The FCC proposal that broadcasters retain recordings of their programs for 60-90 days (CD July 8 p4) drew mixed initial responses from public broadcasters. The Assn. of Public TV Stations (APTS), representing more than 350 stations, said it would oppose the proposal, while some public radio stations welcomed it as a good administrative procedure that would bail them out in the event of listener complaints. Public radio attorney and former NPR legal counsel Ernest Sanchez said what’s largely gone unnoticed is a U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., decision in 1978 striking down FCC requirements that noncommercial broadcast stations keep audio recordings of their programs for 60 days.
The FCC adopted an all-or-nothing rule for interconnection agreements before its meeting Thurs. The Commission required that competitive carriers seeking to adopt terms of another carrier’s interconnection agreement “adopt the agreement in its entirety, taking all rates, terms and conditions from the adopted agreement.” Comr. Copps dissented and Comr. Adelstein dissented in part.
The FCC agreed 5-0 Thurs., after months of arguments, to adopt an 800 MHz rebanding plan, which will give Nextel much of what it wanted, including 10 MHz of spectrum in the valuable 1.9 GHz band. But Nextel may have to pay more than $3 billion, beyond the spectrum it agreed to contribute. The FCC is also requiring that Nextel sign a letter of credit for $2.5 billion to cover all public safety transition costs.
Vice-presidential hopeful and retiring Sen. Edwards (D- N.C.) has received many donations from prominent figures in the broadcasting and entertainment industry, as well as some in high-technology. But he has been all but ignored by telecom donors. Sen. Kerry (D-Mass.), the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, selected his chief primary rival, Edwards, to join his ticket Mon. Kerry also was strongly favored by mass media donors in his primary campaign.
Robert Nelson, Mich. PSC comr., appointed to serve on Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service, replacing Nan Thompson, comr-Regulatory Commission of Alaska… Michael Balmoris, ex-FCC, joins SBC as exec. dir.-public affairs… Reed Harrison, ex-AT&T, becomes pres.-COO, Cogent Communications… Howard Schrott, Liberty Corp. CFO, elected to Time Warner Telecom board… Ted Harbert, ex-20th Century Fox TV, becomes CEO of E! Networks.
FCC Media Bureau Chief Kenneth Ferree told a group of communications lawyers that there are several issues in the media ownership decision by the 3rd U.S. Appeals Court, Philadelphia, (CD June 25 p1) that could warrant Supreme Court scrutiny. Ferree stressed that the Solicitor Gen.’s Office, in consultation with the FCC’s Gen. Counsel, would ultimately make the decision on whether to appeal to the Supreme Court. He also said he had not yet consulted with the commissioners on whether the agency wanted to seek certiorari or take another course. But Ferree told a meeting of the Federal Communications Bar Assn.’s Mass Media Practice Committee that he did feel it was ripe for review. He said it wasn’t a perfect case, “but not a bad one” for the high court, given a number of inconsistencies and potential problems he sees in the ruling.
Verizon Gen. Counsel William Barr, a former U.S. attorney general, warned in a letter to the FCC late Mon. that commissioners could open themselves to criminal prosecution if they sided with Nextel on its 800 MHz rebanding plan. The letter also argued that the FCC has no legal authority to expend federal dollars to support the relocation costs of public safety agencies or companies like Nextel.
The Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS) expects by Sept. to start pilot programs to demonstrate interoperability of data and voice communications among state and local emergency workers, Undersecy. for Science & Technology Charles McQueary said Tues. In a wide-ranging Security Leadership Council webcast, he gave few details other than to say the SafeComm initiative demonstrations would illustrate improvements in communications among first responders. McQueary did note that DHS Secy. Thomas Ridge had disclosed the agency’s search for a “technology translator” device to mediate communications among all sorts of mobile data and voice devices. Such gear is available in the market, and “that’s the first step” the Dept. is taking on interoperability because the alternative of scrapping existing devices and starting over would be uneconomical, he said. The federal 9/11 commission and others have highlighted miscommunication among emergency workers responding to that attack, and the Administration has taken fire for cutting SafeComm funding.
Telecom carriers generally supported a Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS) request that the FCC not make service outage reports public because the information could help terrorists and other bad actors. DHS on June 2 told the FCC it “strongly believed” the existing practice of sharing outage information publicly should be changed: “Whatever merit this approach may have had when the outage reporting rules were first adopted, the threat environment following Sept. 11, 2001, dictates that appropriate steps be taken, consistent with law, to safeguard sensitive information like that included in the outage reports, which could jeopardize our security efforts if disclosed to inappropriate recipients.”
Judges of the 3rd U.S. Appeals Court, Philadelphia, Thurs. remanded FCC’s major rules for cross-ownership of newspapers and broadcast stations and the concentration of broadcast ownership in local markets. The court said the FCC should fix flaws in its diversity index, which it used to determine the new local cross-ownership rules.