HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — The local government is spending $60,000 to purchase 40 hours of airtime on a group of radio stations as part of recovery efforts from Typhoon Mawar.
The decision is being decried by current and former government officials who say previous governors didn’t direct funds to advertising for disasters that happened during their time in office.
Listeners of Newstalk K57 may have noticed that for over a week now, Jayne Flores, the director of the Bureau of Women’s Affairs, and Carlotta Leon Guerrero, the governor’s adviser on military and regional affairs, have been hosting a program called Typhoon Mawar Talk, 6-8 a.m. and 4-6 p.m. weekdays. The show is also simulcast on three other radio stations and two television channels operated by the Sorensen Media Group, the parent company of K57.
The co-hosts have been presenting information about aid programs, interviewing federal employees providing relief, and fielding questions about the local government’s efforts to recover from Mawar.
Upon receiving a tip from a reader that the airtime was being paid for by the government, The Guam Daily Post inquired with Krystal Paco-San Agustin, Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero’s director of communications, whether the administration was paying the company to host the show.
“Guam Homeland Security has a (purchase order) with Sorensen. GHS solicited three quotes — all of whom were the only operational radio stations at the time,” Paco-San Agustin stated Friday. “With more media online, GHS is preparing to cut additional (purchase orders) with all available media.”
The additional spending would include print media, she added, and that officials were “building content” as of Friday.
Documents provided to the Post show an initial purchase of $10,000 would pay for two two-hour shows weekdays on K57 and a pair of television stations for a two-week period. That order was increased to $60,000 shortly after to include simulcasts on three more radio stations operated by Sorensen.
‘Direct response’
“The show and its messaging are in direct response to Typhoon Mawar disaster response and recovery. Unlike previous typhoons, local media outlets were unable to maintain operations due to damaged or missing antennas, lack of power and limited telecommunications,” Jenna Blas, spokesperson for Guam Homeland Security/Office of Civil Defense said in response to questions posed by the Post.
Because of these outages, the Joint Information Center’s audience was limited to those with access to WhatsApp and other social media platforms, she added.
“Recognizing that radio partners were the quickest to return to broadcast, it was evident a radio talk show would increase reach and provide for live interviews and calls from the public,” Blas told the Post.
Calvo administration
Buying airtime wasn’t a standard practice during the aftermath of past disasters, according to three officials who spoke with the Post.
Troy Torres, now running Kandit News Group, was in charge of the Joint Information Center for much of the two terms served by Gov. Eddie Calvo.
According to the former disaster communications manager, the Calvo administration “never paid a cent” in advertising to communicate information about needed assistance or to give progress reports on recovery efforts.
“It was completely unnecessary. We prepared timely information and the media timely reported the information. To pay for it would have been absurd. What we did pay for was training for typhoon response,” he said.
That training was in recognition that administration employees should be prepared to handle the task of communicating during an islandwide disaster.
Another way the Calvo administration used those protocols to amplify the government’s reach, Torres said, was the practice of embedding reporters into the bunker of GHS “24 hours a day” during a disaster response.
“They had access to both information and our resources in an instant. It made complete sense,” he said. “Why would we do all that work putting together all that information only to bottleneck its dissemination? We needed the media, and we treated them as such.”
The Post made two requests to have access to the facility. The first was made before Mawar made landfall, to house a reporter at the Agana Heights bunker during the storm, when communications and utilities would be most strained and unpredictable. The second came when Adelup suddenly delayed a press conference by one hour, at a time when lines at gas stations were hours long. Both requests were denied due to space constraints, officials said at the time.
Camacho administration
Calvo’s predecessor, Gov. Felix Camacho, likewise did not pay for advertising during the typhoon responses that occurred in his two terms, according to Shawn Gumataotao, who served in the administration under many roles, including as a key member developing the procedures and protocols for the JIC.
Gumataotao told the Post that rather than advertising with media partners, the Camacho administration focused on ways to support getting their operations back up and running, especially radio stations, which he said can be the most accessible platform when power and telecommunications are not widely restored.
He said it was “puzzling” to learn the government’s designated emergency station, K-Stereo, and secondary stations weren’t adequately prioritized for aid with repairs and power restoration.
According to Gumataotao, the JIC protocols, which contemplate scenarios like radio stations being off the air, was a “tested” document that was proven to be effective during typhoons and other emergency responses.
His main concern with the ongoing response, he said, was what he sees is a lack of “realistic and reassuring” language from the government, which he compared to a dry person preaching to a still-wet constituency.
‘Lacks objectivity’
Sen. Chris Barnett, who left a decades-long career in media last year to seek his first legislative term, also was critical of the government buying airtime, particularly because, in his experience, it isn’t necessary to spend money for that purpose.
“The media is always a great partner during emergencies and I don’t know any media that wouldn’t allow free use of their air to get critical information out to our people,” he told the Post.
He’s also taking issue with the purchase being directed at a media group with ties to the governor’s family — a point levied during both of her gubernatorial campaigns — and that the hosts aren’t always free from airing opinions during the taxpayer-funded shows.
“Buying ads on a station that may have financial ties to the governor’s business interests on a show that is hosted by a cabinet member who clearly lacks objectivity is a poor excuse for good old-fashioned communications protocols that are tried and true,” he said.
Both Flores and Leon Guerrero have disagreed with callers who have been critical of the pace and effectiveness of the government’s response during the shows. They also have used some of the airtime to effuse praise when describing the state of recovery.
“We are hitting it. I’m so pleased with the government of Guam’s response, I have to say,” Leon Guerrero opined during their morning broadcast on June 7.
“We’re listening; we’re hearing your frustrations. Everyone who doesn’t have power or water is frustrated, but you know what? Two weeks in, we’re actually doing pretty darn good, Guam. I think we can all give ourselves a pat on the back,” Flores added.
Barnett argued that communication products from the administration “blur the lines between information and propaganda” and have not been effective.
“Lou and Josh don’t need to ‘build content’ if they just give our people the facts and the truth,” he said.
Torres didn’t mince words when airing grievances about the familial ties between the administration and media company, a concern he had to navigate while serving under Calvo.
“If some idiot advised (Gov. Calvo) to use public funds to advertise public information, I would have called that person an idiot to his face and in front of the governor, and the governor would have laughed. If, for some strange reason, the conversation actually made it to a procurement stage, I would have done everything possible to disqualify KUAM, not because they aren’t a good news outlet, but because of Gov. Calvo’s family connection to KUAM. Gov. Calvo himself would have disqualified KUAM,” he told the Post. “The stench of corruption in something like that would have just been too pungent.”
‘Much receptive’
Torres is comparing the purchases to an initiative from the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands’ government, which paid companies hundreds of thousands of dollars to market the dissemination of free money.
“Both are stupid uses of public funds, but in Guam’s case, it’s egregious when you consider the information is about a disaster recovery while so many are suffering,” Torres said.
Barnett called information “the most vital currency” during the aftermath of a disaster.
“Getting timely and accurate information out to our people has been one of the biggest struggles during our response to Typhoon Mawar. We should already be looking at ways to improve our communications methods, because our people don’t deserve to be in the dark, figuratively or literally,” he said.
But the governor, while appearing during the afternoon broadcast on June 7, thanked her senior officials for “making the time” to host the shows and touted the benefits of the initiative.
“I think as we deliver more information, I think people are much receptive and they’re a little bit calmer, because they then understand and see that we are working as hard as we can to get the needs out,” the governor said.
A shelter for displaced residents of Typhoon Mawar is seen on Ypao Road in Tamuning on Saturday.
