Where is Urban Rap's Public Interest and Diversity?

Dick Durbin was able to get an amendment voted on along a party vote regarding the fairness doctrine. The idea Sen Durbin initiated is that if a station was unable or unwilling to balance it's programming with Community Interest then it's licence to operate could be pulled, even before a hearing. This is the Language in part:

S.160's Purpose is "To encourage and promote diversity in communication media ownership, and to ensure that the public airwaves are used in the public interest."

The idea is not just that a radio or TV station finds an audience, it now must fit the defined by the left's template of diversity and public interest.

The worst part of the Durbin Amendment is the possibility that Obama's FCC may now be empowered to prematurely pull the broadcast licenses of radio stations they deem as failing to meet these new "Fairness" Doctrine-esque guidelines. Several lawyers who do this for a living see this rider's wording as amorphous enough to allow for this interpretation.

This would be absolutely devastating to talk radio. Stations currently carrying Conservative and Christian talk would be perpetually under the FCC gun - never knowing when the regulatory hammer would fall and crush their businesses. They would feel tremendous pressure to change formats so as to be able to stay on the air.

The truth is these licenses would then be awarded to more "diverse" owners who show a greater desire in meeting the new more "Progressive" FCC's definition of the "local" and "public interest." You know, ACORN activists and MoveOn.org hosts who couldn't cut the mustard on National Public or Pacifica Radio.

There is no question this idea is targeting conservative and christian radio and TV. I get that. Let's apply the goose and gander test to this. I'll start with Urban Rap music. Many, even President Obama would admit that a significant component of Rap Music is not diverse and does not serve the public interest. It's certainly not local when I hear it in lily white St. Charles IL. So, let's get them off the air. Let's apply this test and take them down. They certainly are undiverse and without any public interest. Ask Bill Cosby.

We have an urban talk radio station, WVON. I listen to it. The Black Radio commentators espouse and promote all kinds of things a listener like me would consider to be lacking in diversity and not in the public interest. Never mind Air America. Jim Leher on PBS. Much of NPR. Not diverse. Not in the public interest. Not local.

Our national sports radio feed from ESPN promotes teams other than the Bears in it's talk format. I'm in IL. I don't think that's proper. It's not in our local public interest to have opinions that do not serve our local community. I would be the first to petition them off the air.

I'm kidding....a little.

You see the problem. Who decides. The market has spoken. Christian and Conservative (not the same programs) have succeeded. Many liberal formats have not.

So, in view of that, I am offering up this list of radio formats that exist in most markets. Apply the Durbin analysis to it. Turban Durbin might think that an Islamic voice to balance a christian one would be appropriate. What about these formats, what would balance them:

• # News, talk, sports formats
• # Country music formats (Classical?)
  
• # Contemporary hit radio (CHR) music formats (All Sinatra?)
  
• # Adult contemporary music formats (Euro Beat?)
  
• # Rock and alternative music formats (Barry Manilow?)
  
• # Urban music formats (Poetry Reading for balance from Keats?)
  
• # Jazz and Classical music formats (Motown only?)
  
• # Oldies, Adult Hits and Nostalgia music formats (Miley Cyrus 24/7?)
  
• # Spanish and Latin music formats (All German Music all the time?)
  
• # World music formats (Indian Drumming from NODAK?)
• # Religious programming formats (Sharia Law endorsement for dummies?)
  
• # Public, Government, Community radio formats (remember the lunch menu's in school announcements?)
  
• # College, student formats (I think that same little girl that I hear on our local North Central college radio station works every where, at least is seems like it)

You see the problem. Who decides. These formats exist because there's an audience for them. Yes, they fit a narrow cast market. Let the market decide who wins and who loses. Not George Soros and Dick Durbin.