David Barrett, president of Hearst TV has made an eloquent plea for local broadcasters keeping the spectrum that allows them to provice local service, reports B&C.

According to the story, Barrett, in a speech accepting the First Amendment Leadership Award from the Radio-Television News Directors Foundation at a dinner in Washington on Thursday, March 10, 2011, said, "We are, indeed, at a threshold of decision with respect to spectrum in this country and how it is used."

He then "hearkened back to the Communications Act of 1934 and its emphasis on localism. He said it was enlightened legislation because it rooted broadcast policy firmly in localism across over 200 markets. He said the country had been ‘extraordinarily well served by that spirit of localism,’ " B&C reported.

The story added: " ‘Yes, the country needs to solve spectrum challenges’ and needs to be ‘adaptive to what goes forward here with new forms of media, wireless media and the like,’ [Barrett] said. But ‘shame on us if we let policy determinations throw out the existing system that serves Americans so well in favor of a new system that would emphasize national more than local service.’ He told his audience they needed to press their case with legislators."