FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington is emerging as radio’s top ally on the FCC after the departure of two of radio’s strongest proponents Ajit Pai and Michael O’Rielly. Simington spoke about the importance of local and being able to compete with Google and Facebook before the Massachusetts Broadcasters Association. Simington is also a keynote speaker today at Forecast 2022 in New York City.
During his MAB speech Simington said broadcast groups whose market caps vanish into a rounding error of big tech media platforms have to be permitted the space and time to compete. “To discover business models that differentiate their offerings and grow audiences. To create scale efficiencies that allow them the flexibility to compete with digital-only platforms.”
He also touted how important being local is to communities all around the country. “The Commission has the promotion of localism as an explicit mandate. Well, to the surprise of perhaps no one in this room, but many in Washington: broadcasters compete by doing localism. And radio broadcasters have expanded their role to become ombudsmen between local communities and institutions, and this is nowhere more true than it is in communities where the most common language is not English. And we cannot do without these local broadcasters that mediate between the public and government, or the public and industry. Google and Facebook don’t have stringers outside of city hall sniffing out corruption, hurricane evacuation routing, or staffing for informational access to local community resources anywhere in their product development path.”
Simington said broadcasters made it clear how important local is during the COVID-a9 pandemic. “Communities cannot do without broadcasters. COVID made that plain. Broadcast consumption, particularly in-home radio, increased during COVID. And why? Because broadcasters communicate where to go and what to do in emergencies. And not only do broadcasters have an irreproducible advantage in local knowledge in moments of emergency, but they have an irreproducible technological advantage as well: broadcasters have durable, hardened communications infrastructure that this country cannot do without.”
