The FCC Public Safety Bureau has issued a public notice reminding broadcasters that they're responsible for securing their networks against cyberattacks after a series of hacking incidents led to “obscene materials” and EAS tones being broadcast by stations in Texas and Virginia. WVTF Roanoke said its feed was hacked Nov. 19, broadcasting music with obscene, racist phrases to listeners in Richmond. “We had some dead-air that triggered the switch to back-up audio where an unauthorized audio loop was placed by the hacker,” said the station. In Mont Belvieu, Texas, KFNC's feed was reportedly hacked to play a loop of EAS tones during an NFL broadcast.
The full FCC has rejected a broadcaster’s appeal of a Media Bureau decision denying reconsideration of a New Jersey AM radio station’s license cancellation, said an order Tuesday. The Media Bureau ruled in 2024 that Forsythe Broadcasting’s license for WNJC Washington Township was automatically canceled because the station had been off the air for more than a year without seeking FCC permission to temporarily go silent. Forsythe had argued that its silence was due to economic complications from the COVID-19 pandemic and the expiration of the lease to its transmitter site. In its application for review asking the commissioners to overturn the bureau's decision, Forsythe repeated the same previously rejected arguments, said Tuesday’s order. “We deny the AFR because Forsythe has failed again to demonstrate the Station’s silence is the result of circumstances beyond its control. Therefore, we decline to exercise our discretion in this situation to reinstate the Station’s license.”
Comments are due Dec.10 on AT&T’s applications to discontinue domestic non-dominant carrier telecommunications and interconnected VOIP services for its Easy Reach 800 Service nationwide and for AT&T Phone for Business in Richardson, Texas, according to a public notice Tuesday. The applications will be granted automatically on Dec. 26 unless the FCC notifies AT&T that they won’t be.
The American Consumer Institute Center for Citizen Research supported FCC proposals to speed up copper retirements and otherwise speed the move of carriers off legacy networks in comments posted Wednesday in docket 25-208. “Outdated requirements … have come at a steep cost for consumers as they delay buildout of better technology, keep consumers vulnerable to copper theft and 911 outages, and keep consumers paying high prices for poor performance,” the center said. Carriers also report that maintaining legacy systems requires spending “that could otherwise be put towards faster deployment of better technology.”
EchoStar faces litigation from two tower companies over lease agreements from the now-ended nationwide wireless network buildout by its Dish Wireless subsidiary, but few if any other tower company suits are likely, said Ken Schmidt, president of Steel in the Air cell tower lease consultancy. American Tower and Crown Castle represented the vast bulk of Dish's wireless network deployment, and have substantially more to lose than other tower companies, Schmidt added.
The outlook for the citizens broadband radio service band appears uncertain, with some wireless carriers looking at the spectrum for full-powered licensed use and CBRS advocates defending it as an important band for sharing and unlicensed use. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has had little to say about CBRS since he took over the helm at the commission.
Astroscale is seeking FCC approval to launch and operate its Life Extension In-Orbit Prime (LEXI-P) vehicle, according to an application posted Tuesday. The company said LEXI-P would be the first service in Astroscale's life extension in-orbit program, providing life extension, maneuvering or fleet management services for satellites in or around geostationary orbit. A LEXI-P is under construction for an anticipated March 2027 launch to provide services to multiple client vehicles over an anticipated 15-year life, it added.
A recent social media post from President Donald Trump condemning proposals to lift the national TV ownership cap doesn’t definitively spell disaster for broadcasters, said New Street analyst Blair Levin in a note to subscribers Tuesday. Trump’s post was focused on preventing ABC and NBC from growing (see 2511240055), but that isn’t a likely consequence of lifting the cap, Levin wrote. “One should not assume that the President understands what he is talking about when it comes to this post, or that it is a deeply held point of view, as it relates to law and process.”
Connoisseur Media asked the FCC this week to issue a declaratory ruling allowing a subsidiary to be up to 100% foreign-owned to allow investments from Cayman Island-based investment funds and to allow a U.K. citizen -- Connoisseur CFO Oliver Price -- to hold a noncontrolling interest in the company. Approval of the petition will provide Connoisseur “with greater access to capital, thereby enabling it to better compete in the media marketplace,” the filing said.
The FCC’s news distortion rule “has become a loaded gun that allows the FCC to ‘regulate by raised eyebrow,’” wrote former FCC Chairman Mark Fowler in a letter published Tuesday by the Wall Street Journal. He pointed out that a number of Republicans who served at the FCC joined with Democrats, including former Chairman Tom Wheeler, in a recent petition (see 2511130052) calling on the agency to revoke the policy. “Two-thirds of the signatories are red-blooded Republicans who have always believed the government has no business policing the media for bias or balance,” wrote Fowler, who chaired the commission under former President Ronald Reagan. He said Carr has “brandished” the news distortion policy “to stifle content he deems unfair” to President Donald Trump. “The press that uses air and electrons must be as free of Washington censors as the press that uses paper and ink.”