I spent the morning at the National Federation of Community Broadcasters conference here in San Francisco. First stop: a panel on the dos-and-don’ts of underwriting acknowledgements. Expert attorney Michael Berg spoke on the subject, and offered a very nice advisory handout on slogans and logos, from which I draw the following wisdom. Bottom line: the […]
Tuesday the FCC announced procedures for obtaining waivers to permit non-commercial stations to raise money on-air for Moore, Oklahoma tornado relief efforts. Although the Commission has yet to approve rules for non-commercial stations to do on-air fundraising for third-parties, the agency has granted waivers in response to significant natural disasters. Without a waiver it is […]
Federal Communications Commissioner Ajit Pai and his Chief of Staff Matthew Berry conferenced with two executives from Clear Channel on Wednesday. They talked up a variety of issues. The meeting’s last item caught my eye. I presume from the language of the filed summary that Pai asked Clear Channel Vice Presidents Jeff Littlejohn and Jessica […]
The Federal Communications Commission says that it will ease up on the fines that it issues college radio stations when they violate the Commission’s procedures and rules, such as failure to submit ownership reports or adequately maintain a public inspection file. Now, rather than punish such stations with a Notice of Apparent Liability followed by […]
President Obama has nominated telecom biggie Tom Wheeler to chair the Federal Communications Commission, and nervous commentaries are proliferating across the blogosphere. “Uh-oh: AT&T and Comcast are ecstatic about the FCC’s new chairman,” runs the headline over at Ars Technica. The post points the reader to a statement from AT&T Senior Executive Vice President Jim […]
I’ve been keeping an eye on the Federal Communications Commission’s proceeding on its indecency rules. It’s not looking good, from a First Amendment standpoint. Most of the comments seem to support more censorship. Some background: The FCC has been asking for public feedback on how stringently to enforce its broadcast indecency regulations since the Supreme […]
We received a couple of comments on my post about the revitalization of AM radio pointing to pieces that make convincing arguments that it was not a mere suggestion made at NAB last week to go all-digital with HD Radio on AM. Rather, there are forces at work to put this into policy, contrary to […]
This week is the annual National Association of Broadcasters show in Las Vegas, which brings thousands of broadcasters, manufacturers, producers and journalists together to talk about and see what’s next for broadcasting. Radio tends to play a very quiet second fiddle to television and video at this show. But this year radio’s own second fiddle, […]
The Federal Communications Commission is asking the public for input on its indecency rules. Last summer the Supreme Court declared the FCC’s sanctions against “fleeting expletives” to be unacceptably vague, largely because the government didn’t give Fox and ABC TV “fair notice” about the relatively new regulations before fining them for various shows. “Regulated parties […]
The Federal Communications Commission’s media ownership rules are once again the spotlight of attention. After years of litigation and turmoil, the agency is again considering a deregulatory measure that would make it easier for TV networks to buy newspapers in major markets. The specter of Rupert Murdoch purchasing more newspapers hangs over this proceeding (his […]
