Washington Beat

At its June Open Meeting today, the FCC proposed to add an alert option to the nation’s Emergency Alert System to help protect the nation’s law enforcement officers. Called a “Blue Alert,” the option would be used by authorities in states across the country to notify the public through television and radio of threats to law enforcement and to help apprehend dangerous suspects.

The fight against unlicensed radio stations has undoubtedly received newfound vigor at the FCC thanks in large part to Republican FCC Commissioner Michael O'Rielly, who has made the abolition of pirate operators a top priority. Who knew that a major Texas-based aerospace company would be cited for being a broadcasting buccaneer?

A Petition to Deny, Dismiss or Hold in Abeyence filed with the FCC's Media Bureau has been dismissed by the bureau's Video Division. As a result, the transfer of Little Rock's MeTV affiliate and its low-power sibling can move forward as planned.

A former Key West, Fla., bureau chief for the Miami Herald who served as the FCC's Media Bureau Deputy Chief from 2005-2008 and then as a legal advisor to then-Commissioner Robert McDowell is set to return to the FCC. That's because Chairman Pai intends to appoint this individual to head the all-important Enforcement Bureau. We have an RBR+TVBR Observation on this appointment.

The FCC's Media Bureau has set the comment date, and reply comment date, for individuals to share their thoughts with the Commission on a Fiat Chrysler Automobiles request for a waiver of FCC rules requiring the accessibility of user interfaces on covered digital apparatus.

A longtime face at the FCC who served as the associate bureau chief and the chief of staff for the Commission's International Bureau he now leads on an acting basis has been given the green light to fully settle into the post.

In the latest action that indicates the FCC's quest to quash pirate broadcasters is being invigorated, Enforcement Bureau Regional Director Dave Dombrowski on Monday sent a Forfeiture Order to an individual in Paterson, N.J. in the amount of $25,000 for his unlicensed activities. The pirate was using a signal reserved for a translator some 15 miles away.

On June 12, the Media Bureau mailed the second of its Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) audit letters for 2017 to randomly selected radio stations. Among the recipients are stations owned by such companies as Alpha Media, Salem Media Group, Univision, and CBS Radio.

Yesterday, in what Wilkinson Barker Knauer partner David Oxenford calls "a very short one-page decision," the U.S Court of Appeals rejected the requests filed by public interest groups including Free Press to stay the effect of the FCC’s decision to reinstate the UHF discount. While this does not signal the Court’s final approval of the FCC’s decision to reinstate the discount, Oxenford notes that the ruling does suggest which direction the Court is likely to take in its assessment of this Commission decision.

An economist and attorney with extensive FCC and private-sector experience is FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's choice to serve as chief of the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau.

In a ruling made Thursday by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, the FCC may move forward with its return of the so-called "UHF discount" — setting the stage for what could be a flurry of deals akin to Sinclair Broadcast Group's announced acquisition of Tribune Media. Both the NAB and Free Press offered comments on the denial of an emergency stay of the rules.

The FCC has created procedures for low-power television stations (LPTVs) and translators to apply for a Special Displacement Window if they are being forced off the air by the incentive auction. This led to a response from the NAB.

In a turn of events that might have seemed stunning at any other time in presidential history, President Donald Trump — in a statement that was distributed just before midnight Wednesday (6/14) — indicated that he intends to nominate the Democrat to a whole new five-year term on the Commission.

A Cooley partner who joined the law firm's Washington, D.C. office in early 2014 after a 16 1/2 year run as a partner at Dow Lohnes PLLC has joined Wilkinson Barker Knauer LLP as partner.

Forget Taco John's: FCC Chairman Ajit Pai now has an opportunity to visit Torchy's, Velvet Taco or even the vegetarian/gluten free-friendly Tacodeli. Or, perhaps the JW Marriott in Austin, Tex., may want to have a plate of carnitas and carne asada at the ready. That's because Pai has been secured as a keynote speaker at the 2017 Radio Show's "Radio Luncheon" on Sept. 6 in Texas' capital city.