Radio Execs Urged To Debate Ownership Rules

The question of whether to modify radio’s subcap ownership rule is no longer much of a question at all, but rather a matter of how, reports RadioWorld.

Republican commissioner Michael O'Reilly spoke to the NAB State Leadership Conference in Washington Tuesday and urged radio attendees to be active participants in debates over how best to reform radio ownership rules. “In all reality, these rules haven’t changed since Congress last addressed the issue in 1995,” he said, according to remarks released by his office. “But the radio marketplace sure looks and operates far differently than it did then. As leaders in the industry, you have some of the burden to educate regulators about how the market has evolved and about the real challenges you will face in the foreseeable future.”

O’Rielly noted that a central question is what to do with the existing subcap limits on common ownership of AM and FM stations in a market.

“At the initial stages, there seems to be agreement that eliminating the AM ownership limit is more than timely,” he said. “Although some may argue that certain AM radio stations have become the de facto news source once provided by local newspapers, that recognition is not a good argument against allowing for greater common ownership. On the contrary, allowing consolidation of AM stations may be a key way to preserve this function. Let’s not ignore what happened to the newspaper industry and the role the commission helped play in its demise by denying similar opportunities to grow and remain viable.”

He noted a number of proposals to permit a relaxation on the number of FM radio stations owned in a market, and then said: “I am pleased to see that a large portion of the industry has moved past the issue of whether some cap relief is needed and towards just exactly what form it should take. Now that we are past the initial rhetoric, we can figure out how best to provide relief while preserving sufficient diversity of voices in markets.”