NAB elects to Radio Board: Molly Draper Russell, Draper Radio; Ashley Tullos Fortenberry, TeleSouth Communications; John Zimmer, Zimmer Communications; and Ron Davis, Butte Broadcasting; reelected to Radio Board: Chris Forgy, Saga Communications; J. Chapman, Woof Boom; Jeanna Berg, iHeart Media; Kelli Turner, Audacy; Erik Hellum, Townsquare Media; Tim Swift, Bonneville International Corp.; Jeff Warshaw, Connoisseur Media; also appointed to the Radio Board: Heston Wright, Wright Media, replacing Will Payne, Payne Media Group; Mary Menna, Beasley Media Group; Melody Spann Cooper, Midway Broadcasting Corp.; Bill Wilson, Townsquare Media; and Javier Maynulet, Univision Radio; NAB reelects to TV Board: David Griffin, Griffin Communications; Deb McDermott, Standard Media Group; Amy Liz Pittenger, Bahakel Communications, Nick Radziul, Hearst Television; and Pam Teague, Sarkes Tarzian; also appointed to TV Board: Barry Fisher, Maranatha Broadcasting Co., replacing former Tegna CEO Mike Steib ... Changes at Chapter 209 of the National Treasury Employees Union, which covers the FCC: Raphael Sznajder, Wireline Bureau, elected chapter president, succeeding William Knowles-Kellett, retiring; Zoe Li, Public Safety Bureau, elected executive vice president, replacing Sznajder ... Mintz's Tara Corvo, longtime chair of the firm's technology, communications and media practice, retiring after 33 years.
Capella Space is seeking FCC Space Bureau approval to adjust the orbits of and boost the number of satellites in its Acadia non-geostationary orbit satellite constellation. Eleven are authorized now. In an application last week, Capella said it wants to consolidate Acadia's orbital planes into two, which would necessitate increasing the maximum altitude for both to 630 kilometers. The Acadia-11 and Acadia-12 satellites should launch as soon as Q4 2026, and Acadia-13 is expected to launch in 2027, the company added.
Broadcasters must comply with the FCC’s foreign-sponsored content rules by June 7, but the most onerous information collection requirements from them are suspended for two years, said the Media Bureau in a public notice last week. The deadline for compliance was previously deferred twice. The rules apply to leased programming and all ads that aren’t for commercial services or political candidates, and they require broadcasters to determine whether their airtime is being leased for programming sponsored by foreign agents, document the steps they take to find that out, and include disclosures with any such programming.
The FCC last week unanimously adopted eligibility rules and application limits for its upcoming filing window for noncommercial educational (NCE) translator construction permits in the reserved portion of the FM band. The window will have a limit of 10 applications per applicant for most entities, as the agency originally proposed, said a notice released Thursday. Tribal low-power FM applicants will be capped at four, and other LPFM applicants at two. The notice also adopted the agency’s proposed eligibility restrictions, limiting participation to licensees of existing noncommercial stations that will supply the content for any new translator granted in the window. Winners of permits will be subject to a four-year holding period, the notice said. “Similar four-year holding periods have been effective in preventing gamesmanship in the NCE FM full service context and prior FM translator filing windows.”
A California administrative law judge requested comment last week from stakeholders on how the FCC’s service discontinuance rule change (see 2603260034) will affect the state’s carrier of last resort rules, and what changes the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) should make to comply with the new rule while maintaining state-mandated service requirements. Comments are due June 10, replies June 17, according to a filing Thursday in CPUC docket R2406012.
L3Harris Technologies asked the FCC in comments posted Thursday to move forward on a rulemaking, as requested by Qualcomm, to identify spectrum and establish service rules for 5G sidelink technology (see 2602200049).
The Alaska Remote Carrier Coalition raised concerns last week about the FCC’s eligible areas map for the Alaska Connect Fund. In a filing posted Friday in docket 23-328, the coalition cited several potential issues with the maps. Some areas have “significant hexes over bodies of water where no coverage is being allowed in baseline coverage for support,” which raises “significant public safety issues.” In areas where AT&T’s 5G coverage has been removed, “the 4G LTE coverage was not included as single or duplicate support eligible when it was underlying in those areas.”
Representatives of cable and broadband provider Optimum Communications met with an aide to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr last week about ways the upper C band, set for auction next year, is different from the lower C band. In a filing Friday in docket 25-59, Optimum noted its “heavy reliance” on C-band spectrum. The transition will be “fundamentally different” because of the “nature of the work needed to install new Ku-band facilities and the higher reimbursement costs of doing so compared to updating existing C-band facilities,” it said.
Four associations representing electric utilities jointly urged the FCC to push forward on various initiatives on spectrum and other issues to make it easier for companies to use uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS).
Any FCC assertion that it has attachment jurisdiction over light poles would be contrary to specific provisions in Section 224 of the Communications Act, as well as the underlying purpose of the statute as a whole, the Utilities Technology Council said in a docket 17-84 filing posted Friday. It said that rather than trying to regulate light poles under Section 224, the agency should support negotiated access and market-based rates for communications attachments to light poles, as that would accelerate wireless broadband deployment. Section 224 covers pole attachments.