Moving to “refocus” and “update” field office operations, FCC preserves more offices than originally anticipated, but some field personnel will lose jobs. A few months ago, we reported on Chairman Wheeler’s then-rumored plan to eliminate 16 of the Commission’s 24 Field Offices. (The plan, as described by Wheeler himself in testimony on Capitol Hill, would … Continue Reading
On Friday, the FCC announced a consent decree for violations of the requirements that TV stations provide at least three weekly hours of CORE programming addressing the educational and informational needs of children. The operator of eight TV and Class A TV stations in the southeast US agreed to make a $90,000 “voluntary contribution” to… Continue Reading
It looks like the dates for the FCC incentive auction (where some broadcasters will sell their spectrum to the FCC to be repackaged and resold to wireless companies for wireless broadband purposes) are becoming clear. After this week’s delay of the consideration of the incentive auction items (see our article here), the drafts of the… Continue Reading
The FCC issued a public notice seeking comment on a Petition for Rulemaking filed by cable operator Mediacom asking for the FCC to require TV stations, in their license renewal applications, to certify that the licensee will not block any multichannel video programming distributor (i.e. cable or satellite TV) from carrying the signal of the station… Continue Reading
The FCC was today supposed to be considering the adoption of a public notice that would specify the detailed procedures to be used in the incentive auction (see our articles here and here). In the incentive auction, the FCC will buy the spectrum used by a number of TV stations, repack the remaining TV stations into… Continue Reading
In the last month, the FCC has released two decisions dealing with efforts by holders of expiring FM construction permits to retain the rights to construct the technical facilities authorized by that permit beyond the expiration date of the permit. In one case, the FCC announced a policy that, from now on, the construction of… Continue Reading
Wilkommen, Bienvenue, Welcome! Fletcher, Heald & Hildreth is pleased to announce that Ashley Ludlow has joined our team as an associate attorney effective July 14, 2015. Ashley is a 2013 graduate from the Washington and Lee School of Law, where she ran the table in law school competitions, participating not only in appellate and trial … Continue Reading
Last month we reported on the Commission’s efforts to fine-tune its rules relative to TV channel-sharing in advance of the fast-approaching spectrum auction. Those efforts included (in the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) component of the item) a number of proposals as to which the FCC expressly sought comment. The NPRM has now been published … Continue Reading
New changes affect radio astronomy frequencies, emergency service providers, and medical telemetry bands, among others. It doesn’t matter if you’re a technology titan, a two-man start-up in a garage, or a spare-time basement tinkerer. You can make your radio tests legal with an FCC experimental license. The cost is not high – $65 for two … Continue Reading