Net neutrality

One major issue that has been brought up within the FCC this year is the issue of net neutrality. The bill proposed in the house wants to keep the internet as a place of free speech, as well as innovation and job growth. Many are afraid that big internet companies are going to control the content of the internet and what is provided to the common person, so this bill would act as a way to ensure this doesn't happen. Many believe that the bill will provide a long term solution for an issue that has plagued America for the past two years. I agree with the bill, the internet is a place where anything can be said and it needs to remain that way. It has influenced powerful things such as the revolution in Egypt. If we start to censor the internet, it starts to look more and more like a dictatorship. This bill will give us all security and peace of mind.

http://www.reclaimthemedia.org/broadband/cable/cantwell_franken_introduce_leg2504

The Expansion of Public Radio

At the end of last year, public radio scored a huge victory in Congress and with the FCC. Congress passed a bill which would allow churches, community groups and schools all across the country to establish low power, FM radio stations in their respective markets. The FCC now had the power to grant possibly thousands of new, noncommercial licensees. This bill was one thing that Republicans and Democrats seemed to agree on, as it passed rather easily and had overwhelming support due to it's build up from a grass roots following.

This builds upon the creation of low power service radio in 2002. This type of radio was created to counter the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and hoped to increase and diversify the number of radio owners. Under pressure though from commercial broadcasters however, congress put up a number of barriers to make the ability to create these stations nearly impossible. As a result, only a few, very rural stations were created. This law wipes out the barriers and allows the unused spots on the FM dial to be filled. The only real requirement is that stations must be limited to 100 watts.

People who promoted the bill hail this as a victory for local radio. They feel now that community oriented programming now has a voice, whether it's local news in both English and Spanish, or putting local or less known music on the radio, it now has a platform. I also agree with the passing of this bill. I'm glad to see true community stations get a shot to shine again. While NPR and commercial news has some local focus, these stations can thrive off just local news for those who are only interested in that. It also gives a place from more amateur broadcasters to learn the tricks of radio which is cool to see. Over the next few years with the passing, expect small stations to be on the rise in your town.

Source: http://www.reclaimthemedia.org/deepmedia/senate_passes_community_radio_1950

The FCC and the Fairness Doctrine

Since the election of President Obama, many people have talked about the Fairness Doctrine and are scared to death that it would make a comeback from the dead. Many especially felt that when Mark Lloyd was appointed chairman of the FCC, that this doctrine was bound to make a comeback due to a paper that he authored about the politics of radio and how many stations are unbalanced. This especially in a liberal controlled government scares conservatives who have a handful of radio personalities among them Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck, who clearly slant the story one way for better or for worse. This worry started in 2009, but it continues even through today.

The original Fairness Doctrine was put into place in 1949 under president Harry Truman. The Doctrine stated "controversial issues of public issues were required to be reported and that coverage of these issues needed to be done in a fair and balanced manner." In short, issues had to be seen from both the right and left side of the political spectrum. The doctrine remained in effect until 1987 until president Ronald Reagan ruled that the Fairness Doctrine went against free speech, and had the Supreme Court strike down the Doctrine. Many conservatives in what is generally seen is a liberal based media, are worried that under a Democrat majority government, that the Doctrine could see a rebirth and be used as a tool to strike down conservative talk radio. President Obama has said on the record that he is against the return of the Fairness Doctrine. Many on the right feel though that the appointment of Mark Lloyd is a move towards it. Mark Lloyd on the record has bashed Rush Limbaugh and said that he doesn't like conservative talk radio. Many worry that this could be a step of a secret plan to bring it back.

I personally don't think the Fairness Doctrine is coming back, even with Lloyd's past. For one it'd be a terrible move for President Obama politically, it would not only make conservatives mad, it would force his own side to report things on the right that they would previously not have reported. The Fairness Doctrine already failed once, there is no need to return to something that didn't work in the past. Lloyd was appointed in 2009, it's now 2011 and we've seen no more return to it than we did in 2009. I think we should keep an eye on it as citizens like we should with all aspects of our government, but I think we are ok for now.

Source: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/08/10/fccs-new-hire-targeted-conservative-radio-stations-writings/ and http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1880786,00.html

The NPR Blog

Last class we had a huge discussion on NPR, and how most people feel it doesn't reach our demographic and is hurting big time because of that. We talked about all sorts of solutions and then were given the task for this week's blog, to explore NPR's website, and examine a program we didn't previously know about and analyze it. The show I chose to examine was All Songs Considered. This show has been running since 2000 in mostly a web based format, and plays nearly every variety of music. It focuses however on more underground music that usually doesn't get a large amount of airplay. I think this is a great idea by NPR to try and reach a younger generation. There is no question, an indy crowd who would enjoy listening to this kind of format and hearing these songs on the radio, as I personally don't know of any commercial station that has a show like this. This is a good thing for NPR. On the other hand though in terms of music formats, I think NPR needs to revamp it's music programming. For example, while I see a hip-hop tab at the top of the site, I see no hip-hop program. It's 2011, hip-hop is a big deal and especially amongst the younger demographic is widely listened too. Why not add a hip-hop show? I also saw only one or two rock shows, why not put a focus on that? Not to sound mean, but a lot of the older formats are losing their listeners soon so why have a focus on that. NPR needs to find a way to go young and by focusing on the music of young audiences, it's a good way to that.


Source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121621455

The FCC and the American Recovery Act

In 2009, president Barack Obama signed into law the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. This act is giving money to spread over all of the government agencies in an attempt to jump start the economy and create more jobs for the general American consensus. Each government agency has a role in the new act in order to make the economy function better. The FCC's plan was to create a national broadband network by 2010. This would give people more jobs in the creation of the network and give everyone access to faster internet and other methods of communication. I like the plan and think it is good for America. America is a constant society on the go anymore and people need information instantly. If a great broadband network is set up so that everyone can get access to fast internet, more things can be accomplished, not to mention, jobs will be created in order to maintain the network, which is always a good thing. In terms of radio, the faster information can be pumped in to news, the quicker it can be relayed to the masses on the way to work. I think it will only have a positive effect.

Source: http://www.fcc.gov/recovery/

First post for RTVF 131

Ok this is the first post for this class. This week the main issue we are talking about is regulation in radio which also happens to be my specialized topic for discussion on Thursday. One of the main things to talk about is the Deregulation Act of 1996. This act in short said that anyone can own as many radio stations as they wanted. It was intended to make it so that smaller companies could each own a few and individualize their stations. It totally backfired on the other hand and huge companies such as Clear Channel gobbled up all the stations in certain markets and filled them with similar content. It hurt the variety and radio and to this day makes many people angry cause the content is all the same.