I see your point; but, I’ve worked in rated and unrated markets; it’s been my experience that small market and rural stations do the BEST job at providing important community info. We work, live, and shop in the community. When the floodwaters come, we’re there with rescue info; when the blizzard hits, we crank up the generator and broadcast.
The very thing this rule proposes to improve will hurt it. CC can eat the cost of some 18 year old college kid running overnights in a building with 5 clustered stations, and not break a sweat. Which is EXACTLY what they’ll do. BTW, it’s an FCC law that your broadcast facility must be located within a certain number of miles from the city of license (I think it’s currently 25.) That’s not really beaming programming into a remote area.
Well, I was primarily alluding to voice-tracking and other means of delivery employed by CC and others. I’m sure it’s the exception, however, and not the rule.
A broadcast facility may have to be located within that radius, but does that mean someone within that radius has to be behind the microphone at all times?