That year, the Federal Communications Commission increased the federal limit on station ownership. Despite McChesney's claims, diversity has actually increased on the radio dial since 1994. By this year, the number of AC and country stations had fallen to 4,529. They changed formats. They found niches.
Markets do have a way of sorting themselves out.
As for the claim that media consolidation poses greater potential for journalistic compromise and conflicts of interest, I'd argue that the jury is still out. The few instances of conflict cited by the alarmists are likely to be the least of the problem. Take, for example, Rupert Murdoch's decision last year to kill a book manuscript that criticized the mainland Chinese government while he was trolling for business deals with the Chinese. In the abstract, yes. In fact, the incident was widely reported, and the manuscript was eventually published by another company.