Dinner, Movie & Panel with the Filmmaker & Media Leaders
New England Premiere of ‘Corporate FM’ Documentary Next Month

The New England premiere screening of the award-winning documentary, “Corporate FM: The Killing of Local Commercial Radio,” takes place in Haverhill next month.

Dinner and a panel discussion with movie Director Kevin McKinney and local media experts will accompany the screening beginning at 6 p.m., Wed., June 19, at Chunky’s Cinema Pub, 371 Lowell Ave., Haverhill. Proceeds from the movie will benefit nonprofit radio station WHAV. Filmmakers McKinney and Producer Jill McKeever explain the motivation behind the film.

“Corporate FM is about what happens when a city loses a communal microphone. Radio’s broad coverage gives it the ability to unify huge populations. Unlike Facebook, Satellite radio or Web-based music sharing apps, locally owned terrestrial radio can reach thousands of people across all incomes and ages in a local region at the same time with a message that is relevant to them at that moment.”

The documentary features interviews with Jewel, The Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne, former Butt Hole Surfers manager Tom Bunch and a wide array of DJs and experts who have witnessed radio’s destruction from the inside. McKinney and McKeever support the efforts of WHAV and others to expand the number of locally owned community radio stations, but warn, “the death of privately operated local radio stations is not just destroying the stations that are bought up, but damning the future of all stations on the dial—the public and college stations as well. The entire medium of radio becomes threatened when there are only two stations worth listening to.”

Panel Features Local Media Experts

Besides McKinney, panelists include Dan Kennedy, assistant professor, Northeastern University School of Journalism; William J. Macek, owner of WPKZ, Fitchburg, and New England radio owner/operated for 22 years; and Marc Lemay, communications manager, Greater Lawrence Family Health Center, and former WHAV news director. Other panelists will be announced.

Tickets are $60 for WHAV members and $85 for nonmembers. Seating is limited. Buy now at www.WHAV.net or by calling (978) 374-1900.

“The conventional wisdom is that when your competition fails you succeed. However, that’s not how it works. The radio dial is like a town. When a few important stores close, or change dramatically for the worse, the whole town suffers. It is normal for the most dedicated radio listener to switch away from their favorite station for five minutes and listen to a competing station when they are bored. Then they switch back. But when there is nothing worth listening to on the other stations, then they leave the medium altogether and switch on the mp3 or the Pandora or the CD player. The town becomes a ghost town,” says Director McKinney.

By investigating how the financial system gutted commercial radio instead of growing it, McKinney and McKeever reveal the problem and propose a solution that could revitalize the medium and rejuvenate the communities that radio is legally obliged to serve.

The WHAV call letters have been associated with local broadcasting since 1947. WHAV is today operated by Public Media of New England Inc., a not-for-profit corporation. Since 2004, the call has served the Merrimack Valley’s pioneer Internet radio station at WHAV.net and a number of public access cable television stations in Andover, Haverhill and Methuen, and Plaistow and Sandown, N.H. The station is also heard over AM 1640 in northern Haverhill and Plaistow, N.H.”

Project Supports Expansion of Local Programming
WHAV Completes Control Room Modernization Project with Your Help

WHAV has largely completed its “Control Room Modernization” project.

The modernization project delivers great benefits for both arts and cultural performances as well as improved sound quality and reliability for listeners. The new Arrakis Systems’ ARC-10BP is the central interface for all programs. It doubles the number of program inputs that may be used simultaneously; enables an all-digital audio stream for maximum and faithful reproduction of voice and music; and allows twice as many telephone callers to participate simultaneously.

The Control Room Modernization program is supported in part by a grant from the Haverhill Cultural Council, a local agency which is supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency. Matching funds came from loyal WHAV underwriters—Haverhill Bank, Greater Lawrence Family Health Center and Merrimack Valley Economic Development Council, and WHAV members.

When WHAV first went on the air March 16, 1947, General Manager John T. “Jack” Russ outlined its mission:

“WHAV is going to be your station — a station for the people of Haverhill and the people in our surrounding towns. What concerns you directly, your lives and businesses, your community betterment will always get first priority on the WHAV airwaves.”

The current incarnation of WHAV as an Internet, cable and low-power AM station began Jan. 3, 2004 and has been true to Russ’ forward-looking vision. Every week, local civic and cultural leaders take advantage of the opportunity to speak directly to residents over programs such as Local News, Community Spotlight and the Open Mike Show.