Fritts Group Up and Running

Word has it that former National Association of Broadcasters President Eddie Fritts' new lobbying shop has officially opened for business.

The Fritts Group, headquartered only a few blocks from Fritt's old D.C. digs at NAB, will include two former NAB staffers, Kathy Ramsey, VP, public affairs, and John Lively, director of government relations.

While NAB is still hoping to woo three of the Big four networks back into the NAB fold--ABC rejoined last year--Fritts has snagged one of those, Fox parent News Corp., and CBS may be on board as well. Others include Vonage, Godaddy and Earthlink.

Fritts says he is also on the loookout for TV or radio stations to buy.

Fritts owned a Mississippi-based radio station group before taking the helm of the NAB, where he was credited with taking it from a group famously tabbed as not able to lobby itself out of a paper bag to one of the most effective advocates in town.

He left at the end of last year, replaced by David Rehr from the National Beer Wholesalers.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.