The Coalition to Save WEVD, a group of Orthodox Jewish organizations, has abandoned an 18-month legal battle to prevent the sale by the Forward Association of the AM band of station WEVD, which has broadcast Jewish programming in the New York area for more than 50 years, to a corporation dedicated to Christian evangelical programming, Howard Zuckerman, president of the National Jewish Commission on Law and Public Affairs (COLPA), disclosed today.
The Forward Association, which publishes the Jewish Daily Forward, the only Yiddish-language daily in the United States, retained control of the station’s FM band. The Salem Media Corp. reportedly paid $1.2 million for the AM band.
Nathan Lewin, a COLPA vice president, and David Butler, a COLPA board member, both of Washington, who had represented the coalition, withdrew an appeal against a unanimous ruling by the Federal Communications Commission approving the sale. COLPA had filed the appeal in the federal Court of Appeals in Washington, which hears appeals from FCC rulings, according to Dennis Rapps, COLPA executive director.
BASIS FOR THE DECISION
Butler said the decision to give up the legal fight was made because a recent United States Supreme Court decision in a related case had undercut the coalition’s legal position and left little basis to continue the struggle in the courts.
Butler stressed there had been no change in the coalition’s contention that the sale was not in the public interest, as required by the 1934 Communications Act, on grounds the transfer would have an adverse impact on the availability of Jewish programming in WEVD’s broadcast area.
He noted that the federal appeals court here had ruled last year that, in certain circumstances, the FCC must consider a probable change in format as a material fact requiring an FCC hearing. However, he said, the Supreme Court upheld the FCC position and that this effectively foreclosed the possibility of a successful challenge of the sale of the AM band.
The motion opposing the sale was filed by COLPA on Aug. 29, 1979. The coalition had expressed strong doubts about a Forward Association commitment to transfer in toto to the tight schedule of multi-lingual programs on the FM band the four-and-a-half hours of Jewish programs broadcast on the AM band.
The coalition, in submitting about 10,000 signatures of affected Jews and Jewish organizations, contended that many of the regular listeners to Jewish programs on the AM band did not have FM radios and that the AM band signal reached many areas of Jewish concentration around New York city, not served by the FM band, such as the Monticello area.
A CONTROVERSIAL ASPECT
Butler said one of the most controversial aspects of the FCC approval last Jan. 29 was its acceptance of the November 1980 proposal by the Salem Corp. to provide Jewish-oriented programming on the AM band. He said this offer was concededly made to demonstrate that Jewish-oriented programming would not be diminished by the Salem Corp. takeover. The FCC ruling became effective last Feb. 22 and the Salem Corp. now operates the AM band. Rapps said the Salem Corp. had contracted with a syndicate which provides Jewish radio programming but that no study had been made on the impact of the Salem handling of the AM band content which is now mainly Christian evangelical material.
The coalition included Agudath Israel, National Council of Young Israel, Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, United Jewish Council of the Lower East Side and the Jewish Community Councils of Washington Heights in Manhattan, and of Brighton Beach and Crown Heights in Brooklyn, as well as some local institutions which had sponsored Yiddish and English programs on WEVD-AM.
According to reports just received by the National Conference on Soviet Jewry (NCSJ), two more Kiev refuseniks have been arrested.
Stanislav Zubko was recently searched and put under arrest. Soviet authorities claim that he had drugs and a weapon in his possession. He is being charged with “having a weapon without permission,” under Section 222 of the Ukrainian Criminal Code. The 41-year-old refusenik had spent 25 days in prison last February on alleged charges of “contemptible behavior and using bad language in a public place,” and “smoking where smoking is prohibited.”
Mikhail Salman, 24, was recently arrested on alleged charges of “parasitism.” He was given permission to emigrate a year-and-a-half ago, but did not want to leave without his parents.
Zubko and Salman join two other victims of Soviet oppression presently being held in a Kiev prison. Kim Fridman, also accused of “parasitism,” will go on trial on June 9, the NCSJ reported. Activists fear that Fridman will be sentenced to a year’s imprisonment.
Meanwhile, no judge has yet been appointed, nor a trial date set for Vladimir Kislik, who awaits trial on trumped-up charges of “malicious hooliganism.”
SERIOUS SITUATION IN KIEV
According to the NCSJ, Jewish activists state that the situation in Kiev is the worst it has been for many years. It is believed that among the Jewish population of some 195,000 there are 7,000 refuseniks. Some of them, who have no close relatives in Israel, were just told to “forget about emigration — the files are no longer active,” the NCSJ reported. They were reportedly warned not to complain or remain active in trying to obtain visas.
Others, whose close relatives are dropouts, were told to advise their relatives to emigrate to Israel and provide them with invitations from that country, the NCSJ said.
In another development, Prisoner of Conscience Anatoly Shcharansky has been punished with an additional three months of solitary confinement in the Perm labor camp, the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry and Union of Councils for Soviet Jews have learned. This means that he will be held until this September in conditions which his wife Avital says has already endangered his life. He is also forbidden visitors until at least September 1982 and possibly 1983.
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