Let's Abolish the FCC
By Lynn Woolley

April 20, 2004

Some form of regulation of a finite broadcast spectrum is essential.  But
the Federal Communications Commission in its current form has proven itself
to be so destructive to the industry -particularly radio - that it would be
better to abolish it and start over.

The FCC exists to make sense out of a complicated industry that by its very
nature must be regulated.  It was created in 1934 and given authority over
radio, wire and cable, and now television as well.  In the area of managing
the nation's AM and FM radio bands, the Commission is a miserable failure.

Let's begin with AM radio where commercial broadcasting took off in the
twenties.  It would make sense that some logical method of assigning
licenses to specific markets would be adopted - and the methodology that was
used in the early days may have made sense then.  But not now.

Consider that some broadcasters coveted those highly sought after
50,000-watt clear channels - especially those with low dial positions.
After some jockeying for position and frequency switches, we ended up with
what we have today.  WLS and WGN in Chicago are among the "haves" as is WBAP
in Dallas-Fort Worth.  But the DFW market went through decades with only
three stations that could cover the entire area day and night --  WFAA/WBAP
sharing 820, KRLD with 50,000 watts at 1080 and KGKO with 5,000 watts at
570.  These stations had a competitive edge that other stations simply could
not match.  KBOX on 1480 barely covered Dallas at night and got none of Fort
Worth.  KXOL has the exact opposite problem.

Did anyone at the FCC notice that they had set up most markets with the
"haves" and the "have-nots"?  So the Commission in its wisdom did what it
always does to solve a problem.  It created still more stations.  Soon, we
were blessed with that new breed of AM stations known as "daytimers."  These
stations can only be on the air during daylight hours in order to protect
out-of-town stations on the same frequency.  These were the supreme
"have-nots."

So with this two-tiered AM system firmly in place - stations that everyone
could hear and stations that lots of people couldn't hear - FM came into its
own.

In the big cities, 100,000-watt FM signals filled in the coverage blanks for
many people.  And since FM signals are line-of-sight, EVERYBODY could have
100,000 watts.  So at least with FM station, there were no haves and
have-nots.  Well, that is, until some enterprising station owner in the
boondocks figured out that he could move his tower closer to Los Angeles or
Atlanta and try to compete with the big market stations.  The FCC cooperated
in many cases.  So KRMH-FM in San Marcos became KRMH San Marcos-Austin.
There were a lot of legal hoops in those days, but by broadcasting from
studios near San Marcos a certain part of the day, the station was allowed
to be in Austin part of the day.

Now, of course, the station that used to be KRMH doesn't know San Marcos
exists.  Since those days, stations from Bastrop, Killeen, Temple, Luling,
Lampasas and other surrounding towns have migrated to Austin.  The FCC, in
most of those cases, has granted waivers for towers to move in closer and to
be built taller.  So the city of license loses its station, and the metro
area gets a new competitor, thus making life a bit tougher for all the FM's
in the city.

But the FCC, illogical all the way, still made the "move-ins" run ID's with
their city of license. And the stations' public files still had to be in the
city of license.  Silly, huh?  Unfortunately, that's your FCC at work.  In
addition, the lower-powered stations that entered the metro markets caused a
new set of haves and have-nots.  The Lampasas station that moved to Austin
couldn't get the market coverage it needed, and went through half-a-dozen
formats before settling on a Spanish format.

All the moves caused competition for ratings and spot sales to become
ferocious.  Broadcasters began to complain to the FCC that they couldn't
survive under such conditions.  After intense lobbying, the
Telecommunications Bill called for multiple ownership so that a "cluster" of
stations could be formed in a single location.

Under this system, owners would no longer be encumbered by those pesky rules
that limited them to one AM and one FM per market.  So if they could now own
as many as 8 stations in a market, those stations could be served by one
manager, one sales staff, one engineering staff.  And hey, since a single
company owned many stations, rate-card inflation could set in.  In medium
markets such as Waco, a single company could now own ALL the major outlets.

 So owners were happy.  But the FCC wasn't through.  It wanted MORE
stations.  More AM's and more FM's.  So it created the expanded AM band,
making way for more stations up through 1700 - which meant that new radio
sets had to feature the new dial positions.  And to screw up FM further, the
Commission wanted a low-power FM program, opposed vigorously by most
full-power broadcasters who complained that the LP stations would do nothing
but interfere with their signals.

 Leave it to the FCC to screw things up.

 Now, the FCC is looking into content.  In 1934, the Commission was created
WITHOUT censorship authority.  But following the Janet Jackson
breast-bearing incident, it turned its attention to such programming as
Howard Stern and Bubba the Love Sponge.
 Admittedly, Stern and his ilk are smut peddlers, but it's always a little
scary when government begins to tell us radio folks what we can and can't
say.  Unfortunately, the consolidation of the industry has left us with
giant companies that wield so much power that (up until the Jackson
incident) they were not afraid of the FCC and its decency standards.

 (An aside here.  You have to wonder what type of sick puppies we have
running some companies.  When the CEO's go to church on Sunday - assuming
some of them do - do they ever have to look the preacher in face and think,
"I'm the guy that gives the country Bubba the Love Sponge."  But then, the
radio consumer laps this stuff up while advertisers pay cash money to be
associated with it.  The sewer is no longer a detriment to profits.)

 The FCC will find a way to mess up the current indecency controversy.  It
always finds a way to mess up whatever it touches with regard to commercial
radio - perhaps because it's too concerned with telephones and TV whatever
else it regulates.

 In my 1994 book "The Last Greats Days of Radio," I called for the
Commission to "clean up" the AM dial by paying off some stations owners of
some of the poorer frequencies such as the daytimer on 1580.  Then, other
stations could be allowed to pump up the day and night power so as to really
compete.  The idea was to equalize markets so that all the stations could
compete.  Chicago, for example, already has several 50,000-watt stations
with great coverage.  But Houston has only KTRH at 50,000 watts.

 Of course, instead of cleaning up the dial, the Commission cluttered it up
more with the expanded band and the low power FM's.  Instead of creating
more competition that would spur innovative programming and news coverage,
the Commission consolidated the industry causing thousands of jobs to be
lost and creating the concept of centralized programming.  So now, stations
around the country can sound just alike.

 At the risk of the Commission's reading this and doing just the opposite,
here are some suggestions that would help the radio business, even in these
days of consolidation.
First, abolish the low power FM's.  They serve no purpose and the commercial
station owners are right: they could create interference problems.

Second, take a serious look at the idea of cleaning up the AM dial and
making stations within a market more equal.  A 1000-watt daytimer in Dallas
can't compete with WBAP and KRLD.  Why not opt for fewer stations and more
real competitors?

 Let's get the FCC out of the decency business, and instead, allow local
communities to set their own standards of decency.  That's the way it works
for porn, and after all, the current issue is really about radio porn.
Local boards could be set up that would be the closest thing we can get to
true market-force regulation instead of government regulation.

Let's set up a "truth-in-licensing" program, so that smaller cities don't
lose their stations to the major markets.  If Austin really needs 40 FM
stations, assign them.  But the Luling station should stay in Luling.

Let's find a better way to assign frequencies than auctioning them off.  The
spectrum is limited and precious.  In the old days, applicants were judged
on racial makeup of the proposed ownership and by local involvement.  But a
prospective owner could get local credit by having a P.O. box in a city.
The FCC needs to get real.

 Finally, the FCC and its nepotistic chairman Michael Powell, should be
replaced by a simple, non-partisan board whose job it is to assign and
monitor frequencies and power assignments.  The major rulemaking should be
handled by the elected Congress in whose hands the Constitution places the
power to make law.  The FCC can have telephones and television, but radio
needs a simple, sensible National Radio Board.  The FCC has proven time and
again that it can't handle even the simplest things related to our industry.

Lynn Woolley is special contributor to RadioDailyNews.com ... He is morning host at KTEM.
His new book is called "Clear Moral Objectives" and is available online at
www.BeLogical.com. Lynn Woolley is the author of "The Last Great days of Radio" from Republic
of Texas Press available from www.BeLogical.com or www.amazon.com

Making Great Talk Radio
By Lynn Woolley
March 11, 2004