10-2-13
In a scathing criticism of the FCC's plans to revitalize the AM band, Clear Channel Corporate PD Darryl Parks has written a blog post on the WLW website entitled, "A Serious Message To The Broadcast Industry About Revitalizing AM Radio." In it, Parks criticizes every piece of the FCC plan to fix the AM band and takes a nasty swipe at the NAB/RAB Radio Show in Orlando last week, calling it "the yearly circle jerk gathering of broadcasters." The Radio Show is not a conference where you see too many Clear Channel employees roaming the halls.
Parks also calls out industry trades for "not reporting the truth" about acting FCC Chairman Mignon Clyburn's recent proposal to help AM broadcasters, claiming we all copied press releases about the story. "You think just one of these industry rags would speak the truth about the FCC's ideas, suggestions and concepts? Nope. As Kevin Bacon's character in Animal House said, "Remain calm. All is well." What a joke the FCC is. And sadly, what a joke the people in the radio industry are who are nodding along without thought or the ability to intelligently reason the basic concepts of physics."
Parks' answer to the AM problem is simple, turn the stations off. He writes the answer to less interference is turning off non-viable stations, adding, "before station owners start crying poverty, many of these non-viable AM stations have one thing that is worth a ton of money. The land their towers sit on."
Small market broadcasters at the Radio Show were generally positive about the FCC's attempt to save the AM band. Leave your thoughts on what Parks has to say about those plans below.
UPDATE: Since our story ran this morning, Parks' blog has been removed from the WLW website. However, thanks to a Radio Ink reader here it is, in case you missed it
(10/2/2013 11:02:19 PM)
What I saw in the 6 "improvements" do very little. If things are so tight around your shop that the electric bill is your issue, you are probably screwed already. At one time, an idea was floated to allow everyone to double their power. On lower power stations in large markets, it would clean up the 1 millivolt, essentially making anywhere your .5 non D lands become a 1. I would pull back my positive peaks for that trade, say to 110 to 115. Border stations couldn't do it without a fight
(10/2/2013 8:44:44 PM)
Daryl is worried about his signal. Come to my small market stations and check it out at night. We make room at 920 for someone else at night by dropping our signal so people 14 miles to the south can't hear a local basketball game! This is what's wrong with broadcasting. The small group of BIG owners want to run the rest of us out of business with their "Me First" attitude. Local basketball and football, or syndicated programming? Ask the listeners.
(10/2/2013 8:01:33 PM)
Note to "Dan": When greed meets a combination of lack of expertise and arrogance.......
(10/2/2013 7:25:30 PM)
Seems to ne the jerk appellation should be more properly applied to Darryl Parks. BUT there is no doubt that radio has not evolved quickly enough to keep up with the under-34's. It's true that those of us of a certain vintage have a tough time letting go of the era when DJ;s were personalities, had followings, and listeners who made an effort to find out where they were and when they were on. That seems to be true now mainly in the listener-supported arena. Why is this the case?
(10/2/2013 6:51:06 PM)
If more bandwidth is needed, no problem. If the debt ceiling can be increased and the treasury print more money, then can't the FCC make more bandwidth.... Have Harry and Nancy put that on their "to do" list. We have seen AM stereo, which was pretty good, but there again, nobody could agree on the implementation.... keep the government out of it and let some good old fashioned engineers and entrepreneurs come up with an AM bailout, and it might work!
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