I dont doubt that it failed in part because it was "bad" radio, or the result of bad management, bad business model. technical difficulties, etc.
But to ignore the impact of ownership consolidation is to ignore a legitimate reason in addition to the above.
From a speech by an FCC Commissioner in 2003:
Quote:
According to one FCC report, in the six years since the adoption of the 1996 Act, the number of radio owners in the United States declined by 34 percent, even though the number of commercial radio stations increased by 5.4 percent. The FCC found that this decline is primarily due to mergers between existing owners.
In 1996, the two largest radio group owners consisted of fewer than 65 radio stations. Six years later, the largest radio group owns about 1,200 radio stations. The second largest group owns about 250 stations. Their influence is even larger than their numbers suggest, because they are concentrated in the largest markets in the country. Another outcome is a downward trend in the number of radio station owners in each local market.
The FCC study indicates that group owners account for an increasing share of radio advertising revenues in local markets. For example, last year the largest firm in each radio market had, on average, 47 percent of the market’s total radio advertising revenue. The largest two firms in each radio market had, on average, 74 percent of the market’s radio advertising revenue.
...The report, which each of you should read if you have not already, raises concerns about increasing local radio market concentration and the rise of ever larger national radio groups. It concludes that as a result of these trends, programming on local radio stations is increasingly done at the national level rather by the local stations.
http://www.fcc.gov/Speeches/Adelstei.../spjsa301.html
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If Clear Channel (or any national media company) owns mulitple stations in a market and receive nearly 1/2 to 3/4 of the ad revenue in the market, doesnt that make access a little difficult for a new venture?
If Clear Channel (or any national media company) makes the programming decisions at the corporate level, doesnt that make access a little difficult for a new venture?
The FCC hid a more recent study on radio consolidation than the one referred to in the above remarks.
http://reclaimthemedia.org/legislati...comes_to_light