Radio Station Hopes Green Becomes Gold

Hughes said staff brainstorming sessions steered the station toward the green theme. It didn't hurt that WARW had something of a green expert on staff: longtime deejay Cerphe Colwell.

Colwell, 55, is a Washington radio legend. He worked at WHFS when it was a cutting-edge indie station in the 1970s. He first interviewed Bruce Springsteen in 1973.

Over the past few years, Colwell and his wife have augmented his deejay salary with a side business: Green Cottage, which builds energy-efficient housing. He has been a vegetarian for 35 years. Now, mainstream culture is catching up with him.

"It's not weird anymore," Colwell said. "Suddenly, this seems to be a real issue." He said that some of the artists played on WARW, such as Tom Petty, are eco-oriented and will give deejays a jumping-off point to talk about environmentalism.

Colwell has advertised Green Cottage on WARW, Hughes said. But now, he said, Colwell and the station will have to be careful about mentioning the business on the air for fear of violating the Federal Communications Commission's rules on "plugola." Plugola is a variation on payola, or paying radio stations to play music. Plugola is unpaid advertising given in exchange for money or services.

"It's a fine line in terms of cross-promoting," Hughes said. At the same time, Colwell's expertise has educated Hughes on "geothermal protection and radiant floor heating and energy efficiency and things I knew nothing about," he said

For Hughes, the switch to green radio could be a bit of an economic gamble. He hopes the new format will boost ratings enough that the station can charge higher ad rates to offset his potentially higher electric bill.

Pepco would not release the terms of its contract with WARW. However, a comparison of residential rates shows that Pepco charges $0.1008 per kilowatt hour for coal-fired electricity and $0.1234 per kilowatt hour for wind-generated juice. WARW's rate would be lower because of the volume of power the station uses. Depending on season and demand, Hughes said, the wind power may cost more or less than what the station is now paying.

Commercial radio stations cannot afford to turn down advertisers, so the new green WARW will not refuse ads from companies that have been criticized for their environmental record.

"We're not in the business of censorship," Hughes said.

Commercial stations also cannot afford to take radical political positions. As their revenue comes from ratings-generated advertising, they must appeal to as many listeners as possible or dominate in specific demographic categories.

FM stations became the voice of the counterculture in the late '60s only because AM stations were the big moneymakers and FM stations were an afterthought. Owners were happy to let the station hippie play entire albums and ramble on, as long as he didn't cost the station its license. Once FM stations started making money, they became more conservative.

Likewise, Cumulus Media's country radio stations took what appeared to be a strong political stand against the Dixie Chicks in 2003, after lead singer Natalie Maines criticized President Bush and the war in Iraq. But in truth it was an easy call for Cumulus, and one that made business sense. At the time, the United States had just launched the war, Bush's ratings were high and the Cumulus stations were flooded with anti-Chicks calls from country listeners, a fairly patriotic demographic.

But the Chicks have long been back on Cumulus -- which is why 94.7 the Globe will not be Granola Radio.

"This can all be accomplished without preaching and talking about recycling every five minutes," Colwell said