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OLD RULES, NEW ALLIANCES
[SOURCE: Technology Daily, AUTHOR: Drew Clark]
The remarkable saga of the newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership ban -- a rule that was put in place by FCC Chairman Dick Wiley in January 1975. The rule is one of several changes being considered for relaxation by the current FCC, and the foremost advocate for eliminating the rule is none other than Dick Wiley, now an influential telecommunications lobbyist. But the Washington Post plays the central role in Clark's tale. In the 1970s, the Post owned WTOP-TV Channel 9, a CBS affiliate. Its radio station was also called WTOP. It broadcast on both the AM and FM bands. With the Post breaking Watergate stories, the company became a target of then-President Richard Nixon. He threatened the company's broadcast licenses and the Post ended up selling its DC-broadcast outlets. the Post has gotten creative. This year it struck a licensing agreement with Bonneville Communications, which owns the Washington radio station that the Post once had. In a three-way swap, Bonneville moved its flagship news channel WTOP to its best frequency, 103.5 FM, put classical music station WGMS on 104.1 FM, and introduced Washington Post Radio on 1500 AM -- the old WTOP frequency. The new arrangement doesn't violate the cross-ownership ban because Bonneville owns and controls the station, advertisements and content -- even if the vast bulk comes straight from the newspaper's newsroom, say Post attorneys. Supporters of the cross-ownership ban call it the best of both worlds. "You don't need to own the TV and radio station" to exploit synergies, says Andrew Jay Schwartzman, President of the Media Access Project. The Bonneville-Post collaboration means "you have the diversity advantages of different viewpoints." Critics call that hairsplitting. "Do we continue to need unique rules for old media sectors, instead of a general competition policy standard for the entire media industry?" questions Adam Thierer, senior fellow at the Progress and Freedom Foundation. Indeed, the biggest irony of the media ownership debate is the old media's embrace of the new. "They know they cannot make investments in the old sector and are turning their attention to the Internet as a way to diversify their media operations," said Thierer.
http://www.drewclark.com/wiredinwashington/20060731.htm

NAB SEEKS FM TRANSLATOR-GRAB FOR AM STATIONS
[SOURCE: DIYmedia.net 7/28, AUTHOR: John Anderson]
[Commentary] A very intriguing Petition for Rulemaking was recently filed by the National Association of Broadcasters. It asks the FCC to let the owners of AM stations apply for FM translators, so that they may rebroadcast their AM signals to provide better service, especially at night, when many AM stations must operate at reduced power or go off the air completely. NAB believes the FCC needs to give a much-needed "boost" to the lot of these beleaguered stations. The FCC has considered and rejected this very notion twice in the last 25 years, but NAB thinks the third time is the charm because of new sources of interference to the AM band. What new sources? Computers and traffic signals are mentioned, but a footnote otherwise plugging digital radio casually drops the comment that AM broadcasters are "encountering ever more interference problems as a result of an increase in ambient noise." This is the closest NAB will ever come to admitting that "HD" digital radio makes a racket of the AM dial. That's because it takes triple the bandwidth to broadcast a hybrid analog/digital AM signal than it does to broadcast in analog alone. Thus AM stations broadcasting in a hybrid mode have the potential to interfere with three times as many other stations. You can see how this makes a mess as the number of AM stations broadcasting in hybrid mode grows. The more powerful AM stations in the largest markets also happen to be the earliest adopters of digital, so the danger is fairly imminent. The FCC currently prohibits the broadcast of hybrid AM signals at night because of this very problem. When it eventually lifts this prohibition, the static-hash will go national. (The FCC will not consider any changes to digital radio regulations at its August meeting, after pulling a proposal off the July agenda.)
http://diymedia.net/archive/0706.htm#072806

NAB ADVOCACY
[SOURCE: National Association of Broadcasters]
The NAB is encouraging radio and television broadcasters to spread the word about the "community service they provide every day, free-of-charge." Station owners are being asked to use the NAB's Advocacy Guide (http://www.nab.org/publicservice/national_report.asp) as the foundation for an outreach effort to educate elected officials, community organizations, the broadcast audience and others. The guide includes sample letters to members of Congress, talking points for station presentations, scripts for on-air spots and more. The plea ends "Working together, we can continue to demonstrate that broadcast public service is effective because decisions are made at the local level."
http://www.nab.org/MembersOnly/nabsays/Newsletters/tv_today/default.asp
(requires membership)

SMALL OPS TOLD: HEAD TO DC
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Linda Moss]
Small cable operators, facing one of the most “hostile” environments in more than a decade at the Federal Communications Commission, need to get active and plead their case in Washington, lobbyists told a conference of small cable companies Monday. During a panel at The Independent Show here, the American Cable Association and one of its lawyers basically warned its members -- which serve 10 million subscribers -- that there will be no help coming from the FCC on hot-button issues such as retransmission consent and digital-multicast must-carry under the watch of Chairman Kevin Martin. Therefore, it is “paramount” that small cable companies step up their grassroots efforts and “out-local” their broadcast rivals by taking their case directly to their representatives in Washington, according to ACA president Matt Polka.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6358026.html?display=Breaking+News