The FCC sometimes doesn’t make letters between it and Congress public because the agency has no automatic way to do so, Communications Daily has learned. Most of the letters we reviewed under a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request didn’t appear in docket files where they would be accessible to the public. Sometimes letters aren’t there because they don’t address specific rulemakings, but we couldn’t find in dockets some letters between the agency and Congress that are germane to particular rulemakings.

An FCC auction of 122 FM construction permits ended late Tuesday with total net bids of $5.25 million, far short of the take for previous similar commission auctions (CD Sept 14 p11). In Auction No. 79, 37 permits, or 30 percent of the total, didn’t receive the minimum bid and so won’t be auctioned. “Those who predicted lack of enthusiasm” (CD Sept 8 p7) “were proven correct,” lawyer Raymond Quianzon wrote on the blog of Fletcher Heald, representing clients who participated. Half the 122 permits got no bids or only the minimum bid, he added. The commission likely will re-auction in a few years the 37 permits the agency held back because of lack of interest, Quianzon wrote. But the last permit bid on went for $191,000, versus the $1,500 upfront payment, noted lawyer John King of Garvey Schubert Barer, also representing participants but not for that permit in San Isidro, Texas. “Bidding has been spirited where parties have explored the potential for an upgrade,” he told us, “so if past is prologue, the bidders on San Isidro see such an upside.”

Privacy clauses in contracts hinder pay-TV companies from showing the FCC and Congress that cable programmers, including ESPN, require the purchase of their online offerings along with their cable channels, pay-TV executives said. Non-disclosure provisions in subscription TV carriage contracts mean groups including the American Cable Association, National Telecommunications Cooperative Association and Organization for Promotion and Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies (OPASTCO) have a harder time making their case, they told us.

The head of a company that airs music, ads and other content on school buses and was the subject of a FCC Media Bureau report to Congress (CD Sept 9 p6) said he’s open to many of the bureau’s recommendations. BusRadio President Steven Shulman said his experience is consistent with the report’s conclusion that decisions on whether to allow broadcast radio or TV service on school buses are for local authorities. “I am happy that the FCC recommended something that we've been doing for four years,” he said in an interview last week. “That’s exactly what’s happening now.” Shulman said he’s “surprised” that the bureau said the company may be running more than the four to eight minutes of ads hourly it claims when on-air promotions by DJs and other commercial material are included, because even then ads average about six minutes hourly. BusRadio already gives school districts its programming guidelines, information that the bureau said should be made public, and “we have no problem explaining what our guidelines are,” Shulman said. As for the possibility of third-party ratings for the programming, “my feeling is they should do that not only for BusRadio but for all music,” Shulman said of “more-detailed ratings.”

Several music and consumer groups asked the FCC to investigate a complaint by an industry group that radio stations declined to air ads supporting the Performance Rights Act (PRA), which broadcasters allegedly used the airwaves to oppose. The comments came Tuesday on a June petition for declaratory ruling by MusicFirst, on which the commission seeks comment (CD Aug 11 p7). The American Federation of Musicians, American Association of Independent Music, Free Press, Music Industry Lawyers Group, National Consumers League and Parents Television Council were among those seeking an FCC probe.

It’s up to local authorities to decide whether carrying broadcasts on school buses is appropriate, despite the concerns of parents, teachers, transportation authorities and others, said an FCC Media Bureau report to Congress. An advocate for children called that conclusion “disappointing.” The report mandated by the 2009 Omnibus Appropriations Act focuses on BusRadio, a service that’s long been controversial among some members of Congress (CD June 26/06 p6). The service reaches 1 million children and carries music, ads and promotional programming, the report said.

Dish Network is discussing expanding carriage of public TV stations’ HD signals, according to the Public Broadcast System and the Association for Public Television Stations. An FCC filing Friday on video competition by the organizations said the association and Dish are “in renewed discussions” for the company to carry public TV stations’ multicast programming. Broadcast lawyers not involved in the negotiations said the carriage would help PBS affiliates add viewers and perhaps donations. PBS faces increasing financial obstacles (CD Sept 2 p12).

Cable and direct broadcast satellite providers asked the FCC not to adopt rule changes relating to CableCARDs sought by TiVo (CD July 30 p6). Among the reply comments filed through Saturday in the last part of the commission’s inquiry covering multiple years on pay-TV competition, covering 2009, the NCTA called “radical” the changes that TiVo requests in rules covering switched digital and other areas. There’s no reason to make all DBS providers stop providing to their subscribers integrated set-top boxes, as TiVo also seeks, DirecTV said.

The FCC report covering parental controls across a wide array of media and technologies released Monday acknowledged that many questions about how such filters can be better used remain unanswered. As expected (CD Aug 28 p4), the report to Congress under the Child Safe Viewing Act largely tees up questions for a coming commission notice of inquiry (NOI) on the subject. In some areas covered, including wireless devices, games and the Internet, the report reached no conclusions. In other areas, including consumer electronics, the V-chip and cable and satellite-TV filters, the study said data was lacking or called for more research.

A federal appeals court threw out the FCC’s cable ownership caps in a ruling highly critical of the commission. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Appeals Court for the District of Columbia Circuit agreed Friday with challenger Comcast that the 2007 ownership limit is “arbitrary and capricious.” The limit of 30 percent of U.S. cable subscribers doesn’t take into account the growth of pay TV by satellite and from telcos as alternatives to cable, the ruling said.