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Journal of Radio Studies

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A Mic of Her Own: Stations, Collectives, and Women's

Access to Radio
Susan Carter
Published online: 16 Nov 2009.

To cite this article: Susan Carter (2004) A Mic of Her Own: Stations, Collectives, and Women's Access to Radio, Journal of
Radio Studies, 11:2, 169-183, DOI: 10.1207/s15506843jrs1102_3
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A Mic of Her Own: Stations, Collectives, and

Womens Access to Radio

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Susan Carter
As the 1960s came to a close, increasing social and political pressure was
brought to bear on broadcasters to augment womens participation on the
air. The pressure, from changes in civil rights laws and the Second Wave o f
the womens liberation movement, took several different forms; three models
o f womens access to the airwaves emerged i n the ensuing decade. Women
using the models to gain access to the air met with varying degrees of
success. This article will discuss the ways in which women broadcast,
particularly on the radio during this period, and why two of the three models
o f access faded as the Second Wave lost energy at the end o f the 1970s.

THREE MODELS OF ACCESS: BREAKING THE SOUNDS OF SILENCE

The first model of access to the radio is the oldest, most traditional, and most
widely accepted. It is still broadly used. In this model, women replace men in
already established broadcast positions. The organization is hierarchical and
the content is broad in audience appeal. The first model is liberal feminist,
tending toward the sameness of women and men. Women make gains through
application of equal rights under the law; womens disadvantage in access is
traceable to an uneven application of civil rights (Humm, 1989). Only the gender
of the voice is changed. It is a mainstream model with neutral gender content.
The second access model is nontraditional in organization and radical in
content. This model survives in a reduced form that reflects changes in technology and politics. In this model, alternative radio stations maintain basic
organization and format but dedicate a small portion of broadcast time to
women who produce their own programs for and about women. These regularly scheduled programs are often generated by womens collectives with
station equipment, but independent of direct station supervision of content. The
model is primarily radical feminist, propounding that womens failure to advance is a consequence of categorization of women as inferior to men on the
basis of gender. As radical feminism was replaced by cultural feminism, the
L. Susan Carter (J.D.,Wayne State University, 1988) is an Associate Professor of Journalism and Secretary of the Board of Trustees, Michigan State University. Her research
interests include women in broadcasting and media law.

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170 Journal of Radio StudiedVol. 11, No. 2,2004

second model, too, became cultural feminist, centered on constructing a radical,
separate women's culture (Humm, 1989), one that would exist on the air.
Usually, stations in this second access model have been at the fringe of the
broadcasting mainstream, either because they play nontraditional music or are
publicly owned and operated. In the early 1970s, they tended to be FM stations
because of lower market saturation and smaller audiences than AM, and because FM programmed more to the periphery.
In the third model of access, the entire radio station is dedicated to women's programming. This model combined the traditional organization of a mainstream station with woman-centered programming. The station's management,
program, and sales structure were standard, but the content was markedly
different. Although highly traditional in management structure and seeking to
be liberal feminist, it was also gendered female in program content: a mixture
of both radical and cultural feminism. There have been several examples of the
third model of access, two on the heels of the 1970s Second Wave. Each station
dropped the women-centered programming within 2 years.

FIRST MODEL-JOBS: USING THE LAW TO MAKE IT RIGHT

Shortly after commercial radio began in the United States in 1920, women had
some voice in broadcasting; however their numbers were nowhere in proportion to their majority status in the population. Still, the newness of radio in the
1920s suggested to some women the prospect of equal opportunity with men
(Marzolf, 1977), and women who did broadcast excelled in their capabilities.
Eunice Randall was among them. The first woman to broadcast on IXE (later
WGI), she manufactured radios for the American Radio and Research Company
as well as broadcasting. On the air, she played music, sang, read police reports,
and was occasionally the "Story Lady" (Halper, 20011.
However, views that crude technology did not favor high-pitched voices,
plus women's reputed reticence to speak in public fostered bias; both Radio
Broadcast and Scientific American debated women's suitability as broadcasters. Dr. J.C. Steinberg of Bell Laboratories, writing in the latter, suggested that
the electrical impulses of women's voices were not readily compatible with the
equipment of the day (McKay, 2000). When women appeared on the radio in the
1930s, they were in the roles of homemaker, advertiser, comedienne, women's
editor, or occasionally news maker, as with Eleanor Roosevelt. Women were
less readily accepted as newscasters on radio locally or nationally (Harris, 1989).
There were women who did manage to distinguish themselves on the air, Mary
Margaret McBride among them. Beginning in 1934, McBride hosted a daily
program on New York's WOR as Martha Deane. Her popularity as an interviewer
and a personality took her to CBS, and later NBC and ABC radio, with audiences
in the millions. McBride's 10th broadcast anniversary was held at Madison

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Carter/A MIC OF HER OWN 171

Square Garden; her 15th was in Yankee Stadium (Britannica, 2004; Halper,
20011.
In Detroit, Fran Harris broadcast on radio (and later television) beginning in
1931, principally as women's editor at WWJ-AM-FM-N (Marquis, 1984). She
had been allowed to present news on the radio during World War II, only after
the male anchors were drafted and no longer available (Harris, personal communication, September 12, 1989). Other women filled empty spots as well;
immediately after the war, women were still one quarter of the workers in radio
(Cramer, 1989).
In the 1960s, women entered the job market in increasing numbers, for the
same reasons that fueled the women's liberation movement: a generally expanding economy, a postwar generation reaching employment age, more reliable birth control and fewer children, and changes in home life (U.S. Dept.,
2004a) Parallel was a steady growth in the number of women employed at local
radio and television stations and the networks following the passage of the Civil
Rights Act of 1964. And, the numbers continued to rise. In 1979, for example,
women represented 21.2% of the workforce in radio news. By 1984, that number
had grown to 29.5% of the total radio newsroom staff (Stone, 1988).
Women were also benefitting from federal regulatory pressure on broadcasters. Several orders of the Federal Communications Commission increased
the number of women employed in broadcasting. Beginning in 1969, the FCC
required broadcasters to establish and promote affirmative action programs for
minority group members (Memorandum Opinion, 1968). Two years later, the
Commission proscribed gender discrimination, the first administrative agency
to do so. Some broadcast managers complied, but at the network level, it took
a license challenge to network-owned stations to increase women hires.
To compel ABC to create expanded employment opportunities for women,
the National Organization for Women challenged WABC-N's license, charging
that the station treated women employees unequally; that it failed to include
women as a significant group in its ascertainment interviews of community
leaders regarding programming needs; and that it violated the Fairness Doctrine in its handling of the role of women in society. The New York networkowned television station responded by posting available jobs, hiring women in
the sales department, holding consciousness-raising seminars for all employees, and requiring middle managers in all areas to hire and promote more
women (Sanders, 1990). A watchful broadcast industry responded to the FCC's
regulation and the NOW litigation. Between 1974 and 1982, female employment
in radio and television broadcasting rose from roughly one fifth to one third of
the total workforce (McCormick-Pickett, 1984; Robinson, 1978).
As broadcast stations were hiring more women, the media were increasing
their coverage of women and the women's liberation movement. It was a mixed
blessing, because broadcast reports often trivialized both women and feminism. Audiences received a distorted version of what was happening within the

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172 Journal of Radio StudieslVol. 11, No. 2,2004

women's movement (Wandersee, 1988). Internally, newly hired women reporters in radio and N were relegated to feature stories and traditional women's
events. Hard news was generally reserved for men, as were the better work
shifts; women often worked weekends (Sanders, 1990); and women in broadcasting, notably radio, continued to earn less than men (Hosley & Yamada,
1987). Women reporters were also seen as sources.' Some scholars noted the
trivialization of women by the media and issued calls for change in the stereotypes (Rakow, 1986).
Increased numbers of women employed did not translate into meaningful
positions of power within stations. For example, the FCC, in a 1972 complaint
regarding the employment practices of a Massachusetts television station,
found few women or minorities in the four upper job categories at the station
(Epstein, 1978). The experience at the television station was not uncommon;
even though the number of women working in radio and television increased
following the Civil Rights Act of 1964, few were in positions of real significance.
Without roles of influence, women lacked the power to affect the content of
what was broadcast in any real sense. At least, though, they were still on the air.

SECOND MODEL- WOMEN'S RADIO COLLECTIVES: STORMING THE

GATES
In addressing gender bias in broadcasting, feminists often made FM stations
their targets because of programming. The stations' hard rock, alternative, and
heavy metal music formats tended to contain lyrics that were sexist. In 1970,
Marion Meade wrote about the degrading image of women portrayed in the
lyrics of rock music. Meade pointed out "since rock is written almost entirely by
men, it's hardly surprising to find it riddled with notions of male superiority.
And, for that matter, the entire rock 'culture' screarrls of sexism" (Meade, 1970,
p. 25). Often, the FM stations had no women broadcasters. Beginning in the fall
of 1969, there were confrontations between radical feminists and several FM
programmers; the demands made by the women included more female disc
jockeys and more regularly scheduled programming produced by women (Hole
& Levine, 1971).
Publicly owned Pacifica stations, including those in Los Angeles, Berkeley,
Houston, and New York, were the first in the country to carry a feminist radio
program. In 1969, Nanette Rainone of WBAI-FM in New York hosted "Womankind: Discussion and Commentary from the Feminist Community," a half-hour
weekly program with news of the women's movement. The following year
WBAI-FM added "Electra Rewired," a weekly talk show produced and broadcast
by women.
Late in 1970, WBAI-FM offered yet a third program titled "Consciousness
Raising," a 45-minute tape of a rap session, followed by 45 minutes of audience
call-in (Hole & Levine, 1971). One program addressed the topics of men and

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Carter/A MIC OF HER OWN 173

violence, feelings and experiences of whistling and name-calling by men, the
group's rage a t male sexual fantasies of women, and their fears of battering and
rape. The episode was one of 20 programs produced for WBAI-FM that included
adolescent puberty rituals ("How I First Learned About Menstruation"), housework, masturbation, and monogamy (Koedt, Levine, & Rapone, 1973).
In the spring of 1970, a coalition of feminist groups disrupted a staff
meeting at KSAN-FM, an antiestablishment rock station in San Francisco, demanding air time and access to production facilities. The station management
agreed to train the women, and give the groups time for three weekly half-hour
programs. Concurrently, a Boston political group, Bread and Roses, picketed
Boston hard-rock station WBCN-AM, protesting the antiwoman content of music lyrics broadcast by the station. Several months later, WBCN aired a half-hour
program produced by members of the group that addressed sexism in rock 'n'
roll. The station also was one of the first to hire women as disc jockeys (Koedt,
Levine, & Rapone, 1973).
Although their programs often were not well produced, and the stations
were fringe, women's colleutive programming was growing in sophistication
and audience. The names 'of the collectives often reflected themes of the
women's liberation movement. One list, developed by the Detroit Women's
Radio Workshop, referenced 17 women's radio collectives in the United States
and Canada (Detroit Women's Radio Workshop, Collectives, n.d., unpublished
material collected by Toni Swanger).*
Like feminist newspapers, presses, and journals of an earlier generation,
the radio collectives in the 1970s communicated frequently with one another,
usually by newsletter. The Washington-based Feminist Radio Network, initially
Radio Free Women, began in 1972 and served as a clearinghouse for feminist
audiotapes. The FRN published a catalogue for Fall 1974 offering 54 different
programs with' topics including women and health, women's studies, and
women making movies (Detroit Women's, 1974). Another publication, New
Women's Survival Catalogue, had information about women's radio collectives
nationally, and the Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press published a
documentary source book, Women in Media (Detroit Women's Radio Workshop, Collectives, n.d., unpublished material collected by Toni Swanger).
The Detroit Women's Radio Workshop went on the air with its first program
on October 4, 1971, featuring a local women's center and the politics of housework. The show's name, "All Together Now" (ATN), came from the title of a
Beatles' song. Initially, there were five members of The Detroit Women's Radio
Workshop (DWRW), including writer and poet Marge Piercy. The women developed, assembled, engineered, and broadcast their own show, airing on WDETFM, a public station owned by Wayne State University.
The DWRW was dedicated to broadening the scope of feminism: "The
purpose of the show is to inform, educate, and entertain Detroit area women
and other feminists. It addresses events, ideas, music, and the arts from a

174 Journal of Radio StudieslVol. 11, No: 2,2004

feminist perspective" (DWRW, 1979). The workshop's philosophy stated in
1979: "Membership in the collective has changed and grown since the beginning.
but the emphasis is still the same: women working together to bring

...

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light to their position in society; digging deep for alternatives to unfulfilling,

unsatisfying or oppressive situations." [Emphasis in original] Topics covered

were all "treated from the perspective of women's political struggle" (Detroit
Women's Radio Workshop, Collectives, n.d., unpublished material collected by
Toni Swanger).
Anne Weitzel joined the Detroit Women's Radio Workshop shortly after it
formed. "1 had heard one of their programs appealing for volunteers. I had read
a lot of feminist literature, so even though I had no previous broadcasting
experience, I wanted to put my money where my mouth was." Weitzel explained that the workshop hoped to serve the women's community. "We taped
women's lecturers and conferences. We did interviews of particular interest to
feminists." The programs addressed rape, abortion, alcoholism, childcare,
witchcraft, legislation, and religion (Personal communication, Ann Weitzel,
March 12, 1991).
During the fall of 1971, topics discussed on the air paralleled those of other
women's radio collectives. They included divorce, socialization of little girls,
rape, women as sex objects, natural childbirth, the Daughters of Bilitis, and
childcare (DWRW, 1971b).
Later broadcasts continued to focus on events, ideas, music, and the arts
from a feminist perspective. Topics aired in 1979 included woman goddess,
female genital mutilation, women in the martial arts, nuclear power and Karen
Silkwood, local feminist writers, women and science fiction, Anai's Nin, black
women in the arts, and death and dying.
Detroit Women's Radio Workshop member Toni Swanger joined the workshop in 1973, her interest sparked by a women's studies class (Swanger,
personal communication, February 23, 19911. She recalled one particular program in 1980, "When God Was a Woman," inspired by Merlin Stone's book of
the same name. According to Swanger, the show "generated, believe it or not,
our first bomb threat." The same broadcast included excerpts of a speech given
by theologian and feminist Mary Daly, author of Beyond God the Father, as well
as graphic descriptions of genital mutilation (Detroit Women's Radio Workshop,
Collectives, n.d., unpublished material collected by Toni Swanger).
Membership in the Detroit Women's Radio Workshop never exceeded 20.
The women in the workshop met monthly, usually on the first Sunday, for a
potluck brunch. Meetings centered on program planning, a critique of broadcasts, and the general business of the collective. Leadership rotated (Detroit
Women's Radio Workshop, Collectives, n.d., unpublished material collected by
Toni Swanger).
Despite the controversial feminist material presented by the Detroit Women's Radio Workshop, "All Together Now" remained on WDET through 1980;

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Carter/A MIC OF HER OWN 175

however the program was shortened and moved several times. By 1981, "All
Together Now" and other community-based programs were almost completely
eliminated from WDET's broadcast schedule (Swanger, personal communication, February 23, 19911. Feminist programs produced by local women's collectives maintained a presence on the air through most of the 1970s. The number
of such programs dwindled toward the end of the decade, reflecting a shift in
the women's liberation movement away from radical feminism, and its stagnation generally, as the movement failed to expand beyond the middle class (U.S.
Dept., 2004b).
Worldwide, the movement expanded as women's radio collectives developed in the 1970s and into the next decades. In Wales, the Cardiff Broadcasting
Company, at the urging of women's organizations, created access to the local
station for women, including training. Since the early 1980s, there has also been
an effort by the station to "encourage and produce more programme material
for women during the daytime" (Baehr & Ryan, 1985, p. 20)
In an interesting bridge between the first and second models of access,
several "short burst" radio stations were created by women's radio collectives
during the 1970s and 1980s. The incremental or Restricted Service Licence (RSL)
permitted specific-format broadcasting for short periods each year. All of the
RLSs featured women's radio, among them Fern Fm, Elle Fm, and Venus Frn.
Some of the programming lasted only days while others continued for several
weeks (Mitchell, 2000).

THIRD MODEL-A STATION JUST FOR WOMEN

The concept of a station by and for women predates the Second Wave of the
women's movement. WASN-AM in Boston in 1927 and WHER-AM in Memphis
in 1955 had both developed formats targeted at women and broadcast by
women. WASN's "Air Shopping News," featured an all-women staff and a
woman general manager. The station broadcast information about products
and sales (Boston Radio Archives, 2004). WHER, the "Thousand Beautiful
Watts" inspiration of Sam and Becky Phillips, set out to give listeners "fresh
feminine voices" that targeted women but did not exclude men (Ganzert, 2003).

The New Haven Experience

The first radio station to identify as a woman's station after the Second Wave
was WOMN-AM, licensed in Hamden, Connecticut, a suburb of New Haven. The
station was a daytime facility, broadcasting at 1000 watts at 1220 kilohertz, a
technically weak broadcast facility.
In 1977, Robert Herpe, the owner of WPLR-FM in New Haven, bought
WCDQ-AM, a Top 40 station that had competed poorly against FM rock stations.
Herpe, WPLR vice president Richard Kalt, and WPLR news director Terry Branham discussed potential programming for the AM station and agreed there was

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176 Journal of Radio StudiesIVol. 11, No. 2,2004

a market for a women's format. "We batted around ideas," said Kalt, "and
Herpe asked, 'What about a women's format?' Isaid it could be viable if properly
positioned, and would depend on how it was programmed." Kalt believed that
there was room for the format, and "if it failed," he assured Herpe, "it would not
be for lack of effort" (Kalt, personal communication, March 21, 1991).
Branham was enthusiastic about a format for women. "I said 'yes,' all the
while wondering how it would happen. There was the thought of making it a
station for women, without a thought as to what that meant. 'Women' made up
a diverse community in New Haven" (Branham, personal communication,
March 18, 1991).
Herpe applied for the call letters WOMN on June 30,1978, and according to
Les Thimmig, the director of women's programming at WOMN, the station
introduced the new woman-centered format on August 28, 1978, to coincide
with Women's Equality Day (Thimmig, personal communication, March 28,
1991). Herpe's station would provide in-depth coverage of events from a woman's point of view, and work to improve communication between women and
men. Herpe also wanted to "give a chance to that other 50 percent of the world
to give input to the media" (Robbins, 1978, p. 23). Kalt was careful to avoid
putting the label "feminist" on the new format. In an interview he said, "Studies
show about 50 percent of people are turned off by overtly feminist things, while
the rest like it. So why lose half your audience before you even get going?"
(Robbins, 1978, p. 23).
The initial response by New Haven advertisers was good. The sales staff
presented WOMN to advertisers as: "the only station programmed totally to the
needs of today's woman. When you use WOMAN to reach New Haven women
your message is delivered to decision makers, heads of households, and spenders of discretionary income" (WOMN-AM on the, 1978). The station sold out the
first three weeks it was on the air. Its advertisers included local supermarket
chains, record stores, auto dealers, the New Haven Nighthawks minor-league
hockey club, and a new racquetball club that featured a daycare facility for new
members (Business Week, 1978).
The media response to the station was substantial. There were articles in
Business Week, Ms., Vogue, The New York Times, plus area newspapers and
industry publications. Newsweek magazine's cable program "Newsweek
Woman" presented a feature on the station; Swedish national television sent a
crew and a correspondent. The New Haven station with its novel format generated a stir.
In a Ms. article on WOMN in March 1979, the magazine described the new
station, its innovative programming, the people who had put the station on the
air, and those who were operating it. Reporter Fran Hawthorne laid out
WOMN's goals. "The station began broadcasting last August to speak to and
about women; it tries to play music that women like, highlight issues of importance to women and bring attention to female artists" (Hawthorne, 1979).

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The station's public affairs programming was decidedly feminist. Among
the features aired during WOMN's first several months were programs on
parents' role reversal, the women's movement, nurse-midwives, birth control,
battered women, women's music, Susan B. Anthony, and sexist language
(WOMN-AM, 1978-1979). The station also examined abortion in a two-part
series in January 1979 (WOMAN Feature, January 1979).
Another program addressed the issue of sexual harassment. In an interview, New Haven attorney and feminist legal scholar Catharine MacKinnon
offered examples of sexual harassment, including that of the male professor
awarding a female student an 'A' only if she had sexual relations with him. "In
my opinion," said MacKinnon, "you have been sexually harassed because he
has announced a sexually discriminatory standard for evaluating your worknamely whether you're going to sleep with him" (WOMAN Feature, November
1979. private collection of Les Thimmig).
Thimmig also explored alternate forms of sexual expression in a five-part
series on gay lifestyles. In the first installment, Thimmig interviewed two lesbians who had come out of the closet. One of the women, a 21-year old who had
been out for 3 years, dismissed her mother's reaction to her being a lesbian as
only a phase. "Well," the daughter explained, "I've been going through this
'phase' since I was 15 when I realized that I did tend more toward women"
(WOMAN Feature, April 1979, private collection of Les Thimmig).
The station's program mainstay was Album Oriented Rock (AOR). Cindy
Bailen, the music director, mixed both male and female artists, but broke the
traditional AOR mold by requiring a minimum of one female artist to every two
male artists played ("WOMN on the rise," 1978). The female disc jockeys also
played feminist music by artists like Holly Near and Chris Williamson, tucking
them in between traditional and better-known artists such as Fleetwood Mac,
Linda Rondstadt, Bonnie Raitt, and Laura Nyro. Lyrics considered sexist or
demeaning were not aired (Hawthorne, 1979). The issue of rock lyrics was an
important one to the programmers at WOMN and to the women's liberation
movement generally (Meade, 1970).
Programmers at WOMN also reviewed station advertising. Commercials
that promoted stereotypes of women as helpless or flighty were sent back for
re-writing. Thimmig told Ms., "I don't think we'd be big on advertising a Clint
Eastwood movie" (Hawthorne, 1979, p. 17). Herpe emphasized station policy,
"We have strict acceptance standards. The copy should not put down women in
any way" (Business Week, 1978, p. 32).
Within a year, though, serious problems threatened WOMN's future. The
station failed to gain listeners and advertising revenues fell. Some of the station
staff faulted the music selection. Kalt believed the format became too feminist.
"All we wound up playing," he said, "was message music, followed by a p.s.a.
for a rape crisis center and later in the hour a segment on Planned Parenthood."
He believed the narrow focus was detrimental to the station's success. "We lost

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178 Journal of Radio StudiesIVol. 11, No. 2,2004

sight of the general women's community" (Kalt, personal communication,
March 21, 1991).
At least one disc jockey at WOMN thought there was a homophobic reaction to the radio station. Sam Tilery, who began at WOMN in 1980 as the station
was moving away from a woman-centered format, said, "When it first went on
the air, women and gay activists jumped on it. They were excited, and they
weren't prepared for what followed." In Tilery's view, "They lost men who
wouldn't listen, or who wouldn't admit to listening." Beyond that, there was a
split between lesbian and heterosexual women, according to Tilery. He remained a supporter of the woman-centered program concept but admitted, "It
was too good to be true" (Tilery, personal communication, March 29, 1991).
WOMN ceased to operate as a women's radio station in September 1979.
Five months later, the on-air staff was instructed to stop calling the station
"Woman" radio on the air, and instead identify it as W-0-M-N. The music
format reverted to Top 40, and feminist programming all but disappeared. Later
in 1980, the station unofficially renamed itself PLR2 in an effort to capitalize on
the success of its powerful FM sister. By then, almost all of the on-air staff from
WOMN had left the ~ t a t i o n . ~

The Flint Experiment

WOMN was followed by another radio station offering woman-centered programming. On January 1, 1982, WWMN-AM, licensed in Flint, Michigan, began
broadcasting with changed call letters, promoting itself as "Flint's New
Woman." There were facial similarities among WWMN, WOMN and WHER in
Memphis. All three were AM stations licensed to operate only during daytime
hours. In Flint, as in New Haven, there were high hopes for success, backed by
a strong, promotional campaign. Also, the Flint radio station had been failing in
the market. Before the station became "Flint's New Woman," it broadcast under
the call letters of WLQB-AM and presented religious programs. Gencom, the
owner of AM and FM stations in Flint, wanted increased revenues so company
president Frazier Reams and station manager Peter Cavanaugh explored new
programming concepts in 1981. "We looked at various ideas," said Cavanaugh,
"and one or the other of us came up with the idea of an all-women's station. At
that time, we weren't aware that it had been tried elsewhere." Cavanaugh
agreed to get the station set in a new format and then turn it over to a female
staff member to manage. "It needed to be run by women" (Cavanaugh, personal communication, April 1, 1991).
WWMN broadcast its new format New Year's Day 1982 with promotions
that included IO-second television commercials, baby blue and pink billboards,
and birth announcements declaring, "It's a girll" The programming focused on
women, featuring women air personalities, including Jacque, a Detroit-based
psychic. In the afternoon, a woman psychologist hosted a call-in show. The
music mix was woman-oriented, but programmers worked to keep the play list

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CarterIA MIC OF HER OWN 179

from being too narrow. Nancy Dymond, a former sales executive at WWMN,
described the format as soft rock. "We played Barry Manilow, but not all the
time" (Dymond, personal communication, April 16, 19911.
As with WOMN, there was widespread publicity about WWMN that included articles in Billboard, Advertising Age, and local newspapers. A segment
about WWMN appeared on "Newsweek Woman," the same cable program that
earlier had reported on WOMN. The 5-minute "Newsweek Woman" segment
presented interviews with Cavanaugh and with Linda Lanci, the music and
program director. The program also featured interviews with three men and one
woman randomly stopped on the street in Flint. The host opened by asking
what to do with a "station floundering in a city with one of the highest unemployment rates in the country?" The reporter then answered her own question:
"You have nothing to lose, so why not start all over again with a brand new
approach?" ("Newsweek Woman," 1982) That new approach when "there is
nothing left to lose" was a station for women.
Cavanaugh explained the decision to target women. "We started looking at
the possibility of appealing to females. There was, as far as we could perceive,
a vacuum for that sort of thing i n Flint." He added erroneously, "We were
astounded to find out as we went along that we were the first in the country to
try such a thing" ("Newsweek Woman," 1982).
On the same "Newsweek" cable program, Lanci said that she had received
calls from men who did not like the woman-centered programming being
broadcast on the station. "Automatically, they think this is a 'feminist' station."
She concluded that if the station "can work in Flint, it can work just about
anywhere" ("Newsweek Woman," 1982).
The men interviewed by "Newsweek Woman" on the street expressed
cautious acceptance of WWMN. One man said the station would be all right "if
they play a little country." Another said the bottom line is money, and "if they
can make a profit with men or women, it's all right." The only woman interviewed said she listened to the station because, "I like the music and I like not
having any commercials." It was precisely the lack of advertising support that
had prompted a format change.
The Flint experiment was even shorter lived than New Haven's. The station
debuted on WWMN with a $50,000 advertising budget, but barely registered in
the ratings book. WWMN was a dedicated women's station for only 7 months.
Cavanaugh attributed lack of success to the 1982 recession. "It was an incredible, wonderful mix. If it had been full time and FM," he said, "it would have
been a home run" (Cavanaugh, personal communication, April 1, 1991).
An equally brief attempt to create an audience for an all-women format
occurred in London in 1995. Arising out of the U.K. experience of several
women's radio collectives that broadcast using short-term licenses, Viva1 Radio
went on the air in July as the first British station with an all-women format, all
of the time. The station was headed by Lynne Franks, a major force in public

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relations. Viva! Radio, at 963 (an AM frequency), was music and talk, with a
policy of covering current affairs and family issues "from a feminine perspective," according to its license application (Mitchell, 2000).
Plagued by substantial ballyhoo and high expectations but substantially
under-funded and with a weak signal, the station suffered from the same
problems that afflicted WOMN and WWMN. A further liability was proclaiming
Viva! Radio to be a station for women while not attracting enough men. The
format lasted little more than a year. The station was bought out by Mohamed
el-Fayed, owner of Harrod's (Mitchell, 2000).

CONCLUSION
Of the three different models of access presented, only the first continues to
enjoy any measure of success, and it pre-dates the Second Wave of the women's liberation movement. For more than a decade covering the 1970s, the first
model was promoted by a government mandate to hire women, a liberal
feminist approach. Notably, the content in this model is "gender neutral''-it
encourages assimilation of women into the mainstream broadcast culture.
Women historically have been most successful in gaining entrance to American
institutions by having their behavior conform to rules established by the prevailing culture established by men (Katzenstein, 1990).
Women's failure to advance in radio jobs in proportion to their numbers
rests in part with the reduced enforcement of Federal Communications Commission rules beginning in the 1980s. As part of general broadcast deregulation,
the FCC put less pressure on stations to increase the numbers of women in
broadcasting. Still, jobs were, and are, available. More female voices are heard
on the radio today than were heard a quarter of a century ago. However,
although the voice can be female, the message cannot be gendered feminist if
the voice is to remain viable.
The second model of access is the women radio collective. This model has
survived much longer than the third model because it was not in the limelight
and because there were government pressures to increase women's participation. Although the content of the women's radio collective programs was even
less centrist than that on women's stations, and in fact was radical or even
cultural feminist, the collectives were tolerated because they were on the periphery of broadcasting. The gendered messages of the women's radio collectives, while threatening to the male establishment, were tolerated because few
people actually heard them.
The number of women's radio collectives and their air time diminished for
several reasons. First, the collectives reflected the ebb of the Second Wave
overall; by the late 1980s, feminist politics were on the wane. Second, as the
fringe FM stations gained market share and became more profitable in the late
1970s, time for alternative, nonrevenue programming decreased. Third, with

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CarterIA MIC OF HER OWN 181

broadcast deregulation in the 1980s, the FCC eliminated many news and public
affairs program requirements. Women's radio collectives were no .longer
needed to satisfy FCC demands for women broadcasters and programming.
The third model of access to the airwaves was the station just for women.
This model failed for several reasons. In the cases of WOMN and WWMN, the
stations were weak AM daytime operations competing when FM radio stations
were surging in their markets. Second, the stations' woman-centered programming arrived near the end of the modern women's liberation movement; the
Equal Rights Amendment was foundering, and backlash against the women's
movement was gaining energy. The New Haven and Flint stations had missed
the crest of the Second Wave and were being pulled out by the undertow.
Most important in the demise of these two stations, as well as Viva! in
London, was that programming was gendered female, and perceived by audiences to be culturally feminist, although station managements tried to avoid
that label. Despite the weak broadcast signals, feminist messages were being
communicated via a mainstream medium, not a fringe, nontraditional station.
Ironically, the publicity both stations received underscored that the programming was for women and, by implication, not for men. Women on the air,
talking about issues of concern to women, was threatening to some in the
community. The messages broadcast by the women-centered stations ultimately, and rather quickly, scared advertisers who did not want their products
to be associated with the cause of "women's liberation." Managers at WWMN
and WOMN understood this; both stations unsuccessfully tried to avoid being
viewed as feminist.
The lesson of the three models of access for women during the decades
following the second wave of women's liberation was a sober one: Women
could speak if. they kept the content "gender neutral." Messages that were
gendered feminist were either marginalized or silenced altogether.

Future Research
Further research questions are suggested by this writing. Are there significant
ways in which gendered content can have a broad reach? Internet radio offers
possibilities for women's access and for reaching more women, especially in
lesser- developed countries. Another question that remains unanswered is why
WHER sustained a women's format much longer than WOMN and WWMN. (as
well as WASN). Yet another question is what other radio stations, even for a
very brief time, broadcast programming that targeted women. Ganzert identified one source that suggests stations in New Orleans, Jacksonville, Honolulu,
Birmingham, Spokane, Little Rock, Palm Springs, and Knoxville instituted a
version of the all-women format, although evidence is sketchy. The experiences
of these other radio stations would be helpful in understanding a form of niche
programming that never really left the nest.

182 Journal of Radio StudieslVol. 11, No. 2,2004

Notes

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' As a reporter at WVIC-AM-FM in East Lansing, the author was told i n 1974 by the assignment editor, Paul Weisenfeld, to join the Lansing chapter of the National Organization for Women because, according to Weisenfeld, "We need to know what
they're doing."
The group included: the Kansas City Women's Liberation Union Radio Collective; Radio Free Women in Toronto; Sisters of Sappho at SUNY in Buffalo; Radio Free Feminists in Atlanta; the Lesbian Feminist Radio Collective; and the Durham Women's
Radio Collective. There were others: the Mother Jones Collective; Unlearning Not to
Speak; WOMEN NOW; the Feminist Radio Serial Project; WOMANSOUND; Being
Ourselves; The Sistersharing Collective; and Women Hold Up YZ of the Sky.
The Internet presently offers another path of access for women to produce programming. FIRE, the Feminist International Radio Endeavor, which began with short
wave broadcasts in 1991, programs for women worldwide at www.fire.or.cr. (Toro,
2000).
The station went "dark" (stopped broadcasting) for 4 months in 1981. It returned to
the air under the call letters WCSR-AM with a Country format. Subsequent formats
have included Solid Gold as WNNR-AM, and all-business using the call letters
WXCT-AM.

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