June 2006

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…

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 Multiple Ownership and Digital Media

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 Welcome to Our Blog