Washington Beat

The owner of a Class A FM to the Southwest of San Antonio received a NAL from the FCC for operating the station from an unauthorized location. Can the fine be reduced or eliminated? One of those two things just happened.

A 1939 law prohibits employees in the executive branch of the U.S. government from engaging in some forms of political activity. It's called the Hatch Act, and two leading House Energy & Commerce Committee members say all three Republican FCC Commissioners recently violated it. They want an investigation.

Don't mistake this column for a grumble session from our octogenarian Alternative Broadcast Inspection Program (ABIP) pioneer. Rather, he's come to praise the current Commission leadership, not bury it with a spoonful of grumbling goulash. 

What's a "deal killer"? How can you avoid them? To help best answer these questions, Garvey Schubert Barer communications attorney Erwin Krasnow and DEFCom Advisors CEO Doug Ferber created a new limited series of podcasts based on a 2017 Media Information Bureau column on this very subject. RBR+TVBR Editor-in-Chief is the host, and the guests are the operating partners of Community Broadcasters.

Do you know what FCC filing deadlines are in the coming weeks? Thanks to Fletcher Heald & Hildreth, we have a handy checklist of what's due to the FCC over the next two months, and when things must be completed by.

Last week, Wilkinson Barker Knauer LLP attorneys David Oxenford and Aaron Burstein conducted a webinar for several state broadcast associations on the legal issues in digital and social media advertising. Here are the details from this webinar, along with a link to the deck used by the attorneys for their presentation.

A feature from Morning Consult on the future of outgoing Democratic FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn is making waves across Capitol Hill. With days remaining in her nine-year tenure, she admits, "I really believe at this time that I would be a better public servant not serving on the FCC."

Mick Mulvaney, for those of you who don't follow Washington politics, is the current head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. He's said a thing or two about lobbyists. Why should this matter to radio and/or TV station owners? This column from Media Information Bureau featured columnist Ken Benner explains it all. It could make your lawyers testy.

Did you know that cable operators are required to maintain at their local office a current listing of the cable television channels that each cable system delivers to its subscribers? The FCC wants to "modernize" this rule, but seeks your comments before it can do so. Now is your chance to speak up.

Republican FCC Commissioner Michael O'Rielly has made it clear that the Commission's rules pertaining to children's programming on broadcast TV stations are in need of serious changes -- or an outright deletion. Until now the Parents Television Council has been silent on O'Rielly's push for "KidVid" modernization. The PTC just spoke up, and it is concerned.

"Many agree that Facebook needs to make some changes," Bloomberg View columnist Michael Strain wrote in an April 20 column. Four days later, the digital and social media giant started to make some changes, at least on Capitol Hill. It put a former FCC head in a lead D.C. role. Will this make "fixing Facebook" any easier? What does that mean for radio and TV?

This week, the House of Representatives passed the Music Modernization Act. While widely supported among many digital media companies providing on-demand subscription music services as well as by many in the music industry, noted communications law attorney David Oxenford of Wilkinson Barker Knauer notes that the bill seemingly has not received the publicity that has been afforded to past music royalty legislation. "That may be, in part, because there were few who adamantly opposed the provisions of the bill, as evidenced by a unanimous House vote — something that never would have happened had any significant portion of the music industry opposed the bill," he says. But, he warns, this moment of togetherness may be, in part, due to the somewhat limited (though nevertheless very important) issues that it addresses.

On May 24, 2012, a Form 345 filing was made with the FCC signaling the desire of Patrick Sullivan to sell a 185-watt FM translator in a large Alabama city to Lake Broadcasting for $1,000. While this deal appeared to be simple, the assignee made this a most difficult and time-consuming matter for the Commission. That's because Lake Broadcasting is an entity led by an individual who had his five licenses revoked in 2001 for criminal misconduct conducted between 1985 and 1990. The matter has been resolved, and Commissioner Michael O'Rielly had something to say about it.

The following column from Media Information Bureau featured writer Ken Benner has been requested by at least three licensees over the past few weeks. Why? "This is apparently due to the recent requirement to place public files online." As a public service to broadcast radio and TV stations across the U.S., Benner is pleased to provide his "Handout Sheet No. 34." It could just save you hundreds of dollars in potential forfeitures, with checks made payable to the FCC.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai was on Capitol Hill on Thursday, appearing at a hearing on the Commission's fiscal year 2019 budget request convened by the House Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government Committee on Appropriations in the lower body of Congress. A spending level was specifically spelled out by Pai, and it is "derived from regulatory fees for regular FCC operations." An auction spending cap was also disclosed.