Doing well by doing good

That old axiom of business is still holding true, for now at least, in the local television business. As I report in today's Kansas City Star, two television stations have merged and another two are poised to merge:

Link: Kansas City Star | 09/30/2005 | KCTV buys KSMO license

And the reason the government is letting it happen is because the new licenseholder has pledged to increase the amount of public affairs and news on the so-called "failing station" it's buying. Now, would any of this have happened were there not an "obsolete" regulation on the books, in this case the duopoly rule? Would Meredith Corp. have been so eager to pledge a half hour of its schedule to a public-affairs show hosted by teenagers if not for the duopoly rule?

The Kansas City Star's Dave Helling and I discussed this on what I hope is the first of many, many podcasts elaborating on the stories we report in our estimable (but finite number of) pages.

Download barnhart_interview_093005.mp3

By the way, if you hear what sounds like an inside joke during the podcast, Helling used to work at KCTV-5, the station involved in the merger.