The Multicultural Media, Telecom & Internet Council (MMTC) has stated that it is in favor of a plan to bring a new class of FM radio stations to the dial across the U.S. Such a move, it has said, could benefit minority and female broadcast media ownership.
The MMTC has now reaffirmed its views on a new “Class C4” radio broadcast class in reply comments submitted to the FCC.
The filing in response to MB Docket No. 18-184, supports the SSR petition for rulemaking.
“Dozens of broadcasters have fully briefed the engineering issues in the proceeding,” the MMTC says. Now, it is writing to address two questions presented in the FCC’s Notice of Inquiry.
First, it addresses the question of whether the creation of a Class C4 stations would be particularly beneficial for minority-owned Class A stations “by providing them with an opportunity to upgrade?”
It then asks if having a Class C4 station would “encourage diversity of ownership in the FM broadcast industry.”
As SSR Communications, a small broadcast station owner who co-wrote the proceeding with MMTC, notes, there are 210 Class A FMs and 10 Class A CPs that can “easily” be upgraded. Some 13.4% of these facilities are owned by minority-led broadcast companies.
MMTC also notes the “prevalence” of minority licensees of Class A stations, and how this is “the culmination of three decades of communications policy.”
In its comments, the MMTC notes, “Upgrades to 29 minority owned stations would profoundly impact ownership diversity in broadcasting because the upgrades would facilitate these station owners’ access to capital.”
In its experience, MMTC notes, “doubling the stations’ power would add considerably to the stations’ asset values, thereby facilitating the licensees’ ability to attract investors, qualify for loans, and ultimately to be sold at competitive prices if the owner seeks to gravitate her station portfolio into larger markets.”
The filing was submitted by David Honig, President Emeritus and Senior Advisor of the MMTC, and President/CEO Maurita Coley.
SSR is not Minority-owned; this was incorrectly reported in an initial version of this story.
