Broadcasting and Cable reports that the FCC has voted to eliminate "the almost eight-decade old requirement that broadcasters, radio and TV, maintain a main studio in or near their community of license." The National Association of Broadcasters expressed support for the change, saying the rule "has outlived its usefulness in an era of mobile news gathering and multiple content delivery platforms."
FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn opposed the move, saying it signified "embracing a world in which automated national programming is the new normal." Other critics saw the vote as easing the way for a Sinclair–Tribune merger.
Further reading: statement of Ajit Pai (PDF)
Related Stories
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-tribune-media-m-a-sinclair-idUSKBN1841HR
U.S. broadcaster Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc said on Monday it would buy Tribune Media Co, one of the largest U.S. television station operators, for about $3.9 billion cash and stock, and assume about $2.7 billion in debt.
[...] The announcement of the deal comes weeks after the U.S. Federal Communications Commission voted to reverse a 2016 decision that limits broadcasters owning stations serving no more than 39 percent of U.S. television households.
A combined Tribune and Sinclair could surpass this cap and face some regulatory challenges which could result in divestitures, analysts said.
Tribune Media. The newspaper assets were spun off years ago into Tribune Publishing, aka Tronc.
Related: Gannett Ends Pursuit of Rival Newspaper Publisher Tronc
Tribune announced its withdrawal from the $3.9 billion transaction in a[n] emailed statement Thursday. Tribune said it has filed a lawsuit in the Delaware Chancery Court against Sinclair seeking compensation for losses incurred as a result of "Sinclair's material breaches" of the merger agreement.
[...] The FCC order asked whether Sinclair was in fact the hidden buyer in a proposal to sell Chicago's WGN-TV to a Maryland automobile executive with no prior broadcast experience, and ties to Sinclair management. The agency also questioned links between the Maryland-based broadcaster and a buyer proposed for stations in Dallas and Houston.
Tribune Media released details of its lawsuit against Sinclair Broadcast Group. saying it is seeking $1 billion from the local TV station owner due to its "belligerent and unnecessarily protracted negotiations" with regulators, which it says doomed the $3.9 billion deal.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 26 2017, @06:42PM
STUDIO RULES, BITCH!!
1. If you ain't one of the homies don't be Instagraming you creepy muthafucka. I don't wanna look on yo twitter and find a creepy ass pic of me or one of the homies, matter of fact, No Twitter or Instagram in the studio! Act like you been around a bunch of rich niggas from the bottom before!
2. If the homies just met you and decide to clown yo bitch azz, sit there and deal with it. It's part of the creative juices
3. Don't touch, ask, or reach for Q's weed, unless he thinks you cool enuff to pass it to you. We only smoke stersonals around here boy
4. Shut up and look ugly for the homies
5. Remember these rules and you might get a meal out the food budget!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Uncle_Al on Thursday October 26 2017, @06:58PM (7 children)
"Local Studio" means someone playing stuff generated by some guy in his home studio pretending to be local, if that.
Support non-commercial non-networked radio
At least you know there is a human behind the mike.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 26 2017, @07:21PM
Times have changed since "Weird Al" Yankovic starred in UHF. Aspiring stars desperate for breakout fame with sleeper hits like Stanley Spadowski's Clubhouse don't have to settle for TV or radio. They have YouTube now.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 26 2017, @10:47PM (5 children)
some guy in his home studio pretending to be local
From 10PM till 6AM, KKJZ (K-Jazz) used to play hour-long recordings that had been recently made by Bob Parlocha (the best DJ I've heard outside of Classical stations).
Bob died in March 2015.
That syndicated thing continued till about a month after his death, doing repeats from his many years of stuff.
At that point, I'm guessing, the contract expired.
Bob told you the name of the tune, who wrote it, the album where you could find the tune[1], the label, and the name of every player on the session.
If there was somebody on the album who was laying out for that tune, he'd likely get mentioned too.
Bob would often say who arranged the tune (if that was different from the composer) and, being a working musician, he would often have a little trivia to add about 1 or more of the musicians on the track.
We're talking here about a real pro from the best days of radio.
(The Boston NPR station that syndicated his program also had webpages with his playlists, which had the information--aside from the list of players).
He'd never pretend to be anything other than a syndicated hired hand.
I -REALLY- miss that guy.
[1] ...which was sometimes different than the out-of-print album he was actually playing.
.
KKJZ (formerly KLON) is licensed to California State University, Long Beach.
A bit after Bob died, KKJZ got new management and that bunch moved the studio to the west side of Los Angeles.
Not so long ago, the station went fully automated 8PM to 8AM.
Songs aren't announced; it's like an iPod on Shuffle.[2]
That's still OK--if you have a web connection and can pull up their what's-playing-now page. [jazzandblues.org]
[2] It reminds me of the WKRP episode where the fully-automated operation (~1980) offered Venus Flytrap a highly-paid do-nothing position because the all-White station wanted their racial diversity numbers to look better.
.
Another thing that really irritated me about KKJZ's ham-fisted management is that my old bookmark for their what's-playing-now page suddenly became a 403.
I was trying to access kkjz.org and they had simply unceremoniously dropped that, apparently not wanting to pay $8 for another year's domain registry AND not putting up a redirect saying WE'RE CHANGING THINGS--UPDATE YOUR BOOKMARKS either during the last month before the change.
.
Oooo. At this point I have to mention a guy on the station who does things right.
Gordon Goodwin, leader of The Big Phat Band and The Little Phat Band has a show called Phat Tracks that airs (and streams) noon - 2PM Pacific Time on Saturdays (and repeats 11PM - 1AM Fridays).
He pre-records the show but does an excellent job of that.
All of his tunes show up in the station's online playlist. [archive.li]
This is in stark contrast to other folks (Johnny Magnus, Jerry Sharell, John Pizzarelli) who will just slop together an hour-long MP3 that barely registers in the playlist.
Note also that Gordo doesn't stick strictly to Jazz tunes.
He's there to help you appreciate how music is crafted and he'll play anything with "phatness".
.
Oh, and Helen Borgers, who had worked for the station for decades, and Brad Williams, another long-time employee, were unceremoniously canned in the process of "upgrading" the station.
One day, they just weren't there any more.
Shortly after that, Helen had the bad luck of having a heart attack with no insurance.
.
In September, my Smooth Jazz station in south Orange County became just a repeater for a mostly-bad[3] station in the San Fernando Valley
[3] Even more like an iPod on Shuffle than KKJZ.
...though Harry Shearer's "Le Show" has gained a broadcast outlet in The OC once again.
"Public" radio looks more and more like ad-riddled let's-maximize-profits-and-minimize-workers commercial radio with every passing month.
The only thing that's left with any backbone (no ads; mostly volunteer presenters) is the Pacifica Radio network.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Informative) by Uncle_Al on Friday October 27 2017, @12:03AM (1 child)
"The only thing that's left with any backbone (no ads; mostly volunteer presenters) is the Pacifica Radio network."
WFMU
KFJC (currently in their weird style of fundraising mode)
also available on the web
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 27 2017, @12:30AM
WFMU
Yeah. I've got one of their webpages bookmarked.
A Bill of Rights for Today's Busy Citizen [googleusercontent.com] (orig) [wfmu.org]
That's also the station that syndicated Bob Parlocha.
I erroneously pegged them as a Boston station.
They broadcast to NY/NJ.
KFJC
Good to hear about them as well.
Surprised that I haven't stumbled across them previously.
{Raising a glass to both}
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 27 2017, @03:10AM (2 children)
> KKJZ (formerly KLON) is licensed to California State University, Long Beach.
When the university bought KLON, it shut down its student-run 10-watt, monaural FM station, KSUL [ksul.org]. KLON took over KSUL's studio. Check out the MP3 [ksul.org] with snippets of some KSUL programming.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 27 2017, @03:50AM (1 child)
Hmmm. I don't recall ever before seeing audio sampled at 112kbit.
The intro contains an interesting mix of genres.
It made me think of The Darkling Eclectica [kuci.org] out of KUCI from the University of California, Irvine.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 28 2017, @03:17PM
It was before my time, but I understand that KSUL was what's known as free-form radio: the DJs could play what they pleased. Another page [socalradiowaves.com] tells its story (which I had paraphrased).
(Score: 5, Insightful) by NewNic on Thursday October 26 2017, @06:58PM (3 children)
... just another person selling out his fellow citizens for his own personal (but deferred) benefit.
The elimination of this rule will have one significant effect: further consolidation of power amongst the wealthy.
I predict that Mr Pai will take up a comfortable, very well paid "consultancy" or similar position (which won't really require much actual work) in the telecom industry after he leaves his government position.
lib·er·tar·i·an·ism ˌlibərˈterēənizəm/ noun: Magical thinking that useful idiots mistake for serious political theory
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday October 26 2017, @07:26PM (1 child)
https://www.fcc.gov/about/leadership/ajit-pai [fcc.gov]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday October 26 2017, @09:07PM
Director of Paperclip Counting should be at least a six figure job.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 2) by digitalaudiorock on Friday October 27 2017, @02:53PM
Also, just as Clearchannel has done with radio stations, this will allow Sinclair to start running just about every local TV station in the country remotely, spewing their rightwing BS from one big central office. Is there anything that isn't just completely going to shit anymore?
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Snotnose on Thursday October 26 2017, @07:00PM (9 children)
Net neutrality, this bullshit. what will he think of next?
I compare this to Clearchannel some 20 years ago. CC bought up a bunch of radio stations, overpaying for all of them. Then to pay for it they jacked up the commercial load, fired DJs, and centralized their playlists. The result? I don't know of a single person who listens to radio now.
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 26 2017, @07:33PM (5 children)
All the regional billboard companies have been bought up by ClearChannel, Sinclair, or one other company.
None of them are independent anymore, and many of them are now quite distracting while driving with their brightly lit full motion video and showy attention grabbing light shows.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 26 2017, @07:44PM (3 children)
Video billboards are the best because they can show you a different SJW message every ten seconds. Since you can afford a car, you must have money, so why aren't you donating to the Puerto Rico relief effort?
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 26 2017, @08:31PM (1 child)
Simple answer: because you're a piece of crap that thinks helping your fellow human beings is some SJW conspiracy.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 26 2017, @10:45PM
Are you one of those scammers who scraped my phone number off a job board. Apparently one of you shining examples of selflessness thinks it must be a good idea to call me to demand that I donate my boat to charity. I do not know who told you about a boat which I do not have. Maybe that dickhead scumbag Michael David Crawford pretended to hallucinate a boat on my behalf. In any event I am not naive enough to believe that you my fellow human beings are anything other than irredeemable. Charity is nothing more than virtue signalling to you disingenuous scum.
(Score: 2) by meustrus on Friday October 27 2017, @05:06PM
Um, what? I don't know what billboards are like where you live, but where I live, half the time they're trying to shame women into keeping their unwanted fetuses inside their bodies. Then there's the occasional doomsday preacher that takes out a spot on the video billboard for a few days.
And what the hell does charitable giving have to do with "social justice" anyway?
If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?
(Score: 2) by Uncle_Al on Thursday October 26 2017, @07:58PM
2019 LA comes to your town
live offworld
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 26 2017, @08:45PM (1 child)
Apparently you are one of the "coastal elites" because you can't see how this is "draining the swamp."
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 26 2017, @10:30PM
Oh yeah, those damn bureaucrats just love strangling companies with regulation. And you know what happens?!? The customers, US by the way, end up PAYING MORE! Why should I pay more just because some damn government worker wants to stick their noses into the business of private companies? Why should I pay more just to provide Obama phones to low lifes? I already subsidize the NSA, now I have to pay for low life scum to get free cell phones that can be spied on? Where does the madness stop?
At least the swamp is being drained at LONG LAST! Now I can look forward to a tax refund and lower telecom bills. Right?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 26 2017, @11:29PM
...and you're in San Diego.
I understand that it's almost impossible to turn on the radio in Dago and -not- be listening to a Clear Channel station.
...with 90 percent of all radio outlets in USA being owned by 6^W 5 megacorporations.
Thanks, Ronnie Raygun.
Thanks, Slick Willie.
.
...and this latest thing reminds me of the Minot, North Dakota train derailment. [wikipedia.org]
...and since Reagan/Mark Fowler, radio stations haven't been required to do any news anyway.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 26 2017, @07:04PM (3 children)
You may have thought that the government workers themselves are the problem and thus applauded Trump's gutting of so many agencies, but the last bit of the summary is the most telling.
Seems that the bureaucracy actually has the right mindset on this one. Let's not pave the way for an ever more dystopian future. Without a studio and similar real assets these broadcasters will end up running aggregation scripts and having Siri read the news for us.
A short hop skip and jump away and we have news networks compromised by bots and bad actors to sway public opinion with false information in order to sway election results.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 26 2017, @09:18PM
This is the gift to the religious hypocrite network, and their "must runs". John Oliver did a great piece on the whole thing, and it is well worth watching, even if you don't like his brand of humor.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 26 2017, @10:43PM
> Seems that the bureaucracy actually has the right mindset on this one.
Mignon Clyburn was one of two FCC commissioners who voted to retain the main studio rule. She's no more or less of a bureaucrat than the three commissioners who voted to end it. The vote was along party lines.
> [...] having Siri read the news for us.
There once was a requirement that TV and radio stations broadcast news. That was dropped decades ago, and many stations closed their newsrooms then.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 26 2017, @11:51PM
embracing a world in which automated national programming is the new normal
Its been that way for at LEAST 20 years in radio and even longer in TV.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u41bQG_Ll7E [youtube.com]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44ojS4UNn8I [youtube.com]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TM8L7bdwVaA [youtube.com]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2dJxiDkcjA [youtube.com]
I personally first noticed it around 1999.
This ruling just basically formalizes what has already been going on. 'local' people reading what the home office tells them to read.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 26 2017, @07:06PM (2 children)
You don't need your local community anymore! You don't need local information. You don't need anything but what your corporate overlords force upon you.
And people wonder why some reasonably basic concepts of values are missing?
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday October 26 2017, @10:21PM (1 child)
Of course it is natural, local community is in fact local communism, opposed to profits at larger scale. Now, you wouldn't want communism, would you?
(grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Thursday October 26 2017, @11:09PM
All the sense of belonging you need, branded right on your clothes, foor, drink, car, laptop, phone..
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 4, Informative) by SomeGuy on Thursday October 26 2017, @07:10PM (5 children)
I look forward to all of our local news now brought to us live and direct from some hovel in India.
Not.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 26 2017, @07:27PM
I get all the Chicago weather I need from ctabustracker.com
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday October 26 2017, @09:54PM (3 children)
A news team at a hovel in India can cover local events just as effectively. Coverage of local fires. Floods. Emergencies. Police shootings of elderly people unable to stand when so ordered. Etc.
ABC: We have breaking news in Uncanny Valley NJ. We're taking you to our local affiliate now. (what's that?) I have just been informed that our local affiliates are all automated and have no local reporters.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 26 2017, @10:51PM (2 children)
Send camera drones.
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Thursday October 26 2017, @11:28PM
"Just in: a man in some town I cannot pronounce in the US has been attacked by a swarm of drones. Apaprently, an emergency phone call suggested someone saw a gun near a bank. No further word on reports the drones were all from news companies. Also no further comments on the attacked man being a "guard". HD video has been pixellated remove implied guilt from the man's company. "
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday October 27 2017, @01:39PM
I can imagine an alternative . . .
Government Provided News!
Yes, get your Real News right hear! Sea how grate your new Government Reportifying is! We have always been at war with Eastasia.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by DeathMonkey on Thursday October 26 2017, @07:25PM
When reality's not on your side buy the media!
(Score: 4, Insightful) by DannyB on Thursday October 26 2017, @09:03PM (7 children)
This will simply accelerate the death of broadcast TV. It will become a vast wasteland. Like radio. All automated. All dreck. All the time. No real news. Certainly nothing local. No local events covered. Local elections. Local crime. Local government issues.
Clue: the things that can get done at the local government level are not insignificant. Why would someone not want you to know about this?
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 2) by Uncle_Al on Thursday October 26 2017, @09:55PM (3 children)
"things that can get done at the local government level are not insignificant."
Like property taxes, and what is done with the money?
Spoken like a non-homeowner.
Things at the NATIONAL level are the things you have no control over. YOU
DO HAVE SOME CONTROL AT THE TOWN/COUNTY LEVEL, esp outside cities.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 27 2017, @12:10AM (1 child)
Negation tends to confuse people. "Not insignificant" means "significant."
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday October 27 2017, @01:43PM
When I wrote it, I intended "not insignificant" to mean like the glass is "not empty". It doesn't mean the glass if full. It just means not empty. At the local level what can be accomplished by local government is "not insignificant". Better than nothing. Somethings a lot better. But not meant to imply ideal or fantastic.
It depends on which type of person you are1.
Which type are you? Do you see the buffer as half full, or half empty?
The former type are more likely to insist on allocating a larger buffer.
The latter are more likely to experience a buffer overflow.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1People always come in two types. Those who divide people into two types, and those who do not.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday October 27 2017, @01:34PM
I am a homeowner. With a mostly paid off mortgage.
Do you happen to know how public school is funded?
I've heard people gripe and complain about paying property taxes because THEY don't have kids. Funding public education is an extremely important public benefit, just like funding public roads, bridges, street lights, sidewalks, traffic signals (upwards of $1 to $2 Million ea), etc.
If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.
Oh, wait. It seems like we are trying that already. How's that working out? We don't need no steenkin' science in the administration. Especially since those stupid scientists don't agree with the policy that benefits the richest. Or imagine this one: Mom! I'm pregnant again! Why does this keep happening to me?
Even though my daughter graduated high school more than half a decade ago, I'm pleased to be funding public school. I only hope the money is being well spent. At least at the local level you can hope to have some influence.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 27 2017, @12:04AM (2 children)
A plug here for 100 percent listener-supported Pacifica Radio.
KPFA[1] - Berkeley (First public radio station in USA, 1949)
KPFK - Los Angeles
KPFT[1] - Houston, Texas
WBAI - NYC
WPFW - Washington, DC
They also stream.
[1] Especially awesome audio archives, in case you miss the beginning or end of a program.
...or are outside those areas and want some non-corporate content.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Uncle_Al on Friday October 27 2017, @12:16AM (1 child)
http://www.pacifica.org/about_history.php [pacifica.org]
for Pacifica's political agenda
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 27 2017, @12:57AM
Corporate: "Can we pay you to run our slickly-produced spots for military aircraft--even though none of your listeners/viewers can actually purchase one?
Oh, and if you air anything military-related of which our corporation disapproves, the money stream stops."
Corporate shill broadcast outlet: "No problem."
.
Pacifica's response: "Drop dead. We only listen to our listener-members when it comes to selecting content."
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]