It has been a long time since I listened to a commercial radio station. But back when I was a kid, one station or another was always reading (in the driest monotone voice possible) the information about the public right to comment on the license renewal of said radio station and their service to the community. There was always some reference to the file of public services that the broadcaster had provided being somewhere in a locked file cabinet in the third sub-basement where the flood occured last year or something like that. But at least the public was mildly aware that the station had to actually renew their license and that the public had some right to comment on that.
Well, whether stations still read that or not, some people have taken the right to public comment seriously and have petitioned the "FCC to deny the license renewals for 11 radio stations locally owned by Clear Channel Communications, and Citadel Broadcasting Company." You can read the complete story here.
In a nutshell the petition says that by not provding real local content and news programming the corporations are not providing the public service that is required of them to use OUR airwaves.
It is very unlikely that the FCC will deny any licenses, but you could make some noise in your local community if you have a corporate clone station in town. Just commenting on the license may get you in the local paper and make some noise about local control and ownership of the media.
