Teens Turn to Radio for Prop. 187 Voice

Many teen-agers who protested Proposition 187 by staging walkouts from school campuses also turned to radio stations like Burbank’s POWER 106 to get their message across.

Youngsters who might be more likely to call a radio station to make a “shout out” to a friend instead telephoned popular music stations to express their opinions, both pro and con, and to educate themselves about Proposition 187.

“I noticed the kids were starting to find out about 187 and there was a spark in their minds,” said POWER 106 disc jockey Dave Morales, who hosted a show on the proposition.

“I was surprised at how educated they were,” said the station’s program director, Michelle Mercer.

A telephone poll was conducted by the station Monday night in which more than 76,000 people voted for or against the proposition.

“I was also surprised at how polarized our audience was,” said Mercer, who explained that POWER’s listeners are about 60% Latino. The respondents favored Proposition 187 “by a slight margin,” she said.

Morales said he received several faxes and calls from students asking him to announce walkouts from schools that were scheduled, but he chose not to mention them on the air.

Instead, the station set up a toll-free hot line, the Power Line, during the week before the election, where people could leave a message stating their views on Proposition 187. The station aired some of the recorded messages after screening them, Mercer said.

Morales said of the thousands of messages that were left, one was by a couple on two phones. The pair could be heard quarreling over the measure.