Washington Beat

In an ex parte letter submitted to the FCC on Monday (3/26), the NAB urged the Commission to retain its existing standards designed to increase the level of woman-owned and multicultural broadcasting companies in operation across the U.S. Specifically, race-based and/or gender-based eligibility standards should not be considered, the NAB notes.

FCC Commissioner Mignon L. Clyburn said goodbye to her Chief of Staff and wireline legal advisor, while welcoming a new wireline legal advisor and media legal advisor to her office at the Portals.

The NAB has announced the results of its 2018 NAB Radio and Television Board elections. The two-year terms of the elected board members will begin in June 2018.

FCC regulations require that an application for a renewal of a station's license be filed on the first business day following the first day of the fourth full calendar month prior to the station's license expiration date. While that's a mouthful, even the worst math student knows that this doesn't mean the filing can be done the day before the license expiry date. Unfortunately, a Lone Star State AM's owner didn't do their math homework.

At long last, the Department of Justice has stepped in to squelch not one, but two unlicensed radio operators after a succession of warnings from the FCC. On Monday, authorities seized equipment operated by two pirate radio operations in the Boston area.

April brings with it a milestone, notes Wilkinson Barker Knauer partner David Oxenford. It's the end of the first quarter since all radio stations have been required to make their online public inspection file "live." April is set to be a big month for broadcasters for other reasons, and Oxenford notes that April 10 will be a particularly important day.

The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) is a major event, and the February 2018 affair saw the attendance of FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and Republican Commissioners Brendan Carr and Michael O'Rielly. That upsets House Energy and Commerce Ranking Member Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.) and Communications and Technology Subcommittee Ranking Member Mike Doyle (D-Pa.). The two Democrats sent a letter to the trio "raising serious concerns" about their decision to attend CPAC.

The FCC will hold its April Open Meeting on April 17, and Chairman Ajit Pai on Monday offered a sneak peek at what's on the agenda. In a blog post, he revealed that the Commission will be voting on a targeted proposal to prohibit the use of Universal Service Fund dollars to purchase equipment or services from any company that poses a national security threat to the integrity of U.S. communications networks or the communications supply chain. Two matters connected to the FCC's ongoing Modernization of Media Regulation Initiative are of the most importance to broadcast media.

There's yet another effort brewing on Capitol Hill involving performance royalties that radio broadcasting companies, Sirius XM Satellite Radio, and the streaming audio players may need to start sweating over. This latest effort is courtesy of Iowa Republican Sen. Charles Grassley, and was introduced March 22. It already has bipartisan support from three co-sponsors.

Despite concerns of a veto from President Trump, the White House on Friday signed into law the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2018, paving the away for the first reauthorization of the FCC since 1990 and clearing the way for repack funds. There's also millions of dollars for public broadcasting, despite efforts from the Trump administration to defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB).

FCC Ajit Pai and Commissioners Michael O'Rielly, Brendan Carr and Jessica Rosenworcel have been confirmed as participants in four separate sessions scheduled for the 2018 NAB Show, which begins April 7 in Las Vegas.

The Act named for a key figure on the sidelines of the powerful House Energy & Commerce Committee and a key NAB lobbyist until his February death is one step closer to becoming law — and one step from giving broadcast media necessary post-FCC spectrum auction repack reimbursement funds.

One of the most important documents for any radio or TV station is FCC form 854-R. This is the tower registration form required for each tower over 200 feet and puts into writing the coordinates to be reported to the FAA for tower-beacon light outage. The registration number on this form is required to be prominently displayed on or close to the tower, with large enough numerals to be read from the closest public access to the tower. In some cases, rented towers owned by non-broadcast entities and the tower owners were not aware of this requirement. Here's what Media Information Bureau featured columnist Ken Benner has to say about that faux pas.

On Sept. 22, 2017, the FCC deleted two agenda items from its September Open Meeting, giving unanimous consent and negating the need for discussion and debate. One of these agenda items was a report and order that would have relaxed or eliminated certain rules tied to “revitalization of the AM radio service.” This R&O relaxes or eliminates “certain rules pertaining to AM broadcasters employing and maintaining directional antenna arrays,” and it has just become effective.

The NAB on Tuesday filed reply comments with the FCC regarding a further notice of proposed rulemaking on the Next Gen TV transmission standard. The comments from the broadcast media industry's biggest voice in Washington respond to the arguments set forth by Microsoft and others concerning broadcaster use of vacant in-band channels to smooth the transition. "We stress that allowing broadcasters to use vacant channels, where available, could be an important step to minimize disruption," the NAB asserts.