Wall Street Week/Fortune

[A. Joseph Ross]

On 12 Feb 2005 at 9:42, Damon Cassell wrote:

> Satellite is to radio what the MP3/iPod craze is to the recording
> industry. MP3 came out of nowhere and blindsided the record companies.
> It's a serious threat to their business model. XM and Sirius both went
> on the air, what, 3 years ago? And they are now mentioned in the same
> breath along with MP3 and iPod. This is a huge threat to the radio
> industry. Well, in reality, the biggest threat to radio is radio
> itself. Radio will go down trying to save a failed business model,
> probably with lawsuits and anti-competitive legislation. Like the way
> they are trying to force the FCC to prohibit satellite radio from
> providing traffic updates. Same silly games the recording industry
> plays.

Some of these things remind me of how newspapers tried to prevent radio from carrying 
news in the early days.  They finally relented, and radio was allowed a once-a-day "press 
radio news" report.  This gradually changed and completely changed by the start of World 
War II.  After the war, there was a similar conspiracy to keep television out.  It became 
routine at news events for print and newsreel photographers and reporters to be allowed, but 
television to be excluded.

This came to an end rather abruptly in June 1952, at General Eisenhower's first major 
campaign press conference.  As usual, television crews were to be excluded, but William 
Paley said that CBS was sending a crew, and the Eisenhower campaign was going to have 
to throw them out.  The Eisenhower campaign quickly relented, and NBC also sent a crew.

-- 
A. Joseph Ross, J.D.                           617.367.0468
 15 Court Square, Suite 210                 lawyer@attorneyross.com
Boston, MA 02108-2503           	         http://www.attorneyross.com