I was listening tonight to a debate on television about the Democrat's latest whine trying to reestablish the famous "Fairness Doctrine." (The Fairness Doctrine, which, until 1987, was a regulation of the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) which required broadcasters to present controversial issues of public importance, and to present such issues in what was deemed an honest, equal and balanced manner.)

THe Democrats complain it was "detrimental" to the passage of the shamnesty bill. After the usual blathering and blathering I turned it off. Conservative talk radio is entertaining. The Dems (a lot of people who take things WAY too seriously) can get DEADLY boring. And the reason that liberal talk radio has failed is that you have all of these raving "hate Bush" (he is hateable!) left wingers....which does not reflect the true nature of American society. Most Americans these days are more "anti-moron" and into a renaissance of common sense....the Dems have not figured it out. Anyway, I digress. They complain about the concentration of media outlets owned by major media conglomerates. The fact is it is PRESIDENT CLINTON who signed the Telecommunications Act of 1996 which allowed the creation of the broadcasting conglomerates who have made a success of conservative talk radio. Of course, nobody dares among the Democrats criticize President Clinton lest it will somehow rub off on Hillary......and THAT"s the untold story! It is almost as ridiculous as when I was working in sales for a magazine that I was not allowed to design the ads for my clients "because it isn't fair that you have the ability and equipment and the other sales people don't have that talent and ability."

To get more radio stations broadcasting liberal talk formats on the air, all that needs to happen is for entrepreneurs with deep pockets who support liberal talk radio to acquire more station licenses. Forget about getting liberal talk radio programs syndicated. Concentrate on acquiring licenses and buying stations.

There is a category of radio stations whose licenses are excellent candidates for challenging on the grounds that they don't serve the interest of their communities of license. That category is stations that broadcast in Spanish. A solid case can be made that the term the word "public" in the phrase "the public interest" means only those people who are in the country legally -- citizens or legal aliens. Any station that serves the needs of the illegal alien community is not serving the public interest, any more than a station that airs programs of service to any other criminal group in the country.

If a station specifically targeted the needs of the drug trafficking community, it would be at risk of losing a license challenge. If a station specifically targeted the needs of the welfare fraud community, it would be at risk of losing a license challenge. So, any station that targets the needs of the illegal alien community should also be at risk of losing a license challenge.

By challenging those station licenses, and winning the challenges, operations like Air America could stop having to worry about convincing broadcasters to carry their programs. They'd own enough stations of their own that they would not have to worry about ratings ever again.