Comments on: Radio Industry Hypocrisy http://virginiavirtucon.wordpress.com/2007/03/13/radio-industry-hypocrisy/ Virginia politics, policy and entertainment from the Greater Richmond-Washington Metro Area perspective. Sat, 26 Dec 2009 00:55:19 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 By: MB http://virginiavirtucon.wordpress.com/2007/03/13/radio-industry-hypocrisy/#comment-7004 MB Tue, 13 Mar 2007 22:32:51 +0000 http://virginiavirtucon.wordpress.com/2007/03/13/radio-industry-hypocrisy/#comment-7004 NAB opposition to the merger goes back to the original rules permitting (what became) XM and Sirius. The battle over spectrum allocation, operational parameters, etc. was enormous and hard fought. The sat radio companies *explicitly* agreed to rules requiring competition (as well as restrictions on local broadcasting). And now they're saying - oh, well, sorry, we don't want to abide by those rules anymore. In any event, there's hardly a "free market reign" solution available to you here. The broadcast industry itself is highly restricted in where and how it can compete, for a broad number of reasons. Further, this isn't a battle between government and business interests (and we all know that consumer interests have long been locked out of the building, right?). This is a battle between big business on both sides, each of which are simply trying to game the system to their advantage. No one has the free market mantra on their side. No one. NAB opposition to the merger goes back to the original rules permitting (what became) XM and Sirius. The battle over spectrum allocation, operational parameters, etc. was enormous and hard fought. The sat radio companies *explicitly* agreed to rules requiring competition (as well as restrictions on local broadcasting). And now they’re saying – oh, well, sorry, we don’t want to abide by those rules anymore.

In any event, there’s hardly a “free market reign” solution available to you here. The broadcast industry itself is highly restricted in where and how it can compete, for a broad number of reasons. Further, this isn’t a battle between government and business interests (and we all know that consumer interests have long been locked out of the building, right?). This is a battle between big business on both sides, each of which are simply trying to game the system to their advantage. No one has the free market mantra on their side. No one.

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