China Radio International bought ” a pig in a poke” when it leased a Galveston radio station in January that network officials mistakenly believed broadcast to the Houston market, according to a former CRI employee interviewed by the Houston Chronicle. “It was the dumbest thing they could have ever done,” said Mark Shorey, a consultant at CRI headquarters in Beijing before his resignation last month. “CRI believe that they are broadcasting in Houston and continue to announce this fact on the air and on their website.”
Mr Shorey, who has 20 years of experience in radio, said he resigned from CRI on 12 February over a policy dispute after five months at the network. He declined to discuss the nature of the dispute.
Galveston’s KGBC-AM 1540 began broadcasting CRI programing New Year’s Eve, much to the surprise of station staff. It is the first US station to broadcast CRI programing 24 hours a day, although the network has purchased blocks of time on US stations at least since 1993.
Interviewed by telephone from London, Mr Shorey said the two top managers in the English division of CRI told him they were convinced that KGBC was broadcasting to the Houston market. They refused to believe him when he showed them a Federal Communications Commission map showing that KGBC’s signal did not cover Houston, he said. “I found that CRI was sold a pig in a poke by a Chinese-American media mogul from California,” Shorey said.
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on Mar 4th, 2010 at 20:11
Please don’t tell me that DXers in Houston cannot pick up KGBC-AM 1540 out of Galveston!
Mark Shorey is naive to believe that anyone at CRI really cares if the station is heard in Houston. It’s all about being able to REPORT to those on the top that you are covering Houston. Besides, it’s not uncommon for such contracts to involve complicated kickback arrangements…
on Jan 25th, 2011 at 15:40
I picked it up in eastern North Carolina last night.
on Feb 3rd, 2011 at 09:59
It’s been a while. So is China Radio International still on KGBC in Galveston? I would expect DXers to be able to keep watch. Thanks for that report from NC last week.
I am hurt by the comment of SRG that I was naive to think that anyone at China Radio International cares about the coverage. The staff at CRI are very excited and work hard to bring their service to the world and help as much as they can to further Sino-World understanding. Yes the people at the top of the Communist system need to open up and give more freedom to the media.
I was very upset that, as an American, I helped to put Americans out of work. More than that they were Texans in Galveston.
Now I know that Galveston isn’t swimming in money with all the stuff that’s happened in the last few years. Being from Roswell New Mexico I know what a job means. I also know what real local broadcasting means in the heartlands.
This has nothing to do with complicated kickback arrangements and conspiracy theories. It’s about the staff at CRI doing a good job with all their hearts. Folks in Galveston without jobs. Don’t forget we are all Radio People and we love it.
Mark Shorey