Today the Federal Communications Commission backtracked from the proposal it had floated last week to include racial and gender preferences in its new radio transferability rules (i.e., allowing local radio-station monopolies to remain intact if current owners sell them to women or racial minorities). A very bad idea by FCC Chairman Michael Powell, but a Commission press release this morning says that the exemption would be available to all small businesses, not just those owned by women or minorities. The Center for Equal Opportunity’s Linda Chavez had condemned the proposal in a press release last Friday, noting that the FCC’s use of racial and gender preferences has run afoul of the courts in the past.