The FCC doesn’t have plans to withdraw or revise its Form 395-B data collection despite the agency opting not to defend language in the order recognizing nonbinary gender (see 2502040061), the FCC told the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a letter in docket 24-60219 Wednesday. “There therefore remains a live controversy between the parties over the order’s lawfulness.” The letter appears to be a response to concerns judges raised during oral argument Tuesday that the FCC could act to withdraw or moot the case while the court is working on an opinion. Broadcast attorneys told us this week they were concerned the court might opt not to rule on the order in the wake of the FCC’s decision not to defend part of it.
FCC rules against payola bar radio broadcasters from receiving payment for more favorable airplay, even in the form of reduced fees for live performances at station-run concerts, warned the FCC Enforcement Bureau in an advisory Thursday. “Some radio stations appear to be violating the FCC's prohibition on Payola by surreptitiously forcing musicians to choose between (1) performing for free (or for reduced fees) at station events or (2) losing out on valuable radio airplay,” said FCC Chairman Brendan Carr in a post on X. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., sent a letter to Carr last week asking the FCC to look into the practice (see 2502040062). The advisory said the agency will hold stations that report to record-charting services -- and are thus more susceptible to payola -- to a higher standard on policing the activities of employees than it would a station with an all-news format. If the licensee of such a reporting station “does nothing more than require its employees to execute affidavits stating that they will not violate laws and regulations prohibiting payola,” that could fall short of the “reasonable diligence” the agency requires, the advisory said. Payola is also against the U.S. criminal code, so violating the rules “can subject the violator to criminal penalties of a fine of up to $10,000 or imprisonment of up to one year, or both.” The FCC “notes that licensees play a critical role in preventing payola, and the Commission’s enforcement staff will consider investigating substantive allegations of payola that come to its attention.”
The FCC’s investigation of CBS and demand for interview transcripts (see 2502050063) aren’t unprecedented because of the previous administration’s treatment of Fox’s WTXF Philadelphia, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said Thursday in an interview with Fox and Friends. “When the government's been weaponized in your favor, it feels like discrimination when all of a sudden there's even-handed treatment,” Carr said, calling critics of the CBS investigation “the radical left.” Under former Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, the FCC opened a proceeding on WTXF’s license renewal in response to a petition from the Media and Democracy Project. MAD’s petition argued that a court finding that Fox had aired false news about the 2020 election was sufficient basis for the FCC to hold a hearing on its license. The open proceeding held up WTXF’s license renewal for a year and a half, but the FCC didn’t hold a hearing, act against WTXF or act on repeated requests from MAD to include documents and court filings from defamation cases against Fox in the record. Rosenworcel rejected the MAD petition as one of her last acts as chairwoman (see 2501160081). Though Carr’s FCC resurrected the news distortion complaint against CBS and other complaints against ABC and NBC, he let the dismissal of the petition against WTXF stand (see 2501220059). “A lot of people that have been on a sort of upper road of a two-tiered system of government, and what I'm here to do is apply the law evenly,” Carr said. Former Fox and Disney lobbyist Preston Padden, who supported the MAD petition, clapped back. “Carr’s comment is pure BS,” he told us. “I believe he is pursuing the CBS complaint for one reason -- Trump wants him to.” Fox didn't comment.
FCC claims that Telnyx didn't do enough to stop apparent scam calls made using its voice service platform are factually wrong, the company said Wednesday. Telnyx said it "has done everything and more than the FCC has required for Know-Your-Customer and customer due diligence procedures." FCC commissioners this week approved a proposed $4.5 million fine against the company; it was the first commission-level action under Chairman Brendan Carr (see 2502040065). In a statement, Telnyx said the FCC traditionally has expected providers to take reasonable steps to detect and block illegal traffic, and now the agency wants to impose fines "for limited unlawful calling activity that Telnyx not only did not originate but swiftly blocked within a matter of hours." It said the agency is trying to introduce "an unprecedented zero-tolerance requirement on providers through enforcement action, in the absence of any defined rules informing providers what is expected of them."
Federated Wireless representatives met with aides to FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington to call for rules that would facilitate deploying AI “and other advanced tools” to make the citizens broadband radio service band more efficient for users. The representatives discussed Federated’s “support for codification of the processes that are being used to manage CBRS spectrum access” and “greater harmonization of the CBRS rules with adjacent bands,” said a filing posted Thursday in docket 17-258.
The Association of American Railroads told the FCC that its members remain on schedule to move off 900 MHz frequencies to new frequencies by the September deadline. AAR disputed claims made by The Federal Newswire and Rail Tech News that the railroads won’t meet the deadline. “Although each railroad is implementing its own transition plan, all will accomplish the task on schedule,” said a filing posted Thursday in docket 17-200: “Accordingly, there is no basis for parties -- especially those acting anonymously -- to question the railroads’ ability to do so.” Railroads have been using the 900 MHz frequencies since 1982 as part of a “single nationwide ribbon license,” AAR noted.
A broad group of companies and associations urged new FCC Chairman Brendan Carr to oppose fundamental changes to rules for the citizens broadband radio service band, including higher power levels and relaxed emission limits. “Such changes would fundamentally modify CBRS licenses and undermine the Commission’s bipartisan vision for CBRS as a lower-power, small-cell band that supports broad access and numerous applications,” said a filing posted Thursday in docket 17-258. The changes “would also imperil the technical progress made over the last decade through collaboration between the Commission, federal agencies, and industry,” it said. Among signers of the letter were NCTA and major cable companies, Amazon.com Services, the American Library Association, the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, Deere & Co., Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Lockheed Martin, the Open Technology Institute at New America, Public Knowledge, the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition, Shure, Spectrum for the Future and the Wireless ISP Association. CBRS is broadly used for “rural broadband, competitive mobile services, manufacturing, industrial and enterprise private networks, transportation and logistics connectivity (e.g. airports and shipping terminals), school and library access, and more,” the filing said.
Members of the Alternative Connect America Cost Model (ACAM) Broadband Coalition raised concerns about the latest FCC thinking on ACAM support in a call with FCC Wireline Bureau and Office of Economics and Analytics staff. They “discussed the support adjustment methodology contemplated by Commission staff and the Coalition’s position that the methodology under consideration could lead to inaccurate and insufficient support levels,” said a filing posted Thursday in docket 10-90. The coalition “maintains that the most accurate and equitable method to recalculate support is to rerun the cost model to reflect the network required to serve the final location counts,” the filing said.
Lawyers who made the recent arguments at the U.S. Supreme Court in McLaughlin Chiropractic Associates v. McKesson agreed that the case will likely turn on the views of Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett. Morrison Foerster’s Joseph Palmore, who represented McKesson, and Gupta Wessler’s Matthew Wessler, representing McLaughlin, spoke during an FCBA continuing legal education event Wednesday.
The FCC’s draft notice of inquiry on opening the upper C band for commercial use acknowledges numerous incumbents using the spectrum and seeks “detailed and evidence-based comments” from all affected parties. Also on Thursday, the FCC released a draft NPRM on rules for the AWS-3 auction and other items, teeing them up for the FCC’s Feb. 27 open meeting, including new rules for wireless emergency alerts (see 2502050057).