It wasn’t that long ago that big corporate money was allowed to take over the publicly-owned radio waves and squeeze out the small, the local, the independent, the alternative. It was the McRadioing of America. As a result, just one single company, the largest player in domestic radio broadcasting, is programming stations in 90% of the country’s biggest markets. You get the same hamburger everywhere you go, made from the same cash cow.

Now, today, the FCC took the first steps in giving the internet to big corporate money too. Before long, you’ll be paying a premium to those fatcats to download music, watch videos, and listen to radio on the internet. Oh, you can bet there’ll be deals preferring their music, their videos, their entertainment. It’ll seem like a bargain, but you’ll still be paying more. In more ways than one. And what happens to the small, the local, the independent, the alternative? Squeezed out again. No more level playing field online.

But wait — just the other day, a little-reported bit of federal legislation was passed to restore some of the public airwaves back to the public, easing restrictions on low-power start-up broadcast stations. The wheel, she turns. Community radio listeners are suddenly back on the fast-track to recognition for being the hip early adopters that they are.

Stay tuned, you visionaries.