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Future of Music Coalition, Newspaper Guild-Communications Workers of America and Consumers Union Urge FCC to Take Employment Effects of Their Policies into Account During Upcoming Review of Media Ownership Rules
WASHINGTON, DC – A study released today by the Future of Music Coalition (FMC) found that the vast majority of major U.S. cities has experienced both layoffs and lower wage growth within the radio profession, associated with the unprecedented consolidation of radio station ownership over the last decade. The study also shows that the job losses in radio impede federal policy mandates to promote localism and diversity in media.
“Consolidation in radio ownership hasn’t just homogenized music formats,” said Jenny Toomey, musician and executive director of the Future of Music Coalition, “it has devastated the broadcast profession and virtually eliminated the ability of radio stations to provide unique coverage of local news, music and community issues. Before the FCC moves forward to further loosen already weak ownership limits, it should understand the impact that deregulation has had on jobs and communities.”
The study’s findings include:
"This study by FMC once again shows what news professionals know about consolidation of media ownership: It results in fewer newsroom jobs and, as a result, fewer resources devoted to reporting the news,” noted Linda Foley, president of The Newspaper Guild-CWA and vice president of the Communications Workers of America. “No wonder radio news, once the primary source of local news and information, has all but disappeared from the American landscape."
The Telecommunications Act of 1996 eliminated the cap on the number of radio stations one company, organization, or individual may own nationally, and loosened limits on ownership of stations within a single market. Radio companies claimed ownership limits prevented them from taking advantage of “economies of scale.”
The FMC study, entitled The Employment and Wage Effects of Radio Consolidation found that, since 1996, as radio companies have consolidated, they have cut costs by centralizing some operations in distant markets, such as on air DJs, programmers, reporters, and engineering or broadcast-technician jobs.
Among the practices the study identified that resulted in layoffs, depressed wage growth, and reduced localism include: “voice tracking,” a practice of using pre-recorded programming that replaces live and local DJs; reduced ability of stations to conduct emergency broadcast warnings; increased use of nationalized music programming; and reduced local news coverage.
“Voice tracking in particular has had a negative impact on employment,” Toomey said, “but, much worse, it creates lasting damage to music communities. With fewer local DJs and programmers, area musicians can’t get on the air and listeners are deprived of local news and music.”
One of the nation’s leading consumer organizations expressed similar concerns:
“Fewer real people doing less local news undermines diversity of viewpoints in local media,” said Gene Kimmelman, vice president of Consumers Union. “That’s a clear signal that allowing fewer owners of our local media is dangerous to our democracy".
The 1996 Telecommunications Act requires that the FCC review its media ownership regulations every three years. In June 2006, the FCC opened another media ownership proceeding, seeking public comment on whether the existing ownership limits should be further loosened, a change sought by the radio industry.
Based on the study’s findings, the FMC called on the FCC to recognize the correlation between deregulation and job loss and slower wage growth among radio employees as it debates whether to further loosen ownership limits.
FMC also urged the FCC to complete its pending review of the impact of media concentration on localism before moving forward with any changes on media ownership limits. The Localism Task Force, launched two years ago, has yet to produce a report or offer policy recommendations, even though promoting localism is one of the FCC’s mandates.
The study, conducted by FMC Research Director Peter DiCola, relies on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Employment Survey to measure employment in each of three radio professions (DJs, news reporters, and broadcast technicians) in 246 cities over the years 1996 through 2003. Data on radio station ownership comes from BIA Financial Networks’ Media Access Pro software. The correlation between radio consolidation and job loss and between radio consolidation and smaller wage growth emerge from statistical regressions that control for the total number of stations in each city and for time trends.
The study, available on the FMC website, includes details on the legal framework under which the FCC can begin to track job loss as one facet of localism and diversity, on data sources, and on the statistical methods used. The study will also be published later this year as a chapter in the forthcoming Media Diversity and Localism by Lawrence Erlbaum and Associates.
A similar study on jobs and diversity in the communications and media sector by Institute for Women’s Policy Research also corroborates FMC’s findings on job losses and depressed wage growth. This study, entitled “Making the Right Call”, can be found at http://www.iwpr.org/pdf/C364.pdf.
About the Future of Music Coalition
Future of Music Coalition is a national non-profit education, research
and advocacy organization that identifies, examines, interprets and translates
the challenging issues at the intersection of music, law, technology
and policy. FMC achieves this through continuous interaction with its
primary constituency – musicians – and in collaboration with
other creator/citizen groups.
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