Lobbying continued last week on an FCC order that would...

CEO Gordon Smith and an NAB lawyer met with aides to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake Thursday to discuss the political-file portion of the draft order, an ex parte notice shows (http://xrl.us/bm3oq3). “The parties also discussed whether there could be an approach under which broadcasters would retain full political files as they currently do at stations, but place information without specific individual rates in the FCC database.” One solution could be to keep specific invoice information at stations, but file a form along the lines of the NAB’s PB-17 political advertising form with the government, Jane Mago, NAB executive vice president-general counsel, told Lake in a follow up phone call, the notice shows. Smith, Mago and another NAB attorney also raised their concerns with Commissioners Robert McDowell and Mignon Clyburn Thursday, a separate notice shows (http://xrl.us/bm3or6). In those meetings, they raised the prospects of a pilot program along the lines the NAB had already proposed in the proceeding to develop a “simple practical way to make non-sensitive information available in a central database while retaining commercially sensitive information at the station,” the notice said. Meanwhile, lawyers with Free Press held meetings last week with an aide to Clyburn, several Media Bureau officials and officials at the FCC Office of General Counsel, ex parte notices show (http://xrl.us/bm3osk, http://xrl.us/bm3osn.) They argued against initially excluding stations in the top-50 markets that aren’t affiliated with a major broadcast network from the political file requirements. Instead, the requirement could be changed to include any major network affiliated station or top four highest rated stations in those markets, an ex parte notice said.