The Golden Uterus | The Deregulation of Broadcasting

Great Golden
Uterus Hanging
Lamps
&
The Deregulation
Of Broadcasting

To: poo@cts.com
Subject: Uterine things

Dear RALPH:

What does a "great golden uterus hanging lamp" look like?

--- HG1932@aol.com

To: HG1932@aol.com
Subject: Re: Uterine things (hanging) (and golden)

It looks like a uterus.

It is hanging.

It's golden.

And it's great.

(When you get the book you will catch my drift.)

--- L. Lark
RALPH
poo@cts.com

Executive Secretary
Reginald Aubrey Fessenden Educational Fund
Box 3490
San Diego, CA 92163

Dear Executive Secretary,

Because Reginald Aubrey Fessenden's book The Deluged Civilization of the Caucasus Isthmus is the key to later work by amateurs much less well known than he, I shall be trying to stir up in the scholarly world some interest in Fessenden's book and ideas. To this end I shall be writing to individual linguists, archaeologists, and anthropologists, and trying to place Letters to the Editor in some of their favorite journals.

Since your Fund bears Mr. Fessenden's name I wonder if your organization will take an interest in the diffusion of his ideas.

--- Thomas M. Creese
creese@math.ukans.edu
Department of Mathematics
University of Kansas
1460 Jayhawk Blvd.
Lawrence, KS 66045

To: Brian Lowry
%The L A Times
Los Angeles, California

Subject: Deregulation of broadcasting

Dear Brian Lowry:

It drives me crazy when you and other media critics talk about the "deregulation" of broadcasting (your column of August 1.)

When trucking was deregulated, anyone who wanted to could buy a truck and go into the business. When airlines were deregulated, anyone who had interest and was willing to follow safety procedures could start an airline.

Broadcasting was never deregulated. If you have any doubt of this, write to the FCC and tell them you want to start a radio or television station in Los Angeles. They'll write you back and tell you that there are no frequencies available. They will tell you can always buy an existing license. For $20,000,000 - $100,000,000 that makes it, at least for most of us, a non-option.

If there were to be a true opening of frequencies, anyone (you or I or anyone in this city) could apply for Channel 11 (TV) or 96.3 mHz (FM) or 790 kHz (AM). If we proved to the FCC that we would be providing a better service than the present owners, the license would be given to us. But fifteen years ago, Congress made this approach impossible.

In other words, under the rubric of "deregulation," existing broadcasters --- unlike truckers and airlines --- have been given eternal squatting rights on their frequencies. When the FCC tried to open up FM frequencies for non-corporate low-power operations, commercial and public broadcasters alike demanded that congress "protect" their frequencies. Legislation to this effect was passed last year which restricted new FM stations to the backwoods of Montana and South Dakota and Minnesota and Alabama.

The reality is that deregulation has effected a consolidation of broadcast licensees into the hands of a few huge corporations. Twenty years ago, no one entity could have more than 5 TV, 7 AM, or 7 FM stations. There are now operators, such as Infinity Broadcasting (Viacom), who own more than 1000 radio stations. We thus have a bitterly restrictive federal broadcast policy that encourages oligopolies, which is anathema to the free marketplace of ideas.

--- Lorenzo W. Milam

L. W. Milam
%RALPH:

I think we're saying the same thing in a different way. Broadcasting has been "deregulated," in terms of loosening or removing existing regulations that constrain those who already hold stations. So yes, while there are regulations in place --- and they clearly favor those ensconced --- the regulations that limited them have been slackened.

As for wanted to launch stations, the cost of admission has been raised, but it was always high. The point of the column, and most of what I've written on the topic, is that the business is regulated to favor the big guys who own it already. Whatever you want to call it, that's the result, and that's what I was referring to.

Thanks for the response.

--- Brian Lowry
Brian.Lowry@latimes.com

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