WITHERS, NAB MAKE CASE FOR RELAXING OWNERSHIP RULES Jeffrey Yorke – Radio and Records Just hours before Sens. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) and Trent Lott (R-Miss.) promised to thwart FCC chairman Kevin Martin’s expected plan to relax media-ownership rules, broadcasters on Wednesday (Oct. 24) were making an argument for why a loosening was necessary.
Across the street from the Capitol at the Russell Senate Office Building, NAB Radio Board chairman Russ Withers, owner of Withers Broadcasting Companies, which operates 30 local radio stations and a half dozen TV stations in seven states, testified before the Senate Commerce Committee on “The Future of Radio.”
Withers told the committee that “broadcasters are not asking for total deregulation. Our message is simple: We must have reasonable rules that reflect the current competitive radio environment. With reasonable rules we can have a vibrant industry that will continue to provide the service our local communities expect -- whether that is lifeline service in times of emergency or entertainment and informational programming every day.”
He noted that some say the changes to the broadcast-ownership rules adopted in the '96 Telecom Act have not served the public interest. “But they forget that at least part of the reason that you here in Congress directed the FCC to make those changes was because the fragmented broadcast industry -- particularly for radio -- was in serious trouble.” Withers noted that in the early 1990s the FCC reported that “more than half of all stations were losing money and almost 300 stations had gone silent. You can't serve the public interest with no service.”
He argued that since the passage of the Telecom Act, numerous studies have shown that the changes within local broadcast markets, especially among radio stations, “have enhanced the diversity of programming offered by local stations. And another study demonstrated that localism is still alive and well despite the rule changes.”
He added that there are more radio stations today in the country and, “despite claims that the radio industry has been swallowed up by a few corporate giants, there are more than 4,490 different owners of the approximately 13,500 full-power stations in this country. According to the FCC, more than 6,498 of those are locally owned.
”I can assure you that I and my fellow radio broadcasters are on the job every day serving and contributing to our communities. You need only look at the California wildfires as evidence of our commitment. We need reasonable ownership rules to allow us to keep providing that service.” |