Broadcasters Lobby FCC on Reg Fees, Geotargeted Radio, EEO, Multilingual Alerting

included representatives of iHeartMedia, the Oregon Association of Broadcasters, Nexstar, Hearst, Alpha Media and E.W. Scripps, and met with FCC Commissioners Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington, an aide to Commissioner Geoffey Starks, Media Bureau Chief Holly Saurer and Public Safety Bureau Chief Debra Jordan.“It is especially galling that Big Tech and broadband providers pay no regulatory fees, even though these companies benefit substantially from FCC activities,” said the filing. “Imposing yet another government data collection would be an ineffective use of everyone’s time,” the filing said of EEO data collection proposals. The FCC and broadcast industry “could jointly undertake more concrete efforts” to address diversity, the filing said. A proposal to allow geotargeted radio ads would trigger “a race to the bottom of ad rates,” and raise interference concerns, the filing said. The FCC should “immediately close this proceeding,” the filing said. A proposal to pair radio stations with non-English stations in their markets to translate emergency information in disasters -- an approach sometimes called a “designated hitter” proposal -- is impractical, the filing said. The agency should instead work to help at-risk non-English stations improve their resiliency, the filing said.