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(By John Garziglia) In the Radio Ink 20th-anniversary issue, appear November 19, 2012, the commodity “10 Acknowledged Issues to Watch for in the Abutting 10 Years” speculated on the challenges our radio industry ability face through 2022. Included in the account were music achievement fees, buying regulation, spectrum use, AM radio, indecency, license-renewal expectancies, HD Radio, adaptable DTV, interference, and the accessible interest.
This article, bristles years after for Radio Ink’s 25th anniversary, tries to own up to the failures and confused acumen of the antecedent predictions, and aboveboard attempts to again anticipation the abutting 10 years.
Here are the radio legal/regulatory issues our industry will be adverse in the abutting 10 years.
1. Music rights issues. In 2012, music achievement fees were at the top of the list. Again, achievement fees abide a cogent issue, with the complications now advertisement to accommodate songwriter fees. The accomplished bristles years has apparent the birth of GMR, a new songwriter representative, allurement to be paid cogent amounts in accession to the anniversary bills presented by ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC.
Meanwhile, BMI and ASCAP are litigating wholework vs. apportioned songwriter licensing, casting agnosticism on whether their agreements absolutely admittance radio broadcasters to comedy any of their accountant songs. Recording artists abide to batter Congress to abolish the approved absolution for radio achievement fees. Music rights issues, if breach up into components, could calmly absorb bristles spots on this list.
Being at the top of this account does not mean, however, that annihilation will be bound in the abutting 10 years. Due to the absolute complication of absorb laws and the determined case by anniversary absorption accumulation of its own grab for money, the cachet quo could break in abode through 2027. Or we ability acquisition absolute licenses and approved fees alone in favor of a one-to-one, song-by-song transactional licensing arrangement in which anniversary circuit is bargained for in an arrangement beneath which the rights for new or abstruse music amount about nothing, and hit music is priced at levels alone the bigger radio broadcasters can afford. Music rights issues, for their ability to badly affect radio’s basal band and for their complexity, are acutely activity cardinal one.
2. The auto dashboard and more. Oh, my, area is the radio? You know, the activity that plays chargeless music with my admired DJ and acclimate and cartage information? What? It’s now a button apparent “Media”?
Oh … WTF? Our radio industry, while abandonment time in the accomplished absurdly annoying about issues such as the Sirius-XM merger, has about let go of its best important franchise: its position in the auto dashboard.
We anticipation our activity would aftermost forever. It is bad abundant that automobiles are actuality bogus after AM radio receivers because auto manufacturers do not ambition to go to the amount of asthmatic and clarification internally generated electrical noise. The acuteness and achievement of car radios and antennas broadly varies. And now, the radio button itself cannot be begin on abounding dashboards. Radio needs to accent that quality, accessible radio receivers are a alarm in times of accident — it alone takes one radio base actual on the air to back emergency advice to millions.
Beyond the auto dashboard are issues of radio’s accustomed on accessories such as Amazon’s Alexa and Google’s Home. Allotment of radio’s accessible account arrangement with regulators should be absorption radio’s availability and above in automobiles and homes for times of emergency. Sirius and XM bought their way assimilate the auto dashboard. Our radio industry needs to accomplish whatever arrangement is all-important to advance radio’s accessibility.
3. FM translator interference. Thousands of new FM translators accustomed AM stations are about to hit the airwaves. FM translators are an ambiguous and chancy venture, however. The FCC’s rules now behest the abeyance of an FM translator if arrest to an absolute station’s approved admirers occurs anywhere, alike far alfresco the absolute station’s adequate contour.
This cogent FM translator vulnerability has the abeyant to account untold misery. Absolute base owners and managers ambition for their signals to extend as far as possible, to what is referred to as the “owner’s contour,”
while FM translator owners appetite to serve their bounded audiences with an added signal. The attributes of FM advancement is that any FM arresting on the aforementioned or an adjoining approach in any adjacency to addition FM arresting will account some arrest somewhere.
The FCC’s claiming is to appear up with a applicable band-aid that protects bounded admirers to FM translators from accident their radio base while additionally absorption bounded audiences for absolute stations by a accurate acclimation of the equities. Hopefully, the resolution of this activity will not booty 10 years.
4. RF noise. Corpuscle buzz chargers, computer chips, LED lights, abound lights — all essentially affect both AM and FM radio reception. With AM reception, the aftereffect of the arrest is heard as static. With FM reception, however, arrest manifests itself as a abridgement in the arresting strength, with the adviser experiencing decidedly bargain FM coverage. There are abundance of such accessories now in use, including clumsily filtered and afraid computer chips in the avant-garde automobile. The arrest bearings is far above the FCC’s butt alike if it had the acknowledged and authoritative admiral to activity it.
There are alone two accessible solutions accomplished the “live with it” answer. The aboriginal band-aid is essentially added ability levels for all advertisement casework — which, for a cardinal of reasons, including badly added ability bills and cogent station-to-station interference, is a non-starter. The added band-aid is some array of clandestine compensation system, area cogent acknowledged penalties are imposed aloft malfeasant accessory manufacturers, sellers, and users. Acceptance any kid (or adult) with a spectrum analyzer to accompany a clandestine activity at the FCC and aggregate a allocation of a accomplished for actionable RF emissions would bound get a accessory manufacturer’s attention.
As abhorrent as it may sound, entitling compensation hunters to allotment a allocation of cogent penalties for RF emissions non-compliance is our alone achievement for bound stemming what is now an unstoppable course of RF babble pollution. Would you buy a car that is a rolling RF babble source, or a non-compliant corpuscle buzz charger, if you could be fined decidedly for your RF babble pollution? Would manufacturers and merchants be beneath decumbent to advertise them if they additionally could be fined.
5. Adopted ownership. An Australian brace accustomed FCC approval to acquirement a accumulation of U.S. radio stations, which is a aboriginal for acceptance for 100 percent adopted ownership. For abounding years the FCC has been asked to relax adopted buying restrictions to facilitate institutional costs of base acquisitions. Is it accessible that 100 percent adopted buying will be allotment of the abutting beachcomber of radio acquisitions?
Two of our bigger broadcasters are so acutely in debt that it is ambiguous that there are any U.S. buyers. But a adopted commodity that wishes to accomplish its mark in U.S. media ability be a abeyant suitor. With civic aegis concerns, would the FCC, DOJ, and DHS acquiesce for 100 percent adopted buying of a ample accumulation of radio stations.
6. Aphorism removal. Chairman Pai opened a Pandora’s box with his appeal for proposals on which FCC rules may be eliminated. Hundreds of suggestions were submitted. Aerial academy science teaches that every activity has an according and adverse reaction. So it is with FCC rules. Every aphorism was at one time adopted for a purpose. While there are absolutely rules after accepted constituencies that deserve to be reevaluated, acquaintance demonstrates that abounding of the added crushing radio rules still accept determined champions who will bleat if a change in adjustment is proposed.
The best oft-cited allegedly anachronous FCC rules are EEO record-keeping requirements and the issues-programs lists. Aloof ask boyhood and accessible absorption groups if they anticipate that EEO rules are no best needed. After issues-programs lists, what will the FCC and the accessible use to appraise whether a radio base has accomplished its accessible absorption obligations at authorization face-lifting time — some array of gestalt calculation? Issues-programs lists serve as accurate affirmation at authorization face-lifting time of the accessible absorption actuality served. There are a cardinal of such FCC rules our industry should be accurate about afore advocating for abandonment.
7. AM All-HD agenda operations. HD Radio receivers in automobiles abide to proliferate. Thousands of AM stations accept or anon will accept FM translators. Yet AM stations abide to advertisement in analog due to the deficiencies in the amalgam HD Radio scheme. An FM translator accustomed an AM station, however, is a arch against an all-digital AM HD operation. After a commutual FM translator, an AM radio base hard-cut to all-digital operations is awful ambiguous as a abundant allocation of its analog admirers would be lost. But an AM base agitated on an FM translator allows a alteration to all-digital HD AM operations while the FM translator continues to serve its analog audience. There is no accessible absorption acumen why AM stations should not be accustomed to voluntarily go all-digital AM HD. Here’s acquisitive this AM activity is bound by the FCC in far beneath than ten years.
8. Authorization renewals. Every eight years, radio stations charge accept their licenses renewed by the FCC application a ambiguous accessible absorption standard. The radio authorization face-lifting aeon begins again in 2019. Assessing whether the accessible absorption is served touches on acute Aboriginal Amendment agreeable evaluations. We accept apparent our legislators and the accessible apostle that indecency, affected news, bias, abortion of advocacy ID, and advertising should aftereffect in authorization face-lifting denials. These types of agreeable allegations in accomplished authorization face-lifting cycles accept not acceptable an FCC authorization face-lifting afterlife sentence.
Whether the FCC will abide to authority our Aboriginal Amendment ethics sacred, or will capitulate to those who would accept it angle to political forces, will be an activity percolating in the abutting several years through our abutting annular of radio base authorization renewals.
9. Radio buying limits. The 1996 Telecom Act unleashed a beachcomber of radio base alliance that abounding altercate should continue. Others, citation the appropriate attributes of our radio industry, agenda that there are alone a bound cardinal of licenses available, forth with the aerial barriers to new entrants, as affidavit the FCC should accumulate radio from acceptable absolutely absorbed by two or three entities.
The altercation that radio entities charge to be bigger to attempt with added media is not absent in this debate. But our industry additionally needs to concern whether aloof acceptance the big to get bigger hurts all added radio broadcasters, and whether added alliance serves either the accessible absorption or continues radio’s exceptionalism. The capital catechism on radio ownership, and absolutely any media buying limit, is aloof what is the empiric absolution for any accurate after limitation? It is a difficult if not absurd exercise to quantitatively absolve the decades12, or the now eight-radio/station limitation in above markets. Why not nine? Why not 10? What about six? Try as it might, the FCC will not acceptable be able to appear up with a solid absolution for any number. Therefore, no amount what cardinal the FCC chooses, and whether AM-FM sub-caps remain, the bureau will abide to face the bogeyman of cloister disapproval for any buying limitation arrangement chosen. Expect this activity to abide to be litigated for at atomic the abutting 10 years.
10. Radio as a alone adapted entity. Finally, as the authoritative caster of affluence turns, we may be advancing to a point area radio is aloof lumped in with all added radio-frequency regulation. This could aftereffect in abounding of the abstracted restrictions placed upon, and appropriate protections accorded to, radio broadcasters evaporating. Such a adjustment amalgamation could aftereffect from radio aphorism elimination, attempts to assimilate all bureaus at the FCC, or a Communications Act re-write. Spectrum arrest regulations will assuredly remain. But radio as a adapted commodity to serve the accessible absorption may accept outlived its day.
We may see cogent spectrum fees in lieu of accessible absorption obligations. Whether this would be benign for our radio industry, or would address radio to the cachet of aloof addition app, is arguable and should be debated. Laws and rules directed at aloof radio arguably accomplish little faculty back the active accessible is application computers, smartphones, and home administration to listen. If radio is accounted aloof addition audio source, is that acceptable or bad for our industry? Break acquainted for the abutting 10 years.
Closing Comments. Cardinal one on the account bristles years ago was the radio music achievement fee approved exemption. Given the ascendance of GMR, that activity has now morphed into all music rights issues including songwriters fees. FM translator arrest was hardly on the border bristles years ago, with anchorperson lobbying alacrity actuality captivated by the now-disproved bogeyman of LPFM interference. Alone the best clear-sighted amid us saw the auto dashboard and RF babble actuality issues bristles years ago.
Five years ago this commodity was amiss on the issues of HD Radio, and radio on what was again alleged Adaptable DTV. In what ability be beheld as a cutting eulogy, added than agriculture FM translators with sub-channel programming and actuality “radio-with-pictures,” HD Radio creates far added adviser accession difficulties than advantages, and fails to attempt with what is today accepted as “digital.” Our industry set out in 1996 to advance the cachet quo with its architecture of HD Radio. We succeeded — HD Radio is now so 1996. In addition erroneous call, Adaptable DTV, with hundreds of audio channels, has yet to accomplish lift-off (which is for the better).
Lists like this one no agnosticism arresting radio asleep at the birth of TV, at the appearance of the cassette, at the acceleration of CB radio, at the addition of the CD, at the alpha of the MP3, at the barrage of accessory radio, and at the adviser acceptance of Pandora. We are now at the doorstep of all-over over-the-air agreeable accustomed with 5G agenda service.
Please, however, do not apprehend this as a agenda burial apprehension for radio. Rather, radio as amphitheater of the apperception and a reliable circadian accompaniment continues to inform, entertain, and active over 91 percent of the U.S. citizenry on a account basis. There is annihilation abroad like it.
There are two groups that adulation radio: our listeners, and we in the industry. Alone we, however, accept the foresight, experience, and ability of our appropriate industry to accumulate Congress and the FCC from blame it up. If this advertisement of 10 issues contributes to thatimportant discussion, again it is confined its purpose. Here’s attractive advanced to addition 10 abundant years for radio!
John Garziglia is a communications advocate at Womble Bond Dickinson. Reach him at [email protected].
