Airwavesmay, repeat may belong to the "public', but transmitters, cables, studios, boards, offices do belong to the station owner. What if clear channel refuses to relinquish any of its assets? Constructing an entire new broadcast entity is not an easy task. It will requre a great deal of capital investment, which in these times may not be easy to come by. Innovations like HD radio are not the property of the public. I think the Dems are opening a can of worms they may have to eat.
Investors do so to make money. Radio lives and dies by advertising based on audience. How many people are going to listen to AM Radio for music? None. How many for general talk? Answer, very few. NYC's general talk station WOR has in the past two years added Bill O'Reilly, Dennis Miller and locally Steve Malzberg and returned John Gambling. All to the right of center. Guess what, ratings up. No ratings, no ad mony. No ad money no profit. no profit, the investors bail out. The Dems, being Socialist, never understood Eco 101.
RE :”think the Dems are opening a can of worms they may have to eat”
If they are stupid enough to try something big, it is a gift to us, like the bailout was to Pelosi/Obama.
I have an HD radio purchased on clearance at Circuit City for $40. It was originally $200. Thus far, there are no HD stations in the Pocatello area. Trashing the radio business with the "fairness doctrine" pretty well seals the coffin. If the "fairness doctrine" damages the XM/Sirius lineups, I'll drop those subscriptions. Obama's tax increases might prompt dropping them anyway.