Listing Credit: James Kovin
musicFIRST and Future of Song Coalition file joint comments to the FCC, voicing give a make a choice to for continued limits on FM possession to protect possession diversity, viewpoint diversity, and localism.
musicFIRST, a train for fairness and fairness for song creators, and the Future of Song Coalition, a non-revenue organization advocating for a heavenly song ecosystem, jointly submitted comments to negate the FCC’s 2022 Quadrennial Overview route of. Within the submitting, the organizations continue their commitment to promoting fairness and protections for diminutive broadcasters by advocating for the continuation of the Local Radio Divulge Ownership rule and its influence on FM radio stations.
The organizations’ joint comments contain ideas for the FCC, corresponding to conserving numeric limits on native FM possession to advertise possession diversity, viewpoint diversity, and localism. Additionally, they urge the FCC to allege no to make bigger the definition of the market, which could maybe lead to additional consolidation available in the market; most traditional limits on frequently-owned FM stations in native markets dangle no longer gone some distance sufficient to supply protection to the public hobby, but those limits are aloof obligatory for the public hobby, they argue.
“Indubitably diminutive, native radio stations present useful services to communities across the nation, in most cases featuring the hyperlocal and up-and-coming allege material that is in most cases absent from greater, commercial stations,” says Congressman Joe Crowley, Chairman of the musicFIRST Coalition.
“Nonetheless consolidation at some stage in the song industry and regrettable deregulatory actions below past Administrations dangle led to a handful of huge broadcasters — who already enjoy main, unfair advantages — gobbling up heaps of of those stations. In recount to protect the rest localism and selection amongst FM stations in our communities, it is some distance obligatory that we protect the bounds on the series of FM stations that one entity can dangle in a single market.”
The submitting moreover notes that AM/FM radio is the supreme audio platform in america that does no longer pay song creators for the consume of sound recordings. Every musicFIRST and Future of Song Coalition recommend for heavenly pay for all song creators, with particular lodging to guarantee predictability and affordability for diminutive and non-commercial broadcasters.
“At its most attention-grabbing, radio could even be a uniquely mighty medium, elevating the voices of various native communities. Sadly, decades of consolidation and asset-stripping (dangle) had tragic consequences for broadcasting, largely relegating innovation and creativity to the non-commercial fragment of the radio dial,” says Kevin Erickson, Director of the Future of Song Coalition.
“Some distance too in most cases, native DJs and programmers had been replaced by out-of-town robots playing homogenous and repetitive playlists in slender, cookie-cutter formats. Wide radio lobbyists negate that extra radical deregulation is the acknowledge, however musicians and our communities know that the FCC must stand agency in defense of competition, localism, and selection.”
