Tampa Picked for Next FCC Hearing
Posted March 14th, 2007 by Jen Howard
Giving more than 2 weeks notice this time, the Federal Communications Commission has announced that on April 30, Tampa will be the location of the next official hearing on media ownership.
This is the fourth official hearing — attended by all five FCC commissioners — since the FCC launched its rule-making procedure that could change local ownership limits.
For decades, local communities across the country have been shut out of the decisions made by the FCC about the public airwaves. This is an important opportunity for residents of Florida to meet face-to-face with the FCC to tell them how their local communities are — or aren’t — being served by their media.
Stay tuned to StopBigMedia for more updates.
I will be out of town and won’t be able to attend the hearing, but I would be interested in hearing how the commissioners would respond to the idea that media consolidation actually promotes diversity of voice in the media. In the current market, broadcasters must compete not only amongst one another but also against cable, satellite (both television and radio), and the Internet for the advertising dollars on which they rely. It would seem to me that without the resources afforded by corporate ownership, many of these outfits simply could not afford to continue operating and would be forced to close their doors, resulting in a further loss of independent voices and programming. And in the spirit of full disclosure, I do some consulting work with the NAB.
March 14th, 2007 at 12:34 pmA…
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August 17th, 2008 at 11:46 am