RICK KARR: Those stakes include whether or not radio and T-V stations really serve their communities - especially minority communities, which account for about a THIRD of the country's population. Yet out more than thirteen hundred sixty T-V stations nationwide, minorities own just forty three. And out of more than ten thousand RADIO stations, minorities own just over eight hundred.

RICK KARR: Juan Gonzalez testified to the House committee as past President of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.

GONZALEZ: I and the members of my association are here today to plead for your help because the profession that we love and the media industry in which we labor has repeatedly and profoundly failed the public interest of a huge portion of our population -- the approximately 100 million Americans of African, Hispanic, Asian and native descent.

RICK KARR: Gonzales says that if the F-C-C's Republican majority goes ahead with its proposal, minorities will end up owning even fewer radio and T-V stations - even though minority-owned stations serve their communities' needs better than media conglomerates do.

GONZALEZ: The FCC's own studies have shown that the kinds of stories that minority-owned radio and television stations consider news changes depending on the composition of the ownership of that station. So minority stations are more likely to report community news and more likely to hire minority journalists.

RICK KARR: How important is minority ownership as we go into an election year? What kind of difference can it make?

GONZALEZ: Oh, it's critically important. We've at NHJ, we have done for 11 years now-- studies, every year. We have reviewed all of the evening news broadcasts for the major television networks. And basically what we have found for 11 years running is that less than one percent-- it must be now over 100,000 news stories-- over that period of time-- that-- deal with or focus on the Latino community in any meaningful way. And of those, that less than one percent-- between 30-- between 30 and 45 percent of the stories deal with only two issues. Crime in the Latino community and immigration in the Latino community.