My point, as ever, is simple, and that is, the system that you are explaining above, which I don't contest in the least, is wrong--no particular reason why we should have to defer to the judgements in taste of the execs at the big multimedia conglomerates, and no reason why the broadcast needs of our communities should suffer because of the financial needs of those corporations--

The regulation of broadcast media has been sigificantly loosened, they radio stations no longer have to provide news of any kind, and the public service obligation is often satisfied with a series of public affairs programs that run on sunday mornings, often between 6 and 7 am (I know about this all to well, since one of my jobs used to be to call in with questions for the unlucky guests who were roped in--live "spontaneous and unrehearsed" radio being cheaper than taping a scripted show at a more humane hour)

Don, you can also tell us that, owing to deregulation, the jobs that you have had are much fewer and farther between than ever.

I am not one of those people who hate TV or radio, or whatever, I actually like Jerry Springer and Geraldo and Fox News, what I don't like is that fewer and fewer people have control, and there is less accountability than ever--

Incidentally, the public broadcasting people are as bad, if not worse, than the commercial radio people.

Ron, for the record, I have been closely involved with both commercial and public broadcast--the kind of programming that you are involved in has a much greater potential audience than anyone wants to let on--not only is there a good sized audience, there is a great potential for advertising and sponsorship revenues--the problem is that it requires hands-on management, not the kind of cookie-cutter, chain-store type management that is necessary for the conglomerates to make money-