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That’s kind of why the outrage over foreign ownership of US broadcast licenses is a bit moot. I’d prefer not to see it, but it’s not likely to make any difference because of the declining listenership of AM and FM radio and over-the-air TV. Many people don’t even realize their local Alphabet channel affiliate may have sold it’s license back to the FCC and now only broadcasts with low power or via a subchannel on another stations signal. And by streaming, of course, which is where the focus needs to be.

It’s a bit of a Catch 22 situation for the Left. While they’d love to cut Trump’s direct lines of communication off, they know only one entity controls the “Big Switch” of the internet, and that’s the Executive Branch. Now he’s put them on notice that their good thing (section 230 exemption) is about to end. Want to screw with the internet? The Executive controls it. Want to screw with over-the-air broadcasting? The Executive controls that too.

When covid-19 forced the closure of all inside dining, every restaurant in the country was in the pick-up and carryout business literally overnight. The same innovation will happen if anything threatens the free flow of information.

For two examples, consider Digital Radio Mondaile (DRM) which is going strong in Europe, and which allows voice and data transmission on the largely empty shortwave bands. Simple radios, worldwide coverage. Then there are satellite constellations - not just Elon Musk’s StarLink but OneWeb, which is based in the UK and has been struggling in todays environment. But so were companies that made face masks a couple of months ago.

The common advantage both technologies offer is global access to information that is independent of the US government. A DRM radio station could broadcasts uncensored news and information from Elbonia, for example, and the only thing the gov’t could do is jam it. And frequency hopping spread spectrum would make that ineffective.