(asking pointed questions on talk radio shows is an old hobby of mine, and these guys know me pretty well)

I asked Wenger why WBEN’s signal disappeared atfter 5pm in the 2nd and 3rd ring suburbs of Erie County. He feigned ignorance. But I knew he would. I had asked this same question often in the previous decades to other talk show jockeys. I knew I was messing with a family secret. Wenger asked Beach, on air “Can you hit the dump button now?” And I was gone.

Advertisers pay big dollars for big ratings on WBEN. Suppose these advertisers discovered that listeners can’t hear the radio station after 5pm? It becomes static. All hell would break loose. Why would an advertiser pay good money for phantom rating, for static?

I believe that WBEN’s signal is turned toward Toronto for better ratings. Larry King used to brag that WBEN’s signal “went BOOMING into Toronto”.
King knew that Toronto was an important demographic for anyone’s radio ratings/revenue and contributed greatly to King’s 9 million “Open Phone America” listenership.

So I think that WBEN’s family “secret” is that many local advertisers are paying high advertising rates for Canadian listeners who live too far away to buy their products or services.

I have been “banned” from both Beach and Bauerle shows. They DONOT want callers with contrary opinions. These guys are extremely thinned skinned. And they are not very good arguers, in a honest debate. Like Limbaugh, they rarely bring in guests who can hold their own in an argument or with whom they disagree.

The ‘banning” works like this: You call in, then ask the phone person how many calls are ahead of you. “Three”, they might say. Then you wait.
After 15 or 20 calls you get the idea that you’re not getting on. Bauerle and Beach can see my name on their screen and might think “Screw Bob”, and not pick up my line. I knew the game. I could give a false name, but I won’t. Sometimes I would set the phone down, drive to the store to buy some things, come back 2 hours later, and pick up the phone –still on hold. lol.

But beyond the gamesmanship and pettiness of WBEN people, there is a serious issue: censorship. Radio talk show across America have debated the important issues of the day – Iraq, Afganiston, Bush ad infinitum – there are tons of important issues. But the people of Buffalo are denied any local talk show participation. No debates about Iraq in Buffalo. None. Nothing critical of GW Bush will be aired by “The Voice of Buffalo”

This is censorship, plain and simple. I complain to the FCC and to the advertisers themselves.

Advertisers usually have no idea what content they are paying for and usually are shocked to find out. And they are stunned to find that their commercials cant be heard in the burbs. I always tell them not to take my word for it, but rather to tune-in to WBEN tonight, not in the car, but on their home radio, and see what happens. Go ahead, listen, see for yourself.

I think the Congress will reinstate the equal-time provision and these abuses will end.

Call the FCC, your congressmen, and some advertisers. This problem will end. These are PUBLIC airwaves. They dont belong to any right wing entity.

Do something. Light one candle….

Please elaborate Mr. Snitzer ! I don’t have ready access to old Kenmore yearbooks, but would love to hear more about this !

I’ve listened to WBEN/WGR for over 20 years, following Bauerle’s career from the very beginning when he had SOME humility and was a flaming liberal which to him now is synonymous with a communist.

It is COMMON KNOWLEDGE that while attending high school in Kenmore, Bauerle belonged to a White Supremecist club. Any perusal of an older yearbook will attest to this, although Bauerle once commented that he “used to be stupid” regarding being a racist, without qualifying that he virtually was a neo-nazi.

If this post sounds “hateful,” then I have good, personal reasons to despise WBEN and its affiliates. No one media outlet should wield so much power and influence in a small city like Buffalo.

Neo-conservative egos like Bauerle and Beach with their flawed-logical arguments, self-righteous scatology and malicious ranting belongs in the sewer, as do these “compassionate” sewer mouths.

Tim Wenger? Like his “talent” he’s an overpaid meglomaniac with no conscience, like his on-air “talent,” Bauerle and Beach, two fellow meglomaniacs who go out of their way to be hated.
I guess that extra $10 – $20,000+ Bauerle and Beach are earning as ultra-conservatives to a huge audience are worth the trade-off of their consciences (if any!) and its easy to live with lies when you’re earning the big bucks.

I miss Air America.

Why do you think that? Could it be that the crap spewed on NPR wouldn’t reach an audience without government funding? Air America found out you don’t survive in the marketplace running a for-profit business like a 501 (c) (3) PAC.

Advertisers pay for spots on programs that people LISTEN TO. If you want to listen to it, PAY FOR IT YOURSELF, because it’s obvious that NPR would sink like a stone if it had to sell advertising.

- “… what is the problem that liberals have with Wal-Mart?”

LOTS. They are extremely hostile towards labor unions.

GOOD–UNIONS SUCK. They take worker’s money, donate it to political candidates regardless of the interests of the people giving them the money, and when the employer tires of the unions crap and moves the business out of Union Land, either down South or overseas, the Union people slink away like the scum they are, and the workers are left with their dicks in their hands, and NO JOB. Good deal .

(i’d love to see how little they’d pay their workers if there wasn’t minimum wage laws). They deny their workers overtime pay even when its warranted…. I could go on, but thinking about WalMart this much is making my head hurt….

Wake up libbie–NOBODY MAKES YOU TAKE A MINIMUM WAGE JOB. IF ther was NO minimum wage, and the employer offered 7.00/hr and nobody took the job, well then they’d have to raise the wage until someone does.

Here in Buffalo South, a kid working at ARBY’s makes TEN BUCKS AN HOUR—because NC has NO MININUM WAGE LAW, and nobody will take jobs at the federal wage. Greater Charlotte now has negative unemployment, when you figure in the people who can’t work, and those who just won’t–those “poor people” that liberals need to keep sitting home on their asses with our tax dollars because they just don’t want to work.

Get your tail out of Blue NY and see how the rest of the country makes it, they’re doing great, while Buffalo sits in squalor.

That’s your opinion, fine, but I disagree. I think it’s important that there is a radio outlet that is publicly funded. Any commercial, for-profit media outlet is subject to the demands of its sponsors, whose sole goal is to increase profits. NPR (along with the CBC and BBC elsewhere) is free to be subjective.

- “… what is the problem that liberals have with Wal-Mart?”

LOTS. They are extremely hostile towards labor unions. They demand low costs from their suppliers, which force the suppliers to shortchange their workers. They epitomize the unfettered free market, which many liberals believe needs to be tempered by a watchful government (i’d love to see how little they’d pay their workers if there wasn’t minimum wage laws). They deny their workers overtime pay even when its warranted…. I could go on, but thinking about WalMart this much is making my head hurt….

Back to the topic, I wouldn’t call this whole ordeal “censorship”. I can understand that the top-line talent (Bauerle and Beach) would be upset about being badmouthed on the weekend morning show. Having been in radio (PD of the college station!), and having a family member work in commercial radio, I know that the weekend talent (especially weekend morning folks) is definitely the bottom of the totem pole. However, the PD’s main goal should be to program the station to maximize ratings. If there’s a petty squabble between talent, settle it on the side.