Ownership
The FCC has historically placed limits on the number of TV/radio stations a company can own, how many of these can be in the same city, and whether a single company can own a combination of TV stations, radio stations, newspapers or cable companies in the same town. Over time, the FCC has incrementally loosened these regulations. As a result, a small handful of large corporations now control the majority of media that Americans see and hear.
Last summer, the FCC voted to further weaken these regulations, prompting widespread public concern. Over 2 million people sent comments to the FCC and Congress, stating their concern that concentrated media ownership would lead to less diversity and less local programming. A court in Philadelphia has forestalled implementation of the new FCC rules pending further review of these arguments.
Public Interest Obligations
Radio and TV stations by law are considered "public trustees" of the airwaves, dedicated to serving the public interest. The FCC's definition of what it means to serve the public interest has changed over time. In the past, FCC rules required broadcasters to dedicate at least 5% of programming for local shows and another 5% for news and public interest programming.
Other rules required broadcasters to conduct annual interviews with the general public and community leaders to help identify key local concerns and develop quality local programming. Since the 1980s, many of these rules have been eliminated. For the most part, stations themselves are now permitted to define what it means to meet their public interest obligation.
Accountability
The FCC can hold radio and TV stations accountable to their local communities through the process of renewing their licenses to broadcast. Over the past decades, this process has been weakened; today, license renewals are typically processed with little scrutiny. In addition, the FCC has gradually extended the time between license renewals from three to eight years. Citizens do have the right to challenge a license renewal with the FCC by filing a "petition to deny" or an informal objection to a station's license renewal. However, these license challenges are rarely successful due to recent laws that have made it difficult for a broadcaster to lose its license.
Spectrum Policy
The airwaves (or spectrum) are regulated by the FCC to prevent interference of signals (if two stations are broadcasting on the same frequency, they muddy each other's programs). The FCC makes policies that allot parts of the spectrum for use by commercial stations and non-commercial stations. Currently, the FCC is considering a program to free up unused spectrum for the creation of more low-power FM (LPFM) radio stations. This would allow community groups to have their own small radio stations.
Prepared by Free Press.