As the “Dear Mr. President” radio campaign storms into New York, it’s making waves on the West Coast as well, landing one prominent San Diego radio talk-show host a reprimand from a television station where he does commentary.
The radio campaign which dramatizes the apparent lack of honesty, integrity and accountabilty on the part of the president with letters from children, debuted in Washington, D.C., last Monday.
Since then over 500 stations nationwide have volunteered free ad time to air it and the three ads have been downloaded over 5,000 times from the Website of singer-songwriter Steve Vaus, who orchestrated the campaign. In some cities, such as Des Moines Iowa, private individuals have stepped forward to offered to pay the cost of running ads on local radio stations.
“Dear Mr. President” has quickly become the second most talked about item on talk radio with superstations such as WSB, WRRK, KSFO, KABC, WMAL, KOGO, as well as syndicated talkers such as Mike Reagan, featuring
the ads on a daily basis.
In the case of KOGO, talk host Roger Hedgecock, a champion of the cause from the outset, the “Dear Mr. President” campaign landed him in hot water when he carried the story to local independent television station KUSI in his weekly commentary.
Hedgecock featured Steve Vaus, the creator of the ad series, Tuesday night and was reprimanded Wednesday by station management. Hedgecock, in turn, unleashed the considerable power and wrath of his loyal followers on the KUSI switchboard Wednesday, causing a total shutdown for a time.
Meanwhile, Vaus has received over $20,000 in donations to fund the continued airing of the ads on music, news and sports radio stations across the country.
“Unfortunately, I’ve already committed about $40,000 in ad buys,” said Vaus “So as thrilled as I am with the support coming in, I’m still deep in the hole. Still, it’s astonishing. Every day the mailbox is jammed with contributions and letters of support. Folks have sent from one dollar to one thousand. It seems like the ‘Dear Mr. President’ campaign is allowing people to let their voice be heard.”
Donations have been generated mostly from an e-mail campaign on the Internet. The topic of the “Dear Mr. President” campaign dominates many billboards and chat rooms on the Web as well. After word of “Imus In the Morning” flagship station WFAN’s decision to refuse paid airtime for the ad campaign, the MSNBC billboards were overrun by posts demanding Imus personally step in and right the perceived wrong.
At this time WFAN is standing by its decision to ban the ads. Another station in Washington, D.C., also refused the ads. No. 1 rated urban music WHUR did not deem the subject appropriate for listeners.
All the attention focused on the “Dear Mr. President” ads prompted Vaus to
comment, “The news organizations are having a hard time understanding it. They all ask, ‘What special interest group do you represent?’ And I just tell them, ‘I work for the most special interest group of all, the American people.'”
The campaign will run through next week in New York and then will begin airing in cities from coast to coast.
How long? According to Vaus, “Until Washington, D.C., and the mainstream media get the message.”
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