FCC commissioner Mignon Clyburn: Media Ownership Changes ‘On the Fast Track’

Story by Inside Radio

FCC commissioner Mignon Clyburn says an effort to change media ownership regulations to allow further media consolidation is “on the fast track of becoming reality.” Speaking to the California Women’s Conference last week she warned that it comes even as fresh statistics show women and minority broadcasters have made up little ground in joining ownership ranks.

Clyburn pointed to the just-released report from the FCC based on 2015 ownership data showing women own just 8.6% of the 11,919 radio and television stations in the U.S. And she told the Long Beach, CA gathering that among the top 100 rated radio talk shows, only 13 are hosted by women. “This lack of diversity is reflected in who own the major media companies, those in front of the camera, as well as those behind-the-scenes,” Clyburn said. “Simply put, men dominate every single media platform, from television and film, to radio, newspapers and online sources.”

Clyburn put much of the blame on the 1996 Telecom Act, which allowed big broadcast groups to become even larger. “Across the board, deregulation and other actions since the Act was passed, have led to increased media consolidation and fewer opportunities,” she said. “The result is women and minority media ownership remains at shockingly low levels.” One move that should be embraced to offset any impact on women and minority ownership is the resurrection of the tax certificate program, according to Clyburn, who said it can help offset the “extraordinarily expensive” reality facing many women and minorities attempting to break into ownership. By one estimate, Clyburn said, it costs $10 million just to sign on a single big market radio station.

Legislation introduced last month by Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-NC) to revive the tax certificate program, which would allow an existing broadcaster to defer the payment of federal income taxes if the station was sold to an underrepresented buyer. “Passage of this bill would be an important step forward to increasing media diversity and the opportunities available to small businesses, including those owned by women,” Clyburn said, adding she believes bipartisan support for the long-dormant program remains. The proposed Expanding Broadcast Ownership Act H.R. 1883 (https://democrats-energycommerce.house.gov/sites/democrats.energycommerce.house.gov/files/BUTTER_003_xml.pdf) also directs the FCC to create an incubator program to help minority and women broadcasters get off the ground with financial, programming and technical support from an existing operator who in exchange could receive a waiver to certain ownership restrictions. Details would be filled in later through an FCC rulemaking.

The tax certificate program was created in 1978 and it remained in place until 1995 when abuses led Congress to abolish the effort. During that 17-year existence it helped minority radio ownership rise from just 40 radio and TV stations in 1978 to 288 radio and 43 TV stations according to the FCC. That was accomplished through the issuing of 287 tax certificates to radio stations and 40 certificates to television stations. Even though the program has been gone for a generation it has never lost support among broadcasters and media activists who frequently called for its resuscitation. The last time legislation was introduced was in 2007, and while it drew no opposition among lawmakers, there was also limited support with lingering fraud concerns that had sidelined the program earlier.

Even if the tax certificate program or formal FCC incubator proposals fail to gain traction once again, Clyburn urged broadcasters to support women-owned businesses nevertheless. “While the lack of diversity in media is glaring, we rarely hear solutions or answers to the question of how we transform this dismal reality of the present into a future that offers abundant opportunities for women,” she said. “I believe there are concrete actions that the FCC can take to promote a more diverse media landscape.”