The National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters is no longer...

The National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters is no longer considering a compromise media ownership plan it made to the FCC earlier this month, the group said Wednesday. NABOB’s proposal (http://xrl.us/bocb4m) was for forthcoming rules to allow a company owning no more than two radio stations to also hold a daily newspaper in the same market, or one in smaller markets (CD Jan 28 p7). “Having given such consideration, however, NABOB has decided not to endorse it,” Executive Director Jim Winston reported (http://xrl.us/bodphh) telling Commissioner Mignon Clyburn on Tuesday. After speaking with more NABOB members than he had canvassed initially, Winston decided that the group could no longer offer to potentially support some deregulation of cross-ownership rules, Winston told us. The group’s stance remains that “there should be no relaxation of that, or any, broadcast ownership rules,” Winston wrote. The current version of the draft Media Bureau order would allow common ownership of radio stations and dailies in any market, and waivers for holding a daily and non-top four rated TV station in the same top-20 market, agency officials said. The Newspaper Association of America, meanwhile, continued seeking rules that allow cross ownership, saying of 1,300-plus U.S. dailies, about 25 are cross-owned with TV stations that were grandfathered because the arrangements preceded the ban. “These newspapers have received an extraordinary total of 30 Pulitzer Prizes during the time that they have been cross-owned,” NAA said (http://xrl.us/bodphd) in docket 09-182, where NABOB’s filing also was posted. “Many of these Pulitzer Prizes went to small and mid-sized cross-owned papers."