RTV Theory and Practice - Special Issue

Instltute 1984) Within the government itself , the DTi is known to champion greater deregulation of broadcasting as a way of stimulating technological innovation. It is also a strategv favored by the older pirates with memories of the offshore periođ . Their views are expressed by Charles Turner of the Stockport pirate KFM who thinks that; 'The enforced plurality applied to all present ILR stations will be replaced by a plurality provided by a wide range of specialist and local stations.' (Turner 1988; 8) But the government doesn't seem as interested in this petty -bourgeois vision of free competition. For the Conservative Party , the problem with this approach is that ethnic communities and left-wing groups could own rađio stations . The government is afraid Of complete deregulation as British rađio would go through a period of turmoil like France and ltaly. This refusal to ađopt a radical policy of đeregulation also reflects wiđer changes within Thatcher's government. Its previous laissez-faire rhetoric has been replaced by more authoritarian concerns . The adoption of Keynesian policies of cređit expansion since 1985 has been coupled with a move towards social authoritarianism . It is only the auctioning of freguencies which has been incorporated from the free market economists into the Green Paper . Tlie absence of a market in freguencies can lead to resource misallocation through the wasteful use of spectrum . The present system distributes public property to commercial interests almost free. (Barnett 1986; 2) One research group supported by the DTI has estimated a cost of between tmls9 to Лт397 over the next decađes đue to lack of encouragement for technological ađvances which use spectrum more ef ficientl/. (CSP International 1987; 124-6) 4t is . . .possible to present economic theory as pointing in f avor of the use of pricing, and of a fully developeđ market mechanism , to solve the problem of scarcity of radio spectrum as of an> other resource.' (CSP International 1987; 22) The government presents its case for auctionmg as a good method of obtaining revenue: 'a proper return to the Exchequer , and so to the public, for the use of a scarce national resource'. (Renton 1988 a; 4) The exclusion from the airwaves of all groups who cannot afford to purchase a f гериепсу is a distinct hidden bonus of this policy for the Tories . The anarchic possibilities of free market radio has led the

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