Late Night - Early AM on WBZ-AM is now Mr. Computer

[A Joseph Ross]

Funny, I thought the price of radio stations was getting higher and 
higher after the Telecommunications Act.

On 1/17/2020 1:28 AM, Ron wrote:
>>> but up until about 1980 the focus in such companies used to be the long
> term.
>
> And it was in radio as long as the value of radio properties was going up.
>
> But when the value of radio stations started to drop, and advertising
> revenue dropped, people become more focused on the "short term" (and
> survival).
>
>>> That is true, but the pressure on Congress and the FCC to change those
> laws and regulations was applied by Wall Street.
>
> And it was up to our elected leader to read the bill, a bill that most of
> them thought was all about cell-phones.
>
> (This appeared to be one of those:  " "We have to pass the bill so that you
> can find out what is in it" moments.)
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Rob Landry <011010001@interpring.com>
> Sent: Thursday, January 16, 2020 2:21 PM
> To: Ron <obrienron2@gmail.com>
> Cc: 'Kevin Vahey' <kvahey@gmail.com>; 'bri' <BRI@bostonradio.org>
> Subject: RE: Late Night - Early AM on WBZ-AM is now Mr. Computer
>
>
>
> On Thu, 16 Jan 2020, Ron wrote:
>
>> Wasn't Gannett, Westinghouse, Hearst, CBS, NBC, ABC, Metromedia and
>> the rest "publicly held companies driven, as usual, by short-term
> financial goals"?
>
> They were publicly held companies, sure enough, but up until about 1980 the
> focus in such companies used to be the long term. Remember when AT&T had
> Bell Labs, and other companies like IBM had similar divisions, experimenting
> with new technologies and the like?
>
>> I'm sure stock price, dividends and such drove all those companies as
>> well, yet somehow they were able to service their communities, right?
> The narrow focus on "maximizing shareholder value" was originally proposed,
> if I remember right, at Harvard Business School in the mid seventies. It
> didn't catch on generally until about a decade later, and the deregulation
> of the radio industry during the 80s and 90s allowed it free reign in our
> industry.
>
>> Smaller, privately owned stations aren't doing much better.
> We are all blown by the same economic winds.
>
>> I think this has to do with the realities of the financial world,
>> where once valuable properties (assets) are now worth a pittance of
>> what they were purchased for.  Blaming "publicly held companies"
>> driven by their fiduciary responsibilities is an easy excuse.
> Publicly held companies have obligations that privately held companies don't
> have; everything they do has to be reationalized in terms of shareholder
> value. A publicly held company can't, for instance, build a big rocket and
> send its CEO's car to Mars, as Elon Musk's privately-held SpaceX can. Nor
> can it employ people for their own sake, the sake of the communites they
> live in, or anyone else's sake but shareholders.
>
>> I think when the FCC allowed and Congress removed the ownership caps
>> (through the "Omnibus Telecommunications Act") set the stage.  (Always
>> watch out for anything with the adjective "Omnibus" attached.)
> That is true, but the pressure on Congress and the FCC to change those laws
> and regulations was applied by Wall Street.
>
>
> Rob
>

-- 
A. Joseph Ross, J.D. · 1340 Centre Street, Suite 103 · Newton, MA 02459
617.367.0468 · Fax:617.507.7856 · http://www.attorneyross.com