i think you are right, dc....
the deregulation of media ownership has been a catastrophe--at the seemingly benign level, it was the explanation for a strange state of affairs in philadelphia, where clear channel is an overwhelming broadcast radio presence with the results that boradcast radio is a wasteland--the strange thing was the you could not hear air america in philly, a city that voted something like 80% democrat in the last presidential election. it is also one of the top 10 media markets in the country. this state of affairs was very strange indeed.
on the other hand, there are hearings going on now (i think they are still happening) within the fcc that are designed as a review of this deregulation idea. part of the explanation for this is the case brought by prometheus, which is a west philadelphia based group of media activists that include several close friends. so this provides a chance to cheerlead for them. go hannah. anyway, here is a link to the fcc' page about the hearings:
http://www.fcc.gov/ownership/
and here to the prometheus project:
http://www.prometheusradio.org/
these folk are doing great work out there and are a quite amazing group, particularly as a grassroots operation that has come to be a significant force, one which is changing the terms of debate about media ownership patterns in general.
they are also a great source of information about low powered radio stations, how to set them up, etc.
they particularly despise clear channel, as i think most people do, or would if they understood what these folk are about and what they do.
http://prometheusradio.org/media_own...clear_channel/