Gordon Smith

“I have said so many times to many people on the spiritual path, 'You must be strong in yourself to help others. People who are in the emotional sea need someone who can pull them out, not someone who gets in with them and gets dragged away by the tidal wave of human emotions. We have to become emotional lifeguards.”

“In my day, the players used to work their socks off. It's all changed now, obviously.”

“When there's an emergency weather situation, the local broadcaster is the source of information that often makes the difference between life and death.”

“Mitt Romney has a proven job creation record as governor and in the private sector.”

“My mother always said, 'The best way to ruin a story is to tell the other side.'”

“Pay-TV companies that built their businesses on the backs of local and network broadcast signals should pay a fair price for access to that high-value programming.”

“As a Republican, I voted with President Clinton consistently in our efforts to bail out our European friends in Kosovo to stop genocide. I am proud of those votes. I am proud of President Clinton for that.”

“I never thought Oregon would elect to the U.S. Senate a Mormon, but it did.”

“If policymakers are serious about avoiding a society of TV 'haves and have-nots,' they should refrain from policies that favor pay-TV operators over the providers of our nation's only free and local communications system: over-the-air broadcasting.”

“Business deals are successfully negotiated every day throughout America. The common thread is a mutual desire to reach an accord. And the media business is no different.”

“I wish there were a healthier Republican Party in the state of Oregon.”

“We have some control over when we retire. However, we have very little control over how long we will live.”

“Lawmakers have good reason to want a healthy broadcast industry. Broadcast TV stations provide more than 186,000 jobs on an annual basis, which directly generate more than $30 billion in economic activity.”

“A lot of things people see as innovative are faddish and fleeting, and I'm simply telling you, staying power like broadcasting has is more important in the end than the latest app you can download.”

“Broadcasting's best days lie ahead as both an engine of local economies and as an integral part of tomorrow's technological world.”

“Radio continues to be the very best advertising music performers have. No one who ever grabbed a Grammy got there without radio.”

“My neighbor is now an 18-wheeler who comes by here 1,000 times a day.”

“The people who depend on an antenna are often those who are underprivileged - the elderly and the disadvantaged who can't afford a $200-a-month cable bill.”

“On issues carrying as much emotional freight as race - and there aren't many - a U.S. senator needs to speak with care and consistency. Otherwise, he could find people speaking at his own retirement tribute.”

“The American people are being victimized more than any free market would warrant.”