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NETWORKS PREPARE TO CHALLENGE REMAND
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The FCC has asked a New York court to let it take another crack at four indecency findings it levied against "fleeting profanities," issued as part of its omnibus March indecency orders. The affiliates and the networks together challenged those four findings in court. ABC alone among the networks has rejoined the National Association of Broadcasters, which the vast majority of affiliates also belong to. While the ABC, CBS, and NBC affiliate groups support the FCC move, saying they want the chance to defend their broadcasts, the networks want the court case to proceed without delay, arguing the FCC has had ample time to mull the issue in the two years since ruling, in the case of a Bono adjectival f-word on NBC's Golden Globes, that fleeting profanities could be indecent.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6350081?display=Breaking+News
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6350081?display=Breaking%20News
FCC, SENATE COMMITTEE AT ODDS OVER STATES' VOIP REGULATION
[SOURCE: Technology Daily, AUTHOR: Drew Clark]
If the Communications, Consumer's Choice, and Broadband Deployment Act of 2006 (S.2686), passed late last month by the Senate Commerce Committee, becomes law, Internet telephone companies will be exempt from certain state economic regulations. But until then, the FCC ruled last week, states may conditionally regulate Internet telephony. The back-and-forth between the agency and the Senate panel occurred as the committee was approving S. 2686, its version of telecommunications overhaul legislation. An amendment pre-empting state regulation of voice-over-Internet protocol, offered by Sen. John Sununu (R-NH) was approved 14-8 on June 22 -- at the start of the markup. At the same time, the FCC was detailing its decision to apply the universal service fund to VoIP providers. Such companies must pay a fee into the USF based on 64.9 percent of their revenue -- or be subject to regulation by state public utility commissions. However, uncertainty about the regulation of VoIP is likely to continue: Some members of the Senate committee sought an amendment to S. 2686 that would have granted VoIP providers the ability to obtain a waiver for up to four years from an FCC requirement that they implement E-911, or enhanced location-based 911 service. That amendment ultimately was not offered in committee, as two of the measure's chief patrons -- Sens Sununu and Bill Nelson (D-FL) -- withdrew it to allow further discussion with Sen. John (Jay) Rockefeller (D-WV) who opposes any extension of time for VoIP providers to comply with the existing FCC mandate.
http://www.njtelecomupdate.com/lenya/telco/live/tb-CYKN1152212935769.html
FCC, Senate Committee At Odds Over States' VoIP Regulation
CHICAGO'S JAZZ RADIO GETS THE BLUES, BOWS TO iPOD
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Deborah Cohen]
WBEZ, Chicago's National Public Radio (NPR) member station and among the oldest public radio outlets in the United States, has decided to scrap scheduled music programming -- the bulk of which was nightly jazz -- and move to a 24-hour news and public affairs format. The change -- which has sparked a backlash from loyal fans -- speaks volumes about the worries facing independent radio stations. Downloadable music and streaming Webcasts are competing for their music listeners, and local news, threatened by consolidation in the commercial media, is taking on greater importance. In addition, WBEZ and many other public radio stations say their programming has not kept pace with a changing U.S. population. "Local news has simply been abandoned by the commercial broadcasters and sometimes even the commercial newspapers," Ken Stern, executive vice president of Washington-based National Public Radio, said. "What you see as a trend is stations like WBEZ investing heavily in local news and information," Stern added. WBEZ and NPR's other so-called member stations raise their own operating funds -- much of them from individual listeners -- and pay providers such as NPR for syndicated shows such as the daily news program "All Things Considered." Around the United States, changes similar to WBEZ's are taking place. Connecticut Public Radio's WNPR-FM dropped most of its classical programming in favor of news and information early in June. WETA, another public FM station in Washington, D.C., made the switch to all-talk more than a year ago. Stations in New York, Boston and elsewhere have made similar moves. Chicago Public Radio's new strategy also calls for reaching a more diverse audience -- putting mics in the hands of listeners, for instance, to let them produce their own shows, and adding satellite bureaus in the inner city. The station aims to go after untapped Hispanic, black and youth listeners, among others.
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=industryNews&storyID...
* Jazz Out, News In on Chicago NPR Station
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/07/arts/07arts.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
PBS KIDS GO! A NO GO
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Citing financial constraints, PBS has pulled the plug on its much balyhooed October launch of a digital kids channel, PBS Kids Go!, saying it is rethinking the strategy of a linear channel targeted to elementary school kids. "An insufficient number of stations are in a position to financially sustain the service," PBS said in a brief statement. Other options for expansion into the elementary school area in the near future--the next several months--could be a VOD service or other new media delivery, though it also said a channel is not off the table at some future date.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6350111?display=Breaking+News
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6350111?display=Breaking%20News
THE GOVERNMENT'S CURRENT WAR WITH THE FREE PRESS
[SOURCE: The Christian Science Monitor, AUTHOR: Daniel Schorr, NPR]
[Commentary] The Bush Administration has discovered what governments have discovered before, that an undercurrent of hostility toward the news media runs through the country and that there could be political advantage in campaigning against the press in general. You would not expect that I, as a journalist, would exhibit total neutrality in such a war. And so let me quote Justice Potter Stewart in his opinion in the Pentagon Papers case in 1971: "In the absence of governmental checks and balances present in other areas of our national life, the only effective restraint upon executive policy and power in the area of national defense and international affairs may lie in an enlightened citizenry.... Without an informed and free press, there cannot be an enlightened people." That remains true, even when Mr. Bush proclaims a state of war with the terrorists.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0707/p09s01-cods.html
* Bush vs. New York Times
[Commentary] Attacks on the New York Times aren't about national security, they're about muting criticism.
http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/38251/
The Government's Current War with the Free Press
RUSSIA'S SIGNAL TO STATIONS IS CLEAR: CUT US RADIO
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Peter Finn]
Russian regulators have forced more than 60 radio stations to stop broadcasting news reports produced by Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, according to radio managers and Russian officials. The regulators cited license violations and unauthorized changes in programming format. But senior executives at the U.S.-government-funded broadcast services and at the stations blame the Kremlin for the crackdown, which has knocked the reports off stations from St. Petersburg in western Russia to Vladivostok in the Far East. The two services' straight-up reporting, often by journalists on the ground in Russian communities, has at times challenged the political establishment here. In a country where the news media increasingly avoid controversial subjects, millions of Russians had made the broadcasts a listening staple. U.S. diplomats, managers at the two news services and their board of governors have held repeated discussions with Russian officials in recent months seeking a compromise, to no avail. "We've tried to be collegial, tried to work within the system, but this is a most unfortunate development," said Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, chairman of the U.S. Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees both services.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/06/AR200607...
(requires registration)
Russia's Signal to Stations Is Clear: Cut U.S. Radio
XM AND SIRIUS: MEANT TO BE TOGETHER?
[SOURCE: AdAge, AUTHOR: Abbey Klaassen]
The rumors of a satellite-radio merger are swirling again as last week Mel Karmazin told investors and venture capitalists at The Deal's Convergence 2.0 conference that "we'd love to buy" XM, before cautioning that price and regulatory issues would be impeding factors. His candidness about his desire to be the only player in the space has fueled speculation for the past year and a half. But lately, as the satellite-radio industry, like the rest of the media world, faces more competition than it may ever have anticipated -- from sophisticated wireless devices, Wi-Fi and premium-online-content offerings -- media veterans are questioning whether there will be a single satellite-radio company five years from now.
http://adage.com/article?article_id=110293
See also:
* Sirius's Footsteps Beat Louder As It Cuts XM Subscriber Lead
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB115219181763299502.html?mod=todays_us_ma...
(requires subscription)
* Sirius Beats XM Satellite in Adding Subscribers
http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-sirius7jul07,1,463624...
http://adage.com/article?article_id=110293
5 EDITORS, COLUMNIST QUIT IN SANTA BARBARA
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: James Rainey]
Five top editors and a veteran columnist have resigned from the Santa Barbara News-Press, saying Thursday that the newspaper's billionaire owner had been meddling improperly in the editorial content of the 151-year-old publication. Editor Jerry Roberts was escorted from the newspaper's headquarters before noon as several staff members cried and others hurled obscenities at the new publisher, Travis K. Armstrong, the latest in a series of people to run the paper under controversial owner Wendy McCaw. Six years ago, the newspaper's journalists reacted with relief, even euphoria, when McCaw purchased the paper from the New York Times Co. They welcomed the ascension of a local owner — known for her environmentalism and philanthropy -- over an investor-owned chain that had made sharp cost-cutting and layoffs routine. But Thursday, reporters and editors described an "awful" and "surreal" scene -- what Santa Barbara's alternative paper called a "self-inflicted blood bath." Several News-Press employees and the city's leader said McCaw's tenure should give pause to the many journalists across the country who had been pining for private ownership of their papers.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-na-newspress7jul07,1,4...
(requires registration)
* Mass Exit at Santa Barbara Paper Causes Wild Scene
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_con...
5 Editors, Columnist Quit in Santa Barbara
MINORITIES MAKE GAINS IN TV NEWS
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Local TV news employed more minorities than ever in 2005, according to a new study from Ball State University/Radio-Television News Directors Association study, but that 4.4% boost over 2004 was leveled by a 4.4% drop in radio. Minorities made up 22.2% of local TV news staffs, up from 21.2% in 2004. Even with Hispanic stations factored out, the increase was 20.4%, which is also up from last year. Minorities in TV station news top management also increased, with 13.2% of news directors minorities vs. 12% the year before. The story was different for radio however, with the minority workforce down from 7.9% in 2004 to 6.4% in 2005.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6350057?display=Breaking+News
* Download complete survey results at http://www.rtnda.org/research/2006diversity.pdf
* Press Release: http://www.rtnda.org/news/2006/070606.shtml
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6350057?display=Breaking%20News
NEW RADIOS LETTING DC METRO POLICE DOWN
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Lena H. Sun]
Persistent problems with a $60 million radio system that Metro bought six years ago have forced transit police to rely on their old radios underground, raising questions about the transit authority's ability to respond to emergencies at a time of heightened concern nationwide about the safety of public transportation. The new radios offer extra security and communications features that are valuable to officers responding to a crime, a terrorist attack or another emergency, such as a tunnel fire or collision, that would require an evacuation. But there are some Metro stations and tunnels where officers cannot be heard reliably on the new radios. Officials with Motorola Inc., which designed and installed the new system, say they do not know when it will become fully operational.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/06/AR200607...
(requires registration)
New Radios Letting DC Metro Police Down