The FCC just released its quarterly list of the total number of licensed broadcast stations in the United States. Based on their statistics through March 31, 2012, the number of licensed broadcast radio stations is still on the rise, continuing the trend that we saw in last quarter’s update. Based on this list, there are […]
A local marketing agreement (LMA) is when a station owner permits another broadcaster to rent the station, taking over the programming and advertising for a fee. However, the station owner retains all rights and liabilities for the station, including the license. LMAs have often been used to let a large owner, like Clear Channel, operate […]
On Tuesday a quartet of Clear Channel executives piled into the Federal Communications Commission building and buttonholed most of the agency’s top brass, including FCC Chair Julius Genachowski. Clear Channel CEO Bob Pittman did most of the talking, it seems. Pittman “emphasized the ways in which the Internet and broadband technology offer Clear Channel the […]
The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists has sent a twelve page missive to the Federal Communications Commission urging the agency not to loosen its restrictions on how many radio and TV stations an entity may own in a market. AFTRA also wants the FCC to take a closer look at joint news agreements, […]
The FCC just released the tentative agenda for its March open meeting, to be held March 21. LPFM and translator stations are on the agenda: Creation of a Low Power Radio Service Report and Order: The Commission will consider a Report and Order to implement a market-specific FM translator processing scheme, adopt application caps to […]
NPR has weighed in again on how to implement the Local Community Radio Act of 2010, which gives the green light to more Low Power FM signals across the country. The ex parte filing takes on the question of whether the Federal Communications Commission should tackle the backlog of applications for translators (which extend the […]
The biggest news in pirate radio so far this year is the story about Ft. Myers, Florida resident Albert Knighten, a retired Navy air traffic controller who was arrested in December on charges of unlicensed broadcasting. Knighten’s Dunbar Radio, named for his neighborhood, focused his broadcasts on the city’s underserved population of older residents who […]
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Fox vs. Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday. That’s the case reviewing the First Amendment constitutionality of the FCC’s sanctions against Fox for broadcasting Cher and Nicole Richie’s famous “fleeting expletive” potty talk comments during the 2002 and 2003 Billboard Music Awards. Also attached to the case are Commission […]
Just before winter break, college radio station KCUI officially ended its life as an FM station when its license holder, Central College, turned its class D FM license back in to the FCC. Although it was a tiny station at just 10 watts out of Pella, Iowa, it had been a fixture at the private […]
Despite heavy lobbying from Clear Channel and its allies, the Federal Communications Commission proposes retaining its current ownership rules for commercial AM and FM radio stations. Here is a quick refresher course on the local radio rules. They allow any entity to buy as many AM/FM signals as its wants, nationally, with these restrictions in […]
