The Presidents’ Day holiday and another snow storm on the East Coast slowed down low-power FM approvals significantly this last week. In fact, only one LPFM construction permit was issued, to Church in Jackson, Inc. in Jackson, MS. The other LPFM news this week is not so happy. The Washingtonian reports that the urban-oriented broadcaster […]
Welcome to our new Wednesday feature, Digital Watch. Each week I’ll be tackling news and analysis about radio’s intersection with the digital world, online and off. This takes the place of Podcast Survivor, but it doesn’t mean podcasting coverage is going away. I’ll explain further at the end of this post. The week’s biggest news […]
It’s all buzzy buzzy out there about Federal Communications Commission Chair Tom Wheeler’s new proposed net neutrality rules, which rest on reclassifying broadband as a utility, thus worthy of Title II telecommunications regulation. Wheeler has a statement posted on Wired. Those who thought he would never do this are happily eating their hats. The telcos are […]
At last month’s Consumer Electronics Show FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler announced that the agency would reclassify internet service as a utility, which should qualify it for stronger network neutrality protections. Wheeler promised the new rules would circulate to fellow commissioners by February 5, and news reports on Monday indicate that he will make good on […]
The FCC’s Media Bureau has been busy since our last update, granting fifty-six new construction permits for low-power FM stations. That’s the biggest one-week total in a year! The deluge is mostly due to the Commission beginning to pick winners in groups competing for frequencies in the third MX window states of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, […]
New York radio station WXNY-FM is being asked to pay a $20,000 penalty because it aired Emergency Alert System (EAS) tones as part of a comedy sketch on the January 28, 2014 episode of the Luis Jimenez Show. (more…)
NPR has weighed in on the Federal Communications Commissions proceeding on whether to let digital Low Power TV stations run FM signals off of the 87.7 frequency, which dovetails with channel 6. The FCC has folded the question into a larger discussion about DTV spectrum use, but NPR calls the FM proposal “misguided” and “premature and […]
As I perused the list of the most recent call sign changes issued by the FCC, I found some interesting tidbits. The call sign for the former Vanderbilt University FM radio station, WRVU, is making a terrestrial radio comeback of sorts (WRVU.org is still used by an online station at Vanderbilt, but the now sold […]
The Federal Communications Commission’s proceeding on whether to permit Low Power TV stations to broadcast FM on channel 6 (87.7 FM) has reached its formal deadline: January 12 (backgrounder here). The FCC rolled the question into a whole suite of issues facing LPTV. Of interest to us is a defense of the channel 6 FM […]
Amateur radio operators are weighing in on the hotel industry’s petition to the Federal Communications Commission asking for authority to “manage” Wi-Fi hot spots used by hotel patrons. In October the FCC hit Marriott with a $600k fine for blocking personal Wi-Fi networks at its Gaylord Opryland Hotel and Convention Center in Nashville, Tennessee. Meanwhile […]
