Some Thoughts on NJ Radio 101.5 and Its New Owners

that a private Los Angeles investment firm, Oaktree Capital Management, is purchasing the parent company of radio station NJ101.5 as well as several other stations which serve Ocean County.  I'm not holding my breath to see if there will be any format or editorial changes.  I stopped listening to 101.5 a long time ago when I realized they were nothing more than an oversized loudspeaker system for rightwing politicians with an anti-teachers union and anti-public workers agenda, as well as a cheerleading section for our current Governor. 

My real resentment against 101.5 goes back to the "Race To The Top" fiasco when Governor Christie blew New Jersey's chance to share in $400 million worth of education grants to public schools. Recall that Christie's own Education Commissioner Bret Schundler, a man I admired and respected though I strongly disagreed with on many issues, reached a compromise deal with the teachers union which would have resulted in the receipt of those funds. Though Christie said nothing about the deal when it was first reported, I thought it safe to assume he would defer to his Education Commissioner who had a long-established reputation of supporting private education, charter schools and vouchers.  

A day or two later 101.5's morning host Jim Gearhart, whose views on the second amendment and public schools would let five-year-old kids buy M-16s at Wal-Mart while teachers would have to pass around a collection plate to keep their schools open, blasted the deal and verbally eviscerated Christie for not repudiating it.

Lo and behold, shortly after Gearhart's tirade, Christie publicly renounced the agreement and the rest, unfortunately, is history. Of course, there are those who say Gearhart's temper tantrum over Schundler's deal with the teachers union had nothing to do with Christie's decision to repudiate it and was purely coincidental.  If anybody believes that I've got stock to sell in Lehman Brothers. 

I really don't know to what extent Barnegat Schools would have benefited from receiving RTTT funding, if any, but had the application been approved, I should think that some students in our district would be better off than they are now. Maybe my kids would benefit, maybe they wouldn't. If anybody out there with more expertise on how RTTT funding might have benefited Barnegat schools I would like to hear about it. I'm not blaming 101.5 entirely for Christie's blundering, and I'm not advocating a boycott of the other radio stations taken over by Oaktree Capital which serve our area, but in case anyone is interested in finding out more about the company that now has a virtual monopoly on local radio stations, or if anyone wishes to complain about 101.5's editorial content, here is the link to go to.