Since the report came out Wednesday about talk radio being 91% in the favor of a conservative point of view, the buzz from both sides have been busy as a bee.   The conservatives are saying that it’s all market driven. The liberals have been saying the government needs to step in and regulate the fairness. So what is ‘fair’ anyway?   Fair is a condition that is equitable for every one, it’s free of bias and one-sidedness. Right? Right.

And what makes talk radio not fair to everybody?  A radio station is licensed to broadcast at a certain frequency. The owner of the station has the right to broadcast whatever legal content they so desire, and of course they must adhere to certain public decency rules. The owner has invested his capital to build a station, install the equipment, hire the tech people, the office staff and the on air staff, and the sales staff to solicit the advertising to pay for all of this stuff and then hopes he has some left over for himself and his investment. The owner could lose all of his investment, or he could be successful if he makes the best choices, which he is then rewarded by a profit.   But is that fair to have to take that that risk?

And suppose station A invested more money in more powerful transmitters than station B and C and he can broadcast 100 miles while station B and C can only broadcast 25 miles. Is that fair?  Should stations B and C be required to invest more?   Or should station A reduce his power to make the field equal. It’s just not fair.

Now where does that profit come from? Advertisers paying the owner for a certain amount of air time to sell their wares vocally. The higher cost ads will get the time that most listeners are known to be listening to that particular station. If you want a 30 second spot at 3 am it will be pretty cheap compared to the same spot at say 7 am, or 5 pm during drive time. Is that fair?   It’s the same amount of broadcast time. 30 seconds is 30 seconds. A station that has hit the jackpot by somehow acquiring the best talent and the best format and thus will get the most listeners can charge the higher price for commercials. But is that fair to the other stations? Is that fair to the smaller businesses who can’t afford the higher costs for a 30 second prime time spot? Is that fair to the listeners at 3 am to have their program interrupted by a poorly done commercial for an isolated small used car dealership? Shouldn’t the 3 am listeners hear the quality commercials that the drive time listeners hear. It’s just not fair. It’s just not fair to the smaller business to have their commercial inserted at 3 am instead of at the prime time spot? It’s just not fair.

In any fairly large city, there could be dozens of radio stations all broadcasting on different frequencies all vying for the most number of listeners to tell their advertisers about. Some of us want music, be it country, hip hop, rap, classical or a mix. Some of us want a variety, some news, some music. Some of us want just entertaining talk, it could be just news, just commentary, or opinion with call ins. That’s a mix of the fickleness of the market, which is as diverse as the city. The station that makes the best choices and mix will get the most listeners. Is it fair that one station gets more listeners than another? Is that fair to leave it up to the whims of the people? It’s just not fair. Perhaps the auto manufactures could install radios that only pick up one station in the market, and each car they sell would be tuned into a different station. But then, that would not be fair either, as perhaps I did not like the station assigned to me by the dealer. Those listeners are fickle minded and that’s not fair.

Considering the talk radio fairness debate. It takes a gifted articulate personality to talk into the microphone for 40 minutes. But they all have their tricks, from reading prepared scripts to complete ad hoc conversation and a mix of both, some of the hosts using call in questions and comments, and some favoring just their own personal dialogue. And so far, there are a limited number of the talented proven talk show hosts. But then the other stations do not have the opportunity to air the same talented talk host and thus lose out on that lucrative market. Is that fair for the other stations when one station gets the highly talented talk hosts and the others can’t use his talent? It’s just not fair.

There are only so many talented gifted talk show hosts, and there are many people out there, who would love to have that opportunity to tell the listeners their views. Is that fair that only the proven talented hosts get the prime time slots and these others are relegated to perhaps the 3 am time slot when barely a few get to hear their views. It’s just not fair. Perhaps the stations could rotate from the talented proven talent to the wannabe proven on a 12 minute rotation. But what if there were 5 or 10 wannabes? Who would choose who, as there really is a limited amount of time? Would that be fair? I mean you just got to make this fair to everybody. Equal time for all.

Then there are the different formats radio stations can use to attract listeners. But if it don’t capture my attention, subject wise and delivery, I’m going to press the scan button and find something that keeps me from drifting into a stupor. Hey, just navigating these rude drivers safely is enough to keep one alert, but that’s another subject. Is it fair to a radio station that I can tune into a different one? They got to make a buck you know. But if the auto dealer chose the station for me, then each station would have the same number of listeners.

But what if I’m a music lover and just want to enjoy the drive time listening to my favorite country stars, but this city don’t have a country music station, only hip hop, traditional, classical and modern. It’s not fair then that I would have to listen to modern. These stations could be made to broadcast all of the music venues throughout the day given equal time to each. But advertisers know that certain music draws a certain mix of listeners, so would it be fair to the advertisers to have their ad targeting the hip hop crowd broadcast while the station is playing country? Oh yea, the advertiser could choose his audience mix for a higher premium price, but what of the smaller business without those deep-pocket resources? It’s just not fair.

But what if you live in one of those millions of smaller communities with only one station, and this station plays only country music because, well, it’s in the country. It’s not fair then if I like classical to have to listen to country. And then this station is affiliated with ABC and you never get to hear the news from CNN, or Fox. Is that fair? Other investors could be forced to open stations in this town to bring the people a balanced mix of music and news from a different source. Would that be fair? But there are only so many advertisers in this smaller town and not really enough to go around to all the stations. These stations could not stay in business without the advertisers, so that’s not fair to require investors to invest where they would lose money. That’s not fair.

So far there is unfairness to an investor called risk, he can lose it all or gain an increase in his capital investment.
There is unfairness to advertisers on the time of day the commercial is broadcast and the amount of listeners hearing the commercial and the price he has to pay for the same amount of commercial time.
There is an unfairness to the station because listeners can choose to listen to another station..
There is an unfairness to the never before heard of talk show host, the new kid on the block.
There is the unfairness to listeners at certain times of days that the popular talk show hosts are not broadcast and listeners have to listen to perhaps the new kid on the block.

There is unfairness all around.

It all needs regulating to eliminate all of this unfairness.

There is bias all around. The radio stations are biased against the newer unproven wannabe radio talk show hosts. The listeners show bias by tuning into station A instead of station B or C. The advertisers show bias by being able to pick station B over station A or C. The radio stations are biased when they choose county music over hip hop or classical. All of this bias needs to be regulated.

It’s just so unfair.