FCC Hearings

Country stars and songwriters told the Federal Communications Commission yesterday that media consolidation is hurting their industry. Venerated singers like George Jones and Porter Wagoner joined Naomi Judd, Cowboy Troy and the duo Big and Rich to say that small acts or local artists can’t get heard on the radio anymore.

They blame it on large companies like Clear Channel, which owns over 1,100 stations, because play lists aren’t picked locally.

George Jones says he’s had more singles than any other artist in any other format.

“However the consolidation of the radio industry has kept me from being played on the radio. It has kept me from earning my full potential as a country artist and has denied my fans and the American public the opportunity to hear my music. Corporate based decisions in the music industry are nothing more than the opinions and decisions of a few people at the top.”

The concerns of the country music artists fell on the sympathetic ears of Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein.

“Now when hit makers this big say there’s a problem, we’d better pay attention. These are the ones who made it and they’re saying that for the next generation of artists, there’s an environment that’s more hostile and more difficult.”

The commission also heard from local media organizations, many of which are advocating easing cross-ownership rules. That means a TV station could own a newspaper in the same market. Deborah McDermott is President of Young Broadcasting, which owns Channel 2 in Nashville.

“What happens to localism if my station and other TV broadcasters are foreclosed from improved economics of scale. One only has to look at what has happened to local newspapers where the number of cities that now have two competing daily newspapers has dwindled steadily. The handwriting is on the wall. If we cannot sustain a reasonable level of economic viability, the number of local TV stations will decline.”

Nashville Congressman Jim Cooper isn’t a supporter of relaxed consolidation rules. He says the quality of journalism in Middle Tennessee has suffered as a result of the media consolidation laws passed in 1996 and bashed the Tennessean as the prime example.

“I would ask you to look below the corporate level at the working conditions of today’s journalists. More and more local reporters admit to me that they’ve been told to find stories in order to please advertisers. And likewise, they avoid stories that might displease advertisers. Some reporters and cameramen ask me about welfare programs so they can feed their own families. There are fewer regular news beats and the news beats that are funded are often tasked by reporters who often aren’t able to remain on the beat long enough to become expert.”

The FCC is conducting public hearings around the country as it revisits rules regarding media consolidation and cross-ownership. In 2003 under then-Chairman Michael Powell, the FCC further relaxed the 1996 ownership rules. The 2003 rules were overturned by the federal courts.

Individuals from all over the state, and even from as far away as St. Louis, made comments to the commission. Most were not in support of allowing more consolidation.