HOMETOWN MEDIA (NOT!): Here's the state of the Cleveland radio and TV markets today, before any effect is felt from the FCC's new policy on concentration of ownership.

There are nineteen commercial radio stations broadcasting from Cuyahoga County. Not one is owned by a county resident or local corporation. Five are owned by Clear Channel; four each by Radio One, Salem Communications and Viacom; and one by Disney. The nineteenth, WABQ, is owned by a small Christian radio chain based in Youngstown.

There are five commercial TV stations operating in Cuyahoga County (Channels 3, 5, 8, 19 and 61), plus one in Lorain (Channel 43). All are owned by national chains.

There are still some stations in Summit County, and in small towns elsewhere in the region, under local ownership. But in this county -- the population and political center of northeast Ohio -- local control of commercial broadcasting is a thing of the past.

(My source is the Center for Public Integrity's media ownership database.)

Also controlled from elsewhere: Cleveland's cable TV service (Pennsylvania), phone service (Texas), and gas and electric utilities (Virginia and Akron, respectively) -- all of which operate here subject to PUCO regulation and/or City franchise.

I'm not sure this requires any further comment.