Mergers, diversity of ownership, and multiple perspectives.
Common Frequency, which performs engineering and regulatory assistance for educational radio stations across the Western US, says the pending decision to eliminate the main studio rule is an “egregious” oversight that disregards that only 16% of Puerto Rico’s 3.34 million residents have regained electricity, more than three weeks after Hurricane Maria ripped through the island.
Continue reading Radio Group Alleges FCC Main Studio Vote Threatens Public Safety
originally printed in the AFT Advocate
(The Media Alliance, at media-alliance.org, is a Bay Area democratic communications advocate. Tracy fought a lonely war to save KCSM-TV between 2011 and 2013.)
On October 24, LocusPoint Networks, a subsidiary of the Blackstone Group, the largest hedge firm in the world, filed an injunction to block the sale of KCSM-TV to KRCB/North Bay Public Media. The filing in San Mateo Superior Court can be read here. No date has been set yet for the injunction request to be heard. Continue reading Spectrum Speculator LocusPoint Files Injunction To Stop Sale Of KCSM-TV
by John Eggerton Broadcasting and Cable
The FCC has told a federal court that it was reasonable to reinstate the UHF discount immediately while it considers adjusting the national audience reach cap, that it has the authority to adjust that cap, and that the discount and the cap have to be considered together because the UHF discount is meaningless except in relation to the cap.
That came in an opening brief filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in the challenge to its UHF decision filed by Free Press, Office of Communication of the United Church of Christ (UCC), Prometheus Radio Project, Media Mobilizing Project, Media Alliance, National Hispanic, Media Coalition, and Common Cause. Continue reading FCC Defends UHF Discount Decision in Court
After the Trump Congress invoked rarely-used Congressional Review Authority (CRA) to revoke enormously popular broadband privacy rules that required opt-in consent for Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to sell user search and browser data, revolt broke out.
As we have done twice before, Media Alliance requested the bid documents for the latest proposed sale of KCSM-TV, this time to KRCB-North Bay Public Media. The College District is in the midst of a lawsuit from the Blackstone Group subsidiary Locuspoint Networks.
A dozen prominent media advocacy groups wrote to Attorney General Jeff Sessions asking him to protect Americans from the destructive impacts of the massive AT&T/Time-Warner merger.
Continue reading Dozen Media Change Groups Protest AT&T/Time-Warner Merger
Update: The DC Court of Appeals unfortunately rejected the stay on the reinstatement of the UHF Discount on June 15. This will allow the Sinclair-Tribune merger to move ahead. See press release below.
Continue reading Obscure UHF Discount Feeds Media Consolidation
