Van Hollen Urges FCC to 'Seriously Consider' Criticisms of Geotargeted Radio
Senate Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee Chairman Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., urged the FCC to “seriously consider the concerns raised by respondents about a GeoBroadcast Solutions’ proposal to modify the commission’s FM booster rules to allow geotargeted ZoneCasting radio broadcasts “and…
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work to address and resolve them to the satisfaction of all parties before any modification” occurs. A dozen House Commerce Committee members (see 2210050058) and Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Ben Cardin, D-Md., also wrote the FCC with concerns about the ZoneCasting proposal. ZoneCasting “would allow radio stations to geotarget programming, including emergency alerts, news, and advertising, to different areas and communities,” Van Hollen said in a letter to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel that NAB released Wednesday. “Because radio stations operate under licenses that require them to broadcast to a specific geographic area, ZoneCasting would create a new regime where advertisers and stations could pick and choose who hears different types of information and solicitations. And because most radio play occurs while listeners are traveling by car, with ZoneCasting, listeners could hear varying content as they drove around a single region, for example, through Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Virginia, as many do regularly during a single trip.” Opponents have warned the FCC in comments “that the hyper-targeted messaging ZoneCasting enables could reduce the effectiveness of emergency alert systems, exacerbate racial inequity by restricting content and advertising, and undermine the overall economic ecosystem of the broadcast industry, specifically disadvantaging small and minority-owned radio stations,” Van Hollen said: “The limited testing of the technology, which has led to uncertainty about the degree of disruption to listeners and stations from signal interference, is also noteworthy. Despite the voluntary nature of the proposed change, this new technology would be an added expense for radio stations to acquire and maintain.” The FCC didn’t comment.