Posted on Wed, Dec. 20, 2006
BROADCASTING
Radio, TV Martí face a congressional probe
A congressional investigation of TV and Radio Martí is slated for early
2007, a Massachusetts Democrat said.
BY CHRISTINA HOAG AND OSCAR CORRAL
choag@MiamiHerald.com
Congress early next year will investigate allegations of mismanagement
and political cronyism at taxpayer-funded Radio and TV Martí, a ranking
Democrat said Tuesday.
Rep. William Delahunt, D-Mass. -- slated to chair the oversight and
investigations subcommittee for the House International Relations
Committee -- said he will move to hold hearings on the Martís in late
January or early February. His comments came a day after Radio Mambí,
WAQI-AM (710), and Azteca América, WPMF-TV 38, each began carrying an
hour of Martí programming daily for payment.
''This will be a priority,'' said Delahunt, who was in Cuba this week as
part of a congressional delegation. ``There's mismanagement . . . that
really demands a thorough review.''
Government-funded media such as the Martís cannot broadcast on U.S.
airwaves because their mission is to present the U.S. viewpoint to
foreign audiences. However, there are loopholes in the law: Time on an
AM transmitter can be leased to circumvent signal-jamming, and TV Martí
can be ''inadvertently'' picked up by U.S. viewers as long as it reaches
Cuba.
The Office of Cuba Broadcasting, which oversees the Martí operation,
portrays the contracts as just another way to reach Cubans on the
island. Radio Mambí's signal can reach Cuba under certain circumstances,
and WPMF-TV is carried on DirecTV, which some Cubans can receive via a
pirated signal.
Delahunt said the U.S. government is essentially hiring the stations to
reach mostly local audiences, funded with taxpayer money. The six-month
contracts call for Mambí to be paid $182,500 and WPMF $195,000. WPMF
general manager Enrique Landín said Channel 38 also will sell
commercials during the Martí newscasts -- which enraged Delahunt.
''Now we're subsidizing private commercial stations,'' said Delahunt,
who called the Martís politically motivated boondoggles. The Martís will
receive $37 million this year. ``This is outrageous.''
The criticisms didn't surprise U.S. Rep. Lincoln Díaz-Balart, who
earmarks funds for the Martí operation.
''I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for Delahunt . . . to stop trying to
help the Cuban dictatorship,'' Díaz-Balart said through his chief of
staff, Ana Carbonell.
Larry Hart, a spokesman for the Broadcasting Board of Governors, the
government arm that oversees the Martís, said the charges of political
patronage were ``ridiculous.''
Both Radio Mambí and WPMF-TV were selected after a media market survey,
Hart said. Although many government contracts are awarded through
competitive bidding, the law allows some vendor contracts to be issued
as ''sole source'' -- without bidding -- under circumstances such as
urgency or a unique service. In this case, Hart said, time was of the
essence after Cuban leader Fidel Castro transferred power to his brother
Raúl in July.
''We have been redoubling efforts to get through,'' Hart said.
Two other South Florida stations were approached, WSBS-TV 22 and WJAN-TV
41, but neither was willing to lease the blocks of time Martí was
seeking. Representatives at WSBS-TV had no comment, and calls to WJAN
were not returned.
HIGHLY RATED
Radio Mambí is one of the highest-rated radio stations in South Florida
and is known for its strong anti-Castro stance. Popular Mambí
commentator Ninoska Pérez-Castellon is also a board member and
spokeswoman for the hard-line Cuban Liberty Council.
Mambí is the only Spanish-language AM station that carries a 50,000-watt
signal through the night and is able to reach Cuba, Hart said.
Most AM stations reduce their signal at night when there are fewer
listeners.
Hart acknowledged that the Cuban government's Radio Rebelde transmits on
the same frequency as Mambí -- 710 AM. But he said the jamming does not
block Mambí in all locations or at all times, and that the signal gets
through, particularly on the northern coast.
Representatives at Univisión, Mambí's corporate owner, had no comment.
WPMF-TV is a small, low-power TV affiliate of the Azteca América
network, owned by Mexico's TV Azteca. The station is carried on local
cable systems, as well as DirecTV and over the air. It was selected
because it is carried on DirecTV Latin America, which is pirated in
Cuba, Hart said.
Landín and Jorge De Cárdenas, a marketing consultant to the Office of
Cuba Broadcasting, are former business partners. State corporate records
show De Cárdenas and Landín were partners in Creative Developers, a real
estate investment company that dissolved in 1980. They also had a
30-year business relationship, De Cárdenas said, when Landín sold radio
time to De Cárdenas, then an advertising executive, to place ads for his
clients.
De Cárdenas said a 2003 consultant report for the Office of Cuba
Broadcasting recommended using radio stations around the Caribbean to
transmit Radio and TV Martí. That never happened, but the idea remained.
Calls to Pedro Roig, director of the Office of Cuba Broadcasting,
weren't returned Tuesday.
VIOLATION OF LAW
Former Director Herminio San Roman, who ran the operation from 1997 to
2001, said the Martís transmitted via a Miami station, WCMQ, in the late
1980s for several months. But an attorney for the U.S. Information
Agency found such transmissions violated the law, he said. He could not
provide a copy of the opinion.
This is not the first time the U.S. government has contracted U.S.-based
radio stations to air its propaganda, said John Nichols, associate dean
of Pennsylvania State University's College of Communications.
During the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, the government leased time on
private radio stations in South Florida and as far away as New Orleans
to beam Voice of America into Cuba.
And in September 1987, Radio Mambí and WQBA-AM La Cubanísima rebroadcast
a Martí interview with Cuban defector Florentino Azpillaga Lombard after
U.S. officials did not make him available to U.S. media.
Nichols noted that using the Miami stations to broadcast overseas
violates international law because they are licensed to serve only U.S.
audiences. Cuba has long complained to international telecommunications
authorities about the Martís.
''This gives more fuel to the Cuban government's position,'' he said.
The hearings are almost certain to be politically charged. Rep. Jeff
Flake, R-Arizona, a longtime critic of the Martís, said Tuesday that the
transmissions over the Miami stations appeared to be legally fuzzy.
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