Right now there are a pile of applications for translator stations in the queue for at the FCC. Translators are often called booster stations because their only purpose is to rebroadcast the signal of a full-power station. This backlog of applications is important because translator stations can be spaced closer on the dial to a […]
Shortly after President Obama signed the Local Community Radio Act of 2010 into law on Tuesday, Federal Communications Commission Chair Julius Genachowski issued this statement in response to the move: The Local Community Radio Act signed by President Obama is a big win for radio listeners. Low power FM stations are small, but they make […]
Yes, the Local Community Radio Act of 2010finally passed both the House and Senate almost two weeks ago. But it’s not official until the president signs it. And that he did, today. Today is just the start of the process to bring more community radio stations to the air. There is a lot of work […]
Editor’s Note: Radioactive Gavin has collected more than 300 articles on radio and digital music over the past 3 months for Common Frequency. This is the first of a series of seven posts he will be contributing in the coming weeks, looking back at the end of a rough year in radio. Conservatives crying “Defund NPR” […]
The Federal Communications Commission has issued an Order creating “rules of the road” for the Internet. They require transparency and prohibit the blocking of content. They also ban “unreasonable discrimination” for wireline providers, but give wireless broadband a free pass. The Commission says it will give the hairy eyeball to “pay for priority” deals and […]
Another step forward for applicants who want to lease out those Sirius XM “qualified entity” channels that the satellite radio service promised to offer after it merged two years ago. Sirius XM has now thrown up a website where applicants can make their case for a show (or an entire channel). What is Sirius XM […]
In a textbook example of the abusive power of a near-monopoly, the ‘net was set ablaze yesterday upon the news that major internet backbone provider and content distribution network (CDN) company Level 3 called out cable-modem internet service provide Comcast for demanding additional fees for delivering video and other content to Comcast customers. Comcast’s demands […]
The Federal Communications Commission has released an overview of its decision-making history that concedes that the government could have done a better job regulating radio in the 1920s and 1930s. “Although commercial radio produced a Golden Age of programming in the late 1930s, the question remains whether the [government’s] decision to favor corporate-sponsored networks—rather than […]
Radio World recently posted a brief item about three notices of unlicensed operation to three different persons that the FCC issued in Portland, OR to what is apparently the same station operating on the AM dial. There are a good dozen notices issued every month, and not every one gets reported on by RW. Apparently […]
Ever want to know how many licenses Clear Channel actually owns? How about AT&T or Verizon? For years the FCC has had searchable online databases for distinct services, like broadcast radio, but not all have been equally easy to use or find. At the same time many entities own many different types of licenses–for instance […]
