On Feb 4, 8:17 am, wrote:

To diverge for a moment, that's another example of the government
taking a hands-off approach when formerly they had been active in
regulation.

It used to be that there were all kinds of limits on how many broadcast
stations the same corporate entity could own in a given market. The
idea was that no market should be dominated, let alone monopolized, by
a single network or company. This idea and the regulations to enforce
it were in place for decades, but a few years ago were quietly tossed
aside, resulting in what you have in your area.

The only one I bother to listen to other than the Public
station is the local ESPN sports station. They regularly go off the
air for long periods of time, play the satellite feed message, or my
favorite, play two feeds at once.

AM or FM?

It's an AM station.


The funny thing is that the most
listened to station in the area is guess who, the public station.

Not unusual - market forces at work... Here in Philly we have at least
two: WHYY and WXPN

They
still have engineers, they still monitor their output, and they
actually take input from their listeners.
That deregulation, that getting rid of skilled employees, did it work
when we have 8 or 9 stations that are horribly undependable,
and most
everyone, even people who hate to admit it, listen to the public
radio station?

Depends on how you define "did it work". From a pure profit standpoint,
all that matters is the return on investment. To the station's owners,
the additional cost of improving the availability of the signal and the
content of the programming may not result in enough of an increased
return (of cash).

From what I can gather, the post-regulation version of radio stations
is that you apply the notion of mass production to the issue. In this
method, you buy up as many stations as possible, and minimally staff
them. Then instead of locally produced content, you have satellite
feeds. Advertisement then is mostly national type stuff - I think
that's picked up from satellite also. I've heard Canadian public
service announcements on our local stations. On our local sports
station, there is maybe 15 percent local advertisements, and 1 semi
locally produced show.

It's been an unexpected boon for the public station. These local
places still need to advertise, so they are throwing money at the
public station. Then they get a mention, a thanks, and it turns out
that the public radio listeners will support these businesses and let
them know why. The great irony is that when the NPR was largely
removed from the public dole, it was done with the intention that it
would kill public radio. Now after all these years, commercial radio
is in the pits, and people are supporting public radio directly.

Back on topic, I'm firmly convinced that Amateur radio will serve as a
sort of an island for technically inclined people, while we sort our
way through this time of celebrity as role model, and the reality tv
mode that so many people seem to be in thrall to. We now celebrate the
mundane. I'm more interested in the exceptional, and I try to show as
many people as I know that to be technical is not a bad thing. That's
why I let everyone know that the hockey playing, loud motorcycle
driving guy is also full of that geeky goodness. There is an
alternative.

- 73 de Mike N3LI -