NOT....Re: [BC] Clear Channel Wants More?

[Paul Christensen]

> Neither have the myriad of compulsory local community of license and EAS 
> requirements that all Part 73 and some Part 74 licensees have placed upon 
> them by regulation. To that end, their costs of doing business places them 
> at an unfair advantage over terrestrial broadcasters.

That's certainly true and other communications industries have faced the 
same dilemma, including the IBOC operators (i.e., Incumbent Bell Operating 
Companies, not HD Radio) where they have been wanting to provide bundled 
voice, video and data to customers for a long time in a free, deregulated 
marketplace.

The broadcasting community has been granted a great gift in that spectrum 
has been allocated on a gratis basis in the name of providing community 
service to the public.  But it is some of those same regulatory requirements 
that may place a restriction on future growth, assuming that growth cannot 
come from a remodeling of the existing business plans (e.g., programming 
changes, multicasting and  5.1 audio through HD Radio, etc.) - leaving 
additional concentration as the only means of achieving growth.  Has the 
industry gotten to the point where the only reasonable means of financial 
growth comes only from more consolidation?   If that is true, then 
deregulation of the concentration rules is necessary to compete with the 
so-called nascent services.

But what strikes me as reasonable on one side of the argument, is that if 
additional concentration is necessary, then at some point the discussion 
must also include payment in the way of spectrum fees for use of Part 73 and 
74 services.   If the broadcast community strives for a more competitive 
playing field, an argument can further be made that in the interest of 
fairness, broadcasters should begin paying their way for spectrum use (at 
auction or as a fee annuity) as do other wireless services.

Or in the alternative, the nascent services must deal with some of the same 
regulatory issues as Mike pointed out, including concentration of those 
services in any given market.  My gut tells me that neither Congress, nor 
the FCC is in a position to throw any kind of road-block in the path of new 
services until in their minds, the field is leveled.

More deregulation calls for some of the same market forces that promote 
healthy competition.  And the broadcasting industry should be prepared to 
accept such a possibility in the face of deregulation or create a compelling 
argument against it.

Paul


====================================
Paul Christensen, CPBE, CBNT
LAW OFFICE OF PAUL B. CHRISTENSEN, P.A.
3749 Southern Hills,  Jacksonville, Florida 32225
Office: (904) 379-7802    Facsimile: (904) 212-0050
pchristensen at ieee.org