AM Revitalization Draft Order Has Three Votes
The FCC AM revitalization draft order has received three commissioner votes, triggering a soft deadline in a few weeks by which all commissioners must vote yea or nay on it, said Media Bureau Associate Chief Holly Sauer Thursday on a panel at a National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters’ conference. The NABOB conference also featured Commissioner Mike O’Rielly, Incentive Auction Task Force (IATF) Chairman Gary Epstein and Enforcement Bureau Deputy Chief Bill Davenport. Sauer wouldn’t comment on which commissioners have voted or how, but O’Rielly and Commissioner Ajit Pai have indicated they don’t support the current draft order, while Commissioner Mignon Clyburn has said she does, and it's also seen as supported by Chairman Tom Wheeler.
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The deadline for a must vote can be extended at commissioner request, an FCC official told us. The Media Bureau declined to say when the exact date of the deadline is. Sauer said during Thursday’s panel that it would be “a few weeks” before the FCC must make a final decision. An agency official told us Wheeler’s office is generally flexible on such deadlines when differing sides appear to be close to a compromise, and that the AM revitalization order could be such a case. The point of contention in the current draft order is an AM-only FM translator application window, which O’Rielly and Pai have said they support, and isn't included in the current draft. Pai wants the order to include language triggering such a window in 2017 (see 1510070065">1510070065).
NABOB President Jim Winston said he would like the order to include the translator window as well. But he supports the current draft because he believes it has a better chance of being approved sooner. “I want the order to be approved in the next couple weeks like we were told it would be,” he said.
The IATF will release opening bid prices “within the next week or so” for every auction eligible TV station in the U.S., Epstein said during a segment on the auction. The prices are part of the FCC effort to encourage broadcaster participation and clear more spectrum, he said. Epstein also said the IATF had meetings with Canadian officials Wednesday, further cementing coordination on repacking the TV band after the auction. O’Rielly said he believed the auction would be March 29 as expected, though he said he would support any “legitimate” calls for delay.
O’Rielly reiterated his position that the Enforcement Bureau should be putting greater effort into creating a plan to deal with pirate radio stations. The bureau needs to “step up enforcement” and should go after advertisers and landlords along with pirates, he said. The bureau agrees with O’Rielly’s suggestions, Davenport said, though he said O’Rielly hadn’t consulted with the bureau before issuing his recent blog post on the subject (see 1509240066">1509240066).
Pirate radio enforcement is “important” to the bureau but it's understaffed and has competing priorities such as public safety functions, Davenport said. “Public safety is always going to win.” Pirate radio investigations are difficult and time consuming, Davenport said, and the bureau is trying to focus on “the worst actors” to efficiently use resources, he said. Pirate radio disproportionately affects minority broadcasters, one attendee told Davenport.