Independent radio advocates often complain that conglomeration leads to poor quality programming. This is not an argument one hears in the current TV regulatory debate. Indeed, some critics say that local TV programming, such as the six o'clock news, is dismal already.

But others fear that local news programming could get even worse. "Look at the radio group that helped lead the fight to lowball costs and introduce national content -- it's Infinity," says Robert McChesney, communications professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He notes that Infinity was run by renowned cost-cutter Mel Karmazin, who is now president of Viacom, the owner of CBS. With any additional TV consolidation, you can bet Karmazin's "not going to be pumping money into the Little Rock newsroom," says McChesney.

The bigger TV consolidation debate, though, centers on the affiliates' "right to reject" provision. According to the FCC, that provision allows them to pass up network programming "that the licensee feels to be unsatisfactory or contrary to the public interest," or to air "any program which in the station's opinion is of greater local or national importance."

Networks as a rule want their affiliates nationwide to carry as much network programming as possible, which boosts the networks' ratings. But sometimes affiliates simply don't want to air rating dogs, like NBC's XFL prime-time football league. Other times it's more about local choice, such as being forced to air major league playoff games rather than presidential debates. Independently owned affiliates insist that the "right to reject" provision has become a hollow one -- with some networks leveling punitive fines for preemptions or threatening to terminate a station's network affiliation -- and would become virtually nonexistent with further ownership consolidation.

If the networks are able to own more and more affiliates, the ability for local stations to control any of their programming would essentially disappear. Instead of local programmers deciding what should go on the air, the decisions would all be made by the network, with affiliates acting merely as storefronts.

If left unchecked, or even accelerated by deregulation, "the nation's local network-affiliated television stations will ultimately be transformed into mere passive conduits for their networks' national programming," reads the NASA statement.

In a word, says NASA attorney Waldron, "homogenization."

Sound familiar? That's the same complaint being leveled about today's consolidated radio.

Radio has "become homogenized. Radio is not as alive, not as immediate. Because what's happened in large markets is [that] you have two large players divide up the [music] formats so they're not competing head to head anymore," says former FCC commissioner Ness. She suggests that consolidation has eliminated competition. Clinton himself, in a speech this month to broadcasters, expressed "mixed feelings" about the Telecom Act's impact on radio, noting there has been "more consolidation than we wanted."

So how did all this happen? How did the Telecommunications Act ignite a radio deregulation revolution that some jealous TV broadcasters now want to duplicate?

The quick and easy excuse is to blame it all on Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Or, more specifically, on the success of the 1994 Republican revolution, which is often credited to -- or blamed on -- Hillary Clinton's healthcare fiasco. Because literally within hours of capturing control of the House of Representatives, legislative leaders, led by Newt Gingrich, began working on sweeping new media deregulation legislation. Gingrich's affiliated think tank, the Progress and Freedom Foundation, even put together the "Magna Carta for the Knowledge Age," a veritable call to arms for telecommunications deregulation.

"Losing the House in '94 was without question a seminal moment in the political history of the media," says former FCC chairman Hundt.

As the New York Times reported in early '95, broadcast "lobbyists have seldom met more receptive lawmakers. Committee Republicans have held numerous meetings with industry executives since January, at which they implored companies to offer suggestions about the ways that Congress could help them."

The version of the telecom bill that originally passed easily in the House offers ample proof of the New York Times' report. That version would have allowed one company to own the only cable television system in a market, the only daily newspaper, a TV signal and every local radio station.

But oddly enough, as the telecom bill was being debated, advocates of radio's deregulation ended up benefiting from its devalued status as a serious news and information provider. So while the more extreme reductions in ownership caps on television and newspaper ownership in the House-passed bill were removed in the final version, radio deregulation sailed through.

"Radio is not regarded as having the same role in the political debate; that's why a lot of people on both sides of the aisle just felt it wasn't an important topic," says Hundt.

Radio station broker Steven agrees: "Politicians only care about TV news dissemination; they want that finger on that button. We've made the case that radio offers such a minimal service of information flow, politicians were not worried about it and let us go."

Radio broadcasters were also aided by the NAB's stealth lobbying campaign, which purposely kept the radio ownership issue off the radar as the Baby Bells and cable companies grabbed most of the Telecom Act attention. "The NAB knew to lay low," says one source familiar with the trade association's strategy at the time. "The secret was not to be out front and center on it. If there had been a separate radio deregulation bill, it wouldn't have passed. There would have been hearings, and a real hue and cry."

If you listen today, there is an audible hue and cry. It's just coming five years late.

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