Washington Beat

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash), Chair of the House Republican Conference and fourth-ranking House Republican, has called on her Capitol Hill colleagues and the White House to cooperate with industry when planning investments in the broadband infrastructure. She made the comments at the American Cable Association Summit in D.C.

A 25-year Democratic Congressional veteran representing parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn and the Chair of the House Energy & Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology have served notice that a bi-partisan push to create a "radio tax" has just begun. The NAB chimed in, and we've got a RBR + TVBR OBSERVATION on the hot-button issue of performance royalties for radio.

Squashing the squatters and banishing the buccaneers of broadcasting once and for all is something Republican FCC Commissioner Michael O'Rielly is making a key issue, and he's given the Commission's Miami Field Office orders to expedite all cases where pirate stations need to be silenced.

"While we need to look at raising the overall ownership caps within a market, there is little reason to maintain the subcaps." Those words were among the biggest delivered Tuesday afternoon by Republican FCC Commissioner Michael O'Rielly, who opened the Hispanic Radio Conference with a declaration that the ownership of eight FMs in a market is something he's willing to allow.

"Steps are now being taken at the White House to deconstruct the administrative state by taking a sledgehammer to the federal bureaucracy." Those are the words from Garvey Schubert Barer Communications Group co-chair Erwin Krasnow, who opines in this exclusive Intelligence Brief that the White House has the power to produce great change at the FCC. The question, as he sees it, is how aggressive the Trump Administration can be.

A big majority of U.S. voters are against the elimination of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting as a result of defunding proposed in the Federal budget submitted to Congress by President Trump. That's according to a just-released Quinnipiac University Poll released Friday.

The FCC on Thursday unanimously approved a Report and Order that would authorize channel sharing outside the context of the incentive auction. However, Democratic Commissioner Mignon Clyburn dissented in part, as she believes an issue regarding "must carry" status has been tossed.

The Local Radio Freedom Act (LRFA) now has 164 co-sponsors in the House and 18 in the Senate. Supporters in the upper body of Congress now include a veteran Mississippi legislator.

A presently silent AM facility in Palm Beach County, Florida that saw its license for an FM translator station get cancelled by the FCC won't be getting that license back, thanks to a Memorandum Opinion and Order released Tuesday (3/21) by the Commission.

According to Bloomberg BNA, the often-mentioned Roslyn Layton is a leading candidate for a nomination as the next Republican FCC Commissioner from President Trump. So is Michelle P. Connolly. Who's that? We have the answer for you.

TVfreedom.org, a coalition of local broadcasters, community advocates, network TV affiliate associations and other independent organizations advocating for preserving the retransmission consent regime, posted the following column Friday (3/17). With Optimum customers in Litchfield and New Haven Counties in Connecticut once again receiving Meredith Corp. CBS affiliate WFSB-3 in Hartford, we are pleased to share TVFreedom's column in full with RBR + TVBR readers interested in learning more about how the broadcast television industry views retrans fee deals.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai will be getting an early start on Thursday, March 30. That's because he's just committed to an 8 a.m. address at a major telecommunications advocacy group's 24th annual policy summit in the Nation's Capital.

The music battle continues over the question of whether state laws provide a public performance right in pre-1972 sound recordings, and noted D.C. Communications attorney David Oxenford offers the latest on what this means for Flo & Eddie, and for the media industry.

A MyNetwork affiliate in Mississippi asserted it had to be added to a cable system's lineup in a county some 30 miles from the origin point of its low-power signal. The FCC disagreed. Here's why.

'Light-touch' FCC regulation is spelled out by the FCC Chairman in a speech delivered Wednesday morning at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. His plans could play a big role in how radio and TV can reach audiences via digital and social media.