Washington Beat

The FCC will hold its August Open Meeting next Thursday, and the Commission late Thursday offered a peek at what the Commissioners will debate and discuss at the monthly session. Of the seven items on the agenda, two involve the Media Bureau — and possibly your radio and/or TV station. Discussion of an incubator program to encourage diverse media ownership has already seen the NAB and MMTC lobby the Commission for its extension to TV.

The FCC will now begin accepting applications from graduating law students and current judicial clerks for the agency's "primary vehicle for hiring entry-level attorneys." Here's all you need to know on getting applications to the Commission by its strict deadline date and time.

"It is amazing how much you can learn from only a few minutes on this site," Media Information Bureau featured columnist Ken Benner says of the FCC's digital gateway to all of its rules and regulations — FCC.com. More importantly, Benner notes, a visit to the Commission's website can potentially save substantial forfeitures, consent decrees, frustrations and legal expenses. 

The Chief of Staff for the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection since April 2016 is trading in her government job for a role as a Partner in one of the nation's most prestigious communications law firms.

Without appropriations, many government programs went dormant. For Boston College Law School associate professor Daniel Lyons, a visiting fellow at conservative D.C. think-tank AEI, there’s a more fundamental problem with the shutdown, which just ended until mid-February: Pruning the regulatory state.

The American Cable Association's annual summit in 2018 saw the FCC's top dog deliver its keynote address. Attendees of its upcoming 26th annual event will now enjoy a sequel that will likely be far from a repeat performance.

The FCC has opened a new frontier in the amount of spectrum available for unlicensed and experimental operations, adopting rules covering frequencies between 95 GHz and 3 THz (3,000 GHz). Find out what this means for you from a Fletcher Heald & Hildreth attorney.

A proposal “to fine-tune the FCC’s collection of regulatory fees” was scheduled to round out Thursday's May Open Meeting. However, there was no need for debate, and an NPRM was adopted Tuesday. Here are the Comment Date and Reply Comment Date details.

The primary lobbying group and voice on Capitol Hill for the nation's smallest and, in great part, most rural MVPDs has asked the FCC to grant a retransmission consent complaint filed by one of its members against one of the nation's largest owners of broadcast TV stations.

With Congress in recess through Labor Day weekend, many D.C. attorneys were out of the office on Friday. This could be why no new transactions appeared in the FCC's CDBS. For one FCC Commissioner, being away from the Portals was vitally important. That's because he's a new father. 

As RBR+TVBR first reported at RBR.com, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday rejected the FCC's cross-ownership rules and its incubator program, remanding it for a do-over. FCC Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks were pleased with the ruling.

The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Leadership Foundation has finalized the roster for its inaugural class of the Media Sales Academy. Curriculum for the program was developed in collaboration with the Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB) and the Television Bureau of Advertising (TVB).

The federal government's FY2020 Appropriations Act needs Senate approval by the end of the week to avert a shutdown, and it is likely. As such, STELA legislation championed by the House Energy & Commerce Committee is set to become law. Retiring Committee Ranking Member Greg Walden is pleased.

In a widely expected vote held at its January Open Meeting today in Washington, the FCC agreed to modify its rules for cable and satellite TV providers by transitioning certain notices to broadcast TV stations from paper to electronic delivery. 

New York Festivals will honor the National Press Club with its Lifetime Achievement Award on Tuesday, April 21 at the inaugural NYF Storytellers gala. It is set to take place at the 2020 NAB Show in Las Vegas, which remains on schedule.