"The Passenger Vessels Services Act of 1886 #2"

Dedicated to talk radio guys who change things for the better..

Please read last week’s episode for background
 

First, let me refresh your memory concerning ...

THE PASSENGER VESSEL SERVICES ACT OF 1886
(Not to be confused with The Jones Act that involves cargo))

This Act allows only ships, either built in the U.S or sailing under a U.S. Flag, to carry passengers between two U.S. ports. If a foreign vessel, which is most of them, stops in Seattle, or San Francisco or L.A, it can’t stop in San Diego without first visiting a foreign port.

In last week’s jaw dropping adventure, I described the cavalier manner in which Senator Trent Lott and others slimed John McCain’s attempt to repeal the Passenger Vessel Services Act of 1886.

Timing is everything. About this time, I accepted Clear Channel’s invitation to work at KPOP radio, a pop standard station that reached basically half the market. I told them I would happily do weekends mid-day. I did it for the fun of it and to use that part time gig to help bring about the repeal of the above Passenger Vessel Services Act of 1886, hereafter called the PVSA that had crippled cruise travel for decades.

There is something Quixotic about taking on the Washington establishment. Ask the talk radio guys who just brought Congress to its knees concerning the Immigration bit.

This archaic1886 Act that I was determined to get repealed was designed originally to protect American Ferry Boats from being overwhelmed by Canadian Ferry Boats that were coming over from Canada and staying on the U..S. side to continue operating, thereby smothering the fledgling American Ferry business by going from port to port on our side. However, for the past dozen decades, it has been used against us, by forcing foreign owned cruise liners to make a single trip to an American port, then having to go to a foreign port before continuing to the next American port. Most cruise liners were foreign owned.

The Act applies to 20 U.S. Ports with a resultant loss of many millions of dollars for each of them, including hundreds of jobs.

Last week, I described how Senator Trent Lott trashed Senator McCain’s original repeal, smothering it with a crippling amendment.

Lott’s amendment mandated that in order to operate freely in the U.S.. Ports, a cruise company had to build two ships in this country, each costing 150 million dollars more than to build one outside the U.S. Lott generously offered his shipyard that was open for business in Pascagoula Mississippi, Lott’s bailiwick. Review it in last week’s episode.

Senator Diane Feinstein a San Franciscan, overlooked the benefits to her state and home town, and threw in an amendment that kept the Act from being passed unless the cruise companies hired American Crews. Good idea but the cruise lines were not going to comply, and she knew it, It was grandstanding to the National Maritime Officers Union at our expense.

Like I told you last week, it was a phony issue. The cruise companies did not have to build their ships in this country, nor hire American crews They were doing business without having to buckle under to any of these demands. It is we, the American passengers and the 20 American ports that were the losers.

Disillusioned, I elected to go to people I knew; our federal lawmakers in the San Diego area to see if they would salvage the bill by simply repealing the PVSA of 1886

I was confident that the San Diego lawmakers in Washington would see the virtues of bringing in millions of dollars to San Diego and coming to the rescue of the thousands of travelers not just in San Diego but across the country, with the simple repeal. They would be instant heroes if they broke this stalemate.

I made appointments to see each of them when they came home to commune with us in their constituency.

First up was Randy “Duke” Cunningham.. I wanted to hone my skills by talking to a Congressman whom I knew to be a strong representative of his 51st District. Of course, I would find him now in federal prison.

I found “Duke” at a charity event benefiting lost souls suffering from various forms of dementia including Lou Gehrig Disease. It was not a comforting place but he approached me warmly and even gave me the perfect lead-in. Smiling, he asked “What are you up these days?”

I launched into telling him about my efforts to free San Diegans from the indignity of having to end their trips in Ensenada instead of San Diego, naming the “Passenger Vessel Services Act of 1886.”as the reason for this injustice. Starting out, I stated firmly that this was not the Jones Act. “The Jones Act has only to do with cargo ships, Randy.”

I barely got going about the “Act” when he interrupted, “Yeah, I know about it.. It’s called “The Jones Act. It has to do with cargo ships.” “Uh, Randy. No. The Jones Act deals with cargo ships. This is about passengers.”

I asked him to come to the rescue of the many aged travelers and bringing millions into the city and all the other benefits that would result if he would use his position as a key Congressman to introduce a bill repealing the “Act.” I even sweetened the deal by assuring him that he, not I, would get all the credit for bringing about this reform.

He waited out my lecture, and appeared to be homed in on the problem, then asked,” How is your prostate?” That set me back.

I recovered from his seemingly addled state, and replied, “It’s fine. I had it checked on a few weeks ago, but Randy…”

“I was a damned fool,” he interrupted.” I suspected something was wrong, but ignored it. A few months ago, they diagnosed me with prostate cancer. I am fine now. Just make sure you get yours checked.”

“Yeah, I will Randy. I promise.”

Randy then surveyed the scene in front of us. None of the patients showed any sign of awareness as they sat slumped in lounge chairs, some with their tongues lolling out of their mouths. He sighed and said, “I can’t imagine a worse fate than this.”

Six years later, he was caught taking bribes, and sentenced to eight years and four months for what many regard as the worst betrayal of the public trust in government history. I assume that prison is a worse fate for this free spirit.

Randy “Duke” Cunningham had been a great fighter pilot, our first ace in Viet Nam. Now, he is on the final glide path.

Next, I targeted a young congressman who had just been elected; he was rich and therefore beholden to no one; Darrel Issa.

I had seen Issa earlier at a Roger Hedgecock lawn party and alerted him that I was going to talk to him later about the Act, but not at that inappropriate setting. He smiled and nodded yes. I followed up a few weeks later, after it was made public that McCain had been blown out of the presidential race and that his efforts to repeal the PVSA had sunk.

I called and asked for an appointment to see Issa. His aide told me that Congressman Issa wanted me to know that if John McCain couldn’t do anything about the Act, he knew that he couldn’t either, therefore no appointment to even talk about it.

I was, by now, pitching this heavily on the air. People who had no intention of ever cruising were fascinated at the antics of a simple weekend jock trying to change history.

Something else was happening. My ratings were sky rocketing.. KPOP, when I came aboard in late 1999, had a median age 65 year old demo. Midway through 2000, the Arbitron came out and KPOP in my weekend time slot, showed me #1 AQH and #1 TSL with 45+ demos against entrenched formats: KIFM the smooth jazz station. KYXY, soft rock, and KOGO the giant talk station. that ruled Mon-Fri. 6a-7p.

Let’s see now. There was Brian Bilbray, facing re-election, and for back-up if he lost, his rival Susan Davis.

I arranged with Brian to go on the air, and he unabashedly opened up the conversation by saying “I hear you have a major issue, repealing the Passenger Vessel Services Act.” I waited for him to vow to do something about it for the citizens of San Diego like a good candidate should. It never came.

Frustrated, I point-blank asked him if he was going to support the repeal and he answered obliquely, “I favor the Hawaiian model.” I was taken aback. What the hell was the Hawaiian model?


I told you last week about Hawaiian Senator Inouye’s kidnapping the repeal’s last vestiges as it lay dying in the senate and breathing new life into it for Hawaii only. There was nothing in the way Inoue obtained an exemption for Hawaii that was a model we could copy for San Diego.

Before I could pursue his weird line of logic, Brian then remembered that, like the white rabbit in “Alice,” he was “late for a very important date,” and scampered off.

Things kept getting curiouser and curiouser. My listeners, by now really into it, heard Brian on my show shamelessly skirt the issue, and blew him out of his Congressional seat.. I have no firm idea whether his discordant appearance on my show was a factor in his defeat but I heard from several professional politicians who know about such things that it helped.

I had supplemented my on-air campaign with luncheon talks to the local social clubs….. Kiwanians,Rotarians and the like. The Port District, by now, was taking notice and inviting me to their luncheon meetings.

Susan Davis had just won Brian’s seat in Washington. I called her office to arrange a one on one “chat.” Congresswoman Davis herself got on the line and told me that I was highly welcome to come in and see her. Things appeared to be looking up for my Lilliputian efforts in the world of Gulliver politics.

In the entire year 2000, I scored # 1 45+ and, would you believe?

# 3 35+ in a Pop Standard format. I was combining music with news, and scoring big. They said it couldn’t be done.

I dubbed it, “The Newsic Format.”

Congresswoman Susan Davis cheerily awaited my visit. Prospects looked bright. I had made loaves of bread out of bull crap.

Next week, it all comes together, but don’t try to guess how….


Idle thoughts of a wandering mind:

All I ask is a chance to prove that money doesn’t buy happiness.

What is a free gift? Aren’t all gifts free?

They told me I was gullible and I believed them

If the world were a logical place, men would ride horses sidesaddle.

I had amnesia once.----or twice.

After infinity, then what?   Einstein

The Texas Radio Hall of Fame

Voting deadline, July 7th, is upon us. I resisted using this forum for a shameless petition for your vote for the Texas Radio Hall of Fame. But here it is now with the deadline hovering on us. I am a Texan born and bred, having learned everything I ever needed at KGBC in Galveston. Now that I am retired out of radio, my Texas accent is sneaking back into the pristine acquired middle American accent that I used for radio, and the sand is back between my toes from my Galveston heritage. Please remember me for your vote.