ABC Radio Stands Behind Abortion Special

In a rare move for a major radio network, ABC will broadcast a special program on abortion today with no national advertising. The network was forced to foot the bill when national advertisers refused to buy commercial spots on the hourlong program hosted by Barbara Walters.

“We just kept getting rejections (from potential sponsors),” said Louis Severine, senior vice president and sales director for ABC Radio. “They just came right out and said they didn’t want to touch it because of the explosiveness of the subject matter.”

Six national spots on the program, the first in an occasional series called the “American Agenda Radio Special,” have gone unfilled, said Susan Storms, a spokeswoman for ABC Radio, the nation’s largest radio network. But KABC-AM (790) in Los Angeles reported having no trouble selling local advertising in the program.

The show, live from Washington, will discuss the impending U.S. Supreme Court ruling that could reaffirm or overturn the 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision that legalized abortion. Walters will moderate a debate with panelists Molly Yard, president of the National Organization for Women; David J. Andrews, executive vice president of Planned Parenthood; Judy Brown, president of the American Life League, and Michael Schwartz of the Free Congress Foundation.

“This may be a case where advertisers have just assumed that they would get unpleasant reactions from one side or the other,” said the show’s executive producer, Jim Farley. “But this is a straight-down-the-middle, fair, balanced look at the issues. When you get anything that smacks of ‘We can’t touch this’ in the news area, it’s scary.”

Farley said the advertisers’ reaction has doubly surprised him because he thought the presence of Walters as program moderator would attract sponsors.

“She’s got a track record that says, ‘This is a fair, balanced and respected interviewer,’ ” Farley said. “She isn’t going to get in there and take a viewpoint.”

Nearly 200 stations have signed up to carry the program, Storms said.

Asked why ABC Radio was going ahead with the broadcast despite the lack of national sponsors, Severine said: “We had made the commitment to do it. We felt that the subject matter is something of national importance. It’s expensive, but that’s the cost of doing business.”

He declined to say how much the broadcast would cost ABC.

KABC-AM, which will broadcast the program at 11 a.m., sold the six local commercial spots allotted to it, according to David Crowle, the station’s manager of creative services.

The program’s topic did not scare away local advertisers because most of those sponsors are accustomed to hearing hotly debated issues on the talk-radio station, KABC general manager George Greene said.