Re: this week in review....

["A. Joseph Ross" <lawyer@attorneyross.com>]

On 26 Aug 2001, at 10:51, Brian Vita wrote:

> 1.  There are a finite number of frequencies available in a given market 2.
>  There is an ownership cap based on % of advertising revenue. 3.  A large
> player, Greater Media has a very successful station (WMJX) and it wants to
> keep it successful so it buys up as many of the other stations in the
> market and deliberately puts less successful programming on them (Hot Talk,
> AOR, Oldies [already in the market]).  By limiting the competition the
> value of the primary station is protected and can charge the big $$$ for ad
> revenue while being satisfied with the secondary ones paying their rent on
> time.  As long as the group doesn't exceed the cap, this works.  The larger
> station can charge confiscatory rates and the smaller ones can be thrown in
> as "packages".

I wouldn't be surprised to see someone try this strategy somewhere.  In 
fact, it was done in baseball for awhile in the 19th century, when the 
rules allowed one owner to own more than one major-league team.  One 
team would be considered the championship team, and the others 
would function as farm clubs.  This made for very dull baseball, such 
that even the baseball owners realized it was a bad idea and changed 
the rules.


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 A. Joseph Ross, J.D.                           617.367.0468
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