On Friday, November 30th the following story was released, describing how the FCC bent over backwards in order to bypass it’s own rules regarding saturating/dominating local markets in order to please a corporate entity. The corporate entity in question is Newport Television LLC, which sought to buy up 35 Clear Channel stations. Well, now they can thanks to the “hard work” put in by the FCC that came up with this nifty idea: Rather than making the corporate entities actually follow the law and risk losing a financing option or two why not just provide them with waivers?
The sale of the 35 television stations will mean the new owner will be out of compliance with FCC rules that limit the number of stations one company may own in a single market. The market areas include Bakersfield, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Fresno and Monterey in California; Salt Lake City; Albany, New York; Jacksonville, Fla., and San Antonio, Texas.