• by Tom Hespos , August 6, 2004

On Friday, I heard an announcement that shock jocks Opie & Anthony had signed with XM Radio, the subscription-based satellite radio company to broadcast a morning show. You may remember Opie & Anthony from the national attention they attracted when they were canned by Infinity Broadcasting in 2002 for broadcasting descriptions of their radio listeners having sex in public places, including St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York. The stunt resulted in Infinity being fined a hefty, six-figure sum by the FCC.

At the time, Opie & Anthony had the top-rated show in the men's 18 to 49 markets in which they were broadcast. While I personally think their show was obnoxious and crude, and I didn't count myself among their regular listeners, I wasn't happy to see them dismissed. When I heard the announcement about the move to XM, one of the first things I thought was "I wish Howard Stern would do the same thing."

Not that I want to see Howard Stern taken off the public airwaves or anything. Rather, I'd like to see satellite radio succeed, and I think XM's apparent strategy of signing popular disc jockeys that have run afoul of the FCC is a great one. While the FCC might consider their banter offensive or obscene, the numbers speak for themselves and the huge numbers of fans will likely give XM a nice boost.

Much has been written in the past year about the FCC stepping up fines against companies that broadcast indecent or offensive material. You may approve of these initiatives or disagree with them entirely, but it's clear that the FCC believes too many broadcasters are stepping over the line. However, the FCC's mandate to regulate the public airwaves in the interests of the public is predicated on the notion of limited bandwidth - something that is becoming less applicable to media every day.

Broadcast television and radio stations are subject to the regulatory control of the FCC in part because the United States considers the bandwidth they occupy to belong to the public. There can be only a limited number of television and radio stations within a specific geographic area because of bandwidth limitations. If stations weren't licensed and regulated, the broadcast spectrum would become too crowded and no one would be able to broadcast a clean signal to viewers and listeners. Thus, the FCC serves the public interest by serving as the regulatory body overseeing licensing and making sure that the limited bandwidth of public airwaves is being used appropriately.

But what happens when broadcast institutions move to media that, theoretically, have unlimited bandwidth? I'm talking about media like the Internet, satellite radio, cable TV, and others where the number of channel choices isn't limited by geography and bandwidth. Where bandwidth is limited, regulating for the sake of the public interest is implied in the FCC's mandate. But is that the case with emerging media? Some would argue that it's not.

As Michael Powell and the FCC flex their political muscles, will this lead to a trend characterized by radio and television personalities fleeing the restrictiveness of terrestrial media and signing on with new and emerging channels of communication?

Many popular media personalities already have their own Web sites. Some, like Dave Barry, Margaret Cho, and Moby, blog on a regular basis and have online followings. No doubt, Opie & Anthony will carry over some of their loyal followers to XM. Will defection be a trend to watch for the future?

If it is, it impacts us as media planners. We've already seen widespread defection of audiences, with young men in particular ending up scattered across so many channels that mainstream marketers are finding it incredibly difficult to reach them effectively. Take a few big media stars and move them from TV and nationally syndicated radio to alternative channels and the fragmentation problem gets worse. If it becomes too widespread, then we'll really see that "embarrassment of niches" concept - the one that Meskauskas is always talking about - rule the media landscape.