The National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters backed the FCC devising...

FCC Wednesday, activists voiced opposition to ownership deregulation, while Sinclair continued (CD Dec 10 p13) seeking changes to the draft Media Bureau order so it doesn’t deem attributable TV joint services agreements (JSAs). The pathway to completing research on barriers to entry faced by people of color and women owning radio and TV stations is also getting attention at the commission (CD Dec 12 p5). “The Commission must, at a bare minimum, provide a clear commitment, complete with a timetable, for completing the necessary studies and for adopting such a policy” on minority ownership, NABOB Executive Director Jim Winston wrote FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. Seventeen years after the Supreme Court’s Adarand decision on what government agencies must show to adopt rules targeting certain demographic groups, the commission still lacks a minority ownership policy, Winston wrote. He said an order “which continues the long history of dawdling and delay that has characterized the Commission’s approach to creating such a policy will send a very negative message to minority communities” and the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that’s remanded two previous ownership orders. The 3rd Circuit’s 2011 ruling obligates the agency to finish studies before adopting the order, though if the FCC approves new rules it must show the 3rd Circuit it’s “not ignoring this issue or putting it off until some unspecified date in the future,” Winston wrote Tuesday in docket 09-182 (http://xrl.us/bn54r2). Such a commitment should discuss the studies the commission will prepare and have a timetable to complete them and to start a new policy, Winston said. The number of black-owned radio stations fell 10 percent to 225 between 1995 and 2012, and the number of such TV outlets fell 65 percent to eight, he said. “The Commission must take concrete steps to end this loss of voices.” Free Press said its activists and others, gathering outside the commission, distributed fliers opposing ownership deregulation. The headline of the mock-up newspaper Free Press said “OBAMA OPPOSES CROSS-OWNERSHIP,” a reference to then-Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill. (http://xrl.us/bn54rs). A bureau spokeswoman had no comment. Sinclair CEO David Smith met Commissioner Mignon Clyburn to oppose attributing TV JSAs, which have “nothing to do with the control” of TV programming, the company said in a filing in the docket (http://xrl.us/bn54sn). It said cost savings from the arrangements “are vital to the financial health of both stations” in a JSA.