Diversity in radio? Absolutely not.
Wednesday, June 6, 2007 at 4:28 PM
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While women and minorities comprise two-thirds of the population, only one-eighth of full power radio stations are controlled by the same groups. Welcome to Big Radio.
The report, Off the Dial: How Media Consolidation Diminishes Diversity on the Radio gives details on exactly how bad the situation is:
- Women own just 6 percent of all full-power commercial broadcast radio stations, even though they comprise 51 percent of the U.S. population.
- Latinos own just 2.9 percent of all U.S. full-power commercial broadcast radio stations, but they comprise 15 percent of the U.S. population and are the nation’s largest ethnic
minority group. - African-Americans own only 3.4 percent of this country’s full-power commercial broadcast radio stations, but account for 13 percent of the entire U.S. population.
"This study presents fresh and challenging evidence about the lack of female and minority ownership in the radio industry," FCC Commissioner Copps said. "My fervent hope is that we can harness the shame of our failures and recommit ourselves to creating a media that reflects the diversity of the American people."
"Women and people of color have been left off the dial because the FCC has pursued policies that are far off the mark," said Commissioner Adelstein. "It is our legal and moral obligation to promote diversity in the public airwaves."
"Latinos own less than 3 percent of U.S. radio stations but make up 15 percent of the population," said Brent Wilkes, national executive director of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) who recently came out in favor of the Sirius-XM merger. "These alarming statistics suggest that women and people of color have very few stations available to serve the needs of the community. LULAC urges the FCC to do better."
[View the full report here (PDF) via Free Press]
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Comments
What percentage of the NBA's players are whites and women? How many Chinese restaurants are owned by African-Americans? How many men write for Cosmo? How many women are in construction? What percentage of hunting stores are owned by Asians?
Should we demand that every industry and company hire or comprise their collective ownership by race based quotas?
Who wants to volunteer to quit their job so another just as qualified, but racially preferred, applicant can take their place to improve their industries' racial composition?
Who wants to sell their consistently profitable company to another person because the potential buyer is a different gender?
Who wants the government to compel such racial and gender quotas as a matter of law; punishable by fines and/or imprisonment?
Posted by: History Guy ? | June 6, 2007 5:46 PM
How do they know who owns the shares of these public companies??
Posted by: Jim | June 6, 2007 5:52 PM
Good response history guy.
Women just aren't good on the radio. all robin does is agree with howard or say 'i was just going to say that' to howard after he makes a comment.
Black people aren't good masters of the english language. they are good dj's and nba analysts.
Latino's prefer yard work and drywall to radio.
Posted by: FaFaFluFly ? | June 6, 2007 8:27 PM
Flip the stations in NY, LA or Maimi, and you'll hear a lot of Spanish. Not so sure about the rest of the country, but there is money in these stations in these cities.
Posted by: Atlantic City Sports | June 6, 2007 8:40 PM
"What percentage of the NBA's players are whites and women? How many Chinese restaurants are owned by African-Americans? How many men write for Cosmo? How many women are in construction? What percentage of hunting stores are owned by Asians?"
And which of those businesses get FREE licenses from the government to use part of the limited electromagnetic spectrum, ostensibly in the "public's interest, convenience and necessity" as the rules state?
Oh, NONE OF THEM.
By the way, one of the Dirty Little Secrets of the broadcasting industry is that at least some of the Blacks, Hispanics, women, etc. who "run" broadcasting companies are figureheads who are there precisely because of their color, ethnicity or gender, in order to get preferential treatment from the FCC when it comes time to decide to whom to award the licenses.
I haven't checked into this in a number of years, but it used to be the case that you actually got a tax break on your profit if you sold your station to a minority or woman, further explaining the use of figureheads.
Posted by: crankymediaguy ? | June 7, 2007 6:15 AM
I think I am missing your point crankymediaguy. Are you hoping that the government requires racial quotas despite the fact that they will be circumvented by the use of "figureheads"? Or are you lamenting the use of racial quotas because they do not provide real diversity anyway? I also would like to know what exactly you mean when referring to the FCC licenses; you were too vague on the subject.
Posted by: History Guy ? | June 7, 2007 7:55 AM
I spent 4 years living through 'diversity' on my college campus.
Here's what I learned. Attempts at sewing 'diversity' into the fabric of our everyday lives is really just another form of racism and sexism in disguise.
If we are to get past our 'racial' and gender divides, promoting reverse discrimination is not the solution. It is only if we give more respect to and celebrate the individual that those barriers will disappear.
Posted by: Thrawn ? | June 7, 2007 11:57 AM
Its a shame you shitheads can't even see the big picture through your "dey took r jobzzzz" bullshit.
You do know that in 1995, Clear Channel owned 43 radio stations country-wide where now, after the deregulation of the industry, now own more the 1,200? Now lets see if you fucktards can connect the dots.
Posted by: Schimshamity ? | June 13, 2007 10:49 AM