Washington Beat

The FCC's Media Bureau has set the comment date, and reply comment date, for individuals to share their thoughts with the Commission on a Fiat Chrysler Automobiles request for a waiver of FCC rules requiring the accessibility of user interfaces on covered digital apparatus.

A longtime face at the FCC who served as the associate bureau chief and the chief of staff for the Commission's International Bureau he now leads on an acting basis has been given the green light to fully settle into the post.

In the latest action that indicates the FCC's quest to quash pirate broadcasters is being invigorated, Enforcement Bureau Regional Director Dave Dombrowski on Monday sent a Forfeiture Order to an individual in Paterson, N.J. in the amount of $25,000 for his unlicensed activities. The pirate was using a signal reserved for a translator some 15 miles away.

On June 12, the Media Bureau mailed the second of its Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) audit letters for 2017 to randomly selected radio stations. Among the recipients are stations owned by such companies as Alpha Media, Salem Media Group, Univision, and CBS Radio.

Yesterday, in what Wilkinson Barker Knauer partner David Oxenford calls "a very short one-page decision," the U.S Court of Appeals rejected the requests filed by public interest groups including Free Press to stay the effect of the FCC’s decision to reinstate the UHF discount. While this does not signal the Court’s final approval of the FCC’s decision to reinstate the discount, Oxenford notes that the ruling does suggest which direction the Court is likely to take in its assessment of this Commission decision.

An economist and attorney with extensive FCC and private-sector experience is FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's choice to serve as chief of the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau.

In a ruling made Thursday by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, the FCC may move forward with its return of the so-called "UHF discount" — setting the stage for what could be a flurry of deals akin to Sinclair Broadcast Group's announced acquisition of Tribune Media. Both the NAB and Free Press offered comments on the denial of an emergency stay of the rules.

The FCC has created procedures for low-power television stations (LPTVs) and translators to apply for a Special Displacement Window if they are being forced off the air by the incentive auction. This led to a response from the NAB.

In a turn of events that might have seemed stunning at any other time in presidential history, President Donald Trump — in a statement that was distributed just before midnight Wednesday (6/14) — indicated that he intends to nominate the Democrat to a whole new five-year term on the Commission.

A Cooley partner who joined the law firm's Washington, D.C. office in early 2014 after a 16 1/2 year run as a partner at Dow Lohnes PLLC has joined Wilkinson Barker Knauer LLP as partner.

Forget Taco John's: FCC Chairman Ajit Pai now has an opportunity to visit Torchy's, Velvet Taco or even the vegetarian/gluten free-friendly Tacodeli. Or, perhaps the JW Marriott in Austin, Tex., may want to have a plate of carnitas and carne asada at the ready. That's because Pai has been secured as a keynote speaker at the 2017 Radio Show's "Radio Luncheon" on Sept. 6 in Texas' capital city.

The individual who served as a special assistant for legislative affairs for President Barack Obama from 2012-2017 has agreed to join the NAB as VP of NAB Government Relations.

The Acting Bureau Chief of the FCC's Public Safety & Homeland Security Bureau need not rely on a script or any improvisation. That's because she's no longer acting in this role.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai on Saturday (6/10) made his first-ever trip to Wyoming, culminating what he told the Wyoming Association of Broadcasters was a "two-man buddy odyssey" that saw Pai drive from Milwaukee for nearly a week with his senior counsel Nick Degani. In an address to WAB Convention attendees, Pai applauded local broadcasters and the power of AM radio while noting how one Minnesota broadcaster believes the Main Studio Rule is a "killer." He also revealed his affection for Taco John's, his post-WAB address destination.

Thanks, Obama. That's a hashtag that the Phoenix Center may wish to use on Twitter in sharing the results of a new economic analysis that assails the Obama Administration for an "aggressive regulatory agenda" at the FCC that led to nearly $40 billion in reduced telecommunication sector investment.