• Women own just 6 percent of all full-power commercial broadcast radio stations, even though they comprise 51 percent of the U.S. population.

• Racial or ethnic minorities own just 7.7 percent of all full-power commercial broadcast radio
stations, though they account for 33 percent of the U.S. population.

o Latinos own just 2.9 percent of all U.S. full-power commercial broadcast radio stations, but they comprise 15 percent of the U.S. population and are the nation’s largest ethnic
minority group. (Gillian's comment: thank goodness for local radio station owner, Bustos Media, owned by Sacramento resident, Amador Bustos, or things would be even worse in this category).

o African-Americans own only 3.4 percent of this country’s full-power commercial broadcast radio stations, but account for 13 percent of the entire U.S. population.

o People of Asian descent own less than 1 percent of full-power commercial broadcast radio stations, though they make up 4 percent of the U.S. population.

o Non-Hispanic white owners control 87.2 percent of the full-power commercial broadcast radio stations operating in the United States.

These disturbing facts from a study entitled Pushed Off the Dial: Media Consolidation Diminishes Diversity on the Radio issued recently by Free Press.

More disturbing commentary from the report:

Just three years after the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected sweeping policy changes that would have dramatically altered our nation’s media landscape, the Federal Communications Commission is once again considering eliminating longstanding limits on media ownership. These changes could have a tremendous negative impact, especially on broadcast outlets owned by women and minorities.

In its landmark Prometheus v. FCC decision, the Third Circuit chastised the FCC for ignoring the issue of female and minority ownership. But since then, the FCC has done very little to address the issue. The FCC has abdicated its responsibility to monitor and foster increased minority and female broadcast ownership. In fact, the Commission cannot even account for the current state of female and minority ownership in this country.

One more reason that Bill O'Reilly need not be afraid that what’s important to him - preserving “the white, Christian, male power structure” was ever in peril. Here's his exact quote: "But do you understand what the New York Times wants, and the far-left want? They want to break down the white, Christian, male power structure, which you're a part, and so am I, and they want to bring in millions of foreign nationals to basically break down the structure that we have"

Yes, Bill, that sounds very good. But I think that things might be a little different (for the better) if we allowed a few of the women and non-white, Christian males to play an equal part in the dialog.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive