The Communications Act requires broadcasters to serve "public interest, convenience, and necessity." But a campaign by a Christian media group to defeat Federal Communications Commission proposals to encourage more locally-oriented radio reveals the extent to which some Christian broadcasters see their mission in sectarian terms.
"The FCC is considering a proposal that would force every radio station to take programming advice from community advisory boards broadly representative of an area’s population," a statement distributed by Save Christian Radio (SCR) darkly warns. "That means that Christian broadcast stations could be forced to take programming advice from people whose values are at odds with the Gospel!"
SCR is certainly right about one point: the FCC's proposal is based on the assumption that every TV and radio license must in some way be an unexclusive resource for its signal area population—a concept that worries SCR.
"If enacted, the [FCC's] proposals could force Christian radio programmers to either compromise their messages by including input from those who don't share the same values, or to run the risk of costly, long and potentially ruinous government inquiries," SCR insists.
Perhaps the group also dislikes these suggestions because they inconvenience a Christian broadcasting movement that has become overly dependent on remote, satellite delivered programming down linked to studios where, much of the time, not a single human being works.
Only local for certain locals?
In late November, the FCC released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that offered an array of tentative proposals designed to encourage broadcast stations to provide more local coverage to their signal areas. Some specific ideas include requiring broadcasters to air a minimum amount of local programming and hold town hall meetings to gather community input. The NPRM also mentions asking radio stations to maintain a "physical presence" at all times—in other words, post at least one actual human being at the station (in addition to the software that runs the broadcast).
But the proposal that SCA likes the least is one that would require radio stations to establish regular community advisory boards, a common practice in public broadcasting. The FCC asks for comment as to how these boards should be selected and assembled, but tentatively concludes that they should consist of "officials and other leaders from the service area of its broadcast station." In fact, the agency recommends that "if a licensee already has formal groups in place with which it consults to determine the needs of its community, it should be deemed to have satisfied this requirement."
If this idea were implemented as suggested, it appears that station managers could easily pick and choose people they know and feel comfortable with to staff these boards. But SCR offers sample comments to send to the FCC that warn of dire consequences if the proposal is enacted. "Religious broadcasters who resist advice from those who don’t share their values could face increased harassment, complaints and even loss of license for choosing to follow their own consciences, rather than allowing incompatible viewpoints to shape their programming," one recommended comment concludes. About a dozen SCR supporters have recently sent this statement to the FCC.
The Commission does ask for feedback on the purpose of these boards, asking how they should be composed "to ensure that all segments of the community, including minority or underserved members of the community, would also have an opportunity to voice their concerns about local issues facing the area." But nowhere in the proposal does the FCC declare that said radio station would be required to implement these suggestions, only to listen to and consider them.
No, no, and no
Save Christian Radio also opposes rules that radio stations must more carefully keep track of their public affairs programming and make this record available even to "those who do not share Gospel values." SCR condemns a proposal that stations must locate their main studio within their signal area, warning that the plan would "force many Christian stations to relocate their main studio facilities." And it rejects the "physical presence" rule, which it protests would affect stations where "all the programming at that time is delivered by satellite."
"God’s love may be free to all," SCR warns, "but getting the word out will become even more expensive—perhaps too expensive for some radio stations."
Reasonable people can debate these localism suggestions. But whether Save Christian Radio intended it or not, their statement gives the impression of a movement more paranoid about than concerned for the communities to which it broadcasts—intent on protecting a satellite-based, hyper-automated product that talks 24/7, but never has to listen to most of the souls in its local signal area.
Further reading:
- The FCC's Localism proposals
reader comments