Mullin, Furchtgott-Roth Weigh in on Geotargeted Radio

Dueling letters from a former FCC commissioner and a sitting House member were the latest salvos in the ongoing lobbying battle over geotargeted radio Monday in docket 20-401. NAB, which opposes geotargeted radio, emailed reporters a copy of a letter to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel from Rep. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla. Mullin expressed concern about the effect geotargeting could have on signal quality -- the technology the FCC is reviewing uses multiple boosters to target specific areas of a station’s market. “Poor radio service on one or several stations harms the entire industry, and could affect emergency alerting, Mullin said. Geotargeting proponent GeoBroadcast Solutions distributed a letter from former FCC Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth. “Allowing these new technologies to compete in the marketplace on a voluntary basis would be consistent with the Commission’s objective to remove competitive barriers to entry,” wrote Furchtgott-Roth and Kirk Arner, both fellows at the Hudson Institute's Center for the Economics of the Internet.