Commissioners, Staff Announce Rule Changes, Seek Votes, Argue at NAB
LAS VEGAS -- Radio license renewals are moving to a new system, the delayed FCC decision on a top-four combination in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, isn't related to the quadrennial review, and the chairman's office nixed a prison phone company deal before it reached other eighth-floor offices, said commissioners and Media Bureau staff on panels Monday and Tuesday at NAB 2019. There was heated onstage back-and-forth between Commissioners Mike O'Rielly and Geoffrey Starks on pirate radio. And Video Division Chief Barbara Kreisman suggested broadcasters walk back calls to relax some reporting requirements.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
The onstage commissioners' spat happened during a three-commissioner panel after O'Rielly took exception to Starks comparing the agency's treatment of Sinclair to the regulator's handling of pirate radio. “I deeply believe in an evenhandedness” whether companies are large or small, said Starks, noting the allegations of Sinclair candor issues. “You're confusing apples and oranges,” O'Rielly said, sternly cautioning Starks that the allegations against Sinclair aren't proven.
FCC pirate radio enforcement isn't alleged, O'Rielly said. “You can see them,” he said of pirate radio operators, who often livestream video of themselves on-air. Starks, visibly surprised, said he had used the word alleged and repeated that the FCC should show evenhandedness. Commissioner Brendan Carr, seated between Starks and O'Rielly, said he just wanted to fade into the background during the argument.
MB will issue a public notice next week that the system for renewing radio licenses will be transitioning from the consolidated database system (CDBS) to the license management system, said Audio Division Chief Al Shuldiner. That's a “significant change” and new LMS forms will go live May 1, he said. The agency will create an online “help center” for the transition, and will include in-system tutorials, he said.
The transition to LMS makes it possible for the FCC to handle FM station reimbursement in the repacking without creating an entirely new system, Media Bureau Associate Chief Hillary DeNigro said in an interview. TV stations will use LMS for their own renewals next year, Shuldiner told us.
Radio stations still aren't complying with the agency's online public file rules in big numbers, Shuldiner said. The FCC is “looking for compliance, not punitive measures” at the moment, but that could change as renewal applications come due, Shuldiner said. Stations without up-to-date public files are making themselves vulnerable to enforcement and petitions to deny, he said.
Broadcasters will hear more “soon” on an expected order on FM translator interference, Shuldiner said. Though several broadcasters said they expected the item to be issued before the show, it hasn't shown up on circulation. Shuldiner wouldn't comment on the contents of a draft order but said the FCC's seeking to balance the concerns of multiple parties on the controversial proposal to create a 54 dBu contour limit on interference complaints. Asked if no contour was a possibility, he said the record showed more support for some sort of contour, if not at the FCC's proposed limit.
The bureau is still working on proposals to change skywave interference rules, Shuldiner said. He said objections to the FCC proposal raised by the Federal Emergency Management Agency are a particular concern.
The FCC should vote on a proposed Gray Television top-four combo in Sioux Falls that has sat at the agency for 11 months, O'Rielly said at a breakfast hosted by Cooley, which represents Gray. O'Rielly said he doesn't know why the FCC hasn't acted.
Since other broadcasters are waiting to see how the FCC treats Gray's proposal, the delay is affecting numerous potential combinations, O'Rielly said. Media Bureau Chief Michelle Carey said the delay on the Sioux Falls combination isn't related to the quadrennial review, which is expected to involve the agency's case-by-case basis for such combos. The chairman's office is “all-powerful” when it comes to mergers, said O'Rielly.
The proposed deal between Securus and Inmate Calling Solutions was killed before O'Rielly ever got to see it, he said. DOJ also had concerns, in addition to Pai (see 1904030044).
O'Rielly said Monday he's “working hard” to make C-band spectrum available “in a thoughtful way.” Starks and Carr seconded him, with Starks saying he wanted to “foot-stomp” that sentiment. The FCC shouldn't hold an incentive auction to clear that spectrum because it will take too long, O'Rielly said. Broadcasters will be compensated for costs of clearing C-band spectrum, he said. O'Rielly supports protecting broadcast use of the TV white spaces in part because he believes there will eventually be another incentive auction of broadcast spectrum, he said. Congress is always “strapped for cash” and there's hunger for spectrum, he said.
Broadcasters might want to reconsider calls to relax the requirement for quarterly issues/program lists under the agency's media modernization effort, said the Video Division's Kreisman on a panel Monday. Those submissions formally document the work of broadcasting as a public service focusing on their communities, Kreisman said. Broadcasters should be hesitant to get rid of that, she said. Though broadcasters have characterized the requirement as onerous, Kreisman said the FCC isn't looking for weighty submissions. “It says 'brief' in the rule,” she said. “You want there to be some place at a federal agency that is documenting this.”