Gomez Aide Emphasizes Commissioner's Commitment to Consumers and Marginalized
New FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez’s acting chief of staff Deena Shetler spoke at a National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters panel with other 10th-floor aides Thursday, one of the first public appearances for Gomez’s new team. The panel, which included Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel’s Media Adviser David Strickland, also discussed media ownership, virtual MVPDs and advertising diversity. “We’re drinking from a firehose right now,” said Shetler, who has had the job just over a week.
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Though Gomez hasn’t made a public appearance since being sworn in, she sent Shetler to the NABOB event to support the organization and deliver the message that Gomez -- a former chair of the FCC’s diversity committee -- is committed to making sure “all perspectives are heard,” Shetler said. As commissioner, Gomez “wants to address the concerns of marginalized and underrepresented communities,” Shetler said, also emphasizing competition, consumer protection and localism as being among Gomez’s priorities. “She wants to dig deep and learn about these issues,” Shetler said.
The FCC is still reviewing last week’s order from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit show cause order requiring the agency to issue a 2018 quadrennial review order by Dec. 27, Strickland said. “We’re taking a look at the court order, trying to figure out our next steps,” Strickland said. He declined to comment on whether the court order had caused the FCC to change or move up plans for a QR order. Multicultural Media Telecom and Internet Council CEO Robert Branson, also a panelist, said he's hopeful the agency will act quickly. Benjamin Arden, Commissioner Brendan Carr's chief of staff, said he believes the Media Bureau is up to the task of acting quickly on a QR, but QR proceedings traditionally haven't moved fast.
The FCC could act to fix the failed broadcast incubator program in the also-unfinished 2022 QR, panelists said. The program was intended to pair a new entrant radio station owner with an incumbent broadcast group that would provide the incubatee with financial and operational support for three years. After that term, the incubatee would have an option to fully purchase the incubated station, and the incubator company could receive limited waivers of the FCC’s local radio ownership rules. Created in 2018, knocked down by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2019, and then reinstated by a U.S. Supreme Court decision, the program has never had an applicant. MMTC is working on a detailed set of suggestions for possible fixes to the incubator program, Branson said. Those could include reducing the reporting paperwork burden on applicants and a mechanism to allow incubating companies to receive incentives even if their participants don’t succeed, he said. Hannah Lepow, media adviser to Commissioner Geoffrey Starks, said she would welcome ideas for fixes to the incubator program that could be included in a 2022 QR.
The chairwoman’s office is “paying attention” to calls to refresh the record on proposals for reclassifying linear streaming services as MVPDs under the FCC’s retransmission consent rules, said Strickland. “This is a marketplace that is changing rapidly, and we’re aware of it,” he said, declining to say if the FCC will act. Starks “supports reopening the record,” Lepow said. Both NABOB and NAB have called for the proceeding, docket 14-261, to be refreshed.
NAB is still actively pushing congressional bills to require AM radio in cars and restore the minority tax certificate, said NAB Vice President-Government Relations Charlyn Stanberry, another panelist. The AM radio legislation has over 160 sponsors in the House and over 50 in the Senate, Stanberry said. On efforts to restore the certificate, Stanberry said NAB is “looking for champions” on House Commerce, and plans to raise the issue with Reps. Robin Kelly, D-Ill., and Tony Cardenas, D-Calif., and Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich.