Putting the question of broadcast ownership diversity in the hands of the Supreme Court could have consequences for minorities, said Diane Holland, aide to FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks, and National Association of Black-Owned Broadcasters President Jim Winston during a NABOB conference (see 2010020059) panel Friday. The matter going before “the very conservative” court could “do some damage,” Holland said. Court rulings that eliminate the FCC obligation to consider diversity or make efforts to examine the effects of the agency's decisions on diversity unconstitutional could make efforts to address ownership inequality more difficult, she said.
The FCC Disability Advisory Committee approved recommendations for best practices for creating high-quality audio description and real-time broadcast news captions Wednesday, at the group’s final meeting -- conducted virtually -- of its current term. An announcement of the roster for the DAC’s next term is expected in a few weeks, said Consumer and Governmental Affairs Attorney Adviser and DAC Deputy Designated Federal Officer Debra Patkin. The DAC’s recommendations for best practices aren’t intended to be the basis for regulations or have any bearing on pending FCC proceedings on captioning, said the resolutions approved Wednesday.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit pressed attorneys from both the FCC and petitioners the National Lifeline Association in oral argument Tuesday over an FCC rule limiting carrier reimbursement for customers who are close to being eliminated from the service. Judge Harry Edwards pressured FCC trial attorney Maureen Flood into walking back an argument that NaLA’s challenge to the rule was “untimely,” while Judge Neomi Rao cut off NaLA attorney John Heitmann of Kelley Drye at the very beginning of his time to question the trade group’s standing, saying his own argument undermined his case. “I think you are admitting you don’t get the reimbursement,” she told him.
The timing of the FCC’s move to new headquarters remains uncertain, and 87% of frontline FCC employees hope to telework full time until an effective COVID-19 vaccine is in wide use and the pandemic “subsides,” said a survey by the National Treasury Employees Union Chapter 209, which represents FCC employees. “At this juncture, I can’t provide you with a definite timeline for these next steps” in the agency's relocation, wrote FCC Chief of Staff Matthew Berry in an agencywide email at the end of September. “But I hope to be able to do so in mid-October.”
Entertainment Studios Network CEO Byron Allen wants to invest $10 billion in acquiring big four network TV and radio stations, he said during a streamed interview for the Radio Show Thursday. Allen said he has invested $500 million in network TV stations over the past 18 months. Radio is “a great business” that's often “underestimated,” he said. “A lot of folks are down on local radio.” Streaming services will have “a tough time” replicating radio’s connection to local communities, Allen said. “I’m chasing Rockefeller,” he said, drawing a line from oil and steel fueling the industrial revolution to “the insatiable appetite” for content on digital platforms. Asked about racism in business, Allen said boardrooms don’t have true economic inclusion. Inequality is hurting the U.S. because the country needs all its citizens to stay afloat in the face of emerging global competition, he said: “Unfortunately, most Americans are set up to fail, especially Black Americans.” Allen wants free healthcare, free education and access to business startup capital, and he described climate change as the No. 1 threat to humanity.
The radio industry doesn’t know what to expect going forward, said Hubbard Radio CEO Ginny Morris and Connoisseur Media CEO Jeff Warshaw during the virtual Pillsbury Broadcast Finance panel Wednesday for the Radio Show. “We don’t think we have much visibility” into the industry outlook for the rest of this year and afterward, said Warshaw. “We don’t expect '21 to be a year like '19,” he said. “We don’t know what a norm is.”
An FCC order on allowing AM stations to go all-digital wouldn’t codify a specific technical standard or impose additional interference restrictions on the fledgling service and would require a 30-day waiting period for stations to provide notice, said the draft Tuesday. The order was released with other drafts for the Oct. 27 commissioners’ meeting (see 2010060056).
Radio’s biggest companies say the medium has largely come back from the lows of the early COVID-19 slowdown, and its position may have improved, according to a Q&A panel with iHeartMedia CEO Bob Pittman, Entercom CEO David Field and Cumulus CEO Mary Berner that helped kick off the virtual Radio Show. “Broadcast radio has made a nearly complete recovery. We’re at nearly 90% of pre-pandemic levels” of listenership, said Berner. Brands in the pandemic have an increased need for local advertising, affordable ways to reach lots of customers, and ads that run on multiple platforms, said Pittman. “It’s a terrible situation to be in, but it does play to our strengths.”
The U.S. Supreme Court’s grant of certiorari in the FCC’s and NAB’s appeals of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Prometheus IV case (see 2004170065) could indicate the court has concerns about the 3rd Circuit’s 17-year retention of the broadcast ownership case, said academics and broadcast and public interest attorneys in interviews Friday. The high court issued an order Friday saying it will take up the matter, consolidating the NAB and FCC cases into one and setting one hour for oral argument. That argument could take place early in 2021 or hold off until spring, attorneys said.
A draft order on streamlining and standardizing the process by which FCC applications from foreign-owned companies are reviewed by the “Team Telecom” executive branch agencies is expected to be approved unanimously at Wednesday’s commissioners' meeting, said commission and industry officials.