Re: Ownership Consolidation

["rogerkirk" <rogerkirk@mail.ttlc.net>]

Aaron Read wrote:
>Frankly, I don't care too much about media consolidation per se, 
>although I am convinced that another round will no doubt lead to 
>further staff cuts and therefore even more of my friends will be out 
>on the street again.  But from a programming standpoint, I imagine all 
>it will do is drive people away from commercial radio and TV even 
>more...and they'll either end up away from radio/TV entirely (Boo!) or 
>they'll end up listening to public radio (Yay!)

Given that the record industry killed vinyl 
to promote digital technology wherein they
make more money per unit, it's not too much 
of a stretch to visualize broadcasters milking 
the radio cash cow as long as they can while
driving costs (and quality of programming) as
low as possible while simultaneously investing
(money and time) in promoting a competing 
technology (Sirius, et al) that has a revenue 
stream from subscriptions.  Then, when Satellite
Radio is firmly entrenched, petition (convice 
NAB-friendly commissioners) the FCC to convert 
the commercial portion of the FM spectrum to 
another use i.e. anything but broadcast radio.  

That will effectively kill all competition - 
since no regular citizen who might launch a 
low power system has the resources to launch 
a satellite.  No more tower farms to infuriate
citizens, no more interference problems, no 
contours to worry about, no adjacent channels,
no "drop-ins", no rimshotters, no COL's, no 
RF engineering problems, nada.  It all goes away.

Then, consolidation will be complete.  Two,
maybe three owners at the most.  And, then they
can have two tiers of service: $9.95 a month 
with commericals and $49.95 a month for no 
commercials.

With a little $$$, it's doable.

Remember where you first heard this.

Roger