Re: Fwd: A Scam at WALE?

["'A. Joseph Ross'" <lawyer@world.std.com>]

On Tue, 11 Aug 1998, Donna Halper wrote:

> >>	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.  

This sounds like a job offer, not a solicitation for brokered time.  The
usual term for this is "bate and switch."

> >>	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.  

I realize that WALE has a 50,000 watt signal only so that it can say that
it has one, but how can they truthfully claim to be the "most powerful" 
station in three states when Massachusetts contains WBZ and several other
50,000 watt stations? 

> >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), 

This sound remarkably like the bogus contests, where first they tell you
that you've won a prize, then they tell you that you have to come up with
money for shipping and handling or some other thing. 

> We contacted the BBB in Providence, RI, and were
> >told they >had no information on WALE one way or the other. 

And later, the BBB apparently refused to take a complaint on them. No
wonder they had no information on WALE!

> >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.  

Doesn't southern New England include Massachusetts?  Isn't WTIC in
Hartford a 50,000 watt station? 
 
> >>     ...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.

The Better Business Bureau is run by businesses and is not really
effective at controlling business fraud.  Since they are not a
governmental body, they can claim they have no jurisdiction over anyone.
I'd at least try to get them to take a complaint for the record, so that
the next person who calls might learn of it.  Though I wouldn't have much
faith that they'd actually tell anyone anything.

If this story is true, it sounds like garden-variety fraud, and I don't
know why the Rhode Island Attorney General wouldn't have jurisdiction. 
But from what I hear about Rhode Island politics, I wouldn't be surprised
if the AG's office is uninterested in such things as fraud. 

Government agencies respond to the squeeking wheel.  I'd keep calling the
FCC about progress.  I'd also try the FTC and the FBI.  

===========================================================================
 A. Joseph Ross, J.D.                                         617.367.0468
 15 Court Square                                      lawyer@world.std.com
 Boston, MA 02108-2503                       http://world.std.com/~lawyer/
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