Gas Industry Touts Benefits With Radio Spots
Charleston Gazette
16 July 2011
By The Associated Press
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- The natural gas industry is launching a six- to
12-month public relations blitz to tell its side of the story about the
importance of exploiting the Marcellus Shale reserves, launching a paid
half-hour talk show and one-minute promotional ads on 49 West Virginia
radio stations.
The West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Association won't say how much
it's spending on the deal with WAJR-AM of Morgantown and its members
and independent affiliates, but executive director Corky DeMarco is
hoping it will pay off with a well-educated public.
"There's a lot of misinformation out there and a lot of
misunderstanding," he said. "You pick up the newspaper every single day
in any community in West Virginia, and there's something about the
Marcellus in there. If we're going to educate the public, we can't wait
for them to call us."
"Inside Shale" will air every Tuesday from 8:35 to 9 a.m., providing
various experts who will answer questions and "try to get ahead of
issues," DeMarco said. The lineup could feature inspectors and
regulators, too.
The time slot is during "Talk of the Town," which occasionally features
an "Ask the Experts" segment.
WAJR's Morgantown market manager, Gary Mertins, will host the segment.
He says "Inside Shale" is no different from other paid 30-minute
segments that air now, including a "Talk to the Doc" program sponsored
by a local hospital and another sponsored by a chiropractor.
Mertins said he will take calls from listeners. In a planning meeting
Friday, he asked industry leaders if any question is off-limits.
"They said 'absolutely not,'" said Mertins, who also hopes to host
interviews with geologists, economists and regulators.
"They won't be all softball questions," he said. "I do think, though,
that the one thing the industry hasn't had the opportunity to do -- and
what this show will help them to do -- is to talk about the benefits of
all this growth."
Mertins said the industry is evolving so quickly that it will be
difficult to cover everything in 25 minutes a week.
DeMarco said his organization is committed to a six-month run for
"Inside Shale" and for the "Marcellus Minute," which will air on 49
MetroNews stations and their independent affiliates.
The "Marcellus Minute" will offer "little factual snippets" about the
shale, drilling and jobs, he said, airing 10 to 20 times a day for a
week before a new one rolls out.
If feedback shows the initiative is working, DeMarco said, the
association and a lobbying group called Energize West Virginia might
commit to another six months.
West Virginia has a long history with oil and gas drilling, dating to
the 1770s, when George Washington surveyed the first well in what was
then western Virginia.
"We've been commercially producing in this state for 176 years,"
DeMarco said, "but nobody knows that."
Until the Marcellus reserves took off, it simply wasn't controversial.
Now, the industry is in overdrive as unconventional horizontal drilling
and hydraulic fracturing technologies allow companies to go deeper than
before. Many are rushing to tap the Marcellus reserves underlying parts
of Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and New York.
The industry insists its practices are safe, but many citizens and
environmental groups are worried about the possibility of water and air
pollution, ecosystem damage, road destruction and other issues.
The city of Morgantown is being sued by Charleston's Northeast Natural
Energy over its recent adoption of an ordinance aimed at banning
drilling and fracking within city limits and up to a mile beyond.
"The things that are going on are too important to us to not do this,"
DeMarco said. "We don't have a bad story to tell. We just haven't told
the story."