Jeff Warshaw Jeff Warshaw is putting in extra effort to encourage the FCC to relax radio ownership rules. The CEO of Connoisseur Media met with Chairman Brendan Carr on Monday to push the matter. According to a public filing, Warshaw “emphasized the need for quick and substantial relaxation of the radio ownership rules to avoid local radio going the way of the newspaper, and the loss of local service that a failure of the commission to act decisively would bring.” Warshaw told Carr that over-the-air radio is not its own isolated market, that it competes daily with digital and other local media. (Warshaw may have been preaching to the choir on this, given Carr’s own public comments in the past, but a change in the FCC’s official policy on that question would have major consequences for broadcasters.) “Over the last decade, radio’s share of listening time and share of local advertising revenue has been cut in half, while the share of both advertising and listening now received by out-of-market digital competitors has dramatically grown,” Connoisseur wrote in its summary of their conversation. “Time spent listening to digital audio now exceeds traditional radio listening, while the local advertising share of the out-of-market digital media competitors dwarf that of radio.” Warshaw asked that radio groups be able to achieve scale in their markets “so that they can compete against these digital giants that have come to dominate the audio marketplace in the 30 years since the current rules were adopted.” Connoisseur owns 216 stations in 47 markets, according to its website. The commission is in the midst of a review of broadcast ownership rules, a review it must conduct every four years. Removing local radio ownership restrictions is very much on the table. The post Warshaw Met With Carr to Talk Ownership Caps appeared first on Radio World. [TheTopNews] Read More.
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