Washington Beat

Pencil Thursday, Dec. 6 on your calendar if you're one of the many media companies invested in the end to the nation's "digital divide." It will likely be one of the last hearings to be chaired by Tennessee Republican Marsha Blackburn.

Chairman Ajit Pai will moderate panels, which include experts from academia and technology companies, for an in-depth discussion of the future of these technologies and their implications for the communications marketplace.

An LPFM serving a popular destination for NASCAR fans and beach revelers was granted to this city in March 2014. It was never built by September 2016, when an initial permit expired. A six-month extension wasn't met. As such, the LPFM saw its permit cancelled. A reconsideration was sought — again.

A topic not much discussed among broadcasters, but one that noted D.C. attorney David Oxenford says should be paramount in the future planning of all broadcast companies, is insuring the security of their stations and the safety of their employees. "This is an issue on which all broadcasters should be focusing," he writes.

An award established to recognize those who “reflect the values embodied in the Wisconsin broadcast industry of promoting economic vitality, engagement in civic affairs, advocacy for the First Amendment and dissemination of community information and community service, and support of diversity and a better Wisconsin” has its first-ever recipient.

The policy director and counsel for communications and technology for the Senate Commerce Committee has been promoted to Deputy Staff Director for the full committee.

The NAB is releasing a "robust" Broadcast Cybersecurity Certificate Program for engineering and information technology professionals. The online program is specifically tailored to the needs of the broadcast industry.

The newest member of the team of legal associates at D.C. communications law firm Fletcher, Heald & Hildreth is an alumnus of the FCC's Media Bureau and the office of former FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn.

Steve Lemay lost his life while conducting work on the broadcast tower housing the transmitter for Ozarks Public Television‘s KOZK-21 in Springfield, Mo. The tower crashed to the ground in the horrific April 2018 incident. Now, OSHA has determined that the collapse of the tower was caused by contractors' errors.

Call it "The Continuing Saga Of MB Docket No. 13-249." On October 5, the Commission adopted and released a Second Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in the Revitalization of the AM Radio Service proceeding. Comment and Reply Comment Dates have now been released.

What do "junk faxes" have to do with the level of acquiescence to federal agencies -- including the FCC -- in interpreting the statutes they administer? As Boston College Law School associate professor and AEI visiting scholar Daniel Lyons writes, it has everything to do with FCC deference.

The FCC on Thursday adopted a Report and Order that will allow cable operators to deliver notices to their customers via email, reducing costs and paper waste for both cable operators and consumers. The American Cable Association is thrilled, and was quick to offer its kudos to the Commission.

On July 23, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 5709, the Preventing Illegal Use of Radio Through Enforcement Act. Nearly five months later, the upper body of Congress has yet to act. That has led every state broadcasters association in the nation, representing all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, to plead to the Senate's leaders to pass companion legislation.

Kansas Republican Jerry Moran and New Mexico Democrat Tom Udall on Tuesday sent a two-page letter to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai expressing concerns regarding the Commission's NPRM examining expanded operations in the C-band, a chunk of spectrum used by content producers every day to delver programming to radio and TV stations. Here's what they had to say, along with a response from three broadcast media advocacy groups and from NPR.

Curious to learn the progress The Broadcast Diversity and Development Working Group has made in its ongoing initiatives to examine diversity and inclusion in broadcast employment, management and supplier procurement? A Nov. 19 at FCC headquarters in Washington, D.C., is set to provide the answers.