Fwd: RE: got weather?

[SteveOrdinetz]

Laurence Glavin wrote:

>When Howard Dean was on "Hahdball With Chris Matthews" exactly
>one week ago, he brought up the issue of media consolidation
>and his intention to stem and possibly reverse it.
>He stated that there were only 2 or 3 radio stations in
>all of Vermont that provide reliable local service.


While I tend to agree with very little that Mr. Dean says, I do think that 
Vermont is a rather poor example for media consolidation=lack of reliable 
local service (whatever that means).  Aside from Burlington (which is 
pretty small as cities go), Vermont has essentially no large concentration 
of people...I read somewhere that it's considered the most rural state in 
the lower 48 (not exactly sure of the criteria here, or where it stands 
w/r/t, say Wyoming).  Add to that a rather weak economy and there are very 
few areas that could support a radio station if it weren't for largely 
unattended operation.  Remember, voicetracking and unattended operation 
were well-established in small markets long before the telecom act.

WDEV seems to be the WBZ of Vermont...they've been doing what they're doing 
for so long that people automatically turn to them at times like 
this...they're also one of the few AMs in the state with an even halfway 
decent signal (and a simulcast FM that fills in a lot of the holes).  I 
really doubt that a new sign-on could get away with half the corny 
programming they air (music to go the dump by, the Saturday morning bird 
report, etc.).