ABSTRACT
The National Association of Broadcasters fought to get government off the backs of the station owners who held their operating licenses under strict rules administered by the Federal Communications Commission. When deregulation came, both the Fairness Doctrine and the concept of broadcasting as a public service were swept away. The Telecommunications Act does away with limits on the number of stations that can be controlled nationwide by one entity. With more mergers not only possible but probable, look for further retrenchment and a continuing diminution of radio news generally. In smaller markets, radio news is likely to continue to shrink as more and more stations are gobbled up by groups with a tendency to reduce costs by programming all of their stations from one central location. Any hope of halting the decline of news on radio was put to rest by the Telecommunications Act of 1996.
