This has happened so slowly I didn’t notice it.
While going through the list of every Cumulus radio station (updating their stream), I suddenly realized that I had seen almost no radio stations targeting Spanish speaking listeners.
+-------------+----------------------------+ | FormatCount | FormatName | +-------------+----------------------------+ | 88 | Country | | 66 | Sports | | 62 | Classic Rock / Hits | | 61 | Contemporary Hits | | 49 | Alternative/Hard/New Rock | | 44 | AC / Variety / Mix | | 39 | Conservative Talk | | 25 | Young Urban / Hip Hop | | 24 | News / Talk Variety | | 22 | Adult R&B / Soul | | 19 | Soft/Lite Rock | | 18 | Oldies | | 13 | Local News / Talk / Sports | | 9 | Gospel | | 6 | No Web Site | | 4 | Mexican Regional | | 4 | Nostalgia / Standards | | 3 | Biz Talk | | 2 | All News | | 2 | Dance/Party Music | | 1 | Unknown Format | | 1 | Spanish Sports | | 1 | Christian Music | | 1 | Religious Ministry | | 1 | Spanish News/Talk | +-------------+----------------------------+
This is not a criticism of Cumulus, just an observation. Clear Channel used to be a hotbed of Spanish Language stations, mostly aimed at immigrants from Mexico
+-------------+----------------------------+ | FormatCount | formatname | +-------------+----------------------------+ | 126 | Country | | 99 | Contemporary Hits | | 91 | AC / Variety / Mix | | 73 | Sports | | 73 | Conservative Talk | | 70 | Alternative/Hard/New Rock | | 66 | Classic Rock / Hits | | 46 | News / Talk Variety | | 43 | Young Urban / Hip Hop | | 32 | Soft/Lite Rock | | 30 | Oldies | | 23 | Adult R&B / Soul | | 17 | Local News / Talk / Sports | | 14 | Dance/Party Music | | 13 | Gospel | | 9 | Progressive Talk | | 8 | Mexican Regional | | 4 | Spanish Music - Other | | 3 | No Web Site | | 3 | Music - Other | | 3 | Nostalgia / Standards | | 3 | Religious Ministry | | 2 | Jazz | | 2 | Biz Talk | | 1 | Spanish CHR/Latino | | 1 | Ethnic | | 1 | Christian Music | | 1 | Black Talk | | 1 | Tropical/Carribean/Cuban | | 1 | Disney | | 1 | Easy Listening | | 1 | Comedy | +-------------+----------------------------+
compared to the entire Radio Buiness:
+-------------+----------------------------+ | FormatCount | formatname | +-------------+----------------------------+ | 1649 | Country | | 851 | AC / Variety / Mix | | 769 | Religious Ministry | | 760 | Classic Rock / Hits | | 697 | Educational | | 532 | Contemporary Hits | | 501 | Oldies | | 491 | Sports | | 448 | Alternative/Hard/New Rock | | 390 | News / Talk Variety | | 383 | Local News / Talk / Sports | | 363 | Public Radio | | 342 | Conservative Talk | | 263 | Christian Music | | 245 | Gospel | | 234 | Soft/Lite Rock | | 201 | Young Urban / Hip Hop | | 175 | Mexican Regional | | 169 | Community Radio | | 151 | Adult R&B / Soul | | 112 | Spanish Religious | | 104 | Catholic | | 102 | Nostalgia / Standards | | 97 | Ethnic | | 93 | Spanish CHR/Latino | | 87 | Classical Music | | 72 | Spanish (unclassified) | | 58 | Jazz | | 55 | Spanish News/Talk | | 46 | Music - Other | | 40 | Dance/Party Music | | 37 | Progressive Talk | | 34 | Spanish Music - Other | | 31 | Biz Talk | | 30 | Other Format | | 28 | All News | | 20 | Spanish Sports | | 19 | Folk/Bluegrass/Ballads | | 18 | Easy Listening | | 15 | Silent | | 15 | Disney | | 15 | Black Talk | | 12 | Tropical/Carribean/Cuban | | 8 | Comedy | | 4 | Government | | 1 | Entertainment | +-------------+----------------------------+
A few years ago, the FCC on its own accord decided it had the power to tell advertisers which radio stations that were allowed to buy advertising on – well not exactly. http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-07-217A1.pdf
III (B)
6. Non-Discrimination Provisions in Advertising Sales Contracts
49. The Commission also adopts DCS’s proposal to require broadcasters renewing their licenses to certify that their advertising sales contracts contain nondiscrimination clauses that prohibit all forms of discrimination, as outlined below.98 Reports that some advertising contracts contain “no urban/no Spanish dictates” that are intended to minimize the proportion of African American or Hispanic customers patronizing an advertiser’s venue—or that presume that African Americans or Hispanics cannot be persuaded to buy an advertiser’s product or service—indicate potential violations of U.S. nondiscrimination laws.99 For over 20 years, the Commission has been aware of the insidious practices of certain advertisers, rep firms and advertising agencies of imposing written or unwritten “no urban/no Spanish” dictates. Discriminatory practices have no place in broadcasting.
(Pay no attention to the part of this order the grants special preferences to owners baced on their race – which the US Third District Courts threw out in 2011)
The “DCS” that drafted the proposal incorporated by the FCC is the Diversity and Competition Supporters (“DCS”), a coalition of national organizations created to advance the cause of minority ownership, This appears to just another name for the Minority Media and Telecom Council
A filing with the FCC lists the “members” of this “Coaliiton”
1. A. Philip Randolph Institute
2. American Indians in Film and Television
3. Asian American Chamber of Commerce
4. Asian American Justice Center
5. Black College Communication Association
6. Black Entertainment and Sports Lawyers Association
7. Black Leadership Forum
8. Broadband & Social Justice Institute
9. Communications Consumers United
10. Dialogue on Diversity
11. Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities
12. Hispanic Elected Local Officials
13. International Black Broadcasters Association
14. Japanese American Citizens League
15. Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies
16. Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
17. League of United Latin American Citizens
18. Latinos in Information Sciences and Technology Association
19. MANA – A National Latina Organization
20. Minority Media and Telecommunications Council
21. National Association of Black County Officials
22. National Association of Black Journalists
23. National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters
24. National Association of Black School Educators
25. National Association of Black Telecommunications Professionals
26. National Association of Hispanic Publications
27. National Association of Multicultural Digital Entrepreneurs
28. National Association of Neighborhoods
29. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
30. National Black Caucus of Local Elected Officials
31. National Black Caucus of State Legislators
32. National Black Church Initiative
33. National Black Coalition for Media Justice
34. National Coalition on Black Civic Participation
35. National Conference of Puerto Rican Women
36. National Congress of Black Women, Inc.
37. National Council of La Raza
38. National Council of Negro Women
39. National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts
40. National Indian Telecommunications Institute
41. National Newspaper Publishers Association
42. National Organization of Black County Officials
43. National Organization of Black Elected Legislative Women
44. National Puerto Rican Chamber of Commerce
45. National Urban League
46. Native American Journalists Association
47. Native American Public Telecommunications
48. Rainbow PUSH Coalition
49. Universal Impact
50. Women’s Institute for Freedom of the Press
Many advertisers don’t wish to spend their advertising dollars to target individuals unlikely to buy their products. This was a common enough practice that when a national advertising represeantion firm discusses an ad campaign, the order form had boxes to indicate which formats the national advertiser wanted their ads to run on, with boxes for “No Urban” (which is not technically the same as African American) or “No Spanish”.
So since the FCC has no power to compel advertisers nor advertising representation firms to follow the made up FCC rules against vague sometimes unwritten “discriminatory practices”, another area where the FCC has no legal jurisdiction – the “FCC rule” tries to lean on the radio stations where the FCC does have leverage – requiring that they certifiy they won’t take advertisements from any evil advertising broker who they believe offers a “No Spanish” or “No Urban” option to adverisers. Note it’s just fine to say “No Christian Music” or “No Rush Limbaugh” 🙂
Shortly after the FCC order was published (March 5, 2008), one of the two major firms in the radio ad business (Interep) declared bankrutpcy and exited the business with no warning. The remaning company (Katz) is a subsidiary of Clear Channel.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aL8q2chr6ZvQ
Interrep filed bankruptcy on March 31, 2008 and was liquidated later that year.
The goal of the “No Urban/No Spanish” mandate has been a mystery to me. Is it to prevent “discrimination” against black and so-called “Spanish” listeners, not against radio stations that are owned by Black people (companies like the now bankrupt Inner City Broadcasting and Radio One) that specifically target only Black listeners.
It’s pretty clear the intent of folks like Radio One was just that they wanted a “minority setatside” – to force car insurance companies to advertise to people that don’t own cars ethnic stations to run English language ads to people who don’t speak English – and just fleecing their money and unproductive use of their advertising dollars as a “cost of doing business”. The introduction of the PPM device by Arbitron quickly uncovered that “Minority” formatted radio stations have very few listeners and were just sponges to sop up advertiser dollars from companies too scared to not advertise on them.
I think the result of this FCC has actually been
– an exodus of national advertisers from radio
– an end to competition between advertising rep firms
– further segregation in radio with mainstream radio dropping minority formats
– the growth of music formats that are of little or no interest to minority listeners – like Country
That’s it! The only way to end the scourge of discrimination by advertisers is for the FCC to outlaw Country Music.
Excellent analysis, as usual.