KLCK to close local studios
Andrew Christiansen
Reporter
The morning airways won't sound the same come June 7, when KLCK radio completes its planned shut-down of offices in Goldendale and the morning show will cease to exist. The announcement was made last week by Haystack Broadcasting President, Dan Mancui, who stressed that the Goldendale facilities will close, but KLCK-AM will continue to operate from studios in The Dalles.
According to Mancui, "increasing competitive pressure for advertising dollars, a shrinking local economy and tentative retail sales" are reasons for the move. Mancui said the decision was made through the company's own internal analysis of the problem which has been lingering for more than a year. While Mancui indicated he hoped there would be opportunity to expand advertising, the primary reason for the move is to cut expenses and consolidate for efficiency.
The company owns KYYT-FM and KWCQ-FM, in addition to KLCK. KWCQ was formerly KHAL-FM, which was purchased by Haystack Broadcasting and first went on the air in June, 2008. According to Marshall Johnson, Market Manager for Haystack Broadcasting, KWCQ is not a full-fledged station. "Over the last year we have been trying to get the plant finished," said Johnson. KWCQ is not generating income to pay its expenses, but the purchase did not force the closure of the office in Goldendale. "One is not really related to the other," said Johnson. "Costs at KLCK have been about $3,000 per month above revenue with a studio in Goldendale," said Johnson. "It had to change whether we had two or three stations."
Mancui explained that FCC regulations allow broadcasting facilities to be within 25 miles of the town where licensed. The Dalles studios are about 22 miles from Goldendale, according to Mancui, allowing for the consolidation. The Condon station is 34 miles from The Dalles studios, and must maintain a physical presence in Condon.
KLCK radio personalities Julian Notestine and Kevin Malcom will continue to work for the company, but the morning talk show will end. Notestine will continue to do the news and maintain his presence in Goldendale. Notestine says he will continue with his clients and will cover local events as he has done in the past. The local interest interviews that have been aired Monday through Wednesday mornings will be taped for the most part and aired at a different time, which has yet to be determined, according to Notestine. The open call-in show on Thursday and Friday mornings will be discontinued.
The need for multiple toll-free phone lines and more studio lines in The Dalles makes continuation of the call-in show impossible, according to Johnson. "The morning talk show is the most expensive product we have." Among the "options considered was shutting down the station completely," said Johnson. "We chose not to do that. We have an obligation to serve Goldendale and we'll do that the best we can."
Johnson said competition for advertising dollars has been a problem for the station, and there isn't confidence for increased revenue from Goldendale businesses. "Bicoastal Media pulls $1.5 to $2 million a year out of the Gorge area in advertising," said Johnson, explaining the challenge of stations competing for advertising dollars. Bicoastal Media owns KACI, KCGB, KIHR, and KMSW which air in the Hood River and The Dalles area, as well as 46 other stations in California, Oregon and Washington. Johnson said radio is becoming multi-media. "We have developed a business partnership to help us along in that process."
Johnson sees some positive outcome for Goldendale which will experience some enhancements with the move. "We will be supplying live streaming over the internet," providing residents interaction with the station. There will also be a toll-free number for the station. Johnson said he did not understand the level of concern over closing the morning call-in program. "I'm not sure it is as big a deal as some people are making it," said Johnson. He referred to the previous move of KYYT from Goldendale to The Dalles, which he said caused no negative reaction. The station plans on bringing back some version of the morning show toward the end of summer. There will also be a classified ads format. "We are hoping to make it [KLCK] more marketable. It will be a more modern sounding product," said Johnson.
The music format will change to Scott Shannon's "True Oldies Channel" via satellite radio network, replacing the "Classic Oldies" format, according to Mancui. Live coverage of Goldendale sports, currently called in by Dick Patzer, is expected to continue. "Yes, yes we want that to continue," said Mancui. "We are trying to integrate the existing programs (such as "When Radio Was") into the schedule." Mancui expects people will not notice much change. "We are still here except for minor changes."
Hastings visits PSE plant, meets with The Sentinel, holds town hall Q&A
Lou Marzeles
News Editor
Representative Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) visited Puget Sound Energy (PSE) and the offices of The Goldendale Sentinel and held a town hall meeting and question-and-answer session last Thursday.
Hastings is the ranking member of the House of Representatives Resources Committee and brought his vision of energy needs to the area, beginning with a tour of the PSE natural gas plant.
The sprawling plant in Goldendale's industrial park is one of eight natural gas-fired plants owned by PSE, all in Washington. The Goldendale plant produces 277 megawatts of power when at maximum capacity, which meets the needs of about 200,000 households. All of PSE's energy is sent to consumers around Puget Sound, though the plant here generates most of the tax base for the city of Goldendale, according to plant manager Gerald Klug.
"I don't know the exact figures," Klug said, "but it's certainly the majority of the city's tax base."
The Goldendale plant came online in 2004, and PSE purchased it in 2007. The plant uses technology described as "combined-cycle combustion turbines" to generate electricity from both a natural gas cycle and from a steam cycle from the exhaust heat of its turbines. The process, according to PSE reports, provides greater operating efficiency, lower fuel costs, and cleaner air emissions. Goldendale employs 18 full-time people to operate and maintain the facility.
Hastings was conducted on the plant tour by PSE officials, beginning with an examination of its towering exterior. Inside, the tour continued to the main control room, which holds a sprawling array of computer displays that carefully monitor all the plant's activities.
"It's an important site," Hastings said of the plant. "Energy is a key issue facing the people of this district."
Hastings continued that theme during an interview at the offices of The Goldendale Sentinel immediately following his PSE tour.
"The Cap and Trade legislation moving its way through right now would cost the average household over $3,000-just the energy cost, just for flipping on your light," Hastings said during the interview. The term "Cap and Trade" refers to legislation supported by the Obama administration which aims to set tight limits, or caps, on environmental pollutants that can be emitted by any business or process. To accomplish this, the plan tries to provide economic incentives to businesses to encourage compliance, through a complex trading system of emission credits with other businesses.
"I believe it's in our country's best interests to be as energy independent as possible," Hastings said. "I recognize that we're in a global economy, and I recognize that we don't have everything here, we can't live in a cocoon. But we have resources in this country, and they're principally on federal lands or on the outer continental shelf, that constitute huge reserves of petroleum.
"We're still going to be reliant on petroleum; there's just too much in the world that uses petroleum not to be reliant on it. But I think it's in our best interests to have a diverse energy portfolio. That's one of the reasons I wanted to visit PSE up here."
While he insists that the U.S. needs to become more energy independent, Hastings says that nonetheless crude oil cannot be ignored. "It seems to me it's in our best interests, since we're importing about 60% of our crude," he said, "to utilize the resources within the United States. Unfortunately, the Obama administration's actions are a whole lot different than its words. President Obama was in Iowa recently, and he mentioned then that we're not going to be able to get off crude oil. But one of the first things his administration did, through the Interior Department, was to shut down active leases in Utah, leases that were designed to find natural gas and/or oil. We're not exploring for oil, and the price of gas is going up again."
Most people are not aware that the U.S. itself has vast petroleum resources, Hastings asserted. Most resources are on the outer continental shelf just offshore, as well as in Alaska. "People ask, 'Well, why aren't we using those?' " Hastings said. "It's because there are people within this county who don't want us to be energy independent, apparently. They just don't want to use carbon."
Asked what he considered the most pressing issues for his constituency at this time, Hastings stated that energy, health care, and government spending were key.
"Take health care," he said. "We have a very good health care system in this country. I've visited local hospitals such as Klickitat Valley, and they take care of their communities.
"Frankly, our health care has always been based on the relationship between the patient and the doctor. They know what's best for the patient, and there shouldn't be anybody coming between that relationship. But we know that if we have more government intervention, there will be more of government coming between that relationship. I think that's the wrong way to go. What President Obama is apparently attempting to do is to come up with a more government-run health care system.
"We're close to Canada here, and Canada, as you know, has a state-run health system. We have hospitals in the northern part of my district that we've heard from saying that Canadians are coming down for health care, because the lines in Canada for whatever they want are too long. You start getting a government bureaucrat in between the patient and the doctor, which is what national health care would be, that's the wrong way to go."
During the interview, Hastings spoke of the importance of small weekly newspapers such as The Sentinel. "I have, by far, more weeklies in my district than dailies. My observation of weeklies is that they do the news that you can't get anywhere else. That's inherently local news. That's what people want. With internet news, you can get news instantaneously-except for local events. That's where weeklies fill a big role."
Later, Hastings conducted a packed town hall meeting and question-and-answer session at the PUD offices in Goldendale. He reiterated his energy and government spending themes and took a multitude of questions from the audience, sometimes sending people with highly individual concerns immediately to speak with his staff. Asked about government spending, Hastings told the audience that the current administration had already run up a deficit of $1.8 trillion dollars, ten times what it was two years ago.
"The federal government currently is running huge, huge deficits, larger than we've ever run, by a factor of four," he said. "We all remember 9/11, when we were attacked. Our economy immediately slowed down. Our fiscal year ends in September, and that September we had completed our third year in a row of running a surplus. We'd paid down a half a trillion dollars in debt at the end of fiscal year 2001. But when we were attacked, we felt we had to beef up our security in this country, and I supported that.
"In 2004, when we were in Iraq and we were creating a Department of Homeland Security, we were still spending money we didn't have, and our deficit that year was about $413 billion. Since 2004, those deficits had dropped every year. In 2007, just two years ago, the deficit was about $173 billion. That's a lot, but it was one third of what it was. The trend was clearly in the right direction, and the deficits were for the right reasons. Now with this administration, the deficits for this year are projected to be, based on the president's budget and his energy and health care plans, $1.8 trillion. And we're not building up our security; we're just spending money."
State approves merger of Embarq Corp and CenturyTel
Washington state regulators have approved the merger of telecommunication providers CenturyTel and Embarq Corp, subject to conditions to protect Washington customers of the two companies. Once the transaction is complete, the merger will create the fourth largest telephone company in the United States.
The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (UTC) adopted a settlement agreement that allows CenturyTel to merge with Embarq, but ensures that existing Washington customers of both companies will not experience service changes or price increases due to the merger.
Washington is the last of 15 state public utility commissions to approve the merger. Shareholders of both companies have voted to support the transaction, which still awaits approval from the Federal Communications Commission. The merger is expected to close in the second quarter of 2009.
The UTC attached conditions to its approval of a settlement agreement filed April 22 by four parties in the case: CenturyTel, Embarq, the Public Counsel section of the Attorney General's Office, and UTC regulatory staff members. The companies originally filed their merger application last November.
The UTC imposed additional conditions on the new phone company that will require increased financial reporting from the newly merged company on cost-cutting measures and efficiencies, and each dividend declared. The parties will have five calendar days to state objections to the additional conditions placed on the transaction by the UTC.
Some provisions included in the settlement agreement are:
• Restricting dividend payments under certain conditions.
• Extending Embarq's Service Quality Guarantee program to customers of both companies for one year after the deal is completed.
• Requiring a credit of $15 to residential and $25 to business customers for missed service repairs or installation appointments.
• Informing customers of any name change or new billing system.
• Ensuring costs incurred as branding or transition expenses will not be passed on to Washington ratepayers.
• Committing to extend high speed Internet service to an additional 2,200 residential customers over the next three years.
• Allowing a 90-day window for Washington customers who use CenturyTel or Embarq for their long-distance carrier to choose another provider without incurring a $5 switching fee.
• Imposing a one-year minimum ban on requests to raise basic residential phone rates.
Monroe, La. based CenturyTel, is the third largest local telephone provider in Washington, serving more than 144,000 connections in cities such as Carnation, Cheney, Cowiche, Fall City, Fox Island, Friday Harbor, Gig Harbor, Lake Quinault, Montesano, North Bend, Randle, Packwood, Raymond, Ritzville, Snoqualmie Pass, Sprague, Twisp, Vashon and Winthrop.
Embarq's corporate headquarters are in Overland Park, Kan. Embarq is the fourth largest local phone company in Washington, serving about 68,000 access lines in communities such as Chimicum, Glenwood, Goldendale, Granger, Klickitat, Mabton, Mattawa, Poulsbo, Prosser, Toppenish, Wapato and Zillah.
When complete, the newly combined company will have about 7.5 million access lines, more than two million broadband customers, and about 400,000 video subscribers in 33 states.
The UTC is the state agency in charge of regulating the rates and services of telephone companies operating in Washington. |
