Re: monopoly definition

["Steve West" <stevewest106@hotmail.com>]

So here's the question.  If MLB is considered a monopoly then what prevents 
the same standards from being imposed on corporations that own most if not 
all the major stations in the major markets?

Money.

>Here are some of the specific issues.  There are 28? MLB teams in the
>U-S each with different and seperate owners,  in the Major markets the same 
>half dozen or so companies own a majority of the radio broadcast signals.   
>MLB appears to be a monopoly even though there are hundres of professional 
>baseball teams outside of the Majors, so why wouldn't the same standards 
>apply when dealing with the Major Market Broadcast markets?

Excellent comparison.  I think it all stems from the fact that if those 
standards WERE to be (re)imposed on radio, over half the stations would go 
dark within a year.  You can only slice the revenue pie into so many pieces. 
  This is why Telcom '96 happened in the first place.  Too many signals with 
plenty of stations bleeding red.  The theory was, allow the companies which 
were sound to purchase stations which weren't doing well, and in theory, the 
amount of bankrupt broadcast companies would drop, and they (congress) 
thought in the process, the big boys would diversify formats more and serve 
more minorites.  In practice, as we all know, it opened pandora's box.

Course, the myriad of new FM frequency allocations that the FCC opened up in 
the early 80s went a long way in opening the door to so many unsuccessful 
stations, which lead to the first round of degregulations in the early 90s - 
which inevitably lead to Telcom '96... so our good friends at the Commission 
created the very problem that they tried to fix in '96 - and nobody 
complained when so many new stations signed on some 20 years ago and messed 
up our DX'ing.

That having been said, what a mess we have now, one that won't easily be 
fixed.  One thing is for sure, the government makes the rules and if they 
deem one industry more prone to a monopoly than another then who is to tell 
them otherwise?

>Just something to chew on.
>DF




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