You can thank the FCC and anti-trust rules

[Jim Hall]

This is probably a dumb question, but I'm going to ask it anyway.

So when a group of stations is sold, the market must adjust to prevent one company from claiming too large a percentage of the revenue in the market. 

Now suppose a company is at its ownership limit of stations, and decides to promote the heck out of one or more of its stations, so that the ratings shoot up and the stations can bill more. Do they then have to sell a station?  Most of you remember when Congressman Heftel of Hawaii purchased sleepy little WWEL-FM (I always wondered if the WWEL stood for its location) and changed it from music even elevators didn't want to hear anymore into KISS-108. He promoted the heck out of the station (contests galore) and within a few months it was at or near the top of the pack. Now I realize none of the big corporate owners today is going to go to that extreme, but suppose Entercom decided to wake up 850? Would they have to sell something else if the ratings improved dramatically?


You can thank the FCC and anti-trust rules

1 company can only bill so much of the marketplace Why did Beasley swap WMJX for WBZ-FM aka The Sports Hub ?

Also, by swapping properties a company can avoid a capital gains tax bill This alone gave Entercom few partners to deal with for WBZ