Will 690 XEWW Program Propaganda from China?

Inside Radio says some U.S. legislators, including Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, are asking the FCC to look into the sale of 690 XEWW Tijuana to Vivien Huo. She is a Chinese citizen living in the U.S. and planning to program XEWW from Irwindale, CA, a suburb of Los Angeles. They are concerned that XEWW will soon start programming Chinese propaganda, I assume in English. XEWW is 77,000 watts by day, 50,000 watts at night. While some say there's so much man-made noise these days, few people in LA will get a decent signal. But when I was driving around So Cal recently, I had clear signals in the car for 690 XEWW and 1090 XEPRS. Maybe not inside a house or office. But I didn't hit any spots where noise was too much of a problem in the car.

When I read this article, I asked myself, how is the FCC involved? It's a Mexican radio station. But according to the article, the U.S. has a treaty with Mexico prohibiting border stations from airing propaganda.

Of course, China and Russia have tried this before on U.S. stations but few people noticed. Several stations around the U.S. carry Radio China International, including Boston (WILD 1090) and, I believe one in the Dallas area. Voice of Russia was airing a few years ago on 1430 WNSW Newark (for NYC) and on 1390 WZHF Arlington VA (for Washington). It was an English-language news and talk outlet, which I guess is also available on the internet. And many cable TV providers carry RT, Russia Today, programmed in Moscow, but carrying U.S. based shows, including Larry King. There's even a Spanish-language RT on my cable system as well as the English one. Foreigners can't own U.S. stations. But they can buy time, even 24/7, on U.S. stations.

So even if 690 starts broadcasting Radio China International, be it in English or Mandarin, will it really make any difference? Are Rubio and others really concerned or are they just using this to fire up their anti-Communist constituents?

http://www.insideradio.com/free/sal...cle_c1a41034-9f85-11e8-b0c6-63b0ddc87ea4.html

My guess is the latter. There is absolutely zero they can do regarding a Mexican station running a format that is easily heard on many places in the US (including a FM in Las Vegas, last time I checked).

They could potentially try to pressure the FCC to rescind the rules regarding programming originating from the US to a Mexican transmitter, but that would have serious repercussions on dozens of stations worth far more than XEWW all across the border.

Plus, that wouldn’t even solve the problem. CRI could easily be rebroadcast from the Mexican studio/TX site.

This is one of those things where it sounds like when heard by a non-radio person who supports candidates who lean to the right, horrible Communist propaganda is being broadcast right on our doorstep via a third country. Sounds like scary, Cold War-styled stuff much like the soviets broadcasting Voice of Moscow on AM from Cuba. You’d want to support a politician making a stand against it!

In reality, it’s far less sinister and a bunch of feather ruffling over nothing.

I read in one article that the station plans to program in Chinese to the US, aiming for Chinese Americans and Chinese immigrants in the SoCal area.

My take on it is that any 'propaganda' will be moot -- anyone who moved here from mainland China already knows what they left behind. Any such 'propaganda' will probably fall on deaf ears and maybe it will just be cultural programs from the old homeland that will appeal to them. Much ado about nothing.

Still haven't heard the new programming on XEWW, which sometimes is audible here in the PNW, but right now it's all CBC Vancouver.

seattlesarchiebunker said:

My guess is the latter. There is absolutely zero they can do regarding a Mexican station running a format that is easily heard on many places in the US (including a FM in Las Vegas, last time I checked).

They could potentially try to pressure the FCC to rescind the rules regarding programming originating from the US to a Mexican transmitter, but that would have serious repercussions on dozens of stations worth far more than XEWW all across the border.

Plus, that wouldn’t even solve the problem. CRI could easily be rebroadcast from the Mexican studio/TX site.

This is one of those things where it sounds like when heard by a non-radio person who supports candidates who lean to the right, horrible Communist propaganda is being broadcast right on our doorstep via a third country. Sounds like scary, Cold War-styled stuff much like the soviets broadcasting Voice of Moscow on AM from Cuba. You’d want to support a politician making a stand against it!

In reality, it’s far less sinister and a bunch of feather ruffling over nothing.

Click to expand...

I don't think I've ever heard of a national security review of a 325(c) authorization (which is what this ultimately is), but given the general attitude at this time to national security reviews involving Chinese influence (including outside of broadcasting), we can't be too surprised.

Isn't WCRW in Leesburg, Virginia already doing this?

It is pretty amazing this is getting this much attention. The way I understand FCC rules, a person can lease time on an American station and run their programming. The issue is ownership. Even though the station is in Mexico, there seems to be a level of cooperation on broadcast signals that reach one another's territory. In other words,you can lease and run programming but when you buy a station, there is an issue.

China (government) opted on an experiment of broadcasting. The idea was to lease stations in various countries. Each country would have programming for and by that particular nation's citizens (and not all former citizens of China). In the USA that was various non-political talk shows and music programs. Think shows similar in content to Entertainment Tonight on TV, sports talk, etc. The idea was if the programming reflected the content Americans enjoyed, China would seem similar to the USA and this would lead to better trade deals on stuff China needed. They gave that up several years ago. The result was most of the stations were on AM and there was no in-market promotion. Most on air talent was Los Angeles air talent hoping to get that big gig. And yes, they promoted the American way, literally saying the USA had the best form of government in the world. How do I know? The station I work for was leased by the American company that had the Chinese government as a client. I knew the guy that set everything up from Canada to Argentina. You can bet I asked tons of questions.

There is Chinese programming in the native tongue that airs on US stations. Much of it is direct from China Radio International, the rest local shows. This is mostly entertainment programming with cultural leanings and similar to any other radio station. And certainly the Chinese government is framed as the daddy that does the best thing for it's citizens. Think Voice of America in style where the US Government is a good guy.

In short,really not much to see here and certainly nothing different than is already being done in time slots on stations that broker time all over the USA. The impact on the Chinese-American community will be minimal as like so many others, adapting to the American culture happens for virtually everyone and those that have come to the USA chose to do so,leaving their homeland. Many have relations back in China so there is some interest in what is going on but I suspect CRI is not their preferred choice of information.

B-turner gave a very informative post regarding how these stations work and what they broadcast. I should add a couple additional items as well:

1) China Radio International is now probably the second largest external broadcaster out there these days behind BBC World Service in terms of its ability to be heard around the world. They have a similar situation to their US stations in several African countries as well.

2) I do believe foreigners can now own radio stations. I do believe the radio news sites had something last year about a retired Aussie couple being allowed ownership of a pair of Texas radio stations, and I think the “Italian Howard Stern” owns the dance music quadcast on 93.5 in South Florida. On paper, nothing should have stopped Ms. Huo from owning a Southern California radio station to broadcast CRI. However, I do think folks can still file letters of opposition against a station’s sale, so that may have had something to do with why The Mighty 690 was chosen over a domestic station.