The musicFIRST FCC filing has to do with deregulation and musicFIRST’s opposition to any further loosening of ownership rules. The Future of Music Coalition was a joint filer. The NAB, and some of the larger radio companies, have said in order to compete with other media organizations, including big tech companies, more deregulation is needed.
It’s unclear when the FCC will ever discuss radio ownership rules again, despite a mandate from Congress to do so every 4 years.
musicFIRST wants the FCC to preserve what little intragroup competition remains between owners of AM/FM stations at local market levels. “AM/FM radio station owners also all compete in intergroup competition with satellite radio and streaming audio platforms for audience and revenue. We also respectfully request that Congress be advised that smaller AM/FM clusters must and do compete with both larger AM/FM clusters locally as well as streaming and satellite-based audio providers for audience and revenue. We, as members of the music community who provide much of the content used by all audio platforms to generate audience and revenue, care about the well-being of all AM/FM radio stations. We are concerned about the impacts of potential further consolidation of ownership of FM radio stations at local market levels on ownership diversity, viewpoint diversity and localism, including with respect to music playlists.”
musicFIRST goes on to say that because the organization is particularly supportive of smaller market stations, who they say are competitively disadvantaged against the larger owners, they are calling on The Commission to reject the NAB’s proposal to “eviscerate current numerical limits on the number of FM stations that one entity can own in a given market.”
musicFIRST says that if The Commission were to eliminate or loosen local FM ownership rules, as the NAB advocates for, it would do so at the expense of owners of smaller clusters who wish to continue to compete for audience and revenue locally against those AM/FM clusters who are currently maxed out under existing FM ownership rules.
Read the full filing HERE.
