Washington Beat

For more than a year, the FCC has had an acting Chief Information Officer -- an individual who previously served as the Commission's Deputy CIO for Technology and Resiliency. There will be no further acting necessary.

Reports surfaced last week that advisers to the administration are calling for the U.S. to embrace China-style nationalization as our path to 5G. That’s like looking to Cuba as inspiration for reforming the U.S. health-care system, says FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr.

We knew FM translator interference concerns would be on the agenda of the FCC's May Open Meeting. Now, thanks to a blog post from FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, radio and TV executives have another topic of keen interest to take note of come Thursday, May 9.

The voluntary adoption of the next-generation digital broadcast TV standard, known as ATSC 3.0., is ready to take a giant leap forward with respect to regulatory authorization and the permissions process. The Media Bureau is ready to start accepting Next-Gen TV applications.

Ken Benner and his wife, Karen, have just returned to Tucson from a 4,000-mile tour of several dozen radio, TV and translator stations -- where they teamed to conduct FCC-approved alternative inspections. Benner recounts his experiences on the road -- and at a Class B AM billed as "The Talk of mid-Utah."

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is quite the traveler. To commemorate the 103rd birthday of the National Park Service, Pai took to Twitter to post a pic of him hiking up a snowy Half Dome at Yosemite. This week, Pai is hitting the road once again. A visit to a radio station in one small city is on the agenda.

The week of Sept. 23 will likely go down as one of the most contentious ones in the history of the U.S. government, says featured columnist Ken Benner. It began with an excellent speech at the National Press Club by the one person in D.C. Benner has the greatest respect for: Ajit Pai.

A partnership with Google News Initiative will allow Stringr to supply national and local news organizations of all sizes with broadcast, digital, and raw video content to supplement their election coverage efforts.

Democratic FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks has selected the Senior Advisor for Technology and Telecom at the Washington Bureau of the National Urban League as his new Legal Advisor on media and consumer protection issues.

In mid-January, a silent AM radio station licensed for 10kw of power from 1 tower received what appeared to be nothing short of its death sentence from the Media Bureau and the FCC’s Office of the Managing Director. Guess what? The licensee has successfully fought the FCC -- and won. As such, the station has a new lease on life.

A recent column appearing in another trade publication caught the attention of Media Information Bureau featured columnist Ken Benner. In his view, the piece "shed a whole new light of comprehension of the most egregious legislation plaguing U.S. Broadcasting defined as discrimination."

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and NAB President/CEO Gordon Smith will participate in a keynote conversation on Wednesday (5/13) as part of the all-digital replacement for the 2020 NAB Show, which was originally planned for late April in Las Vegas but was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The owner/operator of a low-power TV station in West Virginia was unsuccessful in getting the nation's two Direct Broadcast Satellite service providers to add the station to their respective local market lineups. So, he went to the Commission to see a declaratory ruling requiring DirecTV and Dish to carry the property, as a local cable company did. That didn't work.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) has announced an additional $61,000 grant funding the continuation of the Public Media Journalists Association (PMJA) Editor Corps, which provides crucial editing assistance to public media newsrooms, including small and rural newsrooms.

It's likely he doesn't wear a Mumford Phys. Ed. Dept. T-shirt while on the job. But, there's a man named Axel who is leading the quest to quash pirate radio operations, and support the restoration of communications after a disaster. He's just been appointed Field Director of the FCC's Enforcement Bureau.