John Hagelin / Nat Goldhaber 2000

Thanks to a little-known, seldom-used law, all candidates for federal office are entitled to free ads on public radio stations. Please act immediately to secure these ads. The Natural Law Party chairpersons of each state (or their representatives) should contact all public radio stations in their state to request the stations to run ads for presidential candidate John Hagelin. All federal NLP candidates can run an ad, too. Instructions for each tactic follow.

EXPLANATION OF THE LAW

FCC regulations require that public radio stations must provide reasonable access to candidates for federal office to advertise their candidacies at no cost. Due to FCC equal access requirements, the stations will probably provide only a few 30-second ads.

By FCC rules, the ad must contain the voice of the candidate for at least part of the message. Public radio stations will probably respond more positively to an informative ad than to a straight political message. The audience for noncommercial broadcasting may have a negative reaction to a political candidate "invading" their noncommercial listening time.

The legal requirements are summed up in a statement by WAMU, a public radio station in Washington, D.C. that is currently running 30-second political spots:

The "Federal Communications Commission has required all broadcast stations—including WAMU—to provide ‘reasonable access’ to candidates for federal elective office for use on behalf of their candidacies. (US Code, Title 47, Chapter 5, Section 312(a)(7)). If a qualified federal candidate asks for access to our airwaves, we are required to grant that request. If we fail to meet that request, the FCC may take action to revoke our license."

Our lawyer has also confirmed this requirement with the FCC.

RUNNING HAGELIN ADS

Presidential candidate John Hagelin has already recorded a 30-second radio ad, in RealAudio (RealPlayer) and QuickTime formats, available at:

http://archive.hagelin.org/radioad

Please reserve airtime now for this ad! Call your public radio station and find out who the appropriate contact person is (probably the station manager). Then fax, email, or bring (by appointment) the attached form to the appropriate person. To find the list of National Public Radio stations in your area, please go to

http://www.npr.org/members/

Not all radio stations subscribe to NPR. If you have time, see the list of member stations for the National Federation of Community Broadcasters at

www.nfcb.org/members.html

Negotiate with the radio station's contact person for times when the station will air the ad. For radio spots, the "top of the hour" is best. National Public Radio has its biggest audiences during "Morning Edition" (mornings) and "All Things Considered" (late afternoon). The 30-second radio ad can be downloaded from www.hagelin.org/radioad in either RealPlayer or Quicktime format.Suggested ways to get the ad to the radio station:

Ask them if they can download the ad directly from the website.

Ask them what format they prefer. We are currently checking into the possibility of finding a national franchised store such as Kinko's that could download the file from the hagelin.org website and convert it into the format the station uses. For instance, store might be able to burn a CD or make an audio recording that the public radio station will accept. We are also trying to set up an FTP transfer ability from the web page. We understand that many college radio stations could use this transfer method.

RUNNING OTHER FEDERAL CANDIDATE ADS

Federal candidates can also air ads. Below is a sample ad text; alternatively, candidates may write their own 30-second ad.

At least some part of the ad must contain the candidate's own voice. Most importantly, the ad must be CANDIDATE SPECIFIC, not specific to a party.

Candidates can substitute their own campaign web site address or “NaturalLaw.org” for "AReasonToVote.com" in the ad text, if they wish. "AReasonToVote.com" goes to Robert Roth's book web page. (When pronouncing the website name "AReasonToVoteDotCom," be sure to pronounce the first "A" so the listener can hear it clearly.)

DO NOT CONFUSE THIS INTERNET ADDRESS WITH "ReasonToVote.org," WHICH GOES TO THE HAGELIN/GOLDHABER 2000 CAMPAIGN WEBSITE.

Attached is a form for the candidate to fill out and take to all local public radio stations. Follow the instructions in the "RUNNING HAGELIN ADS" section above to get airtime. The candidate should ask the station what tape format is needed, look in the Yellow Pages under Recording Services, and hire a recording studio to make tapes. He or she will have to go to the studio to make the tape—remember that the ad must contain the candidate's voice.

When taping the ad, speak slowly and clearly. Time yourself—the ad should take precisely 30 seconds, and no longer. Practice in advance to avoid inconveniencing the recording studio personnel. When finished, take the tape or tapes to the public radio station.

Suggested 30-second Ad for NLP Candidates:

Do you have a reason to vote? Hi, I'm _____________, Natural Law Party candidate for (example - US House of Representatives, Iowa's 4th district). One thing is still true in the United States - if we all vote our conscience, anything is possible - and THAT'S a reason to vote. Find out more - go to aReasonToVote.com. That's aReasonToVote.com. I stand for prevention-oriented health care, proven crime prevention, and protection of the environment. Visit aReasonToVote.com.