Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[joyapple]

(context: But radio and TV station ownership is by definition regulated � these are the public airwaves and there are only so many channels available in a community. )

What does "these are the public airwaves and there are only so many channels available in a community" indicate? What is the logical relationship between this part and the former part?

[bud]

Look at the "airways" thread for an explanation of the phrases.

The discussion is probably about the allocation of the airwaves to broadcast companies. The airlwaves are publicly owned, meaning they belong to everybody. But they must be controlled by somebody/something. Otherwise, your company and mine might both broadcast over channel 7 and make channel 7 nothing but a garbled mess.

So the government controls who can broadcast on which frequency. But the airwaves are publicly owned. Do you charge a fee to the companies? Do you let them use the airwaves for free because it is a benefit to the people? Do you establish any requirements, such as a minimum amount of news each day? Those are the types of issues that the regulations address because the airwaves are publicly owned and limited in quantity.