NAB Blasts iHeart, Salem, Future of Music, musicFIRST in Push for Relaxed Radio Subcaps

legal, economic, and factual errors,” and arguments from NAB members iHeart, Salem and others are “inaccurate” and “invalid,” said the NAB ex parte. The coalition filings inflate the importance of prior ownership rulings by the 3rd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals and misinterpret the U.S. Supreme Court’s Prometheus decision as affirming the FCC’s authority to review broadcast ownership rules, NAB said. “Prometheus was decided solely under” the Administrative Procedure Act and didn’t reach the question of how the FCC should weigh diversity and competition in doing the quadrennial review, NAB said. It also attacked arguments from NAB member iHeartMedia against expanding FM ownership caps and on the definition of the radio advertising market. “Nor can the Coalitions,’ iHeart’s, and other commenters’ wish to treat terrestrial radio stations as sealed in their own separate market find support in the record,” NAB said. It also called arguments by iHeart that changes to the subcaps would threaten public safety “highly suspect.” The FCC should reject “unmeritorious claims” that relaxing local radio ownership caps isn’t beneficial to radio, NAB said. The FCC “has no valid legal, competitive, or factual basis for continuing to retain the existing analog-era radio ownership limits.” A Future of Music Coalition spokesperson said the group stands by its arguments against radio consolidation. "NAB is looking increasingly desperate with the latest round of attacks. It’s easy to see why: they’ve failed to establish anything close to consensus even among commercial broadcasters for their radical proposal to weaken local ownership caps." The musicFIRST Coalition, iHeartMedia and Salem didn’t comment.