Less Regulated than USA Radio

[kfbkfb]

It seems to me that the USA form of mostly free market radio broadcasting is in the minority for radio broadcasting setups in the World.

My limited knowledge is that there is sort of a free market broadcasting setup used in Australia, Canada, England (public funded broadcasting is a larger part of radio broadcasting).

Are there countries/regions where the only restriction on radio stations is staying within their allotted frequency range and technical parameters, they can have as much transmitter power as then can afford, as many ads as they want, content limited only by what's obscene in the region/country and/or violates laws against making threats?


Kirk Bayne

 

[davideduardo]

It seems to me that the USA form of mostly free market radio broadcasting is in the minority for radio broadcasting setups in the World.

My limited knowledge is that there is sort of a free market broadcasting setup used in Australia, Canada, England (public funded broadcasting is a larger part of radio broadcasting).

Are there countries/regions where the only restriction on radio stations is staying within their allotted frequency range and technical parameters, they can have as much transmitter power as then can afford, as many ads as they what, content limited only by what's obscene

No country today has unlimited power, and most have some form of commercial limits. Other than that, many allow format changes, name changes, etc., including almost all the free nations (not Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua) to the South of us.

Power regulations have to do with international treaties as much as domestic requirements.

I'd say nearly all the Latin American nations are as free as the US with the mentioned exceptions. I've worked or consulted in around 16 or 17 of those nations and have recent experience in about 10 of them..

 

[Kelly A]

Are there countries/regions where the only restriction on radio stations is staying within their allotted frequency range and technical parameters, they can have as much transmitter power as then can afford, as many ads as they want, content limited only by what's obscene in the region/country and/or violates laws against making threats?

In the Middle East and North Africa, radio stations are mostly allowed or controlled by the respective government. That allowance is typically given to individuals or families with influence. If the programming doesn't attack or hold the government or Islam in a bad light, it's usually permitted, although that can all change depending on the regime.
Spectrum allocation and power levels are usually up to the 'licensee', provided they don't infringe on another station which is paying that local government. An example is; stand in the middle of Jeddah Saudi Arabia with an AM field measurement set, and read an average of six or more MW signals all overlapping each other on a single frequency.
FM stations are usually low power, less than 10kW ERP, but are spread around in much more of a cellular approach playing the same programming.