Dead Air

By Bob Curran

My fifteen-year career in the radio business has been relatively brief (so far) by some standards.  I’ve met some 30, 40 and even 50-year veterans of this “entertainment business.”  Yet my perspective is based on the lucky confluence of when I started on the cusp of 1994-95 to the present 2009-10 since my career began just before the infamous “Telecommunications Act” of 1996. This changed the whole ball game in which one owner/operator was allowed to own many media properties in the same market.  Previous to my experience there was only allowed a “duopoly” where one owner was limited to one radio station and maybe one TV station in the same market, or one AM radio signal and one FM signal per market.

That began to change around the time I entered the business and the 1996 act marked both the Federal government getting involved in the affairs of free enterprise and capitalism.  We all know how that usually works out!

THE POST OFFICE:  BROKE!
MEDICARE AND MEDICAID:  BROKE!
SOCIAL SECURITY:  BROKE!
RADIO CONSOLODATORS:  I’LL LET YOU TAKE A GUESS!

See Chapter One

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