nfladxer said:
Yes, it's called competition! In a free marketplace, let's hope this new level of competition results in better revenue for the owner/operators, better results for the advertisers, and better radio for the listeners!
In this whole free marketplace conversation, there is a fine line, a cross-over point.
A sleepy market stagnates. Those of us who have worked the old single-station-markets of years ago have seen that.
A competitive free marketplace forces everyone to "be on their toes" and the public benefits, the business community benefits, and the station owners benefit... and at the end of the day, the listeners benefit.
In radio, an over-saturated free marketplace gets to be like the little old lady who stayed out of town a few days longer than she planned and her flock of dogs left locked up in the house were hungry and emaciated when she finally came home after getting sick while out of town.
The theory of the competitive free marketplace is that when a marketplace is over saturated, someone leaves the stage, and maybe a second someone leaves the stage, and then we end up with a healthy market place that once again those who lecture on the topic of the free marketplace at work are once again proven right.
Unfortunately that doesn't seem to always work in the radio marketplace. (1.) The FCC laws and rules on licensing which causes the guy with the skinny, emaciated dog to hang on until a buyer comes along... which for my entire lifetime as always worked... until recently. (2.) The perception of "being in show business" and in the spotlight always generates at least one emaciated dog too many still alive in some markets. (Some markets degenerate to the point that the entire market gets to be like that little old lady's house full of emaciated dogs.)