Dialing up to reregulation
By James C. Miller III
May 13, 2008
The rationale for the original content regulations (imposed over several decades) is that radio broadcasters tend to lose touch with the local populations they were intended to serve under their "public service obligation." The theory (never really proven) is that, since they typically faced little competition from other broadcasters, they would respond only to narrow commercial interests, not the public as a whole.
This led to quotas for certain types of government-preferred, non-entertainment programming.
The same reasoning led to the so-called Fairness Doctrine, which throttled real debate and almost strangled talk radio in its infancy.
The result was that broadcasters not only had to fill out a lot of paperwork no one ever read, but the public was saddled with messages and formats they really didn"t want.
