MICRO RADIO CONT'D
Jesse Walker writes in response to my post below:
If I wasn't completely jumping up & down with glee at Powell's statement, it was for two reasons.
The first is my concern that this will put the brakes on some recent efforts to repeal the anti-LPFM law that was passed in 2000. It's great to expedite approval of all those licenses that are currently in limbo, but it would be even better to grant licenses to people in, y'know, cities. (Then again, there's no guarantee that such a law will pass -- and if it does, it'll almost certainly be attached to an effort to restore the status quo ante with the ownership regs.)
The second reason was alluded to briefly in the Times piece: "Mr. Powell said that the panel, which will begin meeting next month, would seek to answer such questions as how many hours stations already devote to local issues and 'what was the nature and the quality of that local news,' with a goal of increasing such coverage." That could mean a lot of things, and I'm taking a wait-and-see attitude for now. But I'm worried that it might end up bringing back the sorts of regulations that were scaled back in the '80s, requiring a certain amount of "public service" programming to keep your license.
He also notes that I used an obsolete title for his book. It's Rebels on the Air, not in it. (Rebels in the Air is to Rebels on the Air as Look and Feel is to The Substance of Style.)