Following the Telecommunications Act of 1996, a handful of media conglomerates have taken over of a large piece of the radio ownership pie. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is now worried that their policies on local radio ownership do not adequately reflect current industry conditions.
In light of those concerns, the FCC has issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that asks for "specific empirical data on the effect of consolidation on the public interest."
Three cities, Syracuse, Rockford, IL, and Florence, SC, we're named specifically in the notice as radio markets with ownership structures which may be at odds with current FCC guidelines.