Looks like the Sirius XM satellite radio service has brought out some big automotive guns in its feud with the WCS Coalition over tower interference concerns between wireless and satellite services. Ford, Volvo, and Chrysler have written to the Federal Communications Commission to back Sirius on the question. “We urge the FCC to be cautious […]
Tag Archives | FCC
FCC steps up investigation of mobile early termination fees
The FCC has begun a more extensive probe of wireless ETFs, evident in a letter they sent to AT&T, Google, Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile, and Verizon Wireless yesterday. The letters, written by the FCC Consumer Bureau Chief, Joel Gurin, and the Wireless Bureau Chief, Ruth Milkman, requests each company to provide information relating to facts and […]
FCC will let public radio raise money for Haitian relief
The Federal Communications Commission normally bars Noncommercial Educational Radio (NCE) stations from using the airwaves to raise money for any cause besides their own operation. But the FCC granted waivers from this rule following the 9/11 terrorist attacks and Hurricane Katrina, and now it’s doing the same for stations that want to raise relief cash […]
The Latest in Pirate Radio: FCC Enforcement, Austin Free-Staters and Canadian Strip Club Pirate
On my recently ended radioshow I tried to reguarly to give updates on unlicensed radio. To me it’s one of the still lively modes of civil disobedience in electronic communications, especially in the internet age. Although there is low-power FM in the US, and a growing community radio movement world-wide, the urge to broadcast without […]
British Ofcom dings West Midlands AM station for "blurring" ad with content
The British government released its decision today to sanction an Asian community oriented AM radio station for not keeping its advertising and content sufficiently separate. West Midlands area Radio XL (“the best in Asian music 1296 AM”) presented a 40 second office space availability spot “seamlessly as programming,” ruled the United Kindgom’s Office of Communications (Ofcom). […]
Reform groups urge FCC to continue its investigation of Verizon ETFs
Free Press, Consumers Union, and the Media Access Project wrote a letter to the FCC this week urging the Commission to continue its investigation of Verizon Wireless’ increased early termination fees (ETFs) for smartphones.
The decade’s most important radio trends #1: The birth and troubled childhood of satellite Radio
At end of the first decade of the 21st century there are more audio entertainment options available than any time before. Even if traditional broadcast radio has a case of the doldrums, the viability of radio-like media has never been stronger. Satellite radio is one medium that entered the scene, although its long-term prognosis is […]
The decade's most important radio trends: #8 The Great Fairness Doctrine Panic
It was the summer of 2007. Not moments after the Republican far right triumphed over President Bush’s hated immigration reform law than Representative Mike Pence, Republican of Indiana, introduced a rider to a budgetary bill in the House that would forbid funding for the Federal Communications Commission to enforce the Fairness Doctrine. The bill overwhelmingly […]
The decade’s most important radio trends #9: The FCC Authorizes Low-Power FM
Today there are close to 1000 more noncommercial, locally-programmed community radio stations on the air in the US than a decade ago. The reason for this is the low-power FM radio service created by the Federal Communications Commission in 2000. While Congressional intervention cut the new service off at the knees at the end of […]
Could the wireless spectrum crisis resolve the Sirius XM/WCS radio band interference crisis?
The endless battle between Sirius XM and the WCS Coalition over band interference may see a little more public attention that that the Chair of the FCC says there’s a “looming spectrum crisis” for wireless.