In this letter to the editor, the author responds to the story “What’s Up With the FCC’s ‘Delete, Delete, Delete’ Initiative?” Radio World welcomes letters to the editor on this or any story. Email [email protected].
Dear Editor,
I applaud Gregg Skall’s cogent and insightful overview of the commission’s current deregulatory proceeding (“What’s Up With the FCC’s ‘Delete, Delete, Delete’ Initiative?,” March 19, 2025). I agree with his assessment that the commission’s EEO Rules may go under the scalpel. They should.
Regulation of broadcasters’ employment practices rests on the notion that diversity in programming is in the public interest and therefore warrants commission oversight. This precept is grounded in a congressional finding enshrined more than 30 years ago in the Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act of 1992. It is now hopelessly outdated.
To contend today that the citizenry lacks diversity in programming denies reality, as the commission resoundingly confirmed in its 2024 Communications Marketplace Report, GN Docket No. 24-119, FCC 24-136, released Dec. 31, 2024.
There is no reason any longer to continue the charade that the commission’s EEO scheme will promote diversity in programming — a vague goal backed by nothing more than a fond hope. Indeed, the commission has never made a finding that programming lacks diversity (nor has it ever established a link between hiring practices and programming decisions).
It is time to sunset EEO.
— John Wells King, Law Office of John Wells King
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