Genachowski: Concerned About 'Perfect Storm' Quality of Traditional Media

Says broadcasters are confronted with a difficult economy, a plummeting advertising market and rapid technological change

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 9/25/2009 3:56:45 PM

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said Friday he was very concerned about what he saw as the "perfect storm" quality to the current state of traditional media.
 
That, of course, is the reference to fisherman whose boat was lost in a confluence of powerful forces and key decisions.
 
"Broadcasters today are confronted with a difficult economy, a plummeting advertising market, and rapid technological change buffeting traditional business plans," he told a National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters conference crowd in Washington Friday (Sept. 25).
 
He said there was a fourth challenge for minority owners--access to capital, "made even more difficult by a capital market that’s in the basement."
 
The chairman said that one thing that hasn't changed since he was at the FCC--in the mid-1990's--was the status of minority and female ownership. He pointed out that while 34% of the population are minorities, only 8% of commercial full-power radio stations, and only 3% of full-power TV stations, are owned by minorities. Women make up half the population but only own 6% of full-power commercial radio stations and only 5% of commercial full-power TVs.
 
"This has been a long-time concern of the agency, and I think it is important to note that concern about minority and female ownership remains bipartisan."