The FCC seeks to identify additional regulations ripe for retrospective analysis, the agency said in its final plan for retrospective analysis of existing rules, released Friday. The commission seeks to review Section 11 of the Communications Act, the regulatory flexibility rules, broadcast ownership rules, paperwork reduction and forbearance request rules, it said. Other retrospective reviews are related to issues like USF, broadcast TV spectrum, the emergency alert system, digital encryption, outage reporting requirements, wireless E-911 location accuracy and 700 MHz interoperability. The FCC also seeks to identify rules that may have a disproportionate or undue impact on certain entities, including regulations involving foreign ownership, pole attachment and antenna structures. The agency would also consider whether a regulation has been subject to frequent requests for waivers or been identified as needing revision. Other factors the FCC may consider include the need to eliminate overlapping or duplicative regulations, the need to eliminate conflicts or inconsistencies with other rules and the need to simplify or clarify regulatory language. Commissioner Ajit Pai said that in light of the importance of the analysis, the 2012 biennial review should take the form of commission-level action rather than bureau-level recommendations. Section 11 of the Communications Act requires the commission to review every two years all regulations that apply to the operations or activities of service providers and determine whether those regulations are “no longer necessary in the public interest as the result of meaningful economic competition between providers of such service,” he said. Following the review, the agency is then required “to repeal or modify any regulation it determines to be no longer necessary in the public interest,” he said. “Releasing the Final Plan for Retrospective Reform is a result of the hard work of our staff, and affirms the agency’s extensive efforts to eliminate unnecessary regulations,” Chairman Julius Genachowski said. “The FCC continues to make strong progress toward our goal of being a model of excellence in government."
Public broadcasting is continuing to thrive in the changing media landscape as leaders find ways to streamline station operations, create a new business model and maintain partnerships geared toward education and community outreach, said Patrick Butler, president of the Association of Public Television Stations. APTS also is working to revive momentum in Congress behind support for the federal appropriation for public broadcasting, he said Thursday at a Media Institute luncheon in Washington.
National Weather Service tests of warning messages integrating some traditional emergency alert system (EAS) features with wireless carriers are going well, a government contractor working on the project said Wednesday. The Integrated Public Alert and Warning System tests by the NWS, the most frequent federal user of EAS (CD March 14 p8), show the system “seems to be working,” said IPAWS architect Gary Ham. “The tests seem to be going pretty well” and some alert originators have had public alerting authority given to them, he continued. A technical problem that caused a delay related to some alerts has been identified and a solution is being implemented, Ham said on a webinar organized by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The FCC Media Bureau proposed that Columbia University pay a $10,000 fine for failing to retain all required documentation in the public-inspection file of WKCR(FM) New York. Columbia “failed to prepare twelve issues/programs lists over a four-year period before its transmission facilities were destroyed” as a result of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, the bureau said in notice of apparent liability (http://xrl.us/bm7y7s). Although the university has a history of compliance, “a downward adjustment is not appropriate here considering the extensive violations that occurred,” the NAL said. The Enforcement Bureau ordered Upper Peninsula Communications, former operator of a cable system in Powers, Mich., to pay an $8,000 fine for failing to install emergency alert system equipment, said a forfeiture order (http://xrl.us/bm72x4).
The FCC’s rescission of a ban on text-to-speech emergency alert system warnings using Common Alerting Protocol became effective Monday, the agency said in a notice in that day’s Federal Register (http://xrl.us/bm6i3d). The short-lived ban, reversed last month, had applied to multichannel video programming distributors and broadcasters (CD April 20 p2).
The FCC fined four radio stations $42,000 total, in Enforcement Bureau forfeiture orders released Thursday. R.J.’s Late Night Entertainment Corp. was fined $22,000 because non-commercial educational station WHPR(FM) Highland Park, Mich., didn’t have operational emergency alert system equipment, the transmitter was moved without permission and the public inspection file wasn’t accessible (http://xrl.us/bm55fw). Each fined $10,000 were Taylor Broadcasting for not having sufficient staff at WJTB(AM) Elyria, Ohio (http://xrl.us/bm55f2), and KM Radio because KQMG(AM/FM) Independence, Iowa, had violations similar to WHPR (http://xrl.us/bm55gc).
The National Weather Service will start pushing out emergency alerts to cellphones “sometime in late May,” using the new Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS), NWS Lead for Emerging Dissemination Technologies Michael Gerber said. Gerber said some questions remain as carriers begin to transmit the alerts, a step required by the Warning, Alert, and Response Network (WARN) Act, which was enacted in 2006. He spoke on a Federal Emergency Management Agency webcast Wednesday on FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System.
Small cable systems that don’t have broadband access at their headend facilities should get a pass on emergency alert system (EAS) rule compliance, the American Cable Association said. The ACA asked the commission to set up a streamlined waiver process for such cable operators, in a petition for reconsideration (http://xrl.us/bm4vem). The group, which has small cable operators among its members, had asked that such small and remote systems be exempt from a recent FCC EAS order. The FCC didn’t grant a broad exemption but said it would review waivers on a case-by-case basis (CD Jan 12 p8). A streamlined waiver process for such cable systems with fewer than 501 subscribers could save them money and time preparing individual waivers, ACA said. “The cost to seek a waiver might exceed the construction costs from which these small system operators seek relief, and expecting operators of these small systems to renew their waivers every six month further adds to the overall cost."
Paging provider American Messaging asked the FCC for a waiver until June 30 the deadline to start a service providing emergency alerts to subscribers using the Commercial Mobile Alert System. The service was supposed to lbegin April 7. “Many carriers that initially opted to participate in CMAS were unable to launch on April 7, 2012 as the Commission intended,” American Messaging said in a petition (http://xrl.us/bm4uff). “American Messaging remains committed to the CMAS program ... and intends to begin delivering alerts to its customers as soon as possible."
The FCC rescinded a ban on text-to-speech emergency alert system warnings four days before new EAS rules take effect (CD March 23 p4). A new format of emergency alert system messages that all pay-TV providers and broadcasters must implement by June 30 couldn’t have included text-to-speech warnings, under a January order on equipment certification for the Common Alerting Protocol format. An order approved by commissioners Thursday -- nine days after circulating for a vote (http://xrl.us/bmxdnu) -- reversed that ban and left consideration of part of the issue for another day.