My Research on Minot, ND

[Garrett Wollman <wollman@lcs.mit.edu>]

<<On Sat, 05 Apr 2003 16:26:33 -0400, "Laurence Glavin" <lglavin@lycos.com> said:

> (a railroad car carrying toxic material, not Hormel Spam[tm],

ITYM ``Spam(R) brand luncheon meat''.  HTH, HAND.

> The poor, poor people of Minot!  How did this happen?

Unlike the rules for TV stations, with radio stations the FCC looks
purely at signal contours, not communities of license or studio
locations.  Take a visit to zone II some time and you'll see that the
dial is essentially full in almost every place with even a minimal
population.  A 100-kW full-class-C FM in a flat state like North
Dakota covers a good 70-mile radius, well outside its intended market
in all but the largest cities, and could cover much more if the FCC
gave it that much protection from interference.

In any event, the practical upshot of this for a company like Clear
Channel is that they can legally own all the stations in a small
market like Minot, because the FCC's version of the ``market''
includes many stations which do not actually serve Minot.

-GAWollman