Washington Beat

As one of the 17 surviving SBE Charter members, featured columnist Ken Benner played "a small but significant and proud role" in the development of The Society of Broadcast Engineers and, later, The National Radio and Telecommunications Engineers. With the recent passing of SBE Past President Barry Thomas, Benner reflects on the importance of these two groups.

Geoffrey Starks' FCC nomination vote -- and that for another Commissioner -- could be coming in days, not weeks. Starks' selection by the White House as the man to fill Tom Wheeler's seat came five months ago. Since then, there's been inaction from the Senate. It's likely tied to another Commissioner's future.

For most Westchester County residents, the town of Croton-On-Hudson is known mainly for its train station. Now, it is gaining national notice for a joint investigation involving the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau and the county District Attorney’s Office resulting in the arrest and arraignment of a pirate radio operator.

A company that considers itself "the inventor of multi-room wireless home audio" has just snagged the General Counsel and Chief Strategy Officer for the company that Nexstar wishes to acquire. It's a man many in D.C. know very well: He served as Chief of Staff to a former FCC Chairman.

It didn't even take a voice vote or discussion at Wednesday's scheduled FCC Open Meeting for the Commissioners to say yes to the plan, with word of the OK coming as the Commission christened a new Office.

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.

The FCC has started to send out by e-mail notices to numerous radio stations, notifying them that there are issues with their online public inspection files. The email notices do not reveal what the specific problem is, notes D.C. attorney David Oxenford.

A seventh Meeting for the Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council is now a go, the FCC announced on Friday.

A Senate vote on Thursday affirmed who will take over the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau from acting director Mick Mulvaney, the subject of this column from Ken Benner. Mulvaney's attitude towards how things, in his mind, get done in D.C. irks Benner yet again.

For the past 14 years, she has served in the FCC's Office of General Counsel as an Ethics Counsel. In 2018, she led the agency’s ethics team as Assistant General Counsel for Ethics. Now, this 31-year Commission veteran will serve as its new Administrative Law Judge.

On Nov. 7, the FCC said no to a FOIA request for portions of the Commission’s ECFS server logs related to the "Restoring Internet Freedom" Docket. What's getting attention, however, is a statement tied to the Order from Chairman Pai that appears to acknowledge Russia-based meddling.

After several years of silence — at least that’s what it seemed like from the outside — FCC economists again have a voice, says a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. In this column, Mark Jamison argues that the communications industry will benefit from this return of economic voices.

With Tribune Media now heading to Nexstar, the Office of Inspector General revealed that it has wrapped up its follow-up investigation of the now-aborted marriage of Tribune and Sinclair Broadcast Group. Once again, Ajit Pai appears to have done no wrong.

What is the common denominator to successfully serve its community of license for any broadcast operation? Here's the answer, courtesy of featured columnist Ken Benner, who has tallied at least 2,000 station visits.

A Class A FM serving an area of Massachusetts near the Vermont border since 1995 has accrued regulatory fee debt since 2014. The Commission is now taking action, and wants its money -- or a worthy explanation as to why this licensee didn't pay up on time.