Shitty radio abounds (imagine that!)

(I wrote up this entry Sunday night while I was out of town. So read it and believe it!)

Greenville, NC (12/28/08) - When I embarked (arf-arf!) on my exciting fact-finding mission today, my heart sank at an unfortunate development. I'm not referring to the endless government surveillance along US 58 near Danville, Virginia - though I could be.

Rather, I speak of the dour radio that confronted us from the get-go.

Public affairs programming deserves more time on radio - as radio uses the public's airwaves. But identical authoritarian philippics airing on 3 stations in the same city at the same time isn't what I call public affairs.

At least 3 Cincinnati stations - WKRQ, WUBE, and WSWD - were airing the exact same program inveighing against the eeeeevils of drink.

The 3 stations are owned by the same company - Bonneville - on the same band in the same market.

That's "diversity of voices"?

This never even would've been legal before the right-wing Telecommunications Act of 1996. Or if the states had opted to shore up the removal of ownership caps.

Hey, if you're going to air a program-length editorial against alcohol, at least make sure your stations carry 3 different ones. At least that'd be more amusing.

It's fair to say 2 of the 3 stations were heritage outlets. They hadn't been great for years before Bonneville decimated them further, but this development is still a crying shame.

Blistex smells nice.

Realizing the radio business isn't improving from its wretched self (does anything ever?), I shut the radio off for most of the rest of the way to Greenville.

The new administration must make repeal of the '96 telcom law a priority. Either that or the states should reinstate ownership caps.