Washington Beat

Advocacy group TechFreedom has filed an amicus brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to rule—"in line with every federal appellate court to consider the question"—that Section 230 protects algorithmic recommendations of third-party content. It's a topic of big sensitivity in D.C., and cost Mike O'Rielly his seat on the FCC.

Two new members of the FCC's Media Bureau leadership staff are being welcomed by the Commission. One is presently in the Office of Legislative Affairs. The other is a legal advisor to the Chief of the Media Bureau and has held the role since 2019.

The latest quarterly broadcast station totals have been released from the FCC. And, when one compares the numbers for the fourth quarter of 2022 to the end of the first quarter of last year, there’s one clear conclusion: commercially licensed AM and FMs are again fewer in number.

America’s Public Television Stations (APTS), NPR and PBS on Monday (1/9) filed joint comments at the FCC in response to a second Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on sponsorship identification requirements for foreign government-provided programming.

The Media Bureau is extending the deadline by which all broadcast, cable and satellite entities must upload required documents into their Online Public Inspection File. Why? It is the result of "current technical issues adversely affecting the responsiveness of" the OPIF system.

In November 2020, Gray Television submitted a request to change the table of allotments for Memphis, a move that would allow the market's NBC affiliate to upgrade from a VHF to a UHF facility — beneficial in the digital era, in contrast to the now-gone days of analog broadcasts. The FCC has now approved the change.

President Biden has signed the "Low Power Protection Act" into law, a move that the group founded by entrepreneur "SuperFrank" Copsidas pleaded the House of Representatives to prevent.

With the House of Representatives on Wednesday evening voting on an unprecedented seventh ballot amid a Speaker of the House standoff splitting the Republican Party now in control of the lower body of Congress, the former House Energy & Commerce Committee Chairman — now Ranking Member — has moved forward with selecting the Committee staff that will lead six subcommittees in the 118th Congress.

The FCC has outlined a series of low-power television stations that on October 3, 2022, failed to file license renewal applications. As such, their licenses will expire as of February 1, 2023, provided no renewal application is received by midnight on the date of expiration.

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.