Radio ownership caps may remain in place while radio/TV cross-ownership rules would not, part of a media ownership rulemaking being circulated among the commissioners on the eighth floor of the Portals.
That’s according to RW sister publication Broadcasting and Cable, which first reported the story.
A source familiar with the document tells B&C the chairman proposes to scrap the radio-TV cross-ownership rules, but leave in place the radio and TV local market ownership caps. He would also continue to seek to loosen newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership rules.
Radio’s national ownership caps were dropped and a compromise tiered system allowing up to eight radio stations per owner in a market was crafted by Congress as part of the 1996 Telcom Act.
Since then some radio group owners, most notably Clear Channel, have argued the local radio ownership caps should be loosened or outright eliminated in light of today’s proliferation of media outlets.
