In a fiery LinkedIn post, strategist and futurist at TechInsights Roger Lanctot joined GeoBroadcasting Services in calling out geotargeting’s opponents. As the FCC approaches a proposed waiver to allow three minutes of regionalized broadcasting per hour, Lanctot blasts claims that Zonecasting is digital redlining as, “particularly noxious.”
iHeartMedia previously wrote the FCC to highlight, “The threat of advertising redlining presented by Zonecasting, noting a GeoBroadcasting advocate’s own suggestion privately to broadcasters that a station implementing Zonecasting … would see a profit by focusing on ‘Gold Coast’ areas of a station’s service area.”
Lanctot responds, “The geotargeting as racism claim in regard to radio is particularly troubling given the legitimate concerns that protected populations have regarding the potential impact of artificial intelligence and profiling.” He continues, “Radio is the only medium leashed to a shotgun approach to connecting with consumers – although, as previously noted, large broadcast radio organizations do offer geotargeted advertising – an advantage they’d like to preserve.”
Lanctot closes his argument saying that confining zonecasting to merely three minutes per hour is “measley” and further banishes iHeart’s claims to the realm of “absurdity.”
Roger Lanctot’s full post is available on LinkedIn.
I couldn’t agree more with your comments. The Ute Indian Tribe is within the city grade countor of our group of radio stations in Northeastern Utah. By origionating content on an in-line booster within our primary service area, we could deliver relevent content to tribal members. I would assume that there are other minority communities that would benefit from this technology in the U.S. as well.
Steven L. Evans
Evans Family Media Inc.