Broadcast Law Blog : Broadcast Lawyer & Attorney : Davis Wright Tremaine Law Firm : Broadcast Law Blog : Seattle, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., New York, San Francisco, Shanghai

The FAA had just begun a rulemaking proposing to change their treatment of Determinations of No Hazard for communications towers. Currently, the FAA reviews not only the structural effect of proposed tower construction on the safety of air travel, but also the electromagnetic effects of the proposed tower user on aircraft communications, radar and other aviation electronics. Until now,  there have been no FAA regulations dealing with changes to towers that that have already been approved by the FAA where the changes do not affect the height of those towers. So when additional users were added to existing towers, no FAA approval was necessary.

The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking proposes requiring prior FAA approval for all changes to communications towers, through the addition of new communications users to a tower (if those users operate in certain frequency bands, including broadcasting, paging, fixed wireless and several other services). Also, prior FAA approval would be required if there was an increase in power of existing tower users or other significant change in the radiation characteristics of a tower user operating in these frequency bands. Obviously, seeking FAA approval can increase the time necessary to make such changes. In the past, we have also run into problems with the FAA's computer programs being overly sensitive and rejecting proposals that the FCC would not find to be an issue. To the extent that you lease space on your towers to other users, this could present a new layer of bureaucracy to any lease.

Also, the FAA proposes to change the period for which a Determination of No Hazard is effective. Currently, if you have an FCC construction permit, the Determination is good for as long as the authorization is good, including any extensions of the FCC authorization that may be granted by the FCC. The FAA proposes that the Determination now be good only for so long as the initial FCC construction permit is valid - and that if you request an extension from the FCC, you must also get an extension of the Determination of No Hazard from the FAA.  For broadcasters nearing the end of a construction permit, facing the need to make a last-minute change in facilities, the need for prior FAA approval could present major obstacles to getting FCC approval for the change in time to complete construction before the permit expires.

Comments on these proposals are due by September 11. We may have a group of clients that are filing comments. If you are interested, please let us know.

The FAA proposal can be found at: http://dmses.dot.gov/docimages/p85/401410.pdf

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On Friday, June 23, several of our attorneys attended the Digital Media Conference at Tysons Corner, Virginia.  Tysons is in suburban Washington DC, and is at the center of Northern Virginia's technology corridor.  The Conference was excellent, bring together well over 300 people to discuss various topics relating to the media industry.

Bob Corn-Revere of our office spoke on a panel dealing with government content regulation of the media, including a discussion of indecency.  I was on a panel dealing with other FCC matters that will affect the media.  One topic that I was addressing was the FCC proceeding, begun only two days before the Conference, reopening the debate over the media ownership rules.  A summary of the issues to be considered in this proceeding is available on our website.

In preparing for the Conference, it occurred to me that the debate over the multiple ownership rules really ties into the discussions of the broader media marketplace, and the other issues and debates going on in that marketplace.  Everything from net neutrality to the setting of music royalties for webcasters operating Internet radio stations tie affect the debate on multiple ownership.  Continue Reading...

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Broadcasters beware, yesterday President Bush signed the bill and made it official.  The statutory maximum fine for broadcasting material that the FCC deems to be obscene, indecent, or profane is now $325,000 per incident.  With fines that large, a small slip can become expensive in a hurry.  (For more details on the increased fines see our earlier blog.) 

A further set of indecency decisions, this time potentially addressing a number of pending radio indecency complaints, has been expected to be released by the Commission for some time now.  It will be interesting to see how aggressive the Commission is in fining broadcasters now that it has the ability to levy fines up to ten-times greater than before. 

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Almost every day, something happens that affects the broadcast world. In our office, we are constantly running back and forth across the hall, or shooting each other emails, about news stories or regulatory actions that we think are important or interesting – and about which we need to keep informed to serve our clients. Often, we’ll pass some stories on to clients to whom we think that they might be relevant. When we see something of major significance, we often incorporate it into a bulletin or advisory that goes to all of our clients. 

But we don’t always get every important or interesting story to every client. So we’ve decided to try this blog - to give our take on some of the events that we see that are relevant to the world of the broadcaster. Obviously, we write as lawyers, and our focus will be on legal issues. But we will try to reach beyond the legal issues, to point at trends and developments that we see as affecting the industry. And we’ll report on those things that we see that simply are interesting or amusing to those in the broadcast industry. And we’ll look for your responses to our thoughts and observations, and hopefully have a dialog on these issues.

Continue Reading...

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Yesterday, Congress passed the long-anticipated Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act, which if signed into law by President Bush, will increase by a factor of ten the maximum fine available to the FCC for punishing broadcasters for airing material it deems to be indecent.  Under the Act, the maximum fine for broadcasting obscene, indecent, and profane material would now be $325,000, up from the present maximum of $32,500. The increase comes over two years after the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show focused Congress’ and the public’s attention on broadcast television.

Continue Reading...

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Today, Robert M. McDowell was officially sworn in as a member of the Federal Communications Commission, giving the FCC a full complement of five commissioners, and giving Chairman Kevin J. Martin a majority with three Republican members.  A copy of the FCC’s News Release announcing the swearing in is available here.   McDowell’s addition returns the Commission to full strength and will enable the FCC to tackle a number of significant outstanding issues facing broadcasters, such as multiple ownership, multicast must-carry, payola, and indecency.  Previously, David D. Oxenford discussed the various outstanding broadcast issues that might be on the Commission’s hitlist.  A copy of his April 2006 Bulletin is available here.

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