Broadcasters Say FCC Localism Plan Would Cost Time, Money
Broadcasters slammed an FCC proposal to tighten rules governing how radio and TV stations serve their communities (CD April 29 p11) and document that service to the agency. In comments late Monday on a Dec. 18 FCC localism notice, owners of radio and TV stations and lobbying groups said implementing many of the proposals would waste money and time. Requiring stations to form advisory boards to recommend programming and making them air a minimum amount of local shows to speed FCC review of license renewal applications may violate the First Amendment or the Administrative Procedure Act, Clear Channel, CBS, Disney, NAB and others said. Ten groups, many opposing media consolidation, said more rules are needed because local and political coverage is paltry.
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Several filings warned of grave financial damage to the industry if the FCC makes broadcasters show they've aired certain types of programming to hasten license renewals. Such ascertainment regulations were junked in 1984. Compliance costs “would significantly hamper” TV and radio stations’ ability to “remain viable in a media landscape marked by radical change,” said CBS. NAB said the commission lacks evidence or authority to “turn back the clock to reinstate a myriad of regulations that the agency found ineffective and unnecessary in the less competitive media marketplace of the 1980s.” Broadcasters, the trade group said, are “the most heavily regulated” sector in the media.
Rules envisioned in the FCC notice would “micro-manage” station decisions and heap paperwork upon management, Disney said: “Compliance with, and enforcement of, those regulations would require stations to create and maintain a massive amount of paperwork, electronic or other records that would easily rival and likely exceed the former burdens of ascertainment.” Requiring that stations be staffed constantly, a mandate the agency nixed in 1995, would be costly, the NAB said, warning of “significant, possibly economically devastating, new costs.” Class A stations “may fall by the wayside,” reverting to low-power, a status that involves fewer rules than apply to Class A operations, said the Community Broadcasters Association. That group fears that under the proposed rules its members could have to form advisory boards, maintain full-time station staffs and file quarterly performance reports. “The commission must not let the tail wag the dog by establishing requirements that are intended to produce an end result that already exists.” Community boards are “an impractical solution in search of a problem,” NAB said.
“One-size-fits-all” rules such as the localism notice imagines likely would violate broadcasters’ rights, said Clear Channel, Disney, NAB and others. Such rules “would turn the broadcast industry upside down,” perhaps violating the First Amendment, said Clear Channel. The agency lacks authority to mandate that adherence to programming requirements be considered in decisions to extend station licenses, said NAB. And if the localism proposal were implemented, commissioners would have to vote on whether to renew the licenses of stations said not to have met programming requirements, it added, noting that the Media Bureau now processes renewals. It said that proposal “stems from erroneous suggestions that the current license renewal system is a ‘postcard’ process.'” Far from “rubber stamping” requests, the FCC takes an average of six months to review those it approves, said NAB. In the most recent renewal cycle, 8.1 percent of filings are pending, were denied or were approved with a fine or admonition.
The FCC should renew on an expedited basis only licenses of stations airing at least 3 hours weekly of local civic and election programming, the Public Interest Public Airwaves Coalition and others said in a filing. To get quick action, stations would have to show they used at least one percent of airtime for unpaid public service announcements and spent no more than 30 percent of airtime on ads or home shopping programs, it said. The FCC should shorten broadcast licenses to 3 years, because today’s 8-year span “fails to provide appropriate incentives for licensees,” it added. “Many television stations fail to provide adequate coverage of local and state elections.”