FCC Media Ownership Hearing Tampa-St Petersburg
The Federal Communications Commission today announced the fourth public hearing on media ownership issues will be held in the Tampa-St. Petersburg, Florida, area in the afternoon and evening on Monday, April 30, 2007.
The hearing will provide an opporutunity for those in the Tampa-St. Petersburg area to discuss media ownership, including specific issues facing that local market.
The hearing date, time, and location are as follows:
Monday, April 30, 2007
4:00 p.m. -11:00 p.m.
Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center
Louise Lykes Ferguson Hall
1010 North W.C. MacInnes Place
Tampa, Florida 33602
Link to Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center:
http://www.tbpac.org/
Link to Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center Map And Directions:
http://www.tbpac.org/welcome/directions/directions.html
The purpose of the hearing is to fully involve the public in the process of the 2006 Quadrennial Broadcast Media Ownership Review that the Commission is currently conducting. The hearing is open to the public, and seating will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. This hearing is the fourth in a series of media ownership hearings the Commission intends to hold across the country.
There will be a period for public comment following panel discussions. Further details including names of the panelists will be released prior to the hearing.
For additional information about the hearing, please visit the FCC’s website at http://www.fcc.gov/ownership. Press inquiries should be directed to Clyde Ensslin, at 202-418-0506, or David Fiske, at 202-418-0513.
There will be two panels, each followed by a period for public comment. The first panel will provide an overview of the Tampa, Florida media market. The second panel will provide perspectives on media ownership. A final roster of panelists will be released prior to the hearing.
Agenda follows:
(All Times EST)
4:00 p.m. Welcome/Opening Remarks
4:30 p.m. Panel Discussion 1: Market Overview / Tampa, Florida Case Study
Dan Bradley, Media General Vice President of News for Broadcast
Bill Carey, General Manager of WFTS-TV and Incoming President of the Florida Association of Broadcasters
Robert Dardenne, Associate Professor in Journalism and Media Studies at Univ. of South Florida-St. Petersburg
Steve Erlanger, President, Hometown News
Ronald Gordon, President of ZGS Broadcast Holdings
Jim Johnson, Publisher of State of Sunshine, a political blog covering the state of Florida
Eric Klinenberg, Associate Professor of Sociology at New York University
Patrick Manteiga, Editor and Publisher of La Gaceta
Pat Roberts, President of the Florida Association of Broadcasters
Art Rowbotham, President of Hall Communications
Steve Wilson, Investigative Journalist
5:30 p.m. Public Comments
7:30 p.m. Break
8:00 p.m. Panel Discussion 2: Perspectives on Media Ownership
Gerardo Reyes-Chavez, Coalition of Immokalee Workers
Glenn Cherry, President/CEO and Chairman of the Board of Tama Broadcasting
Roswell Clarke, Director of Technical Operations and System Admin., Cox Radio-Tampa
Bob D’Andrea, President of the Christian Television Network
Dr. Karen Brown Dunlap, President of The Poynter Institute
Bob Gremillion, President, CEO and Publisher of the South Florida Sentinel
Carol Jenkins, President of The Women’s Media Center
Larry Lee, Jr., Owner of WFLM-FM/WIRA(AM), Port St. Lucie, Florida
Luis Lopez, Director of Public Relations, Hispanic Alliance of Tampa Bay
Carlina Rodriguez, Director of Organizing Spanish Language, Screen Actors Guild of America
Sam Rosenwasser, President and General Manager of WTSP(TV)
Rich Templin, Communications Director, Florida AFL-CIO
9:00 p.m. Public Comments
11:00 p.m. Wrap-Up/Adjournment
The moderator will be Louis Sigalos, Chief of the Consumer Affairs & Outreach Division, Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau, FCC
(see http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-272530A1.doc)
Previous FCC public hearings in the current review of media ownership issues were held in Los Angeles, CA on October 3, 2006; Nashville, TN on December 11, 2006; and Harrisburg, PA on February 23, 2007.