Stokes Worst Perversion of the Public Airwaves
The Independent Online News
February 1, 2001

It's somewhat akin to planting a boot to the rump of a guy who hangs a kick me sign on his own back , but it's hard to imagine a worst-of list that wouldn't include vitriolic Kalispell radio station owner and talk-show host John Stokes.

For the uninitiated , Stokes is the host of The Edge , a three-hour , weekday talk show that serves as the crown jewel of KGEZ-AM's programming. The show is built around a politically-charged call-in format , similar in structure to Rush Limbaugh's popular syndicated program. Stokes addresses an issue or issues of the day through a monologue , and then receives calls from his audience , many of whom share his beliefs in much the same manner that Dittoheads fall in line behind Limbaugh.

In the last year alone , Stokes has perpetrated some of the most egregious transgressions against basic human dignity that this region has seen from a public figure.

In October , Stokes attempted to whip would-be Flathead Valley libertarians into a frenzy by forwarding and promoting on-air an e-mail , from an anonymous source , that called for a systematic destruction of the public gates that bar motor vehicles from Forest Service roads as access corridors to the backcountry. He termed this endorsement of vandalism G.O.D. , or Gate Opening Days.

Though the FS reported minimal damage from the G.O.D. campaign , Stokes continued to build his inflammatory rhetoric against the environmental movement , calling enviros Green Nazis , The Fourth Reich , and , paradoxically , Marxists and Communists.. Such language grabbed the attention of the Helena-based Montana Human Rights Network ( MHRN ) , to whom Stokes refers , in a bit of Limbaughdian cleverness , as the Montana for Human Rights Nitwits..

When the MHRN sponsored a Flathead Valley visit by Klaus Stern , a Holocaust survivor who had spent two years in a Nazi concentration camp and endured the murder of 35 members of his family at the hands of the Third Reich , Stern took Stokes to task for his flippant use of the term Nazi.

The radio station incurred some nasty spray-painted messages , and the businesses , targeted by Stokes on his show when they appeared on a contributor list for an environmental group , began seeing green swastika decals on their shop windows. On a more serious note , both Stokes and environmental groups and individual activists , mentioned specifically by Stokes on his show , received a series of e-mail threats that , according to Flathead County Attorney Tom Esch , bordered on criminal behavior.. An individual , determined to be the author of at least one of the messages , was tracked down and told to desist. No further reports of threats have occurred since then.

Earlier this summer , Stokes burned a green swastika to protest Earth Day , and later rounded up a cadre of gun-loving protectionists and held a gathering during which a United Nations flag was shot to bits.

Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of Stokes' behavior is his willingness to mangle the truth to further his own cause , whether it be his pocketbook or his message. In an interview with the Helena Independent Record last month , Stokes claimed that an independent radio ratings company determined his station to be the top dog in the Kalispell market and number two for the overall region. A statement to advertisers on KGEZ's website proclaims , Let the popularity of Montana's newest and number one station work for you.. Research done by the MHRN indicates , however , that the company cited by Stokes in fact lists the station as the third-most listened to station in the Kalispell market , and the number seven station in the region. The MHRN has filed a formal complaint against the station with the state and Federal Communications Commission.

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