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16 APR 04: SOLD DOWN THE RIVER
The late news Thursday night revealed Davis Broadcasting of Columbus is buying WIOL-FM "The River." This will give Davis six local radio stations. I keep worrying one of these days, the signals are going to get crossed -- and gangster rap will be on in place of Joyce Meyer's religious show.
The sale of 92.7-FM "The River" is noteworthy because it was the last of its kind in Columbus - an independent commercial radio station, not part of a chain. For a comparison, imagine if Spectrum took over all the small convenience stores in town. No wait, you don't HAVE to imagine that - it seems to be happening.
How independent was "The River?" While other Columbus radio stations are in nice midtown buildings, this one has its studios in a modified house on University Avenue. If you didn't know better, you might think Columbus State University students used it to play songs banned from MTV.
Do you realize this sale will leave ALL the commercial radio stations in Columbus in the hands of three big companies? Davis Broadcasting will have six. Archway Broadcasting has four. And Clear Channel owns so many that announcer Val
McGuinness seems to work there 24 hours a day.
Come to think of it, even the public radio stations in Columbus are "chain" operations. The religious FM stations are run from Charlotte and Oakland. WJSP-FM is part of Georgia Public Broadcasting. And with only three stations, Troy State Public Radio may be the next group Davis tries to buy.
The sale of "The River" has to be approved by the Federal Communications Commission - but assuming it is, the classic rock station probably will move into the Davis Broadcasting complex on Wynnton Road. That ought to be interesting. The staffs of WOKS, WEAM and Foxie-105 will have to work around white people.
(This deal strikes me a bit like Clear Channel operating WHAL-AM and "Magic 98.3." The big chains make themselves look diverse, even if their individual stations are as segregated as the South in the 1950's.)
A statement from Davis Broadcasting claims no changes are planned in the "classic rock" format -- but we'll see about that. Rock stations such as "The River" have a reputation for only playing white musicians, and Davis is African-American owned. But then again, who was the last white singer on WOKS?
(In fact, I listened to "The River" for an hour late Thursday night - and not one song by an African-American artist was played. They didn't even balance things out by playing "Black is Black" from the 1960's.)
The fall radio ratings for Columbus showed WIOL-FM near the bottom of the list, below even a station based in the Atlanta suburb of College Park. Either this station really needs a new owner - or "Rick and Bubba in the morning" had more fans than we thought.
Even before this sale was announced, a friend of mine wondered the other day why community groups aren't challenging the license renewals of the big radio chains. Maybe it's because people are believing this "One Columbus" talk from Mayor Poydasheff - and they want the three remaining companies to merge, too.
Is it good for only three companies to control all the radio stations in Columbus? I think the answer depends on your perspective. If you grew up with a choice of only three TV stations, it's no big deal....
Over the years, a lot of things in our country have been controlled by only a few companies. There are the "big three" U.S. carmakers. There are only two big names in the cola business. And for awhile there, Columbus survived with only one
shopping mall.
In this case, we're going to have 18 different Columbus radio stations controlled by only three companies. But in this modern era, you can spend money on alternatives. There are satellite services such as X-M radio. And there are Internet
channels -- where sometimes I actually miss the local commercials.
BLOG UPDATE: The attorneys for Kenneth Walker's family are taking an interesting strategy. They want U.S. District Judge Clay Land to dismiss their original $100 million lawsuit - so they can file a more expanded one. Let's clear this up right now. I was NOT driving down Interstate 185 on that night in December....
The attorney filing this motion in the Kenneth Walker is Bill Campbell, who used to be Atlanta's Mayor. Sheriff Ralph Johnson and former Deputy David Glisson won't want to hear this - but Campbell supporters used to play the old doo-wop song "Don't Mess with Bill" on election nights. [True!]
SPAM-A-RAMA: The In-Box subject delivered to me the other day began with: "Stupid Will Only Buy Softwares From Shop, Heheh...." Maybe so - but will Smart Only Buy Stuffs From Spammers?
For some reason, more and more spam offers contain random words. This one began with: "spotty smirch commentate uttermost distance softcore acreage sorority upcast employe." Why do I get the funny feeling some college athletes have submitted term papers looking like this?
(There are advantages to these "randomizers," though. For one thing, the next time I play Scrabble, I plan to win big....)
The reason for this amazing offer is discounted computer software. One line of the e-mail explains:
"What you will get from us is The full WINDOWS XP Pro s.o.f.t.w.a.r.e & serial number. It works exactly the same, but you don't get the manual and box and the pri .ce is onlly 32.00 . That is a s-aving of 254.00."
Maybe this offer comes from the "Video Professor" guy - because for some items, a manual would be awfully helpful.
As it happened, a new neighborhood computer center opened on 35th Street in Columbus Thursday. It offers free computer training classes to anyone who wants to sign up. Apparently there are still people in town who think "Windows X-P" refer to extra protection from break-ins.
One staff member at the new center says some older people actually are afraid of computers. In a way, I can understand this. The wrong pop-up ad might give them a fatal heart attack.
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