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NAB Likes Current Non-Rated Market Definition

NAB likes the FCC definition of non-rated radio markets just the way it is, and wants to keep that definition for purposes of broadcast ownership attribution.

NAB likes the FCC definition of non-rated radio markets just the way it is, and wants to keep that definition for purposes of broadcast ownership attribution.

The trade group’s legal eagles have been meeting with FCC Media Bureau staffers about the issue recently.

According to ex parte filings in MB Docket 03-130, NAB says its small-market station members support keeping the modified contour overlap methodology that the FCC has used since 2003 to define radio markets in areas not rated by Arbitron.

Remember, this was a big deal when the commission was trying to figure out how to get a true picture of how many stations are in a market, and how to account for distant signals reaching into a metropolitan area.

In accounts of their meetings, NAB legal experts note the modified contour-overlap approach “properly identifies radio stations that compete against each other for listeners and advertisers and, thus, properly defined radio markets in areas outside of Arbitron metros.”

The methodology is preferable to any arbitrary geographic approach unrelated to the radio marketplace, NAB stressed.

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