MMTC says FCC proposed localism rule would harm minority broadcasters

From RadioInk.com
(May 19, 2008) The Minority Media and Telecommunications Council said in supplementary comments on the FCC's notice of proposed rulemaking on broadcast localism that a return to the main studio rule -- which, until 1987, required that stations' main facilities be in their city of license -- would "neither be fair, efficient, nor equitable for minority broadcasters because the rule would act as a tax on late entry."

The MMTC contends that, because of the FCC's "misadministration of minority ownership" in earlier years, when it did not allow minorities or those seeking to serve non-English-speaking audiences to obtain broadcast licenses, minority broadcasters "entered the business two generations later than other broadcasters."

Those delays meant, says the MMTC, that when minorities were able to enter the industry, "they were generally only able to acquire low-power, technically inferior stations that became available when the original owners retired." Additionally, by not having to compete with minorities earlier, non-minority entrants into broadcasting were able to gather clusters of stations licensed to the largest city of license in a market, while minority and ethnic owners "frequently have had to assemble clusters of stations listed in several separate, suburban COLs."

Pointing to the Los Angeles market, the MMTC notes that Clear Channel has nine stations, eight of which are licensed to L.A., while Liberman has six stations in the market, five of which are licensed to L.A. suburbs. Says the MMTC, "Thus under the MSR, Liberman would require five main studios for its six stations, while Clear Channel would only require two main studios for its nine stations."

An analysis by MMTC statistician Frederick Holt, Ph.D., found that minority-owned and/or ethnic-programmed stations would have approximately 1.25 fewer stations per required studio than other broadcasters. Therefore, says the MMTC, "Reverting to the pre-1987 main studio rule would ratify and replicate the present effects of past discrimination." The rule would not encourage local programming, the group says, but would diminish it by "heightening the profound financial challenges faced by the very broadcasters that historically have shown the greatest dedicated to local service: minority owners."

Additionally, the MMTC notes, the main studio rule would "impose enormous costs on broadcasters generally, thus discouraging investment in the industry as a whole." The rule would, therefore, amount to a "receding tide that sinks all boats."

Finally, the MMTC calls the proposed return to the main studio rule a "textbook example of a rule aimed at advancing one laudable objective that would, in practices, undermine the agency's pursuit of another, equally laudable objective." The group says, "In this instance, even if MSR would advance localism, it would diminish diversity."


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