Washington Beat

A former Womble, Carlyle, Sandridge & Rice lawyer has gotten the full nod as Director of the FCC's Office of Communications Business Opportunity. He's served as Acting Director since December 2016, and from May 1999 until his promotion served as an FCC attorney.

The Media Bureau has released the comment deadline and reply comment deadline, respectively, for its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) in the matter of the elimination of the FCC's Main Studio Rule.

The NAB has asked the FCC to give displaced low-power TV stations and television translator facilities the ability to operate on an alternative channel until the FCC processes its displacement applications. Not doing so could jeopardize the continuity of service to viewers, the NAB argues.

If you're wondering where FCC Chairman Ajit Pai will be next week, don't look to the Portals or anywhere around the National Capital Region. That's because he'll be on the road, driving across five states in a 1,100-mile tour devoted to rural broadband concerns that will conclude with an address at the Wyoming Association of Broadcasters Convention.

A federal appeals court late Thursday declined to grant an FCC request that would have avoided a stay of its vote that reinstated the "UHF discount." But, it's only an administrative stay—giving the court a bit more time to look at arguments for and against eased restrictions on station ownership.

"We have different members that are going to lead on different issues," Rep. Marsha Blackburn, Chairman of the House Energy & Commerce Subcommittee on Communications & Technology, said in an interview with C-SPAN conducted before the Memorial Day holiday. "Billy Long is leading the work on media ownership." Who's he? He just may be radio's biggest fan on Capitol Hill, this RBR+TVBR INFOCUS report uncovers.

If you think the radio industry has a battle on its hands with dueling legislation that would impose new royalty fees on music airplay at AM and FM stations, the cable TV industry may have an equally large fight on its hands. On June 20, comments are due on proposed regulations that would require covered cable systems to pay a separate per-telecast royalty.

The Commission has taken the next step in keeping AM radio stations fiscally healthy by opening an auction filing window to allow the licensees of Class C and D AMs that didn't participate in either of the 2016 modification windows to file applications that would create a new FM translator.

There's a lot of negative press about the President of the United States. In the view of Roslyn Layton, a Visiting Fellow at AEI's Center for Internet, Communications, and Technology Policy, many tech media conform to this trend. Why? In her view, recent news stories on the FCC have been characterized by a focus on drama over analysis.

An attorney in the FCC's Office of Legislative Affairs since joining the Commission in 2008 has been promoted to serve as its director. This individual is also well-known among Maryland Terps fans and was named the 1999 Washingtonian of the Year by Washingtonian magazine.

June brings some of the normal regulatory deadlines for stations in certain states. David Oxenford, a partner at the law firm of Wilkinson Barker Knauer, offers a comprehensive checklist of what broadcast TV and radio stations need to know in the month ahead.

Consider this a warning: An AM radio station in Coolidge, Ariz., has run afoul of the Commission's rules on tower fences, improper transmitter power, staffing, and the absence of EAS logs. It has 20 days to explain itself, and a "NAL" could be on the way to the station's owner. Its the second warning in a month for the company.

Cochise Media Licenses has received a pair of "gifts" ahead of the Memorial Day weekend from the FCC. They're Consent Decrees, with one ordering the operation to donate the license for an FM in the Grand Canyon State to a non-profit organization.

Ahead of the Memorial Day weekend, the powerful House Energy & Commerce Committee unveiled its two latest staff members. One returns to Capitol Hill after a 13-year career in the private sector. The other individual jumps from the FCC, where this person has served as Chief of Staff and Senior Legal Advisor to Commissioner Michael O'Rielly since December 2014.

With Capitol Hill set to enjoy a long Memorial Day weekend full of cool temperatures and predictions of rain and thunderstorms, forces other than Mother Nature appear to have put a damper on two pieces of legislation that would institute a "tax" on the airplay of recorded music for radio stations across the U.S.