So while looking for my next programming gig I've spent some time dreaming up my own "playland" version of new ownership rules. Please, share your as well!

1 - No single media ownership group may own more than sixty stations total nationwide.

2 - The single market owneership guidelines still apply allowing between six and ten stations per market.

3 - However, each market cluster most designate a minimum of one "market flagship" station. The MF station must have a live local studio operator twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

4 - The ownership must make a good faith effort to insure the MF operators are capable of informing listeners, on air, of needed information in the case of a local or national emergency.

OK...I know, it is simply fantasy but still fun to think about. I think it would be great to have those 24/7 live stations back, at least a few per market.

You COULD actually call up a radio station and ACTUALLY TALK TO A LIVE BREATHING HUMAN BEING AT 3AM IN THE MORNING!
This is what History books will be teaching kids in a few years.

No, the history books will finally be teaching kids that Columbus did not discover America.

The present economic/consolidation situation will be difficult to fix with new rules alone. Tighter limits on ownership will not change the fact CC, Cumulus, Entercom, etc., way overpayed for most of their properties and now have to run them as cheap and dirty as possible. Selling some of their properties at even higher overinflated prices will make "the bottom line" worse, not better for new owners.

roll back certain fcc rules to 1996 would be a start. limited terms for radio station ownership would be another. lottery style allotication of expired licenses would be another.

NO MORE THAN TWO STATIONS OWNED in a market.

A market with 20 stations would be more competitive with 10 owners rather than two or three............

As for a sell off..... SOme of these stations only have value as part of a cluster. the 1000 watt AM at 1450 which was either a smaller market move in, or a suburban popgun, can not be profitable if the new owner winds up paying 1.2 mil for it when the real value is probably closer to 200k......

The solution is that some of these may have to go dark. Not sure Multimegacorpradio wants to eat them, so they cruise along with ESPN or ALLSINATRA....clueless, jockless, underpromoted,with no effort to sell the product....

a formerly viable competitor in a market has been assimilated, and can no longer stand on its own...........

Make the PD's and DJ's work together as teams and jointly develop the programs for their time slots. Ones that not only promote the station well but highlight that DJ's style and flair. Would it not make sense that when a DJ feels involved with the programming of the music he or she is pushing that it will shine through to the listeners.
Also have more listener interactive programs like the one KGON is doing. It is called connect the classics. Giving away $100 per hour is also a pretty darn good contest as well.
Anyway bottom line is let the DJ's express themselves creatively instead of just reading liners and pushing tunes. Cutting back on some of the morning talk radio might be a good thing as well....not cut it out but cut it back or start it earlier.

2cents

Clear Channel, Cumulus, CBS, ABC, Entercom, Sandusky, Emmis and any other company that owns a cluster must sell off ten percent of its properties every year. They must continue selling ten percent until they reach a point where they own no more than seven AMs, seven FMs and seven TVs -- no more than one of each in a market. The exception to the ten percent rule would be that corporations would have to reach the 7/7/7 maximum in ten years. They could choose to sell just ten percent per year, but at the end of ten years they must have divested to the point of owning no more that 7/7/7. Any license they hold beyond that at the end of ten years they must turn back to the FCC.

I don't expect this to happen. What I expect will happen is that the huge corps, the Cheap Channels etc. will continue to run radio so cheaply that eventually they will run the listeners to other mediums and radio will cease to exist.

Own as many as you want.

Where multiple ownership occurs and stations protected contours overlap to form a common coverage area:

-discount fixed fees and other government costs

-said discount to be tied to a percentage of meaningful airtime produced by entities that reside completely within the aggragate coverage described above

-provided that said programming is on air during meaningful times (not middle of the night).

Tie government grants to this to help facillitate the creation of studios and pay for mentors and or helpers to make sure the content generated is worthy and decent. Said grants to be funded by a small broadcasting levy on property.

In other words, provide a direct incentive for the large clusters to give something back to the public that provides their revenue in the first place.

The more you own, the more you can make and the more you can save. Economies of scale for all parties, government and corporate. The public gets some airtime and helps pay for new content forms to be generated for their own enjoyment.

Encourages regional differentiation like we used to have.

From this will come new trends that can go national once they prove successful in their market of origin.

"Make the PD's and DJ's work together as teams and jointly develop the programs for their time slots"..I guess that would leave out KKNU...Jim (sleep while smoking) Davis..could not program if his life depended on it.

Hey...
Do either of these remind you of him?

http://www.mutantreviewers.com/pc9.jpg

http://www.webwhispers.org/newspics/sep03/hint.jpg

LOL

My fantasy rule for media ownership: no one can, directly or indirectly, own more than one media outlet in a State or Province, be it Radio Station (AM or FM), TV Station or Newspaper. The only exception that I can think of would be an AM/FM simulcast combo in an isolated community with lousy terrain, so that, all potential listeners could at least hear one.

In my fantasy, Clear Channel goes bankrupt and has all it's holdings taken over by the court. The government sees its previous mistakes, and decides to allow these holdings to be sold at hardware/real estate value under a new set of ownership limitations which would then be applied to other mega owners, giving them time to divest, etc. as per some of the other fantasies above.

I agree with Adiant. One broadcast license per individual or LLC (and at least one person must be present whenever the station is on the air). Every current multiple owner may choose one station to keep, with all their other licenses terminating as of the next expiration date.

Before you could reform radio ownership rules, you'd have to reform government. The whole idea that the radio spectrum is a public asset has been lost. It became official when the FCC started auctioning off spectrum to commercial interests.

Most people outside the industry don't remember or care whether radio quality has declined. If they did, they'd support broadcasters with the best local service. They don't.

I was recently talking with a non-profit group brainstorming ways to publicize an upcoming event. Someone said, "we'll send our info to the radio stations, so they can run public service announcements. It's free!"

I challenged the group to monitor their favorite stations from 6am to 6pm on any weekday, and count the PSAs. The only examples anyone brought back were station promos for charitable events which obviously got the station reciprocal benefits like access to a mailing list, banners in front of a crowd, etc. There wasn't a simple live read for a non-profit fundraiser heard anywhere.

The point is not to criticize PSA policy specifically, just to observe that PSAs had been gone for years, and nobody in that room had noticed!