The FCC held a field hearing yesterday in Nashville, TN (Commissioner Deborah Tate’s hometown) and got an earful from a line-up of country star witnesses about the increasing consolidation of ownership in the media businesses. (Video of the hearing is here.)
George Jones, Porter Wagoner and Dobie Gray (yes, the Dobie Gray of “Drift Away” and “In Crowd” fame who must have been a cross-over hit before that term was even coined) told the commissioners that it’s getting harder for the twangy sounds of country music to penetrate the airwaves as big companies keep gobbling up local market radio stations.
“The days of an artist receiving regional airplay or breaking as a new act on radio are gone, and you are now considering making the situation even worse by letting some broadcast dynasties become even bigger broadcasting dynasties,” Wagoner told the commissioners.
John Rich of the country group Big and Rich even decried the consolidation as “anti-American” because, surprise, surprise, country music radio stations have disappeared from New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. (Um, maybe the free market laws of supply and demand, and not ownership consolidation, have caused these cities to be free of country music radio stations.)
“To me it’s one of the most anti-American things I’ve ever seen in my life,” he said.
The putative purpose of the hearing was to look at the re-implementation of new ownership rules that would expand how many broadcasting outlets a single company can own. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin is in favor of relaxing ownership requirements, while the two Democratic commissioners, Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein, are opposed. Both Copps and Adelstein got rounds of applause for their stances during the hearing yesterday, which was held at Belmont University’s Massey Performance Center.
Cynthia Brumfield at 8:06 AM|Comments(0)
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