The Last Word

As If We Didn’t Have Enough to Worry About

When our friend and SMRN Contributing Editor Jay Douglas called to my attention the LA Times article about the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) — describing how opportunistic attorneys (redundant?) have gone after websites for not being ADA-compliant — it…

The First Freedom to Go

You may not think you have anything in common with Jim Acosta, or that your radio operation has anything to do with CNN. But the connection is stronger than you think. We’re used to thinking that our local news people…

Modest Investment—Significant Return

After more years in this business that I care to admit, I have learned something. In setting up my home studio for the Small Market Radio Podcast series, I found that I have to work the mic very closely to…

How Much Do You Want to Make?

In reading Pat Bryson’s excellent-as-usual article, “How Much Do You Want to Make in 2019?”, it brought to mind a conversation I had recently with Don, a station-owner friend of mine with a real dilemma on his hands. Some time…

Farewell to the “Imperfect Servant”

After surviving a countless string of battles, from his wartime imprisonment to his many political conflicts, Senator John McCain succumbed last week to the one fight we’re all destined to lose. In looking for ways to honor McCain in the…

How Big Is Too Big?

It looks like the proposed acquisition of Time Warner by AT&T is going to sail through. And that is bad for all of us. A little background: Technically, the deal is known as a “vertical merger,” where the two parties…

What Business Are We In, Anyway?

Whenever I run across an article like the one by Linda Coss in this issue [“Marketing Growth Hacking,” SMRN 6/7/2018], I wonder whether some readers will think that I’ve missed the mark, because the article has very little to do…

I Love Big-Signal AM Stations. They Have To Go.

In our May 24, 2018 issue we ran an article by Dan Neil, “Road Trip After Dark,” about listening to distant AM stations at night; it brought back a flood of memories. My very first DXing, as a very young kid in Cedar Rapids,…

Still Hope

From a reader: I just read your opinion on Net Neutrality; I agree. I am very conservative but the Net is a common carrier, just a different technology from hard-wired cable. Interesting—the Senate voted to overturn the FCC ; there…

Rewriting History

Well, despite the best efforts of a lot of people to compel Congress to overturn the FCC ruling on Net Neutrality, the big communications companies will get their way on June 11. AT&T and Comcast have been very up front…