Can radio go home again?

Jeff Jarvis is doing the Snoopy Dance over this story in the NYT about Clear Channel:

Clear Channel, the poster child for evil media conglomerates, bought up stations and sucked cash out of them but now there’s not much left to suck. Consolidation is the act of a dying industry. Well, broadcast won’t die. But it sure as hell won’t grow.

I was in a lot of small and medium market radio stations before and during the The Great Consolidation. I saw a lot of locally owned stations get gobbled up by Clear Channel. I thought it was a bad idea then and haven’t changed my mind. But I’m a “hometown radio” guy. Local ownership. Local programming. I want to see the station owner at Rotary.

But it’s all moot now. The Internet and related technologies have changed the media landscape forever. I’m not sure radio can go home again. I hope so.

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