Adelstein Likens Consolidation to Toothpaste

New FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein says the commission needs to proceed cautiously in the media ownership proceeding. Speaking for the first time as a commissioner, Adelstein said, “…if we permit further media consolidation and it turns out to be a mistake, we will find it difficult, if not impossible, to put the toothpaste back in the tube.”
Consolidation, he said, can lead to the homogenization of programming. “We must ask ourselves: at what point does consolidation come at the cost of the local expression that makes radio so unique and so special in this country? At what point does allowing consolidation undermine the public interest – and the quality of what we hear on the radio?”
The Democrat keynoted the Future of Music Policy Summit at Georgetown University. He also played the harmonica with Lester Chambers.