Fwd: A Scam at WALE?

[Donna Halper <dlh@donnahalper.com>]

Anyone heard of people being scammed by WALE???  This was forwarded to me
by somebody in the industry who I have always found trustworthy, and who
wanted me to verify if any of these claims were true.  

 While I have heard some WEIRD programming on that station, I didn't
realise it may have ventured into illegal or unethical... do any of you
know what is going on at that station?  

This particular e-mail was written by two former broadcasters on WALE--
Will Phillips is doing the writing, and he says--

>>	Mary Blood and I just completed co-hosting a 13-week program on radio
>station >WALE 990 AM in Providence, Rhode Island, and suspect we are two of
>many people who may have been scammed out of a total of over $400,000.00.
[his and her qualifications & publications snipped]

>>	In April of 1998, WALE radio (also known as North American Broadcasting
>Co,  contacted a colleague of ours in California, telling her
>they were looking for someone knowledgeable on dreams to host a weekly
>radio talk show for their station.  She contacted us shortly afterward,
>saying that she didn’t consider herself the radio talk show host type, and
>wondered if we might be interested.  After some discussion, Mary and I
>contacted WALE, and they ended up extending the offer to us.  
>>	J.C. Clayton, executive producer, told us that WALE has the most powerful
>AM station in the Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island area, with
>a >listening audience of over three million people.  He told us that
>because this would be a new show, we would need to come up with the
>initial production costs ($4,498.00, or $346.00/week for the 13 week pilot
>show), then would be reimbursed as WALE’s sales team secured sponsors for
>our show.  He said we would receive 100% of all sponsor revenue until our
>initial expenses were reimbursed, and then 50% of all sponsor revenue
>after that.  He suggested a likely return of around $200/week to start
>with, increasing as more sponsors were secured. 

[Donna asks-- is this sort of thing typical?  I have never purchased time
to run a show on a station...]

>>	We were wary of the terms, but contacted a couple of friends in the radio
>>business who said they had heard of similar deals, although they didn’t
>know >much about them.  We contacted the BBB in Providence, RI, and were
>told they >had no information on WALE one way or the other.  We also
>investigated them on the internet, and discovered that it was true that
>WALE has a 50,000 watt transmission signal, which is ten times as powerful
>as the next most powerful AM station in southern New England.  

>>	After considering WALE’s proposal for a couple of days, Mary and I
>decided to accept their deal, approaching it as an investment in our own
>abilities, and an opportunity to promote the personal growth work we both
>so deeply believe in.  We split the $4,498.00 production costs and, after
>doing our own research, sent in a list of over twenty companies we felt
>were excellent suggestions for WALE to have their sales team contact as
>potential sponsors.
>>	The first "red flag" popped up immediately after we signed the agreement
>and sent WALE a Cashier’s check.  When we read the promotional copy and
>>commercials for our show sent to us by WALE’s producers, we discovered
>they had misspelled the name of my book three different ways on the
>one-page copy, and made so many other errors that Mary and I (who have
>both taught at college level) both felt it looked like the work of an
>elementary student.
>>	The next red flag was that their promise to provide us with "six weeks of
>>training" turned out to be two one-hour phone calls (at our expense) and a
>>fax.  Perhaps the most disturbing red flag was when J.C. Clayton called and
>>suggested WE CONTACT SPONSORS ON OUR OWN AND HAVE THEM SEND THEIR CHECKS
DIRECTLY TO MARY AND ME PERSONALLY.
>>	We can provide you with numerous examples of WALE’s lack of
>professionalism, and have documented all of our conversations with WALE.
>But the bottom line is, they have not gotten a single sponsor, nor even
>given us the name of one single company they have contacted about
>sponsoring our show.

>>	The executive director, J.C. Clayton, told me on May 19th, 1998 that he
>hoped to be calling around mid-June with good news about sponsors.
>Instead, we received several high-pressure calls around that time from
>both he and WALE owner Francis Battaglia asking us to come up with more
>money to produce a simulcast on their new Phoenix station (KCCF).  When we
>asked about the status of sponsors, J.C. stated, "it’s certainly going to
>be much easier for us to sell it… if I could, even for pennies on the
>dollar, put the show on in Phoenix as well."

[They continue, telling how when they pressed for more information about
who at the station was trying to obtain sponsors-- and how other shows had
handled this problem-- , they soon found their phone calls to WALE were not
being returned, nor were their faxes; and of course, no sponsors ever
materialised.}

>>	We searched the internet and collected names of other people who are
>doing, or have done, shows on WALE, and have learned that we are not the
>only people who have lost a great deal of money to them.  WALE claims to
>be producing 91 shows (however, they have no Program Guide and their
>website, <www.waleradio.com> now requires a password to enter, although it
>was >accessible in April of this year when we were first contacted).

>>	At $4,498.00 per show, they may be bringing in as much as $409,318.00
>every >13 weeks, and may not be doing anything whatsoever to keep their
>promise to secure sponsorship for those shows.   [more evidence snipped]


(Donna says:  BUT CHECK THIS PART OUT, IF YOU WILL, AND GIVE ME YOUR
COMMENTS)--

>>     ...We feel we have a moral obligation to alert
>people if WALE is indeed scamming well-meaning folks like ourselves out of
>hundreds of thousands of dollars.  We initially contacted the Providence,
RI Better >Business Bureau, and were told they had no jurisdiction and we
needed to contact >the Rhode Island Attorney General.  When we contacted
the Attorney General, we >were informed that it was not their jurisdiction,
either, and referred to the
>FCC.  We contacted the FCC in July, but have heard nothing back from them.
> We're beginning to see how WALE could be getting away with such a scam.

[he asks for advice and suggestions and then signs off.]
	
>>Thank you for your consideration,
>>Will Phillips
>>320 Jackson Street, Eugene, OR 97402
>>Ph: 541-684-9987
>>Email: Totonada@aol.com

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End of boston-radio-interest-digest V2 #152
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