AT&T faces mounting criticism from public, educational and governmental channel advocates (CD March 31 p11) calling anew for the telco to make major changes to how its pay-TV service delivers PEG channels to subscribers so the blind can easily access them. The campaign for AT&T to stop putting PEG channels on a subchannel, and to instead make each one a separate channel as the company’s U-verse service does for other programming, intensified with a letter Thursday to AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson. He was written by American Community Television (ACT) President John Rocco, who can’t see well and said he’s among those that can’t use on-screen menus to choose PEG networks within channel 99.

Comcast’s top lawyer hopes people will take a “deep breath” about Meredith Baker’s hiring by the cable operator, after the FCC member’s decision last week to leave the agency resulted in what he called unsubstantiated innuendo. Executive Vice President David Cohen spent much of the Q-and-A after a Wednesday speech to industry executives, lobbyists and FCC staffers fielding questions about Baker. He said he hopes it will be the last word on the topic (CD May 18 p1), as the company, fresh off its purchase of control in NBCUniversal, seeks to make broadband more affordable for the poor, part of a commitment it made to the commission in the deal.

Staff in the office of FCC Commissioner Meredith Baker was lobbied on more than a dozen occasions by Comcast, the NCTA, cable company rivals, nonprofit groups and others as she considered a job offer at Comcast, agency records show. Since April 18, when Baker privately recused herself from voting on anything at the FCC (CD May 16 p7), the lawyers who advise her also were visited by executives of AT&T, the CTIA, News Corp., Verizon and other companies and public interest groups. Baker’s not the first FCC member to directly leave for a large company regulated by the agency, though it’s been decades since that’s believed to have last occurred, said several who have long watched the commission.

FCC staffers and administrative law judges would face deadlines to act on program carriage complaints made by independent cable programmers against multichannel video programming distributors, under a draft order, agency and industry officials said. They said the order that began circulating earlier this month (CD May 3 p8) would give the Media Bureau 60 days to decide whether a complaint made a prima facie showing, or case at first sight. The clock would start ticking after the end of the pleading cycle on the complaint, which lets only the parties to the case comment, agency and industry officials said. Other deadlines would be triggered once the bureau determined an initial case was made.

Meredith Baker said she sat out the past month’s worth of votes as an FCC commissioner, starting around the time she was approached by Comcast about a job. Her written statement Friday was the first time she addressed concerns on conflicts of interest (CD May 13 p1) between regulating Comcast and going to work for the cable operator, whose deal to buy control of NBCUniversal she voted to approve in January. Several opponents of government regulation who supported the Comcast-NBCUniversal deal said in interviews Friday that they saw no problems with Baker’s decision to become NBCUniversal’s top lobbyist.

FCC Commissioner Meredith Baker faces potential conflicts of interest, even if she is recusing herself from any proceeding involving her future employer Comcast (CD May 12 p1), critics of agency procedures and those seeking more government transparency said in interviews Thursday. Baker surprised many by saying Wednesday she'd leave the FCC. She’s restricted in what she can do until she departs June 3 to lobby for Comcast’s NBCUniversal in Washington, and other restrictions will take effect after she starts work for the cable and broadcast programmer. Baker’s office and representatives of FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski aren’t saying what, if any, proceedings she has sat out of since she began talks for the job last month.

An Augusta, Ga., Fox affiliate’s request to keep the DTV channel it’s using was opposed by the CTIA, on the grounds that staying on channel 51 goes against the wireless association’s petition for the FCC to try to discourage use of that slot (CD April 29 p2). The request by WFXG to permanently substitute that channel for 31, assigned by the commission for its use after the 2009 DTV transition, was backed by another station there. WRDW’s new request to vacate the VHF band, where its viewers have had trouble getting the signal, to move to 31 from 12 is contingent on WFXG’s petition being granted. Filings were posted Wednesday to rulemaking 11624.

Meredith Baker’s departure will leave the FCC with a single GOP member starting June 3, her last day on the job, she confirmed Wednesday afternoon. That could push Senate Republicans to quickly seek a replacement and also back a Democratic nominee whose appointment would be on the same track as Baker’s successor, industry officials said. The FCC will be split 3-1 when Baker leaves, making Robert McDowell the only Republican commissioner. A 2-1 commission is possible next year if the Senate doesn’t act.

At age 50, the “vast wasteland” speech is seen as having much to say about current issues in media and telecom by some current and former FCC members, while others said celebrating it should be out of style. An event Monday night marked the 50th anniversary of the speech given by then-Chairman Newton Minow to the NAB. (See coverage from May 15, 1961, in this issue.) Minow and his current successor, Julius Genachowski, told an audience at the National Press Club that the fears expressed in the speech still can guide policymaking, albeit on different issues. Other former FCC members said in interviews that they disagreed, citing the specter of government interference with free speech and other reasons.

The FCC should redo an order making it harder to move radio stations from rural to urban areas, owners of hundreds of outlets said in petitions for reconsideration. A group of 45 station owners and other industry entities asked the agency to adopt what they called a “consistent standard” and update criteria of Tuck studies for such move-in requests (CD March 4 p10). Entravision, owner of 48 stations, said a presumption in the order, making such applications harder to get approved, should only apply when licensees outside an urbanized area seek to move to one and to transmit to much of one. A broadcaster with 10 radio stations that has a move-in request pending said the commission should change the new rules so they don’t apply to applications pending when the order was approved March 3.