William Kennard, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, is concerned that radio, which once used to portray the individual sound of a locality, now sounds the same everywhere in the country.

It isn't quite that bad in Madison -- yet. But it probably will be as more and more radio stations here, like those in the rest of the country, are becoming owned by fewer and fewer companies. Independent broadcasters are becoming as scare as family farmers these days. During the past year alone, their ranks dropped by more than 1,000.

The way for these new big ownerships to maximize profits, of course, is to standardize as much programming as possible. Syndicated shows -- the Dr. Lauras and Rush Limbaughs, the Fabulous Sports Babes and Jim Romes -- are replacing local personalities to keep payroll costs down.

"Radio is our most ubiquitous mass medium,'' Kennard said recently. "People don't feel they have a local voice over the air anymore.''

That's been one of the reasons Kennard has been the driving force behind the FCC's plan to license hundreds of free, low-power radio stations for nonprofit groups across the country. The stations would have only enough power to send a signal to about a 3-mile radius from their transmitter.

Broadcasting industry officials, not surprisingly, are fighting the FCC tooth and nail. Although their official opposition claims that the low-power frequencies would interfere with theirs, the real reason is the competition from those stations might cut their listenership and, hence, advertising rates.

Since the broadcasters, like newspaper publishers, are big contributors to GOP causes, the Republicans in Congress have thrown roadblocks in the way of Kennard's plan, calling it everything from "dumb'' to "arrogant.''

But those same Republicans have suddenly stopped making so much noise on the issue.

It turns out that well over half of the applicants for the low-power licenses are churches, and many of them are the fundamentalist churches that make up the so-called Religious Right, stalwart supporters of the Republican Party.

According to a story in the New York Times last week, spokesmen for the churches see a low-power radio license as a great opportunity to spread their word.

"Radio has become nothing but the same handful of people who have a great voice all over our country,'' said one.

Other applicants for the so-called "micro-stations'' have been schools, immigrant groups and a few jazz societies. (Wouldn't it be great if Madison could get a low-power station to play jazz all day?) Just think of all the niches that could be served.

The air out there belongs to everyone. Why should the government allow it to remain the exclusive domain of fewer and fewer private interests?

Copyright 2000 The Capital Times

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