Washington Beat

Nearly all EAS Participants – including Low Power FM stations (LPFM), Class D non-commercial educational FM stations, and EAS Participants that are silent pursuant to a grant of Special Temporary Authority – are required to register and file in ETRS. That's what makes this announcement vitally important and one you should read now.

The FCC released an Order earlier this month announcing an upcoming increase in application fees to be paid on any “feeable” application.  For broadcasters, noted Washington, D.C. communications attorney David Oxenford points out, that includes applications for a host of filings.

The U.S. Senate on Thursday approved a "record" $682 million federal investment in public media in the fiscal year 2023 omnibus appropriations package. The package includes a sizable increase in advance funding to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

The U.S. Senate late Tuesday confirmed the nominations of the Director of Journalism and Media at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the President and CEO of the Rasmuson Foundation, Alaska’s largest philanthropic organization to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting Board.

The FCC is asking for an amendment that would allow it to review additional evidence in support of the proposed modification of a FM radio station licensed to Umbarger, Tex., a hamlet of 330 people southwest of Amarillo.

The Commission has updated the Table of TV Allotments to reflect the "termination" of an incentive auction channel sharing arrangement between a pair of noncommercial educational television stations in Chicago.

During the 2021 noncommercial educational FM filing window, Texas-based Solid Rock Foundation filed an application for a construction permit for a new station in the town of Sunray, Tex., due north of Amarillo. An informal objection was filed. Now, the Commission has denied that objection, allowing Solid Rock to move forward with building the station.

Wharton, Tex., is a place all of its own, and considers itself to be the Gateway to the Texas Gulf Coast. As such, one company has petitioned the FCC seeking the allotment of a new Class C2 FM licensed to the town. Whether or not the Commission says yes is up to you.

If it were up to Triangle Access Broadcasting, one of two new noncommercial FM stations licensed to a large Nebraska radio ministry bringing Worship Music to the state wouldn't come to fruition. But, the decision maker is the FCC, and they say it is OK for the application they're disputing to win approval.

The National Press Club has partnered with the New York Festivals 2023 Radio Awards to create an award bestowed upon "the highest scoring news program across the Best Coverage Of Breaking News Story, Best Coverage Of Ongoing News Story, Best Nonfiction Series and News Podcast categories."

On April 1, 2014, a Class B AM's license expired and the facility's call letters were deleted by the FCC. That marked its end ... right? Tell that to Quilvio Perdomo, who expressed interest in reviving the long-dead station in May 2022 and wrote to the FCC about reinstating the station's license so he could buy it. What did the Commission do? 

At 5:35pm Eastern on Dec. 7, H.R. 4130, the American Music Fairness Act — the proposed legislation supported by pro-recording industry lobby musicFIRST and being fought by the NAB on behalf of Radio — had finally gotten its long-awaited discussion in a House Judiciary Committee markup that began at 2:15pm Eastern. The NAB didn't waste any time urging broadcasters to "act today to protect radio."

That is the assertion of advocacy group Tech Freedom, putting it squarely at odds against the National Association of Broadcasters and local media who have been pleading Congress to pass the legislation before the end of this Congressional session.

It's a town not too far from the city of Cody and some 75 miles from Billings, Mont. Should it get a new Class C FM at 94.5 MHz? The FCC wants to know.

As set forth in the FCC's 2020 Audio Description Order, adopted in October 2020, an expansion of the audio description rules is taking shape. The availability of audio description is being phased in, with 10 designated market areas (DMAs) required to add it each year up to four years. As of January 1, DMAs No. 81-90 will be required to have their TV stations comply with the Order.