Corporate Radio

NPR again. All Things Considered this time. Two hours of evening news unmatched by any other outlet. One of a number of ongoing series they present is called, "Challenges Facing the FCC". Important information on rulings that will determine the direction media takes in this country is offered in this series. The latest segment, broadcast during the evening show on February 26, highlighted the problems of quality local coverage being provided by a corporate owned, profit driven, centrally programmed outlet. The FCC voted, last December to require commercial broadcasters to air a minimum amount of local programing. A reversal of the deregulation of the past quarter century. Critics say it is also doing the opposite by pushing to allow more consolidation and cross ownership of media companies.
Dennis Wharton, of the National Association of Broadcasters is concerned that the FCC, in dictating programming content starts "bumping up against first ammendment issues".
Michael Copp, a democrat on the FCC board, says "that's the vision the FCC had for broadcasters when it started granting licenses in 1934". Radio and later TV was granted free access to public airwaves. In exchange they were expected to provide a local public service to the communities where they were licensed. Now thats changed and he says his agency is partly to blame. Deregulation plus a "tsunami of media consolidation" from the last 15 years or so means lots of that localism has disappeared.
Last year, as a way to address that issue, the FCC instituted new rules designed to help whats known as low power FM (LPFM). Local news, weather, musicians, "this is what radio used to be 50 years ago" claims Steve Bingham who owns the #1 station, KRIM, in the region north of Phoenix Arizona, an LPFM station. He looked at Phoenix radio ratings, #1 Clearchannel, #3 Clearchannel, #4 Clearchannel, #5 Clearchannel. "Where's the diversity," Steve asks. "Clearchannel owns 11 stations in the area."
FCC chair Copp says localism and diversity "requires licensing procedures that lets broadcasters know somebody's watching." Licenses used to expire every 3 years, now, to renew an 8 year license they send in a postcard.
Corporations keep getting bigger, profits keep growing and quality suffers more and more. I think our culture has a skewed view of what's important. Like Micheal Parenti said in his book The Culture Struggle, "it's easier to be entertained than informed although it is seldom more interesting."
The information I get from NPR entertains me.