Eric Rhoads' Blog
Radio Execs Meet With FCC On Radio For Cellphones
November 11, 2009: An all-star lineup of radio CEOs -- Cumulus Chairman/CEO Lew Dickey, Entercom President/CEO David Field, Clear Channel Radio President/CEO John Hogan, Commonwealth Broadcasting President/CEO Steve Newberry (who is also chairman of the NAB's Joint Board), Bonneville President/CEO Bruce Reese, Emmis Chairman/CEO Jeff Smulyan, Citadel Broadcasting Chairman/CEO Farid Suleman, and Greater Media President/CEO Peter Smyth -- were at the FCC Tuesday to meet with FCC officials to talk about the public safety benefits of including FM receivers in cellphones.
The CEOs met, in separate meetings, with FCC Commissioner Michael Copps, Media Bureau Sr. Legal Advisor Jamila Bess Johnson, and Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau Deputy Chief Lisa Fowlkes; Commissioner Meredith Attwell Baker, legal adviser for media law Brad Gillen, and staff attorney Millie Kerr; Commissioner Mignon Clyburn and acting legal adviser/media Rick Kaplan; and Commissioner Robert McDowell and legal adviser/media Rosemary Harold, according to an ex parte filing with the commission.
The filing says the participants made the points laid out in an attachment that explains, among other points, that "FM radio reception in cellular handsets will make public safety information available today and should be a critical component of any [Commercial Mobile Alert System] solution." Congress called for the creation of a CMAS in 2006. The leave-behind with also notes that FM radio integrated circuits are available now, and that the technical obstacles to FM in handsets 'have been overcome."
The FCC filing says the CEOs also asked the FCC to quickly approve a recent joint request by NPR and iBiquity to allow a power increase for HD Radio.
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(11/13/2009 8:20:39 AM) While it is a worthwhile goal of having broadcast services (FM & AM) on cell phones, it won't be really effective coming from the top from the FCC. Demanding, which seems to be the only way the government thinks, does not work nearly as well as allowing. When broadcasters learn (hopefully they will) that dynamic content will bring listeners to their stations, the cell phone companies will gladly offer this as an added value rather than having to carry it whether the content is good or not. |
| - Paul Dean Ford, P.E. |
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(11/12/2009 4:13:13 PM) As I pointed out in reference to another story on this issue, let's just think this through. We need to lock the radio receiver on the cell phone to the one station in the area that is the EBS primary. The rest of the stations in the area have loaded up the voice tracks on the Prophet systems and locked the door for the weekend or went with the Premier Plus and only have a sales force in town. The cell companies can just have the receiver scan until it receives the EBS primary. They can use a flag bit in the RDS. The rf side will be tricky. The frequencies are far apart. It's doable. And, it's just what the broadcasters need...a hand and a handout from the cell phone industry. |
| - jterhar |
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