Like a lot of small town radio stations, KBOA billed itself as “Hometown Radio.” And it was truly that. My father worked in small town radio for most of his career and I was lucky enough to be part of it for a dozen years (1972-1984).
I spent most of the next dozen years doing affiliate relations for a company that operated regional radio networks throughout the Midwest. It was during this time I witnessed the beginning of the end for small market radio. GPT-5 does a pretty good job of explaining what happened:
The Cable Communications Policy Act of 1984 wasn’t aimed squarely at radio–it was about deregulating cable TV–but it reflected a broader Reagan-era communications philosophy: Government should step back from regulating the content, ownership, and rates of communications media. Let the “market” decide what thrives.
The FCC, taking its cues, started softening enforcement of long-standing rules that had kept local radio… well, local. Things like:
- Community service requirements (public affairs programming, coverage of local issues) were dialed way down.
- Stricter ownership limits were already easing before ’84, and the climate was shifting toward more consolidation.
- Stations were no longer expected to keep those old public inspection files full of quarterly reports on local needs and issues–meaning less accountability to the towns they served.
The 1984 act didn’t kill local radio overnight–it just removed some guardrails. A few key dominoes followed:
Late 1980sEarly 1990s – Satellite-fed music formats and syndicated talk shows exploded, replacing live local talent in small markets. Automation systems (cart decks reel-to-reel hard drives) made it cheap to run a station without a staff in the building.
1996: The Big Bang – The Telecommunications Act of 1996 was the knockout punch. It removed most caps on how many stations one company could own, nationally and in a single market. This triggered a buying frenzy–Clear Channel (later iHeart), Cumulus, and others hoovered up hundreds of small-town stations.
Once ownership concentrated. Programming decisions moved to corporate headquarters, often hundreds of miles away. “Local” DJs became voice-tracked personalities who might never set foot in the town they were “serving.” Newsrooms were gutted–where a station once had three or four reporters covering city hall and the high school football game, it now had none. Ad sales shifted from helping the Main Street hardware store to courting regional and national accounts.
The result: radio still exists in small towns, but it’s usually a relay tower for something produced in Dallas, Atlanta, or New York. The legal call letters stay the same, but the civic connection is gone.
For listeners, the change was gradual–like your favorite diner quietly replacing homemade pie with Sysco desserts. The signal was still there, but the soul wasn’t. By the 2000s, “hometown radio” as it existed in the 1960s80s–local DJs, swap shop shows, remotes from the county fair, and funeral announcements–was mostly gone. Streaming, podcasts, and Spotify just finished what deregulation and consolidation started.
If you draw the line straight: 1984 Act deregulation climate weaker local obligations syndication & automation 1996 Telecom Act mega-consolidation death of small-market localism. It’s not that the 1984 law alone killed hometown radio–it’s that it was the first shove down the slope.