The FCC most certainly, today and since Day One, tell broadcasters what to do.
Does anybody here get it? Putting up the fact we have public files has NOTHING to do with what WE CHOOSE to program. Have you ever READ a public file? Do you know what it is or what it's contents are to be? It's a report on how we serve OUR communities, which means HOW we do it is up to US. The FCC DOES NOT TELL US what we can program, other than to not do what would be considered not publicly acceptable. (language, mainly. ) WE Decide our announcers, our programs, our music, our formats, etc. You keep bending the point to "be the expert." You're not. The whole POINT is that there is NO conspiracy to eliminate AM radio and it's talk shows. AM is more than stations with just talk. AM radio is NOT going away, nor is the government attempting to "control" it as presented in this thread. But of course, all of the people quoting Wikipedia are more experts than those of us in the field.
Is that clear enough? When it comes to AM radio, if I can revive a dead one and make a living at it for nearly 20 years, employ people, and be successful, I think I have a right to correct people's posts and keep things FACTUAL here. If you don't like it and want to argue, then just mute me. You have that right, just like those who may or may NOT choose to listen to my station, but I think you knew from the start all you wanted to do was argue.
If anyone has seen my posts on satguys in the past, you'd know normally I'd be more "gentle" with it, but I'm sick of people bending issues about AM radio into what it is NOT, and letting their misinformation spread on the internet. It's maddening that the wanna-be's, has-been's and fake experts have more time to spread crap than I do to correct it in places like this while working deep in the trenches OF the industry in question.