IBBA: FCC Silence on GBS Proposal Harming Minority Broadcasting

“The state of minority owned broadcasting continues to deteriorate as each day of FCC inaction and indifference passes,” said the International Black Broadcasters Association in a letter calling for the agency to authorize radio geotargeting. The lack of geotargeting is “harming all of radio, but it’s especially harming minority-owned broadcasters who tend to be smaller and struggle to raise capital,” the filing said. NAB and a number of larger broadcasters have said the geotargeted radio proposal pushed by GeoBroadcast Solutions -- the company that developed the technology-- would create interference problems. GBS and other proponents say their tests of the tech show otherwise. Other media such as cable “can and do geotarget precisely because it’s good for business and is critical to attracting capital in today’s fragmented media and information marketplace,” said the IBBA filing. “But radio can’t broadcast localized content to its audience because of a relic in FCC rules that effectively bars radio broadcasters from doing so,” the filing said. “What possibly could be the public interest rationale for maintaining this disparate treatment of radio?