GALVESTON — George Lee was stunned Saturday to hear a Chinese news agency broadcasting during the time his news and variety program usually aired on Galveston's only radio station. “It was so bizarre, I thought I must be in a coma, and I'm dreaming this,” Lee said.
Station manager Julian Arango had phoned Lee on New Year's Eve and told him that his Electric Theater Radio Hour wouldn't be broadcast as usual the next day because KGBC 1540 was being leased.
Since Saturday KGBC has been broadcasting the state-owned Chinese Radio International along with some hip hop, reggae and other assorted music offerings. “From China for the world, this is CRI,” an announcer says in a smooth radio voice with the hint of an accent.
CRI has an international news roundup, but most of the English-language broadcast focuses on China. “Avatar has landed in the Chinese mainland,” a newscaster said about the latest U.S. hit movie.
Another segment touted the benefits of increased government payments to small Chinese businesses.
“The thing that amazes me is why Radio International China Beijing?” said Glenn Richards, KGBC morning show producer until last weekend. “It's not really geared to anybody locally.”
CRI may describe itself as the BBC of China, but its goal is to burnish China's image, said Sophie Richardson, Asia advocacy director for Human Rights Watch.
“This is information being provided by a government with a long and inglorious history with regards to freedom of information,” Richardson said.
A ‘larger trend'
The Chinese government has made a concerted effort the last few years to increase the global reach of state-owned media, she said. “CRI popping up in Galveston is symptomatic of a much larger trend.”
The small, straw-colored KGBC building on Pelican Island is the last remaining radio station in Galveston.
Uncertain is whether it will continue as a platform for CRI.
Station owner Gabriel Arango, president of Siga Broadcasting Corp., said he has signed a letter of intent for a five-year lease with a well-known California broadcaster whose name he can't reveal because of a confidentiality agreement.
The broadcast arrangement with CRI was made through the prospective lessee, Gabriel Arango said. “I have no knowledge about CRI negotiations,” he said. He said the CRI broadcast was a test and that he understood that the lessee was considering a Christian format.
But Billy Chung, a CRI agent in City of Industry, Calif., said CRI officials in Beijing told him that KGBC would be the first station in the United States to broadcast CRI 24 hours a day.
CRI has been broadcasting in the U.S. at least since 1993, usually by buying one- or two-hour chunks of air time on local stations. KXYZ 1320 in Houston once carried CRI.
Alan Pendleton, vice president of New World Media in Falls Church, Va., said his company's stations in Washington, D.C., Baltimore and Philadelphia were the first to broadcast CRI.
Bias without fabrication
Pendleton, whose stations broadcast in 12 languages, said that the Chinese initially were unfamiliar with U.S. business methods and were taken advantage of in their early dealings.
The first broadcasts were translations of domestic Chinese programs that were heavy on statistics. “It was like listening to the crop report,” Pendleton said.
The Chinese have since grown more sophisticated in their business acumen and their broadcasting, he said.
One of the first things they learned was that blatant propaganda doesn't work, Pendleton said. CRI has a point of view, but doesn't resort to fabrications, he said.
Jim Woo, Chinese Chamber of Commerce of Texas secretary, welcomed CRI as another source of information about China for second- and third-generation Chinese who primarily speak English. He said there are substantial numbers of Chinese in Galveston, Texas City and Clear Lake.
He conceded that CRI had a bias and left out information that the Chinese government considered embarrassing, but that disadvantage was offset by the ready access to counterbalancing news sources.
KGBC went through a series of owners until Siga, which owns five other Texas stations, purchased it in 2002 for about $1 million, Julian Arango said.
Gabriel Arango said he tried several music formats before letting his son, Julian, take over as manager and make an unsuccessful effort to attract advertising with a local format.
“Could the people of Galveston not care about Chinese news?” Gabriel Arango asked. “That may be true, but apparently they didn't like Galveston news either.” harvey.rice@chron.com
Last edited by vector7; January 10th, 2010 at 15:36.
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Nikita Khrushchev:"We will bury you"
"Your grandchildren will live under communism."
“You Americans are so gullible.
No, you won’t accept To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. outright, but we’ll keep feeding you small doses of To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. until you’ll finally wake up and find you already have communism.
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. ."
We’ll so weaken your To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. until you’ll To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. like overripe fruit into our hands."
Last edited by vector7; January 10th, 2010 at 12:37.
Reason: link
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Nikita Khrushchev:"We will bury you"
"Your grandchildren will live under communism."
“You Americans are so gullible.
No, you won’t accept To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. outright, but we’ll keep feeding you small doses of To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. until you’ll finally wake up and find you already have communism.
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. ."
We’ll so weaken your To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. until you’ll To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. like overripe fruit into our hands."
Re: China leases radio station for broadcasts...in AMERICA
Maybe KGB and C had just enough letters to represent the parties involved on their first Axis controlled broadcast station in America.
Last edited by vector7; January 10th, 2010 at 15:02.
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Nikita Khrushchev:"We will bury you"
"Your grandchildren will live under communism."
“You Americans are so gullible.
No, you won’t accept To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. outright, but we’ll keep feeding you small doses of To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. until you’ll finally wake up and find you already have communism.
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. ."
We’ll so weaken your To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. until you’ll To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. like overripe fruit into our hands."
Why let a holiday season come between the White House and making some political statements? The White House pegged controversial designer Simon Doonan to oversee the Christmas decorations for the White House. Mr. Doonan, who is creative director of Barney’s New York has often caused a stir with his design choices. Like his naughty yuletide window display of Margaret Thatcher as a dowdy dominatrix and Dan Quayle as a ventriloquist’s dummy. For this year’s White House, he didn’t disappoint.
These photos of ornaments on the White House Christmas tree in the Blue Room were taken just days ago. Of course, Mao has his place in the White House.
And, of course, it wouldn’t be Christmas without an ornament of legendary transvestite Hedda Lettuce.
He/She even signed it:
And, so soon after collecting the Nobel Peace Prize, why wouldn’t the White House have an ornament super-imposing President Obama onto Mt. Rushmore:
Houston Mayor-elect Annise Parker, center, celebrates her runoff election vicotry at a campaign party Saturday, Dec. 12, 2009 in Houston.
Parker defeated former city attorney Gene Locke making Houston the largest U.S. city to elect an openly gay mayor.
(AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
Last edited by vector7; January 11th, 2010 at 20:58.
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Nikita Khrushchev:"We will bury you"
"Your grandchildren will live under communism."
“You Americans are so gullible.
No, you won’t accept To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. outright, but we’ll keep feeding you small doses of To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. until you’ll finally wake up and find you already have communism.
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. ."
We’ll so weaken your To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. until you’ll To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. like overripe fruit into our hands."
Would the Chinese government allow U.S. government-controlled companies to broadcast pro-America news coverage in China?
Of course not. More than 27 years after the Tiananmen Square massacre, China's ruling Communist Party still censors “Tiananmen” and “June 4th”—not to mention the words “commemorate,” “demonstration,” and “movement” (Chinese web users get around the ban by replacing censored words with alternative phrases, which also eventually risk censorship).
But the U.S. government is allowing private offshoots of the Chinese government to do exactly that. A U.S.-based firm called G&E Studio has already acquired airtime on at least 15 radio stations in the United States, including cities like Boston, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C. G&E Studio is 60 percent owned by a Beijing-based group known as Guoguang Century Media Consultancy. Guoguang, in turn, is wholly owned by a subsidiary of China Radio International (CRI)—the Chinese government's radio broadcaster. Reuters has more:
A Reuters investigation spanning four continents has identified at least 33 radio stations in 14 countries that are part of a global radio web structured in a way that obscures its majority shareholder: State-run China Radio International, or CRI.
But isn't it illegal for the Chinese to buy U.S. communications assets—which allow the Communist Party to influence American public opinion and, by extension, policymaking? Technically, yes.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) prohibits foreign governments or their representatives from holding a radio license for a U.S. broadcast station. But CRI exploits a loophole by buying up airtime through private subsidiaries like G&E Studio, which is known to lease a U.S. radio station's airtime instead of buying the station outright.
G&E Studio then has a green light to broadcast news coverage sympathetic to the Communist Party—even if it's critical of American foreign policy. In November 2015, WCRW-1190 AM—a Chinese-controlled radio station in the Washington, D.C. area—highlighted a story explaining the Chinese government’s concern about Defense Secretary Ash Carter’s recent visit to the Asia-Pacific region. An August 2015 broadcast claimed that tensions in the South China Sea were due to unnamed “external forces” attempting “to insert themselves into this part of the world using false claims”—not, say, China’s development and weaponization of artificial islands.
WCRW is not alone. Philadelphia-based WNWR-1540 AM regularly broadcasts “erratic blasts of outdated or China-centric news,” including the Chinese government’s announcement of a 15-billion-yuan school spending program just last year. As Fox News reports:
“...the news content on these stations takes a largely pro-Beijing line, including on the military tensions with the U.S. and its allies in the South China Sea.”
If that doesn't scare you, then maybe this video will:
The Communist Party knows the formula: Propaganda affects public opinion, which shapes policy. Our government should read the writing on the wall.
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Nikita Khrushchev:"We will bury you"
"Your grandchildren will live under communism."
“You Americans are so gullible.
No, you won’t accept To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. outright, but we’ll keep feeding you small doses of To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. until you’ll finally wake up and find you already have communism.
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. ."
We’ll so weaken your To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. until you’ll To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 15 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. like overripe fruit into our hands."
Why Is The US Broadcasting Chinese Propaganda On Our Radio Stations?
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Originally Posted by vector7
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