The New Congress Needs Oversight Over MSM

Now that the Democrats are in control for the first time since 1994, there is a need for Congressional hearings about the substantial increase in power and ownership that the MSM got from their Republican friends in Congress. Unfortunately, in 1996, President Clinton signed into law the Telecommunications Act of 1996 that he could have vetoed. That law put into motion a 10year period of almost unlimited ownership of TV and radio by the MSM and virtually destroyed any independence in broadcast media, especially news/talk radio. Unfortunately, many of Clinton's big donors are in the MSM and the influence of money in politics gave Clinton a less than objective view of the damage he had done. And most of the damage occurred in conservative talk radio, some of his and the Democrats bitterest enemies.

The 1996 Act allowed Clear Channel to own about 1200 stations and ABC, CBS/Infinity, Jones Radio, Salem Radio, and many other right wing companies to buy up all the good radio stations. By the time we started Air America, there were virtually no good stations available as outlets for the liberal audience. Air America did get nearly 100 affiliates to pick up the content, but all of these stations were low powered radio stations whose "reach" was and still is very limited. Below is a comparison of the talk radio stations in Chicago that carry progressive and conservative radio:

PROGRESSIVE TALK: FRANKEN ET. AL.

WCPT-AM Technical Info:
Status Licensed Class D AM Station
Area of Coverage View Daytime Coverage Map
Hours of Operation Daytime Operation Only
Antenna Mode Directional - Daytime Only
Transmitter Power 2500 Watts
Number of Towers 3

REACH MAP:

CONSERVATIVE TALK: LIMBAUGH ET. AL.

WLS-AM Technical Info:
Status Licensed Class A AM Station
Area of Coverage View Coverage Map
Hours of Operation Unlimited
Antenna Mode Non-Directional - 1 Pattern
Transmitter Power 50,000 Watts
Number of Towers 1

REACH MAP:

As you can see from above, progressive talk/Air America has a 2500watt signal that reaches only part of the metropolitan area and whose quality of sound is marginal. On the other hand, the WLS signal is 50,000 watts and reaches the entire northeast corner of Illinois, southeast Wisconsin, and northwest Indiana. The red encircled area is the key to a radio station's reach.

The available audience of WLS coverage is probably 10-20 times the coverage of WCPT in Chicago. However, the Arbitron ratings (radio's equivalent of Nielsen) show that WLS has about a 4% share and WCPT has about a 1% share of the Chicago radio audience. Before WCPT changed its programming to progressive talk, it did not even show up on the Arbitrons. The WLS radio station has 25 times the power of WCPT and yet only gets 4 times the audience. Can you imagine how well progressive talk radio would do if there were any quality stations available? And this example is typical of the comparisons in every radio market. It is essentially a David and Goliath match.

Despite the bad management of Air America, several marginal and low powered stations were able to get a successful market share when they switched to progressive talk radio. That is why I am so confident with the idea that progressive talk radio will be very successful when you factor in the quality of stations that were available. That is why I am so optimistic about our new venture, Nova M Radio. But, now that the Democrats are in control, we need some help from them to level the playing field. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 should be their first target. It was this very legislation that had helped the Republicans keep control of Congress for 12 years. If the Democrats have any instincts of survival as a majority party, they must make this a high priority. In the near future, Nova M Radio is going to post a petition to Congress on its web site at www.novamradio.com for changing the concentration of ownership in radio. I hope you will participate.