In Chicago Defender Article, Former FCC Commissioner Barrett Seeks to Improve Inequities of Minority Broadcasters
In an opinion piece penned for the Chicago Defender, a leading urban African American community newspaper, former FCC Commissioner Andrew Barrett, asks the FCC to address the continued inequities for minorities in broadcast radio that he attempted to remedy since the 1990s.
“During my tenure, the economic plight of Black businesses and the challenges relative to radio advertising were understood and debated but never remedied. I had the opportunity to meet with numerous members of the broadcast industry, and, in particular, licensees of radio stations as well as other radio industry representatives. There was a consensus that radio was and would be having a hard time competing with a multitude of competitive voices,” Barrett states.
“In the interim decades there has been some attempt to address this need but so much more needs to be done. But with today’s racial discourse I hope significant progress can be made to improve the disparities that exist among the have and have-nots controlling the radio frequencies.”
Barrett cites the ability to hyper-localize content and advertising to enhance the localism bedrock of radio broadcasting, and continues that the solution is through new technologies that have already gone through a rigorous FCC commenting period and is now pending FCC approval.
“Essentially, the FCC would permit (but not require) broadcast stations to use their antennas and sophisticated algorithms to transmit different content for a few minutes of every hour – just like local cable companies have done for decades.,” Barrett says.
“Its supported by The Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council, and the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters. It’s an advancement for the industry that benefits small business advertisers and stations large and small by allowing them to provide localized news, weather, traffic, and alert listeners to regionalized emergencies, COVID outbreaks, or even the results of the local high school football game.”