[BC] XM / Sirius Merger

[Mark Humphrey]

On 2/19/07, Kent Winrich <kwinrich at gmail.com> wrote:
> Didnt the FCC already say no to this?
>

Just because the Commission says "no" one day, doesn't mean the ruling
won't be reversed a few months later.

I experienced this myself under two different owners who were seeking
the same waiver request.  The first owner was turned down twice (after
waiting six years for a final ruling) so he gave up and sold the
station to another company.  The new owner had better political
connections, and the same waiver request breezed right through, less
than ten months after  the sale closed.

I have copies of both decision letters and they are like "night and
day"; the first is ten nasty pages long, but the second gushes about
all the public interest benefits that would result from the waiver.
(And after the new facility was built, the benefits actually did
materialize.)

Maybe some day I'll post thse letters side-by-side so you can see how
business in Washington is really done.

Mark