SoCo Magazine - May 2008 - (Page 37) says looks like a newspaper stock “running straight downhill.” So what if the Fairness Doctrine is implemented anyway? “It will be the best thing that ever happened to satellite and Internet radio,” says Carr. “This would hasten the demise of traditional radio. Once Wi-Fi is in cars, I won’t have to worry about having a terrible signal. If they have Wi-Fi in cars, it’ll be a big blow to traditional radio, like the mandate by Congress to put FM radios in cars in the 1970s.” But you don’t know how things will work out. The Internet may kill satellite, but satellite was supposed to kill broadcast radio, notes Carr. As yet, it has not. Neither the present economy nor the Fairness Doctrine could douse Ken Pittman’s optimism for the terrestrial/ talk radio industry. “The stocks are deflated—it has something to do with the present economic conditions,” says Pittman. “People are careful about where they invest. Investors don’t understand the direction the industry’s going in. Citadel’s stock is down. Talk radio is leaning more toward the Internet and podcasting. But if you look at the growth from 1990 to today, it’s one of the strongest media avenues of growth.” Nonetheless, Pittman says implementing the Fairness Doctrine would be a “brazen use of power to force people to change programming on radio. It’s really unconstitutional. If liberal radio fails in the free market, it will fail anywhere.” The Golden Age of Talk and Its Future For a broad industry view, I spoke to Michael Harrison, publisher of Talkers magazine. Talkers lists the yearly top 100 heavy talkers and will put Michael Savage or Alan Colmes on the cover. In short, Talkers takes a non-partisan approach to a sometimes controversial industry. I asked Harrison about the state of the industry in the wake of collapsing stocks and new competitive media. “It’s a big question, and there’s not a simple answer,” he says. “The industry is in trouble and it is in transformation. The trouble lies in getting through the current economy, which is causing all advertisers to have problems in all old media: newspapers, magazines, and radio. We’re losing advertising to the Internet and dried-up budgets due to the economy.” Terrestrial radio as we know it will be competing increasingly with the Internet when the Internet becomes more available in cars,” notes Harrison, who adds that it will become “harder and harder to maintain any value for AM/FM licenses.” This is because both licenses and radio station facilities cost millions to purchase and also carry a heavy debt thereafter. “The license you’re paying for is a government-protected monopoly in the marketplace. Now new mediums are invading, creating competition in your own genre. People are broadcasting from home for free on the Internet without regulation.” Harrison paints a picture of a media world that is changing. He believes the idea of “audio-only” media will become old-fashioned as we move to audio-video oriented media. “Radio stations will have a video component to them,” Harrison says. “You see the picture, video text, et cetera. We’re in the convergence phase of multimedia. Every medium will have components of others. It won’t be television and radio as we know it. I read the New York Times and watch videos of news on the Internet.” Harrison notes Clear Channel, which purchased more stations than anyone over the past decade, is having cutbacks and hiring and budget freezes. Now they’re trying to sell stations. Citadel also bought ABC stations from Disney but may now be in similar trouble due to the transforming industry. But not everything bodes ill. I asked if talk radio, with a legion of successful personality broadcasters, is at its peak. “Talk is in its golden era. It saved AM radio and promises to save FM,” Harrison says. “I’m not proclaiming AM/FM dead. I’m telling you the truth: The trends are not looking very good. Music radio is in worse trouble than AM now because of satellite and iPod. Talk radio may be the last man standing on FM radio and it will flourish on the Internet.” Finally, I asked him about that increasingly non-discussed issue in the media known as the Fairness Doctrine. Will the next presidential administration pass it? “They will not get away with it,” says Harrison. “It’s understood by most politicians and broadcasters as unconstitutional. 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