Feingold looks at radio, culture
He's keynoter on media ownership
WASHINGTON - Sen. Russ Feingold said today he was optimistic about getting hearings this year on his legislation aimed at slowing consolidation in the radio industry.
With the Republican takeover of the Senate, Feingold's longtime ally, Arizona Republican John McCain, becomes chairman of the Commerce Committee.
Feingold, D-Wis., rallied support for his bill at a conference of the Future of Music Coalition at Georgetown University.
"If only a few companies control the airwaves, they can decide not to play any controversial music because their sponsors may not approve," Feingold said.
"But if this controversial music tells the story of what is going on in our communities, we must have the opportunity to listen," he said.
Feingold took center stage today on a platform that recently had featured rock stars like Patti Smith, Living Color's Vernon Reid and Lester Chambers of the groundbreaking 1960s group the Chambers Brothers, as well as personalities such as Ira Glass, host of the "This American Life" radio show, and legendary rock producer Sandy Pearlman.
At a conference where the emphasis is on adding the voices of artists and consumers to debates about where the music business is headed, few political figures are offered starring roles.
Feingold earned one because his proposed Competition in Radio and Concert Industries Act addresses many of the concerns being raised by musicians who see their opportunities to get their music heard being narrowed by radio and concert-promotion monopolies and by the re-emergence of old-fashioned payola schemes - where promoters pay to get certain music onto playlists.
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