At last month’s Consumer Electronics Show FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler announced that the agency would reclassify internet service as a utility, which should qualify it for stronger network neutrality protections. Wheeler promised the new rules would circulate to fellow commissioners by February 5, and news reports on Monday indicate that he will make good on […]
The FCC’s Media Bureau has been busy since our last update, granting fifty-six new construction permits for low-power FM stations. That’s the biggest one-week total in a year! The deluge is mostly due to the Commission beginning to pick winners in groups competing for frequencies in the third MX window states of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, […]
New York radio station WXNY-FM is being asked to pay a $20,000 penalty because it aired Emergency Alert System (EAS) tones as part of a comedy sketch on the January 28, 2014 episode of the Luis Jimenez Show. (more…)
NPR has weighed in on the Federal Communications Commissions proceeding on whether to let digital Low Power TV stations run FM signals off of the 87.7 frequency, which dovetails with channel 6. The FCC has folded the question into a larger discussion about DTV spectrum use, but NPR calls the FM proposal “misguided” and “premature and […]
The Federal Communications Commission’s proceeding on whether to permit Low Power TV stations to broadcast FM on channel 6 (87.7 FM) has reached its formal deadline: January 12 (backgrounder here). The FCC rolled the question into a whole suite of issues facing LPTV. Of interest to us is a defense of the channel 6 FM […]
Amateur radio operators are weighing in on the hotel industry’s petition to the Federal Communications Commission asking for authority to “manage” Wi-Fi hot spots used by hotel patrons. In October the FCC hit Marriott with a $600k fine for blocking personal Wi-Fi networks at its Gaylord Opryland Hotel and Convention Center in Nashville, Tennessee. Meanwhile […]
On Wednesday FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler stunned many at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas by announcing that the agency will move to reclassify broadband internet as a utility. During an on-stage conversation with Consumer Electronics Association President Gary Sharpiro, Wheeler said that new rules based under so-called Title II provisions would be circulated […]
FCC’s Media Bureau got right to work after the New Year’s holiday, granting seventeen more low-power FM construction permits. Eight of these are in the large urban markets of Portland, OR, Tucson, AZ, Saint Paul, MN and Providence, RI. Some of the interesting groups include the Xerocraft hackerspace which was approved for 100.1 FM and […]
I am reading Victor Pickard’s terrific book America’s Battle for Media Democracy and wondering to myself: do we need another “Blue Book” for radio? What was the Blue Book (you may be asking)? It was a publication released by the Federal Communications Commission in 1946 titled “Public Service Responsibility of Broadcast Licensees.” As Pickard summarizes […]
Sixteen new low-power FM construction permits were issued in the last week to an eclectic set of groups, bringing the total to 1545. Amongst the groups approved are the Tulip Tribes of Washington for 102.1 FM in Tulalip, WA and the International Institute of Metropolitan St. Louis, MO. There are two voluntary time-shares in major […]
