By Amy SchatzMedia-ownership rules should be loosened to allow more consolidation and attract capital to the industry, representatives of the investment community said Tuesday at a Federal Communications Commission workshop on how the agency might change ownership rules later this year."We have so many other voices out there, [loosening ownership limits] does not stifle the free exchange of ideas out there anymore," said Rick Peters, president of Bluewater Broadcasting, a small Montgomery, Ala.-based radio company.FCC officials are looking at what the agency can do to improve the health of the newspapers, TV and radio stations, which continue to lose customers and advertising revenue to online competitors. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski recently hired Steven Waldman, a former reporter and co-founder of Beliefnet, a religious Web site, to lead the effort.Mr. Waldman and other FCC staffers grilled station owners and investment professionals at the workshop Tuesday, which is the first among many that the agency is expected to hold over the next few months.The FCC is required by Congress to revisit the U.S.'s media-ownership limits every four years. The agency's last effort to change the rules -- which resulted in its attempt to loosen the newspaper-TV station cross-ownership ban -- is still tied up in the courts.During the workshop, panelists detailed the financial woes of the media industry and the lack of interest among many investors in the sector."Debt and equity providers are largely disinterested in media and broadcast properties," said Brian Rich, managing partner at Catalyst Investors, a New York private-equity fund.His testimony echoed the views of other investment professionals and station owners who urged FCC officials to loosen ownership limits during the workshop, which focused on the broadcast industry's financial woes."Broadcasters cannot catch a break," said Marci Ryvicker, a media analyst with Wells Fargo Securities, who also said that media-ownership rules should be relaxed to allow station owners to seek out possible combinations that might help create operational efficiencies."As you think about the rules, I'd encourage you to take out a fresh piece of paper," said James Cotter of SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, SunTrust Banks Inc.'s investment banking arm. "Don't just tinker with what you've been doing for a long time."Any efforts by Mr. Genachowski to loosen media-ownership limits could be problematic, given the strong opposition by congressional Democrats and Democratic activists toward allowing media companies like News Corp. or Walt Disney Co. to own more broadcast or newspaper properties.News Corp. owns Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal.Former FCC Chairman Kevin Martin ran into strong opposition from Democrats in 2007 when he proposed relatively modest changes to a long-standing rule that barred companies from owning both a newspaper and TV or radio station in the same city. The proposal was eventually adopted but almost immediately challenged by activists in a federal appeals court, where it remains pending.After the workshop, a nonprofit interest group opposed to media consolidation, Free Press, released a statement expressing disappointment that the FCC did not include the views of consumer advocates on the panel.In a statement, an FCC spokeswoman said the workshop was focused on broadcasters' access to financing and was "one in a series we will hold throughout the proceeding."Watch the video of the workshop here.