RADIO (as we know it) is DEAD!!!

[RadioStarOne]

"I can tell you that a few years ago, I made a serious attempt, cash in hand, to buy a floundering AM station. The owner rejected my offer and said "I'm afraid if you had it, what you propose to do would be serious competition to my better stations."

"Does that sum it up? It’s true…."

Thank you Chuck, for stating the exact reason stations like 610 KFRC, 1260 KOIT-AM and others are always sold by the Big Radio Groups to religious or ethnic radio broadcasting companies. These companies are just shrinking the number of competitors to their established clusters! Even though you will now read in following posts a bunch of denials to what I just said. And to anyone that says I'm wrong I say, go lie to someone else because I'm not buying it!

 

[12 In a Row]

Re: Corporate Propaganda

In a sort of twisted way of thinking, if it were not for corporate radio, numerous stations would now be silent.

90% of the clusters has one or two winners, the rest would never survive on their own.

Nonsense. Corporate radio does not support money-losers, unless they serve a purpose like protecting one of their money-makers from competition. Corporations do not have "hobbies". Corporate radio has rolled out that canard numerous times in the past. It's nothing more than propaganda supporting their attempt to create defacto monopolies in smaller markets. If stations are money losers, turn in the license and let somebody else have a go at it.

If there is not enough local support for a broadcasting facility, it should go dark and free up spectrum for surrounding areas. Conversely, areas that do support broadcasters should not have their facilities usurped by those who wish to turn local signals into rim-shots for distant, but larger markets.

That's my point.

IF the CC's of the world had not come along to support the money-losers, they would have gone out of business years ago.

Figure out just how many stations would be able to support their own offices, studios, lights, heat, phone, engineering, taxes, insurance, sales and air staffs and pay down the mortgage.

Besides, how bout being the corporate guy at top and saying to your stockholders, we're pulling the plug and giving back the licenses.
We over bought, so instead of selling it to a religious group for some money, lets turn in the license and make NO money.

 

[SirRoxalot]

Darkness to Light

IF the CC's of the world had not come along to support the money-losers, they would have gone out of business years ago.

If that's the case, then the frequency should go to someone - or somewhere - where it will serve an audience.

Figure out just how many stations would be able to support their own offices, studios, lights, heat, phone, engineering, taxes, insurance, sales and air staffs and pay down the mortgage.

If they bought the station for a reasonable price, then the mortgage wouldn't be what puts them out of business.

Besides, how bout being the corporate guy at top and saying to your stockholders, we're pulling the plug and giving back the licenses.We over bought, so instead of selling it to a religious group for some money, lets turn in the license and make NO money.

It's time that some of the corporate guys at the top admitted that they overbought, and overpaid. Instead, they want multi-million dollar bonuses and platinum parachutes because they "oversaw the growth of the company". Mistakes were made. It's time to 'fess up.

I don't care if they sell to a pray-for-pay outfit, or turn in the license. Either way, it serves SOMEBODY. The pray-for-pay people can't run stations indefinitely without getting some kind of return, so they'll eventually sell, or turn in the license. Either way, it goes back to the public, and either the bandwidth is used for other purposes, or it gets reallocated to an area that does have enough population to support it.

There have been dramatic shifts in population since the original allocation of frequencies back in the 1920s and 1930s, and stations going dark would allow the FCC to reallocate that bandwidth so that it serves more people more efficiently. That may even mean a reworking of the broadcast bands to created purely digital channels in part of the current analog spectrum. The FCC could dispose of the flawed IBOC system, increase the number of channels, and still allow the people to continue using the millions of analog receivers that already exist.

 

[FredRichards]

Re: Corporate Propaganda

IF the CC's of the world had not come along to support the money-losers, they would have gone out of business years ago.

And what is so bad about a looser going out of business? But then, maybe what we need to do is ask Congress to apply the same rules as they did to bailing out Bear Stearns, and then one of us could buy stations for $.02 on the dollar.

But being serious for a moment, a friend of mine made a very good point about this situation. He compared the buying up of stations to keep them out of the hands of first time, private, and minority owners like the real estate problems in some cities in the 50s and 60s. He went on to explain that in some middle class white neighborhoods, when a black family would try to buy a house, the seller would ask a higher amount, or someone would come in with an offer above the selling price to keep it from being purchased by a black person.

I can understand his logic as I remember these dealings being in the news when I was a kid. And I, too, made an offer on a property which suddenly was inflated when it was obvious that I wouldn't later resell to another large corporate owner. That tells me, like the real estate game of the 50s/60s, that the fix is in.

And having a Congressman tell me that no individual, or private local owner is capable of running a station, and we need corporate owners to keep stations on the air, sealed my opinion forever. Then again, I didn't contribute to his election, but the corporation did six figures. That explains why I can't run a station.

 

[12 In a Row]

From the beginning of time, life ain't fair. Just try to be on the right side of "the fix."