Re: [IRCA] It's more than IBOC..

["Rick Lewis" <ricklew@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Curt,
Sorry, but I think you've been listening to Chicken Licken. I doubt that 
it'll actually happen, but if the fairness doctrine were reestablished 
today, it wouldn't cause radio stations to abandon talk.
In fact, both liberal and conservative views were on the air while the 
fairness doctrine was in effect.
You seem to be especially concerned that conservative talk would be 
threatened, but look at history, not propaganda, and you'll find that 
conservative talk radio and the fairness doctrine coexisted well.
In L.A. alone, (the major market I know best), in the 60s you had Joe Pyne 
Ray Briem and Bob Grant on radio and George Putnam, Sam Yorty, Wally George 
and Bob Dornan were all on TV while the fairness doctrine was in place. 
Programs like Dr. Stewart McBurney's Voice of Americanism and Lifeline, a 
conservatively based religious program funded by, and spreading the views of 
H.L. Hunt also came into being during the fairness-doctrine years.
Opposing the fairness doctrine is your choice, of course. But when we talk 
about such things, it pays to view a policy in historical context to see if 
dire predictions will really hold up.
 Every city I can think of had a wide spectrum of opinion on the air, and 
talk was number one in Los Angeles and San Francisco for two decades before 
the abolition of the fairness doctrine.
This is something you can research for yourself. Whether it comes from the 
left or the right, I think the public is getting tired of apologists on the 
air who don't evaluate leaders and policies objectively. I think that talk 
radio has more to fear from itself than from any outside source. Radio and 
TV aren't the only games in town anymore. I believe that in the coming 
years, if radio continues to emphasize controversy for its own sake and 
employ hosts who never question the politicians and parties they support, 
_that'll( be what marginalizes talk radio as a format.
--
Rick 

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