The Chairwoman of the FCC has confirmed that the five vote-makers on the Commission will decide at the November Open Meeting if program origination for FM booster stations — the lynchpin for GeoBroadcast Services‘ “ZoneCasting” technology — is permissible beyond an experimental basis.
The NAB and many broadcast station owner groups are against it.
“We’re enabling customized content for FM radio audiences.”
That’s the explanation Jessica Rosenworcel offered on Wednesday with the distribution of a November Open Meeting agenda.
“By using booster stations to air programming different from their primary station, FM broadcasters can now deliver customized content to specific parts of their service areas,” she explained.
Indeed that is true — to an extent.
In April the Commission authorized FM broadcasters to use boosters to originate this so-called “geo-targeted” content on an experimental basis.
Now, Rosenworcel says, “We consider rules to enable this tailored content on a more permanent basis.” This will be seen on November 21, with the meeting starting at 10:30am Eastern with a vote “to undertake the first major comprehensive review of our submarine cable rules since 2001,” followed by a vote “to establish clear rules of the road for the use of third parties in the caller ID authentication process.”
The third matter, GeoBroadcast Services’ “ZoneCasting” and its full authorization under FCC authority, is bound to elicit a response from groups largely opposed to the plan.
In a major victory for the Chris Devine-led GeoBroadcast Solutions, overcoming widespread opposition from the National Association of Broadcasters, large radio broadcasting companies and even a key voice of African American broadcasters, the Commission nearly seven months ago unanimously adopted changes to its rules that will allow FM booster stations to originate programming — “subject to future adoption of processing, licensing, and service rules” as proposed in a Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking Commissioners put up for consideration — and public input.
Now, that FNPRM is getting its day, and that could signal zero opposition from Republican Commissioners Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington. That’s because Carr praised the April decision, saying, “America’s radio broadcasters are competing hard every day in the market and delivering the innovative audio content that responds to the needs and interests of their listeners. But they are competing on a playing field that has been tilted against them by outdated and unnecessary federal regulations—restrictions that do not apply to services offered by other businesses in the audio market, including those offered by Big Tech companies. The FCC needs to do a better job of eliminating regulations that are needlessly holding broadcasters back.”
