It's all over for ALTV: Consolidation has swallowed indies the organization served. (Top of the Week).(Association for Local Television Stations)(Brief Article)

The Association for Local Television Stations' board of directors last week voted to fold the organization, a move the industry has been waiting for since most of the group's TV-station members have been swallowed up by larger corporations.

The board now has to decide what to do with the approximately $1 million left in its coffers and how long that task will take.

ALTV was formed as the Association of Independent Television Stations in 1972 to speak for independent stations. As they disappeared, particularly after the 1993 demise of FCC rules barring broadcast nets from owning their own prime time programming, the group saw it needed a new constituency. …