Eliminating Subcaps Would Hurt AM, Crawford Broadcasting Says
Eliminating FCC radio ownership subcaps would have “a serious detrimental effect” on AM stations and cause existing AM programming to move to FM, replied Crawford Broadcasting on the 2018 quadrennial review, before the May 29 deadline in docket 18-349. Broadcast…
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radio is a separate entity from other media services and “the broadcast radio market is the proper market for determining the need for any changes in broadcast ownership limits,” Crawford said. Eliminating only the AM subcap, as iHeartMedia proposes (see 1905170019), would still hurt AM, Crawford said. Removal of AM subcaps would let entities acquire AM stations to keep them from playing certain formats or serving certain demographics, potentially creating monopolies “that would cripple other AM stations in the same market,” Crawford said.