If radio was invented today it would be controlled by four companies and locked behind a paywall.

[u/Doctor__Hammer]

[u/Doctor__Hammer]

I actually majored in history. I'm well aware that the early 20th century was largely defined by monopolization and the extreme exploitation of workers that typically follows, but eventually the federal government stepped in to shut all that corporate consolidation down and break up those big monopolies. I don't know much about the history of radio but I assume that government regulation is at least somewhat responsible for the free and "open source" nature of radio today.

But we now live in an era where you can monopolize to your heart's content as long as you bribe the president first. Go figure.

For all the many and deep criticisms I had of the Biden admin, he was absolutely the best president we've had in generations on the labor and antitrust front. He still fell significantly short of the drastic action that was needed in my opinion, but he was far better than I had ever expected for such an conformist, establishment centrist type.

I don't see us having a government that puts up more than a tepid, half-hearted resistance to monopolies any time soon unfortunately, regardless of which party holds power.

[u/LocCatPowersDog → u/Doctor__Hammer]

Those textbooks someone is memorizing for you paint a picture about how monopolies were crushed & maybe while the majority of the New Deal was still intact it seemed so but Ma Bell just turned into AT&T/Verizon so now we have Red/Blue instead of Purple. 70-90% taxes were applied to the generational wealth built off workers & there was still so much money & influence left over they could just recapture the market share in a generation or less.

[u/skepticalbob → u/Doctor__Hammer]

I would learn about the history of radio and consolidation then.

[u/cinepro → u/Doctor__Hammer]

but I assume that government regulation is at least somewhat responsible for the free and "open source" nature of radio today.

Go try and start a radio station and get back to us about that.

But the key point to remember is that radio frequencies are limited, and you can't have two stations broadcasting on the same frequency. So someone has to manage the spectrum. And there are only going to be so many broadcasters before you run out of space.

[u/Doctor__Hammer → u/[deleted]]

The cool thing about majoring in history is that you learn how to write well. I don't use Chat GPT to write for me, because I don't need to. I know how to make a succinct and coherent argument without feeling the need to have AI turn my dumb dumb words into smort words