[EAS] "Improving" EAS

[tpt at sevenrangesradio.com]

Let's add to this mix the elimination of the main studio rule--and the trend towards lifting the ownership caps.
 
>From a sales view, I am seeing increasing tends towards the wholesale over the retail. About 20% of the sales on a station we purchased back in 2009 were national/regional buys--the station is repped by Katz. That is drying up rapidly. Indeed, some months our 3rd station--home to a small county seat of 5,000, out-performs our metro station in a 12+ market of 125,000.
 
My business partner and I have been in radio for a combined total of at least 90 years--but the majority of stations in this country are now owned by private equity investors with no particular affinity to broadcasting.
 
Now throw in the elimination of the main studio rule. Our local I heart group seems to have just one programming employee.  The news comes from Cincinnati. There is no local engineer, if something breaks the engineer comes from Huntington, 2 hours away. Add the end of the main studio rule, and it will not be long before there is nothing local but a sales office. 
 
Now add in the NAB proposal to eliminate any ownership limits in small markets. Who needs studios? Computers with remote access software. Who needs studios? Sales guys work from home--upload orders into an out of town computer. Spots produced in Cincinnati, or Pittsburgh--and downloaded into the local computer.
 
The I-Heart stations locally already run EAS alerts for areas  way out of the area...makes me wonder if they haven't already remoted the decoder to Columbus.
 
And into this FCC created mess the Commission wants to harass the few remaining local stations..
 
I salute them with my middle finger.