Re: WQDY 1230 Calais ME goes dark for good

[Scott Fybush <scott@fybush.com>]

>Everyone gets up in arms when Clear Channel takes over a market.  This deal
>leaves one owner in control of every station in the market.  Does it make a
>difference who the owner is?

Therein lies the question.

I'd contend that under Citadel, WCRQ contributed nothing useful to Calais; 
it had no local programming that I know of, and was
VT'ed out of Syracuse.

I'd contend that McVicar is a good local owner who does lots of community 
programming, and that I'd rather see a 100kw FM
station in his hands than in those of Citadel.

On the other hand, Calais has no local daily newspaper (they get the Bangor 
Daily News and they have a local weekly), no local
TV station (two translators of Bangor stations and Maine PBS) - 
effectively, NO local daily advertising medium other than McVicar's
stations (I discount CHTD, as I have no evidence that it sells airtime on 
the US side.)

So my concern here would be for advertisers Down East: if McVicar controls 
100% of the daily advertising media available to them,
are they getting a fair deal?

I suspect Free Market Dan will agree with me that that's an issue that more 
properly belongs in the hands of the Antitrust Division than
in the hands of the FCC...

s