Feingold Introduces Competition Bill

Characterizing media consolidation by such huge companies as Clear Channel Communications and Infinity Corp. as anti-consumer and "a threat to democracy," Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., introduced wide-ranging legislation June 27 that would help small and independent radio-station owners, recording artists, concert promoters, and consumers by prohibiting anti-competitive practices in the radio and concert industries.

"I hear about these problems everywhere I go," Feingold said. "People are very concerned."

Feingold blamed the problems of shrinking diversity on the airwaves on the 1996 Telecommunications Act, which he said was "bought and paid for by soft money interests" and "opened the floodgates for concentration in the radio and concert industry."

The bill, the Competition in Radio and Concert Industries Act, would direct the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to revoke the licenses of any radio station that uses its cross-ownership of promotion or venues to discriminate against recording artists, concert promoters, or other radio stations.

It calls on the FCC to scrutinize future mergers, probe "pay for play" practices at radio stations, and create new rules to prevent "the current shakedown system." It will also direct the agency to examine ratings services and whether they manipulate market sizes to benefit large broadcast companies' acquisitions. The bill would also probe whether consolidation has led to soaring concert ticket prices.

Feingold said he was hopeful that the new bill would go to the Commerce Committee soon and to hearings after Congress returns from its August recess: "If we can't get it this year, I'll be working on this for years to come."

Feingold was joined at the announcement by Jenny Toomey, indie recording artist and executive director of the Future of Music Coalition; Greg Hessinger, executive director of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists; Jim Winslow, executive director of the National Assn. of Black Owned Broadcasters; and Gene Kimmelman, executive director of Consumers Union. The National Assn. of Recording Arts and Sciences, the Recording Artists Coalition, and the Recording Industry Assn. of America (RIAA) also support the measure.

RIAA chairman/CEO Hilary Rosen applauded the legislation and its pay-for-play section: "This radio promotion system needs reforming, and this bill provides the road map to getting there."

Feingold's bill follows a May 24 letter of concern to the FCC on these issues by a coalition that included many of the bill's supporters. The FCC has already announced it will look at media consolidation issues later this year. But Republican FCC chairman Michael K. Powell is known for a pro-marketplace deregulatory outlook.

In other Capitol Hill industry news, Reps. Rick Boucher, D-Va., and Jay Inslee, D-Wash., are considering legislation to change what they see as a "flawed" royalty rate for Webcasters announced June 20 by the Librarian of Congress. They say the rate will drive budding smaller Webcasters out of business.