FCC Hears Arguments on Station Ownership

Major broadcasters urged federal regulators to relax ownership limits and abandon proposals that could force divestitures in some of the largest markets, while owners of small radio and TV stations argued that the restrictions should remain. At a hearing before the Federal Communications Commission, Jeffrey Marcus, president of the largest U.S. radio operator Chancellor Media Corp., called the FCC’s ownership restrictions “glacial remnants of a regulatory Ice Age” that make it difficult for broadcasters to compete against cable TV and other media companies. Among the small-station owners urging that the restrictions remain was singer and songwriter Stevie Wonder, who said relaxing the rules would hurt minority broadcast owners. “Public interest demands and public interest requires the protection of stations who stand alone like the dots in a Pac Man game destined to be gobbled up by” media conglomerates, said Wonder, who owns Los Angeles FM radio station KJLH. In December, the FCC nearly voted on a plan to limit the number of radio stations a TV station owner could acquire in the largest markets but put the proposals on hold.