FCC Seen Unlikely to Quickly OK Radio Rescue Petition

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski hasn’t seemed to have given the petition much attention yet and hasn’t circulated any items for commissioners’ consideration, said agency officials. Genachowski’s top priority appears to be broadband, and it may be some time before he turns to other issues, including media, said radio lawyers. A commission spokeswoman declined to comment.

As the agency focuses on broadband, “they can do two things at once,” said MMTC Executive Director David Honig. “It’s again just a question of priority. … There’s always a reason not to focus on minority ownership and participation.” Honig hasn’t yet met with new FCC officials, but soon will, he said. The rule changes the petition seeks are “all doable, they just involve a certain amount of work and making things a priority,” said Media Access Project President Andrew Schwartzman. Genachowski could, on his own initiative, have the FCC write the State Department asking it study a new treaty with Cuba to protect U.S. AM stations, many of which get interference from Cuban stations, but “I would recommend that any chairman get a consensus on something like that” and reaching that could take time, Schwartzman said.

The FCC likely would have to seek public input on most requests made by the MMTC before making new rules, said four lawyers representing radio stations. Honig disagreed: “Some of these issues are low-hanging fruit -- they could have been granted yesterday.” Frank Jazzo of Fletcher Heald, who helped write the petition, said what the document seeks would require the issuance of a public notice, rulemaking notice and order before the changes could take effect, except for the letter to State on Cuba and the advisory committee, he said. “Hopefully the broadcast community will get behind it in a strong way which would give impetus to a notice of proposed rulemaking,” Jazzo said. “It’s too soon to predict which provisions may have legs.”

Honig said the NAB didn’t back the petition because it didn’t agree with one request, which Jazzo said was the one for the advisory panel. Ultimately, “I think NAB will support a number of the proposals here,” said Jazzo. Several dozen full-power stations use DTV channels 5 and 6, mostly vacated after the analog cutoff, estimated lawyer David Oxenford of Davis Wright. That’s “where you may get into controversy,” he said. “Most of the substantive changes are going to take a while to do, they're not going to be adopted overnight.” Oxenford doesn’t expect “a lot of opposition” to many of the other requests. The NAB is “reviewing” the petition, said a spokesman, who didn’t comment on whether the group disagreed with any MMTC requests.

It may take a while to explain some parts of the petition, such as engineering issues, to commission officials, said some radio lawyers, noting it takes about a year between a petition’s filing and an order on it. “Different proposals will have different impacts, and I think that’s something that will require a lot of consideration not only of the merits but also an understanding of which parties are benefitted or harmed,” said lawyer Lew Paper of Dickstein Shapiro. “The radio industry is in economic distress -- proposals to alleviate that are certainly worthy of the commission’s consideration.”

The regulator could make it easier for radio stations to get financing if it approved the petition by letting stations move from suburban or rural areas to urban areas, said lawyer David O'Neil of Rini Coran. But a rulemaking notice approved by the FCC during Michael Copps’ acting chairmanship would make those moves harder, which may augur against the commission approving that aspect of the petition, said several lawyers. “It’s a comprehensive overhaul, which we need,” O'Neil said. “The challenge is persuading the commission these proposals serve the public interest and for the agency to provide relief expeditiously in these challenging economic times.”