, editor of NevadaLabor.com and JoeNeal.org; and former chair of the City of Reno's Citizens Cable Compliance Committee, He is producer of Nevada's annual César Chávez Day celebration and serves as first vice-president, political action chair and webmaster of the Reno-Sparks NAACP. As always, his opinions are strictly his own. E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us.

Barbwire by Barbano moved to the Daily Sparks (Nev.) Tribune on Aug. 12, 1988, and has originated in them parts ever since.
How a hall-of-famer's hunch birthed the Barbwire in August of 1987
Tempus fugit.

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