There's this mentality
of "let's not do anything about the Legislature, let's not
do anything about Snake River." It is almost inadvertent censorship.
The past couple years of Mike Rich's life have, appropriately
enough, seemed a bit like a Hollywood movie. Like a lot
of movie buffs, the KINK-FM news director had unsuccessfully
shopped around a screenplay. His luck changed dramatically
in 1998, when his script was one of five picked from 4,500
entries in the prestigious Nicholl Fellowship. Before he
knew it, Finding Forrester was sold to Sony/Columbia
for six figures, and the man who once chased midnight fires
for KGW radio was yukking it up with Sean Connery. The movie,
about a relationship between a reclusive novelist and a
young athlete, is headed for a Christmas Day release. Rich's
second script, just accepted by Disney, is about a high-school
baseball coach turned big-league pitcher (who may be played
by George Clooney).
After two years of shuttling between PDX and LAX, Rich
decided to hang up his microphone. Last Thursday, a day
before his final newscast on KINK, he sat down with WW
news editor John Schrag to talk about the state of radio
news in Portland.
WW: From what I remember you telling me, Forrester
is set in the big city of New York.
Mike Rich: Yes. The Bronx and Manhattan.
And it's about a relationship between a white guy and
an African-American youth. You live in the whitest major
city in the nation. Where did that plot line come from?
I have no idea [laughs]. It kind of shoots to hell
the "write what you know" theory. I've never been to the
Bronx. Still, I've had more people tell me, "You just captured
the essence." They assumed I was either from the Bronx or
had been there many, many times.
So where did you grow up?
Enterprise, Oregon. Population 2,000.
All 2,000 white?
Oh, absolutely. It's funny because one of the other projects
we were kicking around would also have featured a cast that
is very heavy on African Americans. The producers just laughed
and said, "Mike Rich, voice of black America."
When did you come to the
big city?
I came down here to KGW in '82 from Spokane, where I'd
worked for King Broadcasting. When I came on board, it was
the glory days of KGW radio. Craig Walker was there and
it was No. 1 on the radio. Talk-music format. KEX was No.
2, and between the two of them, they shared 20 percent of
the radio audience in Portland.
What's your take on the current status of radio news?
It has just become less of a priority for all stations.
Even to a certain degree the AM stations have become much
more bottom-line driven.
And news is expensive because...?
News is expensive because of bodies, to do it right. When
I started at KGW, we had a news staff of seven, which you
just don't see anymore.
How unusual is it for an FM
rock station to have a news staff?
Extremely unusual. But when I came to KINK seven years
ago, there were a lot of FM stations that had news. Certainly
most of them had news in the morning, and a lot of them
had news in the afternoons.
Within our industry there's lots of discussion about
corporate ownership and the loss of the family-owned newspapers
and broadcast outlets. You lived through that change, when
the Bullit family sold King Broadcasting, including KGW
and the other stations. Was there really a difference?
Yeah, there was. The Bullit sisters were that rare breed
of broadcaster who wanted to be community servants. It wasn't
just lip, it wasn't just talk. If there were stations in
the group that were losing money, which there always were,
then they had other stations pick up the slack. So you very
rarely changed formats. They believed in it.
So what's it like being owned
by Infinity?
For KINK it hasn't been as noticeable, because the station's
doing well. But were the station to fall on hard times...
Have you spent any time listening to KPAM (840 AM)?
Yeah. I admire what they are doing. I heard Bill Gallagher
do an entire show on the breaching of Snake River dams.
That's commendable. Whether there is an audience, I don't
know.
I've talked to local broadcasters who say they have
to be taking a beating financially. Their ratings are horrible.
Well, they are a start-up AM talk station; it's going to
take them awhile. From what I understand, [owner] Bob Pamphlin
sounds like he's committed to this. He's going to have to
be patient with it.
What don't you like when you look at the local news
radio scene?
With a few exceptions, reporters rely on other sources
too much for their product. The newspaper. Television stations.
One thing I always prided KINK on, and still do, is advancing
stories. For a long, long time, when we had a full-time
reporter, we had a rule: If it was in the daily paper, you
couldn't report on it. Or, if it was a story we couldn't
ignore, you damn well better find another spin on it. Advance
it or you better give me another take. There are a lot of
radio stations that don't have that policy.
In the newspaper industry, a lot of folks fret about
the fact that there's a generation of young people out there
who don't seem terribly interested in the traditional type
of news that's been offered. Is it the same in radio?
It's not just radio, it's television. There's this mentality
of "let's not do anything about the Legislature, let's not
do anything about Snake River." It is almost inadvertent
censorship. The only way that you can become interested
in a subject is to learn. In the past, it was presented
to you. And you might find a subject of interest to you
because of the fact that it was spoon-fed to you. Now I
hear, "Well, the audience isn't interested in the Legislature,
and we aren't going to give it to them." Well, that's a
cop-out.
A cop-out because...?
There are some things that people do need to know.
But is it really our responsibility to decide what people
should hear?
It is our responsibility to make certain that we present
that in a compelling, informative manner. Lord knows, you
can do a Snake River breaching story so your eyes will glaze
over. But with Gallagher, I found myself more interested
in the subject.
So you don't think it's arrogant to say to listeners,
"You like crime stories, but we're going to give you environment"?
No, it's not arrogant to say that. In fact, it's a cop-out
when we don't, because you know what? A crime story is easy
pickin's. Stories on the Legislature are much harder.
But isn't there a risk that when you report on term
limits, rather than the crime of the day, people will switch
the dial?
Of course. But I don't think it absolves you of your responsibility
to do that.
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