The MusicFirst Coalition says the National Association of Broadcasters’ stance on media ownership rules is inconsistent with its regular claims that broadcast radio still has the biggest reach of any medium.
In a blog post on Medium, the music rights organization pointed out that the NAB’s statement regarding the FCC’s recent quadrennial media ownership review takes a different stance on radio’s market primacy.
On its website, the NAB says the organization “continues to urge local stations and station groups to tell the FCC how the competitive environment for local broadcasting has changed and how regulatory reform is needed to help local stations continue to serve their communities effectively.”
MusicFirst also conflates NAB and “Big Radio” (especially iHeartMedia). In the same post, MusicFirst says it “doesn’t think the big corporations that control hundreds of stations nationwide that have narrowed playlists should have the ability to further narrow what you see, read and hear elsewhere.”
Ultimately, MusicFirst argues “The FCC’s rules exist for good reason. Radio stations pay nothing to use publicly owned airwaves and therefore, radio is a public asset — not private property. The FCC’s rules exist so that viewers and listeners can have a variety of choices from where they get their information, and the rules are incredibly useful and necessary.”
Read the full post here. (Even if you disagree, they do include lots of fun GIFs.)
