Coalition Urges FCC To Keep Radio Ownership Caps In Place

Two longtime radio industry opponents have urged the FCC to preserve existing local radio ownership limits and market subcaps, meeting with an agency official as the Commission’s long-delayed 2022 Quadrennial Review continues.

The in-person meeting gave the two sides a platform to argue that current ownership restrictions should remain in place. Their position stands in contrast to a joint effort earlier this year by seven radio broadcasting companies that called on the FCC to modernize its rules and eliminate what they described as “archaic regulatory burdens that restrict radio’s ability to compete in the modern marketplace.”

That coalition of seven companies made its case as 2026 began, seeking greater flexibility in local ownership limits amid ongoing competition from digital and streaming platforms. Their filing came while the FCC’s 2022 Quadrennial Review of its local ownership rules remained unfinished — a process that has now drawn competing arguments from both sides of the industry.

The two groups that recently met with the FCC official have historically opposed further relaxation of radio ownership rules. Their latest outreach reinforces their view that existing limits and subcaps continue to serve the public interest by protecting localism and diversity in radio markets.

With the Quadrennial Review still open, the competing positions from the seven-company coalition and the two longtime antagonists leave the FCC weighing calls for deregulation against arguments for maintaining the current ownership framework.