Stupak Supports FM Mandate for Cellphones, D-block Auction

An FM chip mandate is possible if the wireless industry gets something in return, Stupak said. Congress probably would prefer industry to try to work out the deal, he said. FM on cellphones “makes so much sense,” Stupak said. “People want more choices,” and adding FM chips will create more demand for phones, he said. One possible vehicle could be expected efforts next year to rewrite the Telecom Act, he said. Broadcast executives have said any action on a possible royalty and FM chip deal between their industry and music labels may happen in the lame-duck session or next year (CD Sept 29 p6).

Stupak seeks the opposite of a public safety bill by Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., he said. Rockefeller’s bill (S-3756) would give public safety the D-block. The FCC should move ahead immediately to sell the D-block, said Stupak, saying Rockefeller may be in position to move his bill next year. The D-block is no good to public safety without adequate funding, Stupak said. “You have to have the resources."

Bennett doesn’t “expect the DISCLOSE Act to come up much in the next Congress,” he said. The bill would, among other things, require corporations to disclose their identity in political ads they sponsored. The new class “will be far more favorable to the concept of freedom of speech and far less amenable to taking care of” Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the bill’s sponsor, he said. Bennett, who won’t be returning next year after failing to win nomination at the Utah GOP Convention, said he expects Republicans to gain at least six seats in the Senate in the November election.

Stupak and Bennett don’t expect action soon on performance royalty legislation. House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., is a strong supporter of the fee, but Stupak said he doesn’t think the bill will get through the Commerce Committee. With possibly 20 new senators coming aboard after the election, “no one’s going to be having substantive discussions” about royalties during the lame-duck session, Bennett said. Congress isn’t focused on performance royalties, said NAB President Gordon Smith. “In the firmament of issues that Congress is dealing with, we're not even a twinkling star."

Smith, speaking later at the radio show, ticked off about a half dozen of what he called myths of why some contend putting analog FM chips on cellphones is impractical. “There’s a lot of misinformation out there,” he said. He urged wireless carriers to “look past the myths.” Far from being heavy, power-sapping and costly, a chip can be used for a day without exhausting a cellphone’s battery and “weighs no more than a tic tac,” Smith said. “We've got some work to do to increase radio’s availability in mobile phones."

Some of that work includes outreach to NAB members to discuss the potential deal with music labels on royalties and FM on cellphones, which Smith said hasn’t been finalized. “We've received a lot of good feedback” from NAB radio members, “many of you support our discussions,” he said: “But there are also those of you think that we should continue fighting on for as long as we can” to avert any performance royalty.

"We know this is eliciting many strong feelings” among radio-station owners, “and that’s not surprising” because of the issue’s importance, Smith said. Including technology to get HD Radio in a wireless device -- not anticipated in the possible plan on the table -- will be “practical” in about a year, he said. On requiring analog FM chips in cellphones, he said “Congress will decide whether this comes up for a vote or whether we keep on fighting to preserve radio’s prosperity.”