BC/DC: Eggerton on Washington
BC/DC is the media executives\' must-see view from Washington, delivered by yours truly without the aid of rose-colored glasses and without the need, quite yet, of bifocals.
FCC Comes Into Focus
As a very busy, eventful and troubling day drew to a close Friday, the FCC picture grew much clearer. Julius Genachowski is the new chairman after the president signs a commissioning document and he is sworn in, either ceremonially of on the fly. Republican Commissioner Robert McDowell, who would have made a crackerjack NAB president were it not for a couple of issues on which he parted company an ...... Read More
Comments (0)Take My First Lady, Please...Ba-da-bum...Pish!!
The president delivered a hits-and-a-miss stand-up routine at the the Radio-Television Correspondents Association Dinner. The miss was a reference to the tenuous state of journalism, a sore spot with many in the audience almost all of whom probably know someone who has been laid off recently or will be laid off soon or may be hoping not to have their own sandwiches wrapped in road-maps, as my old ...... Read More
Comments (0)Happy Birthday, FCC?
As the Federal Communications Commission celebrates the 75th anniversary of its formation Friday, Minority Media and Telecommunications Council President and Executive Director David Honig and Everett C. Parker, founder of the Office of Communication of the United Church of Christ, aren’t exactly sending flowers. Instead, they’ve sent an unvarnished yet affectionate look back on the ...... Read More
Comments (0)Your Tax Dollars at Play
The House subcommittees on Communications and Technology and Internet and Commerce and Trade and Consumer Protection suspended their hearing on behavioral advertising for more than five hours and counting Thursday as witnesses cooled their heals–it had still not begun at 5 p.m. after a 10 a.m. start. Why? There were something like 28 House votes they had to attend to on the floor. Why so ma ...... Read More
Comments (0)Good News On Diversity Front
Turns out that when DuJuan McCoy gets FCC approval to buy seven TV stations–soon, and very soon, I hope–he will not be the lone African American owner of a Fox affiliate. That is according to Charles Glover, chairman of CorporatemediaConsultantsGroup, who sent the following note in response to last week’s news analysis piece in B&C about McCoy’s troubles i ...... Read More
Comments (0)FCC's DTV Call Center Gets Monday Influx
After three days of decreasing activity, the FCC’s call center got busier Monday.According to an FCC spokesman, the commission’s DTV help line (1-888-CALL-FCC) received 94,945 calls June 15, three days after the June 12 analog cut-off (click here for complete coverage). That is compared to 62,949 calls on Sunday, usually the lightest day. That was still way down from its record tally ...... Read More
Comments (0)FCC Call Center Down to 46-Second Wait
A spot check of the FCC’s DTV help line, 800-CALL-FCC, Sunday produced consistent response times of under one minute, with 46 seconds being the best time from the beginning of the call to the time a live operator came on and asked how they could help. (Click here for complete DTV transition coverage.)FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell, who made the call center operations a particular focus of ...... Read More
Comments (0)Re-scan. Re-scan. Re-scan...
Did I mention re-scanning. It might behoove the media to redouble their efforts to tell people to re-scan their converter boxes for new channels, even if they did so Friday, when the plug was pulled on analog and some of the digital stations moved from temporary digital channels to differet, permanent ones. (Click here for complete DTV transition coverage.) Why re-scan if you did yesterday? Becaus ...... Read More
Comments (3)Analog Signal Comes Full Circle at WJHL
Back in 1953, on Oct. 26 when he was 29 years old (pictured, left), W. Hanes Lancaster Jr. through the switch that fired up the analog signal at WJHL in Johnson City, Tenn. Some 65 years later, he’ll throw that switch again–this time to shut off that signal and help usher the station into an era of all-digital broadcasting.Lancaster, now 85, is the “founder, owner, operator, f ...... Read More
Comments (1)KSL Exiting Analog with Peak Party & Pizza
KSL Salt Lake City is planning a couple of events to ring in the new age of digital. The first will be a pilgrimage of sorts. The station will take a group of about 30 employees, clients, and community leaders up to to the summit of Farnsworth Peak, home of the station’s analog and digital transmitters, according to station VP Steve Poulsen. That is Farnsworth as in Philo T. Farnsworth, the ...... Read More
Comments (1)Help, My Analog Signal Has Fallen and Can’t Get Up!
The FCC and National Telecommunications & Information Administration Thursday provided a laundry list of efforts they have undertaken, and will continue to undertake, to try and make the DTV transition as smooth as possible, and prepare as many analog-only viewers as they can–particularly among at-risk populations like the elderly, low income and minorities. Here is their tale of the DT ...... Read More
Comments (0)New DTV Hard Date: July 24, 2011?
No, Congress and the Obama administration aren’t at it again. July 24, 2011, is when Japan is slated to make its move to digital.Ironically, the U.S. was prepared to follow Japan’s lead into a bandwidth-hungry analog version of high-definition TV in the late 1980’s before a last-minute digital entry won, and saved, the day. Now, Japan actually will be following our lead. NHK, ...... Read More
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