Comments on: Crumbsucking the FM Dial

By: John Anderson

John Anderson — Fri, 20 Feb 2015 21:04:33 +0000

Since translators were initially designed as fill-in stations and have been prohibited from originating their own programming since the beginning, it’s hard to say that translators promote localism in and of themselves. But what their distorted use over time — especially in the wake of LPFM — does suggest is that the FCC is willing to sacrifice localism on the altar of the desires of broadcast incumbents. I prefer to think of it as a combination of regulatory capture and agency disconnect/ignorance about the actual state of the public broadcast airwaves in the 21st century (the FCC is all about the Internet now).

By: Hear Ye, Hear Ye! | Boom Snake Music

Hear Ye, Hear Ye! | Boom Snake Music — Thu, 19 Feb 2015 16:11:13 +0000

[…] to an article at Antenna, the FM dial in the US is under unprecedented proportions of spectrum grabbing. To the uninitiated, […]

By: Jerry Arnold

Jerry Arnold — Wed, 18 Feb 2015 13:53:39 +0000

An interesting read. IF the FCC was TRULY interested in promoting ‘localism’ in radio, they would immediately do a 180 on how MANY stations ANY individual, partnership, or corporation could own per market. Allow ONE AM, ONE FM, AND ONE TV per market REGARDLESS of market size, and we’d see an almost instant revival in broadcasting ‘in the public’s interest, convenience, and necessity’.

By: Jerry Arnold

Jerry Arnold — Wed, 18 Feb 2015 13:07:55 +0000

An interesting article. One way to fix this, AND return ALL radio to its original intent of ‘in the public’s interest, convenience and necessity’ would be for the FCC to make an instant 180 on OWNERSHIP of broadcast facilities. ONE AM, ONE FM and ONE TV PER MARKET, REGARDLESS of market size, and we’d see an almost instant rejuvination of at least radio.

By: Cynthia Meyers

Cynthia Meyers — Mon, 16 Feb 2015 16:42:32 +0000

So is this sort of analogous to other FCC policies designed to promote localism but don’t actually, like the Access Hour, etc?