There was a big change about the number of "media outlets" - both radio stations and TV stations - that could be owned in a single market by a single entity. Essentially, one big company can own (and program) as many as they want now. This has resulted in the growth of huge media groups like Evergreen and Jaycor that control multiple stations in the same market.

This was a great thing for corporate radio. You could sell advertising for multiple stations, target your programming for very specific demographic groups, maximize the use of your studios and broadcast systems; all ways to cut costs and raise the bottom line. Unfortunately, this also results in many outlets working from the same corporate point of view. There goes the neighborhood.

Hopefully, others can fill in the details or correct any misrepresentations I may have made. I didn't mean, when I first mentioned deregulation, to try to blame it on the republicans alone. Business has friends on both sides of the aisle. Most regulation is imposed for a reason. Those reasons are often ignored when the deregulating fever hits. If the reason is gone, the regulation should go to, but that has not usually proven to be the case.

We seem to have forgotten that the airwaves belong to the people; as such regulation by our representatives should exist without question. Instead, we have auctioned it all off - just like the government did when we acquired new territory, and which this administration wants to do with the resources on public lands today. How many "vast wastelands" will our short-sightedness create?