Five broadcasters filed for 21 new FM boosters to use for geotargeted radio, said GeoBroadcast Solutions in reply comments filed Monday (docket 20-401). GBS didn’t name the broadcasters but said the boosters are in geographically diverse markets, including Seattle; Jackson, Mississippi; and Fort Duchesne, Utah. “Our understanding is that more broadcasters will file soon,” GBS said. It told the FCC that interference safeguards for content-originating boosters that NAB and REC Networks proposed are “unnecessary or attempt to reopen technical issues already resolved in the Report and Order.” GBS also said the FCC doesn’t need to require geotargeted radio broadcasters to provide special notifications to the Federal Emergency Management Agency or other emergency alert participants. FCC rules requiring reporting to the emergency test reporting and state emergency alert systems already make that information available to FEMA and other EAS participants, GBS said. REC Networks said it remained skeptical about geotargeted radio technology and warned that it will hurt the radio industry. Content-originating FM boosters are “merely a way for GBS to take advantage of small minority broadcasters through their ‘zero up front’ method of financing the project” taking “minority station revenues off the top,” REC said. “Our bigger concern is to address the fact that FM Boosters provide absolutely no co-channel protection to incumbent facilities.” Minority-owned Roberts Radio told the FCC that the technology will create revenue for similar companies, but said the agency should eliminate EAS equipment requirements for FM boosters and allow more geotargeted content per hour. Increasing the three-minute-limit per hour to six would “double the effect of this opportunity, and still represent less than half the advertising time available on most commercial FM stations,” Roberts said. FM boosters used in geotargeted radio don’t need their own EAS equipment because they can repeat the signal from their main station, Roberts said. “Requiring program originating booster operators to install EAS equipment will impose significant and wholly unnecessary financial and technical burdens on the broadcasters that employ them.”
The FCC Enforcement Bureau denied a petition for reconsideration of a $25,000 forfeiture against Jupiter Community Radio, operator of WJUP-LP Jupiter, Florida, an order in Tuesday’s Daily Digest said. The original forfeiture order was issued for violations including failure to make the station available for FCC inspection and to maintain emergency alert system equipment. Jupiter appealed that order in 2022 seeking a reduction in the fine, saying that it was unable to pay and that it had addressed the issues with its EAS equipment. In April 2024, Enforcement Bureau agents tried to inspect the station but found it off the air, the order said. “An agent contacted Jupiter’s president to arrange an inspection of the Station’s facilities, but the president was uncooperative at the time and did not return the agent’s follow-up calls seeking access to the Station’s facilities to conduct an inspection,” Tuesday’s order said. Jupiter didn’t submit sufficient documentation to demonstrate an inability to pay, the EB said. “Coupled with Jupiter’s continued unwillingness to permit Bureau agents to inspect the Station, we find that the public interest does not favor granting the relief that Jupiter seeks.”
The FCC and Massachusetts will probe a 911 outage reported around the state that lasted at least two hours Tuesday afternoon. Meanwhile, the Maine Department of Public Safety said the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is checking why people in Maine and other states received wireless emergency alerts (WEA) about the Massachusetts incident. The FCC is "looking into what occurred" in Massachusetts and "the reports concerning WEA," a commission spokesperson said. A Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety and Security spokesperson said in a statement just before 4 p.m. that the 911 system was restored. The office sent its first alert about the problem at 2:22 p.m. It said that the state 911 department is “aware of a disruption ... and is investigating the cause.” The state advised residents facing an emergency to call local police departments’ direct lines. “We will provide further information as it becomes available.” Multiple local public safety agencies alerted the public via social media about the problems calling 911. “The current 911 system is down statewide,” the Boston Fire Department posted on X at 1:55 p.m. The Brockton Fire Department posted “Major 911 outage in Massachusetts” at 1:41 p.m. on the same platform. People in other states said they received wireless emergency alerts about the Massachusetts outage, including a Comm Daily reporter with a Virginia area code. The same Virginia-based reporter later received another WEA that said Maine's 911 system was fully operational and to disregard the emergency alert from another state. The Massachusetts "alert was sent to other surrounding states in error and is being investigated by FEMA," the Maine Public Safety Department said in a statement. "Maine 911 is up and running." FEMA declined to comment.
Big mainstream demand for ATSC 3.0-enabled TVs is coming, but it's a couple of years out, with a lack of widespread consumer familiarity causing the delay, CTA Senior Director-Business Intelligence Richard Kowalski said Friday during the NextGen Broadcast Conference in Washington. CTA anticipates a big leap in set availability, starting in 2026. Meanwhile, broadcast and emergency alert system advocates talked about integrating ATSC 3.0 into the emergency alerts ecosphere.
CTIA and other commenters raised concerns about an FCC notice seeking comment on rules for implementing multilingual wireless emergency alerts. Comments were due last week in dockets 15-91 and 15-94 on a notice from the FCC Public Safety Bureau (see 2405130047).
The House Appropriations Committee continued debating Thursday afternoon the Financial Services Subcommittee’s FY 2025 funding bill, which increases the FCC’s annual allocation to $416 million and decreases the FTC’s annual funding to $388.7 million (see 2406050067). Communications policy lobbyists said panel Democrats might attempt removing riders from the measure that bar the FCC from using funding for implementing its net neutrality and digital discrimination orders, but they hadn’t sought votes on such amendments at our deadline.
The House Rules Committee will decide Tuesday about allowing a floor vote on an amendment from Reps. Nikki Budzinski, D-Ill., and Mike Carey, R-Ohio, to the Servicemember Quality of Life Improvement and FY 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (HR-8070) that mirrors an earlier bipartisan Senate proposal that allocates funding for the FCC’s expired affordable connectivity program and Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program. The Budzinski-Carey proposal, like the amendment Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., unsuccessfully sought to attach to the FAA reauthorization law in May (see 2405090052), allocates $6 billion in FY 2024 ACP stopgap funding and $3.08 billion for rip and replace. It also proposes major structural changes for ACP, including ending the initiative’s $100 device subsidy and altering its eligibility rules. Another amendment, led by Rep. Derek Kilmer, D-Wash., would direct that the Federal Emergency Management Agency's director “clarify and document the responsibilities and decision-making process” for the Integrated Public Alert Warning System “to deliver tsunami alerts to the Emergency Alert System.” House Rules’ meeting on HR-8070 amendments will begin at noon in H-313 in the Capitol.
A proposed Missing and Endangered Persons (MEP) emergency alert system code was universally supported in comments from native groups, public safety officials, CTIA and NCTA. Comments were filed in docket 15-94 last week. Some entities differ on how a wireless emergency alert version should be implemented, and on whether an additional code is needed specifically for missing indigenous people. "There is little or no doubt that a dedicated alert code of this type will save lives and will therefore greatly exceed any nationwide implementation costs,” the National Tribal Telecommunications Association (NTTA) said of the MEP code.
NAB, NPR and other opponents of the FCC’s authorization of geotargeted radio used Thursday’s comments deadline to take additional shots at the technology, while proponent GeoBroadcast Solutions said the agency should “keep an open mind.” Two broadcast entities, Press Communications and REC Networks, have called for reconsideration of the agency’s order allowing content origination on FM booster stations. Geotargeted radio will “erode public confidence in FM radio broadcasting” and harm stations “baited into employing the technology,” NAB said in docket 20-401.
Broadband providers, broadcasters, satellite companies and the FirstNet Authority urged the FCC not to expand outage reporting requirements. Meanwhile, groups such as Public Knowledge, Next Century Cities and The Utility Reform Network (TURN) said increased reporting rules are a matter of public safety. Comments were filed in docket 21-346 by Monday’s deadline.