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Cynthia at BIA posted that she was disappointed to hear a Seneca advocacy ad air on WHLD this week. Chris Byrd expands on that disappointment here.

You can count me as one of the many locals who were very excited when WHLD switched its format. I thought the whole concept was long overdue in Buffalo and WNY…finally a different voice and more of a choice on the radio waves. But as Cynthia Van Ness also posted, “…but why bother to have a progressive station if it’s going to advertise the same cr*p as “non-progressive” stations? Can’t wait to hear the promos for Pat Robertson and the NRA.” I wonder too…

WHLD is owned by Citadel and operated by Niagara Independent Media. The latter group put up a lot of money to turn WHLD into what it is today. An Air America affiliate. Local programming in the morning. Public Access radio on the weekend. It’s a wonderful public service, and the weekend local programming is so true to the intent of the FCC’s requirement that the use of the public airwaves be for the public good.

It’s more significant than airing a PSA every once in a while.

But putting on these shows costs money. Moving the studios to something more professional costs money. Paying Air America for the right to air its programming costs money. A lot of money. So WHLD has to take advertising.

It’s not WHLD who should have to pick and choose what sponsors it will and won’t accept. The question is; if the NRA or the Senecas or (insert group you don’t like here) want to advertise with WHLD, God bless ‘em. Because WHLD needs the money. Running an ad doesn’t imply an endorsement of the ad’s message by WHLD.

Where and when you run an ad is a decision made by the advertiser. If the Senecas think they can get their point across by advertising on WHLD, super. They may be wrong, but it’s their money. And WHLD wins, because it helps pay for what it does.

To imply that WHLD is a sell-out for accepting and running that ad is just simplistic and unfair. You can’t really just pick and choose what ads you will and won’t run. If the station wants to institute a hard and fast rule for that which gets applied across the board, fine. But ad hoc rejection of ads you don’t agree with is simply foolish.

WHLD should whore away. As long as it helps pay for the programming to which I enjoy listening.