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The following perspective was submitted by a respected radio station owner regarding the above NABOB comments made by Executive Director Jim Winston. "This seems to me not to be true from the standpoint that broadcasters reject an offer from a black owner but accept a similar offer from another buyer. I have to assume something is not quite the same because everyone?s money is green."
"My stations (2 FMs) have been listed with a broker for several years and I don?t recall that any Black broadcasters approached us for doing a deal (one did come by and look but never took it to the next step ? despite my broker?s follow-ups ? and we would have been happy to deal with him if he wanted to continue the process). What are broadcasters supposed to do, try to recruit Black owners? Not our job! And the FCC can make all the noise they want, but Black broadcasters need to come to the table with a reasonable offer and money. I think this is the larger issue, it?s harder for them in many cases to get the funding they need (a separate problem to solve). In my case I am selling to an Hispanic buyer."
"So here?s the deal: have the IRS put the minority preference back in place for taxes (and maybe it takes an act of Congress). It?s not the FCC, as Mr. Winston suggests, they can?t do it. It?s been talked about for years. Why was it ever taken away? Perhaps NAB should lobby Congress for such a law."
"This would give broadcasters incentives to sell to minorities, would it not? And minorities are minorities, we can?t start to single out Native Americans vs. Blacks vs. Hispanic etc. or we really have a mess. Overall, we need to increase ownership diversity amongst radio and TV stations with all minorities."
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