The FCC Commissioner said a lot of work needs to be done removing outdated and unnecessary burdens imposed on broadcasters by the Commission. He admits broadcasters face some of the most archaic FCC rules, with many that no longer make sense in today’s competitive marketplace. One of those rules is the Main Studio Rule and O’Rielly wants it eliminated.
The current rule requires every station’s main studio to be located within or very close to that station’s community of license, foreclosing the option for many stations to realize some efficiencies by collocating their offices. O’Rielly told the crowd at the Radio Ink Hispanic Radio Conference that it’s time to take another look at collocation proposals. “Doing so could allow for cost savings that could make a real difference for some stations, while at the same time providing them a security dividend through more efficient channeling of public access. And the argument in favor of the restrictions has been significantly weakened in a time when people almost universally contact their radio stations by telephone, mail, or online. Additionally, now that we are moving the public files maintained by broadcasters to the Internet, the information the public would want to access will increasingly not be available in a physical format at the station’s studio. The need for a main studio as a primary point of communication with the community has simply been minimized by consumer preference and by Commission activity. Our rules should reflect this reality and allow for greater station collocations. The staffing requirements for these studios should likewise be updated.”
