June 8, 2010: The Government Accountability Office has provided a preliminary report on the potential effects of the Performance Rights Act to members of Congress, devoting most of the report to restating the arguments of both sides of the royalty debate. The broadcast-industry stakeholders the GAO spoke with cited several potential effects of a royalty, including staff [...]
May 25, 2010: A group of key Democratic lawmakers announced yesterday that they plan to “start a process to develop proposals to update the Communications Act.”
A brief statement from Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John D. Rockefeller (WV), House Committee on Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman (CA), Senate Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the [...]
Denial of request for cert is a victory for FCC, Obama administration
Broadcasting & Cable, 5/17/2010
The Supreme Court has denied Cablevision’s request that it take another look at must-carry.
So much for Solicitor General Elena Kagan potentially having to recuse herself from the case if she becomes the newest justice.
The court released its list of cases whose [...]
John Ostlund says trademark hijacked.
The owner of a new talk radio station in Fresno is alleging that Peak Broadcasting, which runs market leader KMJ, basically hijacked his trademark.
John Ostlund, who operates KYNO (AM 1300), filed a lawsuit in Fresno County Superior Court last week claiming that Peak Broadcasting misappropriated the KYNO trademark [...]
Radio:- Satellite radio sounded like a good idea. High quality, ad free programming, free of the restrictions of terrestrial radio, and at a reasonable cost. Sure, it took special receivers, but they weren’t all that expensive to buy. It seemed like such a good idea, two companies sunk hundreds of millions into making it a [...]
WASHINGTON — June 24, 2009: With five more members of Congress now on board, the Local Radio Freedom Act has the support of 237 members of the House — 10 more backers than the resolution picked up last time it was introduced, in 2008.
“NAB salutes these members of Congress for recognizing the important [...]
CBS lawsuit over failure to pay bills may be precursor as stations struggle
In what could be the first of more such lawsuits to come in the syndication world, CBS Television Distribution last week filed suit against Global Broadcasting, owner of WLNE Providence, alleging that it failed to pay license fees on CTD-distributed shows Dr. [...]
Creative Deconstruction, www.creativedeconstruction.com, a website for artists and bands interesting in taking the music business into the future thinks that the Performance Rights Act is nonsense, and has five reasons for this belief. In a nutshell, the reasons are that it would hurt local radio, hurt independent musicians, the lessons of the history of payola, the [...]
Bill Maher: Obama obsessed with being on TV
Self-described libertarian pundit Bill Maher ripped Barak Obama during a lengthy monologue on his HBO program Friday night, accusing the president of being obsessed with appearing on TV and failing to come through on [...]
NEW YORK — TV stations in the U.S. plan to cut their analog signals
Friday, ending a more than 80-year era for the over-the-air technology that changed America’s landscape, and reshaped and defined its culture.
The Federal Communications Commission estimates that more than 1 million
homes still have not installed digital converters or switched to a digital cable
or satellite [...]
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