How Will It Play in Galveston?

China has announced a new certification requirement for non-foreign journalists, which will require training in the Marxist and communist theory of news. According the Associated Press, the communist theory of journalism says that "media should serve the leadership and not undermine its initiatives".

The Chinese government used to keep a firm hand on media, but as the various state-run outlets have become more dependent on advertising, bribe-based news manipulations have become more commonplace and stories which the government didn't want publicized have been increasingly more accurately reported.

As for this post's title, it refers to an AM station in Galveston which was recently leased by a subsidiary of China's state-run radio.

I've been unable to determine though a quick web search, how many English-language affiliates of China Radio International are operating in the United States, beyond the one in Galveston and those mentioned by Wikipedia in Philadelphia and DC.

It's also unclear from the AP story, whether the CRI stations will become official cogs in the Chinese government's indoctrination reinforcement effort. Though, one would assume that any reporters who graduate from China's internal media would have the required certification.

Radio Listeners Surprised by Change

KGBC (1540 AM) in Galveston, Texas has been broadcasting since 1947 under several different formats and about a year ago, the current owners announced that they wanted to return to the station's roots by programming music mixed with local talk.

Unfortunately, Hurricane Ike took a big bite out of advertising revenue, so without much warning, the station switched from classic rock, when it was leased to an affiliate of China's state-owned media.