Last week when I heard that our local NPR station, WUNC, was going to have a show about NASCAR I was skeptical. Mainly because I’ve noticed a trend at WUNC, which broadcasts from the “liberal” University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, towards mainstreaming. Mainstream radio content in this case – in this state – is more politically conservative. There’s a ton of evidence for this. Read about the serious error by WUNC over women’s reproductive health here. Plus much more. But let’s look at what I THINK they are doing right.
The fact is WUNC reaches a LARGE amount of North Carolinians, from the coast to way west of Chapel Hill. I would suspect if you looked at the demographic data about WUNC listeners the majority is Republican, white, and lives in rural or suburban community. (Is this wrong? Please correct me if so.) So with this information how do you think a station manager, who is concerned with revenue, would think? From one point of view to be more “diverse”, programing on WUNC would require more politically conservative content. The bottom line is people will only listen if you make content they think is true. Pandering to listeners values sells advertisement. But I ask, at what cost to the core base of liberal listeners in and around Chapel Hill? Not leftists mind you but proud Democrats who bristle at hearing ads, ok sponsorships, of WalMart on their local NPR station.
I mention all this to PRAISE WUNC. I increasingly don’t trust them as a station, but I do notice good programing content when I hear it. Today’s State of Things Show, hosted by Frank Stasio, was about NASCAR. I figured this was a tip of the hat to more politically conservative listeners who frequent NASCAR events more than the politically liberal listeners. (Could be somewhat of a generalization.) It seems that the producers of this particular State of Things did a balancing act between two crowds. A conservative topic with a moderate guest. To achieve this they invited the unique author Jeff MacGregor. His book Sunday Money: Speed! Lust! Madness! Death! a Hot Lap Around America with NASCAR topic at first seemed dull to me but I found his comments on the show were very intelligent. Mr. MacGregor was polite, remembered callers names, was extremely observant, and well spoken. Here is the part that struck me.
Mr. MacGregor claims that NASCAR drivers, and their fans, don’t talk about the drivers salaries publicly. Nor does the corporation NASCAR publish them. He also pointed out that the only clue as to how much drivers make was from a law suit with an insurance company over a payment the widow of Dale Earnhardt Sr. didn’t receive. It seems Dale Earnhardt made around seven million dollars a year. (Before endorsements) That may seem like a lot but in relationship to the tens of millions, heck hundreds, that NASCAR and sponsors make it’s paltry.
The polite southern thing to do is NOT to talk about how much money you make. Like money people can get crazy angry about religion, politics, THEIR kids, and race. They just don’t have experience discussing these issues publicly. I know by dad told me long ago not to talk about how much you make. Especially not with your fellow employees or any one else for that matter. It made sense to me at the time. Many an argument and uncomfortable work environment could be hatched if your started talking about money at work.
But isn’t this silence hurting employees and keeping their grossly over compensated bosses in control? What does a business, like NASCAR, have to gain if salary amounts aren’t public? For a clue look at other sports like baseball. (Here is where I became real impressed with the comments of Mr. Macgregor.) Fans talk a lot about how much baseball players make. They make A LOT! Tens of millions. So when they aren’t performing as well, as they have in the past, fans start questioning the athlete’s worth. People seem to become jealous and resentful of all that money “going down the toilet” because so and so athlete can’t steal more bases or hit more runs.
A context for the discussion of salaries in NASCAR was Mr. MacGreagor’s statement that the drivers aren’t unionized. He even thought they would NEVER ever be able to have this option. That NASCAR wouldn’t allow it. What’s a better way to prevent a public discussion by fans (customers with the money) about fair compensation than not to discuss salaries of drivers? This discussion would spur drivers to unionize and that’s precisely what NASCAR doesn’t want.
After hearing this I overlapped these concepts into my own life and the lives of others. Could it be that because workers – most all of us – don’t talk about “what they make” that we have no common ground to work together? Would we all be more proactive and improve our lives if we bargained collectively? I think the answer is yes. But unfortunately many of us live in states that have “Right to Work” laws. A double speak name that says one thing and does another. These laws by the states actively protect corporations from organized labor. It helps to criminalize and block people working together. (yeah, yeah I know about corrupt unions. Not all are.) Maybe as NASCAR tries to get more people of color and women drivers to mainstream their customers and widen their profit we can collectively bargain for more workers rights.
BTW…seven million dollars a year is MUCHO DINERO no matter what you do. Comparisons between NASCAR drivers and everyday workers who make bad hourly rates is completely unfair. In no way do I intend to compare the struggle of hard working people with multi millionaire athletes. There is little comparison between the two groups. I only use the analogies here to mention how corporate control of workers extends from high tax brackets to low tax brackets and to illustrate how people are pitted against each other in order to control them.
So much for more short blog posts. 
Here’s an interesting blog posting from The Spotter over at the News and record about Kasey Kahne’s RYR Contract and his Ford Contract that are also currently in litigation. It’t good reading to see what a driver’s contract is set up like and I hear from some of my NASCAR sources that the percentages that the contract mentions are very similar in most driver’s contracts.
I agree with your point that this discussion is geared toward the common worker with the Athlete’s as an analogy. That’s fine. But remember what happended when the NASCAR drivers tried to unionize in the 60s just before that race at Talledega? They got sent home and scab drivers raced in the race. The union effort disbanded and hasn’t been heard from again.
I don’t think a union would work in NASCAR because unlike in other sports each of the drivers has his individual contract, that is paid for by the sponsors, not the fans. The money the fans fork out for tickets pays the track to operate and offer winnings. Winnings are split up betweent the driver and the teams and are generally treated as bonus revenue.
And personally I don’t think unions work in every situation for the common man. I am in a situation where if I moved to a union market I could be forced into a union. I am not in a union here and I am doing just fine thanks.
But I do applaude the unions in most factory situations where wages, talent and one’s ability to do a given job aren’t neccesarily related to each other.
Thanks for commenting Chris! I understand a bit about unions especially in Film and Video. I worked a for awhile as an AVID editor in LA. The union situation out their is big and hairy. The dogma of some unions from years of corruption has destroyed their mission. To give *individuals* the same financial and legal mussel as a corporation. We could do this together in a loose federated way and not even call ourselves a union. Just thinking out loud here.
I dig your blog. I’ll be “tuning in” regularly. Thanks again for chiming in here.