...But clearly the model of where we are going in terms of diversity of broadcast in this nation is radio. Senator Ernest Hollings, (D-SC) who chairs the Senate Commerce Committee, is worried that Powell is seeking to create “an erosion of diversity in our local markets.” He notes that prior to the 1996 Telecommunications Act, the top radio station group owned 39 stations and generated annual revenues of $495 million. Today the top group owns more than 1,100 stations and generates annual revenues of almost $3.2 billion. The radio industry has consolidated into just four companies that control 90 percent of radio advertising revenue. Everywhere you drive now, you hear the same homogenous sound on your car radio. (Recent studies note that Internet media appears to be going in a similar direction.)

With Michael Powell in charge at the FCC, more media megamergers are on the way. (see story link for details)

Should the corporate owners of newspapers like the Los Angeles Times and the New York Post be allowed to own television stations in the same city? Until recently, such cross-ownership has been banned by the Federal Communications Commission as inimical to the vitality of a free press. Now, the FCC, headed by a Bush appointee, is about to reverse a 1974 rule aimed at preventing a few companies from dominating the media. The people who run the huge communications conglomerates were very aware that the issue of media concentration was hanging in the balance in the last presidential election.

In the wild world of urban radio, money buys hits and nobody asks questions. (see story link for details)

As a recent series of articles in Salon has made clear, payola is alive and well in the music business. But urban radio remains a world apart, the Wild Wild West of the music industry. In the world of white pop and rock radio, virtually everything on the air is bought and paid for, but in an increasingly corporatized way, with the money going to the station's budget. In urban radio, by contrast, the cash still goes into the personal bank accounts of powerful programmers and consultants, sources say.

The company was cited for the fine in February after the FCC determined Clear Channel violated commission rules by taking control of WBTJ/Youngstown [OH]. Clear Channel had been operating the station via a time-brokerage agreement and had filed an application to buy the station from Stop 26-Riverbend. But negotiations between the parties turned sour, and, when Stop 26 tried to terminate the TBA, Clear Channel filed a complaint in the local court alleging Stop 26 had not repaid advances made to it as part of the proposed sale. Clear Channel also received a temporary injunction to prevent Stop 26 from interfering with the programming Clear Channel was providing. That prompted Stop 26 to file a complaint with the FCC, which determined Clear Channel assumed control of the station without commission consent. Clear Channel wanted the FCC to review the fine, but the commission says that because Clear Channel didn't participate in the forfeiture proceeding its application for review won't be considered. The company has 30 days to pay up.

An anonymous conglomerate virtually controls the music business in the Twin Cities. Seven of its radio stations hype concerts promoted by its entertainment division. A news anchor from its TV station sits in on the morning show at one of its corporate-cousin radio stations. It operates Target Center, where rotating outdoor billboards promote many of its radio stations. The Twin Cities entertainment world has grown considerably smaller in the past year, thanks to three letters: SFX. Two weeks ago, the big picture became clearer when SFX changed its name to Clear Channel Entertainment (CCE). Last August, Clear Channel Communications, a broadcasting concern that operates 1,170 radio stations and 17 TV stations nationwide, bought SFX, the leading presenter of live entertainment in the world, for $4.4 billion. (see story link for details)

As federal regulators prepare to loosen or eliminate the rules that have restricted the largest broadcasters from growing bigger and owning newspapers, senior executives from Viacom and the Tribune Company asked the Senate today to let regulators proceed without intervention.

The executives, Mel Karmazin of Viacom and Jack Fuller of Tribune, said the concentration limits were anachronistic and had contributed to new and intolerable business hardships.

"The broadcast business is dramatically changing all around us," Mr. Karmazin testified before the Senate Commerce Committee. "Our audiences are dwindling, our margins are contracting and our share of advertising revenues is declining. The impact on consumers, who should be central to this debate, do not benefit from the status quo when it is irrational, anticompetitive and an obstacle to expanded choice."

But Senator Ernest F. Hollings of South Carolina, the new Democratic chairman of the Commerce Committee, said that the rules had already been relaxed too much and that what remained of them was central to preserving local programming and a diverse array of voices on the airwaves.

Mr. Hollings chided Mr. Karmazin for portraying an industry in gloom and doom. After reeling off a series of figures that showed Viacom under Mr. Karmazin and its chairman, Sumner M. Redstone, had remained highly profitable...

The Viacom President/COO told the Senate Commerce Committee this morning why be believes traditional broadcasters need less government interference in order to compete in an ever-changing media landscape. "There are more choices coming, and the changes are going to be more dramatic," Karmazin said, noting that the upcoming launch of satellite radio and the burgeoning technology that will bring Internet service to cars threaten traditional broadcasters. According to The Washington Post, committee Chairman Ernest Hollings is expected to introduce legislation aimed at preventing the FCC from eliminating regulations that limit the size of media companies. But Karmazin pointed out that broadcasters shouldn't be singled out since "consolidation is taking place in every industry. We are competing for ad dollars from banks that are consolidating, from airlines ... Our advertisers and ad agencies have consolidated. In order for us to compete, we need a stronger, free, over-the-air broadcasting system." Karmazin called for changes to be made to the government's restrictions so that broadcasters "have a fair seat at the table."

The Senate Commerce Committee will hold a hearing 7/17 on media consolidation. This is the first hearing affecting broadcasters since Sen. Fritz Hollings, (D-SC) took chairmanship. Witnesses include Infinity CEO Mel Karmazin.

In the July 10th daily digest the FCC announced the LPFM applicants from filing windows 4 and 5. They can be viewed at http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov:8835/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-214251A1.txt

Visit the story link above for the Austin Chronicle's comprehensive June 22nd, 2001 update on Free Radio Austin, Austin Radio One, and Micro-KIND Radio.

The rebel stations' argument was straightforward: The airwaves, said advocates of what was becoming the "microradio movement," are a natural resource, like water, and control of that resource belongs to all the people, not to commercial corporations. Needing advertising money to survive, commercial stations are constrained to serve the interests of advertisers, not the interests of the listeners -- and the microradio stations would fill the gap.

President Putin heralded a return to the authoritarianism of the Cold War era yesterday when he finally succeeded in silencing the last independent voice in the country’s national media.

Scores of journalists resigned from the Ekho Moskvy radio station, a lone voice of dissent from the state controlled Russian media, when Gazprom, the powerful Kremlin backed gas monopoly, took over control of the station...

Oleg Panfilov, a media commentator, told The Moscow Times: “The Government has made it its aim to silence all media that still have the courage to criticise it and they are doing it systematically. There is no place for a radio station like Ekho Moskvy any more.”

A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday ruled that non-commercial educational radio broadcasters are exempt from auctions for commercial broadcast licenses, overturning Federal Communications Commission rules. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia unanimously agreed that the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 requires the FCC to exempt the non-commercial educational (NCE) radio broadcasters from participating in auctions and vacated the agency's rules. "The fact remains that under the Act's plain language, the Commission must exempt NCEs from participating in all auctions," Judge David Tatel said in the three judge panel's opinion. The broadcasters are already exempt from bidding for broadcast licenses in a part of the radio spectrum that is reserved for them, but the FCC had issued rules that said they were not exempt when applying for channels outside that band.Instead, the educational broadcasters receive licenses through hearings. The challenge was brought by National Public Radio. The FCC had no immediate comment and an NPR spokeswoman was not available for comment.

A veteran of community broadcasting blasts public stations for selling their souls to the highest bidders. (see story link for the complete commentary by Lorenzo Milam)

We're told we should be celebrating the 30th anniversary of National Public Radio this month, but for many of us who love radio, and what it can do, and what it can be, I suspect it won't be much of a celebration. It'll probably be more like a wake.