This has happened so slowly I didn’t notice it.<\/p>\n
While going through the list of every Cumulus radio station (updating their stream), I suddenly realized that I had\u00a0 seen\u00a0almost no\u00a0 radio stations targeting Spanish speaking listeners.<\/p>\n
+-------------+----------------------------+\r\n| FormatCount | FormatName |\r\n+-------------+----------------------------+\r\n| 88 | Country |\r\n| 66 | Sports |\r\n| 62 | Classic Rock \/ Hits |\r\n| 61 | Contemporary Hits |\r\n| 49 | Alternative\/Hard\/New Rock |\r\n| 44 | AC \/ Variety \/ Mix |\r\n| 39 | Conservative Talk |\r\n| 25 | Young Urban \/ Hip Hop |\r\n| 24 | News \/ Talk Variety |\r\n| 22 | Adult R&B \/ Soul |\r\n| 19 | Soft\/Lite Rock |\r\n| 18 | Oldies |\r\n| 13 | Local News \/ Talk \/ Sports |\r\n| 9 | Gospel |\r\n| 6 | No Web Site |\r\n| 4 | Mexican Regional<\/strong> |\r\n| 4 | Nostalgia \/ Standards |\r\n| 3 | Biz Talk |\r\n| 2 | All News |\r\n| 2 | Dance\/Party Music |\r\n| 1 | Unknown Format |\r\n| 1 | Spanish Sports <\/strong> |\r\n| 1 | Christian Music |\r\n| 1 | Religious Ministry |\r\n| 1 | Spanish News\/Talk<\/strong> |\r\n+-------------+----------------------------+<\/pre>\nThis is not a criticism of Cumulus, just an observation.\u00a0 Clear Channel used to be a hotbed of Spanish Language stations, mostly aimed at immigrants from Mexico<\/p>\n
+-------------+----------------------------+\r\n| FormatCount | formatname |\r\n+-------------+----------------------------+\r\n| 126 | Country |\r\n| 99 | Contemporary Hits |\r\n| 91 | AC \/ Variety \/ Mix |\r\n| 73 | Sports |\r\n| 73 | Conservative Talk |\r\n| 70 | Alternative\/Hard\/New Rock |\r\n| 66 | Classic Rock \/ Hits |\r\n| 46 | News \/ Talk Variety |\r\n| 43 | Young Urban \/ Hip Hop |\r\n| 32 | Soft\/Lite Rock |\r\n| 30 | Oldies |\r\n| 23 | Adult R&B \/ Soul |\r\n| 17 | Local News \/ Talk \/ Sports |\r\n| 14 | Dance\/Party Music |\r\n| 13 | Gospel |\r\n| 9 | Progressive Talk |\r\n| 8 | Mexican Regional<\/strong> |\r\n| 4 | Spanish Music - Other<\/strong> |\r\n| 3 | No Web Site |\r\n| 3 | Music - Other |\r\n| 3 | Nostalgia \/ Standards |\r\n| 3 | Religious Ministry |\r\n| 2 | Jazz |\r\n| 2 | Biz Talk |\r\n| 1 | Spanish CHR\/Latino<\/strong> |\r\n| 1 | Ethnic |\r\n| 1 | Christian Music |\r\n| 1 | Black Talk |\r\n| 1 | Tropical\/Carribean\/Cuban |\r\n| 1 | Disney |\r\n| 1 | Easy Listening |\r\n| 1 | Comedy |\r\n+-------------+----------------------------+<\/pre>\ncompared to the entire Radio Buiness:<\/p>\n
+-------------+----------------------------+\r\n| FormatCount | formatname |\r\n+-------------+----------------------------+\r\n| 1649 | Country |\r\n| 851 | AC \/ Variety \/ Mix |\r\n| 769 | Religious Ministry |\r\n| 760 | Classic Rock \/ Hits |\r\n| 697 | Educational |\r\n| 532 | Contemporary Hits |\r\n| 501 | Oldies |\r\n| 491 | Sports |\r\n| 448 | Alternative\/Hard\/New Rock |\r\n| 390 | News \/ Talk Variety |\r\n| 383 | Local News \/ Talk \/ Sports |\r\n| 363 | Public Radio |\r\n| 342 | Conservative Talk |\r\n| 263 | Christian Music |\r\n| 245 | Gospel |\r\n| 234 | Soft\/Lite Rock |\r\n| 201 | Young Urban \/ Hip Hop |\r\n| 175 | Mexican Regional <\/strong> |\r\n| 169 | Community Radio |\r\n| 151 | Adult R&B \/ Soul |\r\n| 112 | Spanish Religious <\/strong> |\r\n| 104 | Catholic |\r\n| 102 | Nostalgia \/ Standards |\r\n| 97 | Ethnic |\r\n| 93 | Spanish CHR\/Latino <\/strong> |\r\n| 87 | Classical Music |\r\n| 72 | Spanish (unclassified) <\/strong> |\r\n| 58 | Jazz |\r\n| 55 | Spanish News\/Talk <\/strong> |\r\n| 46 | Music - Other |\r\n| 40 | Dance\/Party Music |\r\n| 37 | Progressive Talk |\r\n| 34 | Spanish Music - Other <\/strong> |\r\n| 31 | Biz Talk |\r\n| 30 | Other Format |\r\n| 28 | All News |\r\n| 20 | Spanish Sports <\/strong> |\r\n| 19 | Folk\/Bluegrass\/Ballads |\r\n| 18 | Easy Listening |\r\n| 15 | Silent |\r\n| 15 | Disney |\r\n| 15 | Black Talk |\r\n| 12 | Tropical\/Carribean\/Cuban |\r\n| 8 | Comedy |\r\n| 4 | Government |\r\n| 1 | Entertainment |\r\n+-------------+----------------------------+<\/pre>\nA 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.\u00a0\u00a0 http:\/\/hraunfoss.fcc.gov\/edocs_public\/attachmatch\/FCC-07-217A1.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n
III (B)<\/p>\n
6. Non-Discrimination Provisions in Advertising Sales Contracts<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n
49. The Commission also adopts DCS\u2019s 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 \u201cno urban\/no Spanish dictates\u201d that are intended to minimize the proportion of African American or Hispanic customers patronizing an advertiser\u2019s venue\u2014or that presume that African Americans or Hispanics cannot be persuaded to buy an advertiser\u2019s product or service\u2014indicate 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 \u201cno urban\/no Spanish\u201d dictates.\u00a0\u00a0Discriminatory practices have no place in broadcasting<\/strong>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
(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)<\/p>\n
The “DCS” that drafted the proposal incorporated by the FCC is the\u00a0\u00a0Diversity and Competition Supporters<\/em><\/strong> (\u201cDCS\u201d), a coalition of national organizations created to advance the cause of minority ownership,\u00a0\u00a0 This appears to just another name for the Minority Media and Telecom Council<\/a><\/p>\n
A filing with the FCC lists the “members” of this “Coaliiton”<\/p>\n
1. A. Philip Randolph Institute
\n2. American Indians in Film and Television
\n3. Asian American Chamber of Commerce
\n4. Asian American Justice Center
\n5. Black College Communication Association
\n6. Black Entertainment and Sports Lawyers Association
\n7. Black Leadership Forum
\n8. Broadband & Social Justice Institute
\n9. Communications Consumers United
\n10. Dialogue on Diversity
\n11. Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities
\n12. Hispanic Elected Local Officials
\n13. International Black Broadcasters Association
\n14. Japanese American Citizens League
\n15. Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies
\n16. Lawyers\u2019 Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
\n17. League of United Latin American Citizens
\n18. Latinos in Information Sciences and Technology Association
\n19. MANA \u2013 A National Latina Organization
\n20. Minority Media and Telecommunications Council
\n21. National Association of Black County Officials
\n22. National Association of Black Journalists
\n23. National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters
\n24. National Association of Black School Educators
\n25. National Association of Black Telecommunications Professionals
\n26. National Association of Hispanic Publications
\n27. National Association of Multicultural Digital Entrepreneurs
\n28. National Association of Neighborhoods
\n29. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
\n30. National Black Caucus of Local Elected Officials
\n31. National Black Caucus of State Legislators
\n32. National Black Church Initiative
\n33. National Black Coalition for Media Justice
\n34. National Coalition on Black Civic Participation
\n35. National Conference of Puerto Rican Women
\n36. National Congress of Black Women, Inc.
\n37. National Council of La Raza
\n38. National Council of Negro Women
\n39. National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts
\n40. National Indian Telecommunications Institute
\n41. National Newspaper Publishers Association
\n42. National Organization of Black County Officials
\n43. National Organization of Black Elected Legislative Women
\n44. National Puerto Rican Chamber of Commerce
\n45. National Urban League
\n46. Native American Journalists Association
\n47. Native American Public Telecommunications
\n48. Rainbow PUSH Coalition
\n49. Universal Impact
\n50. Women\u2019s Institute for Freedom of the Press<\/p>\nMany advertisers don’t wish to spend their advertising dollars to\u00a0target individuals unlikely to buy their products.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This was a common enough practice that when a national advertising represeantion\u00a0firm discusses an ad campaign, the order form had boxes to indicate which formats the national advertiser wanted their\u00a0ads to run on, with boxes for “No\u00a0Urban”\u00a0 (which is not technically the same as African American) or “No Spanish”.<\/p>\n
So since the FCC has no power\u00a0to 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\u00a0does have leverage \u00a0– 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.\u00a0\u00a0 Note it’s just fine to say “No Christian Music” or “No Rush Limbaugh” \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n
Shortly \u00a0after the FCC\u00a0order was published (March 5, 2008),\u00a0one of the two major firms in the radio ad business (Interep) declared bankrutpcy and exited the business with no warning.\u00a0\u00a0 The remaning company (Katz) is a subsidiary of Clear Channel.<\/p>\n
http:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/apps\/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aL8q2chr6ZvQ<\/a><\/p>\n
Interrep filed bankruptcy on March 31, 2008 and was liquidated later that year.<\/p>\n
The goal of the “No Urban\/No Spanish” mandate has been a mystery to me.\u00a0 Is it to prevent “discrimination” against black and so-called “Spanish” listeners, not against\u00a0radio\u00a0stations that are owned by Black people (companies like the now bankrupt Inner City Broadcasting and\u00a0Radio One) that specifically target only Black listeners.<\/p>\n
It’s pretty clear the intent of\u00a0folks like Radio One was just that they wanted a “minority setatside” – to force\u00a0car 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 –\u00a0 and just\u00a0 fleecing\u00a0 their money and unproductive use of their advertising\u00a0dollars\u00a0as a “cost of doing business”.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
I think the result of this FCC has actually been
\n– an exodus of national advertisers from radio
\n– an end to competition between advertising rep firms
\n– further segregation in radio with mainstream radio dropping minority formats
\n– the growth of music formats that are of little or no interest to minority listeners – like Country<\/p>\nThat’s it!\u00a0\u00a0 The only way to end the scourge of discrimination by advertisers is for the FCC to outlaw Country Music.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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\u00a0 seen\u00a0almost no\u00a0 radio stations targeting Spanish speaking listeners. +————-+—————————-+ | FormatCount | … Continue reading