WASHINGTON — Andrew Jay Schwartzman, President and CEO of Media Access Project, testified before the Federal Communications Commission today in a panel discussion addressing the local television and radio public interest obligations, as part of the Commission’s Future of Media workshop series.

In his testimony, Schwartzman explained that, according to Title III of the Communications Act, a primary duty of each broadcaster is to serve its own community of license. Despite this obligation, however, many television and radio broadcasters around the country have done little or nothing to address local topics and meet local needs. “There is no point in having a system which prizes localism and diversity if many of the licensees do nothing – literally nothing – which is locally oriented, or which duplicates the programming of other stations or which consists entirely of home shopping programming,” Schwartzman said. “Yet that is what the current system tolerates.”

“The failure of the Commission’s efforts to diversify ownership and employment in broadcasting means that broadcasters are as yet unrepresentative of the nation as a whole,” Schwartzman explained. “Under the current regime, hundreds of television stations carry no news and many of them do not even have functional local origination capacity. There is, in short, little localism, no competition and minimal diversity.”

Schwartzman suggested the following “modernized” public service requirements as solutions to these critical problems:

* Put teeth in the license renewal process. Shorten license terms to three years. Implement the “enhanced disclosure” requirements embodied in the new Form 355 for both television and radio. Require every radio and television station to demonstrate they have addressed the needs of their community of license, specifically including use of locally produced programming addressing local issues. Review each broadcaster’s renewal application and audit 10% of licensees every year.

* Require broadcasters to demonstrate that every channel in a radio or television multicast service is advancing the public interest.

* In the renewal process, discount programming which is not produced bythe licensee or which has or will appear on more than one station.

* Disincent TV broadcasters from diverting their spectrum for ancillary and supplemental uses by raising the fee for such use from 5% to 20% of gross revenue.

* Develop incentives for broadcasters to integrate online content with their on air content.

* Complete action on Docket 93-8 and rule that TV stations primarily devoted to carriage of home shopping services are not operating in the public interest.

“We developed the best broadcasting system because of, not in spite of, regulations which examined broadcasters public service and made the worst of them accountable for their misuse of public trust. We need a modern version of those requirements to fully realize the potential of broadcasting in a digital age,” Schwartzman said.

Read Schwartzman’s testimony here.