The daily digest of Twin Cities culture | Secrets of the City

(UPDATED):
After wasting almost three days trying to get some illumination on Minnesota Public Radio's on-going/protracted fight with a tiny Christian Rock station in Norfolk, Virginia -- and getting stonewalled by that station, its Christian attorneys in D.C. and a bland press release from MPR -- I finally connected with Steve Behrens, editor of Currents newspaper, a small publication that follows the news in public TV and radio.

MPR's fight with WJLZ-FM, aka "Positive Hit Radio, The Current" is over the Christians allegedly trespassing on the same name as MPR's (very good) pop music station, 89.3 The Current. Mr. Behrens says he believes his attorney inquired into potential conflicts with MPR over the name of his newspaper, but that those concerns dissipated because of he obvious distinction between press and broadcast.

The MPR vs. The Christians story cranked up again this past week when the case was transfered out to federal court in Virginia and made public. Previously a federal judge here in Minnesota ruled that MPR had failed to present any evidence that Positive Hit Radio, The Current was meddling with 89.3's Minnesota audience. MPR is appealing a court ruling denying its trademarking of the name, "The Current."

If this sounds a little too much like FoxNews going to court to trademark "Fair and Balanced," well, frankly there are too many similarities.

Obviously this is all about Internet reach and branding. No one listening to broadcast radio here, in Virginia, or halfway between in Indiana is in any danger of confusing "The Current" with a play-list of Iggy Pop, Ani DeFranco, Morphine, Jim White and Hot Hot Heat with Positive Hit Radio The Current's line-up of Family Force 5, Disciple and The Beautiful Republic.

"There are a lot of 'Currents' in the world," said Behrens, by way of explaining MPR's concern over cornering the international market for its particular brand. "I suspect if they knew of a station in Africa using the name, The Current, they'd go after them, too. In today's world it is no longer a matter of your local market. Your market is everywhere."

Bill Kling & Co. have, as usual, already done a slick and proficient job producing and extending the reach of 89.3. Over air, via transmitters in the Twin Cities, Rochester and Hinckley, (try listening to Iggy Pop while you work a slot machine some time), and via the Internet everywhere else.

The MPR press release re-asserts its claim that the Christians, "with knowledge of MPR's brand, The Current, began advertising, promoting, selling and offering its broadcasting services under the identical term, 'Current.'"

Bastards!

It also assures everyone interested that, "MPR will take all needed steps to protect its rights in its mark THE CURRENT."

Uh oh.

By complete coincidence, (I think), MPR was recently thwarted in its attempt to buy another Christian station, this one in the D.C. metro suburb of Takoma Park, Maryland. Despite waving $20 million at cash-strapped Adventist church-operated Columbia Union College, the college, says Behrens, decided not to sell the station. (MPR, which has long coveted a foothold in the D.C. market, was planning a news-talk format.)

MPR turned around, late last month, and spent $20 million on ... another Christian station ... WMCU in Miami, which it will program with classical music, the only format of its kind in Miami.

It would help if Minnesota PUBLIC Radio were more open with its thinking and processes and would entertain a few impertinent questions on matters like this presumably expensive legal battle with a pissant little station halfway across the country. But MPR doesn't work that way.

While in straight corporate terms I get the idea of leveling all the brush around your brand, based on the way Google-like algorithms work, I tend to doubt more than a tiny fraction of web surfers are going to confuse Christian pop and the Norfolk station's "positive news," (oh, brother!), with 89.3's sophisticated play-list and world-wise jocks.

And I say that as a bona fide 89.3 fan. Minnesota's "Current" is terrific radio for everyone who enjoys music, being introduced to new music, getting some insightful background to good music and NOT being force fed 25 minutes of commercials, promos and filler every hour.

But the larger point here is that every time MPR big-foots in on some gnat-on-the-ass operation like Positive Hits Radio it looks crass and boorish. I have great admiration for the quantum improvements in breadth and depth MPR brings to its news and music "services." (And, BTW, are they the only ones referring to their formats as "services"? I mean would KQRS ever refer to its "Toilet Jokes and Ossified Hits" service?)

But we all know that when it comes to business interactions, MPR is not a company known for its light and human touch.

Steve Behrens responds to this post:

"You're entitled to your take on MPR, but I think in this case it's
unfair. If The Rake were aiming to become a national webzine, or even trying to avoid having that foreclosed, The Rake would be brandishing sharp legal objects at any other Rakes publishing on the Web, whether they were helpless little blogs or thunderlizard properties of Time Warner. Names embody reputations and are not minor, transitory or worthless new-tech contrivances, even if they are called "brands."