Explain why you think deregulation is a good thing

I work for a regulated Energy Company, deregulation will only cause higher prices, crappier service and probably more pollution.

We just deregulated gas a couple years ago and it was a fucking disaster. Now we're in the gas biz, rumored to be becuase the gov wanted us to buy one of the many bankrupting gas companies, so we did.

These industries are regulated for a reason. You need it. Paying for competition is asinine. If your provider is doing a bad enough job that you truly require an option they should just be shut down outright. Competition may be good for pants and cars, but utilities no.

I have to agree with Nick. I work for a local telephone company, and all it really has done is drive service into the shitter.

I second him on the gas thing. It also pretty much is choking the life out of the radio industry thanks to ClearChannel.

The UK has been suffering with deregulated utilities and transport for years now, thanks to the long dark shadow of Thatcher. The infrastructure of the country is pretty much fucked now. The pursuit of profits has meant that things are less efficient, less safe but immaculately marketed.

Theoretically, market economy will drive competitors to lower prices and offer better services to the consumers.

In practice, all corporations involved in a the same field, get together and screw the consumers.

Sad but true.

Deregulating electricity around here did nothing but drive prices up. So high the government ended up sending Prole Appeasement Cheques to every taxpayer in the province, in fact. Yet my lightbulbs burn no brighter. I'm paying more for what, again?

For the most part, government has no idea how to run a business, and should not try. When the government attempts to regulate business, it generally leads to higher costs, lower efficiency, etc etc.

On the other hand, I do believe that the government should strongly regulate the following:

Monopolies and Oligarchies
There are far too many companies/organisations that have nearly 100% market share. ClearChanel ovwn the radio, the RIAA owns the recording industry, the MPAA owns the movie business, Microsoft owns the office productivity and OS business.

Fraud and Safety
Fairly obvious; if you claim a product does something, it should do it. If you claim to perform a service, you should perform it. If your product is killing people, you shouldn't be able to offer it. In this case, I am talking about things like faulty seat belts, and not the "on, this somking thing is bad for me?" lawsuits; the later are, in my opinion, crap.

Licensing Agreements
Particularly in the computer industry, when you buy a product, you are asked to agree to a host of end-user regulations. When you buy something, you should be able to do with it as you please.

Deregulation really is only possible in a market with heavy competition. In business today, the trend is towards mega-corporations, and they honestly have too much power to leave unchecked.

Curious, how? And how would getting The Government™ involved -even though there already is a regulatory agency called FCC- make it any better? And does it need improvement? I kinda thought radio is a fairly incredible industry at present. Why screw with it? You and I could start a radio station today, find good market-specific content, gather good talent, and take off on our own. How does ClearChannel's existence hinder us in any way?

I know a lot of people hate ClearChannel, but I haven't really looked into it. This site may provide some useful information. Despite the url, I believe they are mostly a news gathering site...

<a href="http://www.clearchannelsucks.org" target="_blank">www.clearchannelsucks.org</a>

This is an interesting question. There was a radio station in Athens about seven years ago that was playing a really diverse format but went under. We have a new "rock" station here in town too, but they don't seem to be getting their act together fast. It was my impression that getting into the radio business was anything but as easy as Kronos states. Anybody?

Did I say it was easy? My question is how does ClearChannel's existence hinder us? Why is further Government control needed?

Are we to assume regulation would include content as well? There are already standards by which broadcasters are required to follow in that regard.

These are two separate questions.

I've heard enough ClearChannel-owned stations in enough cities to know that...they suck! They really do. No local flavour, no personality, cookie-cutter formatting. Why this happened, I have no idea. I can imagine owning a million radio stations and letting them all do their own thing. I don't know why ClearChannel doesn't, but they don't and the programming shows it. That doesn't even cover their business practices or the possibilities of ClearChannel's monopoly as a political tool (Republican ads only, please) or whatever, just the music, the end product. And the end product sucks.

As for further government control, what's wrong with putting the limits back to what they were before ClearChannel snapped up everything in sight? The benefits of changing the rules because ClearChannel wanted them changed escape me. Was life so harsh when radio stations were different from one another?

Now the FCC regulates a LOT of things, I'm sure you know this. My experience with their rules is in regards to channel bandwidths and maximum allowable peak power levels and harmonics and such. Rules that basically make sure my designs won't interfere with airport radar or cellular phones or whatever. Without the rules, anyone could just blast out whatever they wanted. FM radios wouldn't work around sloppy TV broadcasts and stuff like that.

I'm not saying every decision the FCC (which pretty much sets the world standard) makes is a good one, but there is certainly a need to regulate this industry. Nevertheless, the FCC isn't doing what it was formed to do, which was to keep the airwaves from being swamped. Now ClearChannel has pretty much swamped 'em. The FCC has sold out.

Whoa. I had no idea!

And all this time I thought my local hosts on the two ClearChannel stations I listen to were...local.

Oh...and use the word monopoly where it applies. Otherwise Westwood 1 might think they were owned by ClearChannel.

Lots aren't. Do some digging. Google's a good thing.

DJ's around here are the real deal too, but I can still set my watch by what song's playing. Ten years ago, in any major Canadian city, you could hear a Sass Jordan song between 2:20 and 2:30 in the afternoon. Then The Champ, then Bon Jovi. Like clockwork.

I don't know what they play now, I've long since stopped listening to commercial radio voluntarily.

Which is why radio stations are so competitive and why they're so hard to get up and running in competitive markets. People -as far as music listeners- are tuning out.

We feel the same threats from the cable industry.

Competition's a bitch...if you can't throw enough resources at a startup radio station perhaps it's a sign that's not the biz you should be persuing.

And those stations absorbed by ClearChannel...if they didn't want to sell, they wouldn't have.

There are three local, two of whom I know personally. All of their checks are signed by ClearChannel.

I don't know about other markets nor do I really care. I'm a local person, living in a local market.

All the furor over ClearChannel is really strange to me. Radio is a huge huge business. And there's enough business to go 'round. Sell the best ads at the highest commanding rates and you too could have a successful radio station.

What monopoly?

Unnecessary.

And a fine job you did at that.

ClearChannel's existence hinders the industry by diluting it with homogenized CRAP. Simple answer. The playlists are stale, repetitive, and bought and paid for by record companies. Blech.

Dear Concert Promoter,

It has recently come to our attention that you have advertised a concert on a radio station not belonging to us. In entering a business contract with someone other than us, you're helping someone other than us earn money. We don't like that.

Should you do this again, we will no longer sell you advertising on any of our 1500 stations again. If you want to do business with us, we will not have you do business with anyone else. Because we say so.

Regards,

ClearChannel.

ClearChannel, like Microsoft, has turned its success into power. The problem isn't how much cash they make, but how they throw their weight around. They have too much clout in the industry.

Ok. I can accept that argument on the grounds that I don't listen to music radio anymore. So out of a lack of real knowledge in current top-40 radio I'll concede CC has diluted that portion of the industry.

And the talk hosts I frequent are indeed local, on CC affiliates.

But to call CC a monopoly? Hardly.

And Micah, this has been happening long long before ClearChannel. We were lamenting this when stations were automating in the 70's. Back then if you wanted a good playlist you went to the University radio stations...who would play entire album sides -heh, back then CD's had two sides, kids- without intros or backups.

Huh? How many radio hosts went around talking about "the big game" when they weren't allowed to say the words SUPER BOWL?

Talk about clout.

I'm sorry, I don't know what you're talking about. Was the word 'superbowl' copyrighted or something?

Yup. And it was palpable the effect it had on broadcasting.

That's weird.

Who owns it? The NFL?

Yeah, them and ABC/Disney. 'Nuff said.

You don't do a thing without the Mouse's say-so.

Well, the monopoly charge is just a matter of semantics. Whether you can call them that accurately or merely an overinfluential and absolutely non-creative corporate entity, it doesn't matter to me.

I'll grant you, K, that radio stations had begun to consolidate before ClearChannel entered the picture. But not anywhere near this extent. It's just one big repetitve bore meant to maximize ad dollars/time.

Don't forget that ClearChannel has purchased a lot of concert venues and merged with SFX to put a Figure-Four Leglock on live shows as well.

In response to the original post in the thread, I'll throw in my 2 cents and say that, the only deregulation I've been directly affected by is gas deregulation (as Nick L. mentioned above), and in agreement with him, it sucks. I'm on the "price-freeze" plan now, because it's the only way to keep your bill from being $300-$500 in the winter time. I had one gas bill during December, right after deregulation happened, and it was $385. Ridiculous. Before then, I never had a bill over $100. And get this, your bill will always be at least $25, because of the "pipe charge" or whatever the hell it is that every company is charged to bring gas to your house. And I looked up the history of who introduced the gas deregulation bill, and damn if it was bipartisan in sponsorship (2 Dems and 2 Republicans, if I remember correctly). At least it was equal-opportunity screwing of the gas customers.

And related to Clear Channel, there's probably a 1/2 dozen radio stations in ATL that are CC owned. I only listen to regular radio during the morning drive for the morning shows, and sometimes listen to the 80s channel here for music (which is CC owned)...and I'll be damned if they don't play the same 80s music over and over again.

They're also behind the promotion for the FMX(Freestyle Motocross) tour. Actually, I think there's a marvelous partnership/synergy there between rock stations and FMX.

From my not-so-humble perspective ClearChannel has been a fairly positive influence and have been extremely successful in recent years across new entertainment platforms.

For the record, I am not vested at all in ClearChannel, any of its affiliates or its holdings.

And if I had been just three years ago...

Aside from enriching themselves and hiring people in the process, how has their "influence" been positive, K?

I'm not a big fan of the rising ticket fees and the new imposition of smaller ticket allotments for fan club members being mandated by ClearChannel (CC). The fan club issue, in particular, I find puzzling. I don't see how GUARANTEED sales run indirectly through a CC outlet can be considered a worse alternative than the CHANCE of the same amount of tickets sold directly through a CC outlet.

Watch this:

SUPERBOWLSUPERBOWLSUPERBOWLSUPERBOWL!!!

That'll show 'em.

But that's sort of what the whole Clearchannel thing is about. What happens when the only radio you can get is one ClearChannel station or another, and ClearChannel has decided they don't back Democrats? Not a democratic ad to be found. Or that they're in favour of the war to the point of not reporting any anti-war demonstrations whatsoever? Maybe their politics are exactly the reverse, but it doesn't matter. Swamping the airwaves with one view, regardless of what it is, is a bad thing. Clearchannel's well on its way to being another Blockbuster.

Because...it hasn't been negative? I don't know. I just don't have any problem with ClearChannel. They don't effect me in any negative fashion on a day-to-day routine basis. And I'm entertained by some of their entertainment vehicles.

And as taken, hiring people is actually a good thing, right? Or have I missed something there?

Oh...THAT'S the type of "regulation" you're all talking about.

Sorry, I won't address this for obvious reasons.

To get back to deregulation of industries, it seems to me that every time an industry has been deregulated, it's so one company that wants more of the market can get it. They claim it's to open the industry up to competition, but inevitably it's so we can be charged through the nose.

That's the only tangible result the recent spat of deregulation has brought on as far as I can see.

To get away from the radio thing, I'd just like to say I am very concerned about the deregulation of waterworks.

The only sucessful (in the grand scheme) dereulation was that of the airline industry. That really opened it up to more Americans.

I'm admittedly jumping the gun on that. I don't know that ClearChannel is in the political influence business as such. The general beef with ClearChannel is how they influence the business of running a radio station, generally by threatening the removal of ad dollars, and that their programming sucks.

Which it does.

Radio probably isn't the best example, since nobody needs radio to live, and you don't pay for it anyway. It's industries like utilities and transport where deregulation really bites.

I didn't bring up ClearChannel...I responded. Then the thread evolved. Isn't that the essence of conversation?

Or is conversation subject to regulation as well? wink