Re: Detroit Pirate Shutdown and the NAB

[Donna Halper <dlh@donnahalper.com>]

Dan B wrote--
>
>Thanks for passing along the news.  I'm not surprised that the criminals that
>lurk on this list are not trumpeting that decision like they were some of the
>earlier statements from the court.

At the risk of being flamed, I am here in Seattle at the NAB convention, and
I still do not want to lump all the pirates in with what Dan called
"criminals"-- to me, our industry is in a lot more trouble than what a few
rebellious microbroadcasters are doing.  Rhetoric aside, as I go across the
country, I hear less and less diversity-- and no I am not referring to
quotas and numbers of women or minorities or left-handed Lithuanians on the
air.  I mean too many markets have one news station (if that) and it
presents one point of view-- usually a very pro-business and corporate point
of view.  In all too many cities there is no local content at all-- a
translator or a bunch of voice tracks from some other city are what passes
for programming.  Yup, it looks good for a few shareholders, while station
after station puts on more and more commercials in a row to service the
debt, and listeners feel no compelling reason to stick around as long as
they used to (time spent listening continues to be DOWN).  So the FCC goes
after the pirates and Disney is able to squash an investigative story that
ABC wanted to do about their parent company's business practises.  Frankly,
I am more concerned about the lack of varying opinions than I am over the
so-called pirates.  I spoke to the chair of the FCC earlier today, but more
about that conversation later.  There were just about no PDs at this
convention-- nothing but group heads and bankers and corporate types and
vendors...      

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