Since the passage of the 1996 Telecommunications Act, the impact it has had has been devastating. Having observed the harm "to consumers, artists, concert goers, local radio station owners and promoters," U.S. Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) criticized the act in a statement before Congress, while also revealing plans to introduce legislation to address his concerns.

At issue is the elimination of the national radio ownership caps and the "relaxation of local ownership caps" which has resulted in just four corporations coming to control access to a majority of the stations. To contrast this, there were 5133 owners of radio stations prior to the passage of the Telecommunications Act.

According to Feingold, the concentration of radio stations in local markets is even more startling. To illustrate this point, he showed how "four radio station companies control nearly 80 percent of the New York market. Three of these same four companies own nearly 60 percent of the market share in Chicago. In my home state of Wisconsin, four companies own 86 percent of the market share in the Milwaukee radio market." And this list continues in almost every market across the U.S.

Unfortunately, this media consolidation has harmed us in other ways as well: reduced variety in programming, diminishing exchange of free ideas, and an increase in concert ticket prices.