Washington Beat

With longtime D.C. attorneys David Oxenford and Mark Lipp handling the submission to the FCC, three radio broadcasting companies have offered comments to the Commission asking that its "dual band" regulatory policy for expanded band AM radio stations get a fresh look and slight modernization.

The National Association of Broadcasters has informed the FCC that it "appreciates" the Commission’s efforts to improve its regulatory fee process and supports the FY 2025 proposed allocations shared in MD Docket No. 25-190.

As June began, a surprise exit from the FCC caught many industry leaders and market observers off-guard: Nathan Simington tendered his resignation. One month later, he has resurfaced at a D.C. think-tank.

It has become an annual tradition in the Nation's Capital, and it will continue in 2025 with law firm Hogan Lovells playing host. The Seventh Annual Former FCC Chairs' Symposium is coming in late July, courtesy of the Multicultural Media, Telecom & Internet Council (MMTC). 

The NAB Leadership Foundation (NABLF)'s 2025 Broadcast Leadership Training (BLT) program has concluded, with a graduation held in June for the executive MBA-style educational learning opportunity.

One day before FCC Chairman Brendan Carr unveiled his “Build America” Agenda, the NAB and a coalition of major radio stakeholders met with his office to continue their campaign for the use of software-based Emergency Alert System encoders and decoders.

A trio of House Members came together to lead 24 of their Congressional colleagues in calling on the FCC to include language access experts and advocates for communities with limited English proficiency in the Commission's Hurricane Season Resiliency Roundtable. There's just one problem: That event was Monday.

Kentucky Republican Brett Guthrie, who serve as Chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, is moving forward with changes to the committee's Republican subcommittee leadership and assignments in the wake of Rep. Earl L. “Buddy” Carter (R-Ga.)'s resignation of the Chairmanship of the Subcommittee on Health.

In a major policy speech delivered in Sioux Falls, S. Dakota, at a tower climber training center, on Wednesday, the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission addressed the need for "cutting red tape and modernizing FCC operations." There's new news on this front.

A decade-long moratorium on state-level Artificial Intelligence regulations, which would have impacted broadcast media stations across the U.S., was solidly defeated by a nearly unanimous vote in the U.S. Senate.

The Broadcast VOICES Act has emerged in both houses of Congress, bringing a fresh effort among legislators to boost broadcast ownership diversity through the return of tax incentives for the sale and donation of stations to women and other minority-led groups.

The newest FCC Commissioner has just completed her first Open Meeting. Immediately following the short by Commission standards gathering,  Olivia Trusty shared who will serve as her Chief of Staff and Senior Counsel while welcoming three others to her office.

As Congress moves to act before its July 4 recess, former AEI visiting scholar and broadband economics expert Roslyn Layton discusses a revised spectrum bill in the U.S. Senate. In this think piece, Layton highlights why the proposal matters now—for broadband competitiveness and the restoration of FCC auction authority.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting has awarded a $200,000 grant to the Public Media Journalists Association (PMJA) to support its Editor Corps program, which provides short-term editing help to local public media newsrooms across the country.

At a community event in the Bluegrass State, Anna M. Gómez met with community leaders and the public to discuss what she believes are "recent attacks by the Administration" and the FCC itself against the First Amendment "and their ongoing efforts to censor and control speech."