WQEX, McCain link revisited

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Allegations about Sen. John McCain's relationship with lobbyist Vicki Iseman have resurrected questions over his role in WQED Pittsburgh's controversial, but ultimately unsuccessful, efforts to sell its sister television station WQEX-16 in the 1990s.

The proposed three-way deal involved a license swap between Ms. Iseman's client, Paxson Communications Corp., and Christian broadcaster Cornerstone TeleVision of Wall, which operated WPCB Channel 40.

The transaction called for Channel 40 to assume the noncommercial license of Channel 16 and sell its own commercial license to Paxson for $35 million, split between Cornerstone and cash-strapped WQED. Paxson would gain entry into the Pittsburgh market and Cornerstone would move to Channel 16.

In late 1999, Mr. McCain, R-Ariz., then chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee and a presidential candidate, wrote two letters to the Federal Communications Commission urging a vote on the sale to Paxson.

As he said at the time, Mr. McCain said again yesterday that he wrote the letters because the commission was taking twice the usual time to review ownership. He said he wrote, not to influence the commissioners' decision, but to tell them to "go forward."

At the time of the Pittsburgh negotiations, Paxson Chairman Lowell Paxson and his associates had contributed almost $16,000 to Mr. McCain's campaign, and the senator had the use of the Paxson corporate jet.

George Miles, president of WQED Multimedia, said yesterday that he had met Ms. Iseman, and that she lobbied hard on WQED's behalf.

"We worked with Bud Paxson, and she worked for him. She helped us with the lobbying to try to get Channel 16 converted [to a commercial license]," Mr. Miles said.

"McCain was really a big friend of ours in this," Mr. Miles said. "Finally, through the good graces of Sen. McCain and his letter, we ended up getting a 'yes.' "

Linda Wambaugh, who lobbied against the plan through the Save Pittsburgh Public Television Campaign, said the commissioners' letters of response to Mr. McCain indicated how much pressure they were under from Congress and the high-powered lobbying firm Patton Boggs, hired by WQED several months earlier. Ms. Iseman's firm, Alcalde & Fay, was not mentioned.

The deal was narrowly approved by a 3-to-2 margin on Dec. 29, 1999, but fell apart three weeks later when Cornerstone withdrew. Pax TV entered the market several years later on local cable; its current-day successor is Ion Television. WQED eventually got the license conversion for Channel 16 and is leasing it to a home shopping station.

Sociologist Jerry Starr, founder of Citizens for Independent Public Broadcasting and a major opponent of the license swap, said yesterday that many people took exception to Mr. McCain's letters to the FCC.

"[FCC Chairman William] Kennard said he resented the intrusion into their process," said Dr. Starr, who told of the episode in his 2000 book "Air Wars."........