The city of Wilmington, N.C., will be the nation’s first digital TV test market, in cooperation with commercial broadcasters and cable systems, Mayor Bill Saffo confirmed late Wednesday. The test will be announced by FCC Chairman Kevin Martin at a Thursday press briefing, said Saffo, who'll be on hand to field questions. The test likely will be the only one in the U.S., said FCC and industry officials. An FCC spokesman declined to comment.

Two prominent Democratic lawmakers asked the FCC to probe networks’ use of military analysts to see if the analysts properly disclose ties with the Defense Department and companies that do billions of dollars in business with it. The probe was sought in a letter released late Tuesday by House Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell of Michigan, and Connecticut’s Rosa DeLauro, chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, the FDA and Related Agencies. The letter, sent to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, expressed “deep concern” about an April 20 New York Times report on the practices of 75 retired officers who appeared as “analysts” on cable and broadcast network news shows.

A public relations firm awarded a $1.7 million FCC contract recommended promoting digital TV using a method that some journalism professors and others disdain, but the FCC rejected that approach. Besides more traditional ways to boost DTV awareness in the parts of a campaign starting this month and running through February, PR company Ketchum recommended writing so-called drop-in articles or “matte” releases -- basically, news releases in the style of feature articles. These pieces usually don’t identify the client paying for them, and Ketchum didn’t recommend that those it proposed to the FCC do so. That part of the plan raised ethical questions among the professors and a PR expert. The commission decided against using the drop-in stories, said an agency spokeswoman.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin asked the Media Bureau to expand a carriage exemption (CD April 30 p4) so small cable operators only have to distribute must-carry broadcasters’ signals in analog after the DTV transition, commission officials said. The bureau is working on changes in an order first circulated April 9, three officials said. Martin sought the changes after commissioners privately questioned whether the first draft adequately relieved systems smaller than 553 MHz of an obligation to carry signals of broadcasters guaranteed cable carriage in both analog and digital after the Feb. 17, 2009, analog cutoff, they said.

A unique task force on the media’s role in obesity, months late reporting (CD Nov 8 p4), has been inactive for some time, five participants said. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin and Sens. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and Sam Brownback, R-Kan., who belong to the group, haven’t communicated with the whole task force for months, they said. The group hasn’t met since fall, said Dan Isett, Parents Television Council policy director, and other participants. The task force includes broadcast and cable network and medical group representatives, children’s advocates and FCC Commissioners Michael Copps and Deborah Tate. Subgroups haven’t been active either, said Isett, Children’s Now Vice President Patti Miller and others.

Cable operators have been freed of rate and other local regulation in recent weeks in hundreds of cities, after the industry prodded the FCC to reduce a pile of petitions based on claims the companies face sufficient video competition from DBS or talcs. Frequent criticism by the NCTA, Comcast and others about the agency’s slow handling of the effective- competition petitions (CD March 27 p16) prompted FCC Chairman Kevin Martin to ask the Media Bureau to reduce a backlog that stretched into the hundreds, said current and former agency officials and industry lawyers. But dozens of petitions remain to be handled, they said. An FCC spokeswoman declined to give the number.

The FCC commissioners are considering whether to give small cable systems leeway on requirements that all operators carry some broadcasters’ digital signals to both digital and analog subscribers, said commission and industry officials. Chairman Kevin Martin circulated April 9 an order that he said would let systems under 553 MHz out of an obligation to carry high-definition signals of TV stations guaranteed cable carriage (CD April 9 p8). The commission may revise the draft to let systems send must-carry broadcast signals -- HD or not -- only in analog, the officials said.

Broadcasters slammed an FCC proposal to tighten rules governing how radio and TV stations serve their communities (CD April 29 p11) and document that service to the agency. In comments late Monday on a Dec. 18 FCC localism notice, owners of radio and TV stations and lobbying groups said implementing many of the proposals would waste money and time. Requiring stations to form advisory boards to recommend programming and making them air a minimum amount of local shows to speed FCC review of license renewal applications may violate the First Amendment or the Administrative Procedure Act, Clear Channel, CBS, Disney, NAB and others said. Ten groups, many opposing media consolidation, said more rules are needed because local and political coverage is paltry.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin’s proposed broadcast localism rules drew fire from 24 senators. Industry also calls them burdensome. A proposal to require community advisory boards for radio and TV stations, discussed in an FCC localism notice, is unnecessary, 23 Republican senators, including Commerce Committee members Jim DeMint, S.C., and David Vitter, R-La., said Thursday. The advisory board proposal and one to create “redundant and burdensome requirements for license renewal” disturb the senators most, they wrote. They also criticized an FCC proposal to revive a requirement that broadcasters staff studios at all times. The so-called main- studio rule ignores “that advances in technology make these burdensome regulations needless,” said the letter, initiated by Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan. Reviving the rule would cost broadcasters money without benefiting audiences, they wrote. Parts of the notice raise “clear constitutional concerns regarding the specter of government regulated content,” the politicians wrote. In a separate letter to Martin, Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., urged that the commission “not overburden local broadcasters with punitive regulation prompted by the failures of a few.” Both letters were released Monday by NAB and resemble a message April 15 from 123 House members (CD April 18 p5). Broadcasters opposed parts of the FCC localism notice in comments filed ahead of a deadline late Monday. The ABC affiliates association said there’s no need to require that stations be able to preview network shows before they air. ABC already lets affiliates pre-screen programs, it said. In a Monday e-mail to broadcasters, NAB said it’s “making strides” against the regulator’s effort to strengthen localism requirements.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin backed off his idea of publicizing votes on pending items (CD March 5 p1) after other commissioners challenged it. Martin separated that idea from another to formalize advance notice on items he wants commissioners to vote on at monthly meetings. He went ahead on his own by releasing, about 5:30 p.m. Thursday, a list of items white-copied for the May 14 meeting (CD April 25 p2).