Group Wants Relaxed Ownership Rules for Low-Power FM
If the FCC acts to relax ownership caps on full-power FM stations, it should take “complementary measures” for low-power FM, said the Low Power FM Advocacy Group in reply comments posted Monday (docket 22-459). “Increased concentration alters the economic environment in which smaller broadcasters operate, particularly those without access to multi-station sales operations, regional branding, or capital reserves,” the group said. The FCC “cannot reasonably credit the benefits of scale without also considering how increased local market power affects broadcasters that lack those advantages.”
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The agency should reevaluate rules that restrict LPFM stations from optimizing their signals and limit station transfers, the filing said. “Ownership modernization without parallel reform for LPFM will amplify existing asymmetries and increase pressure on community based service.”