[BC] Hope for small AMs

[Douglas B. Pritchett]

Scott, I feel your pain. But, the older I get, the more I have to 
look at history to see that not all change is bad.

Many years ago, my grandparents owned a grocery store in Princeton, 
IN. It was a nice little grocery store where my mother and uncle 
learned the ins and outs of the business during their youth. But in 
1955 Kroger came to town. My grandparents, approaching retirement 
age, sold the store and concentrated on their greenhouse business. 
And do you know what happened? The groceries got cheaper, the produce 
got fresher, there was more variety in the large store and you could 
shop on Sundays.
To the consumer, it was an improvement. While a few loyal customers 
were upset, but the great majority didn't care that Oursler's Market closed.

In the next 10 years a digital format (maybe not the current one) 
will emerge and the AM band will be reborn. As the owner of one of 
those small little AM's I hope the transition will come sooner than 
later. In the meantime, we continue, serving our community as best we can.
We have to let the market take it's course. Some things will change, 
some will disappear and some will be reborn in a new fashion. The one 
thing we can not ask for, nor accept is more government interference. 
Mandating that large groups sell their AMs won't work. Rather than 
sell them at a loss, they would just turn in the licenses and take 
the tax loss. Then those signals won't exist at all.

I feel your pain dude, things will never be the same. Cherish what is 
past, do your best to influence the future. Hang on for the ride!

Best wishes.....

-- 
Douglas B. Pritchett
Fort Wayne, IN
dpritchett1 at comcast.net



Bailey, Scott wrote:

>There needs to be something done about this, and LPAM is NOT THE ANSWER!
>The mega groups buy these AM stations as tax write off investments and
>just set on their tails and do nothing for the community. My comment 
>here will upset some of you here, but mega to smaller groups
>should be forced to sell AM's (1 KW and under) to mom and pop operators!
>I thought about complying a list of these type stations and get other
>small (single owner) broadcaster to file a rule making on this type of
>activity. It would probably get no where, and I would just get laugh at!