This history of minority ownership in American broadcasting is one of half-hearted efforts on the part of Congress and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to level the playing field between Blacks, Hispanics, Asian and other ethnic groups, and women, and the obviously more well-to-do nonminority owners of radio and television stations. The issues which directly affect minority ownership of broadcast outlets are, for the most part, akin to those which pervade the broader American scene, from housing to education to other entrepreneurial efforts.
As of 1995, the latest year for which published data are available, there were 1,221 television stations licensed in the United States. A total of 37, or just three percent, were at least 51 percent minority-owned. Minority ownership of AM radio stations was 175 of a total of 4,906, and 118 of 5,285 FM stations. Taken as a whole, minority ownership accounted for 330 of 11,412 broadcast licenses--2.89 percent (Adelson, 1997, p. D9). These numbers are declining, and they are expected to continue to do so.
According to Adelson, the Telecommunications act of 1996 "set off a torrent of mergers in the radio industry by relaxing the limits on radio ownership to as many as eight stations in a single market" (1997, p. D9). Radio giants have quickly emerged, as demonstrated in the combination of the CBS Radio network and Infinity Broadcasting by Westinghouse. And ten percent of all minority-owned radio stations in America were sold by Lombard/Nogales Partners of San Francisco and U.S. Radio Inc. of Philadelphia. Although small by comparison, these were the two largest minority-owned broadcast groups, with a combined total of 35 stations (Adelson, 1997, p. D9).
But the broadening of station ownership was directly attributable to a single policy change--the granting of tax credit certificates by the FCC--which took effect in 1978. The FCC reasoned that it could promote a ...