A group of corner office radio executives paid visits to four of the five FCC commissioners, explaining the public safety benefits of an FM requirement for cell phones. They also took advantage of the opportunity to push a power increase for HD service.
The group included Lew Dickey, Chairman and CEO, Cumulus Media, Inc.; David Field, President and CEO, Entercom Communications Corp.; John Hogan, President/CEO Radio, Clear Channel Radio; Steve Newberry, President and CEO, Commonwealth Broadcasting Corporation; Bruce Reese, President and CEO, Bonneville International Corporation; Jeff Smulyan, Chairman and CEO, Emmis Communications Corporation; Peter Smyth, President and CEO, Greater Media Inc.; and Farid Suleman, Chairman and CEO, Citadel Broadcasting Corporation.
They took their case to all commissioners and key staff except Chairman Julius Genachowski.
They said that an FM presence on cell phones would have a huge public safety benefit and urged rapid adoption of the NPR/iBiquity agreement on a power increase for HD radio.
RBR-TVBR observation: Broadcasting is the only reliable source of mass communication in times of crisis. In areas suffering physical devastation, it often takes wire-bound communications technologies weeks and sometimes months to regain full operational status. All an FM station needs is a certain amount of gear, a gasoline-powered generator and a place to hang an antenna (should its tower be down) to get back up after it has been knocked down.
The White House, Congress and the FCC should all get behind this common sense proposal.
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"That last issue, the FCC statutory authority to adopt rules in this area, is a general question considered in several other recent FCC proceedings... Rules requiring that equipment manufacturers take certain actions have run into problems in the Court of Appeals in the recent past as the FCC has only limited jurisdiction over such manufacturers..."
http://tinyurl.com/lvmtat
Godd-luck with that one - it would probably violate antitrust laws, too. The cellular industry is already rolling out an emergency alert system:
"Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service"
"Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS) is a broadcasting service that can be offered via existing GSM and UMTS cellular networks... MBMS uses multicast distribution in the core network instead of point-to-point links for each end device. MBMS will start to be rolled out in cellular networks during 2008... The broadcast capability enables to reach unlimited number of users with constant network load. Further it also enables the possibility to broadcast information simultaneously to many cellular subscribers for example emergency alerts... Cellular TV Broadcasting and MS will give the cellular service providers a very considerable return on their investment in 3G licences and will bring forward the launch of 4G."
http://tinyurl.com/2hyaly
http://thehill.com/hillicon-valley/605-technology/67407-broadcasters-back-fm-tuners-in-cellphones
Looks like another bust for those iBiquity maggots - LOL!
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