The End of Ron Burgundy? FCC Kills Local Newsroom Requirement

Over the last six months, the Federal Communications Commission has eliminated requirements that have kept local news broadcasting a mainstay of local television, culminating with a vote on Tuesday that removed a requirement for local broadcasters to maintain newsrooms in the communities they serve. The outcome will likely be the elimination of many American communities’ primary lens for understanding the impact of local politics and policies, as well as a primary source of guidance when emergencies occur.

Until today, the so-called “main studio rule” required “each AM, FM, and television broadcast station to maintain a main studio located in or near its community of license … to ensure stations would be accessible and responsive to their communities,” according to the FCC. In Tuesday’s 3-to-2 party line vote, the FCC chose to eliminate that rule two years shy of its 80th birthday.

Without the main studio rule, national corporations that own most local television broadcast stations—NBC Universal, Tribune Media and Sinclair Broadcast Group—can eliminate the overhead costs of a local studio and produce programming out of their main offices in New York, Chicago, and the Baltimore suburbs, respectively.

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