Reading today’s New York Times story about National Security Agency USB hack gadgets that radio computer data back home, I immediately thought to myself: are these authorized by the Federal Communications Commission as Part 15 unlicensed broadcast/radiation devices? Or even, gulp, licensed? The Times reports that the NSA gadgets get plugged into foreign host computers […]
I’m glued to REC Networks‘ LPFM application status twitter feed, as it has been lighting up over the past few hours with messages about newly granted LPFM applications. The first granted license was for Center Pole, Inc. in Montana. So far I’ve been excited to spot a college (York Technical College in Rock Hill, South […]
Turner Broadcasting System has been issued a Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture (PDF) due to complaints about the repeated misuse of Emergency Alert tones over its network. The FCC found that Turner is liable for a forfeiture amount of $200,000. This is on the heels of a warning and notice in November, 2013, which […]
Today the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the FCC’s ability to regulate discrimination of data by internet service providers. Not unexpectedly, the Court says that the FCC itself set the stage in 2005. That’s when the Commission, led by Republican Kevin Martin, reclassified internet service as an “information service” rather than a “telecommunication […]
Communications legislation and regulation are moving back to the front burner in Washington as both Congress and the FCC turn up the flames on this policy area that has seen relatively little attention in the last five years. The Republican-controlled House leadership is pushing for a Communications Act rewrite, while FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler is […]
This week the FCC released its quarterly list of the total number of licensed broadcast stations in the United States. Based on FCC statistics through December 31, 2013, the number of licensed broadcast radio stations is still on the rise (in keeping with a 20-year trend), with 162 more radio stations at the end of 2013 […]
For years, Internet centered radio companies of all kinds have been quietly ignoring the net neutrality question, that is, the threat that ISPs could set up pay-for-priority data treatment plans for content providers. But it looks like AT&T’s new “sponsored data” scheme is getting at least one public radio show’s attention. “Could AT&T’s ‘sponsored data’ […]
It appears that the Federal Communications Commission has tabled proposed rules changes that would make it easier for companies to own more media in big market areas. The nixed-for-now measures flow from the FCC’s December 2011 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking which would have allowed some acquisition of additional television or AM/FM radio outlets, especially by […]
On Monday Sanjay Jolly of the Prometheus Radio Project dropped by the Federal Communications Commission’s Media Bureau offices and talked Low Power FM with Peter Doyle of the Audio Division and representatives from various Commissioners. Jolly pointed out that signal range is big issue for LPFM operators. In a 2012 survey run by Prometheus, around […]
This was a particularly active week in Washington with regard to legislation that affects radio and our overall communications technology landscape. Here’s what happened. Innovation Act Passes the House The Innovation Act passed the House on Thursday by a vote of 325 to 91 with broad bipartisan support. The bill is intended to fix some […]
