Newly released FCC statistics on minority ownership of radio and...
Newly released FCC statistics on minority ownership of radio and TV stations show the agency needs to do more, said the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council and Free Press. Data from ownership forms broadcasters file every other year “underscores the…
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urgency of the commission taking action on the dozens of pending proposals,” that would help disadvantaged businesses regardless of who owns them, suggested by the agency’s Diversity Committee and others over the years, MMTC Executive Director David Honig told us Thursday. He cited a radio “incubator” proposal first made by the agency’s Minority Ownership Committee in 1990 (http://xrl.us/bnzuki) that would allow common ownership of an additional station in each market if that outlet helps a socially and economically disadvantaged business such as by training entrepreneurs. The proposal was “almost unopposed,” Honig said. The committee in 2010 backed both a radio and TV incubator proposal (http://xrl.us/bnzuj8). The Form 323 data (http://xrl.us/bnzuhs) show a low portion of minorities own stations relative to their population size, compared to whites. That “long-overdue” report, “the first full census the FCC has completed,” found an “abysmal” level of broadcast ownership by women and people of color, Free Press said. “The FCC has been gathering this data since 1999, and this is the first time they've attempted to issue a comprehensive summary,” Craig Aaron, CEO of the group opposing media mergers and acquisitions, said by email Wednesday. “Media diversity is such a low priority for the FCC that it took 13 years for the agency to issue a potentially accurate ownership count."