re: Matt Moscona’s Courageous Plea for donations to Black Live$ Matter. So brave.

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Moscona is his own man. He does not work for ESPN. The radio network his show is on carries the ESPN brand much like local TV stations carry the ABC, CBS or NBC label. The station agreed to carry a certain amount of national programming and that’s it. Moscona picks his own content. ESPN is not making him do anything,

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I've met Matt, we share a few close friends. He's a good guy.

I've also spent 5 years in radio, I know how internal pressures go. I signed on with a light rock station here in Baton Rouge in the early 90's, they had just gone from satellite to live. Six months in and I'm working the evening shift.

Seven months in and we get word from the owners that we need to hire someone black. We hadn't had a single black applicant. Ever. So the PD (Program Director) had to go to Southern and actively recruit for a position we did not even have yet.

They hired a black girl in the Broadcasting curriculum, but she absolutely did not have a voice for radio. At all. Sweet as could be and a hard worker, but her voice was high and scratchy. They split my shift in half just to put her on the air to mollify the FCC (so my shift went from 6pm-midnight to 8pm-midnight).

All of this is to say that, yes there can be pressure from on high. If ESPN were to drop the station, they would be scrambling HARD to find other content (and national ad buys) to fill that gap. So if they say "we want you to push for local xxxx org funding", chances are they are going to do it.

I don't know if that's the case with Matt, but I know it isn't outside the realm of possibility.