The FCC got a 10-day extension to vote on a digital radio order c...
The FCC got a 10-day extension to vote on a digital radio order circulating on the 8th floor for weeks, we're told. The item likely will be voted on outside an open meeting, said 4 sources. Three commissioners would…
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vote for it, we're told. Executives expect the order to let AM stations transmit digitally at night and to allow radio multicasting, long sought by broadcasters (CD July 17 p11). Media activists are buttonholing commissioners’ aides, pressing for public interest rules, a source said. The FCC should encourage broadcasters to let others use spectrum in adjacent channels through so-called time brokerage deals, Media Access Project, New America Foundation, Prometheus Radio and other groups told an aide to Comr. McDowell. The agency should learn what’s being multicast and if there’s “reasonable access for political speech,” the group said in an ex parte on the July 25 meeting. The groups sought a further notice of proposed rulemaking on using multicasting for indoor GPS, a public interest issue. “With a 3-2 majority, the radio broadcast industry is expected to be able to get what it wants without having to compromise” on public interest duties Comrs. Adelstein and Copps want, a report by New America’s Jim Snider said: “Unfortunately, at this late stage in the digital radio transition, the practical options for a digital dividend are far fewer than they were at the beginning of radio’s digital transition.”