Missouri station offering Russian state radio to listeners

[ificandream]

Source: Margaret Stafford/AP

LIBERTY, Mo. (AP) — A man who runs a little-known, low-budget radio station in suburban Kansas City says he is standing up for free speech and alternative viewpoints when he airs Russian state-sponsored programming in the midst of the Ukrainian war.

Radio Sputnik, funded by the Russian government, pays broadcast companies in the U.S. to air its programs. Only two do so: One is Peter Schartel’s company in Liberty, Missouri, and one is in Washington, D.C.

Schartel started airing the Russian programming in January 2020, but criticism intensified after Russia invaded Ukraine in February. Schartel said people accuse him and his wife of being traitors to the U.S. and occasionally issue threats. Some critics say he is promoting propaganda and misinformation, but Schartel maintains most people who call to complain haven’t listened to the program.

“Some will talk to me, but others will still call me a piece of whatever,” he said. “What I am thankful for is we are still living in a country where they can call me up. Even if they aren’t thinking about free speech they’re exercising that right.”

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-entertainment-business-kansas-missouri-b6240ed4d6bada628e59c24b29d68669

---

Money grubber.

[BumRushDaShow]

1. I'm sure it is broadcasting on shortwave somewhere

but agree, $$$$$.

The GOP is inextricably linked to Putin anyway so it only underscores that connection.

[ToxMarz]

17. I love how he keeps calling it "free speech'l"

When it's all about the $$$$.

[Prof. Toru Tanaka]

25. Good point.

[Algernon Moncrieff]

36. That was my thought. In the 70s and 80s I used to listen to Radio Moscow, Radio Tirana, Radio Prague

...as well as stations West Germany, the BBC, Canada, Emirates, and many others. You can get Radio Reloj out of Havana on any AM radio in South Florida.

I don't see a problem. That's who we've always been. Listen and read what you want and make up your own mind.

[BumRushDaShow]

37. I got a portable shortwave radio back in the early '90s (have a couple of them now)

and picked up one of those little guidebooks that had the frequencies/programming times of the many stations out there (the publication was continually updated) and if anything, I finally got to hear what "we" (U.S.) was putting out there on VOA. This was all "pre- world wide web".

Nowadays almost all of that is streaming on the internet including through a number of mobile streaming radio apps.

[Sherman A1]

2. Geez,

That story is a couple of weeks old…….

[dalton99a]

3. $5,000 a month

Schartel’s Alpine Broadcasting Corp. is paid $5,000 a month to air Radio Sputnik in two three-hour blocks each day, according to a U.S. Justice Department Foreign Agent Registration Act filing in December 2021.

KCXL’s other programming includes shows that are heavily religious, offer opinions across the political spectrum and promote conspiracy theories. One program, TruNews, has been criticized by the Anti-Defamation League for spreading antisemitic, Islamaphobic and anti-LGBTQ messages.

[SunSeeker]

8. Scummy outfit for sure. nt

[Trust_Reality]

31. This sounds right.

Liberty is a small, white, upper-mid class right wing community with a lot of people who think they are pretty special.

[Warpy]

4. Free speech aint always that free, Cowboy

Those are public airwaves you're broadcasting Russian propaganda over. That puts a little thing like a broadcasting license in jeopardy.

Just a little word to the unwise.

[Rebl2]

7. He's

been broadcasting since 2020. I wish he would lose his license.

[reACTIONary]

15. It actually doesn't...

... his license is not in jeopardy.

[Warpy]

32. It is if people around there start complaining about it

That's the procedure, and the closer it gets to the renewal date, the more those complaints have attention paid to them.

[reACTIONary]

33. I don't believe so...

outside of obscene material.. According to the FCC......

The FCC is barred by law from trying to prevent the broadcast of any point of view. The Communications Act prohibits the FCC from censoring broadcast material, in most cases, and from making any regulation that would interfere with freedom of speech. Expressions of views that do not involve a "clear and present danger of serious, substantive evil" come under the protection of the Constitution, which guarantees freedom of speech and freedom of the press and prevents suppression of these expressions by the FCC. According to an FCC opinion on this subject, "the public interest is best served by permitting free expression of views." This principle ensures that the most diverse and opposing opinions will be expressed, even though some may be highly offensive.

https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/fcc-and-freedom-speech

[ThoughtCriminal]

5. Don't touch that dial Americans! - We have program for you!

Today Is Moscow!

[dalton99a]

13. +1

[Hulk]

6. It's what repuKKKes want to hear.....

I'm dead certain fucker carlson would support it.....you know...."free speech". Fucking idiots.

[keithbvadu2]

12. By playing Russian state-sponsored programming, they are surely playing Tucker.

By playing Russian state-sponsored programming, they are surely playing Tucker.

[LudwigPastorius]

9. He's free to broadcast Russian propaganda for money, and...

people are free to "cancel" his business for being an unethical scumbag airing the lies of a state that is butchering innocent civilians.

Oh, and if Anonymous wants to do anything about it, I say, have fun, guys.

[SouthBayDem]

10. info about KCXL

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KCXL

Basically a very weak signal, 4000 watts day and SIX watts at night (can it even be heard at Arrowhead Stadium at night?)

This station was founded as a country station in '67. It changed hands over the years before devolving to its current "dollar a holler" format in the mid 1990s.

Lots of low signal, obscure AM stations that outlive their usefulness fall into resorting to "dollar a holler" (religious, infomercial, and the kookier types of brokered programming) stuff.

[rockfordfile]

11. Republicans pushing un-American propaganda.

"During one recent broadcast of “The Critical Hour” that aired on Schartel’s KCXL, the hosts and their guests echoed false and unsupported claims about Ukraine’s government. They repeated Russian state media lies about the Russian military’s attacks on civilian targets-."

Americans have the right to a degree to spout things, but they others have the right to respond to Nazi hate being pushed by pos like that.

[Martin68]

14. Missouri Rose.

[quakerboy]

16. At least hes honest about doing it.

fox is doing no less, but noones giving them much hassle over it.

[olddad65]

18. Missouri - Moscow. Whats the difference?

[XacerbatedDem]

23. Really. Welcome to my world. Stuck here for years and can't get away.

Probably like some people in Moscow, I figure. HEE-HAWley - OMG! Greitens - Ah-Jeezzz! And now, tfg throwing support for BILLy Long for Senate!?!? WTF!!!

Nothing surprises me anymore. MO is becoming like The Lost World, nothing but animals roaming the state and a whole lot of dinosaur s**t.

[Rebl2]

29. Feels like it

sometimes

[BlueIdaho]

19. BS - he's kissing Trump's ass.

Pure and simple.

[Pas-de-Calais]

20. Better be filing that $60K income per year

[Roy Rolling]

21. Desperation

A radio station that desperate for $5,000 a month cash should not have a license to broadcast.

There are minimal capital requirements for most businesses—either stated or implied as business norms. A radio station is licensed because of the enormous influence it has on the public, it should not be so underfunded.

Maybe ginormous radio networks are tilting the playing field? Whatever it is, give up the $5,000 a month or find another career. You’re not entertainment you’re propaganda.

[Rebl2]

30. Agreed

[Joinfortmill]

22. Should be labeled "Russian propaganda"

Here's an older article related to this issue
https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-rt-america-funding/31427870.html

[mahatmakanejeeves]

24. Here's an article about the Radio Sputnik outlet outside Washington DC

Tue Mar 8, 2022: WZHF, the tiny radio station broadcasting Russian propaganda in D.C.

The flagship of Vladimir Putin’s would-be American radio propaganda empire is a tiny station in Washington, D.C’s suburbs. Something I wrote:

Link to tweet

The tiny radio station broadcasting Russian propaganda in D.C.
How the Kremlin found a Beltway home for ‘Radio Sputnik,' known for spreading Russian spin.

Media

The tiny radio station broadcasting Russian propaganda in D.C.

How the Kremlin found a middleman who found a Beltway home for Radio Sputnik, known for spreading Russian spin.

By Paul Farhi
Yesterday at 8:19 a.m. EST

For a few seconds every hour, WZHF-AM interrupts its round-the-clock schedule of talk to air a curious disclaimer: “This radio programming is distributed by RM Broadcasting on behalf of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency, Moscow, Russia. Additional information is available at the Department of Justice, Washington, D.C.”

The cryptic notification masks a larger story. WZHF, a former Spanish-language station 11 miles east of the White House in Maryland’s Capitol Heights, is the flagship of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s effort to harness America’s radio airwaves to sell the Kremlin’s point of view. Despite periodic legal and political challenges, and the imposition of sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, the station has stayed on the air, broadcasting its Kremlin-approved message.

The station at 1390 AM is one of only five outlets in the United States that air English-language broadcasts of “Radio Sputnik,” produced in Moscow and Washington under the Russian government’s supervision.

Sputnik is the radio and digital arm of Rossiya Segodnya (Russia Today), the same Kremlin-controlled media agency that directs RT and RT America, the better-known TV and digital media operations founded by Putin’s regime in 2005. ... But while American distributors and European governments have banned RT since Russia’s attack on Ukraine, leading to the collapse of RT’s American operations on Thursday, WZHF is still offering Sputnik’s content to Beltway listeners.

{snip}

Gift Article
https://wapo.st/3MXlScb

By Paul Farhi
Paul Farhi is The Washington Post's media reporter. He started at The Post in 1988 and has been a financial reporter, a political reporter and a Style reporter. Twitter https://twitter.com/farhip

You can listen to WZHF online.

WZHF at Wikipedia

WZHF Radio Sputnik 1390 AM live

[BradBo]

26. Omg, he's doing it for the money. What a piece of garbage.

[llashram]

27. no surprise

traitors will be traitors...' free speech'?

[DivByZero]

28. He should try that in Russia

I like how he argues that he’s exercising free speech and providing an alternate viewpoint. Fine, as long as he could do the same in Russia. But since he would be imprisoned or worse for doing the same there, those noble principles of his don’t hold any water. Pure greed and propaganda, but I’m sure he’s celebrated in certain circles of despicables.

[BlueWavePsych]

34. Another one of these traitors ...

[The Wizard]

35. Obviously GQP.