National Catholic Reporter  The Independent News Source  FCC
begins process to halt growth of media consolidation  Column
Washington  Foes of media consolidation, which include the U.S.
Conference of Catholic Bishops, seem to have a friend now in the
Federal Communications Commission.  The FCC on Thursday took the
first step in a process that could limit the number of TV
stations one company can own, by treating TV stations equally.
The current ownership limit is not a number, but a percentage.
One ownership group can own stations covering 39 percent of the
U.S. population, but no more.  However, the FCC has for decades
counted UHF stations -- channels 14 and above -- at only half
the rate as VHF stations.  In TV's pioneer days, the only
channels were channels 2-13; VHF stands for very high frequency.
Then the FCC opened up the UHF, or ultra high frequency, band.
These were channels 14-83, and later 14-69 as the FCC found
alternate uses for that bandwidth.   When UHF came into being,
the three major networks