The FCC may get back into a few matters besides the DTV transition if Congress delays the analog cutoff from February, commission officials said Friday. But it’s unclear what else the FCC may take up. Acting Chairman Michael Copps was sworn in at a small, private ceremony at the commission late Thursday. Copps believes that “the FCC has three priorities in the weeks ahead: DTV, DTV and DTV,” he said in a written statement Friday.

The Media Access Project is reorganizing. Longtime CEO Andrew Schwartzman is moving to the position of legal and policy director, concentrating entirely on those matters. He said he asked the group’s board to begin searching for a new CEO. The change comes as longtime Senior Vice President Harold Feld prepares to leave at the end of January. Feld has a new book contract with Ig Publishing and will emphasize writing on public interest issues, though he will consult for the MAP and others. Associate Director Parul Desai will get additional responsibilities, Schwartzman said. “The coming of a new Administration enables MAP to go on the offensive for the first time in eight years,” and the reorganization is intended to help it take advantage of the new political climate.

The Media Access Project is reorganizing. Longtime CEO Andrew Schwartzman is moving to the position of legal and policy director, concentrating entirely on those matters. He said he asked the group’s board to begin searching for a new CEO. The change comes as longtime Senior Vice President Harold Feld prepares to leave at the end of January. Feld has a new book contract with Ig Publishing and will emphasize writing on public interest issues, though he will consult for the MAP and others. Associate Director Parul Desai will get additional responsibilities, Schwartzman said. “The coming of a new Administration enables MAP to go on the offensive for the first time in eight years,” and the reorganization is intended to help it take advantage of the new political climate.

Challenges to a 2008 FCC media ownership order were shuffled from the 9th U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco to the 3rd U.S. Court of Appeals in Philadelphia. A Tuesday order in Media Alliance vs. FCC by 9th Circuit Judges Ronald Gould, Richard Tallman and Stephen Trott granted a motion to transfer the cases to the Philadelphia court. They denied broadcaster motions to transfer the cases to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. That won’t end “procedural wrangling” over which court should hear challenges to FCC lifting of some restrictions on owning a newspaper and radio or TV station in the same city, said Media Access Project President Andrew Schwartzman, a party in one of the cases. The Philadelphia court in 2004 remanded the FCC’s most recent media ownership rule change and will hear challenges to the new rule, as public interest groups want, said Schwartzman, representing Prometheus Radio Project.

Democrats solidified House and Senate majorities, with some election results still being counted Wednesday. Some experienced telecom lawmakers lost, but potential new players were elected. House Oversight Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., meanwhile, ignited a firestorm on the Hill Wednesday by angling to replace Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., as Commerce Committee chairman, a perch the Michigan Democrat had thought safe. Telecom industry officials are warily watching the move by Waxman, considered more liberal than Dingell.

Expanded congressional Democratic majorities doesn’t have large implications for the DTV transition because lawmakers seem unlikely to delay the nationwide cutoff, lobbyists and others said Wednesday. But Democratic gains in the House and Senate may add to momentum for smaller changes associated with the analog cutoff, they said. Most likely to get Hill attention is the idea of letting TV stations use analog signals for a brief time after Feb. 17 to run analog slate messages telling viewers they need to buy converter boxes or take other action, they said.

Expanded congressional Democratic majorities doesn’t have large implications for the DTV transition because lawmakers seem unlikely to delay the nationwide cutoff, lobbyists and others said Wednesday. But Democratic gains in the House and Senate may add to momentum for smaller changes associated with the analog cutoff, they said. Most likely to get Hill attention is the idea of letting TV stations use analog signals for a brief time after Feb. 17 to run analog slate messages telling viewers they need to buy converter boxes or take other action (CD Oct 17 p4), they said.

The FCC likely will have busy months ahead, even with pending changes at the agency with the likely departure of Chairman Kevin Martin as early as January. Unless Martin stays on, the FCC will be left with only three commissioners at the end of January -- Democrats Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein and Republican Robert McDowell. Martin likely has only one more regular meeting over which to preside, scheduled for Dec. 18.

Questions on FCC indecency policy by conservative and liberal Supreme Court Justices in oral argument Tuesday focused on the case’s procedural aspects, touching little on constitutional issues. Justices asked U.S. Solicitor General Gregory Garre, arguing for the FCC, and Carter Phillips, the Fox network’s attorney, whether the FCC had given broadcasters enough notice that it could find indecent a show with a single curse. Asked by Justice Anthony Kennedy if the “fleeting” indecency policy marked a departure from FCC precedent, Garre replied that it had, but said the FCC justified the change.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- Prospects are bright for building under an Obama White House on successes by supporters of Carterfone, net neutrality rules and open spectrum for wireless broadband, leading activists said. Groundbreaking changes probably will come Nov. 4 with the arrival of a friendly national administration and FCC white- space rules, said President Andrew Schwartzman of the Media Access Project Tuesday at an open-wireless conference of Google and the New America Foundation. “Policy makers are ready to listen,” he said: “There’s likely to be a very receptive environment going forward.”