Interview w/Peter Werbe, radical talk show host

By Fhar Miess
The Alarm! Newspaper Collective

Alarm!: According to KOMY, why was it that you were fired?

Peter Werbe: The Mom & Son show got on the air and said that they
apologized to the people of Santa Cruz for allowing me to broadcast my
criticisms after September 11 and that they were no longer going to
make their radio station a medium for my criticisms of Bush-at one
point they may have even called it pro-Taliban, which is of course
ridiculous. It?s just typical of (although that?s Mom & Son) ?mom &
pop? stations across the country.

There?s two facets to control of the media by conservatives and
corporations. One is obvious: big corporate control by the Clear
Channels and Infinities and what have you. They have their national
powerhouses that they put on their local stations. But then there?s
also this range of very conservative individual owner-entrepreneurs
who have this lock-very frequently-on sectors of the country that
aren?t served by any other station. Some of them, they?re the one
station in town. It?s ridiculous to have a station in Santa Cruz that
has no left-of-center programming given the politics of that city and
how liberal that city is.

But it?s no different in Detroit where I broadcast from. There?s no
liberal talk show host in a city like Detroit. The city of Detroit
proper voted ninety-five percent for Al Gore and the surrounding three
counties voted the majority for Al Gore, and I?m just talking about
liberal Democrats. So, it actually is a testimony to people?s
capacity to think independently with this complete strangle-hold that
the Right and corporations have on the media, that people still-to use
voting as one index, which isn?t the greatest one to me-but still,
Bush still loses. No matter what kind of kid gloves the media use
toward Bush-I mean they knew that he had lied about serving in the Air
National Guard, that he was AWOL for a year, which is really
desertion. They knew, they had tips about his girlfriend having an
abortion, about the drug use and all that and they just kept hands off
and they allowed him to define himself as a uniter and a centrist when
obviously, as we?ve seen since he got in, he?s far right wing.

But even with all that, whenever you take a poll, people generally
come up with what I?d call social democratic, progressive views of
tolerance, generosity and what have you. And the reason they have to
keep people like me off [the air] is that, God, their whole house of
cards would collapse if the Left got an equal shot at speaking to the
American people.

A!: How much do you think the political climate had to do with it?
Do you think you would have gotten the same treatment if the attacks
on the World Trade Center hadn?t just happened?

PW: Oh no. He [owner Michael Zwerling] was OK with it [the show].
And one of the things that was so weird, on the one hand it was all
ideological that they couldn?t let an extreme leftist on the air. On
the other hand, he said that my show never had any advertisers. Of
course, this little station doesn?t have an advertising department,
and shows in radio don?t have advertisers, stations have what they
call ?run of the station? ads. In other words, if you wanted to
advertise The Alarm! on KOMY [fat chance, ed.], you?d get one in the
morning, two in the midday, two in the afternoon, two at night.
That?s what you?d pay for. People can specify. But, apparently, all
of his patriotism would have completely evaporated if I could have
bought him. Essentially, he runs it like a tyrant. He?s known for
getting people to work for free. He has all sorts of complaints
lodged against him with the State of California Wage and Hours Board.

A!: How have you been received since then?

PW: Oh, good. One thing that does happen in syndication is that
stations come and go for any number of reasons. Half the time you
never even find out. They just say, ?we?re not taking your show
anymore.? You say, ?Why?? They say, ?Well, we just decided, goodbye.?
They?ve gone country & western, they?ve replaced you with somebody
else, they?ve cut some other deal. In some regard it?s not that
unusual. There were a number of cases after September 11th where
editorial writers were canned, a couple of them in small towns, but in
the main, people have been able to express themselves I think fairly
well. I don?t want to make it a rosy picture because a lot of people
were subjected to threats and what have you in the academic community.
Dick Cheney?s wife and some little academic group started naming
names like it was Joe MacCarthy. But the Right-this was a God-send to
the Right. You may know that Bush as it was-lucky me, I hit the
trifecta-Bush is the only person in America that personally benefitted
from September 11th, but in a sense, the whole Republican party did.
They were down the drain probably by November of 2001. I mean, Bush?s
popularity was plummeting, and people caught on to him real quickly.
Now, everything is submerged behind the imperial war machine and this
fight against terrorism. And they?re having difficulty because these
pesky terrorists-they just won?t strike again! And they can?t find
Osama bin Laden. So, like in Orwell?s 1984 they had the three-minute
hate where they?d project the photograph of Big Brother?s enemy, so
Osama bin Laden-remember how many times we used to see his face on
television, if you watch television? I don?t even watch television
and I must?ve seen it 250 times. So, I think if you do, you must?ve
seen it 2,500 times. And now, when?s the last time you saw a
photograph of Osama bin Laden? Now it?s ?Target: Saddam!? It?s
repulsive, but I think that there?s a critical mass growing. People
are so dissatisfied with life in Bush?s America. You know, he?s
wrecked the economy, they stumble from one crisis to the next.
They?re gonna catch Osama bin Laden dead or alive? Where?s he? Now
another major war. Corporate criminals? You know, he [Bush] and
Cheney are corporate criminals. And in all of this, he?s just hoping
to keep one step ahead by rattling everybody?s cage so that we don?t
think about all of those things.

Endnote: Peter Werbe?s nationally syndicated radio show can be heard
from 9a.m. to Noon, Pacific Time, at i.e. America Radio Network:
http://www.ieamericaradio.com/ or Sundays from 11 pm to 2 am Eastern
on WRIF in Detroit: http://www.wrif.com/