Why, you may be wondering, did Pandora buy “Hits 102.7 FM” in Rapid City, South Dakota? Just out of curiosity, I checked the station’s website. Here’s the bio for Hits 102.7 deejay Christy Russell: “Hey it’s Mike talking about Christy Afternoons on HITS 102.7! I have waited for about a year for Christy to put in […]
Tuesday the FCC announced procedures for obtaining waivers to permit non-commercial stations to raise money on-air for Moore, Oklahoma tornado relief efforts. Although the Commission has yet to approve rules for non-commercial stations to do on-air fundraising for third-parties, the agency has granted waivers in response to significant natural disasters. Without a waiver it is […]
Maybe it’s because spring is in the air in North America, but pirate radio is bubbling up a bit in the popular consciousness, as well as the FCC’s. Seems like a good time for a pirate radio news round up. Albuquerque’s Alibi hazily reports on “at least one station operating without a license” in Northern […]
Federal Communications Commissioner Ajit Pai and his Chief of Staff Matthew Berry conferenced with two executives from Clear Channel on Wednesday. They talked up a variety of issues. The meeting’s last item caught my eye. I presume from the language of the filed summary that Pai asked Clear Channel Vice Presidents Jeff Littlejohn and Jessica […]
President Obama has nominated telecom biggie Tom Wheeler to chair the Federal Communications Commission, and nervous commentaries are proliferating across the blogosphere. “Uh-oh: AT&T and Comcast are ecstatic about the FCC’s new chairman,” runs the headline over at Ars Technica. The post points the reader to a statement from AT&T Senior Executive Vice President Jim […]
The National Association of Broadcasters has asked the Federal Communications Commission for a 30 day extension on a proceeding requesting feedback about the agency’s indecency rules. The FCC launched the proceeding following the Supreme Court’s invalidation of the Commission’s policies against “fleeting expletives,” basically dirty words said on the fly. The high court said that […]
An uncompromising voice for human rights, unafraid to make unrestrained and harsh criticisms of local and federal officials, is still heard on the airwaves of Illinois capital city. Despite multiple letters and visits from the FCC over the years, the Springfield, Illinois unlicensed station Human Rights Radio celebrated its 25th anniversary last fall. This week […]
I’ve been keeping an eye on the Federal Communications Commission’s proceeding on its indecency rules. It’s not looking good, from a First Amendment standpoint. Most of the comments seem to support more censorship. Some background: The FCC has been asking for public feedback on how stringently to enforce its broadcast indecency regulations since the Supreme […]
We received a couple of comments on my post about the revitalization of AM radio pointing to pieces that make convincing arguments that it was not a mere suggestion made at NAB last week to go all-digital with HD Radio on AM. Rather, there are forces at work to put this into policy, contrary to […]
This week is the annual National Association of Broadcasters show in Las Vegas, which brings thousands of broadcasters, manufacturers, producers and journalists together to talk about and see what’s next for broadcasting. Radio tends to play a very quiet second fiddle to television and video at this show. But this year radio’s own second fiddle, […]
