People still watch lots of television. I bet if you reduced the amount of money people make, then the networks would make more, and that would make them happy again.
As for “I would buy a radio station not because it makes money or could make money again, but because it has a brand — a real strong brand – that could lead into a digital media platform.” Um, ok. Except that why would you buy something that you don’t plan to make money with? Isn’t that silly? Radio still makes money, but it’s definitely declining rapidly. That said, people who say radio has no influence on music should look at the sales charts and the most played songs on radio. They’re quite similar. How could that be the case if radio has no influence anymore? Every car has a radio, so the medium will be around for a long time. Whenever I read that “everyone” has an ipod or “nobody” listens to the radio anymore, I take that with a grain of salt. It’s easy to become myopic and forget that there’s a world out there of people who actually lost their television service in the digital conversion because they don’t have cable, or who drive all day and leave the radio on. Some people even still read newspapers!