My Research on Minot, ND

["Laurence Glavin" <lglavin@lycos.com>]

I've heard so much about that incident in the area of Minot, ND
(a railroad car carrying toxic material, not Hormel Spam[tm], but some
kind of irritating liquid or gas that spread far beyond the
crash site; local officials called area radio stations to warn the
populace, but EVERY FM station was owned by clear Channel, which voice-tracks during off-peak-hours).
I wondered how could this be, so I looked up Minot on 100,000watts.com
after determing it's in Ward County.  Here are the outlets and owners of the
commercial stations there:

KCJB-AM 910:  Clear Channel
KHRT-AM 1320, a "religious" broadcaster
KRRZ-AM 1390, Clear Channel
KIZZ-FM 93.7, Clear Channel
KYYX-FM 97.1, Clear Channel
KMXA-FM* 99.9, Clear Channel
KZPR-FM 105.3, Clear Channel
KHRT-FM 106.9, Clear Channel.

The poor, poor people of Minot!  How did this happen? We who check the FCC's
Daily Digest have seen those entries that the agency was looking into the
possibility of media concentration when some sale applications are 
made.  When CCU bought the last commercial, non-"religious" station,
why wasn't it flagged?  I know it's not a Boston issue, but if media
concentration regulations are lessened further, some more outlets 
around here (WXRV?, WPLM?) could be on the block to some conglomerate.
This was brought to mind by the "Now" show on PBS to which I referred 
earler.  
* There's a KMXA-AM a long distance away in Colorado...I've seen this in
major media  markets, but not out in the sticks.


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