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Washington, DC -- Free Press, a national nonpartisan public interest group focused on media reform, today called on citizens to make their voices heard on behalf of diversity and localism in broadcasting at a public hearing held by the Federal Communications Commission in Rapid City. The FCC announced this week that the hearing is set for May 26.

The Rapid City hearing will be the third in a series of FCC hearings to solicit input about local broadcasting as a slate of government-granted broadcast licenses come up for renewal. Previous hearings were held in Charlotte, NC, in October 2003 and San Antonio, TX, in January 2004.

"In San Antonio, hundreds of citizens packed the hall to make sure the FCC Commissioners heard their perspectives on media diversity and consolidation. We hope South Dakota residents will do the same," Managing Director Josh Silver said.

Broadcasters receive licenses to the publicly owned airwaves, free of charge, in return for a pledge to serve the public interest. In South Dakota, radio licenses expire April 1, 2005; TV licenses expire on April 1, 2006.

Public input, which was once a major part of the license renewal process, has been stripped away. As a 1998 White House panel of broadcasters and public interest representatives noted about the effect of deregulatory measures, "The license renewal process - historically, the time at which a station's public interest performance is formally evaluated - was shortened and made virtually automatic through a so-called 'postcard renewal' process."

"The FCC's disastrous decision on media ownership was a wake-up call to the public, which is shut out of the process all too often," Silver continued, referring to the Federal Communications Commission's controversial June 2 move to relax rules limiting media consolidation. Three million emails, letters and petitions protesting the decision were sent to the FCC and Capitol Hill from conservative and liberal groups alike. "Citizens are tired of dumbed-down journalism, rampant commercialism, and seeing their local media bought up by big media companies. This is a crucial opportunity to make their voices heard."

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