[BC] FCC Politics

[Len Watson]

Donna, et. al., I think the best "fun" read on this is Red Quinlan's The Hundred Million Dollar Lunch.

To me, if the FCC were non-political, there would not be "R" or "D" appointees.

Len
Scopefocus.com
On 7/24/2014 7:00 AM, broadcast-request at radiolists.net wrote:

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>Today's Topics:

>   1. FCC politics (HenryRuhwiedela9xw at cs.com.INVALID)
>   2. Re: FCC politics (Donna Halper)
>   3. Re: Tower wanted (Bruce Potterton)
>   4. Re: Tower wanted (Jim Turvaville)
>   5. Re: Outside source for checking Modulation Levels (Jim Turvaville)
>   6. Re: FCC politics (Dale H. Cook)
>   7. Re: Need for traffic signal-style timing light (Alan Shea)
>   8. Re: FCC politics (Jim Turvaville)
>   9. Re: Outside source for checking Modulation Levels (Dale H. Cook)
>  10. Re: Outside source for checking Modulation Levels (Cowboy)
>  11. Re: Outside source for checking Modulation Levels (Mike McCarthy)
>  12. Re: Outside source for checking Modulation Levels (Dale H. Cook)
>  13. Re: Outside source for checking Modulation Levels (Jim Turvaville)
>  14. Re: Outside source for checking Modulation Levels (Cowboy)
>  15. Re: Outside source for checking Modulation Levels (Dale H. Cook)
>  16. Re: Outside source for checking Modulation Levels (Mike McCarthy)
>  17. Couple of Wide Orbit ?'s (Steve Ordinetz)
>  18. Re: Outside source for checking Modulation Levels (Mike McCarthy)
>  19. Re: FCC politics (Ed Czarnecki)
>  20. Re: Couple of Wide Orbit ?'s (Bruce Potterton)
>  21. Re: Couple of Wide Orbit ?'s
>      (Sidney Schweiger sids1045 at aol.com.INVALID)
>  22. Re: FCC politics (Donna Halper)
>  23. Re: Outside source for checking Modulation Levels (James Potter)
>  24. Re: No time for pirates (James Potter)
>  25. Re: FCC politics (Mike Vanhooser novaelec at sbcglobal.net.INVALID)

>----------------------------------------------------------------------

>Message: 1
>From: Henry Ruhwiedel a9xw at cs.com.INVALID <reader1 at oldradio.com>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

>Obama Campaign Donor Wins FCC Waiver From Auction Rules
>By Todd Shields and Jonathan D. Salant  Jul 22, 2014 11:00 PM CT
>3_Comments    Email  Print
>Share

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>Save
>_ Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
>The FCC, led by Democratic Chairman Tom Wheeler, seen here, voted 3-to-2 along party lines behind closed doors July 21 to waive the rule, allowing the company to seek bidding credits that offer discounts on winning bids, according to people with knowledge of the vote who asked for anonymity because the proceedings hadn't been made public.Close
>The FCC, led by Democratic Chairman Tom Wheeler, seen here, voted 3-to-2 along party...Read_More
>Close
>Open
>Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
>The FCC, led by Democratic Chairman Tom Wheeler, seen here, voted 3-to-2 along party lines behind closed doors July 21 to waive the rule, allowing the company to seek bidding credits that offer discounts on winning bids, according to people with knowledge of the vote who asked for anonymity because the proceedings hadn't been made public.
>A private-equity company owned by a campaign donor to U.S. President Barack_Obama won a waiver from the Federal Communications Commission that may help it bid in airwaves auctions.
>Grain Management LLC may not have qualified for benefits reserved for small businesses because airwaves leases to AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. caused it to exceed the program's income limits, the company had said in an FCC filing. The agency has adopted a waiver, an FCC spokesman, Neil Grace, said yesterday in an e-mail without providing details.
>Grain Management, based in Sarasota, Florida, invests in media and communications and is controlled by David Grain, according to the company's March 4 filing asking the FCC to waive the rule.
>"Certainly there has not been a waiver like this," Andrew Jay Schwartzman, a Georgetown University law professor, said in an interview. "The circumstances have not arisen" with the revenue of the largest wireless providers entering the picture.
>David Grain contributed more than $60,000 to Obama's presidential campaign and the Democratic_National_Committee in 2008, and $22,500 in 2012, Federal Election Commission filings show. He was also one of Obama's top fundraisers for the 2008 election, bringing in $200,000 to $500,000, according to the campaign.
>The FCC, led by Democratic Chairman Tom Wheeler, voted 3-to-2 along party lines behind closed doors July 21 to waive the rule, allowing the company to seek bidding credits that offer discounts on winning bids, according to people with knowledge of the vote who asked for anonymity because the proceedings hadn't been made public.

>1,614 Licenses

>"We are very excited about the waiver" because it appears to relax rules for companies other than Grain, too, and may help small and minority businesses participate in the forthcoming wireless auctions, Nicol_Turner-Lee, vice president at the Minority Media & Telecom Council, said in an interview.
>The Washington-based nonprofit that seeks to preserve and expand minority ownership in telecommunications in April told_the_FCC it supported Grain's request.
>The airwaves auctions, which were authorized by Congress, are intended to raise at least $28 billion for U.S. national priorities including debt relief. A sale earlier this year of 10 megahertz raised $1.56 billion.
>A sale_in_Novemberwill offer 1,614 airwaves licenses for 65 MHz of airwaves. It's part of a series of U.S. auctions designed to provide more frequencies for use by smartphones. It will be the largest since a 2008 auction that drew bids totaling more than $19 billion, Wheeler said_March_31 as the commission set rules for the sale.

>Auction Participation

>Without the waiver, the leases to AT&T and Verizon would have forced the FCC to include the wireless titans' revenue when deciding whether Grain Management met criteria for bidding help in auctions. That may deny Grain Management help designed for small companies, the company said in its filing.
>"We should have the right to prove we qualify," Michael_McKenzie, a partner and chief strategy officer at Grain Management, said in an interview. "Let's make sure we're not excluding people who actually belong in the category."
>"Treating entrepreneurs and small businesses like multibillion-dollar corporations when competing for spectrum licenses could deter them from participating in auctions," Grace said.
>Among numerous U.S. lawmakers to receive donations from David Grain was Representative James_Clyburn, a South Carolina Democrat who received $8,400 from 2009 to 2012, according to the FEC. He is the father of Mignon Clyburn, a Democratic FCC commissioner who voted to approve the waiver.
>Asked about David Grain's contributions, McKenzie replied, "There shouldn't be an attempt to create a political issue where there is none."
>"Any decision is clearly on the merits, and that's it," McKenzie said.
>To contact the reporters on this story: Todd Shields in Washington at tshields3 at bloomberg.net; Jonathan D. Salant in Washington at jsalant at bloomberg.net
>To contact the editors responsible for this story: Romaine Bostick at rbostick at bloomberg.net Elizabeth Wasserman

>-----Original Message-----
>From: Thomas G. Osenkowsky <tosenkowsky at prodigy.net>

>That web site no longer exists. I was just curious, I do not have any towers
>for sale nor do I need to purchase one.

>Tom Osenkowsky, CPBE

>>Wes Wallace at Wallacetowers.com has some on the ground right now.

>------------------------------

>Message: 2
>From: Donna Halper <dlh at donnahalper.com>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1; format=flowed

>On 7/23/2014 12:03 PM, Henry Ruhwiedel a9xw at cs.com.INVALID wrote:

>>Obama Campaign Donor Wins FCC Waiver From Auction Rules
>>By Todd Shields and Jonathan D. Salant  Jul 22, 2014 11:00 PM CT

>Before this becomes very political very quickly, it should be pointed
>out that Bush donors, Clinton donors, Reagan donors, etc have enjoyed
>similar preferential treatment, and this is one of many reasons why a
>lot of us believe the FCC is not a neutral agency at all.  As far back
>as 1928, the then-FRC (Federal Radio Commission) issued General Order
>32, at the request of Republicans and various business concerns. It
>basically removed 107 small and individually-owned stations from the air
>and gave their frequencies over to NBC and CBS.  Not much has changed,
>no matter which party is in office.

>------------------------------

>Message: 3
>From: Bruce Potterton <bpotterton at ksgn.com>
>	<0D661AB2FB30A24FBC20A19F89FA79FC06EE9905 at KSGN-DC.KSGNNET.local>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

>It seems that you need the WWW

>http://www.wallacetower.com/

>Bruce Potterton
>KSGN
>-----Original Message-----

>That web site no longer exists. I was just curious, I do not have any towers for sale nor do I need to purchase one.

>------------------------------

>Message: 4
>From: Jim Turvaville <turbo at wayfm.com>
>	<2250D43CC81BA1468A1F40A245873BDA09BDD161 at WAYFMD.WAYFM.com>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

>Tom:  there was a typo on the website I found out..
>www.wallacetower.com is correct.

>Jim "Turbo" Turvaville, CSRE
>     Director of Engineering and I.T.

>WAY Media
>5540 Tech Center Drive, Suite 200
>Colorado Springs, CO 80919

>------------------------------

>Message: 5
>From: Jim Turvaville <turbo at wayfm.com>
>	<2250D43CC81BA1468A1F40A245873BDA09BDD179 at WAYFMD.WAYFM.com>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

>And a reason you cannot generate that tone in Adobe Audition and make your own test CD???

>Jim "Turbo" Turvaville, CSRE
>     Director of Engineering and I.T.

>WAY Media
>5540 Tech Center Drive, Suite 200
>Colorado Springs, CO 80919

>------------------------------

>Message: 6
>From: "Dale H. Cook" <feedback at plymouthcolony.net>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

>At 12:27 PM 7/23/2014, Donna Halper wrote:

>>Before this becomes very political very quickly, it should be pointed out that Bush donors, Clinton donors, Reagan donors, etc have enjoyed similar preferential treatment
>>...
>>Not much has changed, no matter which party is in office.

>This illustrates the value of having a scholar of broadcasting history on the list. Thank you Donna - I was aware of that treatment in previous administrations, but was unaware of your example from 1928. I was long ago disabused of the notion that the Commission is a neutral agency, in any case. :-)

>Dale H. Cook, Contract Engineer, Roanoke/Lynchburg, VA
>http://plymouthcolony.net/starcityeng/index.html

>------------------------------

>Message: 7
>From: Alan Shea <alan at metatek.org>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1; format=flowed

>James: Glad that link helps.

>I installed something like this 20 years ago for the chapel services in
>college. Digi Key had a nice 2" diameter Panasonic indicator made up of
>6 or 8 red and 10 or 12 green LEDs. Made a perfect discreet indicator
>mounted in the front wall of the balcony. I looked for it a few years
>later and couldn't find it, but I haven't looked lately.

>Alan