(cc photo: Chris Potter)
Clear Channel Radio has a teensy little favor to ask of the FCC.
Clear Channel–which changed its name last year to “iHeart Media“–and a number of smaller radio fiefdoms, calling themselves the Radio Broadcasters Coalition, have filed a petition with the FCC asking that they be excused from the requirement that they tell their listeners when they play a song because a record company paid them to do so.
The New York Times (3/16/15) described the broadcasters’ alternative proposal:
Instead, the radio companies want to move these disclosures online, arguing that they would be more thorough and convenient there. The change is in the public interest, the broadcasters said, “because it would result in listeners’ having access to more information in a more user-friendly and satisfying way.”
Of course, it would also have the side benefit that the vast majority of listeners would be totally unaware that the music that they’re listening to is actually a paid commercial disguised as programming. What could be more “user-friendly and satisfying” than that?
As the Trichordist blog (3/16/15) pointed out–and Radio Survivor (3/9/12) predicted–Clear Channel CEO Bob Pittman foreshadowed this waiver request in a 2012 meeting with the FCC:
Mr. Pittman discussed several ways in which the FCC can help radio to improve its competitive position by increasing the flexibility that it has to enter into strategic partnerships that will enhance the listening experience, while ensuring that audiences receive sponsorship information appropriate to today’s digital environment.
“Strategic partnerships that will enhance the listening experience” means taking money from labels to play music that they want you to buy rather than picking the music that you’d like to hear. And “increasing flexibility” means changing the rules so that you’re almost certain never to hear about it.
See the FCC’s website for instructions on how to formally respond to the broadcasters’ petition.
