Now the election is over, what can we expect from the Presidency under Donald Trump, as far as broadcast media is concerned?
We know the current Federal Communications Commission chair is held by Democrat, Jessica Rosenworcel. According to history, she would relinquish her post the morning of January 20th, before Donald Trump takes office. When this happens, Trump will most likely appoint a Republican as the 5th FCC Commissioner. His choice will, then, need to be approved by the Senate, which could take months.
Brendan Carr is the Commission’s senior Republican. It’s very probable he will take the chair next. Carr will be in charge of the Media Bureau, which handles television and radio. Carr’s contribution to Project 25 stated, “The FCC should engage in a serious top to bottom review of its regulations and take steps to rescind any that are overly cumbersome or outdated.” He, also, proposed to partially reverse a 2020 decision to eliminate the simulcast rule for FMs, but leave it as is for AMs. If you don’t remember what this is, according to Insideradio.com, “It limited stations to airing up to 25% of total hours in an average broadcast week of duplicative programming when there is a substantial 50% overlap of their principal signal contours or common ownership.” This duplication rule had been effective since 1964.
Carr noted the FCC has not helped local broadcast companies compete against the larger tech companies who don’t have the same set of rules as the smaller companies. He sincerely believes this could be detrimental to radio and television. With this, he’d like to see a more level playing field.
Donald Trump has some ideas of his own that could dramatically reshape FCC policy. Recently, he’s had beef with media for reporting what he saw as biased coverage during the election. Trump threatened to revoke the licenses of those broadcasters who he saw as biased news sources.
It’s clear Brendan Carr wants to bring broadcasting into the new age and seems to have the media’s back. Whether or not he will take the seat next, or if Trump decides to appoint someone else as FCC Commissioner, remains to be seen. Either way, we could see some big changes in radio and television in the next few months.
Pic generated by Open Art AI Generator.