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Posts Tagged ‘PPM’

Brian Jennings

FCC: America’s New Speech Police

by Brian Jennings

I find it incredible in America that a regulatory agency thinks it has jurisdiction to probe an independent business.  Oh, but I forget about Chrysler, GM, and our banking system.  Foolish me.  What the Federal Communications Commission is doing is outlandish and smacks of tyranny in the making.  We should brace ourselves because the implications for free speech in America are grave.  Your right to hear what you want to hear when you want to hear it is something our government doesn’t give a damn about.  The free marketplace of ideas is something that is evil to them.

The FCC has announced it will probe Arbitron’s new audience measurement system for radio stations – it’s called the Portable People Meter.  Arbitron is an independent company and the FCC has no jurisdiction over it.  But, acting FCC Commissioner Michael Copps and his fellow Democrat Jonathan Adelstein disagree.  Adelstein has been quoted as stating the commission has “clear authority” over broadcast signals, and “legitimate questions” to ask about Arbitron’s system, which relies on these signals, and operates as a currency for the industry.  (more…)

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Posted Jun 1st 2009 at 2:38 pm in News, Politics | One Comment

Brian Jennings

Obama’s Latest Assault on Conservative Talk

by Brian Jennings

There is no question the Obama administration and most Democrats thinks conservative talk radio is something that should be eliminated from the “new” American culture.  We documented that in the book Censorship: The Threat to Silence Talk Radio.  Now, the administration is stepping up its subtle attack on conservative talk radio stations. 

In 2008, Arbitron, which measures radio audiences nationwide, began rolling out its latest measurement technology called the “Portable People Meter,” or PPM.  It’s a pager-device that automatically registers what someone is listening to at any moment.  It’s the measurement of real time listening as opposed to the “old” system that required a listener to recall and write down once a week the stations they could remember they heard.  Most radio executives feel this system is the future for radio audience measurement.  When the New York ratings came out last fall, it showed conservative talk radio was even stronger than previously noted under the old audience measurement system and that minority radio stations were not as popular.  Well, you know the rest of the story. (more…)

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Posted May 26th 2009 at 4:11 pm in Featured Story, Media Criticism, Politics | 11 Comments