Post by musicradio77 on Oct 5, 2005 22:49:41 GMT -5
By DAVID HINCKLEY
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Clear Channel, the largest radio owner in the country, thinks it should be allowed to get bigger.
Clear Channel CEO Mark Mays, speaking to the Progress and Freedom Foundation in Washington this week, said that the ever-growing number of competitors to "free radio," including iPods, wireless phones, Internet and satellite radio, make it imperative that the government loosen restrictions that limit anyone from owning more than eight stations in large cities like New York.
Mays proposed upping the limit to 12 stations in major markets, while warning that the radio biz is already "at risk."
The importance of radio, he said, was underscored in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina.
"When the electricity didn't work, when television didn't work, when the Internet didn't work, when pay radio didn't work, free radio worked," said Mays, detailing how radio relayed information to stranded residents and directed rescuers.
But he said "free radio" faces a serious problem: More than any competitor, it is "crippled by at-times suffocating regulations."
Mays likened the current situation to 1995, before Congress passed the Telecommunications Act, which increased the number of stations one company could own and sparked a wave of consolidation.
Many critics say consolidation reduced radio competition and creativity. Mays disagreed.
He said "free radio has more than doubled the number of music formats," increased news coverage and allowed Clear Channel to take chances with less established formats like liberal talk.
He also said Clear Channel hopes to have converted 95% of its major-market stations to high-definition broadcasting "within the next two years." That would enable those stations to air multiple formats on one frequency.
Increasing the station limit, he said, will let this work continue by "making the playing field level."
Joel Hollander, CEO of Clear Channel's major rival, Infinity, said last week he doesn't expect the federal government to raise the limit any time soon.
PACO'S BACK: Paco, one of the signature deejays of dance radio in New York, returns to a regular show this Saturday night, 7-10, on WNEW (102.7 FM).
He will host the all-request "Saturday Night Dance Party" handled by Joe Causi before Causi became morning co-host.
Paco was heard on WNEW earlier this year during a reunion weekend with other deejays from the original WKTU.
TAVIS, TOO: Tavis Smiley comes back to New York radio starting Oct. 15-16.
Smiley's new show, distributed by Public Radio International, will be heard Saturday and Sunday, 2-3 p.m., on WNYC (820 AM). Smiley's last show, on National Public Radio (NPR), ended when he said NPR wasn't working hard enough to serve black listeners. NPR denied it.
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Clear Channel, the largest radio owner in the country, thinks it should be allowed to get bigger.
Clear Channel CEO Mark Mays, speaking to the Progress and Freedom Foundation in Washington this week, said that the ever-growing number of competitors to "free radio," including iPods, wireless phones, Internet and satellite radio, make it imperative that the government loosen restrictions that limit anyone from owning more than eight stations in large cities like New York.
Mays proposed upping the limit to 12 stations in major markets, while warning that the radio biz is already "at risk."
The importance of radio, he said, was underscored in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina.
"When the electricity didn't work, when television didn't work, when the Internet didn't work, when pay radio didn't work, free radio worked," said Mays, detailing how radio relayed information to stranded residents and directed rescuers.
But he said "free radio" faces a serious problem: More than any competitor, it is "crippled by at-times suffocating regulations."
Mays likened the current situation to 1995, before Congress passed the Telecommunications Act, which increased the number of stations one company could own and sparked a wave of consolidation.
Many critics say consolidation reduced radio competition and creativity. Mays disagreed.
He said "free radio has more than doubled the number of music formats," increased news coverage and allowed Clear Channel to take chances with less established formats like liberal talk.
He also said Clear Channel hopes to have converted 95% of its major-market stations to high-definition broadcasting "within the next two years." That would enable those stations to air multiple formats on one frequency.
Increasing the station limit, he said, will let this work continue by "making the playing field level."
Joel Hollander, CEO of Clear Channel's major rival, Infinity, said last week he doesn't expect the federal government to raise the limit any time soon.
PACO'S BACK: Paco, one of the signature deejays of dance radio in New York, returns to a regular show this Saturday night, 7-10, on WNEW (102.7 FM).
He will host the all-request "Saturday Night Dance Party" handled by Joe Causi before Causi became morning co-host.
Paco was heard on WNEW earlier this year during a reunion weekend with other deejays from the original WKTU.
TAVIS, TOO: Tavis Smiley comes back to New York radio starting Oct. 15-16.
Smiley's new show, distributed by Public Radio International, will be heard Saturday and Sunday, 2-3 p.m., on WNYC (820 AM). Smiley's last show, on National Public Radio (NPR), ended when he said NPR wasn't working hard enough to serve black listeners. NPR denied it.