Competiton and Broadcast Radio?

In today’s WSJ Marketplace section, columnist Lee Gomes highlights the flaws behind the broadcast radio lobby’s "diminished choice" and monopoly arguments against the proposed Sirius/XM merger:

If you fret about diminished choices with a joined
Sirius and XM, think for a second about commercial radio in the U.S.
Its ownership is highly concentrated, its programming is most commonly
described as "soulless" and it is missing most of the public-interest
programming we used to take for granted.

A radio station, after all, is but a state-approved
monopoly on the public’s airwaves. Remember when radio stations turned
out news programs? (Broadcasters say listeners can fill any vacuum with
a host of other sources.)

Compared with commercial radio, a merged XM and Sirius would look like Florence in the Renaissance.

It is said that one test of how much competition will
exist after a merger is the extent to which a competitor squawks; the
more complaining, the more there will be a thriving market. Judging by
the decibels from the broadcasters, satellite and broadcast radio would
soon be at each others’ throats. What’s not to like about that?