RTV Theory and Practice - Special Issue

Torieš to pref ering the corporate radio арргоасћ . The setting up of the NCRs soaKs up many vacant freguencies which couiđ form a lattice of low-powered stations (Home Office 1987: 43) The wasteful use of freguencies by the NCRs makes a nonsense about the claims of 'efficency' in plans to auction freguencies . As the Minister of State at the Home Of fice puts it, з national VHF frequency is .premium spectrum which might otherwise yield some 200 local services'. (Renton 1988 a: 3) Such large amounts of spectrum restricts the NCRs to the.big companies owneđ by the media magnates ИКе Branson , Murdoch ог Maxwell. The governments could be hoping that the corporations will set up Тогу Radios 1 , 2 and 4. But there аге also responding to the pressures from the advertising agencies with their bullish forecasts about the growth in radio advertising . The irony of this corporate approach of licensing the national stations is that many ILRs аге liKely to go banKrupt while BBC survives . Harold Linđ of the Newspaper Society saw that if al! BBC stations took ađs, then the corporation would have 75Х of total radio advertising revenue. (PeacocK 1986: 90) The NCRs might not do as well, but they will still drive many ILRs into receivership . The only thing which threatens the NCRs' viability is the Home Office insistence that the national stations should not adopt a specialized format. v We are looking for the stimulating qualities of a well-mixed cocktail, rather than house plonk ог neat gin.' (Renton 1988 a; 4) A 'balanced' format is likely to attract smaller auđiences anđ less advertising, (Porter 1988; 19) One of the potential biđders fог a NCR license , Virgin Recorđs , has already attacked this necessity for 'internal diversity' (Home Affairs Committee 1988: 53) It remains to be seen if the Home Office's commitment to Reithian values will survive once the licenses have been sold . Thus the corporate approach restricts deregulation to allowing stations to own their transmitters and getting riđ of certain 'public service' commitments . But controls will definitely be kept over program content, political ownership anđ locat council involvement. (Home Office 1987; 31-7) This policy represents a methođ of arriving at the present situation in France where the corporations dominate the airwaves , but without апу intervening period of апагсћу . Апу radical community stations will be limited to the fringes of the system, assuming апу receive a license . The iđeas of f гее market economics аге only useful as long as they lead to oligopolies! The corporate method of expanding radio represents one way of

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