Auction Hearing Derails FCC Commissioners’ NAB Plans

Deborah Taylor Tate to Appear at 2008 NAB Show One Day Later; Jonathan Adelstein Not Going at All

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 4/10/2008 12:23:00 PM

The House Telecommunications & Internet Subcommittee's hearing on the 700-megahertz auction did a number on the plans of the two Federal Communications Commission members slated to speak at the National Association of Broadcasters’ 2008 NAB Show in Las Vegas next week.

Commissioners Deborah Taylor Tate and Jonathan Adelstein had been penciled in for an FCC appearance April 15, but that turned out to be the same day the committee decided to hold the hearing on how the FCC is going to reauction the D block of spectrum, which must be shared with first-responders to create a national emergency-communications network. The spectrum failed to meet its minimum bid.

The hearing will feature all five FCC commissioners, so Tate had to push her appearance at the NAB convention to Wednesday, her office said, while Adelstein won't make the trip at all, a staffer said.

Tate will travel directly from Las Vegas to California for the FCC's April 17 field hearing on network neutrality.

 Replacing the NAB Tuesday morning FCC breakfast at which Adelstein and Tate would have held court will be an election panel discussion featuring political reporters and moderated by CNN's John King.