George Davison Iowa Law

ELIOT KELLER INDUCTED INTO IOWA BROADCASTERS HALL OF FAME

My good friend and long-time colleague, Eliot Keller, has been honored by the Iowa Broadcasters Association with induction into the organization's Hall of Fame. 

Keller, and his partner, Rob Norton, founded, constructed and operated for many years, KRNA-FM, Iowa City, Iowa.  They put KRNA on the air at a time when many in the industry questioned their sanity and whether a stand-along FM station in Iowa City would survive.  It did, and what happened at KRNA-FM helped many in the business to recognize that a well run, stand alone FM could be profitable.  Several years ago, an offer for KRNA-FM was made that could not be refused.  The station was sold and is now owned by Cumulus Media.

Today, Keller and Norton head KZIA,Inc., which owns and operates KZIA-FM and KGYM (AM) in Cedar Rapids.  Here is a news release from KZIA, Inc. about Keller's induction into the Iowa Broadcasters Hall of Fame:

KZIA, Inc. (KZIA Z102.9 and  KGYM-AM 1600 ESPN Radio, Cedar Rapids/Iowa City) President and General Manager Eliot A. Keller was inducted into the Iowa Broadcasters Association (IBA) Hall of Fame today at its Annual Summer Convention in West Des Moines. The award was presented by IBA President Rick Sellers from KMRY-AM and accepted by Rob Norton, executive vice president of KZIA, Inc. 

 

The IBA Hall of Fame Award is presented to an Iowan, not necessarily a broadcaster, who has made a lasting and significant contribution to his or her community, the state of Iowa and the broadcast industry. Keller and Norton have each previously been named Broadcaster of the Year by the IBA, in 2001 and 2004 respectively. 

 

Keller has been a radio broadcaster in Iowa for more than four decades. He was one of the founders of KRNA 94.1 and ran it from 1974 to 1998. He oversaw many of the precedent-setting activities of the operation, including a multitude of community service projects, and many trend-setting technical innovations and accomplishments. Keller has been general manager of Z102.9 and its predecessors since 1994.

 

Keller has been active in local chambers of commerce and community economic development organizations throughout his career. He has also been a long-time advocate for transportation infrastructure improvements, including enhanced passenger train service.

 

The IBA is comprised of radio and television stations working to promote, protect and enhance free, over-the-air broadcasting.

 

KZIA Z102.9, a 100,000-watt radio station in Cedar Rapids broadcasting Today’s Hits at 102.9 MHz to the Cedar Rapids/Iowa City area. Z102.9 was the first station in Iowa to broadcast HD Radio® (terrestrial digital radio). Z102.9 was also the first station in the state to broadcast HD Radio® multicasting, supplemental audio channels available free to listeners with a second-generation HD Radio® radio. These channels include 102.9-1 KZIA Z102.9 Today’s Hits, 102.9-2 HD-2 Classic Rock and 102.9-3 KGYM 1600 ESPN. KZIA is the only locally-owned commercial FM broadcast station in the Corridor and KGYM is one of only three locally-owned commercial AM stations in the Corridor. KZIA Z102.9 is at www.kzia.com on the Internet. KGYM-AM 1600 ESPN is a 5,000 watt AM radio station broadcasting sports talk. It is on the Internet at www.1600ESPN.com. Both are owned by KZIA, Inc. (an Iowa corporation).

In addition to his broadcasting acumen, Keller has actively supported and promoted development of a passenger train network in the state of Iowa, serving as excursion chair for the Iowa Association of Railroad Passengers (IARP).

Falling Light Fixture and Impact Upon a Mediator

The following is from the Legal Profession Blog (http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/legal_profession/2009/06/the-dangers-of-mediation.html).  It provides an interesting insight into some thinking about premises liability cases.

The Dangers Of Mediation

A mediation conducted by a mediator employed by the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service at the Hampton Inn in Beckley, West Virginia was abruptly interrupted when a 33 pound light fixture fell on the mediator's head, causing serious injuries. The mediator thereafter sued for his injuries. A majority of the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals affirmed the grant of summary judgment on behalf of the defendant, Equity Inns.

A dissent would conclude that the summary judgment was improperly granted:

 In the situation at hand, on the day in question, Mr. Crum [the mediator] entered the conference room of the hotel to conduct mediation in a civil lawsuit. Then, through no fault of his own, a thirty-three pound light fixture fell on his head. Although a very sketchy expert opinion was rendered concluding that Equity Inns was without fault, the appellant never had a meaningful opportunity to conduct discovery of this expert and refute this opinion. Even if the Guffey [expert] opinion letter was determined to constitute a prima facie showing of the defendant having met its affirmative duty to the plaintiff, the appellant should have been able to pursue further discovery on the alleged negligent maintenance of the hotel and what duties and obligations, if any, were assumed by Equity Inns when it purchased the hotel. It is my belief that the better view would be for strict liability to be imposed upon an innkeeper for personal injury to a guest who is without fault. If that is not the majority view, the least they could have done was to clarify or modify existing law to their liking. The majority does absolutely nothing to enunciate existing law, nor to modify or clarify it. The majority leaves the law even murkier than it has been for the last sixty-two years, since this Court issued the opinion of Lilly.

(Mike Frisch)

What Gil Carmichael has to say about an Ethical Transportation System

The following material about Gil Carmichael and his comments on an Ethical Transportation System come from This Week at Amtrak:

            DENVER, CO, June 3, 2009 – Gil Carmichael, Founding Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Intermodal Transportation Institute (ITI) at the University of Denver, told a group of transportation industry, academics, and government leaders at the National Transportation Infrastructure & Regulatory Policy Forum, held at the University of Denver, in Denver, Colorado, that an "ethical" high-speed rail-based intermodal transportation system must be implemented – and soon.

 

            "Like President Obama, a growing number of American people have a vision of a high-speed rail, intercity passenger transportation infrastructure system in the U.S.," said Carmichael. "It is a logical and necessary next step forward from President Eisenhower's Interstate Highway System of the 1950s; but proponents have long had a hard time being heard until recently." 

 

            To illustrate where we have been coming from as a nation, Carmichael pointed to several critical events that occurred during the past four decades. "Many of us remember October 1973, when the Arab oil embargo took place and created our fist energy crisis," he said. "Long waiting lines at service stations formed and many stations turned off their lights on the Interstate. They were out of gas! Americans woke up and realized that we had built a mobility system on a finite fossil fuel. By 1974, I remember people abandoning their 4,000-pound, eight-cylinder, six-MPG Buicks and lining up to buy a VW Rabbit diesel. We started to ‘think small’ and solar and wind energies were being discussed. But by the late 1970s we were seemingly discovering oil under every polar bear in the Arctic. The price of a barrel of oil then went from $35 back down to $9-$12 a gallon, and by the middle 1980s we were once again well on our way to preferring gas-guzzling muscle cars, SUV’s, 400HP V8’s, and $70,000 trucks! Fat City was the way to go until last year. Furthermore, research shows the U.S. had an unwritten transportation policy that declared we wanted ‘cheap fossil fuel.’ Virtually any political figure who even talked about raising the gas tax was doomed to failure."

 

            So, Carmichael posited, where are we today with our 21st century global economy? The truly big energy crisis has occurred. Oil rose to $140.00 plus per barrel. Gasoline/diesel went to $5.00 per gallon. Oil is down now to about $60.00 per barrel, as are gas-per-gallon prices; but our airlines are clobbered by high fuel prices; our Big Three car manufactures are shattered; and our economy is on some sort of life support. It is quite possible that gas, diesel, and jet fuel prices will go back up in the near future as long as we are held hostage by our dependence on foreign oil and unpredictable supplies, consumer demand, and fluctuating prices. Congress cannot keep prices reduced by legislation. Global economic chaos would result if just one major oil producing nation has some sort of calamity. 

 

            "We can no longer afford the lavishness of the past. As soon as possible, this nation has got to radically change the way people and freight move in order to avoid long-term economic decline," said Carmichael. "One need only look at our demographics and our growing population density. When I was 30, there were 130 million people in the U.S. By 2040, there will be 400 million. North America will have a population of well over a one-half billion people! We are finishing the first decade of this new century and the old order of ‘doing business as usual’ is not working. It will not be able to correct itself. Like China, we must think more wisely."

 

            Carmichael looked at where we are headed with our transportation infrastructure. "What is the biggest public-works project this century that can ensure U.S. prosperity?" he asked. "Last century it was building Interstate I – 43,000 miles of grade-separated, four-lane highways. It served millions of cars and trucks and thousands of busy, small airports and commuter airplanes, feeding into huge hub airports with large passenger planes going long distances to big cities. The airlines in the 1970s and 1980s expanded, in part, with jet fuel prices at about 40-60 cents per gallon, with no tax. Western man built a huge transportation system on this cheap oil; it employed millions of people and we all prospered. But that is all over in 2009!”

 

            "So what do we do now?" asked Carmichael. "What major public-works project can we implement this century that  will help keep our 400 million people working, will produce a prosperous economy, and will build a long-lasting, sustainable transportation system? My answer is we build ‘Interstate 2.0’. I initially said it should be 20,000 miles of high-speed rail. It really should be 30,000 miles and use the huge, wide, existing – and paid for – rail Rights of Way in partnership with the private freight railroads and the states. We should give the private railroads their 25% investment tax credit to encourage them to upgrade and double- and triple-track their main lines to increase speeds and double freight capacity. States should build or lease high-speed track on their ROWs to run new, modern, intermodal freight and passenger trains. These high-speed tracks should be grade separated just as were the Interstate Highways. Our objective is to enable Amtrak and its partners to run frequent and safe 110-125 MPH passenger trains. We have the technology with GPS/PTC to do this with a high degree of safety. It will cut highway fatalities at least 50% and drastically reduce the wear and tear and cost of maintaining the highways.”

 

            "So intermodal and high-speed passenger rail visionaries have finally been heard by a young, new President who produced $14.3 billion to be spent on high-speed rail corridors in the next five years to begin Phase I of this century’s most important infrastructure program. This huge work program puts America on the way to creating an ‘ethical’ intermodal freight and passenger transportation network. We can electrify it by mid-century. It will then truly be an ‘ethical, sustainable’ system. President Obama will be the 21st century’s ‘Eisenhower’ because he will have created ‘Interstate 2.0,’ a high-speed rail network reconnecting our center cities, major airports, and ports – recapturing the vital role of the intercity bus and transit industries."

 

            In explanation, Carmichael defined an ethical transportation system as one that 1) does not injure or kill 2) does not pollute and is environmentally benign 3) does not waste fuel and 4) does not cost too much. It uses the strengths of each mode.  “We must build a 21st century intermodal transportation system using the ‘steel wheel and steel rail’ as the fundamental element of this system. Early in this century we can electrify all of North American rail, providing a new source of energy for our transportation system,” he said.

 

            "We have started," summarized Carmichael. "This is Phase I – $14.3 billion of funding and 13 federally designated, high-speed rail corridors. Amtrak has crossed the Rubicon. It now needs to put out an RFP for 150 new trains sets. It will show the American people that a truly interconnected intermodal transportation system is coming. By using our existing freight rail ROWs and not destroying more green fields, we can actually have a much better transportation system than Europe. It is an exciting new era that we are entering."

 

About ITI

 

            The Intermodal Transportation Institute at the University of Denver offers an Executive Masters Program that awards a Master of Science in Intermodal Transportation Management from the University of Denver. This graduate degree program prepares transportation industry managers for the increasingly complex, global business environment where knowledge of finance, quantitative processes, supply chain, law, and public policy issues as well as freight, passenger, and intermodal transportation operational strategies are critical management tools for success.  For more information on the ITI Executive Masters Program call: 303-871-4702 or visit: www.du.edu/transportation.

Mr. Carmichael has always impressed me as a person who knows and understands transportation.  He has excellent ideas on what is needed to improve this nation's transportation structure.  We cannot depend upon one mode.  It has to be integrated, and it has to be dependable.  Passenger trains and freight trains can and will play an important role in keeping the nation strong.

Senator Harkin Supports Passenger Train Service between the Quad Cities and Iowa City

The Associated Press reports that while in Coralville on Saturday, June 6, 2009, Iowa Senator Tom Harkin expressed support for passenger train service between Iowa City, the Quad Cities and Chicago.  Harkin is quoted as saying that it's too early to know how the federal funds for passenger trains will be distributed, but he is hopeful a line to Chicago can be established.

A study by Amtrak last year concluded that two passengers trains a day operating between Iowa City and Chicago would attract 76,000 passengers on the Iowa City-Quad Cities segment.  The trip at 79 miles per hour from Iowa City to Chicago would take approximately 5 hours.

Summer Broadcasting Camps at Wartburg College in Waverly

There may have been a summer camp such as the one held at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa, way back when I was in high school (in the mid-1960s), but I never knew about it.  My guess is there was not one.  My high school broadcasting experiences and training included recording a twice weekly sports program for KXEO, Mexico, Missouri, calling in sports scores from high school football and basketball games to KXEO, and doing some "stringer" work for KTTN, Trenton, Missouri.

My good friend, Jeff Stein, professor at Wartburg College in Waverly, has sent information about the Iowa Broadcasters Association summer broadcasting camps.  It is a great way for high school students to get some real, hands on experiences.  Here's the information Jeff sent me:

Wartburg Summer Broadcasting Workshop Fact Sheet

 

Sponsored by the Iowa Broadcasters Association and the Wartburg College Communication Arts Department

 Two separate, identical weeks:

Monday, July 20 through Friday, July 24

Monday, July 27 through Friday, July 31

 Cost is $225, which includes all meals and housing

 Limited to the best 16 high school students each week

 Eligibility: those who have just completed 8^th grade, through those who have just graduated from high school (12^th grade)

 Information and registration forms are on line at www.JeffStein.org and www.IowaBroadcasters.com (scroll down and click on the “workshop” logo)

 This is the 11^th year of the workshop at Wartburg; was previously held at Iowa State University but was moved to Wartburg in 1999 under the direction of Dr. Jeff Stein, R.J. McElroy Chair & Executive-in-Residence in Communication Arts

 Program has been nationally recognized as the only one of its kind in America

 Program has expanded to also include a workshop for high school teachers and another for advanced high school students; interested persons may contact me directly for information about the teachers workshop, which does qualify for continuing education/certification credit

 Students will not only learn in classroom settings and tour area radio and television stations, but will also themselves go live on our radio (KWAR-FM) and television (Wartburg Television) stations…both our radio and television outlets also stream on the internet, so folks back home can hear/see the high school students live

 Students from not only the Midwest states (Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Wisconsin) attend; we have also had students from New York, California, Florida, Arizona, Oklahoma, Colorado, Kansas, and other states.  More than 250 different students have graduated from the program over time

 High school students get to work with college student counselors to maximize their experience

 Contact information for Dr. Jeff Stein:

jeff.stein@wartburg.edu

319-352-8534 / 800-772-2085, ext. 8534

Invitee-Licensee Distinction in Premises Liability Cases Abandoned

The Iowa Supreme Court has abandoned the common law distinction between invitees and licensees in premises liability cases.  Koenig v. Koenig was filed by the Court on Friday, June 5, 2009.

Valerie Koenig was at her son's home when she slipped on a carpet cleaner hose while carrying a basket of laundry.  She suffered a broken leg.  A plate had to be surgically inserted.

A jury found for her son.  Valerie Koenig's lawyer objected to an Iowa Uniform Jury Instruction describing Valerie Koenig as an invitee and describing the duties that Mark Koenig owed.  Valerie Koenig's lawyer requested, but was denied, a general negligence instruction.

The Iowa Supreme Court opinion is written by Justice Brent Appel.  It reviews the history of premises liability decisions in the state of Iowa over the past 40 years.  The opinion notes that the Court has discussed on a number of occasions that the common law distinctions among and between trespassers (no duty owed by the property owner), as well as an invitee and a licensee, have created difficulties and confusion.  The court observes that the common law rules were created more than three centuries ago.  The opinion states that people do not alter their behavior based upon the status of a person who enters their land or uses their property.  The Court states that abandoning the distinctions between invitees and licensees is consistent with modern notions of tort law and liability.  The Court observes that there is no reason to believe that juries will return runaway verdicts or not have a standard by which to judge conduct in premises liability cases.  Finally, the Court states that abandoning the invitee/licensee distinction recognizes the higher value placed upon public safety over property rights.

The Court adopts a multi-factor approach to premises liability cases suggested by the Nebraska Supreme Court and commented upon favorably by four members of the Iowa Supreme Court in Sheets v. Ritt, Ritt & Ritt, Inc., 581 N.W.2d 602, 606 (Iowa 1998).  The factors to be considered are:

    1.      the foreseeability or possibility of harm;
    2.      the purpose for which the entrant entered the premises;
    3.      the time, manner and circumstance under which the entrant entered the premises;
    4.      the use to which the premises are put or are expected to be put;
    5.      the reasonableness of the inspection, repair or warning;
    6.      the opportunity and ease of repair or correction or giving of the warning;
    7.      the burden on the land occupier and/or community in terms of inconvenience or cost in                      providing adequate protection.

The common law regarding liability toward a person who trespasses on property continues.  In a concurrence, Justice Michael Streit urges abandoning that common law rule governing trespass in premises liability cases as well.

A new trial is ordered for Valerie Koenig with jury instructions consistent with the opinion.