Senate staffers plan to meet with broadcasters to discuss cellphone...

or location. Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., is interested in FM radio chips because it is an “emergency issue,” said Emmis Communications Founder Jeff Smulyan, who told us he was invited to the briefing. “It is impossible to alert the public in any other way than radio in a real emergency,” he said. “Carriers will tell you that they send a 90-character text and that solves it. But we know that: A) 90 characters is not enough information in any emergency; and B) when the power grid goes down the cell systems are out and even when the cell system stays up it jams,” Smulyan said. “They make arguments that don’t pass the smirk test. … The level of obfuscation is truly legendary,” he said. “It is confusing because the phone guys have made it confusing. They have done a nice job of confusing the public that if you listen to [Washington, D.C., news station] WTOP, for example, via streaming that is the same thing as getting it over the air. Consumers haven’t noticed that yet because they have all had unlimited data plans. But as data plans are no longer unlimited then the reality is that they are paying for this,” he said. Smulyan said he won’t seek to ask lawmakers for any industry mandates. “We want to have a serious negotiation with the phone industry. We don’t think that’s unreasonable.” Smulyan said there are “some discussions taking place” between carriers and broadcasters, refusing to elaborate. Last month, FCC staffers and executives from the top four U.S. carriers, some makers of consumer electronics and a broadcast CEO and their trade groups met in an FCC-convened meeting (CD July 27 p4). The discussions brought stakeholders no closer to an agreement on whether more mobile devices should include FM chips to receive terrestrial radio transmissions, the participants said afterward. NAB, CEA and CTIA did not comment.