On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court announced it would hear FCC, et al. v. Prometheus Radio Project, et al. That’s the official name for the case Prometheus brought to the Federal court in an attempt to overturn the Commission’s deregulatory moves associated with its cross-ownership rule “modernization.”
Prometheus was successful, as the Third Circuit remanded the rule changes adopted by the Pai Commission in November 2017 (one radio trade publication incorrectly reported this date as November 2018).
Now, the fate of media in the U.S. hangs in the balance, and many on Capitol Hill have weighed in with their thoughts. The latest to do so: the retiring Republican ranking member and ex-Chairman of the powerful House Energy & Commerce Committee.
Add Energy and Commerce Committee Republican Leader Greg Walden (R-Ore.) to the list of individuals applauding the SCOTUS decision to hear oral arguments and consider the Commission’s appeal.
A one-time owner of radio stations in Hood River, Ore., an hour to the east of Portland, Walden said, “While today’s media landscape has changed since my time as a local broadcast station owner, government rules for the industry have stayed the same.”
In short, Walden steadfastly believes “there is no good reason why the local broadcast industry should be subject to ownership rules from the 1970s.”
This, he says, “not only puts local broadcasters across the nation at a disadvantage against their competitors, but also hinders the growth of the local broadcast industry at large.”
As such, Walden concludes, “It’s past time to level the playing field and ensure our government can catch up with the continued innovation and growth of the 21st century and beyond.”
In his view, the FCC was right to modernize these rules. “Itt is unfortunate that litigation has slowed down attempts to bring the media industry ecosystem in to the 21st century,” Walden says.
Regardless of the outcome, this, he says, will provide the local media industry with “certainty on a path forward to ensuring our media policy enables competition and investment in local news.”
Come January 23, 2021, Walden will be leaving Capitol Hill.
On Oct. 28, 2019, he distributed a video message recorded from Oregon and sent to RBR+TVBR by the House E&C Republicans signaling his decision to not seek reelection.
Walden noted that at the end of his current term, he will have devoted 30 years “to the important calling of public service, of helping bring together to solve problems and leave our communities, our beautiful state and our great nation better than we found it for the next generation.”
Before a career in politics, Walden was the owner of Columbia Gorge Broadcasting, Walden was the licensee of KIHR-AM 1340 and KCGB-FM 105.5 in Hood River, just east of Portland. The stations are now owned by Bicoastal Media.
