The move helps clear the way for the CBS Radio merger
http://www.allaccess.com/net-news/archive/story/162357/entercom-surrenders-license-of-kdnd-sacramento-mov
Too often I lose touch with what's going on in the radio business; going through the list of CBS owned stations shows, to me, how out of control things have gotten. Look at what they own in markets like NYC & Philadelphia-they call that competition?
I remember 25 years ago they wouldn't let a local guy start a station because he was publishing a weekly newspaper in a town 30 miles away. He had a prior record of owning a station & would have replicated the format: heavy on local news & public affairs, along with music that nobody else played (old, traditional C&W). Things changed quite a bit...not for the better?
In 1996 they loosened the rules of the number of stations one company own - both in each market and across the country. In the largest markets it's 8. Up to 5 on either band (FM/AM).
Examples - Hartford, Connecticut:
CBS:
93.7 Hip-hop
96.5 Top 40
100.5 Adult Contemporary
1080 News/Talk
I-Heart (formerly Clear Channel)
92.5 Country
95.7 Top 40
97.9 Sports Talk
105.9 Variety Hits
1410 Talk
Other Stations in Hartford
102.9 Classic Rock and 1360 Talk are owned by a small company called Connoisseur (1360 is also on 3 other AM stations throughout the state)
104.1 Alt Rock and 990/96.1 Oldies are owned by a local company called Red Wolf Broadcasting (96.1 is a low-power repeater of AM 990). Red Wolf also has a network of 5 Low-Power stations across the state that run a Spanish Top 40 format and that's based at 104.1 HD2.
The low-power repeaters do not count against ownership caps.
Boston:
CBS:
98.5 Sports Talk
100.7 Classic Rock
103.3 Top 40
104.1 MIX
1030 All News
TV:
4-CBS
38-My Network TV
Entercom:
93.7 Sports Talk (Local)
97.7 R&B From the 90s, 00s, and today
107.3 Rock
680 Talk
850 ESPN
I-Heart:
94.5 Hip-Hop
101.7 Country
107.9 Top 40
1200 Bloomberg Business Programming
1430 Talk
Beasley
92.9 Alt. Rock
96.9 Throwback Hip-hop and R&B with some new Hip-Hop and R&B
102.5 Country
105.7 Classic Hits
106.7 Adult Contemporary
1330/106.1 Currently Off the Air
IMHO the Telecommunications Act of 1996 which instituted those changes was perhaps
the most corrupt piece of legislation to ever pass Congress.
And THAT'S really saying something.