Calvin College Asks Has the FCC Gone Too Far?

September 2, 2004 == MEDIA ADVISORY

Doug Vanderlaan, a Calvin College grad who gained nationwide media attention
for "taking down" radio DJ Bubba the Love Sponge, will be part of a September
25 panel discussion at Calvin.

"Holding Broadcasters Accountable to the Public: Has the FCC Gone Too Far?"
will feature Vanderlaan and members of civil liberty groups, family
associations and broadcast media.

Confirmed participants include Jeff Smith, director of the Grand Rapids
Institute for Information Democracy; John Douglas, reporter for the Grand
Rapids Press; Gary Glen, president of the American Family Association of
Michigan; and Chris Smit, an associate professor of communication arts and
sciences at Calvin.

Doug Vanderlaan will tell his story at 9 am, including audio clips from
Bubba's show. There will be a Q&A with Vanderlann after his talk and then a
panel discussion with Q&A.

Calvin College communications professor Quentin Schultze heads up the Calvin
Workshops in Communication, sponsor for the event.

He says people will be surprised by Vanderlaan.

"He's a registered Democrat who plays guitar in his church's praise band and
counts The Simpsons among his favorite TV shows," says Schultze. "He's not at
all your typical media crusader."

Vanderlaan says his quest to stop Bubba came from deep within.

"I'm very much a Calvinist, I guess," Vanderlaan says. "I believe Christians
have an obligation to engage in cultural issues. As I listened to Bubba I
thought 'Somebody ought to do something.' And then I thought, 'Why not me?' I
always felt like all of the pieces were in place for me to put a stop to it."

In April 2002 Doug and his wife Doris filed a complaint with the FCC, after
taping and monitoring hundreds of hours worth of Bubba's show. Their paper
trail was persuasive. In January 2004, the FCC ruled. And their conclusions
were clear.

The FCC said that the radio stations that had aired the show willfully and
repeatedly aired indecent material. And those stations, added the FCC, would be
culpable to the tune of three-quarters of a million dollars. Bubba was
dismissed.

Soon media from not only the Jacksonville area, but all over Florida, and
beyond, came calling. As Vanderlaan's victory received wider and wider media
attention, he also became a target for criticism.

During his crusade he received hate mail and harassing phone calls. Free
speech advocates slammed his effort as censorship, saying that if he didn't
like Bubba's show, all he had to do was change the channel.

Vanderlaan believes such charges are a red herring. The airwaves, he says, are
akin to a public park. If someone was selling pornography at a public park, he
reasons, people would not stand idly by and allow it to happen. The same is
true of radio.

See www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/workshops/index.htm

Contact Doug Vanderlann at 904-923-5179. Contact Quentin Schultze at
616-526-6290

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Received on Fri Sep 3 11:39:39 2004