FCC lifts media cross-ownership ban in US

This means Clear Channel can start buying newspapers, right?  

Future of Music blog is pretty confident that this is a win for big business.  Perhaps it will be a fresh reinvention of radio and newspapers…like a cell phone edition that calls you up every day, tells you the latest gossip with your favorite song playing in the background while AC Nielsen records your GPS coordinates and bankcard balances.  (Just kidding, AC!) 

Here’s a nifty quote from Future of Music’s report:

FMC understands the concerns of our allies about the rule changes. Many groups believe that they leave room for cross-ownership in smaller markets. And it’s important to note that there was dissent on the Commission itself. Here’s a quote from Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein:

“For many years, the underpinnings of the Commission’s public interest analysis with regard to media have been to promote localism, competition, and diversity. Yet it is clear from the record that this decision undermines all of these goals. . . as a result of newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership, there is less local news in the market as a whole and there is less competition for stories and ideas since two competing entities become one. There is also less diversity, as a voice in the market is lost, and broadcast outlets are taken even further out of reach of women and people of color.”

My 2 cents =  if the FCC wanted to increase diversity, they’d unleash Low Power FM and allow any of us to set up radio stations.  Then let the chips fall where they may!  Power to the free markets, baby!

I can see it now:  *cue ”Peaches & Regalia”   **VO:  “You’re listening to  ”W-D-R-J”…All Zappa,  All the time!” 

And now a word from St. Alphonzo’s House of Pancakes…