Calls For FCC Ownership Changes

[TheBigA]

All those companies will only benefit in the sense that they'll take the money and run. If they were honest on that part I'd be much less cynical about this.

Maybe this is news to you, but radio station owners are in the business to make money. They're not in the priesthood.

Their main point is to say the marketplace has changed in the last 25 years. That should be obvious to everyone.

 

[Rusty Muck]

Maybe this is news to you, but radio station owners are in the business to make money. They're not in the priesthood.

Their main point is to say the marketplace has changed in the last 25 years. That should be obvious to everyone.

Just be honest that you can't make money and need to cut and run.

But in any event, this is going to be a heavily polarized decision that will be seen by the left as "extreme right-wing overreach by an activist court" (or words to that effect) benefiting only the big station owners and greedy people like Perry Sook, who want no limits as all and want to own everything. Sorry but that's the breaks.

 

[TheBigA]

Just be honest that you can't make money and need to cut and run.

That's not what this is about. They can cut & run now. Audacy could have done that. For some reason, they hold on and continue to run these stations, even though there are much easier ways to make a living. The people who took the money and ran were the previous group of owners who took the money from Clear Channel and other big companies. More recently, CBS took the money from Entercom and ran. You don't take the FCC to court because you want to cut & run. You just do it.

 

[Rusty Muck]

The people who took the money and ran were the previous group of owners who took the money from Clear Channel and other big companies.

And that will happen again when Nexstar gets their way and all ownership limits are removed. Everyone else will take Nexstar's money, Nexstar gets deeply in debt, and starts cutting back operations all over.

It was bound to happen anyway but let's create companies too big to fail.

You don't take the FCC to court because you want to cut & run. You just do it.

You do it when you want to own everything. Nexstar has 68% national reach** in a 39% cap world. They have no excuse as to why they need to own WPIX when they refuse to sell anything else and tried a flim-flam setup to own it that anyone could see a mile away as a sham arrangement. They are suing to remove all rules. Greed consumes them.

** When you don't count the phony baloney "UHF Discount" rule only reinstated by Ajit Pai to further engender massive consolidation through the back door.

 

[TheBigA]

You do it when you want to own everything.

The problem once again is advertising. The advertisers can go to any non-broadcast media and get 100% coverage. Then they go to broadcast, and there are all these limits. As I said, the marketplace has completely changed in 25 years. You view it as greed. I see it as competition. The playing field isn't level. I went to a major car company with a presentation, and they said to me, 'You're too small.' That's what every broadcasters hears. That's why they need to grow. There are no ownership limits on Amazon, Google, or Facebook. No ownership limits on Spotify, Pandora, or Apple. They can grow as large as they want, and radio is still stuck in the past. There are even limits on how much money these stations can make. No such limits on Apple, Google, or Amazon. You talk about greed? That's where the greed is.

They are suing to remove all rules. Greed consumes them.

Absolutely wrong. They just want to remove AMs from the ownership caps. Or maybe allow one more station in major markets. Something is better than nothing, which is what they've gotten for the past 25 years.

 

[davideduardo]

All those companies will only benefit in the sense that they'll take the money and run. If they were honest on that part I'd be much less cynical about this.

The FCC is not taking into account how the audio and video delivery industries have changed. Both licensed TV and radio stations now compete with hundreds of video options and thousands of audio options that are not licensed by them but which compete with AM, FM and TV.

We are seeing the same government ignorance in the opposition to mergers like a pending one in the supermarket industry which fails to take into account that Walmart is a supermarket and it sells more than the two largest pure supermarket chains combined. And many of us buy a lot of our grocery store products online from Amazon and other sellers that operate online.

 

[davideduardo]

You do it when you want to own everything. Nexstar has 68% national reach** in a 39% cap world. They have no excuse as to why they need to own WPIX when they refuse to sell anything else and tried a flim-flam setup to own it that anyone could see a mile away as a sham arrangement. They are suing to remove all rules. Greed consumes them.

The real issue is that the streaming and cable channels can have virtually 100% reach with no restrictions.

Local TV, virtually the only local source of daily news in most markets that have dead or dying newspapers, can only survive if further consolidation is allowed.

 

[BLA]

The real issue is that the streaming and cable channels can have virtually 100% reach with no restrictions.

Local TV, virtually the only local source of daily news in most markets that have dead or dying newspapers, can only survive if further consolidation is allowed.

How much further consolidation do you think-at this time?

 

[TheBigA]

How much further consolidation do you think-at this time?

They haven't changed ownership laws in 25 years. This current FCC doesn't want to change them at all.

 

[BLA]

They haven't changed ownership laws in 25 years. This current FCC doesn't want to change them at all.

That's obvious. My question was to David. What would he have as a new allowable limit or as he put it "further consolidation."