-Making Radio a More ‘Local’ Medium Again? Regulation of Large Radio Groups-

Since the rise and subsequent domination of select radio group giants, there has been much debate and consideration given to developing new regulations in order to break up these large radio groups, with the ultimate hopes of making radio a local medium again.  While the thought of reduced competition in any given industry and even possible monopolizations are quite scary to think of, applying that thought and concern to the radio field is rather…Extreme, to put it lightly.  I honestly don’t believe that new regulation can be justified to break up large radio groups and OPTIMISTICALLY make radio a more local medium again.  This is because a vast majority of people have already become so accustomed to these large groups, and a break up would cause a huge shock and possibly even shake the very foundation of the current radio media model.  Consider this: These select groups have become such giants in the industry because they have and continue to run well thought out business models; they know what their audience wants, and they give them a successful blend of it, including news, entertainment, politics, etc…  By breaking up such groups, it breaks down that fully established order and structure, which means smaller groups have to pick up the individual pieces and run it themselves-Pieces that were once all handled collectively by a large group.

In addition, the large groups don’t exactly ‘kill off’ the smaller, local groups as people might fear is the case.  Every city and town can, and usually do, have their own local radio group(s) which cater to the SPECIFIC demands of the local residents; ie, local news from around the town.  It’s key to note that both large and small local radio groups can co-exist due to the different purposes they serve.  Large radio groups are more of a major and generic group, since they would play popular music or music of a specific genre (jazz, rock, country, etc…) as well as broadcast national news such as Presidential messages and economic information like the country’s spending deficit.  In contrast, the smaller and local radio groups are able to provide information specific to the town in which they’re located in.  They can cover an event at a local recreational park, recent muggings within the area, and other such topics that would useful and RELEVANT to that specific town.  Both are very beneficial to the public, and although the large radio groups have a strangle hold on most areas of the radio industry, smaller local groups will always have that niche for their local towns, and with that they’ll be sure to continue to hang around the air waves.